Candide | Page 7

or somebody paying for you."
These last words determined Candide; he went and flung himself at the
feet of the charitable Anabaptist James, and gave him so touching a
picture of the state to which his friend was reduced, that the good man
did not scruple to take Dr. Pangloss into his house, and had him cured
at his expense. In the cure Pangloss lost only an eye and an ear. He
wrote well, and knew arithmetic perfectly. The Anabaptist James made
him his bookkeeper. At the end of two months, being obliged to go to
Lisbon about some mercantile affairs, he took the two philosophers
with him in his ship. Pangloss explained to him how everything was so
constituted that it could not be better. James was not of this opinion.
"It is more likely," said he, "mankind have a little corrupted nature, for
they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves; God has
given them neither cannon of four-and-twenty pounders, nor bayonets;
and yet they have made cannon and bayonets to destroy one another.
Into this account I might throw not only bankrupts, but Justice which
seizes on the effects of bankrupts to cheat the creditors."
"All this was indispensable," replied the one-eyed doctor, "for private
misfortunes make the general good, so that the more private

misfortunes there are the greater is the general good."
While he reasoned, the sky darkened, the winds blew from the four
quarters, and the ship was assailed by a most terrible tempest within
sight of the port of Lisbon.

V
TEMPEST, SHIPWRECK, EARTHQUAKE, AND WHAT BECAME
OF DOCTOR PANGLOSS, CANDIDE, AND JAMES THE
ANABAPTIST.
Half dead of that inconceivable anguish which the rolling of a ship
produces, one-half of the passengers were not even sensible of the
danger. The other half shrieked and prayed. The sheets were rent, the
masts broken, the vessel gaped. Work who would, no one heard, no one
commanded. The Anabaptist being upon deck bore a hand; when a
brutish sailor struck him roughly and laid him sprawling; but with the
violence of the blow he himself tumbled head foremost overboard, and
stuck upon a piece of the broken mast. Honest James ran to his
assistance, hauled him up, and from the effort he made was precipitated
into the sea in sight of the sailor, who left him to perish, without
deigning to look at him. Candide drew near and saw his benefactor,
who rose above the water one moment and was then swallowed up for
ever. He was just going to jump after him, but was prevented by the
philosopher Pangloss, who demonstrated to him that the Bay of Lisbon
had been made on purpose for the Anabaptist to be drowned. While he
was proving this à priori, the ship foundered; all perished except
Pangloss, Candide, and that brutal sailor who had drowned the good
Anabaptist. The villain swam safely to the shore, while Pangloss and
Candide were borne thither upon a plank.
As soon as they recovered themselves a little they walked toward
Lisbon. They had some money left, with which they hoped to save
themselves from starving, after they had escaped drowning. Scarcely
had they reached the city, lamenting the death of their benefactor, when

they felt the earth tremble under their feet. The sea swelled and foamed
in the harbour, and beat to pieces the vessels riding at anchor.
Whirlwinds of fire and ashes covered the streets and public places;
houses fell, roofs were flung upon the pavements, and the pavements
were scattered. Thirty thousand inhabitants of all ages and sexes were
crushed under the ruins.[4] The sailor, whistling and swearing, said
there was booty to be gained here.
"What can be the sufficient reason of this phenomenon?" said Pangloss.
"This is the Last Day!" cried Candide.
The sailor ran among the ruins, facing death to find money; finding it,
he took it, got drunk, and having slept himself sober, purchased the
favours of the first good-natured wench whom he met on the ruins of
the destroyed houses, and in the midst of the dying and the dead.
Pangloss pulled him by the sleeve.
"My friend," said he, "this is not right. You sin against the universal
reason; you choose your time badly."
"S'blood and fury!" answered the other; "I am a sailor and born at
Batavia. Four times have I trampled upon the crucifix in four voyages
to Japan[5]; a fig for thy universal reason."
Some falling stones had wounded Candide. He lay stretched in the
street covered with rubbish.
"Alas!" said he to Pangloss, "get me a little wine and oil; I am dying."
"This concussion of the earth is no new thing," answered Pangloss.
"The city of Lima, in America, experienced the same convulsions last
year; the same cause, the