The Ruins | Page 7

Obstacle to
Improvement XV. The New Age XVI. A Free and Legislative People
XVII. Universal Basis of all Right and all Law XVIII. Consternation
and Conspiracy of Tyrants XIX. General Assembly of the Nations XX.
The Search of Truth XXI. Problem of Religious Contradictions XXII.
Origin and Filiation of Religious Ideas I. Origin of the Idea of God:
Worship of the Elements and of the Physical Powers of Nature II.
Second System. Worship of the Stars, or Sabeism III. Third System.
Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry IV. Fourth System. Worship of two
Principles, or Dualism V. Moral and Mystical Worship, or System of a
Future State VI. Sixth System. The Animated World, or Worship of the

Universe under diverse Emblems VII. Seventh System. Worship of the
Soul of the World, that is to say, the Element of Fire, Vital Principle of
the Universe VIII. Eighth System. The World Machine: Worship of the
Demi- Ourgos, or Grand Artificer IX. Religion of Moses, or Worship
of the Soul of the World (You-piter) X. Religion of Zoroaster XI.
Budsoism, or Religion of the Samaneans XII. Brahmism, or Indian
System XIII. Christianity, or the Allegorical Worship of the Sun under
the cabalistic names of Chrish-en or Christ and Yesus or Jesus XXIII.
All Religions have the same Object XXIV. Solution of the Problem of
Contradictions
THE LAW OF NATURE.
Chap. I. Of the Law of Nature II. Characters of the Law of Nature III.
Principles of the Law of Nature relating to Man IV. Basis of Morality:
of Good, of Evil, of Sin, of Crime, of Vice, and of Virtue V. Of
Individual Virtues VI. On Temperance VII. On Continence VIII. On
Courage and Activity IX. On Cleanliness X. On Domestic Virtues XI.
The Social Virtues; Justice XII. Development of the Social Virtues
Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestly.
Appendix: The Zodiacal Signs and Constellations

LIFE OF VOLNEY.
BY COUNT DARU.
Constantine Francis Chassebeuf De Volney was born in 1757 at Craon,
in that intermediate condition of life, which is of all the happiest, since
it is deprived only of fortune's too dangerous favors, and can aspire to
the social and intellectual advantages reserved for a laudable ambition.
From his earliest youth, he devoted himself to the search after truth,
without being disheartened by the serious studies which alone can
initiate us into her secrets. After having become acquainted with the
ancient languages, the natural sciences and history, and being admitted
into the society of the most eminent literary characters, he submitted, at
the age of twenty, to an illustrious academy, the solution of one of the
most difficult problems that the history of antiquity has left open for
discussion. This attempt received no encouragement from the learned
men who were appointed his judges; and the author's only appeal from
their sentence was to his courage and his efforts.
Soon after, a small inheritance having fallen to his lot, the difficulty

was how to spend it (these are his own words.) He resolved to employ
it in acquiring, by a long voyage, a new fund of information, and
determined to visit Egypt and Syria. But these countries could not be
explored to advantage without a knowledge of the language. Our young
traveller was not to be discouraged by this difficulty. Instead of
learning Arabic in Europe, he withdrew to a convent of Copts, until he
had made himself master of an idiom that is spoken by so many nations
of the East. This resolution showed one of those undaunted spirits that
remain unshaken amid the trials of life.
Although, like other travellers, he might have amused us with an
account of his hardships and the perils surmounted by his courage, he
overcame the temptation of interrupting his narrative by personal
adventures. He disdained the beaten track. He does not tell us the road
he took, the accidents he met with, or the impressions he received. He
carefully avoids appearing upon the stage; he is an inhabitant of the
country, who has long and well observed it, and who describes its
physical, political, and moral state. The allusion would be entire if an
old Arab could be supposed to possess all the erudition, all the
European philosophy, which are found united and in their maturity in a
traveller of twenty-five.
But though a master in all those artifices by which a narration is
rendered interesting, the young man is not to be discerned in the pomp
of labored descriptions. Although possessed of a lively and brilliant
imagination, he is never found unwarily explaining by conjectural
systems the physical or moral phenomena he describes. In his
observations he unites prudence with science. With these two guides he
judges with circumspection, and sometimes confesses himself unable to
account for the effects he has made known to us.
Thus his