A Memoir- the Testament

by Jean Meslier

  What? My dear Cartesians, just because animals can’t talk like you do, and can’t express themselves in your language to tell you their thoughts and convey their pain, their displeasure, and their suffering to you, any more than their pleasures and joys, you see them as pure inanimate machines, without any knowledge or feelings? On this basis you could equally get us to believe that the Iroquois and the Japanese are only pure inanimate machines, without any knowledge or feelings, as long as we don’t understand their language, and they don’t talk like us? What are you thinking of, my dear Cartesians? Can’t you clearly see that animals have a natural language, that those of the same species understand each other, and that they respond to each other? Can’t you clearly see that form societies with each other? That they know each other and that they engage in conversations? Can’t you see that they love each other, that they caress each other, and that they play together? And sometimes they also hate each other, fight, and cause suffering to each other? Can’t you clearly see that they are happy to be petted? That they are cheerful when they’re healthy and have all they need? And that they eat with an appetite equal to humans, when they’re hungry, and have something good to eat according to their nature and species? And on the contrary, don’t you see quite clearly that they are sad and languid, that they moan and give out doleful sighs when they are ill or when they’re wounded? Don’t you also see that they cry out when hit and that they try with all their might to get away when threatened and when they’re hit too harshly? And all that is a kind of natural language, by which they clearly show that they have knowledge and feelings: this language is not dubious, or ambiguous, it is clear and plain and less doubtful than the ordinary language of humans.

  Do you see only inanimate machines reproducing naturally? Do you see them assembling themselves for mutual companionship, as animals do? Do you see how they call each other and answer each other, as animals do? Do you see that they play together and that they caress or hit each other, as animals do? Does it seem to you that they know each other and that they know their masters, as animals do? Do you see that they come when their masters call them or that they flee them then they threaten and hit them? And finally, do you see that they obey their masters, and that they do what their masters command them, as animals do every day, who obey their masters, who come when they call them and who do what they command them to do? You see nothing but pure machines, inanimate machines do that and you never see it. And you think that animals would do that without knowledge and without feelings? You think that they reproduce without pleasure? That they drink and eat without appetite, without hunger, and without thirst? That they lick their masters without living them and without knowing them? That they do what they command without hearing their voices and without knowing that they tell them? That they flee them without any fear and that they cry out without pain, then they’re hit? And you imagine and believe all that for the single reason that thought, that knowledge, that feelings, that joy, that pleasure, that pain, that sadness, that desire, that fear, that appetite, that hunger, that thirst, etc., are not round or square things, and that, for this reason, they can’t be the modifications of matter or of the material Being? You are mad in this point, my dear Cartesians, allow me to call you so, although you are quite judicious on other points: and you deserve more to be mocked on this matter than to be seriously refuted. All the modifications of matter or of the material being shouldn’t have, as you think, all the properties of matter or of the material being, and thus, although one of the properties of matter or of the material being may be a being with an extension in length, width, and depth, able to be round or square, and able to be divided into many parts, it doesn’t follow in any way from that that all the modifications of matter or of the material being must be extended in length, width, and depth, or that they should always be round or square and divisible into many parts, as you falsely imagine.

  The demonstrations I’ve given so far are clear and evident. The Archbishop of Cambrai would like, though, to persuade us that it’s clear and evident that matter can neither think nor feel, that the people, he said[919], nor children can be convinced that it can. The people, he said, and even children are so far from believing that matter is capable of feeling and thinking and feeling anything at all, that they couldn’t help laughing, if they were told that a stone, a bit of wood, a table, or their doll could feel pain or pleasure, that it would feel joy or sadness, etc. And from that he concludes that it is clear and evident that matter can neither think for feel that the people, or even children can’t doubt it. Behold a fine argument for a person of such standing, of such merit, and such a condition! The peoples and children might well truly have cause to laugh and mock those who would tell them such things, because they do actually know that these sorts of things can neither feel nor know anything, but their chuckles won’t come the way Mr. de Cambrai means, from the fact that these sorts of things are only matter, or that they’re made only from matter, but from the fact that they would be aware that they aren’t animated, and that they have no life, like animals, and consequently that they can’t have either knowledge or feelings. And to use Mr. de Cambrai’s expression, it can certainly be said that the common people, and even children, are so far from believing that animals are lifeless, without knowledge or feelings, that they couldn’t help but laugh at those who would tell them that they have none of these. Try telling peasants that their animals have no life, or feelings, that their cows, their horses, their ewes and sheep are only blind and unfeeling machines, and that they only walk because of their springs, like marionettes, without seeing and without knowing where they’re going: you’ll find yourself a laughingstock. Tell these same peasants or others like them that their dogs have no life, or feelings, that they don’t know their masters, that they follow them without seeing them, that they pet lick them without loving them, that they chase rabbits and trap them in the hunt without seeing and smelling them, tell them that they eat and drink without pleasure, without hunger, without thirst, and without appetite, tell them that they cry out without pain when they’re struck, and that they run from wolves without any fear: they’ll laugh at you even more. And why will they laugh at you? Because they can’t accept that living animals, like those I mentioned, have no soul, i.e., that they have no life, no knowledge, and no feelings, and their judgment on this point is so well founded upon reason and experience, that it’s visible in daily experience that they’re even, if needed, well founded upon the authority of the so-called holy scriptures of our God-cultists and Christ-cultists, which directly state that God have living souls to animals in their supposed first creation. This is what they say:

  God also said, “Let the waters produce all sorts of reptiles which have life and living souls. And God,” these Scriptures add, “created the great whales and all the living souls that the waters had produced, each according to their species;” God said: “Let the Earth bring forth all manner of living souls, that is to say, every animal living on the Earth, the asses and beasts of the Earth, each according to their species; and they were created according to His word.” Then God, having created mankind, said to them: “All kinds of seed-bearing plants and every fruit-bearing tree will be for your nourishment and for the nourishment of all the animals of the Earth, for all the birds of the sky, and to all that moves and all that bears fruit to serve as food for you and all the animals on Earth, all the birds of the sky, all that moves and all that has a living soul in it, so that they have something to eat[920]”: ut sint vobis in escam et cunctis animantibus terrae, omnique volucri coeli et universis quoe moventur in terra et in quibus est anima vivens ut habeant ad vescendum. According to this, animals must have living souls, i.e., knowing and feeling souls, since God had given these to them in their original creation. Thus, not only do right reason and daily experience demonstrate every day, but also the religion of our Christ-cultists witnesses quite clearly to our Cartesians to leave no room for their doubt. This is why I’ve been right to say that th
ey become ridiculous when they say that animals are only inanimate machines, that they have no knowledge or feelings, and that they eat without pleasure and screech without pain.

  This opinion is simply contemptible, not only because of its simultaneous baselessness and absurdity, but also because it should be odious and detestable in itself, since it plainly tends to suppress in man's heart all the feelings of softness and goodness that they could have manifestly in suppressing in the hearts of men all the feelings of generosity and goodness that they may have for animals, and that it is even capable of inspiring in them any but feelings of rigor and cruelty regarding them. For 1). As for the feelings of kindness, gentleness, and compassion, that men might feel for many of these poor beasts that are seen so often to be so unhappy, so mistreated, and to endure so much evil, it would be insane to feel bad for them, and to be sensible to their suffering, their cries, and their groans, and insane to have compassion on them, if they were, as the Cartesians say, deprived of knowledge and feeling, because it would be insane to have compassion for things which are not animate and which can feel neither good nor bad This is why nobody feels pity or compassion for a dead body that’s cut into pieces. Nobody feels pity or compassion for a sheet being beaten at the fullery, or a chunk of wood bursting into pieces and tossed on a fire. Nobody, I say, feels pity and compassion for these sorts of things, because they’re inanimate and have no feelings, either good or bad ones. It would be the same for animals, if the Cartesians’ opinion were true; nobody should feel any pity or any compassion for them, when they are seen to suffer all manner of evil. See, then, how this false opinion clearly tends to suppress, in the human heart, every feeling of softness and kindness and compassion that they might have for animals; which, in my opinion, is already a horrible effect, very odious and harmful to these poor beasts. But what is worse is that this opinion is capable of flattering the natural wickedness of men, and inspiring in their hearts feelings of severity and cruelty towards these poor beasts, for, on the pretext that brutish men will imagine that they have neither knowledge nor feelings, they might take pleasure in making them suffer, in making them cry, and whimper and groan, for the sheer pleasure of hearing their pitiful moans, their pitiful whining, and their fearsome cries, and to have at the same time the pleasure of seeing their violent movements and their terrifying grimaces, which these poor beasts would be forced to make by the severity and violence of the torments they would enjoy cruelly inflicting on them, the way young scatterbrains, or rather insane brutes do for fun, and even in public entertainments, when living cats are attached to the end of some pole they set up, and at the feet of which they set fireworks, and where they burn them alive for the pleasure of seeing their violent movements and hearing the fearsome cries that these poor and miserable beasts are forced to make by the severity of their torture: which is certainly a brutal, a cruel, and a despicable pleasure and a mad and despicable joy. Were a tribunal set up to do justice to these poor beasts, I would cite there such a pernicious and despicable doctrine as this, which is so harmful for them, and I would gladly pursue a condemnation until it was completely banished from the mind and belief of men and until the Cartesians, who maintain them, were sentenced to make a full restitution.

  But let’s return to the supposed spirituality and immortality of our soul. All that I have said will make plain the fact that the soul is neither spiritual nor immortal in the senses that the Christ-cultists mean, but that it is truly quite material and mortal, like any animal’s; this is why it also says in their so-called holy scriptures that the soul of all living flesh resides in the blood; and for this reason it is explicitly forbidden in the pretended divine Law of Moses to eat blood, and this for the sole reason that the soul of all living flesh resided in the blood[921]: Anima enim omnis carnis in sanguine est, unde dixi, says God, filiis Israël sanguinem universae carnis non comedetis, quia anima carnis in sanguine est et quicumque comederit illum interibit. This was prohibited on pain of death. And it says in the same books of the Law the same thing about man as about living beasts[922]: Factus est homo in animam viventem. Producat terra animam viventem in genere suo, jumenta et reptilia et bestias terrae; factumque est ita... And, of all the animals that went into Noah’s ark, it says that they had a spirit of life[923]: Bina et bina ex omni carne in qua erat spiritus vitae. And this spirit of life was, as it says in the same books, nothing but a breath from the mouth of God[924]. Inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae… Spiritus Dei fecit me et spiraculum omnipotentis vivificavit me. And it says of man, in particular, and not of his body alone, but of his whole person, that he will live on bread by the sweat of his body until he returns to the earth from which he was fashioned, for, say these so-called Holy Books, he is no more than dust, and he will return to the dust[925]: in sudore vultus tui vesceris pane donec revertaris in terram de qua sumtus es, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. And king David, speaking of human vanity and fragility, including the greatest and most powerful the Princes on Earth, said that they must not be proud of their power, by which, he says, their spirit will go away and will return to the earth, and then all their thoughts will vanish[926]: nolite confidere in principibus, exibit spiritus ejus et revertetur in terram suam.

  94. NEITHER MOSES NOR THE ANCIENT PROPHETS BELIEVED IN THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

  If, then, the human soul, as well as the animal one, consists only in the blood and the vital spirits and the animals which are in the blood, and if his mind is only earth and dust, and it must return to the earth and return to dust, as the testimonies I’ve cited would indicate, this is yet another clear and evident proof that our soul is neither spiritual nor eternal, as our Cartesians claim. And what further confirms this is that in all these so-called Holy Scriptures, which they call the Old Testament, and which is considered a completely divine law among our Christ-cultists, there is no mention of this supposed spirituality and immortality of the soul, or that any mention was made of these supposedly great and magnificent eternal rewards of heaven, or of those supposedly great and terrible eternal punishments of a hell after this present life. So many allegedly great and holy Prophets who have, it’s said, appeared during all the times of the ancient supposedly divine law, knew nothing about it. Moses himself, great Moses, the great lawgiver of the Jews, who spoke, if you can believe it, so often and so intimately to God, didn’t know anything and never said anything about it in his law. Nothing but the present life is spoken of, he only ever proposed to these peoples temporal rewards in this life and also never threatened any but temporal punishments in this life[927]. This is also why these peoples and even the most enlightened and most qualified among them only thought of the present life and never thought that there were other blessings to hope for, or other misfortunes to fear but those one could obtain in this world, and far from imagining that their soul was immortal, on the contrary they were quite convinced that it was mortal, and that it ended with the life of their body. Here are some rather conclusive proofs and testimonies of this fact.

  Although a tree branch is cut, said Job, and although it’s already beginning to fade, there is still hope that it might become green again, as indeed it will be green again and will produce branches like a newly planted tree, if it’s planted by the water; but once man, he says, is dead, there is no longer hope in him; heaven will fall sooner than he will reawaken, he will never come out of his sleep. Do you think, he also said, that a dead man can live again?[928]. Putas ne mortuus homo sursum vivat? Sic homo cum dormierit non resurget, donec alteratur coelum non evigilabit, nec consurget de somno suo. He said, again, that his life was only a wind and a cloud that dissipates into the air[929]. Quia ventus est vita mea. Among the advantages that the same Job attributes to the wicked and the ungodly and which he seems to envy about them, he includes this, that they spend their life in amid pleasures, in joy and an abundance of all good things, and that they then descend in a moment into hell, i.e., that they die in a moment without languishing in illness, without tasting
the afflictions of life, and without even having time to feel any unease[930]. Ducunt in bonis dies suos, et in puncto ad Inferna descendunt. But it is established that if the soul were immortal and that if there were, as our Christ-cultists say, eternal torments to fear for the wicked in hell after their death, then it wouldn’t be an advantage for them, as Job says, to descend in a moment to hell; it would, rather, be the greatest and most fearsome thing that could never happen to them. Since, then, this Job considers it an advantage and good fortune to descend in a moment to hell, i.e., to descend to the grave and to die in a moment without any time to feel any languor or any severe pain, this is a clear proof he didn’t think that their soul was immortal, or that they had any suffering to fear after their death.

  The prophet King David held the same opinion. This is clear in several passages in his Psalms; “O Lord,” he said, as if addressing his God, “come to my aid, help me, and save me with your mercy, for none will remember you in death, none can praise you in the tomb[931]: Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui; in inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi. “O Lord,” he said, “I call upon you by day… Will it among the dead or towards the dead that you will show the marvels of your power? Can the physicians ever bring anyone back to life to sing your praises? Will your mercies be found in the tomb? And will anyone know of your wonders and the justice of your judgments in a land of oblivion? Meaning thereby that there is no more knowledge after death, or any way to be able to know the wonders and greatness of God[932]: Numquid mortuis facies mirabilia aut medici suscitabunt? Numquid narrabit aliquis in sepulchro misericordiam tuam? Numquid cognoscentur in tenebris mirabilia tua? et justitia tua in terra oblivionis? And he also says that heaven is for the Lord God; but that the Earth is for the children of men. “The dead”, he says, “do not praise you, Lord, nor does a single one of those who descend into the sepulcher; but we,” he says, “who live, we bless the Lord now until the end of our days.” This is what our Roman Christ-cultists sing every Sunday at their vespers: Coelum coeli Domino, terram autem dedit filiis hominum. Non mortui laudabunt te, neque omnes qui descendunt in infernum; sed nos qui vivimus, benedicimus Domino[933]. King Hezekiah, the prophet Isaiah says, said nearly the same thing: “Lord,” he said, “you saved my life so I would not perish, for hell does not know you, death do not praise you, nor does any of those who descend into the pit know your truths; but he who is alive is the one who will publish your praises; as I myself do today,” he said, “and the father will teach his children the justice and the truth of your judgments[934]: Quia non infernus confitebitur tibi, neque mors laudabit te: non expectabunt qui descendunt in lacum veritatem tuam, vivens confitebitur tibi sicut et ego hodie.