Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese

THE EPISTLE

...foreign original: "peregrina," completing the word "peregrina" from the previous page doctrines, which he used to say repeatedly were born for the destruction of peoples and the ruin of Monarchies, he might utterly drive away. From this comes that saying of his, which even today is most celebrated among the Chinese: Cum hu y tuon original: "Cum hu y tuon." A transliteration of the Chinese Gōng hū yì duān from the Analects (2.16), which the Jesuits translated here as "Oppugna hæretica dogmata" or "Attack heretical doctrines." "Attack heretical doctrines." How much joy, then, would it bring to a man so fond of piety, if indeed he had been able to reach these most happy times of the "law of grace" A theological term referring to the era of Christianity., to see your care, O King, for protecting and enlarging Religion, uprooting heresy, and propagating piety? With what praises would he extol You, when he saw heresy—that most foul enemy of the ancestral faith and of a most flourishing kingdom—trampled and crushed; the edicts A reference to the Edict of Nantes, which Louis XIV revoked in 1685, shortly before this book's publication. by which it seemed to live repealed; its temples destroyed, its very name buried; so many thousands of souls led back so sweetly, so strongly, and so happily from their former errors to the truth, and from destruction to salvation; and finally all of France, under its Greatest and truly Most Christian King, seen as truly Most Christian?

Surely he would not only admire and proclaim the other miracles of Your France: not just the many fortresses, fortified by all the defenses of both art and nature, which were partly cast down and captured by You, and partly built and erected; nor the most powerful and numerous fleets with which You brought terror to Asia and Africa; nor the many victories reported over enemies, upon which You placed that most glorious crown, the trophy of public peace; nor those sights in which You display Your Royal splendor and magnificence, the Palaces; nor rivers carried across mountains Refers to the impressive engineering of aqueducts and canals built during Louis XIV's reign, such as those supplying Versailles.; nor the seas opened and joined Refers to the Canal du Midi, which linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, completed in 1681.; nor the many schools and nurseries of arts and sciences. All these things, I say, would not strike so much admiration into the wisest Philosopher as this one triumph of Religion over Heresy, achieved under Your leadership and auspices.