Académique Documents
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Arnold H. Rowbotham
Modern Language Notes, Vol. 53, No. 1. (Jan., 1938), pp. 10-14.
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Thu Nov 22 09:55:04 2007
10
~ i e nmais
, ~ ~A la force brutale et A la possession des meilleures mines
de fer. Sitat que ces barbares " se mettent en route, ils paraissent
aux gens du dix-huitihme sihcle voleurs, farouches, insupportables.
Seul parmi eux peut-&treVoltaire croit ou fait semblant de croire,
que le monotheisme est nk, puis s'est conserve parmi les nomades
qui nous occupent. De plus il n'a pu se dkgager ni de la tradition
antique ni de la biblique. La tradition primitiviste antique, restee
vivace au dix-huitihme sihcle en ce qui concerne les Scythes, subsiste largement chez lui bien qu'il l'ait souvent attaquee. Le
portrait qu'il trace des Scythes et des Tartares est plus favorable
que celui qu'ont laisse Buffon et Montesquieu. C'est cette tradition
qui explique pourquoi il a represent6 le Scythe superieur A tout
prendre au Tartare sauf peut-&tre au Mongol que son temps a vu
avec bienveillance. Enfin il a connu les Scythes non seulement par
les anciens mais grbce A des fouilles qui se firent sous Pierre le
Grand, au cours desquelles on trouve des manuscrits, des bijoux
non loin de la Caspienne, ce qui le porta A declarer que les arts
avaient "fait le tour de la terre " au moins une fois. Abul-Ghazi
lui a m&meappris que la ville de Bocara portait un nom qui, en
langue scythe, signifiait '(savante," 56 Voltaire a eu ainsi une lueur
du degrk de civilisation atteint par ces primitifs Sl, l'aurore m6me
de la civilisation grecque.
JEAN
DAVID
((
University of Washington
Essai M.,
XL,
482.
11
12
..
The work was first published in Italian in Venice in 1578. The French
translation appeared in 1588. As five editions appeared in France between
1588 and 1609 it will be seen t h a t the work aroused much interest.
Curiously enough I can find no evidence that La Mothe le Vayer used, or
even knew, Mendo~a's work, altho', in his Dialogues, he cites nearly all
the important works on China which had appeare,d up to his time.
R e l a t i o n d e l a nouvelle m i s s i o n des PBres d e la Compagnie d e J b s u s a u
r o y a u m e d e l a Cochinchine, t r a d u i t e de l'italien d u Pbre Christofle B o r r i par
le pBre A n t o i n e d e l a Croim, Rennes, 1631.
Trigault's work undoubtedly marks the beginning of a better knowledge
of China. This is shown in the works of cosmography and geography which
are later than 1616. One of the most widely read of these works, Pierre
d'Avity's L e Monde ou l a description g6nbrale de ses q u a t r e parties .
which gives a very clear account of the Chinese religious system, relies
. .
13
This eulogy finds its echo in Vertu des Payens. Following his
Jesuit source, La Mothe le Vayer exalts Chinese thought over even
that of Greece and Rome :
.. .
entre toutes les nations la leur est apparemment celle qui s'est laisske
le mieux conduire A la IumiBre naturelle et qui a le mains err6 a u fait de
la religion. Car chacun sait de quels prodiges les Grecs, les Romains et les
Egyptiens remplirent autrefois leur culte divin. (Vertu [I642 ed.], p. 280.)
14
ARNOLDH. ROWBOTHAM
U l t i ~ e r s i t yof California