Delving back into Voltaire's L'Ingénu (The Child Of Nature): A True Story Taken From The Manuscripts Of Father Quesnel (1767) / L'Ingenu, or The Sincere Huron : A True History (1768). A Huron (half-French) dude arrives in Lower Breton, France, on an English ship. Adventures follow. The "Ingenu" character gives Voltaire a way to make all sorts of piquant observations about nature vs. nurture, culture, tradition, customs, superstitions, history, religion, gender, race, politics, philosophy, life and liberty.
A couple of samples.
"The world seemed too full of villainy and human misery. For indeed history is but a tableau of every crime and catastrophe. On such a large stage the vast majority of innocent, peaceable human beings continually fade into the background. The leading characters are invariably depraved men of ambition. It is as if history only succeeds if it is like tragedy, which palls if . . . not enlivened by passions and foul deeds and great disasters . . ." (Roger Pearson translation, Oxford University Press).
And: "Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace." (Ditto).
Amen, brother.
Today's Rune: Movement.
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