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THere lives a Dervise in this City, with whom I often converse with the same Freedom as I do with thee; and, it is no small Alleviation of my Melancholy, to vent my Thoughts to one of an agreeable Spirit.
He is a Religious of Mount Carmel; a Man of Singular Piety and Vertue; and, were he not so Zealous a Patron of the Christian Su∣perstitions and Idolatry, I should esteem him a Saint.
I have often attempted to wean him by
Degrees, from the Errors which he imbib'd with his Mothers Milk, and which seem to be rooted in him through the Influences of his Education.
Sometimes I plant a Battery of Arguments against Images and Pictures; but, I can nei∣ther beat them down from the Posts they are allotted in his Oratory, nor am I able to de∣molish the Chappels which he has built for their Ideas in his own Breast.
Yet, after a long and close Siege, I have reduced him to Terms of Composition. In the first place, he has surrendred up a Picture which hung in his Closet, in Form of a very Ancient Man with hoary Hairs, designed by the Painter, to represent the Person of God. He yields, that it is not lawful to make any Resemblance of the Invisible Divinity. Next he allows, that it is not lawful to bow or shew any other External Respect: to the Pictures and Images of Jesus, Mary, and the Rest of the Saints, but only to use them as Historical Remembrancers of those Holy Persons, and as Natural Helps and Spurs to Devotion and Vertue.
I tell thee, my Friend Oglou, on these Ca∣pitulations I could not but raise the Siege, and yield him the Use of Pictures thus far a blame∣less Practice. For, it seems to me unreaso∣nable, to debarr those who believe the History of the Gospel, the Privilege to read it in what Language they please, whether this of Images and Pictures, or that of Letters.
Letters are but the Images of such and such
Articulate Sounds, by which we express our Inward Conception of things: But, Images and Pictures are the lively Immediate Chara∣cters of the Things themselves; and, it seems as easie to me, to look on a Picture or Image without the Danger of Idolatry, as 'tis to read a Chapter in the Alcoran without ado∣ring the Letters that compose it. Was not the Tabernacle of Moses adorned with Ima∣ges of Cherubims? Was not the Temple of Solomon deck'd in the same manner? If the presence of Images in Temples be a propha∣nation, why for so many Ages have our Vene∣rable Mufti's suffered the Two Seraphims to remain under the Cupola of the Mosque of Sancta Sophia in Constantinople? Why do they not deface the Picture of Mary the Mother of Jesus, the Two Images of Angels, with other Pieces of Sculpture and Painting in the same place? Are the Devotions of a Mussulman in this Sacred Temple tainted with Idolatry, be∣cause he prays before these Images?
Let me unbosom my Thoughts to thee with freedom; Images and Pictures are no Bug-bears to me; I can use them as Instru∣ments of Devotion, in the same manner as I do Books. Yet every one cannot do this without Danger of Idolatry; neither is a Pu∣blick Toleration of Images and Pictures in Temples to be approved. For, though some Men may look on them without Hurt, yet 'tis hard for the Generality to avoid falling in∣to a Culpable Reverence. For, while the Eye is drinking in the fair Idea, the Soul is apt to
lose her Force, and fall into Admiration of the Carver's or the Painter's Art, adoring the ele∣gant Symmetry of a Beautiful Picture or I∣mage, instead of the Original and Increated Beauty, the Majesty which has no Resem∣blance.
Therefore wisely has our Holy Law, provi∣ded against this Inconvenience, by discoura∣ging Imagery throughout the Sacred Empire of the Mussulmans.
He whose Habitation is in the Mysterious and Inaccessible Heighth of an Eternal Recess, whose Glory is beyond all Figure and Expres∣sion, augment thy Vertues, which are the truest Images of the Divine Nature.
Paris, 24th. of the 7th. Moon, of the Year 1642.