- Thenceforth, and spontaneously, his malady
runs its own course and becomes complex; to the ambitious delirium
comes the persecution mania. In effect, the evident or demonstrated
truths which he advances should strike the public at once; if they
burn slowly or miss fire, it is owing to their being stamped out by
enemies or the envious; manifestly, they have conspired against him,
and against him plots have never ceased. First came the philosophers'
plot: when his treatise on "Man" was sent to Paris from Amsterdam,
"they felt the blow I struck at their principles and had the book
stopped at the custom-house."[21] Next came the plot of the doctors:
"they ruefully estimated my enormous gains. Were it necessary, I
could prove that they often met together to consider the best way to
destroy my reputation." Finally, came the plot of the Academicians;
"the disgraceful persecution I had to undergo from the Academy of
Sciences for two years, after being satisfied that my discoveries on
Light upset all that it had done for a century, and that I was quite
indifferent about becoming a member of its body . . . . Would it
be believed that these scientific charlatans succeeded in underrating
my discoveries throughout Europe, in exciting every society of savants
against me, and in closing against me all the newspapers?"[22] -
Naturally, the would-be-persecuted man defends himself, that is to
say, he attacks.
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