Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/122

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ESSAY X.

France, assisted by Jacomo Trivulzio and the Ghibbellines, the Pope concurred with them, and they form'd Leagues with the Pope against the Emperor.

The Civil Wars lately arisen in Morocco betwixt the Blacks and Whites, merely on account of their Complexion, are founded on a very pleasant Difference. We laugh at them; but I believe, were Things rightly examin'd, we afford much more Occasion of Ridicule to the Moors. For pray, what are all the Wars of Religion, which have prevail'd in this polite and knowing Part of the World? They are, in my Opinion, more absurd than the Moorish Civil Wars. The Difference of Complexion is a sensible and a real Difference: But the Difference about an Article of Faith, which is utterly absurd and unintelligible, is not a real Difference of Sentiments, but only a Difference of a few Phrases and Expressions, which one Party accepts of, without understanding them; and the other refuses, in the same Manner. Besides, I do not find, that the Whites in Morocco ever impos'd on the Blacks any Necessity of altering their Complexion, or threaten'd them with Inquisitionsand