Ramsay ’ s Spiritual Entourage in France
the states of the Creation : exaltation ( that is to say perfection ), corruption , or suffering and renewal . In the second part of the work , which is described as “ properly a history of the human mind in all ages , nations , and religions , concerning the most divine and important truths ,” 36 Ramsay attempts to show that these principles can be found in all civilizations , even those that seem to ignore the revelation . His particular emphasis is on the six peoples he believes to be the most familiar : the Jews , the Egyptians , the Persians , the Chinese , the Indians and finally the Ancient Greeks and Romans .
Had they mystically discovered these universal truths ? Partly , but not entirely . In Fénelon ’ s Gnose de Saint Clément d ’ Alexandrie , written in defense of pure love , he referred to a “ dual doctrine ”: one that is common , diffused among ordinary people and mingled with all kinds of superstitions , the other secret and in the possession of wise men :
Gnosis was given by God from the beginning , without scripture , to those who could understand it , that is to say to the patriarchs and other saints who came before the written law ; then it was written in an obscure and allegorical way so that it was more in the explanation of Scripture than in Scripture itself ; at last the Savior gave his apostles the unwritten tradition , that is to say a secret and oral explanation of the most profound meaning of the scriptures where the mystery of gnosis is hidden . [ ... ] Gnosis is in the Scripture , but in a deep and mysterious way , and can only be accessed as one progresses toward that pure and permanent charity that is its culmination . 37
This is how all peoples can have philosophical access to the divine truth that was supposedly given to all mankind even before being revealed to Moses . Here , Ramsay ’ s views depart from those of Pierre-Daniel Huet : 38 “ We must
tions . God cannot give a dispensation from it without contradicting himself , without overturning eternal order , and destroying the essential relations betwixt the creature and the creator . This doctrine of the pure love of God for his sovereign perfection , was strongly combated in France , by several philosophers and divines of the last age ...” Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 1 , pp . 292-293 .
36 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , p . vi .
37 Fénelon , La tradition secrète des mystiques ou Le Gnostique de saint Clément d ’ Alexandrie , edited and introduced by Dominique and Murielle Tronc ( Paris-Orbey : Arfuyen , 2006 ). ( Our translation .) On the question of dual doctrine , see also Jan Assmann , Religio Duplex : How the Enlightenment Reinvented Egyptian Religion , trans . Robert Savage ( Cambridge : Polity , 2014 ).
38 “ We must , however , take care not to fall into the spurious system of some modern critics who imagine that all the mythology of the heathens was originally derived from the Hebrew writings , and is relative to the facts and history of that nation : that Osiris and Jupiter were Adam , Isis and Juno Eve , Tubalcain Vulcan , Bacchus , Noah ; Apollo , Adonis , Mythras , Mars , Mercury and Hercules were Abraham , Moses , Josuah , or some other holy patriarch of the Hebrew nation , and , in one word , that all the heroes of the Jews are the Gods of the Gentiles . This is the system of Bochart , Vossius ,
11