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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31275-8.txt b/31275-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6363047 --- /dev/null +++ b/31275-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7681 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters to Eugenia, by Baron d'Holbach + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters to Eugenia + or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices + +Author: Baron d'Holbach + +Translator: Anthony C. Middleton + +Release Date: February 14, 2010 [EBook #31275] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + LETTERS TO EUGENIA; + + OR, + + A PRESERVATIVE + AGAINST RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES. + + + BY BARON D'HOLBACH, + AUTHOR OF THE SYSTEM OF NATURE, THE SOCIAL SYSTEM, + GOOD SENSE, CHRISTIANITY UNVEILED, ECCE HOMO, + UNIVERSAL MORALITY, RELIGIOUS CRUELTY, &c., &c., &c. + + + TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, BY + ANTHONY C. MIDDLETON, M. D. + + + ... "Arctis + Religionum animos nodis exsolvere pergo." + LUCRETII _De Rerum Natura_, lib. iv. _v._ 6, 7. + + + BOSTON: + PUBLISHED BY JOSIAH P. MENDUM, + AT THE OFFICE OF THE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR. + 1857. + + + + +NAIGEON'S PREFACE. + +1768. + + +For many years this work has been known under the title of _Letters to +Eugenia_. The secretive character of those, however, into whose hands +the manuscript at first fell; the singular and yet actual pleasure +that is caused generally enough in the minds of all men by the +exclusive possession of any object whatever; that kind of torpor, +servitude, and terror in which the tyrannical power of the priests +then held all minds--even those who by the superiority of their +talents ought naturally to be the least disposed to bend under the +odious yoke of the clergy,--all these circumstances united contributed +so much to stifle in its birth, if I may so express myself, this +important manuscript, that for a long time it was supposed to be lost; +so much did those who possessed it keep it carefully concealed, and so +constantly did they refuse to allow a copy to be taken. The +manuscripts, indeed, were so scarce, even in the libraries of the +curious, that the late M. De Boze, whose pleasure it was to collect +the rarest works belonging to every species of literature, could never +succeed in acquiring a copy of the _Letters to Eugenia_, and in his +time there were only three in Paris; it may have been from design, +_propter metum Judĉorum_;[1] it may have been there were actually no +more known. + +[1] _On account of fear of the Jews_, or, in other words, the +intolerant clergy of the despotic government. + +It is not till within five or six years that MSS. of these letters +have become more common; and there is reason to believe that they are +now considerably multiplied, since the copy from which this edition is +printed has been revised and corrected by collation with six others, +that have been collected without any great difficulty. Unhappily, all +these copies swarm with faults, which corrupt the sense, and +comprehend many variations, but which also, to use the language of the +Biblical critics, have served sometimes to discover and to fix the +true reading! More often, however, they have rendered it more +uncertain than it was before what one ought to be followed--a new +proof of the multiplicity of copies, because the more numerous are the +manuscripts of a work, the more they differ from each other, as any +one may be fully convinced by consulting those of the _Letter of +Thrasybulus to Leucippus_, and the various readings of the New +Testament collected by the learned Mill, and which amount to more than +thirty thousand. + +However this may be, we have spared no pains to reëstablish the text +in all its purity; and we venture to say, that, with the exception of +four or five passages, which we found corrupted in all the manuscripts +that we had an opportunity to collate, and which we have amended to +the best of our ability, the edition of these letters that we now +offer to the reader will probably conform almost exactly with the +original manuscript of the author. + +With regard to the author's name and quality we can offer nothing but +conjectures. The only particulars of his life upon which there is a +general agreement are, that he lived upon terms of great intimacy with +the Marquis de la Fare, the Abbé de Chaulieu, the Abbé Terrasson, +Fontenelle, M. de Lasseré, &c. The late MM. Du Marsais and Falconnet +have often been heard to declare that these letters were composed by +some one belonging to the school of Seaux. All that we can pronounce +with certainty is the fact, that it is only necessary to read the +work to be entirely convinced the author was a man of extensive +knowledge, and one who had meditated profoundly concerning the matters +upon which he has treated. His style is clear, simple, easy, and in +which we may remark a certain urbanity, that leads us to be sure that +he was not an obscure individual, nor one to whom good company and +polished society were unfamiliar. But what especially distinguishes +this work, and which should endear it to all good and virtuous people, +is the signal honesty which pervades and characterizes it from the +very beginning to the end. It is impossible to read it without +conceiving the highest idea of the author's probity, whoever he may +have been--without desiring to have had him for a friend, to have +lived with him, and, in a word, without rendering justice to the +rectitude of his intentions, even when we do not approve of his +sentiments. The love of virtue, universal benevolence, respect to the +laws, an inviolable attachment to the duties of morality, and, in +fine, all that can contribute to render men better, is strongly +recommended in these Letters. If, on the one hand, he completely +overthrows the ruinous edifice of Christianity, it is to erect, on the +other hand, the immovable foundations of a system of morality +legitimately established upon the nature of man, upon his physical +wants, and upon his social relations--a base infinitely better and +more solid than that of religion, because sooner or later the lie is +discovered, rejected, and necessarily drags with it what served to +sustain it. On the contrary, the truth subsists eternally, and +consolidates itself as it grows old: _Opinionum commenta delet dies, +naturĉ judicia confirmat_.[2] + +[2] "Time effaces the comments of opinion, but it confirms the +judgments of nature."--CICERO. + +The motto affixed to many of the manuscript copies of these letters +proves that the worthy man to whom we owe them did not desire to be +known as their author, and that it was neither the love of reputation, +nor the thirst of glory, nor the ambition of being distinguished by +bold opinions, which the priests, and the satellites subjected to them +by ignorance, denominate _impieties_, which guided his pen. It was +only the desire of doing good to his fellow-beings by enlightening +them, which actuated him, and the wish to uproot, so to speak, +religion itself, as being the source of all the woes which have +afflicted mankind for so many ages. This is the motto of which we +spoke:-- + + "Si j'ai raison, qu'importe à qui je suis?" + (If reason's mine, no matter who I am.) + +It is a verse of Corneille, whose application is exceedingly +appropriate, and which should be upon the frontispiece of all books of +this nature. + +We are unable to say any thing more certain concerning the person to +whom our author has addressed his work. It appears, however, from many +circumstances in these Letters, that she was not a supposititious +marchioness, like her of the _Worlds_ of M. de Fontenelle, and that +they have really been written to a woman as distinguished by her rank +as by her manners. Perhaps she was a lady of the school of the Temple, +or of Seaux. But these details, in reality, as well as those which +concern the name and the life of our author, the date of his birth, +that of his death, &c., are of little importance, and could only serve +to satisfy the vain curiosity of some idle readers, who avidiously +collect these kind of anecdotes, who receive from them a kind of +existence in the world, and who feel more satisfaction from being +instructed in them than from the discovery of a truth. I know that +they endeavor to justify their curiosity by saying that when a person +reads a book which creates a public sensation, and with which he is +himself much pleased, it is natural he should desire to know to whom a +grateful homage should be addressed. In this case the desire is so +much the more unreasonable because it cannot be satisfied; first, +because when death and proscription is the penalty, there has never +been and there never will be a man of letters so imprudent, and, to +speak plainly, so strangely daring, as to publish, or during his life +to allow a book to be printed, in which he tramples under foot +temples, altars, and the statues of the gods, and where he attacks +without any disguise the most consecrated religious opinions; +secondly, because it is a matter of public notoriety that all the +works of this character which have appeared for many years are the +secret testaments of numbers of great men, obliged during their lives +to conceal their light under a bushel, whose heads death has withdrawn +from the fury of persecutors, and whose cold ashes, consequently, do +not hear in the tomb either the importunate and denunciatory cries of +the superstitious, or the just eulogiums of the friends of truth; +thirdly and lastly, _because this curiosity, so unfortunately +entertained, may compromise in the most cruel manner the repose, the +fortune, and the liberty of the relatives and friends of the authors +of these bold books!_ This single consideration ought, then, to +determine those hazarders of conjectures, if they have really good +intentions, to wrap in the inmost folds of their hearts whatever +suspicions they may entertain concerning the author, however true or +false they may be, and to turn their inquiring spirits to a use more +beneficial for both themselves and others. + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +In 1819 an anonymous translation of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA was +published in London by Richard Carlile. This translation in some of +its parts was sufficiently complete and correct, but in others it was +at absolute variance with the original work; in other parts, also, it +was interlarded with matter not written by d'Holbach; and in others, +large portions of the original Letters were entirely omitted, as were +likewise a number of notes and the whole of the preliminary +observations, with which the volume was introduced to the public by +Naigeon, so long the intimate friend of both d'Holbach and Diderot. In +again presenting the work in an English dress, the London translation +has been made the foundation of this, but the whole has been +thoroughly revised and collated with the original. The omitted +portions have been translated and inserted in their proper places, and +though some passages of the London work, not entirely faithful to the +original, have been allowed to stand, yet the book, as it now +appears, is essentially a new one, and is the most accurate and +complete translation of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA which has ever been +made into the English language. + +The work at first came anonymously from the press, and the mystery of +its authorship was sedulously maintained in the introductory +observations of Naigeon, in consequence of the danger which then +attended the issue of Infidel productions, not only in France but +throughout Christendom. The book was printed in Amsterdam, at +d'Holbach's own expense, by Marc-Michael Rey, a noble printer, to whom +the world is greatly indebted for the inestimable aid he rendered the +philosophers. But bold as he was, and then living in a country the +most free of any in the world, he dared not openly send these LETTERS +from his own press. They were issued in 1768, in two duodecimo +volumes, without any publisher's name, and with the imprint of +_London_ on the title page, in order to set those persecutors at bay +who were prowling for victims, and who sought to burn author, printer, +and book at the same pile. The prudence of the author and printer +saved _them_ from this fate; but the book had hardly reached France +before its sale was forbidden under penalty of fines and imprisonment, +and it was condemned by an act of Parliament to be burnt by the +public executioner in the streets of Paris, all of which particulars +will be narrated in the BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF BARON D'HOLBACH, which +I am now preparing for the press. + +Of the excellence of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA, nothing need here be +said. The work speaks for itself, and abounds in that eloquence +peculiar to its author, and overflows with kindly sentiments of +humanity, benevolence and virtue. Like d'Holbach's other works, it is +distinguished by an ardent love of liberty, and an invincible hatred +of despotism; by an unanswerable logic, by deep thought, and by +profound ideas. The tyrant and the priest are both displayed in their +true colors; but while the author shows himself inexorable as fate +towards oppressive hierarchies and false ideas, he is tender as an +infant to the unfortunate, to those overburdened with unreasonable +impositions, to those who need consolation and guidance, and to those +searching after truth. Addressed, as the LETTERS were, to a lady +suffering from religious falsehoods and terrors, the object of the +writer is set forth in the motto from Lucretius which he placed on the +title page, and which may thus be expressed in English:-- + + "Reason's pure light I seek to give the mind, + And from Religion's fetters free mankind." + + A. C. M. + +The name of the lady was designedly kept in secrecy, and was unknown, +except to _a very few_, till some years after d'Holbach's death. We +now know from the _Feuilles Posthumes_ of Lequinio, who had it from +Naigeon, that the _Letters_ were written several years before their +publication, for the instruction of a lady formerly distinguished at +the French Court for her graces and virtues. They were addressed to +the charming Marguerite, Marchioness de Vermandois. Her husband held +the lucrative post of farmer-general to the king, and besides +inherited large estates. He possessed excellent natural abilities, and +his mind was strengthened and adorned by culture and letters. Had his +modesty permitted him to appear as such, he would now be known as a +poet of genius and merit, for he wrote some poems and plays that were +much admired by all who were allowed to peruse them. He was married in +1763, on the day he completed his twenty-first year, to Marguerite +Justine d'Estrades, then only nineteen years of age, and whom he saw +for the first time in his life only six weeks before they became +husband and wife. Like most of the matches then made among the higher +classes in France, this was one of a purely mercenary character. The +father of the Marquis de Vermandois, and the father of Marguerite, as +a means of joining their estates, contracted their children without +deigning to consult the wishes of the parties, and obedience or +disinheritance was the only alternative. When the compact was +concluded, Marguerite was taken from the convent where for five years +she had lived as a boarder and scholar, and commenced her married life +and her course in the fashionable world at the same time. The match +was far more fortunate than such matches then generally proved to be. +Marguerite's husband was passionately attached to her, and that +attachment was returned. The Marquis was a friend of Baron d'Holbach, +and soon after his marriage introduced his wife to him. Among all the +beauties of Paris the Marchioness was one of the most lovely and +fascinating. Her features were remarkably beautiful, and the bloom and +clearness of her complexion were such as absolutely to render +necessary the old comparison of the rose and the lily to do them +justice. To these were added a voluptuous figure, agreeable manners, +the graces and vivacity of wit, and the still more enduring +attractions of good humor, purity, and benevolence. A female like her +could not but be dear to all who enjoyed her intimacy, and a strong +friendship sprang up between her and Baron d'Holbach. Greatly pleased +with him at first, Marguerite was afterwards as greatly shocked. When +their intercourse had become so familiar as to permit that frankness +and freedom of conversation which prevails among intimate friends, she +discovered that the Baron was an unbeliever in the Christian dogmas +which she had learned at the convent, where, in consequence of her +mother's death, she had been educated. She had been taught that an +Infidel was a monster in all respects, and she was astounded to find +unbelievers in men so agreeable in manners and person, and so profound +in learning, as d'Holbach, Diderot, d'Alembert, and others. She could +deny neither their goodness nor their intellectual qualities, and +while she admired the individuals she shuddered at their incredulity. +Especially did she mourn over Baron d'Holbach. He had a wife as +charming as herself, formerly the lovely Mademoiselle d'Aïne, whose +beautiful features and seductive figure presented + + "A combination, and a form, indeed, + Where every god did seem to set his seal." + +Nothing was more natural than that two such women should imbibe the +deepest tenderness for each other. But alas! the Baron's wife was +tainted with her husband's heresies; and yet in their home did the +Marchioness see all the domestic virtues exemplified, and beheld that +sweet harmony and unchangeable affection for which the d'Holbachs +were eminently distinguished among their acquaintances, and which was +remarkable from its striking contrast with the courtly and Christian +habits of the day. At a loss what to do, the Marchioness consulted her +confessor, and was advised to withdraw entirely from the society of +the Baron and his wife, unless she was willing to sacrifice all her +hopes of heaven, and to plunge headlong down to hell. Her natural good +sense and love of her friends struggled with her monastic education +and reverence for the priests. The conflict rendered her miserable; +and unable to enjoy happiness, she brooded over her wishes and her +terrors. In this state of mind she at length wrote a touching letter +to the Baron, and laid open her situation, requesting him to comfort, +console, and enlighten her. Such was the origin of the book now +presented in an English dress to the reader. It accomplished its +purpose with the Marchioness de Vermandois, and afterwards its author +concluded to publish the work, in hopes it might be equally useful to +others. + +The _Letters_ were _written_ in 1764, when d'Holbach was in the +forty-second year of his age. Twelve different works he had before +written and published, and all without the affix of his name. _Eleven_ +were upon mineralogy, the arts and the sciences, and _one_ only upon +theology. That _one_ had been secretly printed in 1761, at Nancy, with +the imprint of London, and was _honored_ with a parliamentary statute +condemning its publication and forbidding its sale or circulation. +Christian hatred bestowed upon it the additional honor of causing it +to be burned in the streets of Paris by the public executioner. But +the prudence of the author protected his life. He attributed the book +to a dead man, who had been known to entertain sceptical views. It was +entitled CHRISTIANITY UNVEILED, and bore on its title page the name of +BOULANGER. This was d'Holbach's first contribution to Infidel +literature, and the second similar work written by him was the LETTERS +TO EUGENIA. These were the preludes to more than a quarter of a +hundred different productions numbering among them such books as _Good +Sense_, _The System of Nature_, _Ecce Homo_, _Priests Unmasked_, &c., +&c., all printed anonymously or pseudonymously at his own expense, +without a possibility of pecuniary advantage, and with such +extraordinary secrecy as to show that he was actuated by no desire of +literary fame. It was love of truth alone that impelled d'Holbach to +write. Brilliant, profound, eloquent and excellent as were his +writings, attracting notice as they did from the civil and religious +powers, commented upon as they were by such men as Voltaire and +Frederick the Great, admired as they were by that class who felt and +combated the evils of tyranny as well as of religion, of kings as well +as of priests,--that class who almost drew their life from the books +of him and his compeers,--he was never seduced from the rule he +originally laid down for his literary conduct. + +A very few persons he was obliged to trust in order to get his +writings printed, and but for that fact Baron d'Holbach would now only +be known as a gentleman of great wealth, extensive benevolence, and +uncommon liberality, as a man of profound learning and agreeable +colloquial powers, as the bountiful friend of men of letters, as the +soother of the distressed, as the protector of the miserable, and as +the affectionate husband and father. So much of him we should have +known; but that he was the author of those books which roused +intolerant priests and corrupt magistrates, consistories and +parliaments, monarchs and philosophers, the people and their +oppressors,--that he was the Archimedes that thus moved the +world,--would not have been known had he not employed another +philosopher, by the name of Naigeon, to carry his manuscripts to +Amsterdam, and to direct their printing by Marc-Michel Rey. It was +Naigeon who carried the manuscript of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA to +Holland, together with a number of others by the same author, which +also appeared during the year 1768,--an eventful year in the history +of Infidel progress. The _Letters_ were carefully revised by d'Holbach +before they were sent to press. All the passages of a purely personal +character were omitted, some new matter was incorporated, and some +sentences were added purposely to keep the author and the lady he +addressed in impenetrable obscurity. To raise the veil from a man of +so much worth and genius, as well as to carry out his idea of doing +good, is one of the reasons which have led to the present preparation +and publication of this book. + + A. C. M. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + LETTER I. + + Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives which should + lead to an Examination of Religion, Page 1 + + + LETTER II. + + Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the Divinity, 29 + + + LETTER III. + + An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature of the + Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon which Christianity is + founded, 46 + + + LETTER IV. + + Of the fundamental Dogmas of the Christian Religion, 76 + + + LETTER V. + + Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Dogma of another + Life, 91 + + + LETTER VI. + + Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies of + Christianity, 120 + + + LETTER VII. + + Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of Christianity, 136 + + + LETTER VIII. + + Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection, 154 + + + LETTER IX. + + Of the Advantages contributed to Government by Religion, 184 + + + LETTER X. + + Of the Advantages Religion confers on those who profess it, 211 + + + LETTER XI. + + Of Human or Natural Morality, 233 + + + LETTER XII. + + Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's Speculations, + and the Indulgence which should be extended to them, 255 + + + + +LETTERS TO EUGENIA. + + + + +LETTER I. + + Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives which should lead + to an Examination of Religion. + + +I am unable, Madam, to express the grievous sentiments that the +perusal of your letter produced in my bosom. Did not a rigorous duty +retain me where I am, you would see me flying to your succor. Is it, +then, true that Eugenia is miserable? Is even she tormented with +chagrin, scruples, and inquietudes? In the midst of opulence and +grandeur; assured of the tenderness and esteem of a husband who adores +you; enjoying at court the advantage, so rare, of being sincerely +beloved by every one; surrounded by friends who render sincere homage +to your talents, your knowledge, and your tastes,--how can you suffer +the pains of melancholy and sorrow? Your pure and virtuous soul can +surely know neither shame nor remorse. Always so far removed from the +weaknesses of your sex, on what account can you blush? Agreeably +occupied with your duties, refreshed with useful reading and +entertaining conversation, and having within your reach every +diversity of virtuous pleasures, how happens it that fears, distastes, +and cares come to assail a heart for which every thing should procure +contentment and peace? Alas! even if your letter had not confirmed it +but too much, from the trouble which agitates you I should have +recognized without difficulty the work of superstition. This fiend +alone possesses the power of disturbing honest souls, without calming +the passions of the corrupt; and when once she gains possession of a +heart, she has the ability to annihilate its repose forever. + +Yes, Madam, for a long time I have known the dangerous effects of +religious prejudices. I was myself formerly troubled with them. Like +you I have trembled under the yoke of religion; and if a careful and +deliberate examination had not fully undeceived me, instead of now +being in a state to console you and to reassure you against yourself, +you would see me at the present moment partaking your inquietudes, and +augmenting in your mind the lugubrious ideas with which I perceive you +to be tormented. Thanks to Reason and Philosophy, an unruffled +serenity long ago irradiated my understanding, and banished the +terrors with which I was formerly agitated. What happiness for me if +the peace which I enjoy should put it in my power to break the charm +which yet binds you with the chains of prejudice? + +Nevertheless, without your express orders, I should never have dared +to point out to you a mode of thinking widely different from your +own, nor to combat the dangerous opinions to which you have been +persuaded your happiness is attached. But for your request I should +have continued to enclose in my own breast opinions odious to the most +part of men accustomed to see nothing except by the eyes of judges +visibly interested in deceiving them. Now, however, a sacred duty +obliges me to speak. Eugenia, unquiet and alarmed, wishes me to +explore her heart; she needs assistance; she wishes to fix her ideas +upon an object which interests her repose and her felicity. I owe her +the truth. It would be a crime longer to preserve silence. Although my +attachment for her did not impose the necessity of responding to her +confidence, the love of truth would oblige me to make efforts to +dissipate the chimeras which render her unhappy. + +I shall proceed then, Madam, to address you with the most complete +frankness. Perhaps at the first glance my ideas may appear strange; +but on examining them with still further care and attention, they will +cease to shock you. Reason, good faith, and truth cannot do otherwise +than exert great influence over such an intellect as yours. I appeal, +therefore, from your alarmed imagination to your more tranquil +judgment; I appeal from custom and prejudice to reflection and reason. +Nature has given you a gentle and sensible soul, and has imparted an +exquisitely lively imagination, and a certain admixture of melancholy +which disposes to despondent revery. It is from this peculiar mental +constitution that arise the woes that now afflict you. Your goodness, +candor, and sincerity preclude your suspecting in others either fraud +or malignity. The gentleness of your character prevents your +contradicting notions that would appear revolting if you deigned to +examine them. You have chosen rather to defer to the judgment of +others, and to subscribe to their ideas, than to consult your own +reason and rely upon your own understanding. The vivacity of your +imagination causes you to embrace with avidity the dismal delineations +which are presented to you; certain men, interested in agitating your +mind, abuse your sensibility in order to produce alarm; they cause you +to shudder at the terrible words, _death_, _judgment_, _hell_, +_punishment_, and _eternity_; they lead you to turn pale at the very +name of an inflexible _judge_, whose absolute decrees nothing can +change; you fancy that you see around you those demons whom he has +made the ministers of his vengeance upon his weak creatures; thus is +your heart filled with affright; you fear that at every instant you +may offend, without being aware of it, a capricious God, always +threatening and always enraged. In consequence of such a state of +mind, all those moments of your life which should only be productive +of contentment and peace, are constantly poisoned by inquietudes, +scruples, and panic terrors, from which a soul as pure as yours ought +to be forever exempt. The agitation into which you are thrown by these +fatal ideas suspends the exercise of your faculties; your reason is +misled by a bewildered imagination, and you are afflicted with +perplexities, with despondency, and with suspicion of yourself. In +this manner you become the dupe of those men who, addressing the +imagination and stifling reason, long since subjugated the universe, +and have actually persuaded reasonable beings that their reason is +either useless or dangerous. + +Such is, Madam, the constant language of the apostles of superstition, +whose design has always been, and will always continue to be, to +destroy human reason in order to exercise their power with impunity +over mankind. Throughout the globe the perfidious ministers of +religion have been either the concealed or the declared enemies of +reason, because they always see reason opposed to their views. Every +where do they decry it, because they truly fear that it will destroy +their empire by discovering their conspiracies and the futility of +their fables. Every where upon its ruins they struggle to erect the +empire of fanaticism and imagination. To attain this end with more +certainty, they have unceasingly terrified mortals with hideous +paintings, have astonished and seduced them by marvels and mysteries, +embarrassed them by enigmas and uncertainties, surcharged them with +observances and ceremonies, filled their minds with terrors and +scruples, and fixed their eyes upon a future, which, far from +rendering them more virtuous and happy here below, has only turned +them from the path of true happiness, and destroyed it completely and +forever in their bosoms. + +Such are the artifices which the ministers of religion every where +employ to enslave the earth and to retain it under the yoke. The human +race, in all countries, has become the prey of the priests. The +priests have given the name of _religion_ to systems invented by them +to subjugate men, whose imagination they had seduced, whose +understanding they had confounded, and whose reason they had +endeavored to extinguish. + +It is especially in infancy that the human mind is disposed to receive +whatever impression is made upon it. Thus our priests have prudently +seized upon the youth to inspire them with ideas that they could never +impose upon adults. It is during the most tender and susceptible age +of men that the priests have familiarized the understanding of our +race with monstrous fables, with extravagant and disjointed fancies, +and with ridiculous chimeras, which, by degrees, become objects that +are respected and that are feared during life. + +We need only open our eyes to see the unworthy means employed by +_sacerdotal policy_ to stifle the dawning reason of men. During their +infancy they are taught tales which are ridiculous, impertinent, +contradictory, and criminal, and to these they are enjoined to pay +respect. They are gradually impregnated with inconceivable mysteries +that are announced as sacred truths, and they are accustomed to +contemplate phantoms before which they habitually tremble. In a word, +measures are taken which are the best calculated to render those +blind who do not consult their reason, and to render those base who +constantly shudder whenever they recall the ideas with which their +priests infected their minds at an age when they were unable to guard +against such snares. + +Recall to mind, Madam, the dangerous cares which were taken in the +convent where you were educated, to sow in your mind the germs of +those inquietudes that now afflict you. It was there that they began +to speak to you of fables, prodigies, mysteries, and doctrines that +you actually revere, while, if these things were announced to-day for +the first time, you would regard them as ridiculous, and as entirely +unworthy of attention. I have often witnessed your laughter at the +simplicity with which you formerly credited those tales of sorcerers +and ghosts, that, during your childhood, were related by the nuns who +had charge of your education. When you entered society where for a +long time such chimeras have been disbelieved, you were insensibly +undeceived, and at present you blush at your former credulity. Why +have you not the courage to laugh, in a similar manner, at an infinity +of other chimeras with no better foundation, which torment you even +yet, and which only appear more respectable, because you have not +dared to examine them with your own eyes, or because you see them +respected by a public who have never explored them? If my Eugenia is +enlightened and reasonable upon all other topics, why does she +renounce her understanding and her judgment whenever religion is in +question? In the mean time, at this redoubtable word her soul is +disturbed, her strength abandons her, her ordinary penetration is at +fault, her imagination wanders, she only sees through a cloud, she is +unquiet and afflicted. On the watch against reason, she dares not call +that to her assistance. She persuades herself that the best course for +her to take is to allow herself to follow the opinions of a multitude +who never examine, and who always suffer themselves to be conducted by +blind or deceitful guides. + +To reëstablish peace in your mind, dear Madam, cease to despise +yourself; entertain a just confidence in your own powers of mind, and +feel no chagrin at finding yourself infected with a general and +involuntary epidemic from which it did not depend on you to escape. +The good Abbé de St. Pierre had reason when he said that _devotion was +the small pox of the soul_. I will add that it is rare the disease +does not leave its pits for life. Indeed, see how often the most +enlightened persons persist forever in the prejudices of their +infancy! These notions are so early inculcated, and so many +precautions are continually taken to render them durable, that if any +thing may reasonably surprise us, it is to see any one have the +ability to rise superior to such influences. The most sublime geniuses +are often the playthings of superstition. The heat of their +imagination sometimes only serves to lead them the farther astray, and +to attach them to opinions which would cause them to blush did they +but consult their reason. Pascal constantly imagined that he saw hell +yawning under his feet; Mallebranche was extravagantly credulous; +Hobbes had a great terror of phantoms and demons;[3] and the immortal +Newton wrote a ridiculous commentary on the vials and visions of the +Apocalypse. In a word, every thing proves that there is nothing more +difficult than to efface the notions with which we are imbued during +our infancy. The most sensible persons, and those who reason with the +most correctness upon every other matter, relapse into their infancy +whenever religion is in question. + +[3] On this subject see Bayle's _Dict. Crit._, art. _Hobbes_, Rem. N. + +Thus, Madam, you need not blush for a weakness which you hold in +common with almost all the world, and from which the greatest men are +not always exempt. Let your courage then revive, and fear not to +examine with perfect composure the phantoms which alarm you. In a +matter which so greatly interests your repose, consult that +enlightened reason which places you as much above the vulgar, as it +elevates the human species above the other animals. Far from being +suspicious of your own understanding and intellectual faculties, turn +your just suspicion against those men, far less enlightened and honest +than you, who, to vanquish you, only address themselves to your lively +imagination; who have the cruelty to disturb the serenity of your +soul; who, under the pretext of attaching you only to heaven, insist +that you must sunder the most tender and endearing ties; and in fine, +who oblige you to proscribe the use of that beneficent reason whose +light guides your conduct so judiciously and so safely. + +Leave inquietude and remorse to those corrupt women who have cause to +reproach themselves, or who have crimes to expiate. Leave superstition +to those silly and ignorant females whose narrow minds are incapable +of reasoning or reflection. Abandon the futile and trivial ceremonies +of an objectionable devotion to those idle and peevish women, for +whom, as soon as the transient reign of their personal charms is +finished, there remains no rational relaxation to fill the void of +their days, and who seek by slander and treachery to console +themselves for the loss of pleasures which they can no longer enjoy. +Resist that inclination which seems to impel you to gloomy meditation, +solitude, and melancholy. Devotion is only suited to inert and +listless souls, while yours is formed for action. You should pursue +the course I recommend for the sake of your husband, whose happiness +depends upon you; you owe it to the children, who will soon, +undoubtedly, need all your care and all your instructions for the +guidance of their hearts and understandings; you owe it to the friends +who honor you, and who will value your society when the beauty which +now adorns your person and the voluptuousness which graces your figure +have yielded to the inroads of time; you owe it to the circle in which +you move, and to the world which has a right to your example, +possessing as you do virtues that are far more rare to persons of your +rank than devotion. In fine, you owe happiness to yourself; for, +notwithstanding the promises of religion, you will never find +happiness in those agitations into which I perceive you cast by the +lurid ideas of superstition. In this path you will only encounter +doleful chimeras, frightful phantoms, embarrassments without end, +crushing uncertainties, inexplicable enigmas, and dangerous reveries, +which are only calculated to disturb your repose, to deprive you of +happiness, and to render you incapable of occupying yourself with that +of others. It is very difficult to make those around us happy when we +are ourselves miserable and deprived of peace. + +If you will even slightly make observations upon those about you, you +will find abundant proofs of what I advance. The most religious +persons are rarely the most amiable or the most social. Even the most +sincere devotion, by subjecting those who embrace it to wearisome and +crippling ceremonies, by occupying their imaginations with lugubrious +and afflicting objects, by exciting their zeal, is but little +calculated to give to devotees that equality of temper, that sweetness +of an indulgent disposition, and that amenity of character, which +constitute the greatest charms of personal intercourse. A thousand +examples might be adduced to convince you that devotees who are the +most occupied in superstitious observances to please God are not +those women who succeed best in pleasing those by whom they are +surrounded. If there seems to be occasionally an exception to this +rule, it is on the part of those who have not all the zeal and fervor +which is exacted by their religion. Devotion is either a morose and +melancholy passion, or it is a violent and obstinate enthusiasm. +Religion imposes an exclusive and entire regard upon its slaves. All +that an acceptable Christian gives to a fellow-creature is a robbery +from the Creator. A soul filled with religious fervor fears to attach +itself to things of the earth, lest it should lose sight of its +jealous God, who wishes to engross constant attention, who lays it +down as a duty to his creatures that they should sacrifice to him +their most agreeable and most innocent inclinations, and who orders +that they should render themselves miserable here below, under the +idea of pleasing him. In accordance with such principles, we generally +see devotees executing with much fidelity the duty of tormenting +themselves and disturbing the repose of others. They actually believe +they acquire great merit with the Sovereign of heaven by rendering +themselves perfectly useless, or even a scourge to the inhabitants of +the earth. + +I am aware, Madam, that devotion in you does not produce effects +injurious to others; but I fear that it is only more injurious to +yourself. The goodness of your heart, the sweetness of your +disposition, and the beneficence which displays itself in all your +conduct, are all so great that even religion does not impel you to +any dangerous excesses. Nevertheless, devotion often causes strange +metamorphoses. Unquiet, agitated, miserable within yourself, it is to +be feared that your temperament will change, that your disposition +will become acrimonious, and that the vexatious ideas over which you +have so long brooded will sooner or later produce a disastrous +influence upon those who approach you. Does not experience constantly +show us that religion effects changes of this kind? What are called +_conversions_, what devotees regard as special acts of divine grace, +are very often only lamentable revolutions by which real vices and +odious qualities are substituted for amiable and useful +characteristics. By a deplorable consequence of these pretended +miracles of grace we frequently see sorrow succeed to enjoyment, a +gloomy and unhappy state to one of innocent gayety, lassitude and +chagrin to activity and hilarity, and slander, intolerance, and zeal +to indulgence and gentleness; nay, what do I say? cruelty itself to +humanity. In a word, superstition is a dangerous leaven, that is +fitted to corrupt even the most honest hearts. + +Do you not see, in fact, the excesses to which fanaticism and zeal +drive the wisest and best meaning men? Princes, magistrates, and +judges become inhuman and pitiless as soon as there is a question of +the interests of religion. Men of the gentlest disposition, the most +indulgent, and the most equitable, upon every other matter, religion +transforms to ferocious beasts. The most feeling and compassionate +persons believe themselves in conscience obliged to harden their +hearts, to do violence to their better instincts, and to stifle +nature, in order to show themselves cruel to those who are denounced +as enemies to their own manner of thinking. Recall to your mind, +Madam, the cruelties of nations and governments in alternate +persecutions of Catholics or Protestants, as either happened to be in +the ascendant. Can you find reason, equity, or humanity in the +vexations, imprisonments, and exiles that in our days are inflicted +upon the Jansenists? And these last, if ever they should attain in +their turn the power requisite for persecution, would not probably +treat their adversaries with more moderation or justice. Do you not +daily see individuals who pique themselves upon their sensibility +unblushingly express the joy they would feel at the extermination of +persons to whom they believe they owe neither benevolence nor +indulgence, and whose only crime is a disdain for prejudices that the +vulgar regard as sacred, or that an erroneous and false policy +considers useful to the state? Superstition has so greatly stifled all +sense of humanity in many persons otherwise truly estimable, that they +have no compunctions at sacrificing the most enlightened men of the +nation because they could not be the most credulous or the most +submissive to the authority of the priests. + +In a word, devotion is only calculated to fill the heart with a bitter +rancor, that banishes peace and harmony from society. In the matter +of religion, every one believes himself obliged to show more or less +ardor and zeal. Have I not often seen you uncertain yourself whether +you ought to sigh or smile at the self-depreciation of devotees +ridiculously inflamed by that religious vanity which grows out of +sectarian conventionalities? You also see them participating in +theological quarrels, in which, without comprehending their nature or +purport, they believe themselves conscientiously obliged to mingle. I +have a hundred times seen you astounded with their clamors, indignant +at their animosity, scandalized at their cabals, and filled with +disdain at their obstinate ignorance. Yet nothing is more natural than +these outbreaks; ignorance has always been the mother of devotion. To +be a devotee has always been synonymous to having an imbecile +confidence in priests. It is to receive all impulsions from them; it +is to think and act only according to them; it is blindly to adopt +their passions and prejudices; it is faithfully to fulfil practices +which their caprice imposes. + +Eugenia is not formed to follow such guides. They would terminate by +leading her widely astray, by dazzling her vivid imagination, by +infecting her gentle and amiable disposition with a deadly poison. To +master with more certainty her understanding, they would render her +austere, intolerant, and vindictive. In a word, by the magical power +of superstition and supernatural notions, they would succeed, perhaps, +in transforming to vices those happy dispositions that nature has +given you. Believe me, Madam, you would gain nothing by such a +metamorphosis. Rather be what you really are. Extricate yourself as +soon as possible from that state of incertitude and languor, from that +alternative of despondency and trouble, in which you are immersed. If +you will only take your reason and virtue for guides, you will soon +break the fetters whose dangerous effects you have begun to feel. + +Assume the courage, then, I repeat it, to examine for yourself this +religion, which, far from procuring you the happiness it promised, +will only prove an inexhaustible source of inquietudes and alarms, and +which will deprive you, sooner or later, of those rare qualities which +render you so dear to society. Your interest exacts that you should +render peace to your mind. It is your duty carefully to preserve that +sweetness of temper, that indulgence, and that cheerfulness, by which +you are so much endeared to all those who approach you. You owe +happiness to yourself, and you owe it to those who surround you. Do +not, then, abandon yourself to superstitious reveries, but collect all +the strength of your judgment to combat the chimeras which torment +your imagination. They will disappear as soon as you have considered +them with your ordinary sagacity. + +Do not tell me, Madam, that your understanding is too weak to sound +the depths of theology. Do not tell me, in the language of our +priests, that the truths of religion are mysteries that we must adopt +without comprehending them, and that it is necessary to adore in +silence. By expressing themselves in this manner, do you not see they +really proscribe and condemn the very religion to which they are so +solicitous you should adhere? Whatever is supernatural is unsuited to +man, and whatever is beyond his comprehension ought not to occupy his +attention. To adore what we are not able to know, is to adore nothing. +To believe in what we cannot conceive, is to believe in nothing. To +admit without examination every thing we are directed to admit, is to +be basely and stupidly credulous. To say that religion is above +reason, is to recognize the fact that it was not made for reasonable +beings; it is to avow that those who teach it have no more ability to +fathom its depths than ourselves; it is to confess that our reverend +doctors do not themselves understand the marvels with which they daily +entertain us. + +If the truths of religion were, as they assure us, necessary to all +men, they would be clear and intelligible to all men. If the dogmas +which this religion teaches were as important as it is asserted, they +would not only be within the comprehension of the doctors who preach +them, but of all those who hear their lessons. Is it not strange that +the very persons whose profession it is to furnish themselves with +religions knowledge, in order to impart it to others, should recognize +their own dogmas as beyond their own understanding, and that they +should obstinately inculcate to the people what they acknowledge they +do not comprehend themselves? Should we have much confidence in a +physician, who, after confessing that he was utterly ignorant of his +art, should nevertheless boast of the excellence of his remedies? +This, however, is the constant practice of our spiritual quacks. By a +strange fatality, the most sensible people consent to be the dupes of +these empirics who are perpetually obliged to avow their own profound +ignorance. + +But if the mysteries of religion are incomprehensible for even those +who inculcate it,--if among those who profess it there is no one who +knows precisely what he believes, or who can give an account of either +his conduct or belief,--this is not so in regard to the difficulties +with which we oppose this religion. These objections are simple, +within the comprehension of all persons of ordinary ability, and +capable of convincing every man who, renouncing the prejudices of his +infancy, will deign to consult the good sense that nature has bestowed +upon all beings of the human race. + +For a long period of time, subtle theologians have, without +relaxation, been occupied in warding off the attacks of the +incredulous, and in repairing the breaches made in the ruinous edifice +of religion by adversaries who combated under the flag of reason. In +all times there have been people who felt the futility of the titles +upon which the priests have arrogated the right of enslaving the +understandings of men, and of subjugating and despoiling nations. +Notwithstanding all the efforts of the interested and frequently +hypocritical men who have taken up the defence of religion, from which +they and their confederates alone are profited, these apologists have +never been able to vindicate successfully their _divine_ system +against the attacks of incredulity. Without cessation they have +replied to the objections which have been made, but never have they +refuted or annihilated them. Almost in every instance the defenders of +Christianity have been sustained by oppressive laws on the part of the +government; and it has only been by injuries, by declamations, by +punishments and persecutions, that they have replied to the +allegations of reason. It is in this manner that they have apparently +remained masters of the field of battle which their adversaries could +not openly contest. Yet, in spite of the disadvantages of a combat so +unequal, and although the partisans of religion were accoutred with +every possible weapon, and could show themselves openly, in accordance +with _law_, while their adversaries had no arms but those of reason, +and could not appear personally but at the peril of fines, +imprisonment, torture, and death, and were restricted from bringing +all their arsenal into service, yet they have inflicted profound, +immedicable, and incurable wounds upon superstition. Still, if we +believe the mercenaries of religion, the excellence of their system +makes it absolutely invulnerable to every blow which can be inflicted +upon it; and they pretend they have a thousand times in a victorious +manner answered the objections which are continually renewed against +them. In spite of this great security, we see them excessively alarmed +every time a new combatant presents himself, and the latter may well +and successfully use the most common objections, and those which have +most frequently been urged, since it is evident that up to the present +moment the arguments have never been obviated or opposed with +satisfactory replies. To convince you, Madam, of what I here advance, +you need only compare the most simple and ordinary difficulties which +good sense opposes to religion, with the pretended solutions that have +been given. You will perceive that the difficulties, evident even to +the capacities of a child, have never been removed by divines the most +practised in dialectics. You will find in their replies only subtle +distinctions, metaphysical subterfuges, unintelligible verbiage, which +can never be the language of truth, and which demonstrates the +embarrassment, the impotence, and the bad faith of those who are +interested by their position in sustaining a desperate cause. In a +word, the difficulties which have been urged against religion are +clear, and within the comprehension of every one, while the answers +which have been given are obscure, entangled, and far from +satisfactory, even to persons most versed in such jargon, and plainly +indicating that the authors of these replies do not themselves +understand what they say. + +If you consult the clergy, they will not fail to set forth the +antiquity of their doctrine, which has always maintained itself, +notwithstanding the continual attacks of the Heretics, the Mecreans, +and the Impious generally, and also in spite of the persecutions of +the Pagans. You have, Madam, too much good sense not to perceive at +once that the antiquity of an opinion proves nothing in its favor. If +antiquity was a proof of truth, Christianity must yield to Judaism, +and that in its turn to the religion of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, +or, in other words, to the idolatry which was greatly anterior to +Moses. For thousands of years it was universally believed that the sun +revolved round the earth, which remained immovable; and yet it is not +the less true that the sun is fixed, and the earth moves around that. +Besides, it is evident that the Christianity of to-day is not what it +formerly was. The continual attacks that this religion has suffered +from heretics, commencing with its earliest history, proves that there +never could have existed any harmony between the partisans of a +pretended divine system, which offended all rules of consistency and +logic in its very first principles. Some parts of this celestial +system were always denied by devotees who admitted other parts. If +infidels have often attacked religion without apparent effect, it is +because the best reasons become useless against the blindness of a +superstition sustained by the public authority, or against the torrent +of opinion and custom which sways the minds of most men. With regard +to the persecutions which the church suffered on the part of the +pagans, he is but slightly acquainted with the effects of fanaticism +and religious obstinacy who does not perceive that tyranny is +calculated to excite and extend what it persecutes most violently. + +You are not formed to be the dupe of names and authorities. The +defenders of the popular superstition will endeavor to overwhelm you +by the multiplied testimony of many illustrious and learned men, who +not only admitted the Christian religion, but who were also its most +zealous supporters. They will adduce holy divines, great philosophers, +powerful reasoners, fathers of the church, and learned interpreters, +who have successively advocated the system. I will not contest the +understanding of the learned men who are cited, which, however, was +often faulty, but will content myself with repeating that frequently +the greatest geniuses are not more clear sighted in matters of +religion than the people themselves. They did not examine the +religious opinions they taught; it may be because they regarded them +as sacred, or it may be because they never went back to first +principles, which they would have found altogether unsound, if they +had considered them without prejudice. It may also have happened +because they were interested in defending a cause with which their own +position was allied. Thus their testimony is exceptionable, and their +authority carries no great weight. + +With regard to the interpreters and commentators, who for so many +ages have painfully toiled to elucidate the divine laws, to explain +the sacred books, and to fix the dogmas of Christianity, their very +labors ought to inspire us with suspicion concerning a religion which +is founded upon such books and which preaches such dogmas. They prove +that works emanating from the Supreme Being are obscure, +unintelligible, and need human assistance in order to be understood by +those to whom the Divinity wished to reveal his will. The laws of a +wise God would be simple and clear. Defective laws alone need +interpreters. + +It is not, then, Madam, upon these interpreters that you should rely; +it is upon yourself; it is your own reason that you should consult. It +is _your_ happiness, it is _your_ repose, that is in question; and +these objects are too serious to allow their decision to be delegated +to any others than yourself. If religion is as important as we are +assured, it undoubtedly merits the greatest attention. If it is upon +this religion that depends the happiness of men both in this world and +in another, there is no subject which interests us so strongly, and +which consequently demands a more thorough, careful, and considerate +examination. Can there be any thing, then, more strange than the +conduct of the great majority of men? Entirely convinced of the +necessity and importance of religion, they still never give themselves +the trouble to examine it thoroughly; they follow it in a spirit of +routine and from habit; they never give any reason for its dogmas; +they revere it, they submit to it, and they groan under its weight, +without ever inquiring wherefore. In fine, they rely upon others to +examine it; and they whose judgment they so blindly receive are +precisely those persons upon whose opinions they should look with the +most suspicion. The priests arrogate the possession of judging +exclusively and without appeal of a system evidently invented for +their own utility. And what is the language of these priests? Visibly +interested in maintaining the received opinions, they exhibit them as +necessary to the public good, as useful and consoling for us all, as +intimately connected with morality, as indispensable to society, and, +in a word, as of the very greatest importance. After having thus +prepossessed our minds, they next prohibit our examining the things so +important to be known. What must be thought of such conduct? You can +only conclude that they desire to deceive you, that they fear +examination only because religion cannot sustain it, and that they +dread reason because it is able to unveil the incalculably dangerous +projects of the priesthood against the human race. + +For these reasons, Madam, as I cannot too often repeat, examine for +yourself; make use of your own understanding; seek the truth in the +sincerity of your heart; reduce prejudice to silence; throw off the +base servitude of custom; be suspicious of imagination; and with these +precautions, in good faith with yourself, you can weigh with an +impartial hand the various opinions concerning religion. From +whatever source an opinion may come, acquiesce only in that which +shall be convincing to your understanding, satisfactory to your heart, +conformable to a healthy morality, and approved by virtue. Reject with +disdain whatever shocks your reason, and repulse with horror those +notions so criminal and injurious to morality which religion endeavors +to palm off for supernatural and divine virtues. + +What do I say? Amiable and wise Eugenia, examine rigorously the ideas +that, by your own desire, I shall hereafter present you. Let not your +confidence in me, or your deference to my weak understanding, blind +you in regard to my opinions. I submit them to your judgment. Discuss +them, combat them, and never give them your assent until you are +convinced that in them you recognize the truth. My sentiments are +neither divine oracles nor theological opinions which it is not +permitted to canvass. If what I say is true, adopt my ideas. If I am +deceived, point out my errors, and I am ready to recognize them and to +subscribe my own condemnation. It will be very pleasant, Madam, to +learn truths of you which, up to the present time, I have vainly +sought in the writings of our divines. If I have at this moment any +advantage over you, it is due entirely to that tranquillity which I +enjoy, and of which at present you are unhappily deprived. The +agitations of your mind, the inquietudes of your body, and the +attacks of an exacting and ceremonious devotion, with which your soul +is perplexed, prevent you, for the moment, from seeing things coolly, +and hinder you from making use of your own understanding; but I have +no doubt that soon your intellect, strengthened by reason against vain +chimeras, will regain its natural vigor and the superiority which +belongs to it. In awaiting this moment that I foresee and so much +desire, I shall esteem myself extremely happy if my reflections shall +contribute to render you that tranquillity of spirit so necessary to +judge wisely of things, and without which there can be no true +happiness. + +I perceive, Madam, though rather tardily, the length of this letter; +but I hope you will pardon it, as well as my frankness. They will at +least prove the lively interest I take in your painful situation, the +sincere desire I feel to bring it to a termination, and the strong +inclination which actuates me to restore you to your accustomed +serenity. Less pressing motives would never have been sufficient to +make me break silence. Your own positive orders were necessary to lead +me to speak of objects which, once thoroughly examined, give no +uneasiness to a healthy mind. It has been a law with me never to +explain myself upon the subject of religion. Experience has often +convinced me that the most useless of enterprises is to seek to +undeceive a prejudiced mind. I was very far from believing that I +ought ever to write upon these subjects. You alone, Madam, had the +power to conquer my indolence, and to impel me to change my +resolution. Eugenia afflicted, tormented with scruples, and ready to +plunge herself into gloomy austerities and superstitions, calculated +to render her unamiable to others, without contributing happiness to +herself, honored me with her confidence, and requested counsel of her +friend. She exacted that I should speak. "It is enough," I said; "let +me write for Eugenia; let me endeavor to restore the repose she has +lost; let me labor with ardor for her upon whose happiness that of so +many others is dependent." + +Such, Madam, are the motives which induce me to take my pen in hand. +In looking forward to the time when you will be undeceived, I shall +dare at least to flatter myself that you will not regard me with the +same eyes with which priests and devotees look upon every one who has +the temerity to contradict their ideas. To believe them, every man who +declares himself against religion is a bad citizen, a madman armed to +justify his passions, a perturbator of the public repose, and an enemy +of his fellow-citizens, that cannot be punished with too much rigor. +My conduct is known to you; and the confidence with which you honor me +is sufficient for my apology. It is for you alone that I write. It is +to dissipate the clouds that obscure your mental horizon that I +communicate reflections which, but for reasons so pressing, I should +have always enclosed in my own bosom. If by chance they shall +hereafter fall into other hands than yours, and be found of some +utility, I shall felicitate myself for having contributed to the +establishment of happiness by leading back to reason minds which had +wandered from it, by making truth to be felt and known, and by +unmasking impostures which have caused so many misfortunes upon the +earth. + +In a word, I submit my reasoning to your judgment, I confide fully in +your discretion, and I allow myself to conclude that my ideas, after +you are disabused of the vain terrors with which you are now +oppressed, will fully convince you that this religion, which is +exhibited to men as a concern the most important, the most true, the +most interesting, and the most useful, is only a tissue of +absurdities, is calculated to confound reason, to disturb the +understanding, and can be advantageous to none save those who make use +of it to govern the human race. I shall acknowledge myself in the +wrong if I do not prove, in the clearest manner, that religion is +false, useless, and dangerous, and that morality, in its stead, should +occupy the spirits and animate the souls of all men. + +I shall enter more particularly into the subject in my next letter. I +shall go back to first principles, and in the course of this +correspondence I flatter myself I shall completely demonstrate that +these objects, which theology endeavors to render intricate, and to +envelop with clouds, in order to make them more respectable and +sacred, are not only entirely susceptible of being understood by you, +but that they are likewise within the comprehension of every one who +possesses even an ordinary share of good sense. If my frankness shall +appear too undisguised, I beg you to consider, Madam, that it is +necessary I should address you explicitly and clearly. I now consider +it my duty to administer an energetic and prompt remedy for the malady +with which I perceive you to be attacked. Besides, I venture to hope +that in a short time you will feel gratified that I have shown you the +truth in all its integrity and brilliancy. You will pardon me for +having dissipated the unreal and yet harassing phantoms which infested +your mind. But let my success be what it may, my efforts to confer +tranquillity upon you will at least be evidences of the interest I +take in your happiness, of my zeal to serve you, and of the respect +with which I am your sincere and attached friend. + + + + +LETTER II. + + Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the Divinity. + + +Every religion is a system of opinions and conduct founded upon the +notions, true or false, that we entertain of the Divinity. To judge of +the truth of any system, it is requisite to examine its principles, to +see if they accord, and to satisfy ourselves whether all its parts +lend a mutual support to each other. A religion, to be _true_, should +give us _true_ ideas of God; and it is by our reason alone that we are +able to decide whether what theology asserts concerning this being and +his attributes is true or otherwise. Truth for men is only conformity +to reason; and thus the same reason which the clergy proscribe is, in +the last resort, our only means of judging the system that religion +proposes for our assent. That God can only be the true God who is most +conformable to our reason, and the true worship can be no other than +that which reason approves. + +Religion is only important in accordance with the advantages it +bestows upon mankind. The best religion must be that which procures +its disciples the most real, the most extensive, and the most durable +advantages. A false religion must necessarily bestow upon those who +practise it only a false, chimerical, and transient utility. Reason +must be the judge whether the benefits derived are real or imaginary. +Thus, as we constantly see, it belongs to reason to decide whether a +religion, a mode of worship, or a system of conduct is advantageous or +injurious to the human race. + +It is in accordance with these incontestable principles that I shall +examine the religion of the Christians. I shall commence by analyzing +the ideas which their system gives us of the Divinity, which it boasts +of presenting to us in a more perfect manner than all other religions +in the world. I shall examine whether these ideas accord with each +other, whether the dogmas taught by this religion are conformable to +those fundamental principles which are every where acknowledged, +whether they are consonant with them, and whether the conduct which +Christianity prescribes answers to the notions which itself gives us +of the Divinity. I shall conclude the inquiry by investigating the +advantages that the Christian religion procures the human +race--advantages, according to its partisans, that infinitely surpass +those which result from all the other religions of the earth. + +The Christian religion, as the basis of its belief, sets forth an only +God, which it defines as a pure spirit, as an eternal intelligence, as +independent and immutable, who has infinite power, who is the cause of +all things, who foresees all things, who fills immensity, who created +from nothing the world and all it encloses, and who preserves and +governs it according to the laws of his infinite wisdom, and the +perfections of his infinite goodness and justice, which are all so +evident in his works. + +Such are the ideas that Christianity gives us of the Divinity. Let us +now see whether they accord with the other notions presented to us by +this religious system, and which it pretends were revealed by God +himself; or, in other words, that these truths were received directly +from the Deity, who concealed them from the remainder of mankind, and +deprived them of a knowledge of his essence. Thus the Christian +religion is founded upon a special revelation. And to whom was the +revelation made? At first to Abraham, and then to his posterity. The +God of the universe, then, the Father of all men, was only willing to +be known to the descendants of a Chaldean, who for a long series of +years were the exclusive possessors of the knowledge of the true God. +By an effect of his special kindness, the Jewish people was for a long +time the only race favored with a revelation equally necessary for all +men. This was the only people which understood the relations between +man and the Supreme Being. All other nations wandered in darkness, or +possessed no ideas of the Sovereign of nature but such as were crude, +ridiculous, or criminal. + +Thus, at the very first step, do we not see that Christianity impairs +the goodness and justice of its God? A revelation to a particular +people only announces a partial God, who favors a portion of his +children, to the prejudice of all the others; who consults only his +caprice, and not real merit; who, incapable of conferring happiness +upon all men, shows his tenderness solely to some individuals, who +have, however, no titles upon his consideration not possessed by the +others. What would you say of a father who, placed at the head of a +numerous family, had no eyes but for a single one of his children, and +who never allowed himself to be seen by any of them except that +favored one? What would you say if he was displeased with the rest for +not being acquainted with his features, notwithstanding he would never +allow them to approach his person? Would you not accuse such a father +of caprice, cruelty, folly, and a want of reason, if he visited with +his anger the children whom he had himself excluded from his presence? +Would you not impute to him an injustice of which none but the most +brutal of our species could be guilty if he actually punished them for +not having executed orders which he was never pleased to give them? + +Conclude, then, with me, Madam, that the revelation of a religion to +only a single tribe or nation sets forth a God neither good, +impartial, nor equitable, but an unjust and capricious tyrant, who, +though he may show kindness and preference to some of his creatures, +at any rate acts with the greatest cruelty towards all the others. +This admitted, revelation does not prove the goodness, but the caprice +and partiality of the God that religion represents to us as full of +sagacity, benevolence, and equity, and that it describes as the common +father of all the inhabitants of the earth. If the interest and +self-love of those whom he favors makes them admire the profound views +of a God because he has loaded them with benefits to the prejudice of +their brethren, he must appear very unjust, on the other hand, to all +those who are the victims of his partiality. A hateful pride alone +could induce a few persons to believe that they were, to the exclusion +of all others, the cherished children of Providence. Blinded by their +vanity, they do not perceive that it is to give the lie to universal +and infinite goodness to suppose that God was capable of favoring with +his preference some men or nations, to the exclusion of others. All +ought to be equal in his eyes if it is true they are all equally the +work of his hands. + +It is, nevertheless, upon partial revelations that are founded all the +religions of the world. In the same manner that every individual +believes himself the most important being in the universe, every +nation entertains the idea that it ought to enjoy the peculiar +tenderness of the Sovereign of nature, to the exclusion of all the +others. If the inhabitants of Hindostan imagine that it was for them +alone that Brama spoke, the Jews and the Christians have persuaded +themselves that it was only for them that the world was created, and +that it is solely for them that God was revealed. + +But let us suppose for a moment that God has really made himself +known. How could a pure spirit render himself sensible? What form did +he take? Of what material organs did he make use in order to speak? +How can an infinite Being communicate with those which are finite? I +may be assured that, to accommodate himself to the weakness of his +creatures, he made use of the agency of some chosen men to announce +his wishes to all the rest, and that he filled these agents with his +spirit, and spoke by their mouths. But can we possibly conceive that +an infinite Being could unite himself with the finite nature of man? +How can I be certain that he who professes to be inspired by the +Divinity does not promulgate his own reveries or impostures as the +oracles of heaven? What means have I of recognizing whether God really +speaks by his voice? The immediate reply will be, that God, to give +weight to the declarations of those whom he has chosen to be his +interpreters, endowed them with a portion of his own omnipotence, and +that they wrought miracles to prove their divine mission. + +I therefore inquire, What is a miracle? I am told that it is an +operation contrary to the laws of nature, which God himself has fixed; +to which I reply, that, according to the ideas I have formed of the +divine wisdom, it appears to me impossible that an immutable God can +change the wise laws which he himself has established. I thence +conclude that miracles are impossible, seeing they are incompatible +with our ideas of the wisdom and immutability of the Creator of the +universe. Besides, these miracles would be useless to God. If he be +omnipotent, can he not modify the minds of his creatures according to +his own will? + +To convince and to persuade them, he has only to will that they shall +be convinced and persuaded. He has only to tell them things that are +clear and sensible, things that may be demonstrated; and to evidence +of such a kind they will not fail to give their assent. To do this, he +will have no need either of miracles or interpreters; truth alone is +sufficient to win mankind. + +Supposing, nevertheless, the utility and possibility of these +miracles, how shall I ascertain whether the wonderful operation which +I see performed by the interpreter of the Deity be conformable or +contrary to the laws of nature? Am I acquainted with all these laws? +May not he who speaks to me in the name of the Lord execute by natural +means, though to me unknown, those works which appear altogether +extraordinary? How shall I assure myself that he does not deceive me? +Does not my ignorance of the secrets and shifts of his art expose me +to be the dupe of an able impostor, who might make use of the name of +God to inspire me with respect, and to screen his deception? Thus his +pretended miracles ought to make me suspect him, even though I were a +witness of them; but how would the case stand, were these miracles +said to have been performed some thousands of years before my +existence? I shall be told that they were attested by a multitude of +witnesses; but if I cannot trust to myself when a miracle is +performing, how shall I have confidence in others, who may be either +more ignorant or more stupid than myself, or who perhaps thought +themselves interested in supporting by their testimony tales entirely +destitute of reality? + +If, on the contrary, I admit these miracles, what do they prove to me? +Will they furnish me with a belief that God has made use of his +omnipotence to convince me of things which are in direct opposition +to the ideas I have formed of his essence, his nature, and his divine +perfections? If I be persuaded that God is immutable, a miracle will +not force me to believe that he is subject to change. If I be +convinced that God is just and good, a miracle will never be +sufficient to persuade me that he is unjust and wicked. If I possess +an idea of his wisdom, all the miracles in the world would not +persuade me that God would act like a madman. Shall I be told that he +would consent to perform miracles that destroy his divinity, or that +are proper only to erase from the minds of men the ideas which they +ought to entertain of his infinite perfections? This, however, is what +would happen were God himself to perform, or to grant the power of +performing, miracles in favor of a particular revelation. He would, in +that case, derange the course of nature, to teach the world that he is +capricious, partial, unjust, and cruel; he would make use of his +omnipotence purposely to convince us that his goodness was +insufficient for the welfare of his creatures; he would make a vain +parade of his power, to hide his inability to convince mankind by a +single act of his will. In short, he would interfere with the eternal +and immutable laws of nature, to show us that he is subject to change, +and to announce to mankind some important news, which they had +hitherto been destitute of, notwithstanding all his goodness. + +Thus, under whatever point of view we regard revelation, by whatever +miracles we may suppose it attested, it will always be in +contradiction to the ideas we have of the Deity. They will show us +that he acts in an unjust and an arbitrary manner, consulting only his +own whims in the favors he bestows, and continually changing his +conduct; that he was unable to communicate all at once to mankind the +knowledge necessary to their existence, and to give them that degree +of perfection of which their natures were susceptible. Hence, Madam, +you may see that the supposition of a revelation can never be +reconciled with the infinite goodness, justice, omnipotence, and +immutability of the Sovereign of the universe. + +They will not fail to tell you that the Creator of all things, the +independent Monarch of nature is the master of his favors; that he +owes nothing to his creatures; that he can dispose of them as he +pleases, without any injustice, and without their having any right of +complaint; that man is incapable of sounding the profundity of his +decrees; and that his justice is not the justice of men. But all these +answers, which divines have continually in their mouths, serve only to +accelerate the destruction of those sublime ideas which they have +given us of the Deity. The result appears to be, that God conducts +himself according to the maxims of a fantastic sovereign, who, +satisfied in having rewarded some of his favorites, thinks himself +justified in neglecting the rest of his subjects, and to leave them +groaning in the most deplorable misery. + +You must acknowledge, Madam, it is not on such a model that we can +form a powerful, equitable, and beneficent God, whose omnipotence +ought to enable him to procure happiness to all his subjects, without +fear of exhausting the treasures of his goodness. + +If we are told that divine justice bears no resemblance to the justice +of men, I reply, that in this case we are not authorized to say that +God is _just_; seeing that by justice it is not possible for us to +conceive any thing except a similar quality to that called justice by +the beings of our own species. If divine justice bears no resemblance +to human justice,--if, on the contrary, this justice resembles what we +call injustice,--then all our ideas confound themselves, and we know +not either what we mean or what we say when we affirm that God is +just. According to human ideas, (which are, however, the only ones +that men are possessed of,) justice will always exclude caprice and +partiality; and never can we prevent ourselves from regarding as +iniquitous and vicious a sovereign who, being both able and willing to +occupy himself with the happiness of his subjects, should plunge the +greatest number of them into misfortune, and reserve his kindness for +those to whom his whims have given the preference. + +With respect to telling us that _God owes nothing to his creatures_, +such an atrocious principle is destructive of every idea of justice +and goodness, and tends visibly to sap the foundation of all religion. +A God that is just and good owes happiness to every being to whom he +has given existence; he ceases to be just and good if he produce them +only to render them miserable; and he would be destitute of both +wisdom and reason were he to give them birth only to be the victims of +his caprice. What should we think of a father bringing children into +the world for the sole purpose of putting their eyes out and +tormenting them at his ease? + +On the other hand, all religions are entirely founded upon the +reciprocal engagements which are supposed to exist between God and his +creatures. If God owes nothing to the latter, if he is not under an +obligation to fulfil his engagements to them when they have fulfilled +theirs to him, of what use is religion? What motives can men have to +offer their homage and worship to the Divinity? Why should they feel +much desire to love or serve a master who can absolve himself of all +duty towards those who entered his service with an expectation of the +recompense promised under such circumstances? + +It is easy to see that the destructive ideas of divine justice which +are inculcated are only founded upon a fatal prejudice prevalent among +the generality of men, leading them to suppose that unlimited power +must inevitably exempt its possessor from an accordance with the laws +of equity; that force can confer the right of committing bad actions; +and that no one could properly demand an account of his conduct of a +man sufficiently powerful to carry out all his caprices. These ideas +are evidently borrowed from the conduct of tyrants, who no sooner +find themselves possessed of absolute power than they cease to +recognize any other rules than their own fantasies, and imagine that +justice has no claims upon potentates like them. + +It is upon this frightful model that theologians have formed that God +whom they, notwithstanding, assert to be a just being, while, if the +conduct they attribute to him was true, we should be constrained to +regard him as the most unjust of tyrants, as the most partial of +fathers, as the most fantastic of princes, and, in a word, as a being +the most to be feared and the least worthy of love that the +imagination could devise. We are informed that the God who created all +men has been unwilling to be known except to a very small number of +them, and that while this favored portion exclusively enjoyed the +benefits of his kindness, all the others were objects of his anger, +and were only created by him to be left in blindness for the very +purpose of punishing them in the most cruel manner. We see these +pernicious characteristics of the Divinity penetrating the entire +economy of the Christian religion; we find them in the books which are +pretended to be inspired, and we discover them in the dogmas of +predestination and grace. In a word, every thing in religion announces +a despotic God, whom his disciples vainly attempt to represent to us +as just, while all that they declare of him only proves his injustice, +his tyrannical caprices, his extravagances, so frequently cruel, and +his partiality, so pernicious to the greater portion of the human +race. When we exclaim against conduct which, in the eyes of all +reasonable men, must appear so excessively capricious, it is expected +that our mouths will be closed by the assertion that God is +omnipotent, that it is for him to determine how he will bestow +benefits, and that he is under no obligations to any of his creatures. +His apologists end by endeavoring to intimidate us with the frightful +and iniquitous punishments that he reserves for those who are so +audacious as to murmur. + +It is easy to perceive the futility of these arguments. Power, I do +contend, can never confer the right of violating equity. Let a +sovereign be as powerful as he may, he is not on that account less +blamable when in rewards and punishments he follows only his caprice. +It is true, we may fear him, we may flatter him, we may pay him +servile homage; but never shall we love him sincerely; never shall we +serve him faithfully; never shall we look up to him as the model of +justice and goodness. If those who receive his kindness believe him to +be just and good, those who are the objects of his folly and rigor +cannot prevent themselves from detesting his monstrous iniquity in +their hearts. + +If we be told that we are only as worms of earth relatively to God, or +that we are only like a vase in the hands of a potter, I reply in this +case, that there can neither be connection nor moral duty between the +creature and his Creator; and I shall hence conclude that religion is +useless, seeing that a worm of earth can owe nothing to a man who +crushes it, and that the vase can owe nothing to the potter that has +formed it. In the supposition that man is only a worm or an earthen +vessel in the eyes of the Deity, he would be incapable either of +serving him, glorifying him, honoring him, or offending him. We are, +however, continually told that man is capable of merit and demerit in +the sight of his God, whom he is ordered to love, serve, and worship. +We are likewise assured that it was man alone whom the Deity had in +view in all his works; that it is for him alone the universe was +created; for him alone that the course of nature was so often +deranged; and, in short, it was with a view of being honored, +cherished, and glorified by man that God has revealed himself to us. +According to the principles of the Christian religion, God does not +cease, for a single instant, his occupations for man, this _worm of +earth_, this _earthen vessel_, which he has formed. Nay, more: man is +sufficiently powerful to influence the honor, the felicity, and the +glory of his God; it rests with man to please him or to irritate him, +to deserve his favor or his hatred, to appease him or to kindle his +wrath. + +Do you not perceive, Madam, the striking contradictions of those +principles which, nevertheless, form the basis of all revealed +religions? Indeed, we cannot find one of them that is not erected on +the reciprocal influence between God and man, and between man and God. +Our own species, which are annihilated (if I may use the expression) +every time that it becomes necessary to whitewash the Deity from some +reproachful stain of injustice and partiality,--these miserable +beings, to whom it is pretended that God owes nothing, and who, we are +assured, are unnecessary to him for his own felicity,--the human race, +which is nothing in his eyes, becomes all at once the principal +performer on the stage of nature. We find that mankind are necessary +to support the glory of their Creator; we see them become the sole +objects of his care; we behold in them the power to gladden or afflict +him; we see them meriting his favor and provoking his wrath. According +to these contradictory notions concerning the God of the universe, the +source of all felicity, is he not really the most wretched of beings? +We behold him perpetually exposed to the insults of men, who offend +him by their thoughts, their words, their actions, and their neglect +of duty. They incommode him, they irritate him, by the capriciousness +of their minds, by their actions, their desires, and even by their +ignorance. If we admit those Christian principles which suppose that +the greater portion of the human race excites the fury of the Eternal, +and that very few of them live in a manner conformable to his views, +will it not necessarily result therefrom, that in the immense crowd of +beings whom God has created for his glory, only a very small number of +them glorify and please him; while all the rest are occupied in vexing +him, exciting his wrath, troubling his felicity, deranging the order +that he loves, frustrating his designs, and forcing him to change his +immutable intentions? + +You are, undoubtedly, surprised at the contradictions to be +encountered at the very first step we take in examining this religion; +and I take upon myself to predict that your embarrassment will +increase as you proceed therein. If you coolly examine the ideas +presented to us in the revelation common both to Jews and Christians, +and contained in the books which they tell us are _sacred_, you will +find that the Deity who speaks is always in contradiction with +himself; that he becomes his own destroyer, and is perpetually +occupied in undoing what he has just done, and in repairing his own +workmanship, to which, in the first instance, he was incapable of +giving that degree of perfection he wished it to possess. He is never +satisfied with his own works, and cannot, in spite of his omnipotence, +bring the human race to the point of perfection he intended. The books +containing the revelation, on which Christianity is founded, every +where display to us a God of goodness in the commission of wickedness; +an omnipotent God, whose projects unceasingly miscarry; an immutable +God, changing his maxims and his conduct; an omniscient God, +continually deceived unawares; a resolute God, yet repenting of his +most important actions; a God of wisdom, whose arrangements never +attain success. He is a great God, who occupies himself with the most +puerile trifles; an all-sufficient God, yet subject to jealousy; a +powerful God, yet suspicious, vindictive, and cruel; and a just God, +yet permitting and prescribing the most atrocious iniquities. In a +word, he is a perfect God, yet displaying at the same time such +imperfections and vices that the most despicable of men would blush to +resemble him. + +Behold, Madam, the God whom this religion orders you to adore _in +spirit and in truth_. I reserve for another letter an analysis of the +holy books which you are taught to respect as the oracles of heaven. I +now perceive for the first time that I have perhaps made too long a +dissertation; and I doubt not you have already perceived that a system +built on a basis possessing so little solidity as that of the God whom +his devotees raise with one hand and destroy with the other, can have +no stability attached to it, and can only be regarded as a long tissue +of errors and contradictions. + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER III. + + An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature of the + Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon which Christianity is + founded. + + +You have seen, Madam, in my preceding letter, the incompatible and +contradictory ideas which this religion gives us of the Deity. You +will have seen that the revelation which is announced to us, instead +of being the offspring of his goodness and tenderness for the human +race, is really only a proof of injustice and partiality, of which a +God who is equally just and good would be entirely incapable. Let us +now examine whether the ideas suggested to us by these books, +containing the divine oracles, are more rational, more consistent, or +more conformable to the divine perfections. Let us see whether the +statements related in the Bible, whether the commands prescribed to us +in the name of God himself, are really worthy of God, and display to +us the characters of infinite wisdom, goodness, power, and justice. + +These inspired books go back to the origin of the world. Moses, the +confidant, the interpreter, the historian of the Deity, makes us (if +we may use such an expression) witnesses of the formation of the +universe. He tells us that the Eternal, tired of his inaction, one +fine day took it into his head to create a world that was necessary to +his glory. To effect this, he forms matter out of nothing; a pure +spirit produces a substance which has no affinity to himself; although +this God fills all space with his immensity, yet still he found room +enough in it to admit the universe, as well as all the material bodies +contained therein. + +These, at least, are the ideas which divines wish us to form +respecting the creation, if such a thing were possible as that of +possessing a clear idea of a pure spirit producing matter. But this +discussion is throwing us into metaphysical researches, which I wish +to avoid. It will be sufficient to you that you may console yourself +for not being able to comprehend it, seeing that the most profound +thinkers, who talk about the creation or the eduction of the world +from nothing, have no ideas on the subject more precise than those +which you form to yourself. As soon, Madam, as you take the trouble to +reflect thereon, you will find that divines, instead of explaining +things, have done nothing but invent words, in order to render them +dubious, and to confound all our natural conceptions. + +I will not, however, tire you by a fastidious display of the blunders +which fill the narrative of Moses, which they announce to us as being +dictated by the Deity. If we read it with a little attention, we shall +perceive in every page philosophical and astronomical errors, +unpardonable in an inspired author, and such as we should consider +ridiculous in any man, who, in the most superficial manner, should +have studied and contemplated nature. + +You will find, for example, light created before the sun, although +this star is visibly the source of light which communicates itself to +our globe. You will find the evening and the morning established +before the formation of this same sun, whose presence alone produces +day, whose absence produces night, and whose different aspects +constitute morning and evening. You will there find that the moon is +spoken of as a body possessing its own light, in a similar manner as +the sun possesses it, although this planet is a dark body, and +receives its light from the sun. These ignorant blunders are +sufficient to show you that the Deity who revealed himself to Moses +was quite unacquainted with the nature of those substances which he +had created out of nothing, and that you at present possess more +information respecting them than was once possessed by the Creator of +the world. + +I am not ignorant that our divines have an answer always ready to +those difficulties which would attack their divine science, and place +their knowledge far below that of Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and even +below that of young people who have scarcely studied the first +elements of natural philosophy. They will tell us that God, in order +to render himself intelligible to the savage and ignorant Jews, spoke +in conformity to their imperfect notions, in the false and incorrect +language of the vulgar. We must not be imposed upon by this solution, +which our doctors regard as triumphant, and which they so frequently +employ when it becomes necessary to justify the Bible against the +ignorance and vulgarities contained therein. We answer them, that a +God who knows every thing, and can perform every thing, might by a +single word have rectified the false notions of the people he wished +to enlighten, and enabled them to know the nature of bodies more +perfectly than the most able men who have since appeared. If it be +replied that revelation is not intended to render men learned, but to +make them pious, I answer that revelation was not sent to establish +false notions; that it would be unworthy of God to borrow the language +of falsehood and ignorance; that the knowledge of nature, so far from +being an injury to piety, is, by the avowal of divines, the most +proper study to display the greatness of God. They tell us that +religion would be unmovable, were it conformable to true knowledge; +that we should have no objections to make to the recital of Moses, nor +to the philosophy of the Holy Scriptures, if we found nothing but what +was continually confirmed by experience, astronomy, and the +demonstrations of geometry. + +To maintain a contrary opinion, and to say that God is pleased in +confounding the knowledge of men and in rendering it useless, is to +pretend that he is pleased with making us ignorant and changeable, and +that he condemns the progress of the human mind, although we ought to +suppose him the author of it. To pretend that God was obliged in the +Scriptures to conform himself to the language of men, is to pretend +that he withdrew his assistance from those he wished to enlighten, and +that he was unable of rendering them susceptible of comprehending the +language of truth. This is an observation not to be lost sight of in +the examination of revelation, where we find in each page that God +expresses himself in a manner quite unworthy of the Deity. Could not +an omnipotent God, instead of degrading himself, instead of +condescending to speak the language of ignorance, so far enlighten +them as to make them understand a language more true, more noble, and +more conformable to the ideas which are given us of the Deity? An +experienced master by degrees enables his scholars to understand what +he wishes to teach them, and a God ought to be able to communicate to +them immediately all the knowledge he intended to give them. + +However, according to Genesis, God, after creating the world, produced +man from the dust of the earth. In the mean while we are assured that +he created him _in his own image_; but what was the image of God? How +could man, who is at least partly material, represent a pure spirit, +which excludes all matter? + +How could his imperfect mind be formed on the model of a mind +possessing all perfection, like that which we suppose in the Creator +of the universe? What resemblance, what proportion, what affinity +could there be between a finite mind united to a body, and the +infinite spirit of the Creator? These, doubtless, are great +difficulties; hitherto it has been thought impossible to decide them; +and they will probably for a long time employ the minds of those who +strive to understand the incomprehensible meaning of a book which God +provided for our instruction. + +But why did God create man? Because he wished to people the universe +with intelligent beings, who would render him homage, who should +witness his wonders, who should glorify him, who should meditate and +contemplate his works, and merit his favors by their submission to his +laws. + +Here we behold man becoming necessary to the dignity of his God, who +without him would live without being glorified, who would receive no +homage, and who would be the melancholy Sovereign of an empire without +subjects--a condition not suited to his vanity. I think it useless to +remark to you what little conformity we find between those ideas and +such as are given us of a self-sufficient being, who, without the +assistance of any other, is supremely happy. All the characters in +which the Bible portrays the Deity are always borrowed from man, or +from a proud monarch; and we every where find that instead of having +made man after his own image, it is man that has always made God after +the image of himself, that has conferred on him his own way of +thinking, his own virtues, and his own vices. + +But did this man whom the Deity has created for his glory faithfully +fulfil the wishes of his Creator? This subject that he has just +acquired--will he be obedient? will he render homage to his power? +will he execute his will? He has done nothing of the kind. Scarcely is +he created when he becomes rebellious to the orders of his Sovereign; +he eats a forbidden fruit which God has placed in his way in order to +tempt him, and by this act draws the divine wrath not only on himself, +but on all his posterity. Thus it is that he annihilates at one blow +the great projects of the Omnipotent, who had no sooner made man for +his glory than he becomes offended with that conduct which he ought to +have foreseen. + +Here he finds himself obliged to change his projects with regard to +mankind; he becomes their enemy, and condemns them and the whole of +the race (who had not yet the power of sinning) to innumerable +penalties, to cruel calamities, and to death! What do I say? To +punishments which death itself shall not terminate! Thus God, who +wished to be glorified, is not glorified; he seems to have created man +only to offend him, that he might afterwards punish the offender. + +In this recital, which is founded on the Bible, can you recognize, +Madam, an omnipotent God, whose orders are always accomplished, and +whose projects are all necessarily executed? In a God who tempts us, +or who permits us to be tempted, do you behold a being of beneficence +and sincerity? In a God who punishes the being he has tempted, or +subjected to temptation, do you perceive any equity? In a God who +extends his vengeance even to those who have not sinned, do you behold +any shadow of justice? In a God who is irritated at what he knew must +necessarily happen, can you imagine any foresight? In the rigorous +punishments by which this God is destined to avenge himself of his +feeble creatures, both in this world and the next, can you perceive +the least appearance of goodness? + +It is, however, this history, or rather this fable, on which is +founded the whole edifice of the Christian religion. + +If the first man had not been disobedient, the human race had not been +the object of the divine wrath, and would have had no need of a +Redeemer. If this God, who knows all things, foresees all things, and +possesses all power, had prevented or foreseen the fault of Adam, it +would not have been necessary for God to sacrifice his own innocent +Son to appease his fury. Mankind, for whom he created the universe, +would then have been always happy; they would not have incurred the +displeasure of that Deity who demanded their adoration. In a word, if +this apple had not been imprudently eaten by Adam and his spouse, +mankind would not have suffered so much misery, man would have enjoyed +without interruption the immortal happiness to which God had destined +him, and the views of Providence towards his creatures would not have +been frustrated. + +It would be useless to make reflections on notions so whimsical, so +contrary to the wisdom, the power, and the justice of the Deity. It is +doing quite enough to compare the different objects which the Bible +presents to us, to perceive their inutility, absurdities, and +contradictions. We there see, continually, a wise God conducting +himself like a madman. He defeats his own projects that he may +afterwards repair them, repents of what he has done, acts as if he had +foreseen nothing, and is forced to permit proceedings which his +omnipotence could not prevent. In the writings revealed by this God, +he appears occupied only in blackening his own character, degrading +himself, vilifying himself, even in the eyes of men whom he would +excite to worship him and pay him homage; overturning and confounding +the minds of those whom he had designed to enlighten. What has just +been said might suffice to undeceive us with respect to a book which +would pass better as being intended to destroy the idea of a Deity, +than as one containing the oracles dictated and revealed by him. +Nothing but a heap of absurdities could possibly result from +principles so false and irrational; nevertheless, let us take another +glance at the principal objects which this divine work continually +offers to our consideration. Let us pass on to the Deluge. The holy +books tell us, that in spite of the will of the Almighty, the whole +human race, who had already been punished by infirmities, accidents, +and death, continued to give themselves up to the most unaccountable +depravity. God becomes irritated, and repents having created them. +Doubtless he could not have foreseen this depravity; yet, rather than +change the wicked disposition of their hearts, which he holds in his +own hands, he performs the most surprising, the most impossible of +miracles. He at once drowns all the inhabitants, with the exception of +some favorites, whom he destines to re-people the earth with a chosen +race, that will render themselves more agreeable to their God. But +does the Almighty succeed in this new project? The chosen race, saved +from the waters of the deluge, on the wreck of the earth's +destruction, begin again to offend the Sovereign of nature, abandon +themselves to new crimes, give themselves up to idolatry, and +forgetting the recent effects of celestial vengeance, seem intent only +on provoking heaven by their wickedness. In order to provide a remedy, +God chooses for his favorite the idolater Abraham. To him he discovers +himself; he orders him to renounce the worship of his fathers, and +embrace a new religion. To guarantee this covenant, the Sovereign of +nature prescribes a melancholy, ridiculous, and whimsical ceremony, to +the observance of which a God of wisdom attaches his favors. The +posterity of this chosen man are consequently to enjoy, for +everlasting, the greatest advantages; they will always be the most +partial objects of tenderness, with the Almighty; they will be happier +than all other nations, whom the Deity will abandon to occupy himself +only for them. + +These solemn promises, however, have not prevented the race of Abraham +from becoming the slaves of a vile nation, that was detested by the +Eternal; his dear friends experienced the most cruel treatment on the +part of the Egyptians. God could not guarantee them from the +misfortune that had befallen them; but in order to free them again, he +raised up to them a liberator, a chief, who performed the most +astonishing miracles. At the voice of Moses all nature is confounded; +God employs him to declare his will; yet he who could create and +annihilate the world could not subdue Pharaoh. The obstinacy of this +prince defeats, in ten successive trials, the divine omnipotence, of +which Moses is the depositary. After having vainly attempted to +overcome a monarch whose heart God had been pleased to harden, God has +recourse to the most ordinary method of rescuing his people; he tells +them to run off, after having first counselled them to rob the +Egyptians. The fugitives are pursued; but God, who protects these +robbers, orders the sea to swallow up the miserable people who had the +temerity to run after their property. + +The Deity would, doubtless, have reason to be satisfied with the +conduct of a people that he had just delivered by such a great number +of miracles. Alas! neither Moses nor the Almighty could succeed in +persuading this obstinate people to abandon the false gods of that +country where they had been so miserable; they preferred them to the +living God who had just saved them. All the miracles which the Eternal +was daily performing in favor of Israel could not overcome their +stubbornness, which was still more inconceivable and wonderful than +the greatest miracles. These wonders, which are now extolled as +convincing proofs of the divine mission of Moses, were by the +confession of this same Moses, who has himself transmitted us the +accounts, incapable of convincing the people who were witnesses of +them, and never produced the good effects which the Deity proposed to +himself in performing them. + +The credulity, the obstinacy, the continual depravity of the Jews, +Madam, are the most indubitable proofs of the falsity of the miracles +of Moses, as well as those of all his successors, to whom the +Scriptures attribute a supernatural power. If, in the face of these +facts, it be pretended that these miracles are attested, we shall be +compelled, at least, to agree that, according to the Bible account, +they have been entirely useless, that the Deity has been constantly +baffled in all his projects, and that he could never make of the +Hebrews a people submissive to his will. + +We find, however, God continues obstinately employed to render his +people worthy of him; he does not lose sight of them for a moment; he +sacrifices whole nations to them, and sanctions their rapine, +violence, treason, murder, and usurpation. In a word, he permits them +to do any thing to obtain his ends. He is continually sending them +chiefs, prophets, and wonderful men, who try in vain to bring them to +their duty. The whole history of the Old Testament displays nothing +but the vain efforts of God to vanquish the obstinacy of his people. +To succeed in this, he employs kindnesses, miracles, and severity. +Sometimes he delivers up to them whole nations, to be hated, pillaged, +and exterminated; at other times he permits these same nations to +exercise over his favorite people the greatest of cruelties. He +delivers them into the hands of their enemies, who are likewise the +enemies of God himself. Idolatrous nations become masters of the Jews, +who are left to feel the insults, the contempt, and the most +unheard-of severities, and are sometimes compelled to sacrifice to +idols, and to violate the law of their God. The race of Abraham +becomes the prey of impious nations. The Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, +and Romans make them successively undergo the most cruel treatment and +suffer the most bloody outrages, and God even permits his temple to be +polluted in order to punish the Jews. + +To terminate, at length, the troubles of his cherished people, the +pure Spirit that created the universe sends his own Son. It is said +that he had already been announced by his prophets, though this was +certainly done in a manner admirably adapted to prevent his being +known on his arrival. This Son of God becomes a man through his +kindness for the Jews, whom he came to liberate, to enlighten, and to +render the most happy of mortals. Being clothed with divine +omnipotence, he performs the most astonishing miracles, which do not, +however, convince the Jews. He can do every thing but convert them. +Instead of converting and liberating the Jews, he is himself +compelled, notwithstanding all his miracles, to undergo the most +infamous of punishments, and to terminate his life like a common +malefactor. God is condemned to death by the people he came to save. +The Eternal hardened and blinded those among whom he sent his own +Son; he did not foresee that this Son would be rejected. What do I +say? He managed matters in such a way as not to be recognized, and +took such steps that his favorite people derived no benefit from the +coming of the Messiah. In a word, the Deity seems to have taken the +greatest care that his projects, so favorable to the Jews, should be +nullified and rendered unprofitable! + +When we expostulate against a conduct so strange and so unworthy of +the Deity, we are told it was necessary for every thing to take place +in such a manner, for the accomplishment of prophecies which had +announced that the Messiah should be disowned, rejected, and put to +death. But why did God, who knows all, and who foresaw the fate of his +dear Son, form the project of sending him among the Jews, to whom he +must have known that his mission would be useless? Would it not have +been easier neither to announce him nor send him? Would it not have +been more conformable to divine omnipotence to spare himself the +trouble of so many miracles, so many prophecies, so much useless +labor, so much wrath, and so many sufferings to his own Son, by giving +at once to the human race that degree of perfection he intended for +them? + +We are told it was necessary that the Deity should have a victim; that +to repair the fault of the first man, no expedient would be sufficient +but the death of another God; that the only God of the universe could +not be appeased but by the blood of his own Son. I reply, in the first +place, that God had only to prevent the first man from committing a +fault; that this would have spared him much chagrin and sorrow, and +saved the life of his dear Son. I reply, likewise, that man is +incapable of offending God unless God either permitted it or consented +to it. I shall not examine how it is possible for God to have a Son, +who, being as much a God as himself, can be subject to death. I reply, +also, that it is impossible to perceive such a grave fault and sin in +taking an apple, and that we can find very little proportion between +the crime committed against the Deity by eating an apple and his Son's +death. + +I know well enough I shall be told that these are all mysteries; but +I, in my turn, shall reply, that mysteries are imposing words, +imagined by men who know not how to get themselves out of the +labyrinth into which their false reasonings and senseless principles +have once plunged them. + +Be this as it may, we are assured that the Messiah, or the deliverer +of the Jews, had been clearly predicted and described by the +prophecies contained in the Old Testament. In this case, I demand why +the Jews have disowned this wonderful man, this God whom God sent to +them. They answer me, that the incredulity of the Jews was likewise +predicted, and that divers inspired writers had announced the death of +the Son of God. To which I reply, that a sensible God ought not to +have sent him under such circumstances, that an omnipotent God ought +to have adopted measures more efficacious and certain to bring his +people into the way in which he wished them to go. If he wished not to +convert and liberate the Jews, it was quite useless to send his Son +among them, and thereby expose him to a death that was both certain +and foreseen. + +They will not fail to tell me, that in the end the divine patience +became tired of the excesses of the Jews; that the immutable God, who +had sworn an eternal alliance with the race of Abraham, wished at +length to break the treaty, which he had, however, assured them should +last forever. It is pretended that God had determined to reject the +Hebrew nation, in order to adopt the Gentiles, whom he had hated and +despised nearly four thousand years. I reply, that this discourse is +very little conformable to the ideas we ought to have of a God who +_changes not_, whose mercy is _infinite_, and whose goodness is +_inexhaustible_. I shall tell them, that in this case the Messiah +announced by the Jewish prophets was destined for the Jews, and that +he ought to have been their liberator, instead of destroying their +worship and their religion. If it be possible to unravel any thing in +these obscure, enigmatical, and symbolical oracles of the prophets of +Judea, as we find them in the Bible,--if there be any means of +guessing the meaning of the obscure riddles, which have been decorated +with the pompous name of prophecies, we shall perceive that the +inspired writers, when they are in a good humor, always promised the +Jews a man that will redress their grievances, restore the kingdom of +Judah, and not one that should destroy the religion of Moses. If it +were for the Gentiles that the Messiah should come, he is no longer +the Messiah promised to the Jews and announced by their prophets. If +Jesus be the Messiah of the Jews, he could not be the destroyer of +their nation. + +Should I be told that Jesus himself declared that he came to fulfil +the law of Moses, and not to abolish it, I ask why Christians do not +observe the law of the Jews? + +Thus, in whatever light we regard Jesus Christ, we perceive that he +could not be the man whom the prophets have predicted, since it is +evident that he came only to destroy the religion of the Jews, which, +though instituted by God himself, had nevertheless become disagreeable +to him. If this inconstant God, who was wearied with the worship of +the Jews, had at length repented of his injustice towards the +Gentiles, it was to them that he ought to have sent his Son. By acting +in this way he would at least have saved his old friends from a +frightful _deicide_, which he forced them to commit, because they were +not able to recognize the God he sent amongst them. Besides, the Jews +were very pardonable in not acknowledging their expected Messiah in an +artisan of Galilee, who was destitute of all the characteristics which +the prophets had related, and during whose lifetime his +fellow-citizens were neither liberated nor happy. + +We are told that he performed miracles. He healed the sick, caused the +lame to walk, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. At length +he accomplished his own resurrection. It might be so believed; yet he +has visibly failed in that miracle for which alone he came upon earth. +He was never able either to persuade or to convert the Jews, who +witnessed all the daily wonders that he performed. Notwithstanding +those prodigies, they placed him ignominiously on the cross. In spite +of his divine power, he was incapable of escaping punishment. He +wished to die, to render the Jews culpable, and to have the pleasure +of rising again the third day, in order to confound the ingratitude +and obstinacy of his fellow-citizens. What is the result? Did his +fellow-citizens concede to this great miracle, and have they at length +acknowledged him? Far from it; they never saw him. The Son of God, who +arose from the dead in secrecy, showed himself only to his adherents. +They alone pretend to have conversed with him; they alone have +furnished us with the particulars of his life and miracles; and yet by +such suspicious testimony they wish to convince us of the divinity of +his mission eighteen hundred years after the event, although he could +not convince his contemporaries, the Jews. + +We are then told that many Jews have been converted to Jesus Christ; +that after his death many others were converted; that the witnesses +of the life and miracles of the Son of God have sealed their testimony +with their blood; that men will not die to attest falsehood; that by a +visible effect of the divine power, the people of a great part of the +earth have adopted Christianity, and still persist in the belief of +this divine religion. + +In all this I perceive nothing like a miracle. I see nothing but what +is conformable to the ordinary progress of the human mind. An +enthusiast, a dexterous impostor, a crafty juggler, can easily find +adherents in a stupid, ignorant, and superstitious populace. These +followers, captivated by counsels, or seduced by promises, consent to +quit a painful and laborious life, to follow a man who gives them to +understand that he will make them _fishers of men_; that is to say, he +will enable them to subsist by his cunning tricks, at the expense of +the multitude who are always credulous. The juggler, with the +assistance of his remedies, can perform cures which seem miraculous to +ignorant spectators. These simple creatures immediately regard him as +a supernatural being. He adopts this opinion himself, and confirms the +high notions which his partisans have formed respecting him. He feels +himself interested in maintaining this opinion among his sectaries, +and finds out the secret of exciting their enthusiasm. To accomplish +this point, our empiric becomes a preacher; he makes use of riddles, +obscure sentences, and parables to the multitude, that always admire +what they do not understand. To render himself more agreeable to the +people, he declaims among poor, ignorant, foolish men, against the +rich, the great, the learned; but above all, against the _priests_, +who in all ages have been _avaricious_, _imperious_, _uncharitable_, +and _burdensome_ to the people. If these discourses be eagerly +received among the vulgar, who are always morose, envious, and +jealous, they displease all those who see themselves the objects of +the invective and satire of the popular preacher. + +They consequently wish to check his progress, they lay snares for him, +they seek to surprise him in a fault, in order that they may unmask +him and have their revenge. By dint of imposture, he outwits them; +yet, in consequence of his miracles and illusions, he at length +discovers himself. He is then seized and punished, and none of his +adherents abide by him, except a few idiots, that nothing can +undeceive; none but partisans, accustomed to lead with him a life of +idleness; none but dexterous knaves, who wish to continue their +impositions on the public, by deceptions similar to those of their old +master, by obscure, unconnected, confused, and fanatical harangues, +and by declamations against _magistrates_ and _priests_. These, who +have the power in their own hands, finish by persecuting them, +imprisoning them, flogging them, chastising them, and putting them to +death. Poor wretches, habituated to poverty, undergo all these +sufferings with a fortitude which we frequently meet with in +malefactors. In some we find their courage fortified by the zeal of +fanaticism. This fortitude surprises, agitates, excites pity, and +irritates the spectators against those who torment men whose constancy +makes them looked upon as being innocent, who, it is supposed, may +possibly be right, and for whom compassion likewise interests itself. +It is thus that enthusiasm is propagated, and that persecution always +augments the number of the partisans of those who are persecuted. + +I shall leave to you, Madam, the trouble of applying the history of +our juggler, and his adherents, to that of the founder, the apostles, +and the martyrs of the Christian religion. + +With whatever art they have written the life of Jesus Christ, which we +hold only from his apostles, or their disciples, it furnishes a +sufficiency of materials on which to found our conjectures. I shall +only observe to you, that the Jewish nation was remarkable for its +credulity; that the companions of Jesus were chosen from among the +dregs of the people; that Jesus always gave a preference to the +populace, with whom he wished, undoubtedly, to form a rampart against +the _priests_; and that, at last, Jesus was seized immediately after +the most splendid of his miracles. We see him put to death immediately +after the resurrection of Lazarus, which, even according to the gospel +account, bears the most evident characters of fraud, which are visible +to every one who examines it without prejudice. + +I imagine, Madam, that what I have just stated will suffice to show +you what opinion you ought to entertain respecting the founder of +Christianity and his first sectaries. These have been either dupes or +fanatics, who permitted themselves to be seduced by deceptions, and by +discourses conformable to their desires, or by dexterous impostors, +who knew how to make the best of the tricks of their old master, to +whom they have become such able successors. In this way did they +establish a religion which enabled them to live at the people's +expense, and which still maintains in abundance those we pay, at such +a high rate, for transmitting from father to son the fables, visions, +and wonders which were born and nursed in Judea. The propagation of +the Christian faith, and the constancy of their martyrs, have nothing +surprising in them. The people flock after all those that show them +wonders, and receive without reasoning on it every thing that is told +them. They transmit to their children the tales they have heard +related, and by degrees these opinions are adopted by kings, by the +great, and even by the learned. + +As for the martyrs, their constancy has nothing supernatural in it. +The first Christians, as well as all new sectaries, were treated, by +the Jews and pagans, as disturbers of the public peace. They were +already sufficiently intoxicated with the fanaticism with which their +religion inspired them, and were persuaded that God held himself in +readiness to crown them, and to receive them into his eternal +dwelling. In a word, seeing the heavens opened, and being convinced +that the end of the world was approaching, it is not surprising that +they had courage to set punishment at defiance, to endure it with +constancy, and to despise death. To these motives, founded on their +religious opinions, many others were added, which are always of such a +nature as to operate strongly upon the minds of men. Those who, as +Christians, were imprisoned and ill-treated on account of their faith, +were visited, consoled, encouraged, honored, and loaded with +kindnesses by their brethren, who took care of and succored them +during their detention, and who almost adored them after their death. +Those, on the other hand, who displayed weakness, were despised and +detested, and when they gave way to repentance, they were compelled to +undergo a rigorous penitence, which lasted as long as they lived. Thus +were the most powerful motives united to inspire the martyrs with +courage; and this courage has nothing more supernatural about it than +that which determines us daily to encounter the most perilous dangers, +through the fear of dishonoring ourselves in the eyes of our +fellow-citizens. Cowardice would expose us to infamy all the rest of +our days. There is nothing miraculous in the constancy of a man to +whom an offer is made, on the one hand, of eternal happiness and the +highest honors, and who, on the other hand, sees himself menaced with +hatred, contempt, and the most lasting regret. + +You perceive, then, Madam, that nothing can be easier than to +overthrow the proofs by which Christian doctors establish the +revelation which they pretend is so well authenticated. Miracles, +martyrs, and prophecies prove nothing. + +Were all the wonders true that are related in the Old and New +Testament, they would afford no proof in favor of divine omnipotence, +but, on the contrary, would prove the inability under which the Deity +has continually labored, of convincing mankind of the truths he wished +to announce to them. On the other hand, supposing these miracles to +have produced all the effects which the Deity had a right to expect +from them, we have no longer any reason to believe them, except on the +tradition and recitals of others, which are often suspicious, faulty, +and exaggerated. The miracles of Moses are attested only by Moses, or +by Jewish writers interested in making them believed by the people +they wished to govern. The miracles of Jesus are attested only by his +disciples, who sought to obtain adherents, in relating to a credulous +people prodigies to which they pretended to have been witnesses, or +which some of them, perhaps, believed they had really seen. All those +who deceive mankind are not always cheats; they are frequently +deceived by those who are knaves in reality. Besides, I believe I have +sufficiently proved, that miracles are repugnant to the essence of an +immutable God, as well as to his wisdom, which will not permit him to +alter the wise laws he has himself established. In short, miracles are +useless, since those related in Scripture have not produced the +effects which God expected from them. + +The proof of the Christian religion taken from prophecy has no better +foundation. Whoever will examine without prejudice these oracles +pretended to be divine will find only an ambiguous, unintelligible, +absurd, and unconnected jargon, entirely unworthy of a God who +intended to display his prescience, and to instruct his people with +regard to future events. There does not exist in the Holy Scriptures a +single prophecy sufficiently precise to be literally applied to Jesus +Christ. To convince yourself of this truth, ask the most learned of +our doctors which are the formal prophecies wherein they have the +happiness to discover the Messiah. You will then perceive that it is +only by the aid of forced explanations, figures, parables, and +mystical interpretations, by which they are enabled to bring forward +any thing sensible and applicable to the _god-made-man_ whom they tell +us to adore. It would seem as if the Deity had made predictions only +that we might understand nothing about them. + +In these equivocal oracles, whose meaning it is impossible to +penetrate, we find nothing but the language of intoxication, +fanaticism, and delirium. When we fancy we have found something +intelligible, it is easy to perceive that the prophets intended to +speak of events that took place in their own age, or of personages who +had preceded them. It is thus that our doctors apply gratuitously to +Christ prophecies or rather narratives of what happened respecting +David, Solomon, Cyrus, &c. + +We imagine we see the chastisement of the Jewish people announced in +recitals where it is evident the only matter in question was the +Babylonish captivity. In this event, so long prior to Jesus Christ, +they have imagined finding a prediction of the dispersion of the Jews, +supposed to be a visible punishment for their _deicide_, and which +they now wish to pass off as an indubitable proof of the truth of +Christianity. + +It is not, then, astonishing that the ancient and modern Jews do not +see in the prophets what our doctors teach us, and what they +themselves imagine they have seen. Jesus himself has not been more +happy in his predictions than his predecessors. In the gospel he +announces to his disciples in the most formal manner the destruction +of the world and the last judgment, as events that were at hand, and +which must take place before the existing generation had passed away. +Yet the world still endures, and appears in no danger of finishing. It +is true, our doctors pretend that, in the prediction of Jesus Christ, +he spoke of the ruin of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus; but none but +those who have not read the gospel would submit to such a change, or +satisfy themselves with such an evasion. Besides, in adopting it we +must confess at least that the Son of God himself was unable to +prophesy with greater precision than his obscure predecessors. + +Indeed, at every page of these sacred books, which we are assured were +inspired by God himself, this God seems to have made a revelation only +to conceal himself. He does not speak but to be misunderstood. He +announces his oracles in such a way only that we can neither +comprehend them nor make any application of them. He performs miracles +only to make unbelievers. He manifests himself to mankind only to +stupefy their judgment and bewilder the reason he has bestowed on +them. The Bible continually represents God to us as a seducer, an +enticer, a suspicious tyrant, who knows not what kind of conduct to +observe with respect to his subjects; who amuses himself by laying +snares for his creatures, and who tries them that he may have the +pleasure of inflicting a punishment for yielding to his temptations. +This God is occupied only in building to destroy, in demolishing to +rebuild. Like a child disgusted with its playthings, he is continually +undoing what he has done, and breaking what was the object of his +desires. We find no foresight, no constancy, no consistency in his +conduct; no connection, no clearness in his discourses. When he +performs any thing, he sometimes approves what he has done, and at +other times repents of it. He irritates and vexes himself with what he +has permitted to be done, and, in spite of his infinite power, he +suffers man to offend him, and consents to let Satan, his creature, +derange all his projects. In a word, the revelations of the Christians +and Jews seem to have been imagined only to render uncertain and to +annihilate the qualities attributed to the Deity, and which are +declared to constitute his essence. The whole Scripture, the entire +system of the Christian religion, appears to be founded only on the +incapability of God, who was unable to render the human race as wise, +as good, and as happy as he wished them. The death of his innocent +Son, who was immolated to his vengeance, is entirely useless for the +most numerous portion of the earth's inhabitants; almost the whole +human race, in spite of the continual efforts of the Deity, continue +to offend him, to frustrate his designs, resist his will, and to +persevere in their wickedness. + +It is on notions so fatal, so contradictory, and so unworthy of a God +who is just, wise, and good, of a God that is rational, independent, +immutable, and omnipotent, on whom the Christian religion is founded, +and which religion is said to be established forever by God, who, +nevertheless, became disgusted with the religion of the Jews, with +whom he had made and sworn an eternal covenant. + +Time must prove whether God be more constant and faithful in +fulfilling his engagements with the Christians than he has been to +fulfil those he made with Abraham and his posterity. I confess, Madam, +that his past conduct alarms me as to what he may finally perform. If +he himself acknowledged by the mouth of Ezekiel that the laws he had +given to the Jews _were not good_, he may very possibly, some day or +other, find fault with those which he has given to Christians. + +Our priests themselves seem to partake of my suspicions, and to fear +that God will be wearied of that protection which he has so long +granted to his church. The inquietudes which they evince, the efforts +which they make to hinder the civilization of the world, the +persecutions which they raise against all those who contradict them, +seem to prove that they mistrust the promises of Jesus Christ, and +that they are not certainly convinced of the eternal durability of a +religion which does not appear to them divine, but because it gives +them the right to command like gods over their fellow-citizens. They +would undoubtedly consider the destruction of their empire a very +grievous thing; but yet if the sovereigns of the earth and their +people should once grow weary of the sacerdotal yoke, we may be sure +the Sovereign of heaven would not require a longer time to become +equally disgusted. + +However this may be, Madam, I venture to hope the perusal of this +letter will fully undeceive you of a blind veneration for books which +are called _divine_, although they appear as if invented to degrade +and destroy the God who is asserted to be their author. My first +letter, I feel confident, enabled you to perceive that the dogmas +established by these same books, or subsequently fabricated to justify +the ideas thus given of God, are not less contrary to all notions of a +Deity infinitely perfect. A system which in the outset is based upon +false principles can never become any thing else than a mass of +falsehoods. + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER IV. + + Of the fundamental Dogmas of the Christian Religion. + + +You are aware, Madam, that our theological doctors pretend these +revealed books, which I summarily examined in my preceding letter, do +not include a single word that was not inspired by the Spirit of God. +What I have already said to you is sufficient to show that in setting +out with this supposition, the Divinity has formed a work the most +shapeless, imperfect, contradictory, and unintelligible which ever +existed; a work, in a word, of which any man of sense would blush with +shame to be the author. If any prophecy hath verified itself for the +Christians, it is that of Isaiah, which saith, "Hearing ye shall hear, +but shall not understand." But in this case we reply that it was +sufficiently useless to speak not to be comprehended; to reveal _that_ +which cannot be comprehended is to reveal _nothing_. + +We need not, then, be surprised if the Christians, notwithstanding the +revelation of which they assure us they have been the favorites, have +no precise ideas either of the Divinity, or of his will, or the way in +which his oracles are to be interpreted. The book from which they +should be able to do so serves only to confound the simplest notions, +to throw them into the greatest incertitude, and create eternal +disputations. If it was the project of the Divinity, it would, +without doubt, be attended with perfect success. The teachers of +Christianity never agree on the manner in which they are to understand +the truths that God has given himself the trouble to reveal; all the +efforts which they have employed to this time have not yet been +capable of making any thing clear, and the dogmas which they have +successively invented have been insufficient to justify to the +understanding of one man of good sense the conduct of an infinitely +perfect Being. + +Hence, many among them, perceiving the inconveniences which would +result from the reading of the holy books, have carefully kept them +out of the hands of the vulgar and illiterate; for they plainly +foresaw that if they were read by such they would necessarily bring on +themselves reproach, since it would never fail that every honest man +of good sense would discover in those books only a crowd of +absurdities. Thus the oracles of God are not even made for those for +whom they are addressed; it is requisite to be initiated in the +mysteries of a priesthood, to have the privilege of discerning in the +holy writings the light which the Divinity destined to all his dear +children. But are the theologians themselves able to make plain the +difficulties which the sacred books present in every page? By +meditating on the mysteries which they contain, have they given us +ideas more plain of the intentions of the Divinity? No; without doubt +they explain one mystery by citing another; they scatter new +obscurities on previous obscurities; rarely do they agree among +themselves; and when by chance their opinions coincide, _we_ are not +more enlightened, nor is our judgment more convinced; on the other +hand, our reason is the more confounded. + +If they do agree on some point, it is only to tell us that human +reason, of which God is the author, is depraved; but what is the +purport of this coincidence in their opinions, if it be not to tax the +Deity with imbecility, injustice, and malignity? For why should God, +in creating a reasonable being, not have given him an understanding +which nothing could corrupt? They reply to us by saying "that the +reason of man is necessarily limited; that perfection could not be the +portion of a _creature_; that the designs of God are not like those of +man." But, in this case, why should the Divinity be offended by the +necessary imperfections which he discovers in his creatures? How can a +just God require that our mind must admit what it was not made to +comprehend? Can he who is above our reason be understood by us, whose +reason is so limited? If God be infinite, how can a finite creature +reason respecting him? If the mysteries and hidden designs of the +Divinity are of such a nature as not to be comprehended by man, what +good can we derive from their investigation? Had God designed that we +should occupy our thoughts with his purposes, would he not have given +us an understanding proportionate to the things he wished us to +penetrate? + +You see, then, Madam, that in depressing our reason, in supposing it +corrupted, our priests, at the same time, annihilate even the +necessity of religion, which cannot be either useful or important to +us, if above our comprehension. They do more in supposing human reason +depraved; they accuse God of injustice, in requiring that our reason +should conceive what cannot be conceived. They accuse him of +imbecility in not rendering this reason more perfect. In a word, in +degrading man they degrade God, and rob him of those attributes which +compose his essence. Would you call him a just and good parent, who, +wishing that his children should walk by an obscure route, filled with +difficulties, would only give them for their conduct a light too weak +to find their way, and to avoid the continual dangers by which they +are surrounded? Should you consider that the father had adequately +provided for their security by giving them in writing unintelligible +instructions, which they could not decipher by the weak light he had +given them? + +Our spiritual directors will not fail to tell us that the corruption +of reason and the weakness of the human understanding are the +consequences of sin. But why has man become sinful? How has the good +God permitted his dear children, for whom he created the universe, and +of whom he exacts obedience, to offend him, and thereby extinguish, +or, at least, weaken the light he had given them? On the other hand, +the reason of Adam ought to be, without doubt, completely perfect +before his fall. In this case, why did it not prevent that fall and +its consequences? Was the reason of Adam corrupted even beforehand by +incurring the wrath of his God? Was it depraved before he had done any +thing to deprave it? + +To justify this strange conduct of Providence, to clear him from +passing as the author of sin, to save him the ridicule of being the +cause or the accomplice of offences which he did against himself, the +theologians have imagined a _being_ subordinate to the divine power. +It is the secondary being they make the author of all the evil which +is committed in the universe. In the impossibility of reconciling the +continual disorders of which the world is the theatre with the +purposes of a Deity replete with goodness, the Creator and Preserver +of the universe, who delights in order, and who seeks only the +happiness of his creatures, they have trumped up a destructive genius, +imbued with wickedness, who conspires to render men miserable, and to +overthrow the beneficent views of the Eternal. This bad and perverse +being they call _Satan_, the _Devil_, the _Evil One_; and we see him +play a great game in all the religions of the world, the founders of +which have found in the impotence of Deity the sources of both good +and evil. By the aid of this imaginary being they have been enabled to +resolve all their difficulties; yet they could not foresee that this +invention, which went to annihilate or abridge the power of Deity, was +a system filled with palpable contradictions, and that if the Devil +were really the author of sin, it would be he, in all justice, who +ought to undergo all its punishment. + +If God is the author of all, it is he who created the Devil; if the +Devil is wicked, if he strives to counteract the projects of the +Divinity, it is the Divinity who has allowed the overthrow of his +projects, or who has not had sufficient authority to prevent the Devil +from exercising his power. If God had wished that the Devil should not +have existed, the Devil would not have existed. God could annihilate +him at one word, or, at least, God could change his disposition if +injurious to us, and contrary to the projects of a beneficent +Providence. Since, then, the Devil does exist, and does such +marvellous things as are attributed to him, we are compelled to +conclude that the Divinity has found it good that he should exist and +agitate, as he does, all his works by a perpetual interruption and +perversion of his designs. + +Thus, Madam, the invention of the Devil does not remedy the evil; on +the contrary, it but entangles the priests more and more. By placing +to Satan's account all the evil which he commits in the world, they +exculpate the Deity of nothing; all the power with which they have +supposed the Devil invested is taken from that assigned to the +Divinity; and you know very well that according to the notions of the +Christian religion, the Devil has more adherents than God himself; +they are always stirring their fellow-creatures up to revolt against +God; without ceasing, in despite of God, Satan leads them into +perdition, except one man only, who refused to follow him, and who +found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You are not ignorant that the +millions that follow the standard of Beelzebub are to be plunged with +him into eternal misery. + +But then has Satan himself incurred the disgrace of the All-powerful? +By what forfeit has he merited becoming the eternal object of the +anger of that God who created him? The Christian religion will explain +all. It informs us that the Devil was in his origin an angel; that is +to say, a pure spirit, full of perfections, created by the Divinity to +occupy a distinguishing situation in the celestial court, destined, +like the other ministers of the Eternal, to receive his orders, and to +enjoy perpetual blessedness. But he lost himself through ambition; his +pride blinded him, and he dared to revolt against his Creator; he +engaged other spirits, as pure as himself, in the same senseless +enterprise; in consequence of his rashness, he was hurled headlong out +of heaven, his miserable adherents were involved in his fall, and, +having been hardened by the divine pleasure in their foolish +dispositions, they have no other occupation assigned them in the +universe than to tempt mankind, and endeavor to augment the number of +the enemies of God, and the victims of his wrath. + +It is by the assistance of this fable that the Christian doctors +perceive the fall of Adam, prepared by the Almighty himself anterior +to the creation of the world. Was it necessary that the Divinity +should entertain a great desire that man might sin, since he would +thereby have an opportunity of providing the means of making him +sinful? In effect, it was the Devil who, in process of time, covered +with the skin of a serpent, solicited the mother of the human race to +disobey God, and involve her husband in her rebellion. But the +difficulty is not removed by these inventions. If Satan, in the time +he was an angel, lived in innocence, and merited the good will of his +Maker, how came God to suffer him to entertain ideas of pride, +ambition, and rebellion? How came this angel of light so blind as not +to see the folly of such an enterprise? Did he not know that his +Creator was all-powerful? Who was it that tempted Satan? What reason +had the Divinity for selecting him to be the object of his fury, the +destroyer of his projects, the enemy of his power? If pride be a sin, +if the idea itself of rebellion is the greatest of crimes, _sin was, +then, anterior to sin_, and Lucifer offended God, even in his state of +purity; for, in fine, a being pure, innocent, agreeable to his God, +who had all the perfections of which a creature could be susceptible, +ought to be exempt from ambition, pride, and folly. We ought, also, to +say as much for our first parent, who, notwithstanding his wisdom, his +innocence, and the knowledge infused into him by God himself, could +not prevent himself from falling into the temptation of a demon. + +Hence, in every shift, the priests invariably make God the author of +sin. It was God who tempted Lucifer before the creation of the world; +Lucifer, in his turn, became the tempter of man and the cause of all +the evil our race suffers. It appears, therefore, that God created +both angels and men to give them an opportunity of sinning. + +It is easy to perceive the absurdity of this system, to save which the +theologians have invented another still more absurd, that it might +become the foundation of all their religious revelations, and by means +of which they idly imagine they can fully justify the divine +providence. The system of truth supposes the _free will_ of man--that +he is his own master, capable of doing good or ill, and of directing +his own plans. At the words _free will_, I already perceive, Madam, +that you tremble, and doubtless anticipate a metaphysical +dissertation. Rest assured of the contrary; for I flatter myself that +the question will be simplified and rendered clear, I shall not merely +say for you, but for all your sex who are not resolved to be wilfully +blind. + +To say that man is a free agent is to detract from the power of the +Supreme Being; it is to pretend that God is not the master of his own +will; it is to advance that a weak creature can, when it pleases him, +revolt against his Creator, derange his projects, disturb the order +which he loves, render his labors useless, afflict him with chagrin, +cause him sorrow, act with effect against him, and arouse his anger +and his passions. Thus, at the first glance, you perceive that this +principle gives rise to a crowd of absurdities. If God is the friend +of order, every thing performed by his creatures would necessarily +conduce to the maintenance of this order, because otherwise the divine +will would fail to have its effect. If God has plans, they must of +necessity be always executed; if man can afflict his God, man is the +master of this God's happiness, and the league he has formed with the +Devil is potent enough to thwart the plans of the Divinity. In a word, +if man is free to sin, God is no longer Omnipotent. + +In reply, we are told that God, without detriment to his Omnipotence, +might make man a free agent, and that this liberty is a benefit by +which God places man in a situation where he may merit the heavenly +bounty; but, on the other hand, this liberty likewise exposes him to +encounter God's hatred, to offend him, and to be overwhelmed by +infinite sufferings. From this I conclude that this liberty is _not_ a +benefit, and that it evidently is inconsistent with divine goodness. +This goodness would be more real if men had always sufficient +resolution to do what is pleasing to God, conformably to order, and +conducive to the happiness of their fellow-creatures. If men, in +virtue of their liberty, do things contrary to the will of God, God, +who is supposed to have the prescience of foreseeing all, ought to +have taken measures to prevent men from abusing their liberty; if he +foresaw they would sin, he ought to have given them the means of +avoiding it; if he could not prevent them from doing ill, he has +consented to the ill they have done; if he has consented, he should +not be offended; if he is offended, or if he punish them for the evil +they have done with his permission, he is unjust and cruel; if he +suffer them to rush on to their destruction, he is bound afterwards to +take them to himself; and he cannot with reason find fault with them +for the abuse of their liberty, in being deceived or seduced by the +objects which he himself had placed in their way to seduce them, to +tempt them, and to determine their wills to do evil.[4] + +[4] See what Bayle says, _Dict. Crit._, art. _Origène_, Rem. E., art. +_Pauliciens_, Rem. E., F., M., and tom. iij. of the _Réponses aux +Questions d'un Provincial_. + +What would you say of a father who should give to his children, in the +infancy of age, and when they were without experience, the liberty of +satisfying their disordered appetites, till they should convince +themselves of their evil tendency? Would not such a parent be in the +right to feel uneasy at the abuse which they should make of their +liberty which he had given them? Would it not be accounted malice in +this parent, who should have foreseen what was to happen, not to have +furnished his children with the capacity of directing their own +conduct so as to avoid the evils they might be assailed with? Would it +not show in him the height of madness were he to punish them for the +evil which he had done, and the chagrin which they occasioned him? +Would it not be to himself that we should ascribe the sottishness and +wickedness of his children? + +You see, then, the points of view under which this system of men's +free will shows us the Deity. This free will becomes a present the +most dangerous, since it puts man in the condition of doing evil that +is truly frightful. We may thence conclude that this system, far from +justifying God, makes him capable of malice, imprudence, and +injustice. But this is to overturn all our ideas of a being perfectly, +nay, infinitely wise and good, consenting to punish his creatures for +sins which he gave them the power of committing, or, which is the +same, suffering the Devil to inspire them with evil. All the +subtilties of theology have really only a tendency to destroy the very +notions itself inculcates concerning the Divinity. This theology is +evidently the tub of the Danaides. + +It is a fact, however, that our theologians have imagined expedients +to support their ruinous suppositions. You have often heard mention +made of _predestination_ and _grace_--terrible words, which constantly +excite disputes among us, for which reason would be forced to blush if +Christians did not make it a duty to renounce reason, and which +contests are attended with consequences very dangerous to society. But +let not this surprise you; these false and obscure principles have +even among the theologians produced dissensions; and their quarrels +would be indifferent if they did not attach more importance to them +than they really deserve. + +But to proceed. The system of predestination supposes that God, in his +eternal secrets, has resolved that some men should be elected, and, +being thus his favorites, receive special grace. By this grace they +are supposed to be made agreeable to God, and meet for eternal +happiness. But then an infinite number of others are destined to +perdition, and receive not the grace necessary to eternal salvation. +These contradictory and opposite propositions make it pretty evident +that the system is absurd. It makes God, a being infinitely perfect +and good, a partial tyrant, who has created a vast number of human +beings to be the sport of his caprice and the victims of his +vengeance. It supposes that God will punish his creatures for not +having received that grace which he did not deign to give them; it +presents this God to us under traits so revolting that the theologians +are forced to avow that the whole is a profound mystery, into which +the human mind cannot penetrate. But if man is not made to lift his +inquisitive eye on this frightful mystery, that is to say, on this +astonishing absurdity, which our teachers have idly endeavored to +square to their views of Deity, or to reconcile the atrocious +injustice of their God with his infinite goodness, by what right do +they wish us to adore this mystery which they would compel us to +believe, and to subscribe to an opinion that saps the divine goodness +to its very foundation? How do they reason upon a dogma, and quarrel +with acrimony about a system of which even themselves can comprehend +nothing? + +The more you examine religion, the more occasion you will have to be +convinced that those things which our divines call _mysteries_ are +nothing else but the difficulties with which they are themselves +embarrassed, when they are unable to avoid the absurdities into which +their own false principles necessarily involve them. Nevertheless, +this word is not enough to impose upon us; the reverend doctors do not +themselves understand the things about which they incessantly speak. +They invent words from an inability to explain things, and they give +the name of _mysteries_ to what they comprehend no better than +ourselves. + +All the religions in the world are founded upon predestination, and +all the pretended revelations among men, as has been already pointed +out to you, inculcate this odious dogma, which makes Providence an +unjust mother-in-law, who shows a blind preference for some of her +children to the prejudice of all the others. They make God a tyrant, +who punishes the inevitable faults to which he has impelled them, or +into which he has allowed them to be seduced. This dogma, which served +as the foundation of Paganism, is now the grand pivot of the Christian +religion, whose God should excite no less hatred than the most wicked +divinities of idolatrous people. With such notions, is it not +astonishing that this God should appear, to those who meditate on his +attributes, an object sufficiently terrible to agitate the +imagination, and to lead some to indulge in dangerous follies? + +The dogma of another life serves also to exculpate the Deity from +these apparent injustices or aberrations, with which he might +naturally be accused. It is pretended that it has pleased him to +distinguish his friends on earth, seeing he has amply provided for +their future happiness in an abode prepared for their souls. But, as I +believe I have already hinted, these proofs that God makes some good, +and leaves others wicked, either evince injustice on his part, at +least temporary, or they contradict his omnipotence. If God can do all +things, if he is privy to all the thoughts and actions of men, what +need has he of any proofs? If he has resolved to give them grace +necessary to save them, has he not assured them they will not perish? +If he is unjust and cruel, this God is not immutable, and belies his +character; at least for a time he derogates from the perfections which +we should expect to find in him. What would you think of a king, who, +during a particular time, would discover to his favorites traits the +most frightful, in order that they might incur his disgrace, and who +should afterwards insist on their believing him a very good and +amiable man, to obtain his favor again? Would not such a prince be +pronounced wicked, fanciful, and tyrannical? Nevertheless, this +supposed prince might be pardoned by some, if for his own interest, +and the better to assure himself of the attachment of his friends, he +might give them some smiles of his favor. It is not so God, who knows +all, who can do all, who has nothing to fear from the dispositions of +his creatures. From all these reasonings, we may see that the Deity, +whom the priests have conjured up, plays a great game, very +ridiculous, very unjust, on the supposition that he tries his +servants, and that he allows them to suffer in this world, to prepare +them for another. The theologians have not failed to discover motives +in this conduct of God which they can as readily justify; but these +pretended motives are borrowed from the omnipotence of this being, by +his absolute power over his creatures, to whom he is not obliged to +render an account of his actions; but especially in this theology, +which professes to justify God, do we not see it make him a despot and +tyrant more hateful than any of his creatures? + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER V. + + Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Dogma of another Life. + + +We, have now, Madam, come to the examination of the dogma of a future +life, in which it is supposed that the Divinity, after causing men to +pass through the temptations, the trials, and the difficulties of +this life, for the purpose of satisfying himself whether they are +worthy of his love or his hatred, will bestow the recompenses or +inflict the chastisements which they deserved. This dogma, which is +one of the capital points of the Christian religion, is founded on a +great many hypotheses or suppositions, which we have already glanced +at, and which we have shown to be absurd and incompatible with the +notions which the same religion gives us of the Deity. In effect, it +supposes us capable of offending or pleasing the Author of Nature, of +influencing his humor, or exciting his passions; afflicting, +tormenting, resisting, and thwarting the plans of Deity. It supposes, +moreover, the free-will of man--a system which we have seen +incompatible with the goodness, justice, and omnipotence of the Deity. +It supposes, further, that God has occasion of proving his creatures, +and making them, if I may so speak, pass a novitiate to know what they +are worth when he shall square accounts with them. It supposes in God, +who has created men for happiness only, the inability to put, by one +grand effort, all men in the road, whence they may infallibly arrive +at permanent felicity. It supposes that man will survive himself, or +that the same being, after death, will continue to think, to feel, and +act as he did in this life. In a word, it supposes the immortality of +the soul--an opinion unknown to the Jewish lawgiver, who is totally +silent on this topic to the people to whom God had manifested himself; +an opinion which even in the time of Jesus Christ one sect at +Jerusalem admitted, while another sect rejected; an opinion about +which the Messiah, who came to instruct them, deigned to fix the ideas +of those who might deceive themselves in this respect; an opinion +which appears to have been engendered in Egypt, or in India, anterior +to the Jewish religion, but which was unknown among the Hebrews till +they took occasion to instruct themselves in the Pagan philosophy of +the Greeks, and doctrines of Plato. + +Whatever might be the origin of this doctrine, it was eagerly adopted +by the Christians, who judged it very convenient to their system of +religion, all the parts of which are founded on the marvellous, and +which made it a crime to admit any truths agreeable to reason and +common sense. Thus, without going back to the inventors of this +inconceivable dogma, let us examine dispassionately what this opinion +really is; let us endeavor to penetrate to the principles on which it +is supported; let us adopt it, if we shall find it an idea conformable +to reason; let us reject it, if it shall appear destitute of proof, +and at variance with common sense, even though it had been received as +an established truth in all antiquity, though it may have been adopted +by many millions of mankind. + +Those who maintain the opinion of the soul's immortality, regard +it--that is, the soul--as a being distinct from the body, as a +substance, or essence, totally different from the corporeal frame, and +they designate it by the name of _spirit_. If we ask them what a +spirit is, they tell us it is not matter; and if we ask them what they +understand by that which is not matter, which is the only thing of +which we cannot form an idea, they tell us it is a spirit. In general, +it is easy to see that men the most savage, as well as the most subtle +thinkers, make use of the word _spirit_ to designate all the causes of +which they cannot form clear notions; hence the word spirit hath been +used to designate a being of which none can form any idea. + +Notwithstanding, the divines pretend that this unknown being, entirely +different from the body, of a substance which has nothing conformable +with itself, is, nevertheless, capable of setting the body in motion; +and this, doubtless, is a mystery very inconceivable. We have noticed +the alliance between this spiritual substance and the material body, +whose functions it regulates. As the divines have supposed that matter +could neither think, nor will, nor perceive, they have believed that +it might conceive much better those operations attributed to a being +of which they had ideas less clear than they can form of matter. In +consequence, they have imagined many gratuitous suppositions to +explain the union of the soul with the body. In fine, in the +impossibility of overcoming the insurmountable barriers which oppose +them, the priests have made man twofold, by supposing that he contains +something distinct from himself; they have cut through all +difficulties by saying that this union is a great mystery, which man +cannot understand; and they have everlasting recourse to the +omnipotence of God, to his supreme will, to the miracles which he has +always wrought; and those last are never-failing, final resources, +which the theologians reserve for every case wherein they can find no +other mode of escaping gracefully from the argument of their +adversaries. + +You see, then, to what we reduce all the jargon of the metaphysicians, +all the profound reveries which for so many ages have been so +industriously hawked about in defence of the soul of man; an +immaterial substance, of which no living being can form an idea; a +spirit, that is to say, a being totally different from any thing we +know. All the theological verbiage ends here, by telling us, in a +round of pompous terms,--fooleries that impose on the ignorant,--that +we do not know what essence the soul is of; but we call it a spirit +because of its nature, and because we feel ourselves agitated by some +unknown agent; we cannot comprehend the mechanism of the soul; yet can +we feel ourselves moved, as it were, by an effect of the power of God, +whose essence is far removed from ours, and more concealed from us +than the human soul itself. By the aid of this language, from which +you cannot possibly learn any thing, you will be as wise, Madam, as +all the theologians in the world. + +If you would desire to form ideas the most precise of yourself, banish +from you the prejudices of a vain theology, which only consists in +repeating words without attaching any new ideas to them, and which +are insufficient to distinguish the soul from the body, which appear +only capable of multiplying beings without reason, of rendering more +incomprehensible and more obscure, notions less distinct than we +already have of ourselves. These notions should be at least the most +simple and the most exact, if we consult our nature, experience, and +reason. They prove that man knows nothing but by his material sensible +organs, that he sees only by his eyes, that he feels by his touch, +that he hears by his ears; and that when either of these organs is +actually deranged, or has been previously wanting, or imperfect, man +can have none of the ideas that organ is capable of furnishing him +with,--neither thoughts, memory, reflection, judgment, desire, nor +will. Experience shows us that corporeal and material beings are alone +capable of being moved and acted upon, and that without those organs +we have enumerated the soul thinks not, feels not, wills not, nor is +moved. Every thing shows us that the soul undergoes always the same +vicissitudes as the body; it grows to maturity, gains strength, +becomes weak, and puts on old age, like the body; in fine, every thing +we can understand of it goes to prove that it perishes with the body. +It is indeed folly to pretend that man will feel when he has no organs +appropriate for that sentiment; that he will see and hear without eyes +or ears; that he will have ideas without having senses to receive +impressions from physical objects, or to give rise to perceptions in +his understanding; in fine, that he will enjoy or suffer when he has +no longer either nerves or sensibility. + +Thus every thing conspires to prove that the soul is the same thing as +the body, viewed relatively to some of its functions, which are more +obscure than others. Every thing serves to convince us that without +the body the soul is nothing, and that all the operations which are +attributed to the soul cannot be exercised any longer when the body is +destroyed. Our body is a machine, which, so long as we live, is +susceptible of producing the effects which have been designated under +different names, one from another; sentiment is one of these effects, +thought is another, reflection a third. This last passes sometimes by +other names, and our brain appears to be the seat of all our organs; +it is that which is the most susceptible. This organic machine once +destroyed or deranged, is no longer capable of producing the same +effects, or of exercising the same functions. It is with our body as +it is with a watch which indicates the hours, and which goes not if +the spring or a pinion be broken. + +Cease, Eugenia, cease to torment yourself about the fate which shall +attend you when death will have separated you from all that is dear on +earth. After the dissolution of this life, the soul shall cease to +exist; those devouring flames with which you have been threatened by +the priests will have no effect upon the soul, which can neither be +susceptible then of pleasures nor pains, of agreeable or sorrowful +ideas, of lively or doleful reflections. + +It is only by means of the bodily organs that we feel, think, and are +merry or sad, happy or miserable; this body once reduced to dust, we +will have neither perceptions nor sensations, and, by consequence, +neither memory nor ideas; the dispersed particles will no longer have +the same qualities they possessed when united; nor will they any +longer conspire to produce the same effects. In a word, the body being +destroyed, the soul, which is merely a result of all the parts of the +body in action, will cease to be what it is; it will be reduced to +nothing with the life's breath. + +Our teachers pretend to understand the soul well; they profess to be +able to distinguish it from the body; in short, they can do nothing +without it; and therefore, to keep up the farce, they have been +compelled to admit the ridiculous dogma of the Persians, known by the +name of the _resurrection_. This system supposes that the particles of +the body which have been scattered at death will be collected at the +last day, to be replaced in their primitive condition. But that this +strange phenomenon may take place, it is necessary that the particles +of our destroyed bodies, of which some, have been converted into +earth, others have passed into plants, others into animals, some of +one species, others of another, even of our own; it is requisite, I +say, that these particles, of which some have been mixed with the +waters of the deep, others have been carried on the wings of the wind, +and which have successively belonged to many different men, should be +reunited to reproduce the individual to whom they formerly belonged. +If you cannot get over this impossibility, the theologians will +explain it to you by saying, very briefly, "Ah! it is a profound +mystery, which we cannot comprehend." They will inform you that the +resurrection is a miracle, a supernatural effect, which is to result +from the divine power. It is thus they overcome all the difficulties +which the good sense of a few opposes to their rhapsodies. + +If, perchance, Madam, you do not wish to remain content with these +sublime reasons, against which your good sense will naturally revolt, +the clergy will endeavor to seduce your imagination by vague pictures +of the ineffable delights which will be enjoyed in Paradise by the +souls and bodies of those who have adopted their reveries; they will +aver that you cannot refuse to believe them upon their mere word +without encountering the eternal indignation of a God of pity; and +they will attempt to alarm your fancy by frightful delineations of the +cruel torments which a God of goodness has prepared for the greater +number of his creatures. + +But if you consider the thing coolly, you will perceive the futility +of their flattering promises and of their puny threatenings, which are +uttered merely to catch the unwary. You may easily discover that if it +could be true that man shall survive himself, God, in recompensing +him, would only recompense himself for the grace which he had granted; +and when he punished him, he punished him for not receiving the grace +which he had hardened him against receiving. This line of conduct, so +cruel and barbarous, appears equally unworthy of a wise God as it is +of a being perfectly good. + +If your mind, proof against the terrors with which the Christian +religion penetrates its sectaries, is capable of contemplating these +frightful circumstances, which it is imagined will accompany the +carefully-invented punishments which God has destined for the victims +of his vengeance, you will find that they are impossible, and totally +incompatible with the ideas which they themselves have put forth of +the Divinity. In a word, you will perceive that the chastisements of +another life are but a crowd of chimeras, invented to disturb human +reason, to subjugate it beneath the feet of imposture, to annihilate +forever the repose of slaves whom the priesthood would inthrall and +retain under its yoke. + +In short, Eugenia, the priests would make you believe that these +torments will be horrible,--a thing which accords not with our ideas +of God's goodness; they tell you they will be eternal,--a thing which +accords not with our ideas of the justice of God, who, one would very +naturally suppose, will proportion chastisements to faults, and who, +by consequence, will not punish without end the beings whose actions +are bounded by time. They tell us that the offences against God are +infinite, and, by consequence, that the Divinity, without doing +violence to his justice, may avenge himself as God, that is to say, +avenge himself to infinity. In this case I shall say that this God is +not good; that he is vindictive, a character which always announces +fear and weakness. In fine, I shall say that among the imperfect +beings who compose the human species, there is not, perhaps, a single +one who, without some advantage to himself, without personal fear, in +a word, without folly, would consent to punish everlastingly the +wretch who might have the misfortune to offend him, but who no longer +had either the ability or the inclination to commit another offence. +Caligula found, at least, some little amusement to forsake for a time +the cares of government, and enjoy the spectacle of punishment which +he inflicted on those unfortunate men whom he had an interest in +destroying. But what advantage can it be to God to heap on the damned +everlasting torments? Will this amuse him? Will their frightful +punishments correct their faults? Can these examples of the divine +severity be of any service to those on earth, who witness not their +friends in hell? Will it not be the most astonishing of all the +miracles of Deity to make the bodies of the damned invulnerable, to +resist, through the ceaseless ages of eternity, the frightful torments +destined for them? + +You see, then, Madam, that the ideas which the priests give us of hell +make of God a being infinitely more insensible, more wicked and cruel +than the most barbarous of men. They add to all this that it will be +the Devil and the apostate angels, that is to say, the enemies of +God, whom he will employ as the ministers of his implacable vengeance. +These wicked spirits, then, will execute the commands which this +severe judge will pronounce against men at the last judgment. For you +must know, Madam, that a God who knows all will at some future time +take an account of what he already knows. So, then, not content with +judging men at death, he will assemble the whole human race with great +pomp at the last or general judgment, in which he will confirm his +sentence in the view of the whole human race, assembled to receive +their doom. Thus on the wreck of the world will he pronounce a +definitive judgment, from which there will be no appeal. But, in +attending this memorable judgment, what will become of the souls of +men, separated from their bodies, which have not yet been +resuscitated? The souls of the just will go directly to enjoy the +blessings of Paradise; but what is to become of the immense crowd of +souls imbued with faults or crimes, and on whom the infallible +parsons, who are so well instructed in what is passing in another +world, cannot speak with certainty as to their fate? According to some +of these wiseacres, God will place the souls of such as are not wholly +displeasing to him in a place of punishment, where, by rigorous +torments, they shall have the merit of expiating the faults with which +they may stand chargeable at death. According to this fine system, so +profitable to our spiritual guides, God has found it the most simple +method to build a fiery furnace for the special purpose of tormenting +a certain proportion of souls who have not been sufficiently purified +at death to enter Paradise, but who, after leaving them some years +united with the body, and giving them time necessary to arrive at that +amendment of life by which they may become partakers of the supreme +felicity of heaven, ordains that they shall expiate their offences in +torment. It is on this ridiculous notion that our priests have +bottomed the doctrine of _purgatory_, which every good Catholic is +obliged to believe for the benefit of the priests, who reserve to +themselves, as is very reasonable, the power of compelling by their +prayers a just and immutable God to relax in his sternness, and +liberate the captive souls, which he had only condemned to undergo +this purgation in order that they might be made meet for the joys of +Paradise. + +With respect to the Protestants, who are, as every one knows, heretics +and impious, you will observe that they pretend not to those lucrative +views of the Roman doctors. On the contrary, they think that, at the +instant of death, every man is irrevocably judged; that he goes +directly to glory or into a place of punishment, to suffer the award +of evil by the enduring of punishments for which God had eternally +prepared both the sufferer and his torments! Even before the reunion +of soul and body at the final judgment, they fancy that the soul of +the wicked (which, on the principle of all souls being _spirits_, +must be the same in essence as the soul of the elect,) will, though +deprived of those organs by which it felt, and thought, and acted, be +capable of undergoing the agency or action of a fire! It is true that +some Protestant theologians tell us that the fire of hell is a +spiritual fire, and, by consequence, very different from the material +fire vomited out of Vesuvius, and Ĉtna, and Hecla. Nor ought we to +doubt that these informed doctors of the Protestant faith know very +well what they say, and that they have as precise and clear ideas of a +spiritual fire as they have of the ineffable joys of Paradise, which +may be as spiritual as the punishment of the damned in hell. + +Such are, Madam, in a few words, the absurdities, not less revolting +than ridiculous, which the dogmas of a future life and of the +immortality of the soul have engendered in the minds of men. Such are +the phantoms which have been invented and propagated, to seduce and +alarm mortals, to excite their hopes and their fears; such the +illusions that so powerfully operate on weak and feeling beings. But +as melancholy ideas have more effect upon the imagination than those +which are agreeable, the priests have always insisted more forcibly on +what men have to fear on the part of a terrible God than on what they +have to hope from the mercy of a forgiving Deity, full of goodness. +Princes the most wicked are infinitely more respected than those who +are famed for indulgence and humanity. The priests have had the art +to throw us into uncertainty and mistrust by the twofold character +which they have given the Divinity. If they promise us salvation, they +tell us that we must work it out for ourselves, "with fear and +trembling." It is thus that they have contrived to inspire the minds +of the most honest men with dismay and doubt, repeating without +ceasing that time only must disclose who are worthy of the divine +love, or who are to be the objects of the divine wrath. Terror has +been and always will be the most certain means of corrupting and +enslaving the mind of man. + +They will tell us, doubtless, that the terrors which religion inspires +are salutary terrors; that the dogma of another life is a bridle +sufficiently powerful to prevent the commission of crimes and restrain +men within the path of duty. To undeceive one's self of this maxim, so +often thundered in our ears, and so generally adopted on the authority +of the priests, we have only to open our eyes. Nevertheless, we see +some Christians thoroughly persuaded of another life, who, +notwithstanding, conduct themselves as if they had nothing to fear on +the part of a God of vengeance, nor any thing to hope from a God of +mercy. When any of these are engaged in some great project, at all +times they are tempted by some strong passion or by some bad habit, +they shut their eyes on another life, they see not the enraged judge, +they suffer themselves to sin, and when it is committed, they comfort +themselves by saying, that God is good. Besides, they console +themselves by the same contradictory religion which shows them also +this same God, whom it represents so susceptible of wrath, as full of +mercy, bestowing his grace on all those who are sensible of their +evils and repent. In a word, I see none whom the fears of hell will +restrain when passion or interest solicit obedience. The very priests +who make so many efforts to convince us of their dogmas too often +evince more wickedness of conduct than we find in those who have never +heard one word about another life. Those who from infancy have been +taught these terrifying lessons are neither less debauched, nor less +proud, nor less passionate, nor less unjust, nor less avaricious than +others who have lived and died ignorant of Christian purgatory and +Paradise. In fine, the dogma of another life has little or no +influence on them; it annihilates none of their passions; it is a +bridle merely with some few timid souls, who, without its knowledge, +would never have the hardihood to be guilty of any great excesses. +This dogma is very fit to disturb the quiet of some honest, timorous +persons, and the credulous, whose imagination it inflames, without +ever staying the hand of great rogues, without imposing on them more +than the decency of civilization and a specious morality of life, +restrained chiefly by the coercion of public laws. + +In short, to sum all up in one thought, I behold a religion gloomy and +formidable to make impressions very lively, very deep, and very +dangerous on a mind such as yours, although it makes but very +momentary impressions on the minds of such as are hardened in crime, +or whose dissipation destroys constantly the effects of its threats. +More lively affected than others by your principles, you have been but +too often and too seriously occupied for your happiness by gloomy and +harassing objects, which have powerfully affected your sensible +imagination, though the same phantoms that have pursued you have been +altogether banished from the mind of those who have had neither your +virtues, your understanding, nor your sensibility. + +According to his principles, a Christian must always live in fear; he +can never know with certainty whether he pleases or displeases God; +the least movement of pride or of covetousness, the least desire, will +suffice to merit the divine anger, and lose in one moment the fruits +of years of devotion. It is not surprising that, with these frightful +principles before them, many Christians should endeavor to find in +solitude employment for their lugubrious reflections, where they may +avoid the occasions that solicit them to do wrong, and embrace such +means as are most likely, according to their notions of the likelihood +of the thing, to expiate the faults which they fancy might incur the +eternal vengeance of God. + +Thus the dark notions of a future life leave those only in peace who +think slightly upon it; and they are very disconsolate to all those +whose temperament determines them to contemplate it. They are but the +atrocious ideas, however, which the priests study to give us of the +Deity, and by which they have compelled so many worthy people to throw +themselves into the arms of incredulity. If some libertines, incapable +of reasoning, abjure a religion troublesome to their passions, or +which abridges their pleasures, there are very many who have maturely +examined it, that have been disgusted with it, because they could not +consent to live in the fears it engendered, nor to nourish the despair +it created. They have then abjured this religion, fit only to fill the +soul with inquietudes, that they might find in the bosom of reason the +repose which it insures to good sense. + +Times of the greatest crimes are always times of the greatest +ignorance. It is in these times, or usually so, that the greatest +noise is made about religion. Men then follow mechanically, and +without examination, the tenets which their priests impose on them, +without ever diving to the bottom of their doctrines. In proportion as +mankind become enlightened, great crimes become more rare, the manners +of men are more polished, the sciences are cultivated, and the +religion which they have coolly and carefully examined loses sensibly +its credit. It is thus that we see so many incredulous people in the +bosom of society become more agreeable and complacent now than +formerly, when it depended on the caprice of a priest to involve them +in troubles, and to invite the people to crimes in the hope of thereby +meriting heaven. + +Religion is consoling only to those who have no embarrassment about +it; the indefinite and vague recompense which it promises, without +giving ideas of it, is made to deceive those who make no reflections +on the impatient, variable, false, and cruel character which this +religion gives of its God. But how can it make any promises on the +part of a God whom it represents as a tempter, a seducer--who appears, +moreover, to take pleasure in laying the most dangerous snares for his +weak creatures? How can it reckon on the favors of a God full of +caprice, who it alternately informs us is replete with tenderness or +with hatred? By what right does it hold out to us the rewards of a +despotic and tyrannical God, who does or does not choose men for +happiness, and who consults only his own fantasy to destine some of +his creatures to bliss and others to perdition? Nothing, doubtless, +but the blindest enthusiasm could induce mortals to place confidence +in such a God as the priests have feigned; it is to folly alone we +must attribute the love some well-meaning people profess to the God of +the parsons; it is matchless extravagance alone that could prevail on +men to reckon on the unknown rewards which are promised them by this +religion, at the same time that it assures us that God is the author +of grace, but that we have no right to expect any thing from him. + +In a word, Madam, the notions of another life, far from consoling, are +fit only to imbitter all the sweets of the present life. After the sad +and gloomy ideas which Christianity, always at variance with itself, +presents us with of its God, it then affirms, that we are much more +likely to incur his terrible chastisements, than possessed of power by +which we may merit ineffable rewards; and it proceeds to inform us, +that God will give grace to whomsoever he pleases, yet it remains with +themselves whether they escape damnation; and a life the most spotless +cannot warrant them to presume that they are worthy of his favor. In +good truth, would not total annihilation be preferable to such beings, +rather than falling into the hands of a Deity so hard-hearted? Would +not every man of sense prefer the idea of complete annihilation to +that of a future existence, in order to be the sport of the eternal +caprice of a Deity, so cruel as to damn and torment, without end, the +unfortunate beings whom he created so weak, that he might punish them +for faults inseparable from their nature? If God is good, as we are +assured, notwithstanding the cruelties of which the priests suppose +him capable, is it not more consonant to all our ideas of a being +perfectly good, to believe that he did not create them to sport with +them in a state of eternal damnation, which they had not the power of +choosing, or of rejecting and shunning? Has not God treated the beasts +of the field more favorably than he has treated man, since he has +exempted them from sin, and by consequence has not exposed them to +suffer an eternal unhappiness? + +The dogma of the immortality of the soul, or of a future life, +presents nothing consoling in the Christian religion. On the contrary, +it is calculated expressly to fill the heart of the Christian, +following out his principles, with bitterness and continual alarm. I +appeal to yourself, Madam, whether these sublime notions have any +thing consoling in them? Whenever this uncertain idea has presented +itself to your mind, has it not filled you with a cold and secret +horror? Has the consciousness of a life so virtuous and so spotless as +yours, secured you against those fears which are inspired by the idea +of a being jealous, severe, capricious, whose eternal disgrace the +least fault is sure of incurring, and in whose eyes the smallest +weakness, or freedom the most involuntary, is sufficient to cancel +years of strict observance of all the rules of religion? + +I know very well what you will advance to support yourself in your +prejudices. The ministers of religion possess the secret of tempering +the alarms which they have the art to excite. They strive to inspire +confidence in those minds which they discover accessible to fear. They +balance, thus, one passion against another. They hold in suspense the +minds of their slaves, in the apprehension that too much confidence +would only render them less pliable, or that despair would force them +to throw off the yoke. To persons terribly frightened about their +state after death, they speak only of the hopes which we may entertain +of the goodness of God. To those who have too much confidence, they +preach up the terrors of the Lord, and the judgments of a severe God. +By this chicanery they contrive to subject or retain under their yoke +all those who are weak enough to be led by the contradictory doctrines +of these blind guides. + +They tell you, besides, that the sentiment of the immortality of the +soul is inherent in man; that the soul is consumed by boundless +desires, and that since there is nothing on this earth capable of +satisfying it, these are indubitable proofs that it is destined to +subsist eternally. In a word, that as we naturally desire to exist +always, we may naturally conclude that we shall always exist. But what +think you, Madam, of such reasonings? To what do they lead? Do we +desire the continuation of this existence, because it may be blessed +and happy, or because we know not what may become of us? But we cannot +desire a miserable existence, or, at least, one in which it is more +than probable we may be miserable rather than happy. If, as the +Christian religion so often repeats, the number of the elect is very +small, and salvation very difficult, the number of the reprobate very +great, and damnation very easily obtained, who is he who would desire +to exist always with so evident a risk of being eternally damned? +Would it not have been better for us not to have been born, than to +have been compelled against our nature to play a game so fraught with +peril? Does not annihilation itself present to us an idea preferable +to that of an existence which may very easily lead us to eternal +tortures? Suffer me, Madam, to appeal to yourself. If, before you had +come into this world, you had had your choice of being born, or of not +seeing the light of this fair sun, and you could have been made to +comprehend, but for one moment, the hundred thousandth part of the +risks you run to be eternally unhappy, would you not have determined +never to enjoy life? + +It is an easy matter, then, to perceive the proofs on which the +priests pretend to found this dogma of the immortality of the soul and +a future life. The desire which we might have of it could only be +founded on the hope of enjoying eternal happiness. But does religion +give us this assurance? Yes, say the clergy, if you submit faithfully +to the rules it prescribes. But to conform one's self to these rules, +is it not necessary to have grace from Heaven? And, are we then sure +we shall obtain that grace, or if we do, merit Heaven? Do the priests +not repeat to us, without ceasing, that God is the author of grace, +and that he only gives it to a small number of the elect? Do they not +daily tell us that, except one man, who rendered himself worthy of +this eternal happiness, there are millions going the high road to +damnation? This being admitted, every Christian, who reasons, would be +a fool to desire a future existence which he has so many motives to +fear, or to reckon on a happiness which every thing conspires to show +him is as uncertain, as difficult to be obtained, as it is +unequivocally dependent on the fantasies of a capricious Deity, who +sports with the misfortunes of his creatures. + +Under every point of view in which we regard the dogma of the soul's +immortality, we are compelled to consider it as a chimera invented by +men who have realized their wishes, or who have not been able to +justify Providence from the transitory injustices of this world. This +dogma was received with avidity, because it flattered the desires, and +especially the vanity of man, who arrogated to himself a superiority +above all the beings that enjoy existence, and which he would pass by +and reduce to mere clay; who believed himself the favorite of God, +without ever taxing his attention with this other fact--that God makes +him every instant experience vicissitudes, calamities, and trials, as +all sentient natures experience; that God made him, in fine, to +undergo death, or dissolution, which is an invariable law that all +that exists must find verified. This haughty creature, who fancies +himself a privileged being, alone agreeable to his Maker, does not +perceive that there are stages in his life when his existence is more +uncertain and much more weak than that of the other animals, or even +of some inanimate things. Man is unwilling to admit that he possesses +not the strength of the lion, nor the swiftness of the stag, nor the +durability of an oak, nor the solidity of marble or metal. He believes +himself the greatest favorite, the most sublime, the most noble; he +believes himself superior to all other animals because he possesses +the faculties of thinking, judging, and reasoning. But his thoughts +only render him more wretched than all the animals whom he supposes +deprived of this faculty, or who, at least, he believes, do not enjoy +it in the same degree with himself. Do not the faculties of thinking, +of remembering, of foresight, too often render him unhappy by the very +idea of the past, the present, and the future? Do not his passions +drive him to excesses unknown to the other animals? Are his judgments +always reasonable and wise? Is reason so largely developed in the +great mass of men that the priests should interdict its use as +dangerous? Are mankind sufficiently advanced in knowledge to be able +to overcome the prejudices and chimeras which render them unhappy +during the greatest part of their lives? In fine, have the beasts some +species of religious impressions, which inspire continual terrors in +their breast, making them look upon some awful event, which imbitters +their softest pleasures, which enjoins them to torment themselves, and +which threatens them with eternal damnation? No! + +In truth, Madam, if you weigh in an equitable balance the pretended +advantages of man above the other animals, you will soon see how +evanescent is this fictitious superiority which he has arrogated to +himself. We find that all the productions of nature are submitted to +the same laws; that all beings are only born to die; they produce +their like to destroy themselves; that all sentient beings are +compelled to undergo pleasures and pains; they appear and they +disappear; they are and they cease to be; they evince under one form +that they will quit it to produce another. Such are the continual +vicissitudes to which every thing that exists is evidently subjected, +and from which man is not exempt, any more than the other beings and +productions that he appropriates to his use as _lord of the creation_. +Even our globe itself undergoes change; the seas change their place; +the mountains are gathered in heaps or levelled into plains; every +thing that breathes is destroyed at last, and man alone pretends to an +eternal duration. + +It is unnecessary to tell me that we degrade man when we compare him +with the beasts, deprived of souls and intelligence; this is no +levelling doctrine, but one which places him exactly where nature +places him, but from which his puerile vanity has unfortunately driven +him. All beings are equals; under various and different forms they act +differently; they are governed in their appetites and passions by laws +which are invariably the same for all of the same species; every thing +which is composed of parts will be dissolved; every thing which has +life must part with it at death; all men are equally compelled to +submit to this fate; they are equal at death, although during life +their power, their talents, and especially their virtues, establish a +marked difference, which, though real, is only momentary. What will +they be after death? They will be exactly what they were ten years +before they were born. + +Banish, then, Eugenia, from your mind forever the terrors which death +has hitherto filled you with. It is for the wretched a safe haven +against the misfortunes of this life. If it appears a cruel +alternative to those who enjoy the good things of this world, why do +they not console themselves with the idea of what they do actually +enjoy? Let them call reason to their aid; it will calm the inquietudes +of their imagination, but too greatly alarmed; it will disperse the +clouds which religion spreads over their minds; it will teach them +that this death, so terrible in apprehension, is really nothing, and +that it will neither be accompanied with remembrance of past pleasures +nor of sorrow now no more. + +Live, then, happy and tranquil, amiable Eugenia! Preserve carefully an +existence so interesting and so necessary to all those with whom you +live. Allow not your health to be injured, nor trouble your quiet with +melancholy ideas. Without being teased by the prospect of an event +which has no right to disturb your repose, cultivate virtue, which has +always been your favorite, so necessary to your internal peace, and +which has rendered you so dear to all those who have the happiness of +being your friends. Let your rank, your credit, your riches, your +talents be employed to make others happy, to support the oppressed, to +succor the unfortunate, to dry up the tears of those whom you may have +an opportunity of comforting! Let your mind be occupied about such +agreeable and profitable employments as are likely to please you! +Call in the aid of your reason to dissipate the phantoms which alarm +you, to efface the prejudices which you have imbibed in early life! In +a word, comfort yourself, and remember that in practising virtue, as +you do, you cannot become an object of hatred to God, who, if he has +reserved in eternity rigorous punishments for the social virtues, will +be the strangest, the most cruel, and the most insensible of beings! + +You demand of me, perhaps, "In destroying the idea of another world, +what is to become of the remorse, those chastisements so useful to +mankind, and so well calculated to restrain them within the bounds of +propriety?" I reply, that remorse will always subsist as long as we +shall be capable of feeling its pangs, even when we cease to fear the +distant and uncertain vengeance of the Divinity. In the commission of +crimes, in allowing one's self to be the sport of passion, in injuring +our species, in refusing to do them good, in stifling pity, every man +whose reason is not totally deranged perceives clearly that he will +render himself odious to others, that he ought to fear their enmity. +He will blush, then, if he thinks he has rendered himself hateful and +detestable in their eyes. He knows the continual need he has of their +esteem and assistance. Experience proves to him that vices the most +concealed are injurious to himself. He lives in perpetual fear lest +some mishap should unfold his weaknesses and secret faults. It is from +all these ideas that we are to look for regret and remorse, even in +those who do not believe in the chimeras of another world. With regard +to those whose reason is deranged, those who are enervated by their +passions, or perhaps linked to vice by the chains of habit, even with +the prospect of hell open before them, they will neither live less +vicious nor less wicked. An avenging God will never inflict on any man +such a total want of reason as may make him regardless of public +opinion, trample decency under foot, brave the laws, and expose +himself to derision and human chastisements. Every man of sense easily +understands that in this world the esteem and affection of others are +necessary for his happiness, and that life is but a burden to those +who by their vices injure themselves, and render themselves +reprehensible in the eyes of society. + +The true means, Madam, of living happy in this world is to do good to +your fellow-creatures; to labor for the happiness of your species is +to have virtue, and with virtue we can peaceably and without remorse +approach the term which nature has fixed equally for all beings--a +term that your youth causes you now to see only at a distance--a term +that you ought not to accelerate by your fears--a term, in fine, that +the cares and desires of all those who know you will seek to put off +till, full of days and contented with the part you have played in the +scene of the world, you shall yourself desire to gently reënter the +bosom of nature. + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER VI. + + Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies of + Christianity. + + +The reflections, Madam, which I have already offered you in these +letters ought, I conceive, to have sufficed to undeceive you, in a +great measure, of the lugubrious and afflicting notions with which you +have been inspired by religious prejudices. However, to fulfil the +task which you have imposed on me, and to assist you in freeing +yourself from the unfavorable ideas you may have imbibed from a system +replete with irrelevancies and contradictions, I shall continue to +examine the strange mysteries with which Christianity is garnished. +They are founded on ideas so odd and so contrary to reason, that if +from infancy we had not been familiarized with them, we should blush +at our species in having for one instant believed and adopted them. + +The Christians, scarcely content with the crowd of enigmas with which +the books of the Jews are filled, have besides fancied they must add +to them a great many incomprehensible mysteries, for which they have +the most profound veneration. Their impenetrable obscurity appears to +be a sufficient motive among them for adding these. Their priests, +encouraged by their credulity, which nothing can outdo, seem to be +studious to multiply the articles of their faith, and the number of +inconceivable objects which they have said must be received with +submission, and adored even if not understood. + +The first of these mysteries is the _Trinity_, which supposes that one +God, self-existent, who is a pure spirit, is, nevertheless, composed +of three Divinities, which have obtained the names of _persons_. These +three Gods, who are designated under the respective names of the +_Father_, the _Son_, and the _Holy Ghost_, are, nevertheless, but one +God only. These three persons are equal in power, in wisdom, in +perfections; yet the second is subordinate to the first, in +consequence of which he was compelled to become a man, and be the +victim of the wrath of his Father. This is what the priests call the +mystery of the _incarnation_. Notwithstanding his innocence, his +perfection, his purity, the Son of God became the object of the +vengeance of a just God, who is the same as the Son in question, but +who would not consent to appease himself but by the death of his own +Son, who is a portion of himself. The Son of God, not content with +becoming man, died without having sinned, for the salvation of men who +had sinned. God preferred to the punishment of imperfect beings, whom +he did not choose to amend, the punishment of his only Son, full of +divine perfections. The death of God became necessary to reclaim the +human kind from the slavery of Satan, who without that would not have +quitted his prey, and who has been found sufficiently powerful against +the Omnipotent to oblige him to sacrifice his Son. This is what the +priests designate by the name of the mystery of _redemption_. + +It is assuredly sufficient to expose such opinions to demonstrate +their absurdity. It is evident, if there exists only a single God, +there cannot be three. We may, it is true, contemplate the Deity after +the manner of Plato, who, before the birth of Christianity, exhibited +him under three different points of view, that is to say, as all-wise, +as all-powerful, as full of reason, and as infinite in goodness; but +it was verily the excess of delirium to personify these three divine +qualities, or transform them into real beings. We can readily imagine +these moral attributes to be united in the same God, but it is +egregious folly to fashion them into three different Gods; nor will it +remedy this metaphysical polytheism to assert that these three are +one. Besides, this revery never entered the head of the Hebrew +legislator. The Eternal, in revealing himself to Moses, did not +announce himself as triple. There is not one syllable in the Old +Testament about this Trinity, although a notion so _bizarre_, so +marvellous, and so little consonant with our ideas of a divine being, +deserved to have been formally announced, especially as it is the +foundation and corner stone of the Christian religion, which was from +all eternity an object of the divine solicitude, and on the +establishment of which, if we may credit our sapient priests, God +seems to have entertained serious thoughts long before the creation of +the world. + +Nevertheless, the second person, or the second God of the Trinity, is +revealed in flesh; the Son of God is made man. But how could the pure +Spirit who presides over the universe beget a son? How could this son, +who before his incarnation was only a pure spirit, combine that +ethereal essence with a material body, and envelop himself with it? +How could the divine nature amalgamate itself with the imperfect +nature of man, and how could an immense and infinite being, as the +Deity is represented, be formed in the womb of a virgin? After what +manner could a pure spirit fecundate this favorite virgin? Did the Son +of God enjoy in the womb of his mother the faculties of omnipotence, +or was he like other children during his infancy,--weak, liable to +infirmities, sickness, and intellectual imbecility, so conspicuous in +the years of childhood; and if so, what, during this period, became of +the divine wisdom and power? In fine, how could God suffer and die? +How could a just God consent that a God exempt from all sin should +endure the chastisements which are due to sinners? Why did he not +appease himself without immolating a victim so precious and so +innocent? What would you think of that sovereign who, in the event of +his subjects rebelling against him, should forgive them all, or a +select number of them, by putting to death his only and beloved son, +who had not rebelled? + +The priests tell us that it was out of tenderness for the human kind +that God wished to accomplish this sacrifice. But I still ask if it +would not have been more simple, more conformable to all our ideas of +Deity, for God to pardon the iniquities of the human race, or to have +prevented them committing transgressions, by placing them in a +condition in which, by their own will, they should never have sinned? +According to the entire system of the Christian religion, it is +evident that God did only create the world to have an opportunity of +immolating his Son for the rebellious beings he might have formed and +preserved immaculate. The fall of the rebellious angels had no visible +end to serve but to effect and hasten the fall of Adam. It appears +from this system that God permitted the first man to sin that he might +have the pleasure of showing his goodness in sacrificing his "only +begotten Son" to reclaim men from the thraldom of Satan. He intrusted +to Satan as much power as might enable him to work the ruin of our +race, with the view of afterwards changing the projects of the great +mass of mankind, by making one God to die, and thereby destroy the +power of the Devil on the earth. + +But has God succeeded in these projects to the end he proposed? Are +men entirely rescued from the dominion of Satan? Are they not still +the slaves of sin? Do they find themselves in the happy impossibility +of kindling the divine wrath? Has the blood of the Son of God washed +away the sins of the whole world? Do those who are reclaimed, those to +whom he has made himself known, those who believe, offend not against +heaven? Has the Deity, who ought, without doubt, to be perfectly +satisfied with so memorable a sacrifice, remitted to them the +punishment of sin? Is it not necessary to do something more for them? +And since the death of his Son, do we find the Christians exempt from +disease and from death? Nothing of all this has happened. The measures +taken from all eternity by the wisdom and prescience of a God who +should find against his plans no obstacles have been overthrown. The +death of God himself has been of no utility to the world. All the +divine projects have militated against the free-will of man, but they +have not destroyed the power of Satan. Man continues to sin and to +die; the Devil keeps possession of the field of battle; and it is for +a very small number of the elect that the Deity consented to die. + +You do indeed smile, Madam, at my being obliged seriously to combat +such chimeras. If they have something of the marvellous in them, it is +quite adapted to the heads of children, not of men, and ought not to +be admitted by reasonable beings. All the notions we can form of those +things must be mysterious; yet there is no subject more demonstrable, +according to those whose interest it is to have it believed, though +they are as incapable as ourselves to comprehend the matter. For the +priests to say that they believe such absurdities, is to be guilty of +manifest falsehood; because a proposition to be believed must +necessarily be understood. To believe what they do not comprehend is +to adhere sottishly to the absurdities of others; to believe things +which are not comprehended by those who gossip about them is the +height of folly; to believe blindly the mysteries of the Christian +religion is to admit contradictions of which they who declare them are +not convinced. In fine, is it necessary to abandon one's reason among +absurdities that have been received without examination from ancient +priests, who were either the dupes of more knowing men, or themselves +the impostors who fabricated the tales in question? + +If you ask of me how men have not long ago been shocked by such absurd +and unintelligible reveries, I shall proceed, in my turn, to explain +to you this secret of the church, this mystery of our priests. It is +not necessary, in doing this, to pay any attention to those general +dispositions of man, especially when he is ignorant and incapable of +reasoning. All men are curious, inquisitive; their curiosity spurs +them on to inquiry, and their imagination busies itself to clothe with +mystery every thing the fancy conjures up as important to happiness. +The vulgar mistake even what they have the means of knowing, or, which +is the same thing, what they are least practised in they are dazzled +with; they proclaim it, accordingly, marvellous, prodigious, +extraordinary; it is a phenomenon. They neither admire nor respect +much what is always visible to their eyes; but whatever strikes their +imagination, whatever gives scope to the mind, becomes itself the +fruitful source of other ideas far more extravagant. The priests have +had the art to prevail on the people to believe in their secret +correspondence with the Deity; they have been thence much respected, +and in all countries their professed intercourse with an unseen +Divinity has given room for their announcement of things the most +marvellous and mysterious. + +Besides, the Divinity being a being whose impenetrable essence is +veiled from mortal sight, it has been commonly admitted by the +ignorant, that what could not be seen by mortal eye must necessarily +be divine. Hence _sacred_, _mysterious_, and _divine_, are synonymous +terms; and these imposing words have sufficed to place the human race +on their knees to adore what seeks not their inflated devotion. + +The three mysteries which I have examined are received unanimously by +all sects of Christians; but there are others on which the theologians +are not agreed. In fine, we see men, who, after they have admitted, +without repugnance, a certain number of absurdities, stop all of a +sudden in the way, and refuse to admit more. The Christian Protestants +are in this case. They reject, with disdain, the mysteries for which +the Church of Rome shows the greatest respect; and yet, in the matter +of mysteries, it is indeed difficult to designate the point where the +mind ought to stop. + +Seeing, then, that our doctors, better advised, undoubtedly, than +those of the Protestants, have adroitly multiplied mysteries, one is +naturally led to conclude, they despaired of governing the mind of +man, if there was any thing in their religion that was clear, +intelligible, and natural. More mysterious than the priests of Egypt +itself, they have found means to change every thing into mystery; the +very movements of the body, usages the most indifferent, ceremonies +the most frivolous, have become, in the powerful hands of the priests, +sublime and divine mysteries. In the Roman religion all is magic, all +is prodigy, all is supernatural. In the decisions of our theologians, +the side which they espouse is almost always that which is the most +abhorrent to reason, the most calculated to confound and overthrow +common sense. In consequence, our priests are by far the most rich, +powerful, and considerable. The continual want which we have of their +aid to obtain from Heaven that grace which it is their province to +bring down for us, places us in continual dependence on those +marvellous men who have received their commission to treat with the +Deity, and become the ambassadors between Heaven and us. + +Each of our sacraments envelops a great mystery. They are ceremonies +to which the Divinity, they say, attaches some secret virtue, by +unseen views, of which we can form no ideas. In _baptism_, without +which no man can be saved, the water sprinkled on the head of the +child washes his spiritual soul, and carries away the defilement which +is a consequence of the sin committed in the person of Adam, who +sinned for all men. By the mysterious virtue of this water, and of +some words equally unintelligible, the infant finds itself reconciled +to God, as his first father had made him guilty without his knowledge +and consent. In all this, Madam, you cannot, by possibility, +comprehend the complication of these mysteries, with which no +Christian can dispense, though, assuredly, there is not one believer +who knows what the virtue of the marvellous water consists in, which +is necessary for his regeneration. Nor can you conceive how the +supreme and equitable Governor of the universe could impute faults to +those who have never been guilty of transgressions. Nor can you +comprehend how a wise Deity can attach his favor to a futile ceremony, +which, without changing the nature of the being who has derived an +existence it neither commenced nor was consulted in, must, if +administered in winter, be attended with serious consequences to the +health of the child. + +In _Confirmation_, a sacrament or ceremony, which, to have any value, +ought to be administered by a bishop, the laying of the hands on the +head of the young confirmant makes the Holy Spirit descend upon him, +and procures the grace of God to uphold him in the faith. You see, +Madam, that the efficacy of this sacrament is unfortunately lost in my +person; for, although in my youth I had been duly confirmed, I have +not been preserved against smiling at this faith, nor have I been kept +invulnerable in the credence of my priests and forefathers. + +In the sacrament of _Penitence_, or confession, a ceremony which +consists in putting a priest in possession of all one's faults, public +or private, you will discover mysteries equally marvellous. In favor +of this submission, to which every good Catholic is necessarily +obliged to submit, a priest, _himself a sinner_, charged with full +powers by the Deity, pardons and remits, in His name, the sins against +which God is enraged. God reconciles himself with every man who +humbles himself before the priest, and in accordance with the orders +of the latter, he opens heaven to the wretch whom he had before +determined to exclude. If this sacrament doth not always procure +grace, very distinguishing to those who use it, it has, at all events, +the advantage of rendering them pliable to the clergy, who, by its +means, find an easy sway in their spiritual empire over the human +mind, an empire that enables them, not unfrequently, to disturb +society, and more often the repose of families, and the very +conscience of the person confessing. + +There is among the Catholics another sacrament, which contains the +most strange mysteries. It is that of the _Eucharist_. Our teachers, +under pain of being damned, enjoin us to believe that the Son of God +is compelled by a priest to quit the abodes of glory, and to come and +mask himself under the appearance of bread! This bread becomes +forthwith the body of God--this God multiplies himself in all places, +and at all times, when and where the priests, scattered over the face +of the earth, find it necessary to command his presence in the shape +of bread--yet we see only one and the same God, who receives the +homage and adoration of all those good people who find it very +ridiculous in the Egyptians to adore lupines and onions. But the +Catholics are not simply content with worshipping a bit of bread, +which they consider by the conjurations of a priest as divine; they +eat this bread, and then persuade themselves that they are nourished +by the body or substance of God himself. The Protestants, it is true, +do not admit a mystery so very odd, and regard those who do as real +idolaters. What then? This marvellous dogma is, without doubt, of the +greatest utility to the priests. In the eyes of those who admit it, +they become very important gentlemen, who have the power of disposing +of the Deity, whom they make to descend between their hands; and thus +a Catholic priest is, in fact, the creator of his God! + +There is, also, _Extreme Unction_, a sacrament which consists in +anointing with oil those sick persons who are about to depart into the +other world, and which not only soothes their bodily pains, but also +takes away the sins of their souls. If it produces these good effects, +it is an invisible and mysterious method of manifesting obvious +results; for we frequently behold sick persons have their fears of +death allayed, though the operation may but too often accelerate their +dissolution. But our priests are so full of charity, and they interest +themselves so greatly in the salvation of souls, that they like rather +to risk their own health beside the sick bed of persons afflicted with +the most contagious diseases, than lose the opportunity of +administering their salutary ointment. + +_Ordination_ is another very mysterious ceremony, by which the Deity +secretly bestows his invisible grace on those whom he has selected to +fill the office of the holy priesthood. According to the Catholic +religion, God gives to the priests the power of making God himself, as +we have shown above; a privilege which without doubt cannot be +sufficiently admired. With respect to the sensible effects of this +sacrament, and of the visible grace which it confers, they are +enabled, by the help of some words and certain ceremonies, to change a +profane man into one that is sacred; that is to say, who is not +profane any longer. By this spiritual metamorphosis, this man becomes +capable of enjoying considerable revenues without being obliged to do +any thing useful for society. On the contrary, heaven itself confers +on him the right of deceiving, of annoying, and of pillaging the +profane citizens, who labor for his ease and luxury. + +Finally, _Marriage_ is a sacrament that confers mysterious and +invisible graces, of which we in truth have no very precise ideas. +Protestants and Infidels, who look upon marriage as a civil contract, +and not as a sacrament, receive neither more nor less of its visible +grace than the good Catholics. The former see not that those who are +married enjoy by this sacrament any secret virtue, whence they may +become more constant and faithful to the engagements they have +contracted. And I believe both you and I, Madam, have known many +people on whom it has only conferred the grace of cordially detesting +each other. + +I will not now enter upon the consideration of a multitude of other +magic ceremonies, admitted by some Christian sectaries and rejected by +others, but to which the devotees who embrace them, attach the most +lofty ideas, in the firm persuasion, that God will, on that account, +visit them with his invisible grace. All these ceremonies, doubtless, +contain great mysteries, and the method of handling or speaking of +them is exceedingly mysterious. It is thus that the water on which a +priest has pronounced a few words, contained in his conjuring book, +acquires the invisible virtue of chasing away wicked spirits, who are +invisible by their nature. It is thus that the oil, on which a bishop +has muttered some certain formula, becomes capable of communicating to +men, and even to some inanimate substances, such as wood, stone, +metals, and walls, those invisible virtues which they did not +previously possess. In fine, in all the ceremonies of the church, we +discover mysteries, and the vulgar, who comprehend nothing of them, +are not the less disposed to admire, to be fascinated with, and to +respect with a blind devotion. But soon would they cease to have this +veneration for these fooleries, if they comprehended the design and +end the priests have in view by enforcing their observance. + +The priests of all nations have begun by being charlatans, castle +builders, divines, and sorcerers. We find men of these characters in +nations the most ignorant and savage, where they live by the +ignorance and credulity of others. They are regarded by their ignorant +countrymen as superior beings, endowed with supernatural gifts, +favorites of the very Gods, because the uninquiring multitude see them +perform things which they take to be mighty marvellous, or which the +ignorant have always considered marvellous. In nations the most +polished, the people are always the same; persons the most sensible +are not often of the same ideas, especially on the subject of +religion; and the priests, authorized by the ancient folly of the +multitude, continue their old tricks, and receive universal applause. + +You are not, then, to be surprised, Madam, if you still behold our +pontiffs and our priests exercise their magical rites, or rear castles +before the eyes of people prejudiced in favor of their ancient +illusions, and who attach to these mysteries a degree of consequence, +seeing they are not in a condition to comprehend the motives of the +fabricators. Every thing that is mysterious has charms for the +ignorant; the marvellous captivates all men; persons the most +enlightened find it difficult to defend themselves against these +illusions. Hence you may discover that the priests are always +opinionatively attached to these rites and ceremonies of their +worship; and it has never been without some violent revolution that +they have been diminished or abrogated. The annihilation of a trifling +ceremony has often caused rivers of blood to flow. The people have +believed themselves lost and undone when one bolder than the rest +wished to innovate in matters of religion; they have fancied that they +were to be deprived of inestimable advantages and invisible but saving +grace, which they have supposed to be attached by the Divinity himself +to some movements of the body. Priests the most adroit have +overcharged religion with ceremonies, and practices, and mysteries. +They fancied that all these were so many cords to bind the people to +their interest, to allure them by enthusiasm, and render them +necessary to their idle and luxurious existence, which is not spent +without much money extracted from the hard earnings of the people, and +much of that respect which is but the homage of slaves to spiritual +tyrants. + +You cannot any longer, I persuade myself, Madam, be made the dupe of +these holy jugglers, who impose on the vulgar by their marvellous +tales. You must now be convinced that the things which I have touched +upon as mysteries are profound absurdities, of which their inventors +can render no reasonable account either to themselves or to others. +You must now be certified that the movements of the body and other +religious ceremonies must be matters perfectly indifferent to the wise +Being whom they describe to us as the great mover of all things. You +conclude, then, that all these marvellous rites, in which our priests +announce so much mystery, and in which the people are taught to +consider the whole of religion as consisting, are nothing more than +puerilities, to which people of understanding ought never to submit. +That they are usages calculated principally to alarm the minds of the +weak, and keep in bondage those who have not the courage to throw off +the yoke of priests. I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER VII. + + Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of Christianity. + + +You now know, Madam, what you ought to attach to the mysteries and +ceremonies of that religion you propose to meditate on, and adore in +silence. I proceed now to examine some of those practices to which the +priests tell us the Deity attaches his complaisance and his favors. In +consequence of the false, sinister, contradictory, and incompatible +ideas, which all revealed religions give us of the Deity, the priests +have invented a crowd of unreasonable usages, but which are +conformable to these erroneous notions that they have framed of this +Being. God is always regarded as a man full of passion, sensible to +presents, to flatteries, and marks of submission; or rather as a +fantastic and punctilious sovereign, who is very seriously angry when +we neglect to show him that respect and obeisance which the vanity of +earthly potentates exacts from their vassals. + +It is after these notions so little agreeable to the Deity, that the +priests have conjured up a crowd of practices and strange inventions, +ridiculous, inconvenient, and often cruel; but by which they inform us +we shall merit the good favor of God, or disarm the wrath of the +Universal Lord. With some, all consists in prayers, offerings, and +sacrifices, with which they fancy God is well pleased. They forget +that a God who is good, who knows all things, has no need to be +solicited; that a God who is the author of all things has no need to +be presented with any part of his workmanship; that a God who knows +his power has no need of either flatteries or submissions, to remind +him of his grandeur, his power, or his rights; that a God who is Lord +of all has no need of offerings which belong to himself; that a God +who has no need of any thing cannot be won by presents, nor grudge to +his creatures the goods which they have received from his divine +bounty. + +For the want of making these reflections, simple as they are, all the +religions in the world are filled with an infinite number of frivolous +practices, by which men have long strove to render themselves +acceptable to the Deity. The priests who are always declared to be the +ministers, the favorites, the interpreters of God's will, have +discovered how they might most easily profit by the errors of mankind, +and the presents which they offer to the Deity. They are thence +interested to enter into the false ideas of the people, and even to +redouble the darkness of their minds. They have invented means to +please unknown powers who dispose of their fate--to excite their +devotion and their zeal for those invisible beings of whom they were +themselves the visible representatives. These priests soon perceived +that in laboring for the Gods they labored for themselves, and that +they could appropriate the major part of the presents, sacrifices, and +offerings, which were made to beings who never showed themselves in +order to claim what their devotees intended for them. + +You thus perceive, Madam, how the priests have made common cause with +the Divinity. Their policy thence obliged them to favor and increase +the errors of the human kind. They talk of this ineffable Being as of +an interested monarch, jealous, full of vanity, who gives that it may +be restored to him again; who exacts continual signs of submission and +respect; who desires, without ceasing, that men may reiterate their +marks of respect for him; who wishes to be solicited; who bestows no +grace unless it be accorded to importunity for the purpose of making +it more valuable; and, above all, who allows himself to be appeased +and propitiated by gifts from which his ministers derive the greatest +advantage. + +It is evident that it is upon these ideas borrowed from monarchical +courts here below that are founded all the practices, ceremonies, and +rites that we see established in all the religions of the earth. Each +sect has endeavored to make its God a monarch the most redoubtable, +the greatest, the most despotic, and the most selfish. The people +acquainted simply with human opinions, and full of debasement, have +adopted without examination the inventions which the Deity has shown +them as the fittest to obtain his favor and soften his wrath. The +priests fail not to adapt these practices, which they have invented, +to their own system of religion and personal interest; and the +ignorant and vulgar have allowed themselves to be blindly led by these +guides. Habit has familiarized them with things upon which they never +reason, and they make a duty of the routine which has been transmitted +to them from age to age, and from father to child. + +The infant, as soon as it can be made to understand any thing, is +taught mechanically to join its little hands in prayer. His tongue is +forced to lisp a formula which it does not comprehend, addressed to a +God which its understanding can never conceive. In the arms of its +nurse it is carried into the temple or church, where its eyes are +habituated to contemplate spectacles, ceremonies, and pretended +mysteries, of which, even when it shall have arrived at mature age, it +will still understand nothing. If at this latter period any one should +ask the reason of his conduct, or desire to know why he made this +conduct a sacred and important duty, he could give no explanation, +except that he was instructed in his tender years to respectfully +observe certain usages, which he must regard as sacred, as they were +unintelligible to him. If an attempt was made to undeceive him in +regard to these habitual futilities, either he would not listen, or +he would be irritated against whoever denied the notions rooted in +his brain. Any man who wished to lead him to good sense, and who +reasoned against the habits he had contracted, would be regarded by +him as ridiculous and extravagant, or he would repulse him as an +infidel and blasphemer, because his instructions lead him thus to +designate every man who fails to pursue the same routine as himself, +or who does not attach the same ideas as the devotee to things which +the latter has never examined. + +What horror does it not fill the Christian devotee with if you tell +him that his priest is unnecessary! What would be his surprise if you +were to prove to him, even on the principles of his religion, that the +prayers which in his infancy he had been taught to consider as the +most agreeable to his God, are unworthy and unnecessary to this Deity! +For if God knows all, what need is there to remind him of the wants of +his creatures whom he loves? If God is a father full of tenderness and +goodness, is it necessary to ask him to "give us day by day our daily +bread"? If this God, so good, foresaw the wants of his children, and +knew much better than they what they could not know of themselves, +whence is it he bids them importune him to grant them their requests? +If this God is immutable and wise, how can his creatures change the +fixed resolution of the Deity? If this God is just and good, how can +he injure us, or place us in a situation to require the use of that +prayer which entreats the Deity _not to lead us into temptation_? + +You see by this, Madam, that there is but a very small portion of what +the Christians pretend they understand and consider absolutely +necessary that accords at all with what they tell us has been dictated +by God himself. You see that the Lord's prayer itself contains many +absurdities and ideas totally contrary to those which every Christian +ought to have of his God. If you ask a Christian why he repeats +without ceasing this vain formula, on which he never reflects, he can +assign little other reason than that he was taught in his infancy to +clasp his hands, repeat words the meaning of which his priest, not +himself, is alone bound to understand. He may probably add that he has +ever been taught to consider this formula requisite, as it was the +most sacred and the most proper to merit the favor of Heaven. + +We should, without doubt, form the same judgment of that multitude of +prayers which our teachers recommend to us daily. And if we believe +them, man, to please God, ought to pass a large portion of his +existence in supplicating Heaven to pour down its blessings on him. +But if God is good, if he cherishes his creatures, if he knows their +wants, it seems superfluous to pray to him. If God changes not, he has +never promised to alter his secret decrees, or, if he has, he is +variable in his fancies, like man; to what purpose are all our +petitions to him? If God is offended with us, will he not reject +prayers which insult his goodness, his justice, and infinite wisdom? + +What motives, then, have our priests to inculcate constantly the +necessity of prayer? It is that they may thereby hold the minds of +mankind in opinions more advantageous to themselves. They represent +God to us under the traits of a monarch difficult of access, who +cannot be easily pacified, but of whom they are the ministers, the +favorites, and servants. They become intercessors between this +invisible Sovereign and his subjects of this nether world. They sell +to the ignorant their intercession with the All-powerful; they pray +for the people, and by society they are recompensed with real +advantages, with riches, honors, and ease. It is on the necessity of +prayer that our priests, our monks, and all religious men establish +their lazy existence; that they profess to win a place in heaven for +their followers and paymasters, who, without this intercession, could +neither obtain the favor of God, nor avert his chastisements and the +calamities the world is so often visited with. The prayers of the +priests are regarded as a universal remedy for all evils. All the +misfortunes of nations are laid before these spiritual guides, who +generally find public calamities a source of profit to themselves, as +it is then they are amply paid for their supposed mediation between +the Deity and his suffering creatures. They never teach the people +that these things spring from the course of nature and of laws they +cannot control. O, no. They make the world believe they are the +judgments of an angry God. The evils for which they can find no +remedy are pronounced marks of the divine wrath; they are +supernatural, and the priests must be applied to. God, whom they call +so good, appears sometimes obstinately deaf to their entreaties. Their +common Parent, so tender, appears to derange the order of nature to +manifest his anger. The God who is so just, sometimes punishes men who +cannot divine the cause of his vengeance. Then, in their distress, +they flee to the priests, who never fail to find motives for the +divine wrath. They tell them that God has been offended; that he has +been neglected; that he exacts prayers, offerings, and sacrifices; +that he requires, in order to be appeased, that his ministers should +receive more consideration, should be heard more attentively, and +should be more enriched. Without this, they announce to the vulgar +that their harvests will fail, that their fields will be inundated, +that pestilence, famine, war, and contagion will visit the earth; and +when these misfortunes have arrived, they declare they may be removed +by means of prayers. + +If fear and terror permitted men to reason, they would discover that +all the evils, as well as the good things of this life, are necessary +consequences of the order of nature. They would perceive that a wise +God, immutable in his conduct, cannot allow any thing to transpire but +according to those laws of which he is regarded as the author. They +would discover that the calamities, sterility, maladies, contagions, +and even death itself are effects as necessary as happiness, +abundance, health, and life itself. They would find that wars, wants, +and famine are often the effects of human imprudence; that they would +submit to accidents which they could not prevent, and guard against +those they could foresee; they would remedy by simple and natural +means those against which they possessed resources; and they would +undeceive themselves in regard to those supernatural means and those +useless prayers of which the experience of so many ages ought to have +disabused men, if they were capable of correcting their religious +prejudices. + +This would not, indeed, redound to the advantage of the priests, since +they would become useless if men perceived the inefficacy of their +prayers, the futility of their practices, and the absence of all +rational foundation for those exercises of piety which place the human +race upon their knees. They compel their votaries always to run down +those who discredit their pretensions. They terrify the weak minded by +frightful ideas which they hold out to them of the Deity. They forbid +them to reason; they make them deaf to reason, by conforming them to +ordinances the most out of the way, the most unreasonable, and the +most contradictory to the very principles on which they pretend to +establish them. They change practices, arbitrary in themselves, or, at +most, indifferent and useless, into important duties, which they +proclaim the most essential of all duties, and the most sacred and +moral. They know that man ceases to reason in proportion as he +suffers or is wretched. Hence, if he experiences real misfortunes, the +priests make sure of him; if he is not unfortunate they menace him; +they create imaginary fears and troubles. + +In fine, Madam, when you wish to examine with your own eyes, and not +by the help of the pretensions set up and imposed on you by the +ministers of religion, you will be compelled to acknowledge the things +we have been considering as useful to the priests alone; they are +useless to the Deity, and to society they are often very obviously +pernicious. Of what utility can it be in any family to behold an +excess of devotion in the mother of that family? One would suppose it +is not necessary for a lady to pass all her time in prayers and in +meditations, to the neglect of other duties. Much less is it the part +of a Catholic mother to be closeted in mystic conversation with her +priest. Will her husband, her children, and her friends applaud her +who loses most of her time in prayers, and meditations, and practices, +which can tend only to render her sour, unhappy, and discontented? +Would it not be much better that a father or a mother of a family +should be occupied with what belonged to their domestic affairs than +to spend their time in masses, in hearing sermons, in meditating on +mysterious and unintelligible dogmas, or boasting about exercises of +piety that tend to nothing? + +Madam, do you not find in the country you inhabit a great many +devotees who are sunk in debt, whose fortune is squandered away on +priests, and who are incapable of retrieving it? Content to put their +conscience to rights on religious matters, they neither trouble +themselves about the education of their children, nor the arrangement +of their fortune, nor the discharge of their debts. Such men as would +be thrown into despair did they omit one mass, will consent to leave +their creditors without their money, ruined by their negligence as +much as by their principles. In truth, Madam, on what side soever you +survey this religion, you will find it good for nothing. + +What shall we say of those fêtes which are so multiplied amongst us? +Are they not evidently pernicious to society? Are not all days the +same to the Eternal? Are there _gala_ days in heaven? Can God be +honored by the business of an artisan or a merchant, who, in place of +earning bread on which his family may subsist, squanders away his time +in the church, and afterwards goes to spend his money in the public +house? It is necessary, the priests will tell you, for man to have +repose. But will he not seek repose when he is fatigued by the labor +of his hands? Is it not more necessary that every man should labor in +his vocation than go to a temple to chant over a service which +benefits only the priests, or hear a sermon of which he can understand +nothing? And do not such as find great scruple in doing a necessary +labor on Sunday frequently sit down and get drunk on that day, +consuming in a few hours the receipts of their week's labor? But it +is for the interest of the clergy that all other shops should be shut +when theirs are open. We may thence easily discover why fêtes are +necessary. + +Is it not contrary to all the notions which we can form of the +goodness and wisdom of the Divinity, that religion should form into +duties both abstinence and privations, or that penitences and +austerities should be the sole proofs of virtue? What should be said +of a father who should place his children at a table loaded with the +fruits of the earth, but who, nevertheless, should debar them from +touching certain of them, though both nature and reason dictated their +use and nutriment? Can we, then, suppose that a Deity wise and good +interdicts to his creatures the enjoyment of innocent pleasures, which +may contribute to render life agreeable, or that a God who has created +all things, every object the most desirable to the nourishment and +health of man, should nevertheless forbid him their use? The Christian +religion appears to doom its votaries to the punishment of Tantalus. +The most part of the superstitions in the world have made of God a +capricious and jealous sovereign, who amuses himself by tempting the +passions and exciting the desires of his slaves, without permitting +them the gratification of the one or the enjoyment of the other. We +see among all sects the portraiture of a chagrined Deity, the enemy of +innocent amusements, and offended at the well being of his creatures. +We see in all countries many men so foolish as to imagine they will +merit heaven by fighting against their nature, refusing the goods of +fortune, and tormenting themselves under an idea that they will +thereby render themselves agreeable to God. Especially do they believe +that they will by these means disarm the fury of God, and prevent the +inflictions of his chastisements, if they immolate themselves to a +being who always requires victims. + +We find these atrocious, fanatical, and senseless ideas in the +Christian religion, which supposes its God as cruel to exact +sufferings from men as death from his only Son. If a God exempt from +all sin is himself also the sufferer for the sins of all, which is the +doctrine of those who maintain universal redemption, it is not +surprising to see men that are sinners making it a duty to assemble in +large meetings, and invent the means of rendering themselves +miserable. These gloomy notions have banished men to the desert. They +have fanatically renounced society and the pleasures of life, to be +buried alive, believing they would merit heaven if they afflicted +themselves with stripes and passed their existence in mummical +ceremonies, as injurious to their health as useless to their country. +And these are the false ideas by which the Divinity is transformed +into a tyrant as barbarous as insensible, who, agreeably to +_priestcraft_, has prescribed how both men and women might live in +ennui, penitence, sorrow, and tears; for the perfection of monastic +institutions consists in the ingenious art of self-torture. But +sacerdotal pride finds its account in these austerities. Rigid monks +glory in barbarous rules, the observance of which attracts the respect +of the credulous, who imagine that men who torment themselves are +indeed the favorites of heaven. But these monks, who follow these +austere rules, are fanatics, who sacrifice themselves to the pride of +the clergy who live in luxury and in wealth, although their duped, +imbecile brethren have been known to make it a point of honor to die +of famine. + +How often, Madam, has your attention not been aroused when you +recalled to mind the fate of the poor religious men of the desert, +whom an unnecessary vow has condemned, as it were voluntarily, to a +life as rigorous as if spent in a prison! Seduced by the enthusiasm of +youth, or forced by the orders of inhuman parents, they have been +obliged to carry to the tomb the chains of their captivity. They have +been obliged to submit without appeal to a stern superior, who finds +no consolation in the discharge of his slavish task but in making his +empire more hard to those beneath him. You have seen unfortunate young +ladies obliged to renounce their rank in society, the innocent +pleasures of youth, the joys of their sex, to groan forever under a +rigorous despotism, to which indiscreet vows had bound them. All +monasteries present to us an odious group of fanatics, who have +separated themselves from society to pass the remainder of their lives +in unhappiness. The society of these devotees is calculated solely to +render their lives mutually more unsupportable. But it seems strange +that men should expect to merit heaven by suffering the torments of +hell on earth; yet so it is, and reason has too often proved +insufficient to convince them of the contrary. + +If this religion does not call all Christians to these sublime +perfections, it nevertheless enjoins on all its votaries suffering and +mortifying of the body. The church prescribes privations to all her +children, and abstinences and fasts; these things they practise among +us as duties; and the devotees imagine they render themselves very +agreeable to the Divinity when they have scrupulously fulfilled those +minute and puerile practices, by which they tell us that the priests +have proof whether their patience and obedience be such as are +dictated by and acceptable to Heaven. What a ridiculous idea is it, +for example, to make of the Deity a trio of persons; to teach the +faithful that this Deity takes notice of what kinds of food his people +eat; that he is displeased if they eat beef or mutton, but that he is +delighted if they eat beans and fish! In good sooth, Madam, our +priests, who sometimes give us very lofty ideas of God, please +themselves but too often with making him strangely contemptible! + +The life of a good Christian or of a devotee is crowded with a host of +useless practices, which would be at least pardonable if they procured +any good for society. But it is not for that purpose that our priests +make so much ado about them; they only wish to have submissive slaves, +sufficiently blind to respect their caprices as the orders of a wise +God; sufficiently stupid to regard all their practices as divine +duties, and they who scrupulously observe them as the real favorites +of the Omnipotent. What good can there result to the world from the +abstinence of meats, so much enjoined on some Christians, especially +when other Christians judge this injunction a very ridiculous law, and +contrary to reason and the order of things established in nature? It +is not difficult to perceive amongst us that this injunction, openly +violated by the rich, is an oppression on the poor, who are compelled +to pay dearly for an indifferent, often an unwholesome diet, that +injures rather than repairs the natural strength of their +constitution. Besides, do not the priests sell this permission to the +rich, to transgress an injunction the poor must not violate with +impunity? In fine, they seem to have multiplied our practices, our +duties, and our tortures, to have the advantage of multiplying our +faults, and making a good bargain out of our pretended crimes. + +The more we examine religion the more reason shall we have to be +convinced that it is beneficial to the _priests alone_. Every part of +this religion conspires to render us submissive to the fantasies of +our spiritual guides, to labor for their grandeur, to contribute to +their riches. They appoint us to perform disadvantageous duties; they +prescribe impossible perfections, purposely that we may transgress; +they have thereby engendered in pious minds scruples and difficulties +which they condescendingly appease for money. A devotee is obliged to +observe, without ceasing, the useless and frivolous rules of his +priest, and even then he is subject to continual reproaches; he is +perpetually in want of his priest to expiate his pretended faults with +which he charges himself, and the omission of duties that he regards +as the most important acts of his life, but which are rarely such as +interest society or benefit it by their performance. By a train of +religious prejudices with which the priests infect the mind of their +weak devotees, these believe themselves infinitely more culpable when +they have omitted some useless practice, than if they had committed +some great injustice or atrocious sin against humanity. It is commonly +sufficient for the devotees to be on good terms with God, whether they +be consistent in their actions with man, or in the practice of those +duties they owe to their fellow beings. + +Besides, Madam, what real advantage does society derive from repeated +prayers, abstinences, privations, seclusions, meditations, and +austerities, to which religion attaches so much value? Do all the +mysterious practices of the priests produce any real good? Are they +capable of calming the passions, of correcting vices, and of giving +virtue to those who most scrupulously observe them? Do we not daily +see persons who believe themselves damned if they forget a mass, if +they eat a fowl on Friday, if they neglect a confession, though they +are guilty at the same time of great dereliction to society? Do they +not hold the conduct of those very unjust, and very cruel, who happen +to have the misfortune of not thinking and doing as they think and +act? These practices, out of which a great number of men have created +essential duties, but too commonly absorb all moral duties; for if the +devotees are over-religious, it is rare to find them virtuous. Content +with doing what religion requires, they trouble themselves very little +about other matters. They believe themselves the favored of God, and +that it is a proof of this if they are detested by men, whose good +opinion they are seldom anxious to deserve. The whole life of a +devotee is spent in fulfilling, with scrupulous exactitude, duties +indifferent to God, unnecessary to himself, and useless to others. He +fancies he is virtuous when he has performed the rites which his +religion prescribes; when he has meditated on mysteries of which he +understands nothing; when he has struggled with sadness to do things +in which a man of sense can perceive no advantage; in fine, when he +has endeavored to practise, as much as in him lies, the Evangelical or +Christian virtues, in which he thinks all morality essentially +consists. + +I shall proceed in my next letter to examine these virtues, and to +prove to you that they are contrary to the ideas we ought to form of +God, useless to ourselves, and often dangerous to others. In the mean +time, I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER VIII. + + Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection. + + +If we believe the priests, we shall be persuaded, that the Christian +religion, by the beauty of its morals, excels philosophy and all the +other religious systems in the world. According to them, the +unassisted reason of the human mind could never have conceived sounder +doctrines of morality, more heroical virtues, or precepts more +beneficial to society. But this is not all; the virtues known or +practised among the heathens are considered as _false virtues_; far +from deserving our esteem, and the favor of the Almighty, they are +entitled to nothing but contempt; and, indeed, are _flagrant sins_ in +the sight of God. In short, the priests labor to convince us, that the +Christian ethics are purely divine, and the lessons inculcated so +sublime, that they could proceed from nothing less than the Deity. + +If, indeed, we call that divine which men can neither conceive nor +perform; if by divine virtues we are to understand virtues to which +the mind of man cannot possibly attach the least idea of utility; if +by divine perfections are meant those qualities which are not only +foreign to the nature of man, but which are irreconcilably repugnant +to it,--then, indeed, we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the +morals of Christianity are divine; at least we shall be assured that +they have nothing in common with that system of morality which arises +out of the nature and relations of men, but on the contrary, that +they, in many instances, confound the best conceptions we are able to +form of virtue. + +Guided by the light of reason, we comprehend under the name of virtue +those habitual dispositions of the heart which tend to the happiness +and the real advantage of those with whom we associate, and by the +exercise of which our fellow-creatures are induced to feel a +reciprocal interest in our welfare. Under the Christian system the +name of virtues is bestowed upon dispositions which it is impossible +to possess without supernatural grace; and which, when possessed, are +useless, if not injurious, both to ourselves and others. The morality +of Christians is, in good truth, the morality of another world. Like +the philosopher of antiquity, they keep their eyes fixed upon the +stars till they fall into a well, unperceived, at their feet. The only +object which their scheme of morals proposes to itself is, to disgust +their minds with the things of this world, in order that they may +place their entire affections upon things above, of which they have no +knowledge whatever; their happiness here below forms no part of their +consideration; this life, in the view of a Christian, is nothing but a +pilgrimage, leading to another existence, infinitely more interesting +to his hopes, because infinitely beyond the reach of his +understanding. Besides, before we can deserve to be happy in the +world which we do not know, we are informed that we must be miserable +in the world which we do know; and, above all things, in order to +secure to ourselves happiness hereafter, it is especially necessary +that we altogether resign the use of our own reason; that is to say, +we must seal up our eyes in utter darkness, and surrender ourselves to +the guidance of our priests. These are the principles upon which the +fabric of Christian morals is evidently constructed. + +Let us now proceed, Madam, to a more detailed examination of the +virtues upon which the Christian religion is built. These virtues are +Evangelical, &c. If destitute of them, we are assured that it is in +vain for us to seek the favor of the Deity. + +Of these virtues the first is FAITH. According to the doctrine of the +church, faith is the gift of God, a supernatural virtue, by means of +which we are inspired with a firm belief in God, and in all that he +has vouchsafed to reveal to man, although our reason is utterly unable +to comprehend it. Faith is, says the church, founded upon the word of +God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Thus faith supposes, +that God has spoken to man--but what evidence have we that God has +spoken to man? The Holy Scriptures. Who is it that assures us the Holy +Scriptures contain the word of God? It is the church. But who is it +that assures us the church cannot and will not deceive us? The Holy +Scriptures. Thus the Scriptures bear witness to the infallibility of +the church--and the church, in return, testifies the truth of the +Scriptures. From this statement of the case, you must perceive, that +faith is nothing more than an implicit belief in the priests, whose +assurances we adopt as the foundation of opinions in themselves +incomprehensible. It is true, that as a confirmation of the truth of +Scripture, we are referred to miracles--but it is these identical +Scriptures which report to us and testify of those very miracles. Of +the absolute impossibility of any miracles, I flatter myself that I +have already convinced you. + +Besides, I cannot but think, Madam, that you must be, by this time, +thoroughly satisfied how absurd it is to say that the understanding is +convinced of any thing which it does not comprehend; the insight I +have given you into the books which the Christians call sacred, must +have left upon your mind a firm persuasion, that they never could have +proceeded from a wise, a good, an omniscient, a just, and all-powerful +God. If, then, we cannot yield them a real belief, what we call faith +can be nothing more than a blind and irrational adherence to a system +devised by priests, whose crafty selfishness has made them careful +from the earliest infancy to fill our tender minds with prepossessions +in favor of doctrines which they judged favorable to their own +interests. Interested, however, as they are in the opinions which they +endeavor to force upon us as truth, is it possible for these priests +to believe them themselves? Unquestionably not--the thing is out of +nature. They are men like ourselves, furnished with the same +faculties, and neither they nor we can be convinced of any thing which +lies equally beyond the scope of us all. If they possessed an +additional sense, we should perhaps allow that they might comprehend +what is unintelligible to us; but as we clearly see that they have no +intellectual privileges above the rest of the species, we are +compelled to conclude, that their faith, like the faith of other +Christians, is a blind acquiescence in opinions derived, without +examination, from their predecessors; and that they must be hypocrites +when they pretend to _believe_ in doctrines of the truth of which they +cannot be _convinced_, since these doctrines have been shown to be +destitute of that degree of evidence which is necessary to impress the +mind with a feeling of their probability, much less of their +certainty. + +It will be said that faith, or the faculty of believing things +incredible, is the gift of God, and can only be known to those upon +whom God has bestowed the favor. My answer is, that, if that be the +case, we have no alternative but to wait till the grace of God shall +be shed upon us--and that in the mean time we may be allowed to doubt +whether credulity, stupidity, and the perversion of reason can +proceed, as favors, from a rational Deity who has endowed us with the +power of thinking. If God be infinitely wise, how can folly and +imbecility be pleasing to him? If there were such a thing as faith, +proceeding from grace, it would be the privilege of seeing things +otherwise than as God has made them; and if that were so, it follows, +that the whole creation would be a mere cheat. No man can believe the +Bible to be the production of God without doing violence to every +consistent notion that he is able to form of Deity! No man can believe +that one God is three Gods, and that those three Gods are one God, +without renouncing all pretension to common sense, and persuading +himself that there is no such thing as certainty in the world. + +Thus, Madam, we are bound to suspect that what the church calls a gift +from above, a supernatural grace, is, in fact, a perfect blindness, an +irrational credulity, a brutish submission, a vague uncertainty, a +stupid ignorance, by which we are led to acquiesce, without +investigation, in every dogma that our priests think fit to impose +upon us--by which we are led to adopt, without knowing why, the +pretended opinions of men who can have no better means of arriving at +the truth than we have. In short, we are authorized in suspecting that +no motive but that of blinding us, in order more effectually to +deceive us, can actuate those men who are eternally preaching to us +about a virtue which, if it could exist, would throw into utter +confusion the simplest and clearest perceptions of the human mind. + +This supposition is amply confirmed by the conduct of our +ecclesiastics--forgetting what they have told us, that grace is the +gratuitous present of God, bestowed or withheld at his sovereign +pleasure, they nevertheless indulge their wrath against all those who +have not received the gift of faith; they keep up one incessant +anathema against all unbelievers, and nothing less than absolute +extermination of heresy can appease their anger wherever they have the +strength to accomplish it. So that heretics and unbelievers are made +accountable for the grace of God, although they never received it; +they are punished in this world for those advantages which God has not +been pleased to extend to them in their journey to the next. In the +estimation of priests and devotees, the want of faith is the most +unpardonable of all offences--it is precisely that offence which, in +the cruelty of their absurd injustice, they visit with the last rigors +of punishment, for you cannot be ignorant, Madam, that in all +countries where the clergy possess sufficient influence, the flames of +priestly charity are lighted up to consume all those who are deficient +in the prescribed allowance of faith. + +When we inquire the motive for their unjust and senseless proceedings, +we are told that faith is the most necessary of all things, that faith +is of the most essential service to morals, that without faith a man +is a dangerous and wicked wretch, a pest to society. And, after all, +is it our own choice to have faith? Can we believe just what we +please? Does it depend upon ourselves not to think a proposition +absurd which our understanding shows us to be absurd? How could we +avoid receiving, in our infancy, whatever impressions and opinions +our teachers and relations chose to implant in us? And where is the +man who can boast that he has faith--that he is fully convinced of +mysteries which he cannot conceive, and wonders which he cannot +comprehend? + +Under these circumstances how can faith be serviceable to morals? If +no one can have faith but upon the assurance of another, and +consequently cannot entertain a real conviction, what becomes of the +social virtues? Admitting that faith were possible, what connection +can exist between such occult speculations and the manifest duties of +mankind, duties which are palpable to every one who, in the least, +consults his reason, his interest, or the welfare of the society to +which he belongs? Before I can be satisfied of the advantages of +justice, temperance, and benevolence, must I first believe in the +Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and all the fables of the Old +Testament? If I believe in all the atrocious murders attributed by the +Bible to that God whom I am bound to consider as the fountain of +justice, wisdom, and goodness, is it not likely that I shall feel +encouraged to the commission of crimes when I find them sanctioned by +such an example? Although unable to discover the value of so many +mysteries which I cannot understand, or of so many fanciful and +cumbersome ceremonies prescribed by the church, am I, on that account, +to be denounced as a more dangerous citizen than those who persecute, +torment, and destroy every one of their fellow-creatures who does not +think and act at their dictation? The evident result of all these +considerations must be, that he who has a lively faith and a blind +zeal for opinions contradictory to common sense, is more irrational, +and consequently more wicked than the man whose mind is untainted by +such detestable doctrines; for when once the priests have gained their +fatal ascendency over his mind, and have persuaded him that, by +committing all sorts of enormities, he is doing the work of the Lord, +there can be no doubt that he will make greater havoc in the happiness +of the world, than the man whose reason tells him that such excesses +cannot be acceptable in the sight of God. + +The advocates of the church will here interrupt me, by alleging that +if divested of those sentiments which religion inspires, men would no +longer live under the influence of motives strong enough to induce an +abstinence from vice, or to urge them on in the career of virtue when +obstructed by painful sacrifices. In a word, it will be affirmed that +unless men are convinced of the existence of an avenging and +remunerating God, they are released from every motive to fulfil their +duties to each other in the present life. + +You are, doubtless, Madam, quite sensible of the futility of such +pretences, put forth by priests who, in order to render themselves +more necessary, are indefatigable in endeavoring to persuade us that +their system is indispensable to the maintenance of social order. To +annihilate their sophistries it is sufficient to reflect upon the +nature of man, his true interests, and the end for which society is +formed. Man is a feeble being, whose necessities render him constantly +dependent upon the support of others, whether it be for the +preservation or the pleasure of his existence; he has no means of +interesting others in his welfare except by his manner of conducting +himself towards them; that conduct which renders him an object of +affection to others is called virtue--whatever is pernicious to +society is called crime--and where the consequences are injurious only +to the individual himself, it is called vice. Thus every man must +immediately perceive that he consults his own happiness by advancing +that of others--that vices, however cautiously disguised from public +observation, are, nevertheless, fraught with ruin to him who practises +them--and that crimes are sure to render the perpetrator odious or +contemptible in the eyes of his associates, who are necessary to his +own happiness. In short, education, public opinion, and the laws point +out to us our mutual duties much more clearly than the chimeras of an +incomprehensible religion. + +Every man on consulting with himself will feel indubitably that he +desires his own conservation; experience will teach him both what he +ought to do and what to avoid to arrive at this end; in consequence he +will shrink from those excesses which endanger his being; he will +debar himself from those gratifications which in their course would +render his existence miserable; and he would make sacrifices, if it +was necessary, in the view of procuring himself advantages more real +than those of which he momentarily deprived himself. Thus he would +know what he owes to himself and what he owes to others. + +Here, Madam, you have a short but perfect summary of all morals, +derived, as they must be, from the nature of man, the uniform +experience and the universal reason of mankind. These precepts are +compulsory upon our minds, for they show us that the consequences of +our conduct flow from our actions with as natural and inevitable a +certainty as the return of a stone to the earth after the impetus is +exhausted which detained it in the air. It is natural and inevitable +that the man who employs himself in doing good must be preferred to +the man who does mischief. Every thinking being must be penetrated +with the truth of this incontrovertible maxim, and all the ponderous +volumes of theology that ever were composed can add nothing to the +force of his conviction; every thinking being will, therefore, avoid a +conduct calculated to injure either himself or others; he will feel +himself under the necessity of doing good to others, as the only +method of obtaining solid happiness for himself, and of conciliating +to himself those sentiments on the part of others, without which he +could derive no charms from society. + +You perceive, then, Madam, that _faith_ cannot in any manner +contribute to the correction of social conduct, and you will feel +that the popular supernatural notions cannot add any thing to the +obligations that our nature imposes upon us. In fact, the more +mysterious and incomprehensible are the dogmas of the church, the more +likely are they to draw us aside from the plain dictates of Nature and +the straight-forward directions of Reason, whose voice is incapable of +misleading us. A candid survey of the causes which produce an infinity +of evils that afflict society will quickly point out the speculative +tenets of theology as their most fruitful source. The intoxication of +enthusiasm and the frenzy of fanaticism concur in overpowering reason, +and by rendering men blind and unreflecting, convert them into enemies +both of themselves and the rest of the world. It is impossible for the +worshippers of a tyrannical, partial, and cruel God to practise the +duties of justice and philanthropy. As soon as the priests have +succeeded in stifling within us the commands of Reason, they have +already converted us into slaves, in whom they can kindle whatever +passions it may please them to inspire us with. + +Their interest, indeed, requires that we should be slaves. They exact +from us the surrender of our reason, because our reason contradicts +their impostures, and would ruin their plans of aggrandizement. Faith +is the instrument by which they enslave us and make us subservient to +their own ambition. Hence arises their zeal for the propagation of the +faith; hence arises their implacable hostility to science, and to all +those who refuse submission to their yoke; hence arises their +incessant endeavor to establish the dominion of Faith, (that is to +say, their own dominion,) even by fire and sword, the only arguments +they condescend to employ. + +It must be confessed that society derives but little advantage from +this supernatural faith which the church has exalted into the first of +virtues. As it regards God, it is perfectly useless to him, since if +he wishes mankind to be convinced, it is sufficient that he wills them +to be so. It is utterly unworthy of the supreme wisdom of God, who +cannot exhibit himself to mortals in a manner contradictory to the +reason with which he has endowed them. It is unworthy of the divine +justice, which cannot require from mankind to be convinced of that +which they cannot understand. It denies the very existence of God +himself, by inculcating a belief totally subversive of the only +rational idea we are able to form of the Divinity. + +As it regards morality, faith is also useless. Faith cannot render it +either more sacred or more necessary than it already is by its own +inherent essence, and by the nature of man. Faith is not only useless, +but injurious to society, since, under the plea of its pretended +necessity, it frequently fills the world with deplorable troubles and +horrid crimes. In short, faith is self-contradictory, since by it we +are required to believe in things inconsistent with each other, and +even incompatible with the principles laid down in the books which we +have already investigated, and which contain what we are commanded to +believe. + +To whom, then, is faith found to be advantageous? To a few men, only, +who, availing themselves of its influence to degrade the human mind, +contrive to render the labor of the whole world tributary to their own +luxury, splendor, and power. Are the nations of the earth any happier +for their faith, or their blind reliance on priests? Certainly not. We +do not there find more morality, more virtue, more industry, or more +happiness; but, on the contrary, wherever the priests are powerful, +there the people are sure to be found abject in their minds and +squalid in their condition. + +But Hope--Hope, the second in order of the Christian perfections, is +ever at hand to console us for the evils inflicted by Faith. We are +commanded to be firmly convinced that those who have faith, that is to +say, those who believe in priests, shall be amply rewarded in the +other world for their meritorious submission in this. Thus hope is +founded on faith, in the same manner as faith is established upon +hope; faith enjoins us to entertain a devout hope that our faith will +be rewarded. And what is it we are told to hope for? For unspeakable +benefits; that is, benefits for which language contains no expression. +So that, after all, we know not what it is we are to hope for. And how +can we feel a hope or even a wish for any object that is undefinable? +How can priests incessantly speak to us of things of which they, at +the same time, acknowledge it is impossible for us to form any ideas? + +It thus appears that hope and faith have one common foundation; the +same blow which overturns the one necessarily levels the other with +the ground. But let us pause a moment, and endeavor to discover the +advantages of Christian hope amongst men. It encourages to the +practice of virtue; it supports the unfortunate under the stroke of +affliction; and consoles the believer in the hour of adversity. But +what encouragement, what support, what consolation can be imparted to +the mind from these undefined and undefinable shadows? No one, indeed, +will deny that hope is sufficiently useful to the priests, who never +fail to call in its assistance for the vindication of Providence, +whenever any of the elect have occasion to complain of the unmerited +hardship or the transient injustice of his dispensations. Besides, +these priests, notwithstanding their beautiful systems, find +themselves unable to fulfil the high-sounding promises they so +liberally make to all the faithful, and are frequently at a loss to +explain the evils which they bring upon their flocks by means of the +quarrels they engage in, and the false notions of religion they +entertain; on these occasions the priests have a standing appeal to +hope, telling their dupes that man was not created for this world, +that heaven is his home, and that his sufferings here will be +counterbalanced by indescribable bliss hereafter. Thus, like quacks, +whose nostrums have ruined the health of their patients, they have +still left to themselves the advantage of selling hopes to those whom +they know themselves unable to cure. Our priests resemble some of our +physicians, who begin by frightening us into our complaints, in order +that they may make us customers for the hopes which they afterwards +sell to us for their weight in gold. This traffic constitutes, in +reality, all that is called religion. + +The third of the Christian virtues is Charity; that is, to love God +above all things, and our neighbors as ourselves. But before we are +required to love God above all things, it seems reasonable that +religion should condescend to represent him as worthy of our love. In +good faith, Madam, is it possible to feel that the God of the +Christians is entitled to our love? Is it possible to feel any other +sentiments than those of aversion towards a partial, capricious, +cruel, revengeful, jealous, and sanguinary tyrant? How can we +sincerely love the most terrible of beings,--the living God, into +whose hands it is dreadful to think of falling,--the God who can +consign to eternal damnation those very creatures who, without his own +consent, would never have existed? Are our theologians aware of what +they say, when they tell us that the fear of God is the fear of a +child for its parent, which is mingled with love? Are we not bound to +hate, can we by any means avoid detesting, a barbarous father, whose +injustice is so boundless as to punish the whole human race, though +innocent, in order to revenge himself upon two individuals for the sin +of the apple, which sin he himself might have prevented if he had +thought proper? In short, Madam, it is a physical impossibility to +love above all things a God whose whole conduct, as described in the +Bible, fills us with a freezing horror. If, therefore, the love of +God, as the Jansenists assert, is indispensable to salvation, we +cannot wonder to find that the elect are so few. Indeed, there are not +many persons who can restrain themselves from hating this God; and the +doctrine of the Jesuits is, that to abstain from hating him is +sufficient for salvation. The power of loving a God whom religion +paints as the most detestable of beings would, doubtless, be a proof +of the most supernatural grace, that is, a grace the most contrary to +nature; to love that which we do not know, is, assuredly, sufficiently +difficult; to love that which we fear, is still more difficult; but to +love that which is exhibited to us in the most repulsive colors, is +manifestly impossible. + +We must, after all this, be thoroughly convinced that, except by means +of an invisible grace never communicated to the profane, no Christian +in his sober senses can love his God; even those devotees who pretend +to that happiness are apt to deceive themselves; their conduct +resembles that of hypocritical flatterers, who, in order to ingratiate +themselves with an odious tyrant, or to escape his resentment, make +every profession of attachment, whilst, at the bottom of their +hearts, they execrate him; or, on the other hand, they must be +condemned as enthusiasts, who, by means of a heated imagination, +become the dupes of their own illusions, and only view the favorable +side of a God declared to be the fountain of all good, yet, +nevertheless, constantly delineated to us with every feature of +wickedness. Devotees, when sincere, are like women given up to the +infatuation of a blind passion by which they are enamoured with lovers +rejected by the rest of the sex as unworthy of their affection. It was +said by Madame de Sévigné that she loved God as a perfectly well-bred +gentleman, with whom she had never been acquainted. But can the God of +the Christians be esteemed a well-bred gentleman? Unless her head was +turned, one would think that she must have been cured of her passion +by the slightest reference to her imaginary lover's portrait as drawn +in the Bible, or as it is spread upon the canvas of our theological +artists. + +With regard to the love of our neighbor, where was the necessity of +religion to teach us our duty, which as men we cannot but feel, of +cherishing sentiments of good will towards each other? It is only by +showing in our conduct an affectionate disposition to others that we +can produce in them correspondent feelings towards ourselves. The +simple circumstance of being men is quite sufficient to give us a +claim upon the heart of every man who is susceptible of the sweet +sensibilities of our nature. Who is better acquainted than yourself, +Madam, with this truth? Does not your compassionate soul experience at +every moment the delightful satisfaction of solacing the unhappy? +Setting aside the superfluous precepts of religion, think you that you +could by any efforts steel your heart against the tears of the +unfortunate? Is it not by rendering our fellow-creatures happy that we +establish an empire in their hearts? Enjoy, then, Madam, this +delightful sovereignty; continue to bless with your beneficence all +that surround you; the consciousness of being the dispenser of so much +good will always sustain your mind with the most gratifying +self-applause; those who have received your kindness will reward you +with their blessings, and afford you the tribute of affection which +mankind are ever eager to lay at the feet of their benefactors. + +Christianity, not satisfied with recommending the love of our +neighbor, superadds the injunction of loving our enemies. This +precept, attributed to the Son of God himself, forms the ground on +which our divines claim for their religion a superiority of moral +doctrine over all that the philosophers of antiquity were known to +teach. Let us, therefore, examine how far this precept admits of being +reduced to practice. True, an elevated mind may easily place itself +above a sense of injuries; a noble spirit retains no resentful +recollections; a great soul revenges itself by a generous clemency; +but it is an absurd contradiction to require that a man shall +entertain feelings of tenderness and regard for those whom he knows +to be bent on his destruction; this love of our enemies, which +Christianity is so vain of having promulgated, turns out, then, to be +an impracticable commandment, belied and denied by every Christian at +every moment of his life. How preposterous to talk of loving that +which annoys us!--of cherishing an attachment for that which gives us +pain!--of receiving an outrage with joy!--of loving those who subject +us to misery and suffering! No; in the midst of these trials our +firmness may perhaps be strengthened by the hope of a reward +hereafter; but it is a mere fallacy to talk of our entertaining a +sincere love for those whom we deem the authors of our afflictions; +the least that we can do is to avoid them, which will not be looked +upon as a very strong indication of our love. + +Notwithstanding the solemn formality with which the Christian religion +obtrudes upon us these vaunted precepts of love of our neighbor, love +of our enemies, and forgiveness of injuries, it cannot escape the +observation of the weakest among us, that those very men who are the +loudest in praising are also the first and most constant in violating +them. Our priests especially seem to consider themselves exempt from +the troublesome necessity of adopting for their own conduct a too +literal interpretation of this divine law. They have invented a most +convenient salvo, since they affect to exclude all those who do not +profess to think as they dictate, not only from the kindness of +neighbors, but even from the rights of fellow-creatures. On this +principle they defame, persecute, and destroy every one who displeases +them. When do you see a priest forgive? When revenge is out of his +reach! But it is never their own injuries they punish; it is never +their own enemies they seek to exterminate. Their disinterested +indignation burns with resentment against the enemies of the Most +High, who, without their assistance, would be incapable of adjusting +his own quarrels! By an unaccountable coincidence, however, it is sure +to happen that the enemies of the church are the enemies of the Most +High, who never fails to make common cause with the ministers of the +faith, and who would take it extremely ill if his ministers should +relax in the measure of punishment due to their common enemy. Thus our +priests are cruel and revengeful from pure zeal; they would ardently +wish to forgive their own enemies, but how could they justify +themselves to the God of Mercies if they extended the least indulgence +to his enemies? + +A true Christian loves the Creator above all things, and consequently +he must love him in preference to the creature. We feel a lively +interest in every thing that concerns the object of our love; from all +which, it follows that we must evince our zeal, and even, when +necessary, we must not hesitate to exterminate our neighbor, if he +says or does what is displeasing or injurious to God. In such a case, +indifference would be criminal; a sincere love of God breaks out into +a holy ardor in his cause, and our merit rises in proportion to our +violence. + +These notions, absurd as they are, have been sufficient in every age +to produce in the world a multitude of crimes, extravagances, and +follies, the legitimate offspring of a religious zeal. Infatuated +fanatics, exasperated by priests against each other, have been driven +into mutual hatred, persecution, and destruction; they have thought +themselves called upon to avenge the Almighty; they have carried their +insane delusions so far as to persuade themselves that the God of +clemency and goodness could look on with pleasure while they murdered +their brethren; in the astonishing blindness of their stupidity, they +have imagined that in defending the temporalities of the church, they +were defending God himself. In pursuance of these errors, contradicted +even by the description which they themselves give us of the Divinity, +the priests of every age have found means to introduce confusion into +the peaceful habitations of men, and to destroy all who dared to +resist their tyranny. Under the laughable idea of revenging the +all-powerful Creator, these priests have discovered the secret of +revenging themselves, and that, too, without drawing down upon +themselves the hatred and execration so justly due to their vindictive +fury and unfeeling selfishness. In the name of the God of nature, they +stifled the voice of nature in the breasts of men; in the name of the +God of goodness, they incited men to the fury of wild beasts; in the +name of the God of mercies, they prohibited all forgiveness! + +It is thus, Madam, that the earth has never ceased to groan with the +ravages committed by maniacs under the influence of that zeal which +springs from the Christian doctrine of the love of God. The God of the +Christians, like the Janus of Roman mythology, has two faces; +sometimes he is represented with the benign features of mercy and +goodness; sometimes murder, revenge, and fury issue from his nostrils. +And what is the consequence of this double aspect but that the +Christians are much more easily terrified at his frightful lineaments +than they are recovered from their fears by his aspect of mercy! +Having been taught to view him as a capricious being, they are +naturally mistrustful of him, and imagine that the safest part they +can act for themselves is to set about the work of vengeance with +great zeal; they conclude that a cruel master cannot find fault with +cruel imitators, and that his servants cannot render themselves more +acceptable than by extirpating all his enemies. + +The preceding remarks show very clearly, Madam, the highly pernicious +consequences which result from the zeal engendered by the love of God. +If this love is a virtue, its benefits are confined to the priests, +who arrogate to themselves the exclusive privilege of declaring when +God is offended; who absorb all the offerings and monopolize all the +homage of the devout; who decide upon the opinions that please or +displease him; who undertake to inform mankind of the duties this +virtue requires from them, and of the proper time and manner of +performing them; who are interested in rendering those duties cruel +and intimidating in order to frighten mankind into a profitable +subjection; who convert it into the instrument of gratifying their own +malignant passions, by inspiring men with a spirit of headlong and +raging intolerance, which, in its furious course of indiscriminate +destruction, holds nothing sacred, and which has inflicted incredible +ravages upon all Christian countries. + +In conformity with such abominable principles, a Christian is bound to +detest and destroy all whom the church may point out as the enemies of +God. Having admitted the paramount duty of yielding their entire +affections to a rigorous master, quick to resent, and offended even +with the involuntary thoughts and opinions of his creatures, they of +course feel themselves bound, by entering with zeal into his quarrels, +to obtain for him a vengeance worthy of a God--that is to say, a +vengeance that knows no bounds. A conduct like this is the natural +offspring of those revolting ideas which our priests give us of the +Deity. A good Christian is therefore necessarily intolerant. It is +true that Christianity in the pulpit preaches nothing but mildness, +meekness, toleration, peace, and concord; but Christianity in the +world is a stranger to all these virtues; nor does she ever exercise +them except when she is deficient in the necessary power to give +effect to her destructive zeal. The real truth of the matter is, that +Christians think themselves absolved from every tie of humanity except +with those who think as they do, who profess to believe the same +creed; they have a repugnance, more or less decided, against all those +who disagree with their priests in theological speculation. How common +it is to see persons of the mildest character and most benevolent +disposition regard with aversion the adherents of a different sect +from their own! The reigning religion--that is, the religion of the +sovereign, or of the priests in whose favor the sovereign declares +himself--crushes all rival sects, or, at least, makes them fully +sensible of its superiority and its hatred, in a manner extremely +insulting, and calculated to raise their indignation. By these means +it frequently happens that the deference of the prince to the wishes +of the priests has the effect of alienating the hearts of his most +faithful subjects, and brings him that execration which ought in +justice to be heaped exclusively upon his sanctimonious instigators. + +In short, Madam, the private rights of conscience are nowhere +sincerely respected; the leaders of the various religious sects begin, +in the very cradle, to teach all Christians to hate and despise each +other about some theological point which nobody can understand. The +clergy, when vested with power, never preach toleration; on the +contrary, they consider every man as an enemy who is a friend to +religious freedom, accusing him of lukewarmness, infidelity, and +secret hostility; in short, he is denominated a false brother. The +Sorbonne declared, in the sixteenth century, that it was heretical to +say that heretics ought not to be burned. The ferocious St. Austin +preached toleration at one period, but it was before he was duly +initiated in the mysteries of the sacerdotal policy, which is ever +repugnant to toleration. Persecution is necessary to our priests, to +deter mankind from opposing themselves to their avarice, their +ambition, their vanity, and their obstinacy. The sole principle which +holds the church together is that of a sleepless watchfulness on the +part of all its members to extend its power, to increase the multitude +of its slaves, to fix odium on all who hesitate to bend their necks to +its yoke, or who refuse their assent to its arbitrary decisions. + +Our divines have, therefore, you see, very good reasons for raising +humility into the rank of virtue. An amiable modesty, a diffident +mildness of demeanor, are unquestionably calculated to promote the +pleasures and the advantages of society; it is equally certain that +insolence and arrogance are disgusting, that they wound our self-love +and excite our aversion by their repulsive conduct; but that amiable +modesty which charms all who come within its influence is a far +different quality from that which is designated humility in the +vocabulary of Christians. A truly humble Christian despises his own +unworthiness, avoids the esteem of others, mistrusts his own +understanding, submits with docility to the unerring guidance of his +spiritual masters, and piously resigns to his priest the clearest and +most irrefutable conclusions of reason. + +But to what advantage can this pretended virtue lead its followers? +How can a man of sense and integrity despise himself? Is not public +opinion the guardian of private virtue? If you deprive men of the love +of glory, and the desire of deserving the approbation of their +fellow-citizens, are you not divesting them of the noblest and most +powerful incitements by which they can be impelled to benefit their +country? What recompense will remain to the benefactors of mankind, +if, first of all, we are unjust enough to refuse them the praise they +merit, and afterwards debar them from the satisfaction of +self-applause, and the happiness they would feel in the consciousness +of having done good to an ungrateful world? What infatuation, what +amazing infatuation, to require a man of upright character, of +talents, intelligence, and learning, to think himself on a level with +a selfish priest, or a stupid fanatic, who deal out their absurd +fables and incoherent dreams! + +Our priests are never weary of telling their flocks that pride leads +on to infidelity, and that a humble and submissive spirit is alone +fitted to receive the truths of the gospel. In good earnest, should +we not be utterly bereft of every claim to the name of rational +beings, if we consent to surrender our judgment and our knowledge at +the command of a hierarchy, who have nothing to give us in exchange +but the most palpable absurdities? With what face can a reverend +Doctor of Nonsense dare to exact from my understanding a humble +acquiescence in a bundle of mysterious opinions, for which he is +unable to offer me a single solid reason? Is it, then, presumptuous to +think one's self superior to a class of pretenders, whose systems are +a mass of falsities, absurdities, and inconsistencies, of which they +contrive to make mankind at once the dupes and the victims? Can pride +or vanity be, with justice, imputed to you, Madam, if you see reason +to prefer the dictates of your own understanding to the authoritative +decrees of Mrs. D----, whose senseless malignity is obvious to all her +acquaintance? + +If Christian humility is a virtue at all, it can be one only in the +cloister; society can derive no sort of benefit from it; it enervates +the mind; it benefits nobody but priests, who, under the pretext of +rendering men humble, seek, in reality, only to degrade them, to +stifle in their souls every spark of science and of courage, that they +may the more easily impose the yoke of faith, that is to say, their +own yoke. Conclude, then, with me, that the Christian virtues are +chimerical, always useless, and sometimes pernicious to men, and +attended with advantage to none but priests. Conclude that this +religion, with all the boasted beauty of its morality, recommends to +us a set of virtues, and enjoins a line of conduct, at variance with +good sense. Conclude that, in order to be moral and virtuous, it is +far from necessary to adopt the unintelligible creed of the priests, +or to pride ourselves upon the empty virtues they preach, and still +less to annihilate all sense of dignity in ourselves, by a degrading +subjection to the duties they require. Conclude, in short, that the +friend of virtue is not, of necessity, the friend of priestcraft, and +that a man may be adorned with every human perfection, without +possessing one of the Christian virtues. + +All who examine this matter with a candid and intelligent eye, cannot +fail to see that true morality--that is to say, a morality really +serviceable to mankind--is absolutely incompatible with the Christian +religion, or any other professed revelation. Whoever imagines himself +the favored object of the Creator's love, must look down with disdain +upon his less fortunate fellow-creatures, especially if he regards +that Creator as partial, choleric, revengeful, and fickle, easily +incensed against us, even by our involuntary thoughts, or our most +innocent words and actions; such a man naturally conducts himself with +contempt and pride, with harshness and barbarity towards all others +whom he may deem obnoxious to the resentment of his Heavenly King. +Those men, whose folly leads them to view the Deity in the light of a +capricious, irritable, and unappeasable despot, can be nothing but +gloomy and trembling slaves, ever eager to anticipate the vengeance +of God upon all whose conduct or opinions they may conceive likely to +provoke the celestial wrath. As soon as the priests have succeeded in +reducing men to a state of stupidity gross enough to make them believe +that their ghostly fathers are the faithful organs of the divine will, +they naturally commit every species of crime, which their spiritual +teachers may please to tell them is calculated to pacify the anger of +their offended God. Men, silly enough to accept a system of morals +from guides thus hollow in reasoning, and thus discordant in opinion, +must necessarily be unstable in their principles, and subject to every +variation that the interest of their guides may suggest. In short, it +is impossible to construct a solid morality, if we take for our +foundation the attributes of a deity so unjust, so capricious, and so +changeable as the God of the Bible, whom we are commanded to imitate +and adore. + +Persevere, then, my dear Madam, in the practice of those virtues which +your own unsophisticated heart approves; they will insure you a rich +harvest of happiness in the present existence; they will insure you a +rich return of gratitude, respect, and love from all who enjoy their +benign influence; they will insure you the solid satisfaction of a +well-founded self-esteem, and thus provide you with that unfailing +source of inward gratification which arises from the consciousness of +having contributed to the welfare of the human race. I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER IX. + + Of the Advantages contributed to Government by Religion. + + +Having already shown you, Madam, the feebleness of those succors which +religion furnishes to morals, I shall now proceed to examine whether +it procure advantages in themselves really politic, and whether it be +true, as has so often been urged by the priests, that it is absolutely +necessary to the existence of every government. Were we disposed to +shut our eyes, and deliver ourselves up to the language of our +priests, we should believe that their opinions are necessary to the +public tranquillity, and the repose and security of the State; that +princes could not, without their aid, govern the people, and exert +themselves for the prosperity of their empire. Nor is this all; our +spiritual pilots approach the throne, and gaining the ear of the +sovereign, make him also believe that he has the greatest interest in +conforming to their caprices, in order to subject men to the divine +yoke of royalty. These priests mingle in all important political +quarrels, and they too often persuade the rulers of the earth that the +enemies of the church are the enemies of all power, and that in +sapping the foundations of the altar, the foundations of the throne +are likewise necessarily overthrown. + +We have, then, only to open our eyes and consult history, to be +convinced of the falsity of these pretensions, and to appreciate the +important services which the Christian priests have rendered to their +sovereigns. Ever since the establishment of Christianity, we have +seen, in all the countries in which this religion has gained ground, +that two rival powers are perpetually at war one with the other. We +find _a_ government within _the_ government; that is to say, we find +the Church, a body of priests, continually opposed to the sovereign +power, and in virtue of their pretended _divine_ mission and _sacred_ +office, pretending to give laws to all the sovereigns of the earth. We +find the clergy, puffed up and besotted with the titles they have +given themselves, laboring to exact the obedience due to the +sovereign, pretending to chimerical and dangerous prerogatives, which +none are suffered to question, without risking the displeasure of the +Almighty. And so well have the priesthood managed this matter, that in +many countries we actually see the people more inclined to lean to the +authority of the Vicars of Jesus Christ than to that of the civil +government. The priesthood claim the right of commanding monarchs +themselves, and sustained by their emissaries and the credulity of the +people, their ridiculous pretensions have engaged princes in the most +serious affairs, sown trouble and discord in kingdoms, and so shook +thrones as to compel their occupants to make submission to an +intolerant hierarchy. + +Such are the important services which religion has a thousand times +rendered to kings. The people, blinded by superstition, could +hesitate but little between God and the princes of the earth. The +priests, being the visible organs of an invisible monarch, have +acquired an immense credit with prejudiced minds. The ignorance of the +people places them, as well as their sovereigns, at the mercy of the +priests. Nations have continually been dragged into their futile +though bloody quarrels; princes, for a long series of years, have +either had to dispute their authority with the clergy, or become their +tools or dupes. + +The continual attention which the princes of Europe have been forced +to pay to the clergy has prevented them from occupying their thoughts +about the welfare of their subjects, who, in many instances the dupes +of the priesthood, have opposed even the good their rulers desired to +procure them. In like manner, the heads of the people, their kings and +governors, too weak to resist the torrent of opinions propagated by +the clergy, have been forced to yield, to bow, nay, even to caress the +priesthood, and to consent to grant it all its demands. Whenever they +have wished to resist the encroachments of the clergy, they have +encountered concealed snares or open opposition, as the _holy_ power +was either too weak to act in the face of day, or strong enough to +contend in the sunshine. When princes have wished to be listened to by +the clergy, these last have invariably contrived to make them +cowardly, and to sacrifice the happiness and respect of their people. +Often have the hands of parricides and rebels been armed, by a proud +and vindictive priesthood, against sovereigns the most worthy of +reigning. The priests, under pretext of avenging God, inflict their +anger upon monarchs themselves, whenever the latter are found +indisposed to bend under their yoke. In a word, in _all_ countries we +perceive that the ministers of religion have exercised in all ages the +most unbridled license. We every where see empires torn by their +dissensions; thrones overturned by their machinations; princes +immolated to their power and revenge; subjects animated to revolt +against the prince that ought to give them more happiness than they +actually enjoyed; and when we take the retrospect of these, we find +that the ambition, the cupidity, and vanity of the clergy have been +the true causes and motives of all these outrages on the peace of the +universe. And it is thus that their religion has so often produced +anarchy, and overturned the very empires they pretended to support by +its influence. + +Sovereigns have never enjoyed peace but when, shamefully devoted to +priests, they submitted to their caprices, became enslaved to their +opinions, and allowed them to govern in place of themselves. Then was +the sovereign power subordinate to the sacerdotal, and the prince was +only the first servant of the church; she degraded him to such a +degree as to make him her hangman; she obliged him to execute her +sanguinary decrees; she forced him to dip his hands in the blood of +his own subjects whom the clergy had proscribed; she made him the +visible instrument of her vengeance, her fury, and her concealed +passions. Instead of occupying himself with the happiness of his +people, the sovereign has had the complaisance to torment, to +persecute, and to immolate honest citizens, thus exciting the just +hatred of a portion of his people, to whom he should have been a +father, to gratify the ambition and the selfish malevolence of some +priests, always aliens in the state which nourishes them, and who only +style themselves members of the realm in order to domineer, to +distract, to plunder, and to devour with impunity. + +How little soever you are disposed to reflect, you will be convinced, +Madam, that I do not exaggerate these things. Recent examples prove to +you that even in this age, so ambitious of being considered +enlightened, nations are not secure from the shocks that the priests +have ever caused nations to suffer. You have a hundred times sighed at +the sight of the sad follies which puerile questions have produced +among us. You have shuddered at the frightful consequences which have +resulted from the unreasonable squabbles of the clergy. You have +trembled with all good citizens at the sight of the tragical effects +which have been brought about by the furious wickedness of a +fanaticism for which nothing is sacred. In fine, you have seen the +sovereign authority compelled to struggle incessantly against +rebellious subjects, who pretend that their conscience or the +interests of religion have obliged them to resist opinions the most +agreeable to common sense, and the most equitable. + +Our fathers, more religious and less enlightened than ourselves, were +witnesses of scenes yet more terrible. They saw civil wars, leagues +openly formed against their sovereign, and the capital submerged in +the blood of murdered citizens; two monarchs successively immolated to +the fury of the clergy, who kindled in all parts the fire of sedition. +They afterwards saw kings at war with their own subjects; a famous +sovereign, Louis XIV., tarnishing all his glory by persecuting, +contrary to the faith of treaties, subjects who would have lived +tranquil, if they had only been allowed to enjoy in peace the liberty +of conscience; and they saw, in fine, this same prince, the dupe of a +false policy, dictated by intolerance, banish, along with the exiled +Protestants, the industry of his states, and forcing the arts and +manufactures of our nation to take refuge in the dominions of our most +implacable enemies. + +We see religion throughout Europe, without cessation, exerting a +baleful influence upon temporal affairs; we see it direct the +interests of princes; we see it divide and make Christian nations +enemies of each other, because their spiritual guides do not all +entertain the same opinions. Germany is divided into two religious +parties whose interests are perpetually at variance. We every where +perceive that Protestants are born the enemies of the Catholics, and +are always in antagonism to them; while, on the other hand, the +Catholics are leagued with their priests against all those whose mode +of thinking is less abject and less servile than their own. + +Behold, Madam, the signal advantages that nations derive from +religion! But we are certain to be told that these terrible effects +are due to the passions of men, and not to the Christian religion, +which incessantly inculcates charity, concord, indulgence, and peace. +If, however, we reflect even a moment on the principles of this +religion, we should immediately perceive that they are incompatible +with the fine maxims that have never been practised by the Christian +priests, except when they lacked the power to persecute their enemies +and inflict upon them the weight of their rage. The adorers of a +jealous God, vindictive and sanguinary, as is obviously the character +of the God of the Jews and Christians, could not evince in their +conduct moderation, tranquillity, and humanity. The adorers of a God +who takes offence at the opinions of his weak creatures, who +reprobates and glories in the extermination of all who do not worship +him in a particular way, for the which, by the by, he gives them +neither the means nor the inclination, must necessarily be intolerant +persecutors. The adorers of a God who has not thought fit to +illuminate with an equal portion of light the minds of all his +creatures, who reveals his favor and bestows his kindness on a few +only of those creatures, who leaves the remainder in blindness and +uncertainty to follow their passions, or adopt opinions against which +the favored wage war, must of necessity be eternally at odds with the +rest of the world, canting about their oracles and mysteries, +supernatural precepts, invented purely to torment the human mind, to +enthral it, and leave man answerable for what he could not obey, and +punishable for what he was restrained from performing. We need not +then be astonished if, since the origin of Christianity, our priests +have never been a single moment without disputes. It appears that God +only sent his Son upon earth that his marvellous doctrines might prove +an apple of discord both for his priests and his adorers. The +ministers of a church founded by Christ himself, who promised to send +them his Holy Spirit to lead them into all the truth, have never been +in unison with their dogmas. We have seen this infallible church for +whole ages enveloped in error. You know, Madam, that in the fourth +century, by the acknowledgment of the priests themselves, the great +body of the church followed the opinions of the Arians, who disavowed +even the divinity of Jesus Christ. The spirit of God must then have +abandoned his church; else why did its ministers fall into this error, +and dispute afterwards about so fundamental a dogma of the Christian +religion? + +Notwithstanding these continual quarrels, the church arrogates to +itself the right of fixing the faith of the _true believers_, and in +this it pretends to infallibility; and if the Protestant parsons have +renounced the lofty and ridiculous pretensions of their Catholic +brethren, they are not less certain in the infallibility of their +decisions; for they talk with the authority of oracles, and send to +hell and damnation all who do not yield submission to their dogmas. +Thus on both sides of the cross they wish their assertions to be +received by their adherents as if they came direct from heaven. The +priests have always been at discord among themselves, and have +perpetually cursed, anathematized, and doomed each other to hell. The +vanity of each holy clique has caused it to adhere obstinately to its +own peculiar opinions, and to treat its adversaries as heretics. +Violence alone has generally decided the discussions, terminated the +disputes, and fixed the standard of belief. Those pugnacious, brawling +priests who were artful enough to enlist sovereigns on their side were +_orthodox_, or, in other words, boasted that they were the exclusive +possessors of the true doctrine. They made use of their credit to +crush their adversaries, whom they always treated with the greatest +barbarity. + +But, after all, whatever the clergy may say, we shall find, even with +a small share of attention, that it has ever been kings and emperors +who, in the last resort, fixed the faith of the disputatious +Christians. It has been by downright blows of the sword that those +theological notions most pleasing to the Deity have been sustained in +all countries. The true belief has invariably been that which had +princes for its adherents. The faithful were those who had strength +sufficient to exterminate their enemies, whom they never failed to +treat as the enemies of God. In a word, princes have been truly +infallible; we should regard them as the true founders of religious +faith; they are the judges who have decided, in all ages, what +doctrines should be admitted or rejected; and they are, in fine, the +authorities which have always fixed the religion of their subjects. + +Ever since Christianity has been adopted by some nations, have we not +seen that religion has almost entirely occupied the attention of +sovereigns? Either the princes, blinded by superstition, were devoted +to the priests, or the rulers of nations believed that prudence +exacted a concession on their part to the clergy, the true masters of +their people, who considered nothing more sacred or more great than +the ministers of their God. In neither case was the body politic ever +consulted; it was cowardly sacrificed to the interests of the court, +or the vanity and luxury of the priests. It is by a continuation of +superstition on the part of the princes that we behold the church so +richly endowed in times of ignorance; when men believed they would +enrich Deity by putting all their wealth into the hands of the priests +of a good God the declared enemy of riches. Savage warriors, destitute +of the manners of men, flattered themselves that they could expiate +all their sins by founding monasteries and giving immense wealth to a +set of men who had made vows of poverty. It was believed that they +would merit from the All-powerful a great advantage by recompensing +laziness, which, in the priests, was regarded as a great good, and +that the blessings procured by their prayers would be in proportion to +the continual and pressing demands their poverty made on the wealthy. +It is thus that by the superstition of princes, by that of the +powerful classes, and of the people themselves, the clergy have become +opulent and powerful; that monachism was honored, and citizens the +most useless, the least submissive, and the most dangerous, were the +best recompensed, the most considered, and the best paid. They were +loaded with benefits, privileges, and immunities; they enjoyed +independence, and they had that great power which flowed from so great +license. Thus were priests placed above sovereigns themselves by the +imprudent devotion of the latter, and the former were enabled to give +the law and trouble the state with impunity. + +The clergy, arrived at this elevation of power and grandeur, became +redoubtable even to monarchs. They were obliged to bend under the yoke +or be at way with clerical power. When the sovereigns yielded, they +became mere slaves to the priests, the instruments of their passions, +and the vile adorers of their power. When they refused to yield, the +priests involved them in the most cruel embarrassments; they launched +against them the anathemas of the church; the people were incited +against them in the name of heaven; the nations divided themselves +between the celestial and the terrestrial monarch, and the latter was +reduced to great extremities to sustain a throne which the priests +could shake or even destroy at pleasure. There was a time in Europe +when both the welfare of the prince and the repose of his kingdom +depended solely upon the caprice of a priest. In these times of +ignorance, of devotion, and of commotions so favorable to the clergy, +a weak and poor monarch, surrounded by a miserable nation, was at the +mercy of a Roman pontiff, who could at any instant destroy his +felicity, excite his subjects against him, and precipitate him into +the abyss of misery. + +In general, Madam, we find that in countries where religion holds +dominion, the sovereign is necessarily dependent upon the priests; he +has no power except by the consent of the clergy; that power +disappears as soon as he displeases the self-styled vicegerents of +God, who are very soon able to array his subjects against him. The +people, in accordance with the principles of their religion, cannot +hesitate between God and their sovereign. God never says any thing +except what his priests say for him; and the ignorance and folly in +which they are kept by their spiritual guides prevent them from +inquiring whether God's ambassadors faithfully render his decrees. + +Conclude, then, with me, that the interests of a sovereign who would +rule equitably are unable to accord with those of the ministers of the +Christian religion, who in all ages have been the most turbulent +citizens, the most rebellious, the most difficult to render +subservient to law and order, and whose resistance has extended to +the very assassination of obnoxious rulers. We shall be told that +Christianity is a firm support of government; that it regards +magistrates as the images of the Deity; and that it teaches that _all +power comes from on high_. These maxims of the clergy are, however, +best calculated to lull kings on the couch of slumber; they are +calculated to flatter those on whom the clergy can rely, and who will +serve their ambition; and their flatterers can soon change their tone +when the princes have the temerity to question the pernicious tendency +of priestly influence, or when they do not blindly lend themselves to +all their views. Then the sovereign is an impious wretch, a heretic; +his destruction is laudable; heaven rejoices in his overthrow. And all +this is the religion of the Bible! + +You know, Madam, that these odious maxims have been a thousand times +enforced by the priests, who say the prince has _encroached upon the +authority of the church_; and the people respond that _it is better to +obey God than man_. The priests are only devoted to the princes when +the princes are blindly led by the priests. These last preach +arrogantly that the former ought to be exterminated, when they refuse +to obey the church, that is to say, the priests; yet, how terrible +soever may be these maxims, how dangerous soever their practice to the +security of the sovereign and the tranquillity of the state, they are +the immediate consequences drawn from Judaism and Christianity. We +find in the Old Testament that the regicide is applauded; that +treason and rebellion are approved. As soon as it is supposed that God +is offended with the thoughts of men,--as soon as it is supposed that +heretics are displeasing to him,--it is very natural to conclude that +an impious and heretical sovereign, that is to say, one who does not +obey a clerical body that set themselves up as the directors of his +belief, who opposes the sacred views of an infallible church, and who +might occasion the loss and apostasy of a large part of the +nation,--it is natural that the priests should conclude it to be +legitimate for subjects to attack such a prince, alleging their +religion to be the most important thing in the world, and dearer than +life itself. Actuated by such principles, it is impossible that a +Christian zealot should not think he rendered a service to heaven by +punishing its enemy, and a service to his country by disembarrassing +it of a chief who might interpose an obstacle to his eternal +happiness. + +The obedience of the clergy is never otherwise than conditional. The +priests submit to a prince, they flatter his power, and they sustain +his authority, provided he submits to their orders, makes no obstacles +to their projects, touches none of their interests, and changes none +of the dogmas upon which the ministers of the church have founded +their own grandeur. In fine, provided a government recognizes, as +divine, clerical privileges that are plainly opposed to popular +rights, and tend to subvert them, the hierarchy will submit to it. + +These considerations prove how dangerous are the priesthood, since the +end they purpose by all their projects is dominion over the mind of +mankind, and by subjugating it to enslave their persons, and render +them the creatures of despotism and tyranny. And we shall find, upon +examination, that, with one or two exceptions, the pious have been the +enemies of the progress of science and the development of the human +understanding; for by brutalizing mankind they have invariably striven +to bind them to their yoke. Their avarice, their thirst of power and +wealth, have led them to plunge their fellow-citizens in ignorance, in +misery, and unhappiness. They discourage the cultivation of the earth +by their system of tithes, their extortions, and their secret +projects; they annihilate activity, talents, and industry; their pride +is to reign on the ruin of the rest of their species. The finest +countries in Europe have, when blindly submissive to the priest, been +the worst cultivated, the thinnest peopled, and the most wretched. The +_Inquisition_ in Spain, Italy, and Portugal has only tended to +impoverish those countries, to debase the mind, and render their +subjects the veriest slaves of superstition. And in countries where we +see heaven showering down abundance, the people are poor and famished, +while the priests and monks are opulent and bloated. Their kings are +without power and without glory; their subjects languish in indigence +and wretchedness. + +The priests boast of the utility of their office. Independently of +their prayers, from which the world has for so many ages derived +neither instruction nor peace, prosperity nor happiness, their +pretensions to teach the rising generations are often frivolous, and +sometimes arrogant, since we have found others equally well calculated +to the discharge of those functions, who have been good citizens, that +have not drawn from the pockets of their neighbors the tenth of their +earnings. Thus, in what light soever we view them, the pretensions of +the priests are reduced to a nonentity, compared to the disservice +they render the community by their exactions and dissolute lives. + +In what consists, in effect, the education that our spiritual guides +have, unhappily for society, assumed the vocation of imparting to +youth? Does it tend to make reasonable, courageous, and virtuous +citizens? No; it is incontestable that it creates ignoble men, whose +entire lives are tormented with imaginary terrors; it creates +superstitious slaves, who only possess monastic virtues, and who, if +they follow faithfully the instructions of their masters, must be +perfectly useless to society; it forms intolerant devotees, ready to +detest all those who do not think like themselves; and it makes +fanatics, who are ready to rebel against any government as soon as +they are persuaded it is rebellious to the church. What do the +priests teach their pupils? They cause them to lose much precious +time in reciting prayers, in mechanically repeating theological +dogmas, of which, even in mature life, they comprehend nothing. They +teach them the dead languages, which, at the best, only serve for +entertainment, being by no means necessary in the present form of +society. They terminate these fine studies by a philosophy which, in +clerical hands, has become a mere play of words, a jargon void of +sense, and which is exactly calculated to fit them for the +unintelligible science called _theology_. But is this theology itself +useful to nations? Are the interminable disputes which arise between +profound metaphysicians of such a character as to be interesting to +the people who do not comprehend them? Are the people of Paris and the +provinces much advanced in heavenly knowledge when the priests dispute +among themselves about what should really be thought of grace? + +In regard to the instruction imparted by the clergy, it is indeed +necessary to have faith in order to discover its utility. Their +boasted instruction consists in teaching ineffable mysteries, +marvellous dogmas, narrations and fables perfectly ridiculous, panic +terrors, fanatical and lugubrious predictions, frightful menaces, and +above all, systems so profound that they who announce are not able to +comprehend them. In truth, Madam, in all this I can see nothing +useful. Should nations feel any extraordinary obligations to teachers +who concoct doctrines that must always remain impenetrable for the +whole human race? It must be confessed that our priests, who so +painfully occupy themselves in arranging a pure creed for us, must +signally lose all their labor. At any rate, the people are not much in +the situation to profit by such sublime toils. Very frequently the +pulpit becomes the theatre of discord; the sacred disclaimers launch +injuries at each other, infusing their own passions into the bosoms of +their _Christian_ auditors, kindling their zeal against the enemies of +the church, and becoming themselves the trumpets of party spirit, +fury, and sedition. If these preachers teach morality, it is a kind of +supernatural morality, little adapted to the nature of man. If they +inculcate virtue, it is that theological virtue whose inutility we +have sufficiently shown. If by chance some one among them allows +himself to preach that morality and virtue which is practical, human, +and social, you know, Madam, that he is proscribed by his +confederates, and becomes an object of their acrimonious criticisms +and their deadly hatred. He is also disdained by devotees who are +attached to evangelical virtues that they cannot comprehend, and who +consider nothing as more important than mysterious forms and +ceremonies, in which zealots make morality to consist. + +See, then, in what limits are entertained the important services that +the ministers of the Lord have for so many centuries rendered to +nations! They are not worth, in all conscience, the excessive price +which is paid for them. On the contrary, if priests were treated +according to their real merit, if their functions were appreciated at +their just value, it would, perhaps, be found that they did not merit +a larger salary than those empirics who, at the corners of the +streets, vend remedies more dangerous than the evils they promise to +cure. + +It is by subjecting the immense revenues, lands, abbeys, and estates, +which clerical bodies have levied upon the credulity of men, to just +and equal taxation, as with other property; it is by rendering the +church and state entirely distinct; it is by stripping the hierarchy +of immunities not possessed by other citizens, and of privileges both +chimerical and injurious; it is by rigorously exacting the same civil +obedience alike from priests and people,--that government can be +rightly administered, that justice can be impartially rendered, and +that the nation, as a whole, can be trained to courage, activity, +industry, intelligence, tranquillity, and patriotism. So long as there +are two powers in a state, they will necessarily be at variance, and +the one which arrogates the favor of the Almighty will have immense +advantages over that which claims no authority above the earth. If +both pretend to emanate from the same source, the people would not +know which to believe; they would range themselves on each side; the +combat would be furious, and the power of the government would be +unable to maintain itself against the many heads of the ecclesiastical +hydra. The magicians of Pharaoh yielded to the Jewish priests, and in +conflicts between the church and state, the immunities of the priests, + + "Like Aaron's serpent, swallowed all the rest." + +If such is the case, you will inquire, Madam, how can an enlightened +civil power ever make obedient citizens of rebellious priests, who +have so long possessed the confidence of the people, and who can with +impunity render themselves formidable to any government? I reply, that +in spite of the vigilant cares and the redoubled efforts of the +priesthood, the people have begun to be more enlightened; they are +becoming weary of the heavy yoke, which they would not have borne so +long had they not believed it was imposed upon them by the Most High, +and that it was necessary to their happiness. It is impossible for +error to be eternal; it must give way to the power of truth. The +priests, who think, know this well, and the whole ecclesiastical body +continually declaim against all those who wish to enlighten the human +race and unveil the conspiracies of their spiritual guides. They fear +the piercing eyes of philosophy; they fear the reign of reason, which +will never be that of tyranny or anarchy. Governments, then, ought not +to share the fears of the clergy, nor render themselves the executors +of their vengeance; they injure themselves when they sustain the cause +of their turbulent rivals, who have ever been the enemies of civil +polity and perturbers of the public repose. The magistrates of a state +league themselves with their enemies when they form an alliance with +the priesthood, or prevent the people from recognizing their errors. + +Governments are more interested than individuals in the destruction of +errors that often lead to confusion, anarchy, and rebellion. If men +had not become gradually enlightened, nations would now, as formerly, +be under the yoke of the Roman pontiff, who could occasion revolution +in their midst, overturn the laws, and subvert the government. But for +the insensible progress of reason, states would now be filled with a +tumultuous crowd of devotees, ready to revolt at the signal of an +unquiet priest or a seditious monk. + +You perceive, then, Madam, that men who think, and who teach others to +think, are more useful to governments than those who wish to stifle +reason and to proscribe forever the liberty of thought. You see that +the true friends of a stable government are those who seek most +sedulously to enlighten, educate, and elevate the people. You feel +that by banishing knowledge and persecuting philosophy, government +sacrifices its dearest interests to a seditious clergy, whose ambition +and avarice push them to usurp boundless authority, and whose pride +always makes them indignant at being in subjection to a power which +they contend should be subordinate to themselves. + +There is no priest who does not consider himself superior to the +highest ruler of any country. We have often seen the priesthood avow +pretensions of this character. The clergy are always enraged when an +attempt is made to subject them to the secular power. Such an attempt +they regard as profane, and they denounce it as tyranny whenever it is +sought to be enforced. They pretend that in all times the priesthood +has been sacred, that its rights come from God himself, and that no +government can, without sacrilege, or without outraging the Divinity, +touch the property, the privileges, or the immunities which have been +snatched from ignorance and credulity. Whenever the civil authority +would touch the objects considered inviolable and sacred in the hands +of the priests, their clamors cannot be appeased; they make efforts to +excite the people against the government; they denounce all authority +as tyrannical when it has the temerity to think of subjecting them to +the laws, of reforming their abuses, and neutralizing their power to +injure. But they consider authority legitimate when it crushes _their_ +enemies, though it appears insupportable as soon as it is reasonable +and favorable to the people. + +The priests are essentially the most wicked of men, and the worst +citizens of a state. A miracle would be necessary to render them +otherwise. In all countries they are the _spoiled children_ of +nations. They are proud and haughty, since they pretend it is from God +himself they received their mission and their power. They are +ingrates, since they assume to owe only to God benefits which they +visibly hold from the generosity of governments and the people. They +are audacious, because for many ages they have enjoyed supremacy with +impunity. They are unquiet and turbulent, because they are never +without the desire of playing a great part. They are quarrelsome and +factious, because they are never able to find out a method of enabling +men to understand the pretended truths they teach. They are +suspicious, defiant, and cruel, because they sensibly feel that they +may well dread the discovery of their impostures. They are the +spontaneous enemies of truth, because they justly apprehend it will +annihilate their pretensions. They are implacable in their vengeance, +because it would be dangerous to pardon those who wish to crush their +doctrines, whose weakness they know. They are hypocrites, because most +of them possess too much sense to believe the reveries they retail to +others. They are obstinate in their ideas, because they are inflated +with vanity, and because they could not consistently deviate from a +method of thinking of which they pretend God is the author. We often +see them unbridled and licentious in their manners, because it is +impossible that idleness, effeminacy, and luxury should not corrupt +the heart. We sometimes see them austere and rigid in their conduct in +order to impose on the people and accomplish their ambitious views. If +they are hypocrites and rogues, they are extremely dangerous; and if +they are fanatical in good faith, or imbecile, they are not less to be +feared. In fine, we almost always see them rebellious and seditious, +because an authority derived from God is not disposed to bend to +authority derived from men. + +You have here, Madam, a faithful portrait of the members of a powerful +body, in whose favor governments, for a long time, have believed it +their duty to sacrifice the other interests of the state. You here see +the citizens whom prejudice most richly recompenses, whom princes +honor in the eyes of the people, to whom they give their confidence, +whom they regard as the support of their power, and whom they consider +as necessary to the happiness and security of their kingdoms. You can +judge yourself whether the likeness delineated is correct. You are in +a position to discover their intrigues, their underplots, their +conduct, and their discourse, and you will always find that their +constant object is to flatter princes for the purpose of governing +them and keeping nations in slavery. + +It is to please citizens so dangerous that sovereigns mingle in +theological questions, take the part of those who succeed in seducing +them, persecute all those who do not submit, proscribe with fury the +friends of reason, and by repressing knowledge injure their own power. +Because the priests, who urge princes to sacrilege when they combat +for them, are indignant against the same princes when they refuse to +destroy the enemies of their own particular clerical body. They +likewise denounce sovereigns as impious if the latter treat +theological disputes with the indifference they merit. + +When hereafter, reclaimed from their prejudices, princes wish to +govern for the good of all, let them cease to hear the interested and +often sanguinary councils of these pretended divine men, who, +regarding themselves as the centre of all things, wish to have +sacrificed for this object the happiness, the repose, the riches, and +the honors of the state. Let the sovereign never enter into their +dissensions, let him never persecute for religious opinions, which, +among sectaries, are commonly on both sides equally ridiculous and +destitute of foundation. They would never involve the government if +the sovereign had not the weakness to mingle in them. Let him give +unlimited freedom to the course of thinking, while he directs by just +laws the course of acting on the part of his subjects. Let him permit +every one to dream or speculate as he pleases, provided he conducts +himself otherwise as an honest man and a good citizen. At least let +the prince not oppose the progress of knowledge, which alone is +capable of extricating his people from ignorance, barbarity, and +superstition, which have made victims of so many Christian rulers. Let +him be assured that enlightened and instructed citizens are more +law-abiding, industrious, and peaceable than stupid slaves without +knowledge and without reason, who will always be ready to take all the +passions with which a fanatic wishes to inspire them. + +Let the sovereign especially occupy himself with the education of his +subjects, nor leave the clergy unobstructedly to impregnate his +people with mystic notions, foolish reveries, and superstitious +practices, which are only proper for fanatics. Let him at least +counterbalance the inculcation of these follies by teaching a morality +conformable to the good of the state, useful to the happiness of its +members, and social and reasonable. This morality would inform a man +what he owed to himself, to society, to his fellow-citizens, and to +the magistrates who administered the laws. This morality would not +form men who would hate each other for speculative opinions, nor +dangerous enthusiasts, nor devotees blindly submissive to the priests. +It would create a tranquil, intelligent, and industrious community; a +body of inhabitants submissive to reason and obedient to just and +legitimate authority. In a word, from such morality would spring +virtuous men and good citizens, and it would be the surest antidote +against superstition and fanaticism. + +In this manner the empire of the clergy would be diminished, and the +sovereign would have a less portentous rival; he would, without +opposition, be assured of all rational and enlightened citizens; the +riches of the clergy would in part reënter society, and be of use in +benefiting the people; institutions now useless would be put to +advantageous uses; a portion of the possessions of the church, +originally destined for the poor, and so long appropriated by +avaricious priests, would come into the hands of the suffering and the +indigent, their legitimate proprietors. Supported by a nation who +were sensible of the advantages he had procured them, the prince would +no longer fear the cries of fanaticism, and they would soon be no +longer heard. The priests, the lazy monks, and turbulent persons +living in forced celibacy, could no longer calculate on the future, +and, aliens in the state which nourished them, they would visibly +diminish. The government, more rich and powerful, would be in a better +situation to diffuse its benefits; and enlightened, virtuous, and +beneficent men would constitute the support, the glory, and the +grandeur of the state. + +Such, Madam, are the ends which all governments would propose who +opened their eyes to their own true interests. I flatter myself that +these designs will not appear to you either impossible or chimerical. +Knowledge and science, which begin to be generally diffused, are +already advancing these results; they are giving an impulse to the +march of the human mind, and in time, governments and people, without +tumult or revolution, will be freed from the yoke which has oppressed +them so long. + +Do we see any thing useful in the pious endowments of our ancestors? +We find them to consist of institutions invented to continue a lazy, +monastic life; costly temples elevated and enriched by indigent people +to augment the pride of the priests, and to erect altars and palaces. +From the foundation of Christianity the whole object of religion has +been to aggrandize the priesthood on the ruins of nations and +governments. A jealous religion has exclusively seized on the minds of +men, and persuaded them that they live upon earth merely to occupy +themselves with their future happiness in the unknown regions of the +empyrean. It is time that this prestige should cease; it is time that +the human race should occupy itself with its own true interests. The +interests of the people will always be incompatible with those of the +guides who believe they have acquired an imprescriptible right to lead +men astray. The more you examine the Christian religion, the more will +you be convinced that it can be advantageous only to those whose +object it is easily to guide mankind after having plunged them into +darkness. I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER X. + + Of the Advantages Religion confers on those who profess it. + + +I dare flatter myself, Madam, that I have clearly demonstrated to you, +that the Christian religion, far from being the support of sovereign +authority, is its greatest enemy; and of having plainly convinced you, +that its ministers are, by the very nature of their functions, the +rivals of kings, and adversaries the most to be feared by all who +value or exercise temporal power. In a word, I think I have persuaded +you, that society might, without damage, dispense with the services +they render, or at least dispense with paying for them so +extravagantly. + +Let us now examine the advantages which this religion procures to +individuals, who are most strongly convinced of its pretended truths, +and who conform the most rigidly to its precepts. Let us see if it is +calculated to render its disciples more contented, more happy, and +more virtuous than they would be without the burden of its ministers. + +To decide the question, it is sufficient to look around us, and to +consider the effects that religion produces on minds really penetrated +with its pretended truths. We shall generally find in those who the +most sincerely profess and the most exactly practise them, a joyless +and melancholy disposition, which announces no contentment, nor that +interior peace of which they speak so incessantly, without ever +exhibiting any undoubted manifestations of it. Whoever is in the +enjoyment of peace within, shows some exterior marks of it; but the +internal satisfaction of devotees is commonly so concealed, that we +may well suspect it of being nothing but a mere chimera. Their +interior peace, which they allege gives them a good conscience, is +visible to others only by a bilious and petulant humor, that is not +usually much applauded by those who come under its influence. If, +however, there are occasionally some devotees who actually display the +serene countenance of satisfaction and enjoyment, it is because the +dismal ideas of religion are rendered inoperative by a happy +temperament; or that such persons have not fully become impregnated +with their system of faith, whose legitimate effect is to plunge its +devotees into terrible inquietudes and sombre chagrins. + +Thus, Madam, we are brought back to the contradictory discourses of +those priests who, after having caused terror by their desolating +dogmas, attempt to reassure us by vague hopes, and exhort us to place +confidence in a God whom they have themselves so repulsively +delineated. It is idle for them to tell us the yoke of Jesus Christ is +light. It is insupportable to those who consider it properly. It is +only light for those who bear it without reflection, or for those who +assume it in order to impose it upon others, without intending to +suffer its annoyances themselves. + +Suffer me, Madam, to refer you to yourself. Were you happy, contented, +or gay, when you made me the depository of the secret inquietudes +inflicted upon you by prejudices, and which had commenced taking that +fatal empire over your mind which I have endeavored to destroy? Was +not your soul involved in woe in spite of your judgment? Were you not +taking measures to wither all your happiness? In favor of religion, +were you not ready to renounce the world, and disregard all you owe to +society? If I was afflicted, I was not surprised. The Christian +religion inevitably destroys the happiness and repose of those who are +subjected by it; alarms and terrors are the objects of its pleasures; +it cannot make those happy who fully receive it. It would certainly +have plunged you into distress. All your faculties would have been +injured, and your too susceptible imagination would have been carried +to such dangerous extremes, that many others would have grieved at the +result. A gentle and beneficent spirit, like yours, could never +receive peace from Christianity. The evils of religion are sure, while +its consolations are contradictory and vague. They cannot give that +temper and tranquillity to the mind which is necessary to enable men +to labor for their own happiness and that of others. + +In effect, as I have already observed, it is very difficult for an +individual to occupy himself with the happiness of another when he is +himself miserable. The devotee, who imposes penances on his own head, +who is suspicious of every thing, who is full of self-reproaches, and +who is heated by visionary meditation, by fasting and seclusion, must +naturally be irritated against all those who do not believe it their +duty to make such absurd sacrifices. He can scarcely avoid being +enraged at those audacious persons who neglect practices or duties +that are claimed as the exactions of God. He will desire to be with +those only who view things as he does himself; he will keep himself +apart from all others, and will end by hating them. He believes +himself obliged to make a loud and public parade of his mode of +thinking, and he signalizes his zeal even at the risk of appearing +ridiculous. If he showed indulgence, he would doubtless fear he +should render himself an accomplice in a neglect of his God. He would +reprehend such sinners, and it would be with acrimony, because his own +soul was filled with it. In fine, if zealous, he would always be under +the dominion of anger, and would only be indulgent in proportion as he +was not bigoted. + +Religious devotion tends to arouse fierce sentiments, that sooner or +later manifest themselves in a manner disagreeable for others. The +mystical devotees clearly illustrate this. They are vexed with the +world, and it could not exist if the extravagances required by +religion were altogether carried out. The world cannot be united to +Jesus Christ. God demands our entire heart, and nothing is allowed to +remain for his weak creatures. To produce the little zeal for heaven +which Christians have, it is requisite to torment them, and thus lead +them to the practice of those marvellous virtues in which they imagine +is placed all their safety. A strange religion, which, practised in +all its rigor, would drag society to ruin! The sincere devotee +proposes impossible attainments, of which human nature is not capable; +and as, in spite of all his endeavors, he is unable to succeed in +their acquisition, he is always discontented with himself. He regards +himself as the object of God's anger; he reproaches himself with all +that he does; he suffers remorse for all the pleasures he experiences, +and fears that they may occasion a fall from grace. For his greater +security, he often avoids society which may at any moment turn him +from his pretended duties, excite him to sin, and render him the +witness or accomplice of what is offensive to zealots. In fine, if the +devotee is very zealous, he cannot prevent himself from avoiding or +detesting beings, who, according to his gloomy notions of religion, +are perpetually occupied in irritating God. On the other hand, you +know, Madam, that it is chagrin and melancholy that lead to devotion. +It is usually not till the world abandons and displeases men that they +have recourse to heaven; it is in the arms of religion that the +ambitious seek to console themselves for their disgraces and +disappointed projects; dissolute and loose women turn devotees when +the world discards them, and they offer to God hearts wasted, and +charms that are no longer in repute. The ruin of their attractions +admonishes them that their empire is no longer of this world; filled +with vexation, consumed with chagrin, and irritated against a society +where they were deprived of enacting an agreeable part, they yield +themselves up to devotion, and distinguish themselves by religious +follies, after having run the race of fashionable vices, and been +engaged in worldly scandals. With rancor in their hearts, they offer a +gloomy adoration to a God who indemnifies them most miserably for +their ascetic worship. In a word, it is passion, affliction, and +despair to which most conversions must be attributed; and they are +persons of such character who deliver themselves to the priests, and +these mental aberrations and physical afflictions are the marvellous +strokes of grace of which God makes use to lead men to himself. + +It is not, then, surprising if we see persons subject to this devotion +most commonly ruled by sorrow and passion. These mental moods are +perpetually aggravated by religion, which is exactly calculated to +imbitter more and more the souls thus filled with vexations. The +conversation of a spiritual director is a weak consolation for the +loss of a lover; the remote and flattering hopes of another world +rarely make up for the realities of this; nor do the fictitious +occupations of religion suffice to satisfy souls accustomed to +intrigues, dissipation, and scandalous pleasures. + +Thus, Madam, we see that the effects of these brilliant conversions, +so well adapted to give pleasure to the Omnipotent and to his court, +present nothing advantageous for the inhabitants of this lower world. +If the changes produced by grace do not render those more happy upon +whom they are operated, they cannot cause much admiration on the part +of those who witness them. Indeed, what advantages does society reap +from the greater part of conversions? Do the persons so touched by +grace become better? Do they make amends for the evil they have done, +or are they heartily and generously engaged in doing good to those by +whom they are surrounded? A mistress, for example, who has been +arrogant and proud,--does conversion render her humble and gentle? +Does the unjust and cruel man recompense those to whom he has done +evil? Does the robber return to society the property of which he has +plundered it? Does the dissipated and licentious woman repair by her +vigilant cares the wrongs that her disorders and dissipations have +occasioned? No, far from it. These persons so touched and converted by +God ordinarily content themselves with praying, fasting, religious +offerings, frequenting churches, clamoring in favor of their priests, +intriguing to sustain a sect, decrying all who disagree with their +particular spiritual director, and exhibiting an ardent and ridiculous +zeal for questions that they do not understand. In this manner they +imagine they get absolution from God, and give indemnification to men; +but society gains nothing from their miraculous conversion. On the +other hand, devotion often exalts, infuriates, and strengthens the +passions which formerly animated the converts. It turns these passions +to new objects, and religion justifies the intolerant and cruel +excesses into which they rush for the interest of their sect. It is +thus that an ambitious personage becomes a proud and turbulent +fanatic, and believes himself justified by his zeal; it is thus that a +disgraced courtier cabals in the name of heaven against his own +enemies; and it is thus that a malignant and vindictive man, under the +pretext of avenging God, seeks the means of avenging himself. Thus, +also, it happens that a woman, to indemnify herself for having +quitted rouge, considers she has the right to outrage with her acrid +humor a husband whom she had previously, in a different manner, +outraged many times. She piously denounces those who allow themselves +the indulgence of the most innocent pleasures; in the belief of +manifesting religious earnestness, she exhales downright passion, +envy, jealousy, and spite; and in lending herself warmly to the +interests of heaven she shows an excess of ignorance, insanity, and +credulity. + +But is it necessary, Madam, to insist upon this? You live in a country +where you see many devotees, and few virtuous people among them. If +you will but slightly examine the matter, you will find that among +these persons so persuaded of their religion, so convinced of its +importance and utility, who speak incessantly of its consolations, its +sweets, and its virtues,--you will find that among these persons there +are very few who are rendered happier, and yet fewer who are rendered +better. Are they vividly penetrated with the sentiments of their +afflicting and terrible religion? You will find them atrabilious, +disobliging, and fierce. Are they more lightly affected by their +creed? You will then find them less bigoted, more beneficent, social, +and kind. The religion of the court, as you know, is a continual +mixture of devotion and pleasure, a circle of the exercises of piety +and dissipation, of momentary fervor and continuous irregularities. +This religion connects Jesus Christ with the pomps of Satan. We there +see sumptuous display, pride, ambition, intrigue, vengeance, envy, and +libertinism all amalgamated with a religion whose _maxims_ are +austere. Pious casuists, interested for the great, approve this +alliance, and give the lie to their own religion in order to derive +advantage from circumstances and from the passions and vices of men. +If these court divines were too rigid, they would affright their +fashionable disciples seeking to reach heaven on "flowery beds of +ease," and who embrace religion with the understanding that they are +to be allowed no inconsiderable latitude. This is doubtless the reason +why Jansenism, which wished to renew the austere principles of +primitive Christianity, obtained no general influence at the Parisian +court. The monkish precepts of early Christianity could only suit men +of the temper of those who first embraced it. They were adapted for +persons who were abject, bilious, and discontented, who, deprived of +luxury, power, and honors, became the enemies of grandeurs from which +they were excluded. The devotees had the art of making a merit of +their aversion and disdain for what they could not obtain. + +Nevertheless, a Christian, in consonance with his principles, should +"take no thought for the morrow;" should have no individual +possessions; should flee from the world and its pomps; should give his +coat to the thief who stole his cloak; and, if smitten on one cheek, +should turn the other to the aggressor. It is upon Stoicism that +religious fanatics built their gloomy philosophy. The so-called +perfections which Christianity proposes place man in a perpetual war +with himself, and must render him miserable. The true Christian is an +enemy both of himself and the human race, and for his own consistency +should live secluded in darkness, like an owl. His religion renders +him essentially unsocial, and as useless to himself as he is +disagreeable to others. What advantage can society receive from a man +who trembles without cessation, who is in a state of superstitious +penance, who prays, and who indulges in solitude? Or what better is +the devotee who flies from the world and deprives himself even of +innocent pleasures, in the fear that God might damn him for +participation in them? + +What results from these maxims of a moral fanaticism? It happens that +laws so atrocious and cruel are enacted, that bigots alone are willing +to execute them. Yes, Madam, blameless as you know my whole life to +have been, consonant to integrity and honesty as you know my conduct +to be, and free as I have ever been from intolerance, my existence +would be endangered were these letters I am now writing to you to +appear in print, or even be circulated in manuscript with my name +attached to them as author. Yes, Christians have made laws, now +dominant here in France, which would tie me to the stake, consume my +body with fire, bore my tongue with a red hot iron, deprive me of +sepulture, strip my family of my property, and for no other cause than +for my opinions concerning Christianity and the Bible. Such is the +horrid cruelty engendered by Christianity. It has sometimes been +called in question whether a society of atheists could exist; but we +might with more propriety ask if a society of fierce, impracticable, +visionary, and fanatical Christians, in all the plenitude of their +ridiculous system, could long subsist.[5] What would become of a +nation all of whose inhabitants wished to attain perfection by +delivering themselves over to fanatical contemplation, to ascetical +penance, to monkish prayers, and to that state of things set forth in +the Acts of the Apostles? What would be the condition of a nation +where no one took any "thought for the morrow"?--where all were +occupied solely with heaven, and all totally neglected whatever +related to this transitory and passing life?--where all made a merit +of celibacy, according to the precepts of St. Paul?--and where, in +consequence of constant occupation in the ceremonials of piety, no one +had leisure to devote to the well-being of men in their worldly and +temporal concerns? It is evident that such a society could only exist +in the Thebaid, and even there only for a limited time, as it must +soon be annihilated. If some enthusiasts exhibit examples of this +sort, we know that convents and nunneries are supported by that +portion of society which they do not enclose. But who would provide +for a country that abandoned every thing else for the purpose of +heavenly contemplations? + +[5] Upon this topic consult what Bayle says, _Continuation des Pensées +diverses sur la Comète_, Sections 124, 125, tome iv., Rousseau de +Genève, in his _Contrat Social_, l. 4, ch. 8. See also the _Lettres +écrites de la Montague_, letter first, pp. 45 to 54, edit. 8vo. The +author discusses the same matter, and confirms his opinions by new +reasonings, which particularly deserve perusal.--_Note of the Editor_, +(NAIGEON.) + +We may therefore legitimately conclude that the Christian religion is +not fitted for this world; that it is not calculated to insure the +happiness either of societies or individuals; that the precepts and +counsels of its God are impracticable, and more adapted to discourage +the human race, and to plunge men into despair and apathy, than to +render them happy, active, and virtuous. A Christian is compelled to +make an abstraction of the maxims of his religion if he wishes to live +in the world; he is no longer a Christian when he devotes his cares to +his earthly good; and, in a word, a real Christian is a man of another +world, and is not adapted for this. + +Thus we see that Christians, to humanize themselves, are constantly +obliged to depart from their supernatural and divine speculations. +Their passions are not repressed, but on the contrary are often thus +rendered more fierce and more calculated to disturb society. Masked +under the veil of religion, they generally produce more terrible +effects. It is then that ambition, vengeance, cruelty, anger, calumny, +envy, and persecution, covered by the deceptive name of zeal, cause +the greatest ravages, range without bounds, and even delude those who +are transported by these dangerous passions. Religion does not +annihilate these violent agitations of the mind in the hearts of its +devotees, but often excites and justifies them; and experience proves +that the most rigid Christians are very far from being the best of +men, and that they have no right to reproach the incredulous either +concerning the pretended consequences of their principles, or for the +passions which are falsely alleged to spring from unbelief. + +Indeed, the charity of the peaceful ministers of religion and of their +pious adherents does not prevent their blackening their adversaries +with a view of rendering them odious, and of drawing down upon their +heads the malevolence of a superstitious community, and the +persecution of tyrannical and oppressive laws; their zeal for God's +glory permits them to employ indifferently all kinds of weapons; and +calumny, especially, furnishes them always a most powerful aid. +According to them, there are no irregularities of the heart which are +not produced by incredulity; to renounce religion, say they, is to +give a free course to unbridled passions, and he who does not believe +surely indicates a corrupt heart, depraved manners, and frightful +libertinism. In a word, they declare that every man who refuses to +admit their reveries or their marvellous morality, has no motives to +do good, and very powerful ones to commit evil. + +It is thus that our charitable divines caricature and misrepresent the +opponents of their supremacy, and describe them as dangerous +brigands, whom society, for its own interest, ought to proscribe and +destroy. It results from these imputations that those who renounce +prejudices and consult reason are considered the most unreasonable of +men; that they who condemn religion on account of the crimes it has +produced upon the earth, and for which it has served as an eternal +pretext, are regarded as bad citizens; that they who complain of the +troubles that turbulent priests have so often excited, are set down as +perturbators of the repose of nations; and that they who are shocked +at the contemplation of the inhuman and unjust persecutions which have +been excited by priestly ambition and rascality, are men who have no +idea of justice, and in whose bosoms the sentiments of humanity are +necessarily stifled. They who despise the false and deceitful motives +by which, to the present time, it has been vainly attempted through +the other world to make men virtuous, equitable, and beneficent, are +denounced as having no real motives to practise the virtues necessary +for their well-being _here_. In fine, the priests scandalize those who +wish to destroy sacerdotal tyranny, and impostures dangerous alike to +nations and people, as enemies of the state so dangerous that the laws +ought to punish them. + +But I believe, Madam, that you are now thoroughly convinced that the +true friends of the human race and of governments cannot also be the +friends of religion and of priests. Whatever may be the motives or +the passions which determine men to incredulity, whatever may be the +principles which flow from it, they cannot be so pernicious as those +which emanate directly and necessarily from a religion so absurd and +so atrocious as Christianity. Incredulity does not claim extraordinary +privileges as flowing from a partial God; it pretends to no right of +despotism over men's consciences; it has no pretexts for doing +violence to the minds of mankind; and it does not hate and persecute +for a difference of opinion. In a word, the incredulous have not an +infinity of motives, interests, and pretexts to injure, with which the +zealous partisans of religion are abundantly provided. + +The unbeliever in Christianity, who reflects, perceives that without +going out of this world there are pressing and real motives which +invite to virtuous conduct; he feels the interest that he has in +self-preservation, and of avoiding whatever is calculated to injure +another; he sees himself united by physical and reciprocal wants with +men who would despise him if he had vices, who would detest him if he +was guilty of any action contrary to justice and virtue, and who would +punish him if he committed any crimes, or if he outraged the laws. The +idea of decency and order, the desire of meriting the approbation of +his fellow-citizens, and the fear of being subjected to blame and +punishment, are sufficient to govern the actions of every rational +man. If, however, a citizen is in a sort of delirium, all the +credulity in the world will not be able to restrain him. If he is +powerful enough to have no fear of men on this earth, he will not +regard the divine law more than the hatred and the disdain of the +judges he has constantly before his eyes. + +But the priests may perhaps tell us that the fear of an avenging God +at least serves to repress a great number of latent crimes that would +appear but for the influence of religion. Is it true, however, that +religion itself prevents these latent crimes? Are not Christian +nations full of knaves of all kinds, who secretly plot the ruin of +their fellow-beings? Do not the most ostensibly credulous persons +indulge in an infinity of vices for which they would blush if they +were by chance brought to light? A man who is the most persuaded that +God sees all his actions frequently does not blush to commit deeds in +secret from which he would refrain if beheld by the meanest of human +beings. + +What, then, avails the powerful check on the passions which religion +is said to interpose? If we could place any reliance on what is said +by our priests, it would appear that neither public nor secret crimes +could be committed in countries where their instructions are received; +the priests would appear like a brotherhood of angels, and every +religious man to be without faults. But men forget their religious +speculations when they are under the dominion of violent passions, +when they are bound by the ties of habit, or when they are blinded by +great interests. Under such circumstances they do not reason. Whether +a man is virtuous or vicious depends on temperament, habit, and +education. An unbeliever may have strong passions, and may reason very +justly on the subject of religion, and very erroneously in regard to +his conduct. The religious dupe is a poor metaphysician, and if he +also acts badly he is both imbecile and wicked. + +It is true the priests deny that unbelievers ever reason correctly, +and pretend they must always be in the wrong to prefer natural sense +to their authority. But in this decision they occupy the place of both +judges and parties, and the verdict should be rendered by +disinterested persons. In the mean time the priests themselves seem to +doubt the soundness of their own allegations; they call the secular +arm to the aid of their arguments; they marshal on their side fines, +imprisonment, confiscation of goods, boring and branding, with hot +irons, and death at the stake, at this time in France, and in other +and in most countries of Christendom; they use the scourge to drive +men into paradise; they enlighten men by the blaze of the fagot; they +inculcate faith by furious and bloody strokes of the sword; and they +have the baseness to stand in dread of men who cannot announce +themselves or openly promulgate their opinions without running the +risk of punishment, and even death. This conduct does not manifest +that the priests are strongly persuaded of the power of their +arguments. If our clerical theologians acted in good faith, would +they not rejoice to open a free course to thorough discussion? Would +they not be gratified to allow doubters to propose difficulties, the +solution of which, if Christianity is so plain and clear, would serve +to render it more firm and solid? They find it answers their ends +better to use their adversaries as the Mexicans do their slaves, whom +they shackle before attacking, and then kill for daring to defend +themselves. + +It is very probable unbelievers may be found whose conduct is +blamable, and this is because they in this respect follow the same +line of reasoning as the devotee. The most fanatical partisans of +religion are forced to confess that among their adherents a small +number of the elect only are rendered virtuous. By what right, then, +do they exact that incredulity, which pretends to nothing +supernatural, should produce effects which, according to their own +admissions, their pretended divine religion fails to accomplish? If +all believers were invariably good men, the cause of religion would be +provided with an adamantine bulwark, and especially if unbelievers +were persons without morality or virtue. But whatever the priests may +aver, the unbelievers are more virtuous than the devotees. A happy +temperament, a judicious education, the desire of living a peaceable +life, the dislike to attract hatred or blame, and the habit of +fulfilling the moral duties, always furnish motives to abstain from +vice and to practise virtue more powerful and more true than those +presented by religion. Besides, the incredulous person has not an +infinity of resources which Christianity bestows upon its +superstitious followers. The Christian can at any time expiate his +crimes by confession and penance, and can thus reconcile himself with +God, and give repose to his conscience; the unbeliever, on the other +hand, who has perpetrated a wrong, can reconcile himself neither with +society, which he has outraged, nor with himself, whom he is compelled +to hate. If he expects no reward in another life, he has no interest +but to merit the homage that in all enlightened countries is rendered +to virtue, to probity, and to a conduct constantly honest; he has no +inducement but to avoid the penalties and the disdain that society +decrees against those who trouble its well-being, and who refuse to +contribute to its welfare. + +It appears evident that every man who consults his understanding +should be more reasonable than one who only consults his imagination. +It is evident that he who consults his own nature and that of the +beings who surround him, ought to have truer ideas of good and evil, +of justice and injustice, and of honesty and dishonesty, than he who, +to regulate his conduct, consults only the records of a concealed God, +whom his priests picture as wicked, unjust, changeable, contradicting +himself, and who has sometimes ordered actions the most contrary to +morality and to all the ideas that we have of virtue. It is evident +that he who regulates his conduct upon sacerdotal morality will only +follow the caprice and passions of the priests, and will be a very +dangerous man, while believing himself very virtuous. In fine, it is +evident that while conforming himself to the precepts and counsels of +religion, a man may be extremely pious without possessing the shadow +of a virtue. Experience has proved that it is quite possible to adhere +to all the unintelligible dogmas of the priests, to observe most +scrupulously all the forms, and ceremonies, and services they +recommend, and orally to profess all the Christian virtues, without +having any of the qualities necessary to his own happiness, and to +that of the beings with whom he lives. The saints, indeed, who are +proposed to us as models, were useless members of society. We see them +to have been either gloomy fanatics, who sacrificed themselves to the +desolating ideas of their religion, or excited fanatics, who, under +pretext of serving religion, have perpetually disturbed the repose of +nations, or enthusiastic theologians, who from their own dreams have +deduced systems exactly calculated to infuriate the brains of their +adherents. A saint, when he is tranquil, proposes nothing whose +accomplishment will benefit mankind, and only aims to keep himself +safe and secluded in his retreat. A saint, when he is active, only +appears to promulgate reveries dangerous to the world, and to uphold +the interests of the church, that he confounds with the interest of +God. + +In a word, Madam, I cannot too often repeat it, every system of +religion appears to be designed for the utility of the priests; the +morality of Christianity has in view only the interests of the +priesthood; all the virtues that it teaches have solely for an object +the church and its ministers; and these ends are always to subject the +people, to draw a profit from their toil, and to inspire them with a +blind credulity. We ought, therefore, to practise morality and virtue +without entering into these conspiracies. If the priests disapprove of +those who do not agree with them, and refuse to award any probity to +the thinkers who reject their injurious and useless notions, society, +which needs for its own sustenance real and human virtues, will not +adopt the sentiments nor espouse the quarrels of these men, visibly +leagued together against it. If the ministers of religion require +their dogmas, their mysteries, and their fanatical virtues to support +their usurped empire, the civil government has a need of reasonable +virtues, of an evident, and above all, of a pacific morality, in order +to exercise its legitimate rights. In fine, the individuals, who +compose every society, demand a morality which will render them happy +in _this_ world, without embarrassing themselves with what only +pretends to secure their felicity in an imaginary sphere, of which +they have no ideas except those received from the priests themselves. + +The priests have had the art to unite their religious system with some +moral tenets which are really good. This renders their mysteries more +sacred, and lends authority to their ambiguous dogmas. By the aid of +this artifice, they have given currency to the opinion that without +religion there can be neither morality nor virtue. I hope, Madam, in +my next letter, to complete the exposure of this prejudice, and to +demonstrate, to whoever will reflect, how uncertain, abstract, and +deceitful are the notions which religion has inspired. I shall clearly +show, that they have often infected philosophers themselves; that up +to the present time, they have retarded the progress of morality; and +that they have transformed a science the most certain, plain, and +sensible to every thinking man, into a system at once doubtful and +enigmatical, and full of difficulties. I am, Madam, &c. + + + + +LETTER XI. + + Of Human or Natural Morality. + + +By this time, Madam, you will have reflected on what I had the honor +to address to you, and perceived how impossible it is to found a +certain and invariable morality on a religion enthusiastic, ambiguous, +mysterious, and contradictory, and which never agreed with itself. You +know that the God who appears to have taken pleasure in rendering +himself unintelligible, that the God who is partial and changeable, +that the God whose precepts are at variance one with another, can +never serve as the base on which to rear a morality that shall become +practicable among the inhabitants of the earth. In short, how can we +found justice and goodness on attributes that are unjust and evil; yet +attributes of a Being who tempts man, whom he created, for the purpose +of punishing him when tempted? How can we know when we do the will of +a God who has said, _Thou shalt not kill_, and who yet allows his +people to exterminate whole nations? What idea can we form of the +morality of that God who declares himself pleased with the sanguinary +conduct of Moses, of the rebel, the assassin, the adulterer, David? Is +it possible to found the holy duties of humanity on a God whose +favorites have been inhuman persecutors and cruel monsters? How can we +deduce our duties from the lessons of the priests of a God of peace, +who, nevertheless, breathes only sedition, vengeance, and carnage? How +can we take as models for our conduct _saints_, who were useless +enthusiasts, or turbulent fanatics, or seditious apostates; who, under +the pretext of defending the cause of God, have stirred up the +greatest ravages on the earth? What wholesome morality can we reap +from the adoption of impracticable virtues, from their being +supernatural, which are visibly useless to ourselves, to those among +whom we live, and in their consequences often dangerous? How can we +take as guides in our conduct priests, whose lessons are a tissue of +unintelligible opinions, (_for all religion is but opinion_,) puerile +and frivolous practices, which these gentlemen prefer to real virtues? +In fine, how can we be taught _the truth_, conducted in an unerring +path, by men of a changeable morality, calculated upon and actuated by +their present interests, and who, although they pretend to preach +good-will to men, humanity, and peace, have, as their text-book, a +volume stained with the records of injustice, inhumanity, sedition, +and perfidy? + +You know, Madam, that it is impossible to found morality on notions +that are so unfixed and so contrary to all our natural ideas of +virtue. By virtue, we ought to understand the habitual dispositions to +do whatever will procure us the happiness of ourselves and our +species. By virtue, religion understands only that which may +contribute to render us favorable to a hidden God, who attaches his +favor to practices and opinions that are too often hurtful to +ourselves, and little beneficial to others. The morality of the +Christians is a mystic morality, which resembles the dogmas of their +religion; it is obscure, unintelligible, uncertain, and subject to the +interpretation of frail creatures. This morality is never fixed, +because it is subordinate to a religion which varies incessantly its +principles, and which is regulated according to the pleasure of a +despotic divinity, and, more especially, according to the pleasure of +priests, whose interests are changing daily, whose caprices are as +variable as the hours of their existence, and who are, consequently, +not always in agreement with one another. The writings which are the +sources whence the Christians have drawn their morality, are not only +an abyss of obscurity, but demand continual explications from their +masters, the priests, who, in explaining, make them still more +obscure, still more contradictory. If these oracles of heaven +prescribe to us in one place the virtues truly useful, in another part +they approve, or prescribe, actions entirely opposed to all the ideas +that we have of virtue. The same God who orders us to be good, +equitable, and beneficent, who forbids the revenging of injuries, who +declares himself to be the God of clemency and of goodness, shows +himself to be implacable in his rage; announces himself as bringing +_the sword, and not peace_; tells us that he is come to set mankind at +variance; and, finally, in order to revenge his wrongs, orders rapine, +treason, usurpation, and carnage. In a word, it is impossible to find +in the Scriptures any certain principles or sure rules of morality. +You there see, in one part, a small number of precepts, useful and +intelligible, and in another part maxims the most extravagant, and the +most destructive to the good and happiness of all society. + +It is in punctuality to fulfil the superstitious and frivolous duties, +that the morality of the Jews in the Old Testament writings is chiefly +conspicuous; legal observances, rites, ceremonies, are all that +occupied the people of Israel. In recompense for their scrupulous +exactness to fulfil these duties, they were permitted to commit the +most frightful of crimes. The virtues recommended by the Son of God, +in the New Testament, are not in reality the same as those which God +the Father had made observable in the former case. The New Testament +contradicts the Old. It announces that God is not pacified by +sacrifices, nor by offerings, nor by frivolous rites. It substitutes +in place of these, supernatural virtues, of which I believe I have +sufficiently proved the inutility, the impossibility, and the +incompatibility with the well-being of man living in society. The Son +of God, by the writers of the New Testament, is set at variance with +himself; for he destroys in one place what he establishes in another; +and, moreover, the priests have appropriated to themselves all the +principles of his mission. They are in unison only with God when the +precepts of the Deity accord with their present interest. Is it their +interest to persecute? They find that God ordains persecution. Are +they themselves persecuted? They find that this pacific God forbids +persecution, and views with abhorrence the persecution of his +servants. Do they find that superstitious practices are lucrative to +themselves? Notwithstanding the aversion of Jesus Christ from +offerings, rites, and ceremonies, they impose them on the people, they +surcharge them with mysterious rites: they respect these more than +those duties which are of essential benefit to society. If Jesus has +not wished that they should avenge themselves, they find that his +Father has delighted in vengeance. If Jesus has declared that his +kingdom is not of this world, and if he has shown contempt of riches, +they nevertheless find in the Old Testament sufficient reasons for +establishing a hierarchy for the governing of the world in a spiritual +sense, as kings do in a political one,--for the disputing with kings +about their power,--for exercising in this world an authority the most +unlimited, a license the most terrific. In a word, if they have found +in the Bible some precepts of a moral tendency and practical utility, +they have also found others to justify crimes the most atrocious. + +Thus, in the Christian religion, morality uniformly depends on the +fanaticism of priests, their passions, their interests: its principles +are never fixed; they vary according to circumstances: the God of whom +they are the organs, and the interpreters, has not said any thing but +what agrees best with their views, and what never contravenes their +interest. Following their caprices, he changes his advice continually; +he approves, and disapproves, of the same actions: he loves, or +detests, the same conduct; he changes crime into virtue, and virtue +into crime. + +What is the result from all this? It is that the Christians have not +sure principles in morality: it varies with the policy of the priests, +who are in a situation to command the credulity of mankind, and who, +by force of menaces and terrors, oblige men to shut their eyes on +their contradictions, and minds the most honest to commit faults the +greatest which can be committed against religion. It is thus that +under a God who recommends the love of our neighbor, the Christians +accustom themselves from infancy to detest an heretical neighbor, and +are almost always in a disposition to overwhelm him by a crowd of +arguments received from their priests. It is thus that, under a God +who ordains we should love our enemies and forgive their offences, the +Christians hate and destroy the enemies of their priests, and take +vengeance, without measure, for injuries which they pretend to have +received. It is thus, that under a just God, a God who never ceases to +boast of his goodness, the Christians, at the signal of their +spiritual guides, become unjust and cruel, and make a merit of having +stifled the cries of nature, the voice of humanity, the counsels of +wisdom, and of public interest. + +In a word, all the ideas of justice and of injustice, of good and +evil, of happiness and of misfortune, are necessarily confounded in +the head of a Christian. His despotic priest commands him, in the name +of God, to put no reliance on his reason, and the man who is compelled +to abandon it for the guidance of a troubled imagination will be far +more likely to consult and admit the most stupid fanaticism as the +inspiration of the Most High. In his blindness, he casts at his feet +duties the most sacred, and he believes himself virtuous in outraging +every virtue. Has he remorse? his priest appeases it speedily, and +points out some easy practices by which he may soon recommend himself +to God. Has he committed injustice, violence, and rapine? he may +repair all by giving to the church the goods of which he has despoiled +worthy citizens; or by repaying by largesses, which will procure him +the prayers of the priests and the favor of heaven. For the priests +never reproach men, who give them of this world's goods, with the +injustice, the cruelties, and the crimes they have been guilty, to +support the church and befriend her ministers; the faults which have +almost always been found the most unpardonable, have always been those +of most disservice to the clergy. To question the faith and reject the +authority of the priesthood, have always been the most frightful +crimes; they are truly the sin against the Holy Ghost, which can never +be forgiven either in this world or in that which is to come. To +despise these objects which the priests have an interest in making to +be respected, is sufficient to qualify one for the appellation of a +blasphemer and an impious man. These vague words, void of sense, +suffice to excite horror in the mind of the weak vulgar. The terrible +word sacrilege designates an attempt on the person, the goods, and the +rights of the clergy. The omission of some useless practice is +exaggerated and represented as a crime more detestable than actions +which injure society. In favor of fidelity to fulfil the duties of +religion, the priest easily pardons his slave submitting to vices, +criminal debaucheries, and excesses the most horrible. You perceive, +then, Madam, that the Christian morality has really in view but the +utility of the priests. Why, then, should you be surprised that they +endeavor to make themselves arbitrary and sovereign; that they deem as +faults, and as criminal, all the virtues which agree not with their +marvellous systems? The Christian morality appears only to have been +proposed to blind men, to disturb their reason, to render them abject +and timid, to plunge them into vassalage, to make them lose sight of +the earth which they inhabit, for visions of bliss in heaven. By the +aid of this morality, the priests have become the true masters here +below; they have imagined virtues and practices useful only to +themselves; they have proscribed and interdicted those which were +truly useful to society; they have made slaves of their disciples, who +make virtue to consist in blind submission to their caprices. + +To lay the foundations of a good morality, it is absolutely necessary +to destroy the prejudices which the priests have inspired in us; it is +necessary to begin by rendering the mind of man energetic, and freeing +it from those vain terrors which have enthralled it; it is necessary +to renounce those supernatural notions which have, till now, hindered +men from consulting the volume of nature, which have subjected reason +to the yoke of authority; it is necessary to encourage man, to +undeceive him as to those prejudices which have enslaved him; to +annihilate in his bosom those false theories which corrupt his nature, +and which are, in fact, infidel guides, destructive of the real +happiness of the species. It is necessary to undeceive him as to the +idea of his loathing himself, and especially that other idea, that +some of his fellow-creatures are not to labor with their hands for +their support, but in spiritual matters for his happiness. In fine, it +is necessary to influence him with self-love, that he may merit the +esteem of the world, the benevolence and consideration of those with +whom he is associated by the ties of nature or public economy. + +The morality of religion appears calculated to confound society and +replunge its members into the savage state. The Christian virtues tend +evidently to isolate man, to detach him from those to whom nature has +united him, and to unite him to the priests--to make him lose sight of +a happiness the most solid, to occupy himself only with dangerous +chimeras. We only live in society to procure the more easily those +kindnesses, succors, and pleasures, which we could not obtain living +by ourselves. If it had been destined that we should live miserably in +this world, that we should detest ourselves, fly the esteem of others, +voluntarily afflict ourselves, have no attachment for any one, society +would have been one heap of confusion, the human kind savages and +strangers to one another. + +However, if it is true that God is the author of man, it is God who +renders man sociable; it is God who wishes man to live in society +where he can obtain the greatest good. If God is good, he cannot +approve that men should leave society to become miserable; if God is +the author of reason, he can only wish that men who are possessed of +reason should employ this distinguishing gift to procure for +themselves all the happiness its exercise can bring them. If God has +revealed himself, it is not in some obscure way, but in a revelation +the most evident and clear of all those supposed revelations, which +are visibly contrary to all the notions we can form of the Divinity. +We are not, however, obliged to dive into the marvellous to establish +the duties man owes to man, since God has very plainly shown them in +the wants of one and the good offices of another person. But it is +only by consulting our reason that we can arrive at the means of +contributing to the felicity of our species. It is then evident that +in regarding man as the creature of God, God must have designed that +man should consult his reason, that it might procure him the most +solid happiness, and those principles of virtue which nature approves. + +What, then, might not our opinions be were we to substitute the +morality of reason for the morality of religion? In place of a partial +and reserved morality for a small number of men, let us substitute a +universal morality, intelligible to all the inhabitants of the earth, +and of which all can find the principles in nature. Let us study this +nature, its wants, and its desires; let us examine the means of +satisfying it; let us consider what is the end of our existence in +society; we shall see that all those who are thus associated are +compelled by their natures to practise affection one to another, +benevolence, esteem, and relief, if desired; we shall see what is that +line of conduct which necessarily excites hatred, ill-will, and all +those misfortunes which experience makes familiar to mankind; our +reason will tell us what actions are the most calculated to excite +real happiness and good will the most solid and extensive; let us +weigh these with those that are founded on visionary theories; their +difference will at once be perceptible; the advantages which are +permanent we will not sacrifice for those that are momentary; we will +employ all our faculties to augment the happiness of our species; we +will labor with perseverance and courage to extirpate evil from the +earth; we will assist as much as we can those who are without friends; +we will seek to alleviate their distresses and their pains; we will +merit their regard, and thus fulfil the end of our being on earth. + +In conducting ourselves in this manner, our reason prescribes a +morality agreeable to nature, reasonable to all, constant in its +operation, effective in its exercise in benefiting all, in +contributing to the happiness of society, collectively and +individually, in distinction to the mysticism preached up by priests. +We shall find in our reason and in our nature the surest guides, +superior to the clergy, who only teach us to benefit themselves. We +shall thus enjoy a morality as durable as the race of man. We shall +have precepts founded on the necessity of things, that will punish +those transgressing them, and rewarding those who obey them. Every +man who shall prove himself to be just, useful, beneficent, will be an +object of love to his fellow-citizens; every man who shall prove +himself unjust, useless, and wicked will become an object of hatred to +himself as well as to others; he will be forced to tremble at the +violation of the laws; he will be compelled to do that which is good +to gain the good will of mankind and preserve the regard of those who +have the power of obliging him to be a useful member of the state. + +Thus, Madam, if it should be demanded of you what you would substitute +for the benefit of society, in place of visionary reveries, I reply, a +sensible morality, a good education, profitable habits, self-evident +principles of duty, wise laws, which even the wicked cannot +misunderstand, but which may correct their evil purposes, and +recompenses that may tend to the promotion of virtue. The education of +the present day tends only to make youth the slaves of superstition; +the virtues which it inculcates on them are only those of fanaticism, +to render the mind subject to the priests for the remainder of life; +the motives to duty are only fictitious and imaginary; the rewards and +punishments which it exhibits in an obscure glimmering, produce no +other effect than to make useless enthusiasts and dangerous fanatics. +The principles on which enthusiasm establishes morality are changing +and ruinous; those on which the morality of reason is established are +fixed, and cannot be overturned. Seeing, then, that man, a reasonable +being, should be chiefly occupied about his preservation and +happiness--that he should love virtue--that he should be sensible of +its advantages--that he should fear the consequences of crime--is it +to be wondered I should insist so much on the practice of virtue as +his chief good? Men ought to hate crime because it leads to misery. +Society, to exist, must receive the united virtue of its members, +obedience to good laws, the activity and intelligence of citizens to +defend its privileges and its rights. Laws are good when they invite +the members of society to labor for reciprocal good offices. Laws are +just when they recompense or punish in proportion to the good or evil +which is done to society. Laws supported by a visible authority should +be founded on present motives; and thus they would have more force +than those of religion, which are founded on uncertain motives, +imaginary and removed from this world, and which experience proves +cannot suffice to curb the passions of bad men, nor show them their +duty by the fear of punishments after death. + +If in place of stifling human reason, as is too much done, its +perfectibility were studied; if in place of deluging the world with +visionary notions, truth were inculcated; if in place of pleading a +supernatural morality, a morality agreeable to humanity and resulting +from experience were preached, we should no longer be the dupes of +imaginary theories, nor of terrifying fables as the bases of virtue. +Every one would then perceive that it is to the practice of virtue, to +the faithful observation of the duties of morality, that the happiness +of individuals and of society is to be traced. Is he a husband? He +will perceive that his essential happiness is to show kindness, +attachment, and tenderness to the companion of his life, destined by +his own choice to share his pleasures and endure his misfortunes. And, +on the other hand, she, by consulting her true interests, will +perceive that they consist in rendering homage to her husband, in +interdicting every thought that could alienate her affections, +diminish her esteem and confidence in him. Fathers and mothers will +perceive that their children are destined to be one day their +consolation and support in old age, and that by consequence they have +the greatest interest in inspiring them in early life with sentiments +of which they may themselves reap the benefit when age or misfortune +may require the fruits of those advantages that result from a good +education. Their children early taught to reflect on these things, +will find their interest to lie in meriting the kindness of their +parents, and in giving them proofs that the virtues they are taught +will be communicated to their posterity. The master will perceive +that, to be served with affection, he owes good will, kindness, and +indulgence to those at whose hands he would reap advantages, and by +whose labor he would increase his prosperity; and servants will +discover how much their happiness depends on fidelity, industry, and +good temper in their situations. Friends will find the advantages of a +kindred heart for friendship, and the reciprocity of good offices. The +members of the same family will perceive the necessity of preserving +that union which nature has established among them, to render mutual +benefits in prosperity or in adversity. Societies, if they reflect on +the end of their association, will perceive that to secure it they +must observe good faith and punctuality in their engagements. The +citizen, when he consults his reason, will perceive how much it is +necessary, for the good of the nation to which he belongs, that he +should exert himself to advance its prosperity, or, in its +misfortunes, to retrieve its glory. By consequence every one in his +sphere, and using his faculties for this great end, will find his own +advantage in restraining the bad as dangerous, and opposing enemies to +the state as enemies to himself. + +In a word, every man who will reflect for himself will be compelled to +acknowledge the necessity of virtue for the happiness of the world. It +is so obvious that justice is the basis of all society; that good will +and good offices necessarily procure for men affection and respect; +that every man who respects himself ought to seek the esteem of +others; that it is necessary to merit the good opinion of society; +that he ought to be jealous of his reputation; that a weak being, who +is every instant exposed to misfortunes, ought to know what are his +duties, and how he should practise them for the benefit of himself +and the assembly of which he is a member. + +If we reflect for one moment on the effects of the passions, we shall +perceive the necessity of repressing them, if we would spare ourselves +vain regrets and useless sorrows, which certainly always afflict those +who obey not the laws. Thus, a single reflection will suffice to show +the impropriety of anger, the dreadful consequences of revenge, +calumny, and backbiting. Every one must perceive that in giving a free +course to unbridled desires, he becomes the enemy of society, and then +it is the part of the laws to restrain him who renounces his reason +and despises the motives that ought to guide him. + +If it is objected that man is not a free agent, and therefore is +unable to restrain his passions, and that consequently the law ought +not to punish him, I reply that the community are impelled by the same +necessity to hate what is injurious, and for their own conservation +and happiness have the right to restrain an unhappily organized +individual who is impelled to injure himself and others. The +inevitable faults of men necessarily excite the hatred of those who +suffer from them. + +If the man who consults his reason has real and powerful motives for +doing good to others and abstaining from injuring them, he has present +motives equally urgent to restrain him from the commission of vice. +Experience may suffice to show him that if he becomes sooner or later +the victim of his excesses, he ceases to be the friend of virtue, and +exists only to serve vice, which will infallibly punish him. This +being allowed, prudence, or the desire of preserving one's self free +from the contamination of evil, ought to inculcate to every man his +path of duty; and, unless blinded by his passions, he must perceive +how much moderation in his pleasures, temperance, chastity, contribute +to happiness; that those who transgress in these respects are +necessarily the victims of ill health, and too often pass a life both +infirm and unfortunate, which terminates soon in death. + +How is it possible, then, Madam, from visionary theories to arrive at +these conclusions, and establish from supernatural phantasms the +principles of private and public virtue? Shall we launch into unknown +regions to ascertain our duty and to keep our station in society? Is +it not sufficient if we wish to be happy that we should endeavor to +preserve ourselves in those maxims which reason approves, and on which +virtue is founded? Every man who would perish, who would render his +existence miserable, whoever would sacrifice permanent happiness for +present pleasure, is a fool, who reflects not on the interests that +are dearest to him. + +If there are any principles so clear as the morality of humanity has +been and is still proved to be, they are such as men ought to observe. +They are not obscure notions, mysticism, contradictions, which have +made of a science the most obvious and best demonstrated, an +unintelligible science, mysterious and uncertain to those for whom it +is designed. In the hands of the priests, morality has become an +enigma; they have founded our duties on the attributes of a Deity whom +the mind of man cannot comprehend, in place of founding them on the +character of man himself. They have thrown in among them the +foundations of an edifice which is made for this earth. They have +desired to regulate our manners agreeably to equivocal oracles which +every instant contradict themselves, and which too often render their +devotees useless to society and to themselves. They have pretended to +render their morality more sacred by inviting us to look for +recompenses and punishments removed beyond this life, but which they +announce in the name of the Divinity. In fine, they have made man a +being who may not even strive at perfection, by a preordination of +some to bliss, and consequent damnation of others, whose insensibility +is the result of this selection. + +Need we not, then, wonder that this supernatural morality should be so +contrary to the nature and the mind of man? It is in vain that it aims +at the annihilation of human nature, which is so much stronger, so +much more powerful, than imagination. In despite of all the subtile +and marvellous speculations of the priests, man continues always to +love himself, to desire his well being, and to flee misfortune and +sorrow. He has then always been actuated by the same passions. When +these passions have been moderate, and have tended to the public +good, they are legitimate, and we approve those actions which are +their effects. When these passions have been disordered, hurtful to +society, or to the individual, he condemns them; they punish him; he +is dissatisfied with his conduct which others cannot approve. Man +always loves his pleasures, because in their enjoyment he fulfils the +end of his existence; if he exceeds their just bounds he renders +himself miserable. + +The morality of the clergy, on the other hand, appears calculated to +keep nature always at variance with herself, for it is almost always +without effect even on the priesthood. Their chimeras serve but to +torture weak minds, and to set the passions at war with nature and +their dogmas. When this morality professes to restrain the wicked, to +curb the passions of men, it operates in opposition to the established +laws of natural religion; for by preserving all its rigor, it becomes +impracticable; and it meets with real devotees only in some few +fanatics who have renounced nature, and who would be singular, even if +their oddities were injurious to society. This morality, adopted for +the most part by devotees, without eradicating their habits or their +natural defects, keeps them always in a state of opposition even with +themselves. Their life is a round of faults and of scruples, of sins +and remorse, of crimes and expiations, of pleasures which they enjoy, +but for which they again reproach themselves for having tasted. In a +word, the morality of superstition necessarily carries with it into +the heart and the family of its devotees inward distress and +affliction; it makes of enthusiasts and fanatics scrupulous devotees; +it makes a great many insensible and miserable; it renders none +perfect, few good; and those only tolerable whom nature, education, +and habit had moulded for happiness. + +It is our temperament which decides our condition; the acquisition of +moderate passions, of honest habits, sensible opinions, laudable +examples, and practical virtues, is a difficult task, but not +impossible when undertaken with reason for one's guide. It is +difficult to be virtuous and happy with a temperament so ardent as to +sway the passions to its will. One must in calmness consult reason as +to his duty. Nature, in giving us lively passions and a susceptible +imagination, has made us capable of suffering the instant we +transgress her bounds. She then renders us necessary to ourselves, and +we cannot proceed to consult our real interest if we continue in +indulgence that she forbids. The passions which reason cannot restrain +are not to be bridled by religion. It is in vain that we hope to +derive succors from religion if we despise and refuse what nature +offers us. Religion leaves men just such as nature and habit have made +them; and if it produce any changes on some few, I believe I have +proved that those changes are not always for the better. + +Congratulate yourself, then, Madam, on being born with good +dispositions, of having received honest principles, which shall carry +you through life in the practice of virtue, and in the love of a fine +and exalted taste for the rational pleasures of our nature. Continue +to be the happiness of your family, which esteems and honors you. +Continue to diffuse around you the blessings you enjoy; continue to +perform only those actions which are esteemed by all the world, and +all men will respect you. Respect yourself, and others will respect +you. These are the legitimate sentiments of virtue and of happiness. +Labor for your own happiness, and you will promote that of your +family, who will love you in proportion to the good you do it. Allow +me to congratulate myself if, in all I have said, I have in any +measure swept from your mind those clouds of fanaticism which obscure +the reason; and to felicitate you on your having escaped from vague +theories of imagination. Abjure superstition, which is calculated only +to make you miserable; let the morality of humanity be your uniform +religion; that your happiness may be constant, let reason be your +guide; that virtue may be the idol of your soul, cultivate and love +only what is virtuous and good in the world; and if there be a God who +is interested in the happiness of his creatures, if there be a God +full of justice and goodness, he will not be angry with you for having +consulted your reason; if there be another life, your happiness in it +cannot be doubtful, if God rewards every one according to the good +done here. + + I am, with respect, &c. + + + + +LETTER XII. + + Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's Speculations, and + the Indulgence which should be extended to them. + + +Permit me, Madam, to felicitate you on the happy change which you say +has taken place in your opinions. Convinced by reasons as simple as +obvious, your mind has become sensible of the futility of those +notions which have for a long time agitated it; and the inefficacy of +those pretended succors which religious men boasted they could +furnish, is now apparent to you. You perceive the evident dangers +which result from a system that serves only to render men enemies to +individual and general happiness. I see with pleasure that reason has +not lost its authority over your mind, and that it is sufficient to +show you the truth that you may embrace it. You may congratulate +yourself on this, which proves the solidity of your judgment. For it +is glorious to give one's self up to reason, and to be the votary of +common sense. Prejudice so arms mankind that the world is full of +people who slight their judgment; nay, who resist the most obvious +pleas of their understanding. Their eyes, long shut to the light of +truth, are unable to bear its rays; but they can endure the +glimmerings of superstition, which plunges them in still darker +obscurity. + +I am not, however, astonished at the embarrassment you have hitherto +felt, nor at your cautious examination of my opinions, which are +better understood the more thoroughly they are examined and compared +with those they oppose. It is impossible to annihilate at once +deep-rooted prejudices. The mind of man appears to waver in a void +when those ideas are attacked on which it has long rested. It finds +itself in a new world, wherein all is unknown. Every system of opinion +is but the effect of habit. The mind has as great difficulty to +disengage itself from its custom of thinking, and reflect on new +ideas, as the body has to remain quiescent after it has long been +accustomed to exercise. Should you, for instance, propose to your +friend to leave off snuff, as a practice neither healthful nor +agreeable in company, he will not probably listen to you, or if he +should, it will be with extreme pain that he can bring himself to +renounce a habit long familiarized to him. + +It is precisely the same with all our prejudices; those of religion +have the most powerful hold of us. From infancy we have been +familiarized with them; habit has made them a sort of want we cannot +dispense with: our mode of thinking is formed, and familiar to us; our +mind is accustomed to engage itself with certain classes of objects; +and our imagination fancies that it wanders in chaos when it is not +fed with those chimeras to which it had been long accustomed. Phantoms +the most horrible are even clear to it; objects the most familiar to +it, if viewed with the calm eye of reason, are disagreeable and +revolting. + +Religion, or rather its superstitions, in consequence of the +marvellous and bizarre notions it engenders, gives the mind continual +exercise; and its votaries fancy they are doomed to a dangerous +inaction when they are suddenly deprived of the objects on which their +imagination exerted its powers. Yet is this exercise so much the more +necessary as the imagination is by far the most lively faculty of the +mind. Hence, without doubt, it becomes necessary men should replace +stale fooleries by those which are novel. This is, moreover, the true +reason why devotion so often affords consolation in great disgraces, +gives diversion for chagrin, and replaces the strongest passions, when +they have been quenched by excess of pleasure and dissipation. The +marvellous arguments, chimeras multiply as religion furnishes activity +and occupation to the fancy; habit renders them familiar, and even +necessary; terrors themselves even minister food to the imagination; +and religion, the religion of priestcraft, is full of terrors. Active +and unquiet spirits continually require this nourishment; the +imagination requires to be alternately alarmed and consoled; and there +are thousands who cannot accustom themselves to tranquillity and the +sobriety of reason. Many persons also require phantoms to make them +religious, and they find these succors in the dogmas of priestcraft. + +These reflections will serve to explain to you the continual +variations to which many persons are subject, especially on the +subject of religion. Sensible, like barometers, you behold them +wavering without ceasing; their imagination floats, and is never +fixed; so often as you find them freely given up to the blackness of +superstition, so often may you behold them the slaves of pernicious +prejudices. Whenever they tremble at the feet of their priests, then +are their necks under the yoke. Even people of spirit and +understanding in other affairs are not altogether exempt from these +variations of mental religious temperament; but their judgment is too +frequently the dupe of the imagination. And others, again, timid and +doubting, without spirit, are in perpetual torment. + +What do I say? Man is not, and cannot always be, the same. His frame +is exposed to revolutions and perpetual vicissitudes; the thoughts of +his mind necessarily vary with the different degrees of changes to +which his body is exposed. When the body is languid and fatigued, the +mind has not usually much inclination to vigor and gayety. The +debility of the nerves commonly annihilates the energies of the soul, +although it be so remarkably distinguished from the body; persons of a +bilious and melancholy temperament are rarely the subjects of joy; +dissipation importunes some, gayety fatigues others. Exactly after the +same fashion, there are some who love to nourish sombre ideas, and +these religion supplies them. Devotion affects them like the vapors; +superstition is an inveterate malady, for which there is no cure in +medicine. And it is impossible to keep him free from superstition, +whose breast, the slave of fear, was never sensible of courage; nay, +soldiers and sailors, the bravest of men, have too often been the +victims of superstition. It is education alone that operates in +radically curing the human mind of its errors. + +Those who think it sufficient, Madam, to render a reason for the +variations which we so frequently remark in the ideas of men, +acknowledge that there is a secret bent of the minds of religious +persons to prejudices, from which we shall almost in vain endeavor to +rescue their understandings. You perceive, at present, what you ought +to think of those secret transitions which our priests would force on +you, as the inspirations of heaven, as divine solicitations, the +effects of grace; though they are, nevertheless, only the effects of +those vicissitudes to which our constitution is liable, and which +affect the robust, as well as the feeble; the man of health, as well +as the valetudinarian. + +If we might form a judgment of the correctness of those notions which +our teachers boast of, in respect to our dissolution at death, we +shall find reason to be satisfied, that there is little or no occasion +that we should have our minds disturbed during our last moments. It is +then, say they, that it is necessary to attend to the condition of +man; it is then that man, undeceived as to the things of this life, +acknowledges his errors. But there is, perhaps, no idea in the whole +circle of theology more unreasonable than this, of which the +credulous, in all ages, have been the dupes. Is it not at the time of +a man's dissolution that he is the least capable of judging of his +true interest? His bodily frame racked, it may be, with pain, his mind +is necessarily weakened or chafed; or if he should be free from +excruciating pain, the lassitude and yielding of nature to the +irrevocable decrees of fate at death, unfit a man for reasoning and +judging of the sophisms that are proposed as panaceas for all his +errors. There are, without doubt, as strange notions as those of +religion; but who knows that body and soul sink alike at death? + +It is in the case of health that we can promise ourselves to reason +with justness; it is then that the soul, neither troubled by fear, nor +altered by disease, nor led astray by passion, can judge soundly of +what is beneficial to man. The judgments of the dying can have no +weight with men in good health; and they are the veriest impostors who +lend them belief. The truth can alone be known, when both body and +mind are in good health. No man, without evincing an insensible and +ridiculous presumption, can answer for the ideas he is occupied with, +when worn out with sickness and disease; yet have the inhuman priests +the effrontery to persuade the credulous to take as their examples the +words and actions of men necessarily deranged in intellect by the +derangement of their corporeal frame. In short, since the ideas of men +necessarily vary with the different variations of their bodies, the +man who presumes to reason on his death bed with the man in health, +arrogates what ought not to be conceded. + +Do not, then, Madam, be discouraged nor surprised, if you should +sometimes think of ancient prejudices reclaiming the rights they have +for a long time exercised over your reason; attribute, then, these +vacillations to some derangement in your frame--to some disordered +movements of mind, which, for a time, suspend your reason. Think that +there are few people who are constantly the same, and who see with the +same eyes. Our frame being subject to continual variations, it +necessarily follows that our modes of thinking will vary. We think one +custom the result of pusillanimity, when the nerves are relaxed and +our bodies fatigued. We think justly when our body is in health; that +is to say, when all its parts are fulfilling their various functions. +There is one mode of thinking, or one state of mind, which in health +we call uncertainty, and which we rarely experience when our frame is +in its ordinary condition. We do not then reason justly, when our +frame is not in a condition to leave our mind subject to incredulity. + +What, then, is to be done, when we would calm our mind, when we wish +to reflect, even for an instant? Let reason be our guide, and we shall +soon arrive at that mode of thinking which shall be advantageous to +ourselves. In effect, Madam, how can a God who is just, good, and +reasonable, be irritated by the manner in which we shall think, seeing +that our thoughts are always involuntary, and that we cannot believe +as we would, but as our convictions increase, or become weakened? Man +is not, then, for one instant, the master of his ideas, which are +every moment excited by objects over which he has no control, and +causes which depend not on his will or exertions. St. Augustine +himself bears testimony to this truth: "There is not," says he, "one +man who is at all times master of that which presents itself to his +spirit." Have we not, then, good reason to conclude, that our thoughts +are entirely indifferent to God, seeing they are excited by objects +over which we have no control, and, by consequence, that they cannot +be offensive to the Deity? + +If our teachers pique themselves on their principles, they ought to +carry along with them this truth, that a just God cannot be offended +by the changes which take place in the minds of his creatures. They +ought to know that this God, if he is wise, has no occasion to be +troubled with the ideas that enter the mind of man; that if they do +not comprehend all his perfections, it is because their comprehension +is limited. They ought to recollect, that if God is all-powerful, his +glory and his power cannot be affected by the opinions and ideas of +weak mortals, any more than the notions they form of him can alter his +essential attributes. In fine, if our teachers had not made it a duty +to renounce common sense, and to close with notions that carry in +their consequences the contradictory evidence of their premises, they +would not refuse to avow that God would be the most unjust, the most +unreasonable, the most cruel of tyrants, if he should punish beings +whom he himself created imperfect, and possessed of a deficiency of +reason and common sense. + +Let us reflect a little longer, and we shall find that the theologians +have studied to make of the Divinity a ferocious master, unreasonable +and changing, who exacts from his creatures qualities they have not, +and services they cannot perform. The ideas they have formed of this +unknown being are almost always borrowed from those of men of power, +who, jealous of their power and respect from their subjects, pretend +that it is the duty of these last to have for them sentiments of +submission, and punish with rigor those who, by their conduct or their +discourse, announce sentiments not sufficiently respectful to their +superiors. Thus you see, Madam, that God has been fashioned by the +clergy on the model of an uneasy despot, suspicious of his subjects, +jealous of the opinions they may entertain of him, and who, to secure +his power, cruelly chastises those who have not littleness of mind +sufficient to flatter his vanity, nor courage enough to resist his +power. + +It is evident, that it is on ideas so ridiculous, and so contrary to +those which nature offers us of the Divinity, that the absurd system +of the priests is founded, which they persuade themselves is very +sensible and agreeable to the opinions of mankind; and which is very +seriously insulted, they say, if men think differently; and which will +punish with severity those who abandon themselves to the guidance of +reason, the glory of man. Nothing can be more pernicious to the human +kind than this fatal madness, which deranges all our ideas of a just +God--of a God, good, wise, all-powerful, and whose glory and power +neither the devotion nor rebellion of his creatures can affect. In +consequence of these impertinent suppositions of the priesthood, men +have ever been afraid to form notions agreeable to the mysterious +Sovereign of the universe, on whom they are dependent; their mind is +put to the torture to divine his incomprehensible nature, and, in +their fear of displeasing him, they have assigned to him human +attributes, without perceiving that when they pretend to honor him, +they dishonor Deity, and that being compelled to bestow on him +qualities that are incompatible with Deity, they actually annihilate +from their mind the pure representation of Deity, as witnessed in all +nature. It is thus, that in almost all the religions on the face of +the earth, under the pretext of making known the Divinity, and +explaining his views towards mortals, the priests have rendered him +incomprehensible, and have actually promulgated, under the garb of +religion, nothing save absurdities, by which, if we admit them, we +shall destroy those notions which nature gives us of Deity. + +When we reflect on the Divinity, do we not see that mankind have +plunged farther and farther into darkness, as they assimilated him to +themselves; that their judgment is always disturbed when they would +make their Deity the object of their meditations; that they cannot +reason justly, because they never have any but obscure and absurd +ideas; that they are almost always in uncertainty, and never agree +with themselves, because their principles are replete with doubt; that +they always tremble, because they imagine that it is very dangerous to +be deceived; that they dispute without ceasing, because that it is +impossible to be convinced of any thing, when they reason on objects +of which they know nothing, and which the imaginations of men are +forced to paint differently; in fine, that they cruelly torment one +another about opinions equally uninteresting, though they attach to +them the greatest importance, and because the vanity of the one party +never allows it to subscribe to the reveries of the other? + +It is thus that the Divinity has become to us a source of evil, +division, and quarrels; it is thus that his name alone inspires +terror; it is thus that religion has become the signal of so many +combats, and has always been the true apple of discord among unquiet +mortals, who always dispute with the greatest heat, on subjects of +which they can never have any true ideas. They make it a duty to think +and reason on his attributes; and they can never arrive at any just +conclusions, because their mind is never in a condition to form true +notions of what strikes their senses. In the impossibility of knowing +the Deity by themselves, they have recourse to the opinion of others, +whom they consider more adroit in theology, and who pretend to an +intimate acquaintance with God, being inspired by him, and having +secret intelligence of his purposes with regard to the human kind. +Those privileged men teach nothing to the nations of the earth, except +what their reveries have reduced to a system, without giving them +ideas that are clear and definite. They paint God under characters the +most agreeable to their own interests; they make of him a good monarch +for those who blindly submit to their tenets, but terrible to those +who refuse to blindly follow them. + +Thus you perceive, Madam, what those men are who have obviously made +of the Deity an object so bizarre as they announce him, and who, to +render their opinions the more sacred, have pretended that he is +grievously offended when we do not admit implicitly the ideas they +promulgate of God. In the books of Moses God defines himself, _I am +that I am_; yet does this inspired writer detail the history of this +God as a tyrant who tempts men, and who punishes them for being +tempted; who exterminated all the human kind by a deluge, except a few +of one family, because one man had fallen; in a word, who, in all his +conduct, behaves as a despot, whose power dispenses with all the rules +of justice, reason, and goodness. + +Have the successors of Moses transmitted to us ideas more clear, more +sensible, more comprehensible of the Divinity? Has the Son of God made +his Father perfectly known to us? Has the church, perpetually boasting +of the light she diffuses among men, become more fixed and certain, +to do away our uncertainty? Alas! in spite of all these supernatural +succors, we know nothing in nature beyond the grave; the ideas which +are communicated to us, the recitals of our infallible teachers, are +calculated only to confound our judgment, and reduce our reason to +silence. They make of God a pure spirit; that is to say, a being who +has nothing in common with matter, and who, nevertheless, has created +matter, which he has produced from his own fiat--his essence or +substance. They have made him the mirror of the universe, and the soul +of the universe. They have made him an infinite being, who fills all +space by his immensity, although the material world occupies some part +in space. They have made him a being all powerful, but whose projects +are incessantly varying, who neither can nor will maintain man in good +order, nor permit the freedom of action necessary for rational beings, +and who is alternately pleased and displeased with the same beings and +their actions. They make him an infinite good Father, but who avenges +himself without measure. They make of him a monarch infinitely just, +but who confounds the innocent with the guilty, who has mingled +injustice and cruelty, in causing his own Son to be put to death to +expiate the crimes of the human kind; though they are incessantly +sinning and repenting for pardon. They make of him a being full of +wisdom and foresight, yet insensible to the folly and shortsightedness +of mortals. They make him a reasonable being who becomes angry at the +thoughts of his creatures, though involuntary, and consequently +necessary; thoughts which he himself puts into their heads; and who +condemns them to eternal punishments if they believe not in reveries +that are incompatible with the divine attributes, or who dare to doubt +whether God can possess qualities that are not capable of being +reconciled among themselves. + +Is it, then, surprising that so many good people are shocked at the +revolting ideas, so contradictory and so appalling, which hurl mortals +into a state of uncertainty and doubt as to the existence of the +Deity, or even to force them into absolute denial of the same? It is +impossible to admit, in effect, the doctrine of the Deity of +priestcraft, in which we constantly see infinite perfections, allied +with imperfections the most striking; in which, when we reflect but +momentarily, we shall find that it cannot produce but disorder in the +imagination, and leaves it wandering among errors that reduce it to +despair, or some impostors, who, to subjugate mankind, have wished to +throw them into embarrassment, confound their reason, and fill them +with terror. Such appear, in effect, to be the motives of those who +have the arrogance to pretend to a secret knowledge, which they +distribute among mankind, though they have no knowledge even of +themselves. They always paint God under the traits of an inaccessible +tyrant, who never shows himself but to his ministers and favorites, +who please to veil him from the eyes of the vulgar; and who are +violently irritated when they find any who oppose their pretensions, +or when they refuse to believe the priests and their unintelligible +farragoes. + +If, as I have often said, it be impossible to believe what we cannot +comprehend, or to be intimately convinced of that of which we can form +no distinct and clear ideas, we may thence conclude that, when the +Christians assure us they believe that God has announced himself in +some secret and peculiar way to them that he has not done to other +men, either they are themselves deceived, or they wish to deceive us. +Their faith, or their belief in God, is merely an acceptance of what +their priests have taught them of a Being whose existence they have +rendered more than doubtful to those who would reason and meditate. +The Deity cannot, assuredly, be the being whom the Christians admit on +the word of their theologians. Is there, in good truth, a man in the +world who can form any idea of a spirit? If we ask the priests what a +spirit is, they will tell us that a spirit is an immaterial being who +has none of the passions of which men are the subjects. But what is an +immaterial spirit? It is a being that has none of the qualities which +we can fathom; that has neither form, nor extension, nor color. + +But how can we be assured of the existence of a being who has none of +these qualities? It is by _faith_, say the priests, that we must be +assured of his existence. But what is this _faith_? It is to adhere, +without examination, to what the priests tell us. But what is it the +priests tell us of God? They tell us of things which we can neither +comprehend nor they reconcile among themselves. The existence, even of +God, has, in their hands, become the most impenetrable mystery in +religion. But do the priests themselves comprehend this ineffable God, +whom they announce to other men? Have they just ideas of him? Are they +themselves sincerely convinced of the existence of a being who unites +incompatible qualities which reciprocally exclude the one or the +other? We cannot admit it; and we are authorized to conclude, that +when the priests profess to believe in God, either they know not what +they say, or they wish to deceive us. + +Do not then be surprised, Madam, if you should find that there are, in +fact, people who have ventured to doubt of the existence of the Deity +of the theologians, because, on meditating on the descriptions given +of him, they have discovered them to be incomprehensible, or replete +with contradiction. Do not be astonished if they never listen, in +reasoning, to any arguments that oppose themselves to common sense, +and seek, for the existence of the priests' Deity, other proofs than +have yet been offered mankind. His existence cannot be demonstrated in +revelations, which we discover, on examination, to be the work of +imposture; revelations sap the foundations laid down for belief in a +Divinity, which they would wish to establish. This existence cannot +be founded on the qualities which our priests have assigned to the +Divinity, seeing that, in the association of these qualities, there +only results a God whom we cannot comprehend, and by consequence of +whom we can form no certain ideas. This existence cannot be founded on +the moral qualities which our priests attribute to the Divinity, +seeing these are irreconcilable in the same subject, who cannot be at +once good and evil, just and unjust, merciful and implacable, wise and +the enemy of human reason. + +On what, then, ought we to found the existence of God? The priests +themselves tell us that it is on reason, the spectacle of nature, and +on the marvellous order which appears in the universe. Those to whom +these motives for believing in the existence of the Divinity do not +appear convincing, find not, in any of the religions in the world, +motives more persuasive; for all systems of theology, framed for the +exercise of the imagination, plunge us into more uncertainty +respecting their evidence, when they appeal to nature for proofs of +what they advance. + +What, then, are we to think of the God of the clergy? Can we think +that he exists, without reasoning on that existence? And what shall we +think of those who are ignorant of this God, or have no belief in his +existence; who cannot discover him in the works of nature, either as +good or evil; who behold only order and disorder succeeding +alternately? What idea shall we form of those men who regard matter as +eternal, as actuated on by laws, peculiar to itself; as sufficiently +powerful to produce itself under all the forms we behold; as +perpetually exerting itself in nourishing and destroying itself, in +combining and dissolving itself; as incapable of love or of hatred; as +deprived of the faculties of _intelligence_ and _sentiment_ known to +belong to beings of our species, but capable of supporting those +beings whose organization has made them intelligent, sensible, and +reasonable? + +What shall we say of those Freethinkers who find neither good nor +evil, neither order nor disorder, in the universe; that all things are +but relative to different conditions of beings, of which they have +evidence; and that all that happens in the universe is necessary, and +subjected to destiny? In a word, what shall we think of these men? + +Shall we say that they have only a different manner of viewing things, +or that they use different words in expressing themselves? They call +that _Nature_ which others call the _Divinity_; they call that +_Necessity_ which all others call the _Divine decrees_; they call that +the _Energy_ of _Nature_ which others call the _Author_ of _Nature_; +they call that _Destiny_, or _Fate_, which others call _God_, whose +laws are always going forward. + +Have we, then, any right to hate and to exterminate them? No, without +doubt; at least, we cannot admit that we have any reason that those +should perish, who speak only the same language with ourselves, and +who are reciprocally beneficial to us. Nevertheless, it is to this +degree of extravagance that the baneful ideas of religion have +carried the human mind. Harassed, and set on by their priests, men +have hated and assassinated each other, because that in religious +matters they agree not to one creed. Vanity has made some imagine +that they are better than others, more intelligible, although they +see that theology is a language which they neither understand, nor +which they themselves could invent. The very name of Freethinker +suffices to irritate them, and to arm the fury of others, who repeat, +without ceasing, the name of God, without having any precise idea of +the Deity. If, by chance, they imagine that they have any notions of +him, they are only confused, contradictory, incompatible, and +senseless notions, which have been inspired in their infancy by their +priests, and those who, as we have seen, have painted God in all +those traits which their imagination furnished, or those who appear +more conformed to their passions and interests than to the well-being +of their fellow-creatures. + +The least reflection will, nevertheless, suffice to make any one +perceive, that God, if he is just and good, cannot exist as a being +known to some, but unknown to others. If Freethinkers are men void of +reason, God would be unjust to punish them for being blind and +insensible, or for having too little penetration and understanding to +perceive the force of those natural proofs on which the existence of +the Deity has been founded. A God full of equity cannot punish men +for having been blind or devoid of reason. The Freethinkers, as +foolish as they are supposed, are beings less insensible than those +who make professions of believing in a God full of qualities that +destroy one another; they are less dangerous than the adorers of a +changeable Deity, who, they imagine, is pleased with the extermination +of a large portion of mankind, on account of their opinions. Our +speculations are indifferent to God, whose glory man cannot +tarnish--whose power mortals cannot abridge. They may, however, be +advantageous to ourselves; they may be perfectly indifferent to +society, whose happiness they may not affect; or they may be the +reverse of all this. For it is evident that the opinions of men do not +influence the happiness of society. + +Hence, Madam, let us leave men to think as they please, provided that +they act in such a manner as promotes the general good of society. The +thoughts of men injure not others; their actions may--their reveries +never. Our ideas, our thoughts, our systems, depend not on us. He who +is fully convinced on one point, is not satisfied on another. All men +have not the same eyes, nor the same brains; all have not the same +ideas, the same education, or the same opinions; they never agree +wholly, when they have the temerity to reason on matters that are +enveloped in the obscurity of imaginative fiction, and which cannot be +subject to the usual evidence accompanying matters of report, or +historic relation. + +Men do not long dispute on objects that are cognizable to their +senses, and which they can submit to the test of experience. The +number of self-evident truths on which men agree is very small; and +the fundamentals of morality are among this number. It is obvious to +all men of sense, that beings, united in society, require to be +regulated by justice, that they ought to respect the happiness of each +other, that mutual succor is indispensable; in a word, that they are +obliged to practise virtue, and to be useful to society, for personal +happiness. It is evident to demonstration, that the interest of our +preservation excites us to moderate our desires, and put a bridle on +our passions; to renounce dangerous habits, and to abstain from vices +which can only injure our fortune, and undermine our health. These +truths are evident to every being whose passions have not dominion +over his reason; they are totally independent of theological +speculations, which have neither evidence nor demonstration, and which +our mind can never verify; they have nothing in common with the +religious opinions on which the imagination soars from earth to sky, +nor with the fanaticism and credulity which are so frequently +producing among mankind the most opposite principles to morality and +the well-being of society. + +They who are of the Freethinkers' opinions are not more dangerous than +they who are of the priests' opinions. In short, Christianity has +produced effects more appalling than heathenism. The speculative +principles of the Freethinkers have done no injury to society; the +contagious principles of fanaticism and enthusiasm have only served to +spread disorder on the earth. If there are dangerous notions and fatal +speculations in the world, they are those of the devotees, who obey a +religion that divides men, and excites their passions, and who +sacrifice the interests of society, of sovereigns, and their subjects, +to their own ambition, their avarice, their vengeance and fury. + +There is no question that the Freethinker has motives to be good, even +though he admit not notions that bridle his passions. It is true that +the Freethinker has no invisible motives, but he has motives, and a +visible restraint, which, if he reflects, cannot fail to regulate his +actions. If he doubts about religion, he does not question the laws of +moral obligation; nor that it is his duty to moderate his passions, to +labor for his happiness and that of others, to avoid hatred, disdain, +and discord as crimes; and that he should shun vices which may injure +his constitution, reputation, and fortune. Thus, relatively to his +morality, the Freethinker has principles more sure than those of +superstition and fanaticism. In fine, if nothing can restrain the +Freethinker, a thousand forces united would not prevent the fanatic +from the commission of crimes, and the violation of duties the most +sacred. + +Besides, I believe that I have already proved that the morality of +superstition has no certain principles; that it varies with the +interests of the priests, who explain the intentions of the Divinity, +as they find these accordant or discordant to their views and +interests; which, alas! are too often the result of cruel and wicked +purposes. On the contrary, the Freethinker, who has no morality but +what he draws from the nature and character of man, and the constant +events which transpire in society, has a certain morality that is not +founded either on the caprice of circumstances or the prejudices of +mankind; a morality that tells him when he does evil, and blames him +for the evil so done, and that is superior to the morality of the +intolerant fanatic and persecutor. + +You thus perceive, Madam, on which side the morality of the +Freethinkers leans, what advantages it possesses over that inculcated +on the superstitious devotee, who knows no other rule than the caprice +of his priest, nor any other morality than what suits the interest of +the clergy, nor any other virtues than such as make him the slave of +their will, and which are too often in opposition to the great +interests of mankind. Thus you perceive, that what is understood by +the natural morality of the Freethinker, is much more constant and +more sure than that of the superstitious, who believe they can render +themselves agreeable to God by the intercession of priests. If the +Freethinker is blind or corrupted, by not knowing his duties which +nature prescribes to him, it is precisely in the same way as the +superstitious, whose invisible motives and sacred guides prevent him +not from going occasionally astray. + +These reflections will serve to confirm what I have already said, to +prove that morality has nothing in common with religion; and that +religion is its own enemy, though it pretends to dispense with support +from other sources. True morality is founded on the nature of man; the +morality of religion is founded only on the chimeras of imagination, +and on the caprice of those who speak of the Deity in a language too +often contrary to nature and right reason. + +Allow me, then, Madam, to repeat to you, that morality is the only +natural religion for man; the only object worthy his notice on earth; +the only worship which he is required to render to the Deity. It is +uniform, and replete with obvious duties, which rest not on the +dictation of priests, blabbing chit-chat they do not understand. If it +be this morality which I have defined, that makes us what we are, +ought we not to labor strenuously for the happiness of our race? If it +be this morality that makes us reasonable; that enables us to +distinguish good from evil, the useful from the hurtful; that makes us +sociable, and enables us to live in society to receive and repay +mutual benefits; we ought at least to respect all those who are its +friends. If it be this morality which sets bounds to our temper, it is +that which interdicts the commission in thought, word, or action, of +what would injure another, or disturb the happiness of society. If it +attach us to the preservation of all that is dear to us, it points out +how by a certain line of conduct we may preserve ourselves; for its +laws, clear and of easy practice, inflict on those who disobey them +instant punishment, fear, and remorse; on the other hand, the +observance of its duties is accompanied with immediate and real +advantages, and notwithstanding the depravity which prevails on earth, +vice always finds itself punished, and virtue is not always deprived +of the satisfaction it yields, of the esteem of men, and the +recompense of society; even if men are in other respects unjust, they +will concede to the virtuous the due meed of praise. + +Behold, Madam, to what the dogmas of natural religion reduce us: in +meditating on it, and in practising its duties, we shall be truly +religious, and filled with the spirit of the Divinity; we shall be +admired and respected by men; we shall be in the right way to be loved +by those who rule over us, and respected by those who serve us; we +shall be truly happy in this world, and we shall have nothing to fear +in the next. + +These are laws so clear, so demonstrable, and whose infraction is so +evidently punished, whose observance is so surely recompensed, that +they constitute the code of nature of all living beings, sentient and +reasoning; all acknowledge their authority; all find in them the +evidence of Deity, and consider those as sceptics who doubt their +efficacy. The Freethinker does not refuse to acknowledge as +fundamental laws, those which are obviously founded on the God of +Nature, and on the immutable and necessary circumstances of things +cognizable to the faculties of sentient natures. The Indian, the +Chinese, the savage, perceives these self-evident laws, whenever he is +not carried headlong by his passions into crime and error. In fine, +these laws, so true, and so evident, never can appear uncertain, +obscure, or false, as are those superstitious chimeras of the +imagination, which knaves have substituted for the truths of nature +and the dicta of common sense; and those devotees who know no other +laws than those of the caprices of their priests, necessarily obey a +morality little calculated to produce personal or general happiness, +but much calculated to lead to extravagance and inconvenient +practices. + +Hence, charming Eugenia, you will allow mankind to think as they +please, and judge of them after their actions. Oppose reason to their +systems, when they are pernicious to themselves or others; remove +their prejudices if you can, that they may not become the victims of +their caprices; show them the truth, which may always remove error; +banish from their minds the phantoms which disturb them; advise them +not to meditate on the mysteries of their priests; bid them renounce +all those illusions they have substituted for morality; and advise +them to turn their thoughts on that which conduces to their happiness. +Meditate yourself on your own nature, and the duties which it imposes +on you. Fear those chastisements which follow inattention to this law. +Be ambitious to be approved by your own understanding, and you will +rarely fail to receive the applauses of the human kind, as a good +member of society. + +If you wish to meditate, think with the greatest strength of your mind +on your nature. Never abandon the torch of reason; cherish truth +sincerely. When you are in uncertainty, pause, or follow what appears +the most probable, always abandoning opinions that are destitute of +foundation, or evidence of their truth and benefit to society. Then +will you, in good truth, yield to the impulse of your heart when +reason is your guide; then will you consult in the calmness of +passion, and counsel yourself on the advantages of virtue, and the +consequences of its want; and you may flatter yourself that you cannot +be displeasing to a wise God, though you disbelieve absurdities, nor +agreeable to a good God in doing things hurtful to yourself or to +others. + +Leaving you now to your own reflections, I shall terminate the series +of Letters you have allowed me to address you. Bidding you an +affectionate farewell, + + I am truly yours. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters to Eugenia, by Baron d'Holbach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA *** + +***** This file should be named 31275-8.txt or 31275-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/7/31275/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters to Eugenia + or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices + +Author: Baron d'Holbach + +Translator: Anthony C. Middleton + +Release Date: February 14, 2010 [EBook #31275] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="trnote"> +<h2>Transcriber's note</h2> +<ul> +<li>The <a href="#footnotes">footnotes</a> have been collected and + compiled in a list at the end of the book.</li> +<li>Some shortcuts are provided here for ease of navigation: +<ul> +<li><a href="#NAIGEONS_PREFACE">Naigeon's Preface.</a></li> +<li><a href="#TRANSLATORS_PREFACE">Translator's Preface.</a></li> +<li><a href="#CONTENTS">Main Table of Contents.</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<div class="front"> +<h1 class="caps">Letters to Eugenia;</h1> + +<p class="center caps"><span class="smaller">or,</span><br /><br /> +A Preservative<br /><br /> +<span class="larger">Against Religious Prejudices.</span></p> + +<h2 class="caps">by Baron d'Holbach,</h2> +<p class="blockcenter caps smaller">Author of The System of Nature, The Social System, Good +Sense, Christianity Unveiled, Ecce Homo, Universal +Morality, Religious Cruelty, <span class="uncap">&c., &c., &c.</span></p> + +<p class="center caps"><span class="smaller">Translated from the French, by</span> +<span class="larger"><br />Anthony C. Middleton, M. D.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span style="margin-left: 20%">... "Arctis</span><br /> +Religionum animos nodis exsolvere pergo."<br /> +<span class="smaller" style="margin-left: 30%"><span class="smcap">Lucretii</span> <i>De Rerum Natura</i>, lib. iv. <i>v.</i> 6, 7.</span></p> + +<p class="center caps">Boston:<br /> +Published By Josiah P. Mendum,<br /> +<span class="smaller">At The Office Of The Boston Investigator.</span><br /> +1857.</p> +</div> + + + + +<hr class="w65" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="NAIGEONS_PREFACE" id="NAIGEONS_PREFACE"></a>Naigeon's Preface.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">1768.</p></div> +<hr class="w15" /> + +<p>For many years this work has been known +under the title of <i>Letters to Eugenia</i>. The secretive +character of those, however, into whose hands +the manuscript at first fell; the singular and yet +actual pleasure that is caused generally enough in +the minds of all men by the exclusive possession +of any object whatever; that kind of torpor, servitude, +and terror in which the tyrannical power of +the priests then held all minds—even those who +by the superiority of their talents ought naturally +to be the least disposed to bend under the odious +yoke of the clergy,—all these circumstances +united contributed so much to stifle in its birth, +if I may so express myself, this important manuscript, +that for a long time it was supposed to be +lost; so much did those who possessed it keep it +carefully concealed, and so constantly did they +refuse to allow a copy to be taken. The manuscripts, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> +indeed, were so scarce, even in the libraries +of the curious, that the late M. De Boze, whose +pleasure it was to collect the rarest works belonging +to every species of literature, could never +succeed in acquiring a copy of the <i>Letters to Eugenia</i>, +and in his time there were only three in +Paris; it may have been from design, <i>propter +metum Judæorum</i>;<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> it may have been there were +actually no more known.</p> + +<p>It is not till within five or six years that MSS. +of these letters have become more common; and +there is reason to believe that they are now considerably +multiplied, since the copy from which +this edition is printed has been revised and corrected +by collation with six others, that have been +collected without any great difficulty. Unhappily, +all these copies swarm with faults, which corrupt +the sense, and comprehend many variations, but +which also, to use the language of the Biblical +critics, have served sometimes to discover and to +fix the true reading! More often, however, they +have rendered it more uncertain than it was before +what one ought to be followed—a new proof of +the multiplicity of copies, because the more numerous +are the manuscripts of a work, the more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> +they differ from each other, as any one may be +fully convinced by consulting those of the <i>Letter +of Thrasybulus to Leucippus</i>, and the various readings +of the New Testament collected by the +learned Mill, and which amount to more than +thirty thousand.</p> + +<p>However this may be, we have spared no pains +to reëstablish the text in all its purity; and we +venture to say, that, with the exception of four or +five passages, which we found corrupted in all the +manuscripts that we had an opportunity to collate, +and which we have amended to the best of our +ability, the edition of these letters that we now +offer to the reader will probably conform almost +exactly with the original manuscript of the +author.</p> + +<p>With regard to the author's name and quality +we can offer nothing but conjectures. The only +particulars of his life upon which there is a general +agreement are, that he lived upon terms of great +intimacy with the Marquis de la Fare, the Abbé +de Chaulieu, the Abbé Terrasson, Fontenelle, M. +de Lasseré, &c. The late MM. Du Marsais and +Falconnet have often been heard to declare that +these letters were composed by some one belonging +to the school of Seaux. All that we can pronounce +with certainty is the fact, that it is only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> +necessary to read the work to be entirely convinced +the author was a man of extensive knowledge, +and one who had meditated profoundly concerning +the matters upon which he has treated. His style +is clear, simple, easy, and in which we may remark +a certain urbanity, that leads us to be sure that he +was not an obscure individual, nor one to whom +good company and polished society were unfamiliar. +But what especially distinguishes this +work, and which should endear it to all good +and virtuous people, is the signal honesty which +pervades and characterizes it from the very beginning +to the end. It is impossible to read it +without conceiving the highest idea of the author's +probity, whoever he may have been—without +desiring to have had him for a friend, to have +lived with him, and, in a word, without rendering +justice to the rectitude of his intentions, even +when we do not approve of his sentiments. The +love of virtue, universal benevolence, respect to +the laws, an inviolable attachment to the duties +of morality, and, in fine, all that can contribute +to render men better, is strongly recommended in +these Letters. If, on the one hand, he completely +overthrows the ruinous edifice of Christianity, it is +to erect, on the other hand, the immovable foundations +of a system of morality legitimately established +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> +upon the nature of man, upon his physical +wants, and upon his social relations—a base infinitely +better and more solid than that of religion, +because sooner or later the lie is discovered, rejected, +and necessarily drags with it what served +to sustain it. On the contrary, the truth subsists +eternally, and consolidates itself as it grows old: +<i>Opinionum commenta delet dies, naturæ judicia +confirmat</i>.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The motto affixed to many of the manuscript +copies of these letters proves that the worthy man +to whom we owe them did not desire to be known +as their author, and that it was neither the love +of reputation, nor the thirst of glory, nor the ambition +of being distinguished by bold opinions, +which the priests, and the satellites subjected to +them by ignorance, denominate <i>impieties</i>, which +guided his pen. It was only the desire of doing +good to his fellow-beings by enlightening them, +which actuated him, and the wish to uproot, so +to speak, religion itself, as being the source of all +the woes which have afflicted mankind for so many +ages. This is the motto of which we spoke:—</p> + +<p style="margin: 0px auto; width: 18em;"> +"Si j'ai raison, qu'importe à qui je suis?"<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(If reason's mine, no matter who I am.)</span><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a verse of Corneille, whose application is +exceedingly appropriate, and which should be upon +the frontispiece of all books of this nature.</p> + +<p>We are unable to say any thing more certain +concerning the person to whom our author has +addressed his work. It appears, however, from +many circumstances in these Letters, that she was +not a supposititious marchioness, like her of the +<i>Worlds</i> of M. de Fontenelle, and that they have +really been written to a woman as distinguished +by her rank as by her manners. Perhaps she was +a lady of the school of the Temple, or of Seaux. +But these details, in reality, as well as those which +concern the name and the life of our author, the +date of his birth, that of his death, &c., are of +little importance, and could only serve to satisfy +the vain curiosity of some idle readers, who avidiously +collect these kind of anecdotes, who receive +from them a kind of existence in the world, and +who feel more satisfaction from being instructed +in them than from the discovery of a truth. I +know that they endeavor to justify their curiosity +by saying that when a person reads a book which +creates a public sensation, and with which he is +himself much pleased, it is natural he should desire +to know to whom a grateful homage should +be addressed. In this case the desire is so much +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> +the more unreasonable because it cannot be satisfied; +first, because when death and proscription is +the penalty, there has never been and there never +will be a man of letters so imprudent, and, to +speak plainly, so strangely daring, as to publish, +or during his life to allow a book to be printed, +in which he tramples under foot temples, altars, +and the statues of the gods, and where he attacks +without any disguise the most consecrated religious +opinions; secondly, because it is a matter +of public notoriety that all the works of this character +which have appeared for many years are the +secret testaments of numbers of great men, obliged +during their lives to conceal their light under a +bushel, whose heads death has withdrawn from +the fury of persecutors, and whose cold ashes, consequently, +do not hear in the tomb either the importunate +and denunciatory cries of the superstitious, +or the just eulogiums of the friends of truth; +thirdly and lastly, <i>because this curiosity, so unfortunately +entertained, may compromise in the most +cruel manner the repose, the fortune, and the liberty +of the relatives and friends of the authors of these +bold books!</i> This single consideration ought, then, +to determine those hazarders of conjectures, if they +have really good intentions, to wrap in the inmost +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> +folds of their hearts whatever suspicions they may +entertain concerning the author, however true or +false they may be, and to turn their inquiring +spirits to a use more beneficial for both themselves +and others.</p> + + + +<hr class="w65" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE" id="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE"></a>Translator's Preface.</h2> +<hr class="w15" /> + + +<p>In 1819 an anonymous translation of the <span class="smcap">Letters +To Eugenia</span> was published in London by +Richard Carlile. This translation in some of its +parts was sufficiently complete and correct, but in +others it was at absolute variance with the original +work; in other parts, also, it was interlarded with +matter not written by d'Holbach; and in others, +large portions of the original Letters were entirely +omitted, as were likewise a number of notes and +the whole of the preliminary observations, with +which the volume was introduced to the public by +Naigeon, so long the intimate friend of both d'Holbach +and Diderot. In again presenting the work +in an English dress, the London translation has +been made the foundation of this, but the whole +has been thoroughly revised and collated with the +original. The omitted portions have been translated +and inserted in their proper places, and though +some passages of the London work, not entirely +faithful to the original, have been allowed to stand, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +yet the book, as it now appears, is essentially a +new one, and is the most accurate and complete +translation of the <span class="smcap">Letters to Eugenia</span> which has +ever been made into the English language.</p> + +<p>The work at first came anonymously from the +press, and the mystery of its authorship was sedulously +maintained in the introductory observations +of Naigeon, in consequence of the danger which +then attended the issue of Infidel productions, not +only in France but throughout Christendom. The +book was printed in Amsterdam, at d'Holbach's +own expense, by Marc-Michael Rey, a noble printer, +to whom the world is greatly indebted for the inestimable +aid he rendered the philosophers. But bold +as he was, and then living in a country the most +free of any in the world, he dared not openly send +these <span class="smcap">Letters</span> from his own press. They were +issued in 1768, in two duodecimo volumes, without +any publisher's name, and with the imprint of +<i>London</i> on the title page, in order to set those persecutors +at bay who were prowling for victims, +and who sought to burn author, printer, and book +at the same pile. The prudence of the author and +printer saved <i>them</i> from this fate; but the book had +hardly reached France before its sale was forbidden +under penalty of fines and imprisonment, and it +was condemned by an act of Parliament to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> +burnt by the public executioner in the streets of +Paris, all of which particulars will be narrated in +the <span class="smcap">Biographical Memoir of Baron d'Holbach</span>, +which I am now preparing for the press.</p> + +<p>Of the excellence of the <span class="smcap">Letters to Eugenia</span>, +nothing need here be said. The work speaks for +itself, and abounds in that eloquence peculiar to +its author, and overflows with kindly sentiments of +humanity, benevolence and virtue. Like d'Holbach's +other works, it is distinguished by an ardent +love of liberty, and an invincible hatred of despotism; +by an unanswerable logic, by deep thought, +and by profound ideas. The tyrant and the priest +are both displayed in their true colors; but while +the author shows himself inexorable as fate towards +oppressive hierarchies and false ideas, he is tender +as an infant to the unfortunate, to those overburdened +with unreasonable impositions, to those who +need consolation and guidance, and to those searching +after truth. Addressed, as the <span class="smcap">Letters</span> were, +to a lady suffering from religious falsehoods and +terrors, the object of the writer is set forth in the +motto from Lucretius which he placed on the title +page, and which may thus be expressed in English:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Reason's pure light I seek to give the mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from Religion's fetters free mankind."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="sig0">A. C. M.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></p> + +<p>The name of the lady was designedly kept in +secrecy, and was unknown, except to <i>a very few</i>, +till some years after d'Holbach's death. We now +know from the <i>Feuilles Posthumes</i> of Lequinio, +who had it from Naigeon, that the <i>Letters</i> were +written several years before their publication, for +the instruction of a lady formerly distinguished at +the French Court for her graces and virtues. They +were addressed to the charming Marguerite, Marchioness +de Vermandois. Her husband held the +lucrative post of farmer-general to the king, and +besides inherited large estates. He possessed excellent +natural abilities, and his mind was strengthened +and adorned by culture and letters. Had his +modesty permitted him to appear as such, he would +now be known as a poet of genius and merit, for +he wrote some poems and plays that were much +admired by all who were allowed to peruse them. +He was married in 1763, on the day he completed +his twenty-first year, to Marguerite Justine d'Estrades, +then only nineteen years of age, and whom +he saw for the first time in his life only six weeks +before they became husband and wife. Like most +of the matches then made among the higher classes +in France, this was one of a purely mercenary +character. The father of the Marquis de Vermandois, +and the father of Marguerite, as a means of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> +joining their estates, contracted their children without +deigning to consult the wishes of the parties, +and obedience or disinheritance was the only alternative. +When the compact was concluded, Marguerite +was taken from the convent where for five +years she had lived as a boarder and scholar, and +commenced her married life and her course in the +fashionable world at the same time. The match +was far more fortunate than such matches then +generally proved to be. Marguerite's husband was +passionately attached to her, and that attachment +was returned. The Marquis was a friend of Baron +d'Holbach, and soon after his marriage introduced +his wife to him. Among all the beauties of Paris +the Marchioness was one of the most lovely and +fascinating. Her features were remarkably beautiful, +and the bloom and clearness of her complexion +were such as absolutely to render necessary the old +comparison of the rose and the lily to do them +justice. To these were added a voluptuous figure, +agreeable manners, the graces and vivacity of wit, +and the still more enduring attractions of good +humor, purity, and benevolence. A female like +her could not but be dear to all who enjoyed her +intimacy, and a strong friendship sprang up between +her and Baron d'Holbach. Greatly pleased +with him at first, Marguerite was afterwards as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> +greatly shocked. When their intercourse had become +so familiar as to permit that frankness and +freedom of conversation which prevails among intimate +friends, she discovered that the Baron was +an unbeliever in the Christian dogmas which she +had learned at the convent, where, in consequence +of her mother's death, she had been educated. She +had been taught that an Infidel was a monster in +all respects, and she was astounded to find unbelievers +in men so agreeable in manners and person, +and so profound in learning, as d'Holbach, Diderot, +d'Alembert, and others. She could deny neither +their goodness nor their intellectual qualities, and +while she admired the individuals she shuddered at +their incredulity. Especially did she mourn over +Baron d'Holbach. He had a wife as charming as +herself, formerly the lovely Mademoiselle d'Aïne, +whose beautiful features and seductive figure presented</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A combination, and a form, indeed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where every god did seem to set his seal."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nothing was more natural than that two such +women should imbibe the deepest tenderness for +each other. But alas! the Baron's wife was tainted +with her husband's heresies; and yet in their home +did the Marchioness see all the domestic virtues +exemplified, and beheld that sweet harmony and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> +unchangeable affection for which the d'Holbachs +were eminently distinguished among their acquaintances, +and which was remarkable from its striking +contrast with the courtly and Christian habits of +the day. At a loss what to do, the Marchioness +consulted her confessor, and was advised to withdraw +entirely from the society of the Baron and +his wife, unless she was willing to sacrifice all her +hopes of heaven, and to plunge headlong down to +hell. Her natural good sense and love of her +friends struggled with her monastic education and +reverence for the priests. The conflict rendered +her miserable; and unable to enjoy happiness, she +brooded over her wishes and her terrors. In this +state of mind she at length wrote a touching letter +to the Baron, and laid open her situation, requesting +him to comfort, console, and enlighten her. +Such was the origin of the book now presented in +an English dress to the reader. It accomplished +its purpose with the Marchioness de Vermandois, +and afterwards its author concluded to publish the +work, in hopes it might be equally useful to others.</p> + +<p>The <i>Letters</i> were <i>written</i> in 1764, when d'Holbach +was in the forty-second year of his age. Twelve +different works he had before written and published, +and all without the affix of his name. <i>Eleven</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span> +were upon mineralogy, the arts and the sciences, +and <i>one</i> only upon theology. That <i>one</i> had been +secretly printed in 1761, at Nancy, with the imprint +of London, and was <i>honored</i> with a parliamentary +statute condemning its publication and forbidding +its sale or circulation. Christian hatred bestowed +upon it the additional honor of causing it to be +burned in the streets of Paris by the public executioner. +But the prudence of the author protected +his life. He attributed the book to a dead man, +who had been known to entertain sceptical views. +It was entitled <span class="smcap">Christianity Unveiled</span>, and bore +on its title page the name of <span class="smcap">Boulanger</span>. This +was d'Holbach's first contribution to Infidel literature, +and the second similar work written by him +was the <span class="smcap">Letters to Eugenia</span>. These were the preludes +to more than a quarter of a hundred different +productions numbering among them such books +as <i>Good Sense</i>, <i>The System of Nature</i>, <i>Ecce Homo</i>, +<i>Priests Unmasked</i>, &c., &c., all printed anonymously +or pseudonymously at his own expense, without a +possibility of pecuniary advantage, and with such +extraordinary secrecy as to show that he was actuated +by no desire of literary fame. It was love of +truth alone that impelled d'Holbach to write. Brilliant, +profound, eloquent and excellent as were his +writings, attracting notice as they did from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span> +civil and religious powers, commented upon as they +were by such men as Voltaire and Frederick the +Great, admired as they were by that class who felt +and combated the evils of tyranny as well as of +religion, of kings as well as of priests,—that class +who almost drew their life from the books of him +and his compeers,—he was never seduced from +the rule he originally laid down for his literary +conduct.</p> + +<p>A very few persons he was obliged to trust in +order to get his writings printed, and but for that +fact Baron d'Holbach would now only be known +as a gentleman of great wealth, extensive benevolence, +and uncommon liberality, as a man of profound +learning and agreeable colloquial powers, +as the bountiful friend of men of letters, as the +soother of the distressed, as the protector of the +miserable, and as the affectionate husband and +father. So much of him we should have known; +but that he was the author of those books which +roused intolerant priests and corrupt magistrates, +consistories and parliaments, monarchs and philosophers, +the people and their oppressors,—that +he was the Archimedes that thus moved the +world,—would not have been known had he +not employed another philosopher, by the name of +Naigeon, to carry his manuscripts to Amsterdam, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> +and to direct their printing by Marc-Michel Rey. +It was Naigeon who carried the manuscript of the +<span class="smcap">Letters to Eugenia</span> to Holland, together with a +number of others by the same author, which also +appeared during the year 1768,—an eventful year +in the history of Infidel progress. The <i>Letters</i> +were carefully revised by d'Holbach before they +were sent to press. All the passages of a purely +personal character were omitted, some new matter +was incorporated, and some sentences were added +purposely to keep the author and the lady he +addressed in impenetrable obscurity. To raise the +veil from a man of so much worth and genius, as +well as to carry out his idea of doing good, is one +of the reasons which have led to the present preparation +and publication of this book.</p> + +<p class="sig0">A. C. M.</p> + + + +<hr class="w65" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>Contents.</h2> +<hr class="w15" /> + +<ol class="toc"> +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_I">Letter I.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives which +should lead to an Examination of Religion,</span> +<span class="num"><span class="page">Page</span> 1</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_II">Letter II.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the Divinity,</span> +<span class="num">29</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_III">Letter III.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature +of the Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon +which Christianity is founded,</span> +<span class="num">46</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_IV">Letter IV.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the fundamental Dogmas of the Christian Religion,</span> +<span class="num">76</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_V">Letter V.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Dogma of +another Life,</span> +<span class="num">91</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_VI">Letter VI.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies +of Christianity,</span> +<span class="num">120</span></p></li> + + +<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> +<h3><a href="#LETTER_VII">Letter VII.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of +Christianity,</span> +<span class="num">136</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_VIII">Letter VIII.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection,</span> +<span class="num">154</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_IX">Letter IX.</a></h3> + +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the Advantages contributed to Government by +Religion,</span> +<span class="num">184</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_X">Letter X.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the Advantages Religion confers on those who profess +it,</span> +<span class="num">211</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_XI">Letter XI.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of Human or Natural Morality,</span> +<span class="num">233</span></p></li> + +<li><h3><a href="#LETTER_XII">Letter XII.</a></h3> +<p class="smcap"><span class="tocdesc">Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's Speculations, +and the Indulgence which should be extended +to them,</span> +<span class="num">255</span></p></li> +</ol> + + +<hr class="w65" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps">Letters to Eugenia.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_I" id="LETTER_I"></a>Letter I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives +which should lead to an Examination of Religion.</p></div> + + +<p>I am unable, Madam, to express the grievous +sentiments that the perusal of your letter produced +in my bosom. Did not a rigorous duty retain me +where I am, you would see me flying to your succor. +Is it, then, true that Eugenia is miserable? +Is even she tormented with chagrin, scruples, and +inquietudes? In the midst of opulence and grandeur; +assured of the tenderness and esteem of a +husband who adores you; enjoying at court the +advantage, so rare, of being sincerely beloved by +every one; surrounded by friends who render sincere +homage to your talents, your knowledge, and your +tastes,—how can you suffer the pains of melancholy +and sorrow? Your pure and virtuous soul can +surely know neither shame nor remorse. Always +so far removed from the weaknesses of your sex, +on what account can you blush? Agreeably occupied +with your duties, refreshed with useful reading +and entertaining conversation, and having within +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +your reach every diversity of virtuous pleasures, +how happens it that fears, distastes, and cares come +to assail a heart for which every thing should procure +contentment and peace? Alas! even if your +letter had not confirmed it but too much, from the +trouble which agitates you I should have recognized +without difficulty the work of superstition. +This fiend alone possesses the power of disturbing +honest souls, without calming the passions of the +corrupt; and when once she gains possession of a +heart, she has the ability to annihilate its repose +forever.</p> + +<p>Yes, Madam, for a long time I have known the +dangerous effects of religious prejudices. I was +myself formerly troubled with them. Like you I +have trembled under the yoke of religion; and if a +careful and deliberate examination had not fully +undeceived me, instead of now being in a state to +console you and to reassure you against yourself, +you would see me at the present moment partaking +your inquietudes, and augmenting in your mind +the lugubrious ideas with which I perceive you to +be tormented. Thanks to Reason and Philosophy, +an unruffled serenity long ago irradiated my understanding, +and banished the terrors with which I +was formerly agitated. What happiness for me if +the peace which I enjoy should put it in my power +to break the charm which yet binds you with the +chains of prejudice?</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, without your express orders, I should +never have dared to point out to you a mode of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +thinking widely different from your own, nor to +combat the dangerous opinions to which you have +been persuaded your happiness is attached. But +for your request I should have continued to enclose +in my own breast opinions odious to the most part +of men accustomed to see nothing except by the +eyes of judges visibly interested in deceiving them. +Now, however, a sacred duty obliges me to speak. +Eugenia, unquiet and alarmed, wishes me to explore +her heart; she needs assistance; she wishes to fix +her ideas upon an object which interests her repose +and her felicity. I owe her the truth. It would be +a crime longer to preserve silence. Although my +attachment for her did not impose the necessity of +responding to her confidence, the love of truth +would oblige me to make efforts to dissipate the +chimeras which render her unhappy.</p> + +<p>I shall proceed then, Madam, to address you with +the most complete frankness. Perhaps at the first +glance my ideas may appear strange; but on examining +them with still further care and attention, they +will cease to shock you. Reason, good faith, and +truth cannot do otherwise than exert great influence +over such an intellect as yours. I appeal, +therefore, from your alarmed imagination to your +more tranquil judgment; I appeal from custom and +prejudice to reflection and reason. Nature has +given you a gentle and sensible soul, and has imparted +an exquisitely lively imagination, and a certain +admixture of melancholy which disposes to +despondent revery. It is from this peculiar mental +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +constitution that arise the woes that now afflict +you. Your goodness, candor, and sincerity preclude +your suspecting in others either fraud or +malignity. The gentleness of your character prevents +your contradicting notions that would appear +revolting if you deigned to examine them. You +have chosen rather to defer to the judgment of +others, and to subscribe to their ideas, than to consult +your own reason and rely upon your own understanding. +The vivacity of your imagination +causes you to embrace with avidity the dismal +delineations which are presented to you; certain +men, interested in agitating your mind, abuse your +sensibility in order to produce alarm; they cause you +to shudder at the terrible words, <i>death</i>, <i>judgment</i>, +<i>hell</i>, <i>punishment</i>, and <i>eternity</i>; they lead you +to turn pale at the very name of an inflexible <i>judge</i>, +whose absolute decrees nothing can change; you +fancy that you see around you those demons whom +he has made the ministers of his vengeance upon +his weak creatures; thus is your heart filled with +affright; you fear that at every instant you may +offend, without being aware of it, a capricious God, +always threatening and always enraged. In consequence +of such a state of mind, all those moments +of your life which should only be productive +of contentment and peace, are constantly poisoned +by inquietudes, scruples, and panic terrors, from +which a soul as pure as yours ought to be forever +exempt. The agitation into which you are thrown +by these fatal ideas suspends the exercise of your +faculties; your reason is misled by a bewildered +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +imagination, and you are afflicted with perplexities, +with despondency, and with suspicion of yourself. +In this manner you become the dupe of those men +who, addressing the imagination and stifling reason, +long since subjugated the universe, and have actually +persuaded reasonable beings that their reason +is either useless or dangerous.</p> + +<p>Such is, Madam, the constant language of the +apostles of superstition, whose design has always +been, and will always continue to be, to destroy +human reason in order to exercise their power with +impunity over mankind. Throughout the globe +the perfidious ministers of religion have been either +the concealed or the declared enemies of reason, +because they always see reason opposed to their +views. Every where do they decry it, because they +truly fear that it will destroy their empire by discovering +their conspiracies and the futility of their +fables. Every where upon its ruins they struggle +to erect the empire of fanaticism and imagination. +To attain this end with more certainty, they have +unceasingly terrified mortals with hideous paintings, +have astonished and seduced them by marvels +and mysteries, embarrassed them by enigmas and +uncertainties, surcharged them with observances +and ceremonies, filled their minds with terrors and +scruples, and fixed their eyes upon a future, which, +far from rendering them more virtuous and happy +here below, has only turned them from the path of +true happiness, and destroyed it completely and forever +in their bosoms. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>Such are the artifices which the ministers of religion +every where employ to enslave the earth and +to retain it under the yoke. The human race, in +all countries, has become the prey of the priests. +The priests have given the name of <i>religion</i> to +systems invented by them to subjugate men, whose +imagination they had seduced, whose understanding +they had confounded, and whose reason they +had endeavored to extinguish.</p> + +<p>It is especially in infancy that the human mind +is disposed to receive whatever impression is made +upon it. Thus our priests have prudently seized +upon the youth to inspire them with ideas that they +could never impose upon adults. It is during the +most tender and susceptible age of men that the +priests have familiarized the understanding of our +race with monstrous fables, with extravagant and +disjointed fancies, and with ridiculous chimeras, +which, by degrees, become objects that are respected +and that are feared during life.</p> + +<p>We need only open our eyes to see the unworthy +means employed by <i>sacerdotal policy</i> to stifle the +dawning reason of men. During their infancy they +are taught tales which are ridiculous, impertinent, +contradictory, and criminal, and to these they are +enjoined to pay respect. They are gradually impregnated +with inconceivable mysteries that are +announced as sacred truths, and they are accustomed +to contemplate phantoms before which they +habitually tremble. In a word, measures are taken +which are the best calculated to render those blind +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +who do not consult their reason, and to render +those base who constantly shudder whenever they +recall the ideas with which their priests infected +their minds at an age when they were unable to +guard against such snares.</p> + +<p>Recall to mind, Madam, the dangerous cares +which were taken in the convent where you were +educated, to sow in your mind the germs of those +inquietudes that now afflict you. It was there +that they began to speak to you of fables, prodigies, +mysteries, and doctrines that you actually +revere, while, if these things were announced to-day +for the first time, you would regard them as +ridiculous, and as entirely unworthy of attention. +I have often witnessed your laughter at the simplicity +with which you formerly credited those tales +of sorcerers and ghosts, that, during your childhood, +were related by the nuns who had charge of your +education. When you entered society where for +a long time such chimeras have been disbelieved, +you were insensibly undeceived, and at present +you blush at your former credulity. Why have +you not the courage to laugh, in a similar manner, +at an infinity of other chimeras with no better +foundation, which torment you even yet, and which +only appear more respectable, because you have +not dared to examine them with your own eyes, +or because you see them respected by a public who +have never explored them? If my Eugenia is enlightened +and reasonable upon all other topics, +why does she renounce her understanding and her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +judgment whenever religion is in question? In +the mean time, at this redoubtable word her soul is +disturbed, her strength abandons her, her ordinary +penetration is at fault, her imagination wanders, +she only sees through a cloud, she is unquiet and +afflicted. On the watch against reason, she dares +not call that to her assistance. She persuades herself +that the best course for her to take is to allow +herself to follow the opinions of a multitude who +never examine, and who always suffer themselves +to be conducted by blind or deceitful guides.</p> + +<p>To reëstablish peace in your mind, dear Madam, +cease to despise yourself; entertain a just confidence +in your own powers of mind, and feel no chagrin at +finding yourself infected with a general and involuntary +epidemic from which it did not depend on +you to escape. The good Abbé de St. Pierre had +reason when he said that <i>devotion was the small pox +of the soul</i>. I will add that it is rare the disease +does not leave its pits for life. Indeed, see how +often the most enlightened persons persist forever +in the prejudices of their infancy! These notions +are so early inculcated, and so many precautions +are continually taken to render them durable, that +if any thing may reasonably surprise us, it is to see +any one have the ability to rise superior to such +influences. The most sublime geniuses are often +the playthings of superstition. The heat of their +imagination sometimes only serves to lead them +the farther astray, and to attach them to opinions +which would cause them to blush did they but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +consult their reason. Pascal constantly imagined +that he saw hell yawning under his feet; Mallebranche +was extravagantly credulous; Hobbes had +a great terror of phantoms and demons;<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and the +immortal Newton wrote a ridiculous commentary +on the vials and visions of the Apocalypse. In a +word, every thing proves that there is nothing more +difficult than to efface the notions with which we +are imbued during our infancy. The most sensible +persons, and those who reason with the most +correctness upon every other matter, relapse into +their infancy whenever religion is in question.</p> + +<p>Thus, Madam, you need not blush for a weakness +which you hold in common with almost all +the world, and from which the greatest men are not +always exempt. Let your courage then revive, +and fear not to examine with perfect composure +the phantoms which alarm you. In a matter which +so greatly interests your repose, consult that enlightened +reason which places you as much above +the vulgar, as it elevates the human species above +the other animals. Far from being suspicious of +your own understanding and intellectual faculties, +turn your just suspicion against those men, far +less enlightened and honest than you, who, to vanquish +you, only address themselves to your lively +imagination; who have the cruelty to disturb the +serenity of your soul; who, under the pretext of +attaching you only to heaven, insist that you must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +sunder the most tender and endearing ties; and in +fine, who oblige you to proscribe the use of that +beneficent reason whose light guides your conduct +so judiciously and so safely.</p> + +<p>Leave inquietude and remorse to those corrupt +women who have cause to reproach themselves, or +who have crimes to expiate. Leave superstition to +those silly and ignorant females whose narrow +minds are incapable of reasoning or reflection. +Abandon the futile and trivial ceremonies of an +objectionable devotion to those idle and peevish +women, for whom, as soon as the transient reign +of their personal charms is finished, there remains +no rational relaxation to fill the void of their days, +and who seek by slander and treachery to console +themselves for the loss of pleasures which they can +no longer enjoy. Resist that inclination which +seems to impel you to gloomy meditation, solitude, +and melancholy. Devotion is only suited to inert +and listless souls, while yours is formed for action. +You should pursue the course I recommend for the +sake of your husband, whose happiness depends +upon you; you owe it to the children, who will +soon, undoubtedly, need all your care and all your +instructions for the guidance of their hearts and understandings; +you owe it to the friends who honor +you, and who will value your society when the +beauty which now adorns your person and the voluptuousness +which graces your figure have yielded +to the inroads of time; you owe it to the circle in +which you move, and to the world which has a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +right to your example, possessing as you do virtues +that are far more rare to persons of your rank than +devotion. In fine, you owe happiness to yourself; +for, notwithstanding the promises of religion, you +will never find happiness in those agitations into +which I perceive you cast by the lurid ideas of +superstition. In this path you will only encounter +doleful chimeras, frightful phantoms, embarrassments +without end, crushing uncertainties, inexplicable +enigmas, and dangerous reveries, which +are only calculated to disturb your repose, to deprive +you of happiness, and to render you incapable +of occupying yourself with that of others. It +is very difficult to make those around us happy +when we are ourselves miserable and deprived of +peace.</p> + +<p>If you will even slightly make observations upon +those about you, you will find abundant proofs of +what I advance. The most religious persons are +rarely the most amiable or the most social. Even +the most sincere devotion, by subjecting those who +embrace it to wearisome and crippling ceremonies, +by occupying their imaginations with lugubrious +and afflicting objects, by exciting their zeal, is but +little calculated to give to devotees that equality +of temper, that sweetness of an indulgent disposition, +and that amenity of character, which constitute +the greatest charms of personal intercourse. +A thousand examples might be adduced to convince +you that devotees who are the most occupied +in superstitious observances to please God are not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +those women who succeed best in pleasing those +by whom they are surrounded. If there seems to +be occasionally an exception to this rule, it is on +the part of those who have not all the zeal and +fervor which is exacted by their religion. Devotion +is either a morose and melancholy passion, or it is +a violent and obstinate enthusiasm. Religion imposes +an exclusive and entire regard upon its slaves. +All that an acceptable Christian gives to a fellow-creature +is a robbery from the Creator. A soul +filled with religious fervor fears to attach itself to +things of the earth, lest it should lose sight of its +jealous God, who wishes to engross constant attention, +who lays it down as a duty to his creatures +that they should sacrifice to him their most agreeable +and most innocent inclinations, and who orders +that they should render themselves miserable here +below, under the idea of pleasing him. In accordance +with such principles, we generally see devotees +executing with much fidelity the duty of tormenting +themselves and disturbing the repose of others. +They actually believe they acquire great merit with +the Sovereign of heaven by rendering themselves +perfectly useless, or even a scourge to the inhabitants +of the earth.</p> + +<p>I am aware, Madam, that devotion in you does +not produce effects injurious to others; but I fear +that it is only more injurious to yourself. The +goodness of your heart, the sweetness of your disposition, +and the beneficence which displays itself +in all your conduct, are all so great that even religion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +does not impel you to any dangerous excesses. +Nevertheless, devotion often causes strange metamorphoses. +Unquiet, agitated, miserable within +yourself, it is to be feared that your temperament +will change, that your disposition will become +acrimonious, and that the vexatious ideas over +which you have so long brooded will sooner or +later produce a disastrous influence upon those who +approach you. Does not experience constantly +show us that religion effects changes of this kind? +What are called <i>conversions</i>, what devotees regard +as special acts of divine grace, are very often only +lamentable revolutions by which real vices and +odious qualities are substituted for amiable and +useful characteristics. By a deplorable consequence +of these pretended miracles of grace we +frequently see sorrow succeed to enjoyment, a +gloomy and unhappy state to one of innocent gayety, +lassitude and chagrin to activity and hilarity, +and slander, intolerance, and zeal to indulgence +and gentleness; nay, what do I say? cruelty itself +to humanity. In a word, superstition is a dangerous +leaven, that is fitted to corrupt even the most +honest hearts.</p> + +<p>Do you not see, in fact, the excesses to which +fanaticism and zeal drive the wisest and best meaning +men? Princes, magistrates, and judges become +inhuman and pitiless as soon as there is a question +of the interests of religion. Men of the gentlest +disposition, the most indulgent, and the most equitable, +upon every other matter, religion transforms to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +ferocious beasts. The most feeling and compassionate +persons believe themselves in conscience obliged +to harden their hearts, to do violence to their better +instincts, and to stifle nature, in order to show +themselves cruel to those who are denounced as +enemies to their own manner of thinking. Recall +to your mind, Madam, the cruelties of nations and +governments in alternate persecutions of Catholics +or Protestants, as either happened to be in the +ascendant. Can you find reason, equity, or humanity +in the vexations, imprisonments, and exiles +that in our days are inflicted upon the Jansenists? +And these last, if ever they should attain in their +turn the power requisite for persecution, would not +probably treat their adversaries with more moderation +or justice. Do you not daily see individuals +who pique themselves upon their sensibility unblushingly +express the joy they would feel at the +extermination of persons to whom they believe +they owe neither benevolence nor indulgence, and +whose only crime is a disdain for prejudices that +the vulgar regard as sacred, or that an erroneous +and false policy considers useful to the state? +Superstition has so greatly stifled all sense of +humanity in many persons otherwise truly estimable, +that they have no compunctions at sacrificing +the most enlightened men of the nation because +they could not be the most credulous or the most +submissive to the authority of the priests.</p> + +<p>In a word, devotion is only calculated to fill the +heart with a bitter rancor, that banishes peace and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +harmony from society. In the matter of religion, +every one believes himself obliged to show more +or less ardor and zeal. Have I not often seen you +uncertain yourself whether you ought to sigh or +smile at the self-depreciation of devotees ridiculously +inflamed by that religious vanity which +grows out of sectarian conventionalities? You +also see them participating in theological quarrels, +in which, without comprehending their nature or +purport, they believe themselves conscientiously +obliged to mingle. I have a hundred times seen +you astounded with their clamors, indignant at +their animosity, scandalized at their cabals, and +filled with disdain at their obstinate ignorance. +Yet nothing is more natural than these outbreaks; +ignorance has always been the mother of devotion. +To be a devotee has always been synonymous to +having an imbecile confidence in priests. It is to +receive all impulsions from them; it is to think +and act only according to them; it is blindly to +adopt their passions and prejudices; it is faithfully +to fulfil practices which their caprice imposes.</p> + +<p>Eugenia is not formed to follow such guides. +They would terminate by leading her widely astray, +by dazzling her vivid imagination, by infecting her +gentle and amiable disposition with a deadly poison. +To master with more certainty her understanding, +they would render her austere, intolerant, +and vindictive. In a word, by the magical power +of superstition and supernatural notions, they +would succeed, perhaps, in transforming to vices +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +those happy dispositions that nature has given you. +Believe me, Madam, you would gain nothing by +such a metamorphosis. Rather be what you really +are. Extricate yourself as soon as possible from +that state of incertitude and languor, from that +alternative of despondency and trouble, in which +you are immersed. If you will only take your +reason and virtue for guides, you will soon break +the fetters whose dangerous effects you have begun +to feel.</p> + +<p>Assume the courage, then, I repeat it, to examine +for yourself this religion, which, far from procuring +you the happiness it promised, will only +prove an inexhaustible source of inquietudes and +alarms, and which will deprive you, sooner or later, +of those rare qualities which render you so dear to +society. Your interest exacts that you should render +peace to your mind. It is your duty carefully +to preserve that sweetness of temper, that indulgence, +and that cheerfulness, by which you are so +much endeared to all those who approach you. +You owe happiness to yourself, and you owe it to +those who surround you. Do not, then, abandon +yourself to superstitious reveries, but collect all the +strength of your judgment to combat the chimeras +which torment your imagination. They will disappear +as soon as you have considered them with +your ordinary sagacity.</p> + +<p>Do not tell me, Madam, that your understanding +is too weak to sound the depths of theology. Do +not tell me, in the language of our priests, that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +truths of religion are mysteries that we must adopt +without comprehending them, and that it is necessary +to adore in silence. By expressing themselves +in this manner, do you not see they really proscribe +and condemn the very religion to which they are so +solicitous you should adhere? Whatever is supernatural +is unsuited to man, and whatever is beyond +his comprehension ought not to occupy his attention. +To adore what we are not able to know, is +to adore nothing. To believe in what we cannot +conceive, is to believe in nothing. To admit without +examination every thing we are directed to +admit, is to be basely and stupidly credulous. To +say that religion is above reason, is to recognize +the fact that it was not made for reasonable beings; +it is to avow that those who teach it have no more +ability to fathom its depths than ourselves; it is to +confess that our reverend doctors do not themselves +understand the marvels with which they daily entertain +us.</p> + +<p>If the truths of religion were, as they assure us, +necessary to all men, they would be clear and +intelligible to all men. If the dogmas which this +religion teaches were as important as it is asserted, +they would not only be within the comprehension +of the doctors who preach them, but of all those +who hear their lessons. Is it not strange that the +very persons whose profession it is to furnish themselves +with religions knowledge, in order to impart +it to others, should recognize their own dogmas as +beyond their own understanding, and that they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +should obstinately inculcate to the people what +they acknowledge they do not comprehend themselves? +Should we have much confidence in a +physician, who, after confessing that he was utterly +ignorant of his art, should nevertheless boast of +the excellence of his remedies? This, however, is +the constant practice of our spiritual quacks. By +a strange fatality, the most sensible people consent +to be the dupes of these empirics who are perpetually +obliged to avow their own profound ignorance.</p> + +<p>But if the mysteries of religion are incomprehensible +for even those who inculcate it,—if among +those who profess it there is no one who knows +precisely what he believes, or who can give an +account of either his conduct or belief,—this is +not so in regard to the difficulties with which we +oppose this religion. These objections are simple, +within the comprehension of all persons of ordinary +ability, and capable of convincing every man +who, renouncing the prejudices of his infancy, will +deign to consult the good sense that nature has +bestowed upon all beings of the human race.</p> + +<p>For a long period of time, subtle theologians +have, without relaxation, been occupied in warding +off the attacks of the incredulous, and in repairing +the breaches made in the ruinous edifice of religion +by adversaries who combated under the flag of +reason. In all times there have been people who +felt the futility of the titles upon which the priests +have arrogated the right of enslaving the understandings +of men, and of subjugating and despoiling +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +nations. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the +interested and frequently hypocritical men who +have taken up the defence of religion, from which +they and their confederates alone are profited, these +apologists have never been able to vindicate successfully +their <i>divine</i> system against the attacks of +incredulity. Without cessation they have replied +to the objections which have been made, but never +have they refuted or annihilated them. Almost in +every instance the defenders of Christianity have +been sustained by oppressive laws on the part of +the government; and it has only been by injuries, +by declamations, by punishments and persecutions, +that they have replied to the allegations of reason. +It is in this manner that they have apparently +remained masters of the field of battle which their +adversaries could not openly contest. Yet, in spite +of the disadvantages of a combat so unequal, and +although the partisans of religion were accoutred +with every possible weapon, and could show themselves +openly, in accordance with <i>law</i>, while their +adversaries had no arms but those of reason, and +could not appear personally but at the peril of +fines, imprisonment, torture, and death, and were +restricted from bringing all their arsenal into service, +yet they have inflicted profound, immedicable, +and incurable wounds upon superstition. Still, +if we believe the mercenaries of religion, the excellence +of their system makes it absolutely invulnerable +to every blow which can be inflicted upon it; +and they pretend they have a thousand times in a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +victorious manner answered the objections which +are continually renewed against them. In spite +of this great security, we see them excessively +alarmed every time a new combatant presents +himself, and the latter may well and successfully +use the most common objections, and those which +have most frequently been urged, since it is evident +that up to the present moment the arguments have +never been obviated or opposed with satisfactory +replies. To convince you, Madam, of what I here +advance, you need only compare the most simple +and ordinary difficulties which good sense opposes +to religion, with the pretended solutions that have +been given. You will perceive that the difficulties, +evident even to the capacities of a child, have +never been removed by divines the most practised +in dialectics. You will find in their replies only +subtle distinctions, metaphysical subterfuges, unintelligible +verbiage, which can never be the language +of truth, and which demonstrates the embarrassment, +the impotence, and the bad faith of those +who are interested by their position in sustaining +a desperate cause. In a word, the difficulties +which have been urged against religion are clear, +and within the comprehension of every one, while +the answers which have been given are obscure, +entangled, and far from satisfactory, even to persons +most versed in such jargon, and plainly indicating +that the authors of these replies do not +themselves understand what they say.</p> + +<p>If you consult the clergy, they will not fail to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +set forth the antiquity of their doctrine, which has +always maintained itself, notwithstanding the continual +attacks of the Heretics, the Mecreans, and +the Impious generally, and also in spite of the +persecutions of the Pagans. You have, Madam, +too much good sense not to perceive at once that +the antiquity of an opinion proves nothing in its +favor. If antiquity was a proof of truth, Christianity +must yield to Judaism, and that in its turn +to the religion of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, +or, in other words, to the idolatry which was greatly +anterior to Moses. For thousands of years it was +universally believed that the sun revolved round +the earth, which remained immovable; and yet it +is not the less true that the sun is fixed, and the +earth moves around that. Besides, it is evident +that the Christianity of to-day is not what it formerly +was. The continual attacks that this religion +has suffered from heretics, commencing with its +earliest history, proves that there never could have +existed any harmony between the partisans of a +pretended divine system, which offended all rules +of consistency and logic in its very first principles. +Some parts of this celestial system were always +denied by devotees who admitted other parts. If +infidels have often attacked religion without apparent +effect, it is because the best reasons become +useless against the blindness of a superstition sustained +by the public authority, or against the torrent +of opinion and custom which sways the minds +of most men. With regard to the persecutions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +which the church suffered on the part of the pagans, +he is but slightly acquainted with the effects of +fanaticism and religious obstinacy who does not +perceive that tyranny is calculated to excite and +extend what it persecutes most violently.</p> + +<p>You are not formed to be the dupe of names +and authorities. The defenders of the popular +superstition will endeavor to overwhelm you by +the multiplied testimony of many illustrious and +learned men, who not only admitted the Christian +religion, but who were also its most zealous supporters. +They will adduce holy divines, great +philosophers, powerful reasoners, fathers of the +church, and learned interpreters, who have successively +advocated the system. I will not contest +the understanding of the learned men who are +cited, which, however, was often faulty, but will +content myself with repeating that frequently the +greatest geniuses are not more clear sighted in matters +of religion than the people themselves. They +did not examine the religious opinions they taught; +it may be because they regarded them as sacred, +or it may be because they never went back to first +principles, which they would have found altogether +unsound, if they had considered them without +prejudice. It may also have happened because +they were interested in defending a cause with +which their own position was allied. Thus their +testimony is exceptionable, and their authority +carries no great weight.</p> + +<p>With regard to the interpreters and commentators, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +who for so many ages have painfully toiled to +elucidate the divine laws, to explain the sacred +books, and to fix the dogmas of Christianity, their +very labors ought to inspire us with suspicion concerning +a religion which is founded upon such +books and which preaches such dogmas. They +prove that works emanating from the Supreme Being +are obscure, unintelligible, and need human +assistance in order to be understood by those to +whom the Divinity wished to reveal his will. The +laws of a wise God would be simple and clear. +Defective laws alone need interpreters.</p> + +<p>It is not, then, Madam, upon these interpreters +that you should rely; it is upon yourself; it is +your own reason that you should consult. It is +<i>your</i> happiness, it is <i>your</i> repose, that is in question; +and these objects are too serious to allow their decision +to be delegated to any others than yourself. +If religion is as important as we are assured, it +undoubtedly merits the greatest attention. If it is +upon this religion that depends the happiness of +men both in this world and in another, there is no +subject which interests us so strongly, and which +consequently demands a more thorough, careful, +and considerate examination. Can there be any +thing, then, more strange than the conduct of the +great majority of men? Entirely convinced of the +necessity and importance of religion, they still +never give themselves the trouble to examine it +thoroughly; they follow it in a spirit of routine +and from habit; they never give any reason for its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +dogmas; they revere it, they submit to it, and they +groan under its weight, without ever inquiring +wherefore. In fine, they rely upon others to examine +it; and they whose judgment they so blindly +receive are precisely those persons upon whose +opinions they should look with the most suspicion. +The priests arrogate the possession of judging exclusively +and without appeal of a system evidently +invented for their own utility. And what is the +language of these priests? Visibly interested in +maintaining the received opinions, they exhibit +them as necessary to the public good, as useful +and consoling for us all, as intimately connected +with morality, as indispensable to society, and, in +a word, as of the very greatest importance. After +having thus prepossessed our minds, they next prohibit +our examining the things so important to be +known. What must be thought of such conduct? +You can only conclude that they desire to deceive +you, that they fear examination only because +religion cannot sustain it, and that they dread +reason because it is able to unveil the incalculably +dangerous projects of the priesthood against the +human race.</p> + +<p>For these reasons, Madam, as I cannot too often +repeat, examine for yourself; make use of your +own understanding; seek the truth in the sincerity +of your heart; reduce prejudice to silence; throw +off the base servitude of custom; be suspicious of +imagination; and with these precautions, in good +faith with yourself, you can weigh with an impartial +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +hand the various opinions concerning religion. +From whatever source an opinion may come, +acquiesce only in that which shall be convincing to +your understanding, satisfactory to your heart, +conformable to a healthy morality, and approved +by virtue. Reject with disdain whatever shocks +your reason, and repulse with horror those notions +so criminal and injurious to morality which religion +endeavors to palm off for supernatural and divine +virtues.</p> + +<p>What do I say? Amiable and wise Eugenia, +examine rigorously the ideas that, by your own +desire, I shall hereafter present you. Let not your +confidence in me, or your deference to my weak +understanding, blind you in regard to my opinions. +I submit them to your judgment. Discuss them, +combat them, and never give them your assent +until you are convinced that in them you recognize +the truth. My sentiments are neither divine oracles +nor theological opinions which it is not permitted +to canvass. If what I say is true, adopt my +ideas. If I am deceived, point out my errors, and +I am ready to recognize them and to subscribe my +own condemnation. It will be very pleasant, +Madam, to learn truths of you which, up to the +present time, I have vainly sought in the writings +of our divines. If I have at this moment any +advantage over you, it is due entirely to that tranquillity +which I enjoy, and of which at present you +are unhappily deprived. The agitations of your +mind, the inquietudes of your body, and the attacks +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +of an exacting and ceremonious devotion, +with which your soul is perplexed, prevent you, for +the moment, from seeing things coolly, and hinder +you from making use of your own understanding; +but I have no doubt that soon your intellect, +strengthened by reason against vain chimeras, will +regain its natural vigor and the superiority which +belongs to it. In awaiting this moment that I +foresee and so much desire, I shall esteem myself +extremely happy if my reflections shall contribute +to render you that tranquillity of spirit so necessary +to judge wisely of things, and without which there +can be no true happiness.</p> + +<p>I perceive, Madam, though rather tardily, the +length of this letter; but I hope you will pardon it, +as well as my frankness. They will at least prove +the lively interest I take in your painful situation, +the sincere desire I feel to bring it to a termination, +and the strong inclination which actuates me to restore +you to your accustomed serenity. Less +pressing motives would never have been sufficient +to make me break silence. Your own positive +orders were necessary to lead me to speak of objects +which, once thoroughly examined, give no uneasiness +to a healthy mind. It has been a law +with me never to explain myself upon the subject +of religion. Experience has often convinced me +that the most useless of enterprises is to seek to +undeceive a prejudiced mind. I was very far from +believing that I ought ever to write upon these +subjects. You alone, Madam, had the power to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +conquer my indolence, and to impel me to change +my resolution. Eugenia afflicted, tormented with +scruples, and ready to plunge herself into gloomy +austerities and superstitions, calculated to render +her unamiable to others, without contributing happiness +to herself, honored me with her confidence, +and requested counsel of her friend. She exacted +that I should speak. "It is enough," I said; "let +me write for Eugenia; let me endeavor to restore +the repose she has lost; let me labor with ardor +for her upon whose happiness that of so many others +is dependent."</p> + +<p>Such, Madam, are the motives which induce me +to take my pen in hand. In looking forward to the +time when you will be undeceived, I shall dare at +least to flatter myself that you will not regard me +with the same eyes with which priests and devotees +look upon every one who has the temerity to +contradict their ideas. To believe them, every man +who declares himself against religion is a bad citizen, +a madman armed to justify his passions, a +perturbator of the public repose, and an enemy of +his fellow-citizens, that cannot be punished with too +much rigor. My conduct is known to you; and +the confidence with which you honor me is sufficient +for my apology. It is for you alone that I +write. It is to dissipate the clouds that obscure +your mental horizon that I communicate reflections +which, but for reasons so pressing, I should +have always enclosed in my own bosom. If by +chance they shall hereafter fall into other hands +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +than yours, and be found of some utility, I shall +felicitate myself for having contributed to the establishment +of happiness by leading back to reason +minds which had wandered from it, by making +truth to be felt and known, and by unmasking impostures +which have caused so many misfortunes +upon the earth.</p> + +<p>In a word, I submit my reasoning to your judgment, +I confide fully in your discretion, and I allow +myself to conclude that my ideas, after you are disabused +of the vain terrors with which you are now +oppressed, will fully convince you that this religion, +which is exhibited to men as a concern the most +important, the most true, the most interesting, and +the most useful, is only a tissue of absurdities, is +calculated to confound reason, to disturb the +understanding, and can be advantageous to none +save those who make use of it to govern the human +race. I shall acknowledge myself in the wrong if +I do not prove, in the clearest manner, that religion +is false, useless, and dangerous, and that morality, +in its stead, should occupy the spirits and animate +the souls of all men.</p> + +<p>I shall enter more particularly into the subject in +my next letter. I shall go back to first principles, +and in the course of this correspondence I flatter +myself I shall completely demonstrate that these +objects, which theology endeavors to render intricate, +and to envelop with clouds, in order to make +them more respectable and sacred, are not only +entirely susceptible of being understood by you, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +but that they are likewise within the comprehension +of every one who possesses even an ordinary +share of good sense. If my frankness shall appear +too undisguised, I beg you to consider, Madam, +that it is necessary I should address you explicitly +and clearly. I now consider it my duty to administer +an energetic and prompt remedy for the malady +with which I perceive you to be attacked. +Besides, I venture to hope that in a short time you +will feel gratified that I have shown you the truth +in all its integrity and brilliancy. You will pardon +me for having dissipated the unreal and yet +harassing phantoms which infested your mind. +But let my success be what it may, my efforts to +confer tranquillity upon you will at least be evidences +of the interest I take in your happiness, of +my zeal to serve you, and of the respect with which +I am your sincere and attached friend.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_II" id="LETTER_II"></a>Letter II.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the +Divinity.</p></div> + + +<p>Every religion is a system of opinions and +conduct founded upon the notions, true or false, +that we entertain of the Divinity. To judge of +the truth of any system, it is requisite to examine +its principles, to see if they accord, and to satisfy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +ourselves whether all its parts lend a mutual support +to each other. A religion, to be <i>true</i>, should +give us <i>true</i> ideas of God; and it is by our reason +alone that we are able to decide whether what +theology asserts concerning this being and his +attributes is true or otherwise. Truth for men is +only conformity to reason; and thus the same +reason which the clergy proscribe is, in the last +resort, our only means of judging the system that +religion proposes for our assent. That God can +only be the true God who is most conformable to +our reason, and the true worship can be no other +than that which reason approves.</p> + +<p>Religion is only important in accordance with +the advantages it bestows upon mankind. The +best religion must be that which procures its disciples +the most real, the most extensive, and the most +durable advantages. A false religion must necessarily +bestow upon those who practise it only a +false, chimerical, and transient utility. Reason +must be the judge whether the benefits derived are +real or imaginary. Thus, as we constantly see, it +belongs to reason to decide whether a religion, a +mode of worship, or a system of conduct is advantageous +or injurious to the human race.</p> + +<p>It is in accordance with these incontestable principles +that I shall examine the religion of the +Christians. I shall commence by analyzing the +ideas which their system gives us of the Divinity, +which it boasts of presenting to us in a more perfect +manner than all other religions in the world. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +I shall examine whether these ideas accord with +each other, whether the dogmas taught by this +religion are conformable to those fundamental +principles which are every where acknowledged, +whether they are consonant with them, and whether +the conduct which Christianity prescribes answers +to the notions which itself gives us of the Divinity. +I shall conclude the inquiry by investigating the +advantages that the Christian religion procures the +human race—advantages, according to its partisans, +that infinitely surpass those which result from +all the other religions of the earth.</p> + +<p>The Christian religion, as the basis of its belief, +sets forth an only God, which it defines as a pure +spirit, as an eternal intelligence, as independent +and immutable, who has infinite power, who is the +cause of all things, who foresees all things, who +fills immensity, who created from nothing the +world and all it encloses, and who preserves and +governs it according to the laws of his infinite +wisdom, and the perfections of his infinite goodness +and justice, which are all so evident in his +works.</p> + +<p>Such are the ideas that Christianity gives us of +the Divinity. Let us now see whether they accord +with the other notions presented to us by this +religious system, and which it pretends were revealed +by God himself; or, in other words, that these +truths were received directly from the Deity, who +concealed them from the remainder of mankind, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +and deprived them of a knowledge of his essence. +Thus the Christian religion is founded upon a +special revelation. And to whom was the revelation +made? At first to Abraham, and then to his +posterity. The God of the universe, then, the +Father of all men, was only willing to be known +to the descendants of a Chaldean, who for a long +series of years were the exclusive possessors of the +knowledge of the true God. By an effect of his +special kindness, the Jewish people was for a long +time the only race favored with a revelation equally +necessary for all men. This was the only people +which understood the relations between man and +the Supreme Being. All other nations wandered +in darkness, or possessed no ideas of the Sovereign +of nature but such as were crude, ridiculous, or +criminal.</p> + +<p>Thus, at the very first step, do we not see that +Christianity impairs the goodness and justice of +its God? A revelation to a particular people only +announces a partial God, who favors a portion of +his children, to the prejudice of all the others; +who consults only his caprice, and not real merit; +who, incapable of conferring happiness upon all +men, shows his tenderness solely to some individuals, +who have, however, no titles upon his consideration +not possessed by the others. What would +you say of a father who, placed at the head of a +numerous family, had no eyes but for a single one +of his children, and who never allowed himself to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +be seen by any of them except that favored one? +What would you say if he was displeased with +the rest for not being acquainted with his features, +notwithstanding he would never allow them to approach +his person? Would you not accuse such a +father of caprice, cruelty, folly, and a want of +reason, if he visited with his anger the children +whom he had himself excluded from his presence? +Would you not impute to him an injustice of +which none but the most brutal of our species +could be guilty if he actually punished them for +not having executed orders which he was never +pleased to give them?</p> + +<p>Conclude, then, with me, Madam, that the revelation +of a religion to only a single tribe or nation +sets forth a God neither good, impartial, nor equitable, +but an unjust and capricious tyrant, who, +though he may show kindness and preference to +some of his creatures, at any rate acts with the +greatest cruelty towards all the others. This admitted, +revelation does not prove the goodness, but +the caprice and partiality of the God that religion +represents to us as full of sagacity, benevolence, +and equity, and that it describes as the common +father of all the inhabitants of the earth. If the +interest and self-love of those whom he favors +makes them admire the profound views of a God +because he has loaded them with benefits to the +prejudice of their brethren, he must appear very +unjust, on the other hand, to all those who are the +victims of his partiality. A hateful pride alone +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +could induce a few persons to believe that they +were, to the exclusion of all others, the cherished +children of Providence. Blinded by their vanity, +they do not perceive that it is to give the lie to +universal and infinite goodness to suppose that +God was capable of favoring with his preference +some men or nations, to the exclusion of others. +All ought to be equal in his eyes if it is true they +are all equally the work of his hands.</p> + +<p>It is, nevertheless, upon partial revelations that +are founded all the religions of the world. In the +same manner that every individual believes himself +the most important being in the universe, +every nation entertains the idea that it ought to +enjoy the peculiar tenderness of the Sovereign of +nature, to the exclusion of all the others. If the +inhabitants of Hindostan imagine that it was for +them alone that Brama spoke, the Jews and the +Christians have persuaded themselves that it was +only for them that the world was created, and that +it is solely for them that God was revealed.</p> + +<p>But let us suppose for a moment that God has +really made himself known. How could a pure +spirit render himself sensible? What form did he +take? Of what material organs did he make use +in order to speak? How can an infinite Being +communicate with those which are finite? I may +be assured that, to accommodate himself to the +weakness of his creatures, he made use of the +agency of some chosen men to announce his wishes +to all the rest, and that he filled these agents with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +his spirit, and spoke by their mouths. But can we +possibly conceive that an infinite Being could unite +himself with the finite nature of man? How can +I be certain that he who professes to be inspired +by the Divinity does not promulgate his own +reveries or impostures as the oracles of heaven? +What means have I of recognizing whether God +really speaks by his voice? The immediate reply +will be, that God, to give weight to the declarations +of those whom he has chosen to be his interpreters, +endowed them with a portion of his own omnipotence, +and that they wrought miracles to prove +their divine mission.</p> + +<p>I therefore inquire, What is a miracle? I am +told that it is an operation contrary to the laws of +nature, which God himself has fixed; to which I +reply, that, according to the ideas I have formed of +the divine wisdom, it appears to me impossible that +an immutable God can change the wise laws which +he himself has established. I thence conclude that +miracles are impossible, seeing they are incompatible +with our ideas of the wisdom and immutability +of the Creator of the universe. Besides, these miracles +would be useless to God. If he be omnipotent, +can he not modify the minds of his creatures according +to his own will?</p> + +<p>To convince and to persuade them, he has only +to will that they shall be convinced and persuaded. +He has only to tell them things that are clear and +sensible, things that may be demonstrated; and to +evidence of such a kind they will not fail to give +their assent. To do this, he will have no need +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +either of miracles or interpreters; truth alone is +sufficient to win mankind.</p> + +<p>Supposing, nevertheless, the utility and possibility +of these miracles, how shall I ascertain whether the +wonderful operation which I see performed by the +interpreter of the Deity be conformable or contrary +to the laws of nature? Am I acquainted with all +these laws? May not he who speaks to me in +the name of the Lord execute by natural means, +though to me unknown, those works which appear +altogether extraordinary? How shall I assure myself +that he does not deceive me? Does not +my ignorance of the secrets and shifts of his art +expose me to be the dupe of an able impostor, who +might make use of the name of God to inspire me +with respect, and to screen his deception? Thus +his pretended miracles ought to make me suspect +him, even though I were a witness of them; but +how would the case stand, were these miracles said +to have been performed some thousands of years +before my existence? I shall be told that they +were attested by a multitude of witnesses; but if +I cannot trust to myself when a miracle is performing, +how shall I have confidence in others, who may +be either more ignorant or more stupid than myself, +or who perhaps thought themselves interested +in supporting by their testimony tales entirely +destitute of reality?</p> + +<p>If, on the contrary, I admit these miracles, what +do they prove to me? Will they furnish me with +a belief that God has made use of his omnipotence +to convince me of things which are in direct opposition +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +to the ideas I have formed of his essence, +his nature, and his divine perfections? If I be persuaded +that God is immutable, a miracle will not +force me to believe that he is subject to change. If +I be convinced that God is just and good, a miracle +will never be sufficient to persuade me that he is unjust +and wicked. If I possess an idea of his wisdom, +all the miracles in the world would not persuade me +that God would act like a madman. Shall I be told +that he would consent to perform miracles that destroy +his divinity, or that are proper only to erase +from the minds of men the ideas which they ought +to entertain of his infinite perfections? This, however, +is what would happen were God himself to +perform, or to grant the power of performing, miracles +in favor of a particular revelation. He would, +in that case, derange the course of nature, to teach +the world that he is capricious, partial, unjust, and +cruel; he would make use of his omnipotence purposely +to convince us that his goodness was insufficient +for the welfare of his creatures; he would +make a vain parade of his power, to hide his inability +to convince mankind by a single act of his +will. In short, he would interfere with the eternal +and immutable laws of nature, to show us that he +is subject to change, and to announce to mankind +some important news, which they had hitherto been +destitute of, notwithstanding all his goodness.</p> + +<p>Thus, under whatever point of view we regard +revelation, by whatever miracles we may suppose +it attested, it will always be in contradiction to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +ideas we have of the Deity. They will show us +that he acts in an unjust and an arbitrary manner, +consulting only his own whims in the favors he +bestows, and continually changing his conduct; +that he was unable to communicate all at once to +mankind the knowledge necessary to their existence, +and to give them that degree of perfection +of which their natures were susceptible. Hence, +Madam, you may see that the supposition of a +revelation can never be reconciled with the infinite +goodness, justice, omnipotence, and immutability +of the Sovereign of the universe.</p> + +<p>They will not fail to tell you that the Creator of +all things, the independent Monarch of nature is +the master of his favors; that he owes nothing to +his creatures; that he can dispose of them as he +pleases, without any injustice, and without their +having any right of complaint; that man is incapable +of sounding the profundity of his decrees; +and that his justice is not the justice of men. But +all these answers, which divines have continually in +their mouths, serve only to accelerate the destruction +of those sublime ideas which they have given +us of the Deity. The result appears to be, that +God conducts himself according to the maxims of +a fantastic sovereign, who, satisfied in having rewarded +some of his favorites, thinks himself justified +in neglecting the rest of his subjects, and to +leave them groaning in the most deplorable misery.</p> + +<p>You must acknowledge, Madam, it is not on such +a model that we can form a powerful, equitable, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +and beneficent God, whose omnipotence ought to +enable him to procure happiness to all his subjects, +without fear of exhausting the treasures of +his goodness.</p> + +<p>If we are told that divine justice bears no resemblance +to the justice of men, I reply, that in this +case we are not authorized to say that God is +<i>just</i>; seeing that by justice it is not possible for +us to conceive any thing except a similar quality +to that called justice by the beings of our own +species. If divine justice bears no resemblance to +human justice,—if, on the contrary, this justice +resembles what we call injustice,—then all our +ideas confound themselves, and we know not either +what we mean or what we say when we affirm +that God is just. According to human ideas, +(which are, however, the only ones that men are +possessed of,) justice will always exclude caprice +and partiality; and never can we prevent ourselves +from regarding as iniquitous and vicious a sovereign +who, being both able and willing to occupy +himself with the happiness of his subjects, should +plunge the greatest number of them into misfortune, +and reserve his kindness for those to whom +his whims have given the preference.</p> + +<p>With respect to telling us that <i>God owes nothing +to his creatures</i>, such an atrocious principle is destructive +of every idea of justice and goodness, +and tends visibly to sap the foundation of all +religion. A God that is just and good owes happiness +to every being to whom he has given existence; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +he ceases to be just and good if he produce +them only to render them miserable; and he would +be destitute of both wisdom and reason were he to +give them birth only to be the victims of his caprice. +What should we think of a father bringing children +into the world for the sole purpose of putting their +eyes out and tormenting them at his ease?</p> + +<p>On the other hand, all religions are entirely +founded upon the reciprocal engagements which +are supposed to exist between God and his creatures. +If God owes nothing to the latter, if he is +not under an obligation to fulfil his engagements +to them when they have fulfilled theirs to him, of +what use is religion? What motives can men +have to offer their homage and worship to the Divinity? +Why should they feel much desire to love +or serve a master who can absolve himself of all +duty towards those who entered his service with +an expectation of the recompense promised under +such circumstances?</p> + +<p>It is easy to see that the destructive ideas of +divine justice which are inculcated are only founded +upon a fatal prejudice prevalent among the +generality of men, leading them to suppose that +unlimited power must inevitably exempt its possessor +from an accordance with the laws of equity; +that force can confer the right of committing bad +actions; and that no one could properly demand an +account of his conduct of a man sufficiently powerful +to carry out all his caprices. These ideas are +evidently borrowed from the conduct of tyrants, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +who no sooner find themselves possessed of absolute +power than they cease to recognize any other +rules than their own fantasies, and imagine that +justice has no claims upon potentates like them.</p> + +<p>It is upon this frightful model that theologians +have formed that God whom they, notwithstanding, +assert to be a just being, while, if the conduct they +attribute to him was true, we should be constrained +to regard him as the most unjust of tyrants, as the +most partial of fathers, as the most fantastic of +princes, and, in a word, as a being the most to be +feared and the least worthy of love that the imagination +could devise. We are informed that the +God who created all men has been unwilling to be +known except to a very small number of them, and +that while this favored portion exclusively enjoyed +the benefits of his kindness, all the others were +objects of his anger, and were only created by him +to be left in blindness for the very purpose of punishing +them in the most cruel manner. We see +these pernicious characteristics of the Divinity penetrating +the entire economy of the Christian religion; +we find them in the books which are pretended +to be inspired, and we discover them in the +dogmas of predestination and grace. In a word, +every thing in religion announces a despotic God, +whom his disciples vainly attempt to represent to us +as just, while all that they declare of him only proves +his injustice, his tyrannical caprices, his extravagances, +so frequently cruel, and his partiality, so pernicious +to the greater portion of the human race. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +When we exclaim against conduct which, in the +eyes of all reasonable men, must appear so excessively +capricious, it is expected that our mouths +will be closed by the assertion that God is omnipotent, +that it is for him to determine how he will +bestow benefits, and that he is under no obligations +to any of his creatures. His apologists end +by endeavoring to intimidate us with the frightful +and iniquitous punishments that he reserves for +those who are so audacious as to murmur.</p> + +<p>It is easy to perceive the futility of these arguments. +Power, I do contend, can never confer the +right of violating equity. Let a sovereign be as +powerful as he may, he is not on that account less +blamable when in rewards and punishments he +follows only his caprice. It is true, we may +fear him, we may flatter him, we may pay him +servile homage; but never shall we love him sincerely; +never shall we serve him faithfully; never +shall we look up to him as the model of justice and +goodness. If those who receive his kindness believe +him to be just and good, those who are the +objects of his folly and rigor cannot prevent themselves +from detesting his monstrous iniquity in +their hearts.</p> + +<p>If we be told that we are only as worms of earth +relatively to God, or that we are only like a vase in +the hands of a potter, I reply in this case, that there +can neither be connection nor moral duty between +the creature and his Creator; and I shall hence +conclude that religion is useless, seeing that a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +worm of earth can owe nothing to a man who +crushes it, and that the vase can owe nothing to +the potter that has formed it. In the supposition +that man is only a worm or an earthen vessel in +the eyes of the Deity, he would be incapable either +of serving him, glorifying him, honoring him, or +offending him. We are, however, continually told +that man is capable of merit and demerit in the +sight of his God, whom he is ordered to love, serve, +and worship. We are likewise assured that it was +man alone whom the Deity had in view in all his +works; that it is for him alone the universe was +created; for him alone that the course of nature +was so often deranged; and, in short, it was with +a view of being honored, cherished, and glorified +by man that God has revealed himself to us. According +to the principles of the Christian religion, +God does not cease, for a single instant, his occupations +for man, this <i>worm of earth</i>, this <i>earthen +vessel</i>, which he has formed. Nay, more: man is +sufficiently powerful to influence the honor, the +felicity, and the glory of his God; it rests with +man to please him or to irritate him, to deserve his +favor or his hatred, to appease him or to kindle his +wrath.</p> + +<p>Do you not perceive, Madam, the striking contradictions +of those principles which, nevertheless, +form the basis of all revealed religions? Indeed, +we cannot find one of them that is not erected on +the reciprocal influence between God and man, +and between man and God. Our own species, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +which are annihilated (if I may use the expression) +every time that it becomes necessary to whitewash +the Deity from some reproachful stain of injustice +and partiality,—these miserable beings, to whom +it is pretended that God owes nothing, and who, +we are assured, are unnecessary to him for his own +felicity,—the human race, which is nothing in his +eyes, becomes all at once the principal performer +on the stage of nature. We find that mankind +are necessary to support the glory of their Creator; +we see them become the sole objects of his care; +we behold in them the power to gladden or afflict +him; we see them meriting his favor and provoking +his wrath. According to these contradictory notions +concerning the God of the universe, the source +of all felicity, is he not really the most wretched of +beings? We behold him perpetually exposed to +the insults of men, who offend him by their +thoughts, their words, their actions, and their neglect +of duty. They incommode him, they irritate +him, by the capriciousness of their minds, by their +actions, their desires, and even by their ignorance. +If we admit those Christian principles which suppose +that the greater portion of the human race excites +the fury of the Eternal, and that very few of +them live in a manner conformable to his views, +will it not necessarily result therefrom, that in the +immense crowd of beings whom God has created +for his glory, only a very small number of them +glorify and please him; while all the rest are occupied +in vexing him, exciting his wrath, troubling +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +his felicity, deranging the order that he loves, frustrating +his designs, and forcing him to change his +immutable intentions?</p> + +<p>You are, undoubtedly, surprised at the contradictions +to be encountered at the very first step we +take in examining this religion; and I take upon +myself to predict that your embarrassment will +increase as you proceed therein. If you coolly +examine the ideas presented to us in the revelation +common both to Jews and Christians, and contained +in the books which they tell us are <i>sacred</i>, +you will find that the Deity who speaks is always +in contradiction with himself; that he becomes his +own destroyer, and is perpetually occupied in undoing +what he has just done, and in repairing his +own workmanship, to which, in the first instance, +he was incapable of giving that degree of perfection +he wished it to possess. He is never satisfied +with his own works, and cannot, in spite of his +omnipotence, bring the human race to the point of +perfection he intended. The books containing the +revelation, on which Christianity is founded, every +where display to us a God of goodness in the commission +of wickedness; an omnipotent God, whose +projects unceasingly miscarry; an immutable God, +changing his maxims and his conduct; an omniscient +God, continually deceived unawares; a resolute +God, yet repenting of his most important +actions; a God of wisdom, whose arrangements +never attain success. He is a great God, who +occupies himself with the most puerile trifles; an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +all-sufficient God, yet subject to jealousy; a powerful +God, yet suspicious, vindictive, and cruel; +and a just God, yet permitting and prescribing the +most atrocious iniquities. In a word, he is a perfect +God, yet displaying at the same time such imperfections +and vices that the most despicable of +men would blush to resemble him.</p> + +<p>Behold, Madam, the God whom this religion +orders you to adore <i>in spirit and in truth</i>. I reserve +for another letter an analysis of the holy +books which you are taught to respect as the +oracles of heaven. I now perceive for the first +time that I have perhaps made too long a dissertation; +and I doubt not you have already perceived +that a system built on a basis possessing so +little solidity as that of the God whom his devotees +raise with one hand and destroy with the +other, can have no stability attached to it, and can +only be regarded as a long tissue of errors and contradictions.</p> + +<p class="sig">I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_III" id="LETTER_III"></a>Letter III.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the +Nature of the Christian Religion, and of the +Proofs upon which Christianity is founded.</p></div> + + +<p>You have seen, Madam, in my preceding letter, +the incompatible and contradictory ideas which this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +religion gives us of the Deity. You will have seen +that the revelation which is announced to us, +instead of being the offspring of his goodness and +tenderness for the human race, is really only a +proof of injustice and partiality, of which a God +who is equally just and good would be entirely +incapable. Let us now examine whether the ideas +suggested to us by these books, containing the +divine oracles, are more rational, more consistent, +or more conformable to the divine perfections. +Let us see whether the statements related in the +Bible, whether the commands prescribed to us in +the name of God himself, are really worthy of God, +and display to us the characters of infinite wisdom, +goodness, power, and justice.</p> + +<p>These inspired books go back to the origin of the +world. Moses, the confidant, the interpreter, the +historian of the Deity, makes us (if we may use +such an expression) witnesses of the formation of +the universe. He tells us that the Eternal, tired of +his inaction, one fine day took it into his head to +create a world that was necessary to his glory. To +effect this, he forms matter out of nothing; a pure +spirit produces a substance which has no affinity +to himself; although this God fills all space with +his immensity, yet still he found room enough in +it to admit the universe, as well as all the material +bodies contained therein.</p> + +<p>These, at least, are the ideas which divines wish +us to form respecting the creation, if such a thing +were possible as that of possessing a clear idea of a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +pure spirit producing matter. But this discussion +is throwing us into metaphysical researches, which I +wish to avoid. It will be sufficient to you that you +may console yourself for not being able to comprehend +it, seeing that the most profound thinkers, who +talk about the creation or the eduction of the world +from nothing, have no ideas on the subject more +precise than those which you form to yourself. As +soon, Madam, as you take the trouble to reflect +thereon, you will find that divines, instead of explaining +things, have done nothing but invent +words, in order to render them dubious, and to confound +all our natural conceptions.</p> + +<p>I will not, however, tire you by a fastidious display +of the blunders which fill the narrative of +Moses, which they announce to us as being dictated +by the Deity. If we read it with a little +attention, we shall perceive in every page philosophical +and astronomical errors, unpardonable in +an inspired author, and such as we should consider +ridiculous in any man, who, in the most superficial +manner, should have studied and contemplated +nature.</p> + +<p>You will find, for example, light created before +the sun, although this star is visibly the source of +light which communicates itself to our globe. You +will find the evening and the morning established +before the formation of this same sun, whose presence +alone produces day, whose absence produces +night, and whose different aspects constitute morning +and evening. You will there find that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +moon is spoken of as a body possessing its own +light, in a similar manner as the sun possesses it, +although this planet is a dark body, and receives +its light from the sun. These ignorant blunders +are sufficient to show you that the Deity who +revealed himself to Moses was quite unacquainted +with the nature of those substances which he had +created out of nothing, and that you at present possess +more information respecting them than was +once possessed by the Creator of the world.</p> + +<p>I am not ignorant that our divines have an answer +always ready to those difficulties which would attack +their divine science, and place their knowledge far +below that of Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and even +below that of young people who have scarcely +studied the first elements of natural philosophy. +They will tell us that God, in order to render himself +intelligible to the savage and ignorant Jews, +spoke in conformity to their imperfect notions, in +the false and incorrect language of the vulgar. We +must not be imposed upon by this solution, which +our doctors regard as triumphant, and which they +so frequently employ when it becomes necessary to +justify the Bible against the ignorance and vulgarities +contained therein. We answer them, that a +God who knows every thing, and can perform every +thing, might by a single word have rectified the +false notions of the people he wished to enlighten, +and enabled them to know the nature of bodies +more perfectly than the most able men who have +since appeared. If it be replied that revelation is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +not intended to render men learned, but to make +them pious, I answer that revelation was not sent +to establish false notions; that it would be unworthy +of God to borrow the language of falsehood and +ignorance; that the knowledge of nature, so far +from being an injury to piety, is, by the avowal of +divines, the most proper study to display the greatness +of God. They tell us that religion would be +unmovable, were it conformable to true knowledge; +that we should have no objections to make to the +recital of Moses, nor to the philosophy of the Holy +Scriptures, if we found nothing but what was continually +confirmed by experience, astronomy, and +the demonstrations of geometry.</p> + +<p>To maintain a contrary opinion, and to say that +God is pleased in confounding the knowledge of +men and in rendering it useless, is to pretend that +he is pleased with making us ignorant and changeable, +and that he condemns the progress of the +human mind, although we ought to suppose him +the author of it. To pretend that God was obliged +in the Scriptures to conform himself to the language +of men, is to pretend that he withdrew his +assistance from those he wished to enlighten, and +that he was unable of rendering them susceptible +of comprehending the language of truth. This is +an observation not to be lost sight of in the examination +of revelation, where we find in each page +that God expresses himself in a manner quite unworthy +of the Deity. Could not an omnipotent +God, instead of degrading himself, instead of condescending +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +to speak the language of ignorance, so +far enlighten them as to make them understand a +language more true, more noble, and more conformable +to the ideas which are given us of the Deity? +An experienced master by degrees enables his +scholars to understand what he wishes to teach +them, and a God ought to be able to communicate +to them immediately all the knowledge he intended +to give them.</p> + +<p>However, according to Genesis, God, after creating +the world, produced man from the dust of +the earth. In the mean while we are assured that +he created him <i>in his own image</i>; but what was +the image of God? How could man, who is at +least partly material, represent a pure spirit, which +excludes all matter?</p> + +<p>How could his imperfect mind be formed on the +model of a mind possessing all perfection, like that +which we suppose in the Creator of the universe? +What resemblance, what proportion, what affinity +could there be between a finite mind united to a +body, and the infinite spirit of the Creator? These, +doubtless, are great difficulties; hitherto it has been +thought impossible to decide them; and they will +probably for a long time employ the minds of those +who strive to understand the incomprehensible +meaning of a book which God provided for our +instruction.</p> + +<p>But why did God create man? Because he +wished to people the universe with intelligent +beings, who would render him homage, who should +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +witness his wonders, who should glorify him, who +should meditate and contemplate his works, and +merit his favors by their submission to his laws.</p> + +<p>Here we behold man becoming necessary to the +dignity of his God, who without him would live +without being glorified, who would receive no homage, +and who would be the melancholy Sovereign +of an empire without subjects—a condition not +suited to his vanity. I think it useless to remark +to you what little conformity we find between +those ideas and such as are given us of a self-sufficient +being, who, without the assistance of any +other, is supremely happy. All the characters in +which the Bible portrays the Deity are always borrowed +from man, or from a proud monarch; and +we every where find that instead of having made +man after his own image, it is man that has always +made God after the image of himself, that has conferred +on him his own way of thinking, his own +virtues, and his own vices.</p> + +<p>But did this man whom the Deity has created +for his glory faithfully fulfil the wishes of his Creator? +This subject that he has just acquired—will +he be obedient? will he render homage to his +power? will he execute his will? He has done +nothing of the kind. Scarcely is he created when +he becomes rebellious to the orders of his Sovereign; +he eats a forbidden fruit which God has placed in +his way in order to tempt him, and by this act +draws the divine wrath not only on himself, but on +all his posterity. Thus it is that he annihilates at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +one blow the great projects of the Omnipotent, +who had no sooner made man for his glory than +he becomes offended with that conduct which he +ought to have foreseen.</p> + +<p>Here he finds himself obliged to change his +projects with regard to mankind; he becomes their +enemy, and condemns them and the whole of the +race (who had not yet the power of sinning) to +innumerable penalties, to cruel calamities, and to +death! What do I say? To punishments which +death itself shall not terminate! Thus God, who +wished to be glorified, is not glorified; he seems to +have created man only to offend him, that he might +afterwards punish the offender.</p> + +<p>In this recital, which is founded on the Bible, +can you recognize, Madam, an omnipotent God, +whose orders are always accomplished, and whose +projects are all necessarily executed? In a God +who tempts us, or who permits us to be tempted, +do you behold a being of beneficence and sincerity? +In a God who punishes the being he has +tempted, or subjected to temptation, do you perceive +any equity? In a God who extends his vengeance +even to those who have not sinned, do you +behold any shadow of justice? In a God who is +irritated at what he knew must necessarily happen, +can you imagine any foresight? In the rigorous +punishments by which this God is destined to +avenge himself of his feeble creatures, both in this +world and the next, can you perceive the least appearance +of goodness? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is, however, this history, or rather this fable, +on which is founded the whole edifice of the +Christian religion.</p> + +<p>If the first man had not been disobedient, the +human race had not been the object of the divine +wrath, and would have had no need of a Redeemer. +If this God, who knows all things, foresees all +things, and possesses all power, had prevented or +foreseen the fault of Adam, it would not have been +necessary for God to sacrifice his own innocent Son +to appease his fury. Mankind, for whom he created +the universe, would then have been always happy; +they would not have incurred the displeasure of +that Deity who demanded their adoration. In a +word, if this apple had not been imprudently eaten +by Adam and his spouse, mankind would not have +suffered so much misery, man would have enjoyed +without interruption the immortal happiness to +which God had destined him, and the views of +Providence towards his creatures would not have +been frustrated.</p> + +<p>It would be useless to make reflections on notions +so whimsical, so contrary to the wisdom, the +power, and the justice of the Deity. It is doing +quite enough to compare the different objects which +the Bible presents to us, to perceive their inutility, +absurdities, and contradictions. We there see, continually, +a wise God conducting himself like a +madman. He defeats his own projects that he +may afterwards repair them, repents of what he +has done, acts as if he had foreseen nothing, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +is forced to permit proceedings which his omnipotence +could not prevent. In the writings revealed +by this God, he appears occupied only in blackening +his own character, degrading himself, vilifying +himself, even in the eyes of men whom he would +excite to worship him and pay him homage; overturning +and confounding the minds of those whom +he had designed to enlighten. What has just been +said might suffice to undeceive us with respect to +a book which would pass better as being intended +to destroy the idea of a Deity, than as one containing +the oracles dictated and revealed by him. +Nothing but a heap of absurdities could possibly +result from principles so false and irrational; nevertheless, +let us take another glance at the principal +objects which this divine work continually offers to +our consideration. Let us pass on to the Deluge. +The holy books tell us, that in spite of the will of +the Almighty, the whole human race, who had +already been punished by infirmities, accidents, and +death, continued to give themselves up to the most +unaccountable depravity. God becomes irritated, +and repents having created them. Doubtless he +could not have foreseen this depravity; yet, rather +than change the wicked disposition of their hearts, +which he holds in his own hands, he performs the +most surprising, the most impossible of miracles. +He at once drowns all the inhabitants, with the +exception of some favorites, whom he destines to +re-people the earth with a chosen race, that will +render themselves more agreeable to their God. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +But does the Almighty succeed in this new project? +The chosen race, saved from the waters of the +deluge, on the wreck of the earth's destruction, +begin again to offend the Sovereign of nature, +abandon themselves to new crimes, give themselves +up to idolatry, and forgetting the recent effects of +celestial vengeance, seem intent only on provoking +heaven by their wickedness. In order to provide a +remedy, God chooses for his favorite the idolater +Abraham. To him he discovers himself; he orders +him to renounce the worship of his fathers, and +embrace a new religion. To guarantee this covenant, +the Sovereign of nature prescribes a melancholy, +ridiculous, and whimsical ceremony, to the +observance of which a God of wisdom attaches his +favors. The posterity of this chosen man are consequently +to enjoy, for everlasting, the greatest +advantages; they will always be the most partial +objects of tenderness, with the Almighty; they will +be happier than all other nations, whom the Deity +will abandon to occupy himself only for them.</p> + +<p>These solemn promises, however, have not prevented +the race of Abraham from becoming the +slaves of a vile nation, that was detested by the +Eternal; his dear friends experienced the most +cruel treatment on the part of the Egyptians. God +could not guarantee them from the misfortune that +had befallen them; but in order to free them again, +he raised up to them a liberator, a chief, who performed +the most astonishing miracles. At the +voice of Moses all nature is confounded; God +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +employs him to declare his will; yet he who could +create and annihilate the world could not subdue +Pharaoh. The obstinacy of this prince defeats, in +ten successive trials, the divine omnipotence, of +which Moses is the depositary. After having vainly +attempted to overcome a monarch whose heart +God had been pleased to harden, God has recourse +to the most ordinary method of rescuing his people; +he tells them to run off, after having first +counselled them to rob the Egyptians. The fugitives +are pursued; but God, who protects these robbers, +orders the sea to swallow up the miserable +people who had the temerity to run after their +property.</p> + +<p>The Deity would, doubtless, have reason to be +satisfied with the conduct of a people that he had +just delivered by such a great number of miracles. +Alas! neither Moses nor the Almighty could +succeed in persuading this obstinate people to +abandon the false gods of that country where they +had been so miserable; they preferred them to the +living God who had just saved them. All the +miracles which the Eternal was daily performing +in favor of Israel could not overcome their stubbornness, +which was still more inconceivable and +wonderful than the greatest miracles. These wonders, +which are now extolled as convincing proofs +of the divine mission of Moses, were by the confession +of this same Moses, who has himself transmitted +us the accounts, incapable of convincing +the people who were witnesses of them, and never +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +produced the good effects which the Deity proposed +to himself in performing them.</p> + +<p>The credulity, the obstinacy, the continual depravity +of the Jews, Madam, are the most indubitable +proofs of the falsity of the miracles of Moses, +as well as those of all his successors, to whom the +Scriptures attribute a supernatural power. If, in +the face of these facts, it be pretended that these +miracles are attested, we shall be compelled, at +least, to agree that, according to the Bible account, +they have been entirely useless, that the Deity has +been constantly baffled in all his projects, and that +he could never make of the Hebrews a people submissive +to his will.</p> + +<p>We find, however, God continues obstinately +employed to render his people worthy of him; he +does not lose sight of them for a moment; he +sacrifices whole nations to them, and sanctions +their rapine, violence, treason, murder, and usurpation. +In a word, he permits them to do any thing +to obtain his ends. He is continually sending them +chiefs, prophets, and wonderful men, who try in +vain to bring them to their duty. The whole history +of the Old Testament displays nothing but +the vain efforts of God to vanquish the obstinacy +of his people. To succeed in this, he employs +kindnesses, miracles, and severity. Sometimes he +delivers up to them whole nations, to be hated, +pillaged, and exterminated; at other times he permits +these same nations to exercise over his favorite +people the greatest of cruelties. He delivers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +them into the hands of their enemies, who are likewise +the enemies of God himself. Idolatrous nations +become masters of the Jews, who are left +to feel the insults, the contempt, and the most +unheard-of severities, and are sometimes compelled +to sacrifice to idols, and to violate the law of their +God. The race of Abraham becomes the prey of +impious nations. The Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, +and Romans make them successively undergo the +most cruel treatment and suffer the most bloody +outrages, and God even permits his temple to be +polluted in order to punish the Jews.</p> + +<p>To terminate, at length, the troubles of his cherished +people, the pure Spirit that created the universe +sends his own Son. It is said that he had already +been announced by his prophets, though this was +certainly done in a manner admirably adapted to +prevent his being known on his arrival. This Son +of God becomes a man through his kindness for +the Jews, whom he came to liberate, to enlighten, +and to render the most happy of mortals. Being +clothed with divine omnipotence, he performs the +most astonishing miracles, which do not, however, +convince the Jews. He can do every thing but +convert them. Instead of converting and liberating +the Jews, he is himself compelled, notwithstanding +all his miracles, to undergo the most +infamous of punishments, and to terminate his life +like a common malefactor. God is condemned to +death by the people he came to save. The Eternal +hardened and blinded those among whom he sent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +his own Son; he did not foresee that this Son +would be rejected. What do I say? He managed +matters in such a way as not to be recognized, +and took such steps that his favorite people +derived no benefit from the coming of the Messiah. +In a word, the Deity seems to have taken the +greatest care that his projects, so favorable to the +Jews, should be nullified and rendered unprofitable!</p> + +<p>When we expostulate against a conduct so +strange and so unworthy of the Deity, we are told +it was necessary for every thing to take place in +such a manner, for the accomplishment of prophecies +which had announced that the Messiah should +be disowned, rejected, and put to death. But why +did God, who knows all, and who foresaw the fate +of his dear Son, form the project of sending him +among the Jews, to whom he must have known +that his mission would be useless? Would it not +have been easier neither to announce him nor send +him? Would it not have been more conformable +to divine omnipotence to spare himself the trouble +of so many miracles, so many prophecies, so much +useless labor, so much wrath, and so many sufferings +to his own Son, by giving at once to the +human race that degree of perfection he intended +for them?</p> + +<p>We are told it was necessary that the Deity +should have a victim; that to repair the fault of +the first man, no expedient would be sufficient but +the death of another God; that the only God of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +universe could not be appeased but by the blood +of his own Son. I reply, in the first place, that +God had only to prevent the first man from committing +a fault; that this would have spared him +much chagrin and sorrow, and saved the life of his +dear Son. I reply, likewise, that man is incapable +of offending God unless God either permitted it or +consented to it. I shall not examine how it is possible +for God to have a Son, who, being as much a +God as himself, can be subject to death. I reply, +also, that it is impossible to perceive such a grave +fault and sin in taking an apple, and that we can +find very little proportion between the crime committed +against the Deity by eating an apple and +his Son's death.</p> + +<p>I know well enough I shall be told that these +are all mysteries; but I, in my turn, shall reply, that +mysteries are imposing words, imagined by men +who know not how to get themselves out of the +labyrinth into which their false reasonings and +senseless principles have once plunged them.</p> + +<p>Be this as it may, we are assured that the Messiah, +or the deliverer of the Jews, had been clearly +predicted and described by the prophecies contained +in the Old Testament. In this case, I demand +why the Jews have disowned this wonderful +man, this God whom God sent to them. They +answer me, that the incredulity of the Jews was +likewise predicted, and that divers inspired writers +had announced the death of the Son of God. To +which I reply, that a sensible God ought not to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +have sent him under such circumstances, that an +omnipotent God ought to have adopted measures +more efficacious and certain to bring his people into +the way in which he wished them to go. If he +wished not to convert and liberate the Jews, it was +quite useless to send his Son among them, and +thereby expose him to a death that was both certain +and foreseen.</p> + +<p>They will not fail to tell me, that in the end the +divine patience became tired of the excesses of the +Jews; that the immutable God, who had sworn +an eternal alliance with the race of Abraham, +wished at length to break the treaty, which he had, +however, assured them should last forever. It is +pretended that God had determined to reject the +Hebrew nation, in order to adopt the Gentiles, +whom he had hated and despised nearly four thousand +years. I reply, that this discourse is very +little conformable to the ideas we ought to have of +a God who <i>changes not</i>, whose mercy is <i>infinite</i>, +and whose goodness is <i>inexhaustible</i>. I shall tell +them, that in this case the Messiah announced by +the Jewish prophets was destined for the Jews, and +that he ought to have been their liberator, instead +of destroying their worship and their religion. If +it be possible to unravel any thing in these obscure, +enigmatical, and symbolical oracles of the prophets +of Judea, as we find them in the Bible,—if there +be any means of guessing the meaning of the obscure +riddles, which have been decorated with the +pompous name of prophecies, we shall perceive +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +that the inspired writers, when they are in a good +humor, always promised the Jews a man that will +redress their grievances, restore the kingdom of +Judah, and not one that should destroy the religion +of Moses. If it were for the Gentiles that the +Messiah should come, he is no longer the Messiah +promised to the Jews and announced by their +prophets. If Jesus be the Messiah of the Jews, he +could not be the destroyer of their nation.</p> + +<p>Should I be told that Jesus himself declared that +he came to fulfil the law of Moses, and not to +abolish it, I ask why Christians do not observe the +law of the Jews?</p> + +<p>Thus, in whatever light we regard Jesus Christ, +we perceive that he could not be the man whom +the prophets have predicted, since it is evident that +he came only to destroy the religion of the Jews, +which, though instituted by God himself, had +nevertheless become disagreeable to him. If this +inconstant God, who was wearied with the worship +of the Jews, had at length repented of his +injustice towards the Gentiles, it was to them that +he ought to have sent his Son. By acting in this +way he would at least have saved his old friends +from a frightful <i>deicide</i>, which he forced them to +commit, because they were not able to recognize +the God he sent amongst them. Besides, the Jews +were very pardonable in not acknowledging their +expected Messiah in an artisan of Galilee, who +was destitute of all the characteristics which the +prophets had related, and during whose lifetime +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +his fellow-citizens were neither liberated nor +happy.</p> + +<p>We are told that he performed miracles. He +healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, gave +sight to the blind, and raised the dead. At length +he accomplished his own resurrection. It might be +so believed; yet he has visibly failed in that +miracle for which alone he came upon earth. He +was never able either to persuade or to convert the +Jews, who witnessed all the daily wonders that he +performed. Notwithstanding those prodigies, they +placed him ignominiously on the cross. In spite +of his divine power, he was incapable of escaping +punishment. He wished to die, to render the Jews +culpable, and to have the pleasure of rising again +the third day, in order to confound the ingratitude +and obstinacy of his fellow-citizens. What is the +result? Did his fellow-citizens concede to this +great miracle, and have they at length acknowledged +him? Far from it; they never saw him. +The Son of God, who arose from the dead in +secrecy, showed himself only to his adherents. +They alone pretend to have conversed with him; +they alone have furnished us with the particulars +of his life and miracles; and yet by such suspicious +testimony they wish to convince us of the +divinity of his mission eighteen hundred years +after the event, although he could not convince his +contemporaries, the Jews.</p> + +<p>We are then told that many Jews have been +converted to Jesus Christ; that after his death +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +many others were converted; that the witnesses +of the life and miracles of the Son of God have +sealed their testimony with their blood; that men +will not die to attest falsehood; that by a visible +effect of the divine power, the people of a great +part of the earth have adopted Christianity, and +still persist in the belief of this divine religion.</p> + +<p>In all this I perceive nothing like a miracle. I +see nothing but what is conformable to the ordinary +progress of the human mind. An enthusiast, a +dexterous impostor, a crafty juggler, can easily find +adherents in a stupid, ignorant, and superstitious +populace. These followers, captivated by counsels, +or seduced by promises, consent to quit a painful +and laborious life, to follow a man who gives them +to understand that he will make them <i>fishers of +men</i>; that is to say, he will enable them to subsist +by his cunning tricks, at the expense of the multitude +who are always credulous. The juggler, with +the assistance of his remedies, can perform cures +which seem miraculous to ignorant spectators. +These simple creatures immediately regard him as +a supernatural being. He adopts this opinion himself, +and confirms the high notions which his partisans +have formed respecting him. He feels himself +interested in maintaining this opinion among his +sectaries, and finds out the secret of exciting their +enthusiasm. To accomplish this point, our empiric +becomes a preacher; he makes use of riddles, +obscure sentences, and parables to the multitude, +that always admire what they do not understand. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +To render himself more agreeable to the people, he +declaims among poor, ignorant, foolish men, against +the rich, the great, the learned; but above all, +against the <i>priests</i>, who in all ages have been <i>avaricious</i>, +<i>imperious</i>, <i>uncharitable</i>, and <i>burdensome</i> to +the people. If these discourses be eagerly received +among the vulgar, who are always morose, envious, +and jealous, they displease all those who see themselves +the objects of the invective and satire of the +popular preacher.</p> + +<p>They consequently wish to check his progress, +they lay snares for him, they seek to surprise him +in a fault, in order that they may unmask him and +have their revenge. By dint of imposture, he outwits +them; yet, in consequence of his miracles and +illusions, he at length discovers himself. He is then +seized and punished, and none of his adherents +abide by him, except a few idiots, that nothing can +undeceive; none but partisans, accustomed to lead +with him a life of idleness; none but dexterous +knaves, who wish to continue their impositions on +the public, by deceptions similar to those of their +old master, by obscure, unconnected, confused, and +fanatical harangues, and by declamations against +<i>magistrates</i> and <i>priests</i>. These, who have the power +in their own hands, finish by persecuting them, imprisoning +them, flogging them, chastising them, and +putting them to death. Poor wretches, habituated +to poverty, undergo all these sufferings with a fortitude +which we frequently meet with in malefactors. +In some we find their courage fortified by the zeal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +of fanaticism. This fortitude surprises, agitates, +excites pity, and irritates the spectators against +those who torment men whose constancy makes +them looked upon as being innocent, who, it is supposed, +may possibly be right, and for whom compassion +likewise interests itself. It is thus that +enthusiasm is propagated, and that persecution +always augments the number of the partisans of +those who are persecuted.</p> + +<p>I shall leave to you, Madam, the trouble of +applying the history of our juggler, and his adherents, +to that of the founder, the apostles, and the +martyrs of the Christian religion.</p> + +<p>With whatever art they have written the life of +Jesus Christ, which we hold only from his apostles, +or their disciples, it furnishes a sufficiency of materials +on which to found our conjectures. I shall +only observe to you, that the Jewish nation was +remarkable for its credulity; that the companions +of Jesus were chosen from among the dregs of the +people; that Jesus always gave a preference to the +populace, with whom he wished, undoubtedly, to +form a rampart against the <i>priests</i>; and that, at +last, Jesus was seized immediately after the most +splendid of his miracles. We see him put to death +immediately after the resurrection of Lazarus, which, +even according to the gospel account, bears the +most evident characters of fraud, which are visible +to every one who examines it without prejudice.</p> + +<p>I imagine, Madam, that what I have just stated +will suffice to show you what opinion you ought +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +to entertain respecting the founder of Christianity +and his first sectaries. These have been either +dupes or fanatics, who permitted themselves to be +seduced by deceptions, and by discourses conformable +to their desires, or by dexterous impostors, who +knew how to make the best of the tricks of their +old master, to whom they have become such able +successors. In this way did they establish a religion +which enabled them to live at the people's +expense, and which still maintains in abundance +those we pay, at such a high rate, for transmitting +from father to son the fables, visions, and wonders +which were born and nursed in Judea. The propagation +of the Christian faith, and the constancy +of their martyrs, have nothing surprising in them. +The people flock after all those that show them +wonders, and receive without reasoning on it every +thing that is told them. They transmit to their +children the tales they have heard related, and by +degrees these opinions are adopted by kings, by the +great, and even by the learned.</p> + +<p>As for the martyrs, their constancy has nothing +supernatural in it. The first Christians, as well as +all new sectaries, were treated, by the Jews and +pagans, as disturbers of the public peace. They +were already sufficiently intoxicated with the fanaticism +with which their religion inspired them, and +were persuaded that God held himself in readiness +to crown them, and to receive them into his eternal +dwelling. In a word, seeing the heavens opened, +and being convinced that the end of the world +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +was approaching, it is not surprising that they had +courage to set punishment at defiance, to endure it +with constancy, and to despise death. To these +motives, founded on their religious opinions, many +others were added, which are always of such a +nature as to operate strongly upon the minds of +men. Those who, as Christians, were imprisoned +and ill-treated on account of their faith, were visited, +consoled, encouraged, honored, and loaded with +kindnesses by their brethren, who took care of and +succored them during their detention, and who +almost adored them after their death. Those, on +the other hand, who displayed weakness, were +despised and detested, and when they gave way to +repentance, they were compelled to undergo a rigorous +penitence, which lasted as long as they lived. +Thus were the most powerful motives united to +inspire the martyrs with courage; and this courage +has nothing more supernatural about it than that +which determines us daily to encounter the most +perilous dangers, through the fear of dishonoring +ourselves in the eyes of our fellow-citizens. Cowardice +would expose us to infamy all the rest of our +days. There is nothing miraculous in the constancy +of a man to whom an offer is made, on the +one hand, of eternal happiness and the highest +honors, and who, on the other hand, sees himself +menaced with hatred, contempt, and the most +lasting regret.</p> + +<p>You perceive, then, Madam, that nothing can +be easier than to overthrow the proofs by which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +Christian doctors establish the revelation which +they pretend is so well authenticated. Miracles, +martyrs, and prophecies prove nothing.</p> + +<p>Were all the wonders true that are related in the +Old and New Testament, they would afford no +proof in favor of divine omnipotence, but, on the +contrary, would prove the inability under which +the Deity has continually labored, of convincing +mankind of the truths he wished to announce to +them. On the other hand, supposing these miracles +to have produced all the effects which the +Deity had a right to expect from them, we have no +longer any reason to believe them, except on the +tradition and recitals of others, which are often +suspicious, faulty, and exaggerated. The miracles +of Moses are attested only by Moses, or by Jewish +writers interested in making them believed by the +people they wished to govern. The miracles of +Jesus are attested only by his disciples, who sought +to obtain adherents, in relating to a credulous people +prodigies to which they pretended to have been +witnesses, or which some of them, perhaps, believed +they had really seen. All those who deceive mankind +are not always cheats; they are frequently +deceived by those who are knaves in reality. Besides, +I believe I have sufficiently proved, that +miracles are repugnant to the essence of an immutable +God, as well as to his wisdom, which will not +permit him to alter the wise laws he has himself +established. In short, miracles are useless, since +those related in Scripture have not produced the +effects which God expected from them. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<p>The proof of the Christian religion taken from +prophecy has no better foundation. Whoever will +examine without prejudice these oracles pretended +to be divine will find only an ambiguous, unintelligible, +absurd, and unconnected jargon, entirely +unworthy of a God who intended to display his +prescience, and to instruct his people with regard +to future events. There does not exist in the Holy +Scriptures a single prophecy sufficiently precise to +be literally applied to Jesus Christ. To convince +yourself of this truth, ask the most learned of our +doctors which are the formal prophecies wherein +they have the happiness to discover the Messiah. +You will then perceive that it is only by the aid of +forced explanations, figures, parables, and mystical +interpretations, by which they are enabled to bring +forward any thing sensible and applicable to the +<i>god-made-man</i> whom they tell us to adore. It +would seem as if the Deity had made predictions +only that we might understand nothing about them.</p> + +<p>In these equivocal oracles, whose meaning it is +impossible to penetrate, we find nothing but the +language of intoxication, fanaticism, and delirium. +When we fancy we have found something intelligible, +it is easy to perceive that the prophets intended +to speak of events that took place in their +own age, or of personages who had preceded them. +It is thus that our doctors apply gratuitously to +Christ prophecies or rather narratives of what happened +respecting David, Solomon, Cyrus, &c.</p> + +<p>We imagine we see the chastisement of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +Jewish people announced in recitals where it is +evident the only matter in question was the Babylonish +captivity. In this event, so long prior to +Jesus Christ, they have imagined finding a prediction +of the dispersion of the Jews, supposed to be +a visible punishment for their <i>deicide</i>, and which +they now wish to pass off as an indubitable proof +of the truth of Christianity.</p> + +<p>It is not, then, astonishing that the ancient and +modern Jews do not see in the prophets what our +doctors teach us, and what they themselves imagine +they have seen. Jesus himself has not been more +happy in his predictions than his predecessors. In +the gospel he announces to his disciples in the most +formal manner the destruction of the world and the +last judgment, as events that were at hand, and +which must take place before the existing generation +had passed away. Yet the world still endures, +and appears in no danger of finishing. It is true, +our doctors pretend that, in the prediction of Jesus +Christ, he spoke of the ruin of Jerusalem by Vespasian +and Titus; but none but those who have +not read the gospel would submit to such a change, +or satisfy themselves with such an evasion. Besides, +in adopting it we must confess at least that +the Son of God himself was unable to prophesy +with greater precision than his obscure predecessors.</p> + +<p>Indeed, at every page of these sacred books, +which we are assured were inspired by God himself, +this God seems to have made a revelation only +to conceal himself. He does not speak but to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +misunderstood. He announces his oracles in such +a way only that we can neither comprehend them +nor make any application of them. He performs +miracles only to make unbelievers. He manifests +himself to mankind only to stupefy their judgment +and bewilder the reason he has bestowed on them. +The Bible continually represents God to us as a +seducer, an enticer, a suspicious tyrant, who knows +not what kind of conduct to observe with respect +to his subjects; who amuses himself by laying +snares for his creatures, and who tries them that he +may have the pleasure of inflicting a punishment +for yielding to his temptations. This God is occupied +only in building to destroy, in demolishing to +rebuild. Like a child disgusted with its playthings, +he is continually undoing what he has done, +and breaking what was the object of his desires. +We find no foresight, no constancy, no consistency +in his conduct; no connection, no clearness in his +discourses. When he performs any thing, he +sometimes approves what he has done, and at +other times repents of it. He irritates and vexes +himself with what he has permitted to be done, +and, in spite of his infinite power, he suffers man +to offend him, and consents to let Satan, his creature, +derange all his projects. In a word, the revelations +of the Christians and Jews seem to have +been imagined only to render uncertain and to +annihilate the qualities attributed to the Deity, and +which are declared to constitute his essence. The +whole Scripture, the entire system of the Christian +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +religion, appears to be founded only on the incapability +of God, who was unable to render the human +race as wise, as good, and as happy as he wished +them. The death of his innocent Son, who was +immolated to his vengeance, is entirely useless for +the most numerous portion of the earth's inhabitants; +almost the whole human race, in spite of the +continual efforts of the Deity, continue to offend +him, to frustrate his designs, resist his will, and to +persevere in their wickedness.</p> + +<p>It is on notions so fatal, so contradictory, and so +unworthy of a God who is just, wise, and good, +of a God that is rational, independent, immutable, +and omnipotent, on whom the Christian religion is +founded, and which religion is said to be established +forever by God, who, nevertheless, became disgusted +with the religion of the Jews, with whom he had +made and sworn an eternal covenant.</p> + +<p>Time must prove whether God be more constant +and faithful in fulfilling his engagements with the +Christians than he has been to fulfil those he made +with Abraham and his posterity. I confess, Madam, +that his past conduct alarms me as to what he may +finally perform. If he himself acknowledged by +the mouth of Ezekiel that the laws he had given +to the Jews <i>were not good</i>, he may very possibly, +some day or other, find fault with those which he +has given to Christians.</p> + +<p>Our priests themselves seem to partake of my +suspicions, and to fear that God will be wearied +of that protection which he has so long granted to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +his church. The inquietudes which they evince, +the efforts which they make to hinder the civilization +of the world, the persecutions which they +raise against all those who contradict them, seem +to prove that they mistrust the promises of Jesus +Christ, and that they are not certainly convinced +of the eternal durability of a religion which does +not appear to them divine, but because it gives +them the right to command like gods over their +fellow-citizens. They would undoubtedly consider +the destruction of their empire a very grievous +thing; but yet if the sovereigns of the earth and +their people should once grow weary of the sacerdotal +yoke, we may be sure the Sovereign of +heaven would not require a longer time to become +equally disgusted.</p> + +<p>However this may be, Madam, I venture to hope +the perusal of this letter will fully undeceive you +of a blind veneration for books which are called +<i>divine</i>, although they appear as if invented to degrade +and destroy the God who is asserted to be +their author. My first letter, I feel confident, enabled +you to perceive that the dogmas established +by these same books, or subsequently fabricated to +justify the ideas thus given of God, are not less +contrary to all notions of a Deity infinitely perfect. +A system which in the outset is based upon false +principles can never become any thing else than a +mass of falsehoods.</p> + +<p class="sig">I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_IV" id="LETTER_IV"></a>Letter IV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the fundamental Dogmas of the Christian +Religion.</p></div> + + +<p>You are aware, Madam, that our theological +doctors pretend these revealed books, which I summarily +examined in my preceding letter, do not +include a single word that was not inspired by the +Spirit of God. What I have already said to you +is sufficient to show that in setting out with this +supposition, the Divinity has formed a work the +most shapeless, imperfect, contradictory, and unintelligible +which ever existed; a work, in a word, +of which any man of sense would blush with +shame to be the author. If any prophecy hath +verified itself for the Christians, it is that of Isaiah, +which saith, "Hearing ye shall hear, but shall not +understand." But in this case we reply that it was +sufficiently useless to speak not to be comprehended; +to reveal <i>that</i> which cannot be comprehended +is to reveal <i>nothing</i>.</p> + +<p>We need not, then, be surprised if the Christians, +notwithstanding the revelation of which they assure +us they have been the favorites, have no precise ideas +either of the Divinity, or of his will, or the way in +which his oracles are to be interpreted. The book +from which they should be able to do so serves +only to confound the simplest notions, to throw +them into the greatest incertitude, and create eternal +disputations. If it was the project of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +Divinity, it would, without doubt, be attended with +perfect success. The teachers of Christianity never +agree on the manner in which they are to understand +the truths that God has given himself the +trouble to reveal; all the efforts which they have +employed to this time have not yet been capable +of making any thing clear, and the dogmas which +they have successively invented have been insufficient +to justify to the understanding of one man +of good sense the conduct of an infinitely perfect +Being.</p> + +<p>Hence, many among them, perceiving the inconveniences +which would result from the reading of +the holy books, have carefully kept them out of the +hands of the vulgar and illiterate; for they plainly +foresaw that if they were read by such they would +necessarily bring on themselves reproach, since it +would never fail that every honest man of good +sense would discover in those books only a crowd +of absurdities. Thus the oracles of God are not +even made for those for whom they are addressed; +it is requisite to be initiated in the mysteries of a +priesthood, to have the privilege of discerning in +the holy writings the light which the Divinity destined +to all his dear children. But are the theologians +themselves able to make plain the difficulties +which the sacred books present in every page? By +meditating on the mysteries which they contain, +have they given us ideas more plain of the intentions +of the Divinity? No; without doubt they +explain one mystery by citing another; they scatter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +new obscurities on previous obscurities; rarely do +they agree among themselves; and when by chance +their opinions coincide, <i>we</i> are not more enlightened, +nor is our judgment more convinced; on the +other hand, our reason is the more confounded.</p> + +<p>If they do agree on some point, it is only to tell +us that human reason, of which God is the author, +is depraved; but what is the purport of this coincidence +in their opinions, if it be not to tax the Deity +with imbecility, injustice, and malignity? For +why should God, in creating a reasonable being, +not have given him an understanding which nothing +could corrupt? They reply to us by saying +"that the reason of man is necessarily limited; +that perfection could not be the portion of a <i>creature</i>; +that the designs of God are not like those of +man." But, in this case, why should the Divinity +be offended by the necessary imperfections which +he discovers in his creatures? How can a just +God require that our mind must admit what it +was not made to comprehend? Can he who is +above our reason be understood by us, whose reason +is so limited? If God be infinite, how can a +finite creature reason respecting him? If the mysteries +and hidden designs of the Divinity are of +such a nature as not to be comprehended by man, +what good can we derive from their investigation? +Had God designed that we should occupy our +thoughts with his purposes, would he not have +given us an understanding proportionate to the +things he wished us to penetrate? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>You see, then, Madam, that in depressing our +reason, in supposing it corrupted, our priests, at +the same time, annihilate even the necessity of +religion, which cannot be either useful or important +to us, if above our comprehension. They do more +in supposing human reason depraved; they accuse +God of injustice, in requiring that our reason should +conceive what cannot be conceived. They accuse +him of imbecility in not rendering this reason more +perfect. In a word, in degrading man they degrade +God, and rob him of those attributes which compose +his essence. Would you call him a just and +good parent, who, wishing that his children should +walk by an obscure route, filled with difficulties, +would only give them for their conduct a light too +weak to find their way, and to avoid the continual +dangers by which they are surrounded? Should +you consider that the father had adequately provided +for their security by giving them in writing +unintelligible instructions, which they could not +decipher by the weak light he had given them?</p> + +<p>Our spiritual directors will not fail to tell us that +the corruption of reason and the weakness of the +human understanding are the consequences of sin. +But why has man become sinful? How has the +good God permitted his dear children, for whom he +created the universe, and of whom he exacts obedience, +to offend him, and thereby extinguish, or, +at least, weaken the light he had given them? On +the other hand, the reason of Adam ought to be, +without doubt, completely perfect before his fall. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +In this case, why did it not prevent that fall and +its consequences? Was the reason of Adam corrupted +even beforehand by incurring the wrath of +his God? Was it depraved before he had done +any thing to deprave it?</p> + +<p>To justify this strange conduct of Providence, +to clear him from passing as the author of sin, to +save him the ridicule of being the cause or the +accomplice of offences which he did against himself, +the theologians have imagined a <i>being</i> subordinate +to the divine power. It is the secondary +being they make the author of all the evil which +is committed in the universe. In the impossibility +of reconciling the continual disorders of which the +world is the theatre with the purposes of a Deity +replete with goodness, the Creator and Preserver of +the universe, who delights in order, and who seeks +only the happiness of his creatures, they have +trumped up a destructive genius, imbued with +wickedness, who conspires to render men miserable, +and to overthrow the beneficent views of the +Eternal. This bad and perverse being they call +<i>Satan</i>, the <i>Devil</i>, the <i>Evil One</i>; and we see him +play a great game in all the religions of the world, +the founders of which have found in the impotence +of Deity the sources of both good and evil. +By the aid of this imaginary being they have been +enabled to resolve all their difficulties; yet they +could not foresee that this invention, which went +to annihilate or abridge the power of Deity, was a +system filled with palpable contradictions, and that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +if the Devil were really the author of sin, it would +be he, in all justice, who ought to undergo all its +punishment.</p> + +<p>If God is the author of all, it is he who created +the Devil; if the Devil is wicked, if he strives to +counteract the projects of the Divinity, it is the +Divinity who has allowed the overthrow of his +projects, or who has not had sufficient authority to +prevent the Devil from exercising his power. If +God had wished that the Devil should not have existed, +the Devil would not have existed. God could +annihilate him at one word, or, at least, God could +change his disposition if injurious to us, and contrary +to the projects of a beneficent Providence. +Since, then, the Devil does exist, and does such +marvellous things as are attributed to him, we are +compelled to conclude that the Divinity has found +it good that he should exist and agitate, as he does, +all his works by a perpetual interruption and perversion +of his designs.</p> + +<p>Thus, Madam, the invention of the Devil does +not remedy the evil; on the contrary, it but entangles +the priests more and more. By placing to +Satan's account all the evil which he commits in +the world, they exculpate the Deity of nothing; +all the power with which they have supposed the +Devil invested is taken from that assigned to the +Divinity; and you know very well that according +to the notions of the Christian religion, the Devil +has more adherents than God himself; they are +always stirring their fellow-creatures up to revolt +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +against God; without ceasing, in despite of God, +Satan leads them into perdition, except one man +only, who refused to follow him, and who found +grace in the eyes of the Lord. You are not ignorant +that the millions that follow the standard of +Beelzebub are to be plunged with him into eternal +misery.</p> + +<p>But then has Satan himself incurred the disgrace +of the All-powerful? By what forfeit has +he merited becoming the eternal object of the +anger of that God who created him? The Christian +religion will explain all. It informs us that +the Devil was in his origin an angel; that is to say, +a pure spirit, full of perfections, created by the +Divinity to occupy a distinguishing situation in +the celestial court, destined, like the other ministers +of the Eternal, to receive his orders, and to +enjoy perpetual blessedness. But he lost himself +through ambition; his pride blinded him, and he +dared to revolt against his Creator; he engaged +other spirits, as pure as himself, in the same senseless +enterprise; in consequence of his rashness, he +was hurled headlong out of heaven, his miserable +adherents were involved in his fall, and, having +been hardened by the divine pleasure in their foolish +dispositions, they have no other occupation +assigned them in the universe than to tempt mankind, +and endeavor to augment the number of the +enemies of God, and the victims of his wrath.</p> + +<p>It is by the assistance of this fable that the +Christian doctors perceive the fall of Adam, prepared +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +by the Almighty himself anterior to the +creation of the world. Was it necessary that +the Divinity should entertain a great desire that +man might sin, since he would thereby have +an opportunity of providing the means of making +him sinful? In effect, it was the Devil who, in +process of time, covered with the skin of a +serpent, solicited the mother of the human race to +disobey God, and involve her husband in her rebellion. +But the difficulty is not removed by these +inventions. If Satan, in the time he was an angel, +lived in innocence, and merited the good will of his +Maker, how came God to suffer him to entertain +ideas of pride, ambition, and rebellion? How +came this angel of light so blind as not to see the +folly of such an enterprise? Did he not know that +his Creator was all-powerful? Who was it that +tempted Satan? What reason had the Divinity +for selecting him to be the object of his fury, the +destroyer of his projects, the enemy of his power? +If pride be a sin, if the idea itself of rebellion is +the greatest of crimes, <i>sin was, then, anterior to sin</i>, +and Lucifer offended God, even in his state of +purity; for, in fine, a being pure, innocent, agreeable +to his God, who had all the perfections of which +a creature could be susceptible, ought to be exempt +from ambition, pride, and folly. We ought, +also, to say as much for our first parent, who, notwithstanding +his wisdom, his innocence, and the +knowledge infused into him by God himself, could +not prevent himself from falling into the temptation +of a demon. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hence, in every shift, the priests invariably make +God the author of sin. It was God who tempted +Lucifer before the creation of the world; Lucifer, +in his turn, became the tempter of man and the +cause of all the evil our race suffers. It appears, +therefore, that God created both angels and men +to give them an opportunity of sinning.</p> + +<p>It is easy to perceive the absurdity of this system, +to save which the theologians have invented +another still more absurd, that it might become the +foundation of all their religious revelations, and by +means of which they idly imagine they can fully +justify the divine providence. The system of truth +supposes the <i>free will</i> of man—that he is his own +master, capable of doing good or ill, and of directing +his own plans. At the words <i>free will</i>, I +already perceive, Madam, that you tremble, and +doubtless anticipate a metaphysical dissertation. +Rest assured of the contrary; for I flatter myself +that the question will be simplified and rendered +clear, I shall not merely say for you, but for all +your sex who are not resolved to be wilfully blind.</p> + +<p>To say that man is a free agent is to detract +from the power of the Supreme Being; it is to +pretend that God is not the master of his own +will; it is to advance that a weak creature can, +when it pleases him, revolt against his Creator, +derange his projects, disturb the order which he +loves, render his labors useless, afflict him with +chagrin, cause him sorrow, act with effect against +him, and arouse his anger and his passions. Thus, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +at the first glance, you perceive that this principle +gives rise to a crowd of absurdities. If God is the +friend of order, every thing performed by his creatures +would necessarily conduce to the maintenance +of this order, because otherwise the divine will +would fail to have its effect. If God has plans, +they must of necessity be always executed; if man +can afflict his God, man is the master of this God's +happiness, and the league he has formed with the +Devil is potent enough to thwart the plans of the +Divinity. In a word, if man is free to sin, God is +no longer Omnipotent.</p> + +<p>In reply, we are told that God, without detriment +to his Omnipotence, might make man a free +agent, and that this liberty is a benefit by which +God places man in a situation where he may merit +the heavenly bounty; but, on the other hand, this +liberty likewise exposes him to encounter God's +hatred, to offend him, and to be overwhelmed by +infinite sufferings. From this I conclude that this +liberty is <i>not</i> a benefit, and that it evidently is inconsistent +with divine goodness. This goodness +would be more real if men had always sufficient +resolution to do what is pleasing to God, conformably +to order, and conducive to the happiness of +their fellow-creatures. If men, in virtue of their +liberty, do things contrary to the will of God, God, +who is supposed to have the prescience of foreseeing +all, ought to have taken measures to prevent +men from abusing their liberty; if he foresaw they +would sin, he ought to have given them the means +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +of avoiding it; if he could not prevent them +from doing ill, he has consented to the ill they have +done; if he has consented, he should not be offended; +if he is offended, or if he punish them for +the evil they have done with his permission, he is +unjust and cruel; if he suffer them to rush on to +their destruction, he is bound afterwards to take +them to himself; and he cannot with reason find +fault with them for the abuse of their liberty, in +being deceived or seduced by the objects which he +himself had placed in their way to seduce them, to +tempt them, and to determine their wills to do +evil.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>What would you say of a father who should +give to his children, in the infancy of age, and +when they were without experience, the liberty of +satisfying their disordered appetites, till they should +convince themselves of their evil tendency? Would +not such a parent be in the right to feel uneasy at +the abuse which they should make of their liberty +which he had given them? Would it not be accounted +malice in this parent, who should have +foreseen what was to happen, not to have furnished +his children with the capacity of directing their +own conduct so as to avoid the evils they might be +assailed with? Would it not show in him the +height of madness were he to punish them for the +evil which he had done, and the chagrin which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +they occasioned him? Would it not be to himself +that we should ascribe the sottishness and +wickedness of his children?</p> + +<p>You see, then, the points of view under which +this system of men's free will shows us the Deity. +This free will becomes a present the most dangerous, +since it puts man in the condition of doing +evil that is truly frightful. We may thence conclude +that this system, far from justifying God, +makes him capable of malice, imprudence, and injustice. +But this is to overturn all our ideas of a +being perfectly, nay, infinitely wise and good, consenting +to punish his creatures for sins which he +gave them the power of committing, or, which is +the same, suffering the Devil to inspire them with +evil. All the subtilties of theology have really +only a tendency to destroy the very notions itself +inculcates concerning the Divinity. This theology +is evidently the tub of the Danaides.</p> + +<p>It is a fact, however, that our theologians have +imagined expedients to support their ruinous suppositions. +You have often heard mention made +of <i>predestination</i> and <i>grace</i>—terrible words, which +constantly excite disputes among us, for which +reason would be forced to blush if Christians did +not make it a duty to renounce reason, and which +contests are attended with consequences very dangerous +to society. But let not this surprise you; +these false and obscure principles have even among +the theologians produced dissensions; and their +quarrels would be indifferent if they did not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +attach more importance to them than they really +deserve.</p> + +<p>But to proceed. The system of predestination +supposes that God, in his eternal secrets, has resolved +that some men should be elected, and, being +thus his favorites, receive special grace. By this +grace they are supposed to be made agreeable to +God, and meet for eternal happiness. But then an +infinite number of others are destined to perdition, +and receive not the grace necessary to eternal salvation. +These contradictory and opposite propositions +make it pretty evident that the system is +absurd. It makes God, a being infinitely perfect +and good, a partial tyrant, who has created a vast +number of human beings to be the sport of his +caprice and the victims of his vengeance. It supposes +that God will punish his creatures for not +having received that grace which he did not deign +to give them; it presents this God to us under +traits so revolting that the theologians are forced +to avow that the whole is a profound mystery, into +which the human mind cannot penetrate. But if +man is not made to lift his inquisitive eye on this +frightful mystery, that is to say, on this astonishing +absurdity, which our teachers have idly endeavored +to square to their views of Deity, or to +reconcile the atrocious injustice of their God with +his infinite goodness, by what right do they wish +us to adore this mystery which they would compel +us to believe, and to subscribe to an opinion that +saps the divine goodness to its very foundation? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +How do they reason upon a dogma, and quarrel +with acrimony about a system of which even themselves +can comprehend nothing?</p> + +<p>The more you examine religion, the more occasion +you will have to be convinced that those +things which our divines call <i>mysteries</i> are nothing +else but the difficulties with which they are themselves +embarrassed, when they are unable to avoid +the absurdities into which their own false principles +necessarily involve them. Nevertheless, this word +is not enough to impose upon us; the reverend +doctors do not themselves understand the things +about which they incessantly speak. They invent +words from an inability to explain things, and they +give the name of <i>mysteries</i> to what they comprehend +no better than ourselves.</p> + +<p>All the religions in the world are founded upon +predestination, and all the pretended revelations +among men, as has been already pointed out to +you, inculcate this odious dogma, which makes +Providence an unjust mother-in-law, who shows a +blind preference for some of her children to the +prejudice of all the others. They make God a tyrant, +who punishes the inevitable faults to which +he has impelled them, or into which he has allowed +them to be seduced. This dogma, which served +as the foundation of Paganism, is now the grand +pivot of the Christian religion, whose God should +excite no less hatred than the most wicked divinities +of idolatrous people. With such notions, is it +not astonishing that this God should appear, to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +those who meditate on his attributes, an object +sufficiently terrible to agitate the imagination, and +to lead some to indulge in dangerous follies?</p> + +<p>The dogma of another life serves also to exculpate +the Deity from these apparent injustices or +aberrations, with which he might naturally be accused. +It is pretended that it has pleased him to +distinguish his friends on earth, seeing he has amply +provided for their future happiness in an abode +prepared for their souls. But, as I believe I have +already hinted, these proofs that God makes some +good, and leaves others wicked, either evince injustice +on his part, at least temporary, or they +contradict his omnipotence. If God can do all +things, if he is privy to all the thoughts and actions +of men, what need has he of any proofs? If he +has resolved to give them grace necessary to save +them, has he not assured them they will not perish? +If he is unjust and cruel, this God is not immutable, +and belies his character; at least for a time he +derogates from the perfections which we should +expect to find in him. What would you think of +a king, who, during a particular time, would discover +to his favorites traits the most frightful, in +order that they might incur his disgrace, and who +should afterwards insist on their believing him a +very good and amiable man, to obtain his favor +again? Would not such a prince be pronounced +wicked, fanciful, and tyrannical? Nevertheless, +this supposed prince might be pardoned by some, +if for his own interest, and the better to assure +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +himself of the attachment of his friends, he might +give them some smiles of his favor. It is not so +God, who knows all, who can do all, who has +nothing to fear from the dispositions of his creatures. +From all these reasonings, we may see that +the Deity, whom the priests have conjured up, +plays a great game, very ridiculous, very unjust, on +the supposition that he tries his servants, and that +he allows them to suffer in this world, to prepare +them for another. The theologians have not failed +to discover motives in this conduct of God which +they can as readily justify; but these pretended +motives are borrowed from the omnipotence of this +being, by his absolute power over his creatures, to +whom he is not obliged to render an account of his +actions; but especially in this theology, which professes +to justify God, do we not see it make him a +despot and tyrant more hateful than any of his +creatures?</p> + +<p class="sig">I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_V" id="LETTER_V"></a>Letter V.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of The +Dogma of another Life.</p></div> + + +<p>We, have now, Madam, come to the examination +of the dogma of a future life, in which it is supposed +that the Divinity, after causing men to pass +through the temptations, the trials, and the difficulties +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +of this life, for the purpose of satisfying +himself whether they are worthy of his love or his +hatred, will bestow the recompenses or inflict the +chastisements which they deserved. This dogma, +which is one of the capital points of the Christian +religion, is founded on a great many hypotheses or +suppositions, which we have already glanced at, +and which we have shown to be absurd and incompatible +with the notions which the same religion +gives us of the Deity. In effect, it supposes us +capable of offending or pleasing the Author of +Nature, of influencing his humor, or exciting his passions; +afflicting, tormenting, resisting, and thwarting +the plans of Deity. It supposes, moreover, the +free-will of man—a system which we have seen incompatible +with the goodness, justice, and omnipotence +of the Deity. It supposes, further, that God +has occasion of proving his creatures, and making +them, if I may so speak, pass a novitiate to know +what they are worth when he shall square accounts +with them. It supposes in God, who has created +men for happiness only, the inability to put, by one +grand effort, all men in the road, whence they may +infallibly arrive at permanent felicity. It supposes +that man will survive himself, or that the same +being, after death, will continue to think, to feel, +and act as he did in this life. In a word, it supposes +the immortality of the soul—an opinion unknown +to the Jewish lawgiver, who is totally silent +on this topic to the people to whom God had manifested +himself; an opinion which even in the time +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +of Jesus Christ one sect at Jerusalem admitted, +while another sect rejected; an opinion about which +the Messiah, who came to instruct them, deigned +to fix the ideas of those who might deceive themselves +in this respect; an opinion which appears +to have been engendered in Egypt, or in India, anterior +to the Jewish religion, but which was unknown +among the Hebrews till they took occasion to instruct +themselves in the Pagan philosophy of the +Greeks, and doctrines of Plato.</p> + +<p>Whatever might be the origin of this doctrine, it +was eagerly adopted by the Christians, who judged +it very convenient to their system of religion, all +the parts of which are founded on the marvellous, +and which made it a crime to admit any truths +agreeable to reason and common sense. Thus, +without going back to the inventors of this inconceivable +dogma, let us examine dispassionately +what this opinion really is; let us endeavor to penetrate +to the principles on which it is supported; +let us adopt it, if we shall find it an idea conformable +to reason; let us reject it, if it shall appear +destitute of proof, and at variance with common +sense, even though it had been received as an established +truth in all antiquity, though it may have +been adopted by many millions of mankind.</p> + +<p>Those who maintain the opinion of the soul's immortality, +regard it—that is, the soul—as a being +distinct from the body, as a substance, or essence, +totally different from the corporeal frame, and they +designate it by the name of <i>spirit</i>. If we ask them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +what a spirit is, they tell us it is not matter; and +if we ask them what they understand by that which +is not matter, which is the only thing of which we +cannot form an idea, they tell us it is a spirit. In +general, it is easy to see that men the most savage, +as well as the most subtle thinkers, make use of the +word <i>spirit</i> to designate all the causes of which +they cannot form clear notions; hence the word +spirit hath been used to designate a being of which +none can form any idea.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding, the divines pretend that this +unknown being, entirely different from the body, +of a substance which has nothing conformable with +itself, is, nevertheless, capable of setting the body +in motion; and this, doubtless, is a mystery very +inconceivable. We have noticed the alliance between +this spiritual substance and the material +body, whose functions it regulates. As the divines +have supposed that matter could neither think, nor +will, nor perceive, they have believed that it might +conceive much better those operations attributed +to a being of which they had ideas less clear than +they can form of matter. In consequence, they +have imagined many gratuitous suppositions to +explain the union of the soul with the body. In +fine, in the impossibility of overcoming the insurmountable +barriers which oppose them, the priests +have made man twofold, by supposing that he contains +something distinct from himself; they have +cut through all difficulties by saying that this union +is a great mystery, which man cannot understand; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +and they have everlasting recourse to the omnipotence +of God, to his supreme will, to the miracles +which he has always wrought; and those last are +never-failing, final resources, which the theologians +reserve for every case wherein they can find no +other mode of escaping gracefully from the argument +of their adversaries.</p> + +<p>You see, then, to what we reduce all the jargon +of the metaphysicians, all the profound reveries +which for so many ages have been so industriously +hawked about in defence of the soul of man; an +immaterial substance, of which no living being can +form an idea; a spirit, that is to say, a being totally +different from any thing we know. All the theological +verbiage ends here, by telling us, in a round +of pompous terms,—fooleries that impose on the +ignorant,—that we do not know what essence the +soul is of; but we call it a spirit because of its +nature, and because we feel ourselves agitated by +some unknown agent; we cannot comprehend the +mechanism of the soul; yet can we feel ourselves +moved, as it were, by an effect of the power of +God, whose essence is far removed from ours, and +more concealed from us than the human soul itself. +By the aid of this language, from which you cannot +possibly learn any thing, you will be as wise, +Madam, as all the theologians in the world.</p> + +<p>If you would desire to form ideas the most precise +of yourself, banish from you the prejudices of +a vain theology, which only consists in repeating +words without attaching any new ideas to them, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +and which are insufficient to distinguish the soul +from the body, which appear only capable of multiplying +beings without reason, of rendering more +incomprehensible and more obscure, notions less +distinct than we already have of ourselves. These +notions should be at least the most simple and the +most exact, if we consult our nature, experience, +and reason. They prove that man knows nothing +but by his material sensible organs, that he sees +only by his eyes, that he feels by his touch, that he +hears by his ears; and that when either of these +organs is actually deranged, or has been previously +wanting, or imperfect, man can have none of the +ideas that organ is capable of furnishing him with,—neither +thoughts, memory, reflection, judgment, +desire, nor will. Experience shows us that corporeal +and material beings are alone capable of being +moved and acted upon, and that without those +organs we have enumerated the soul thinks not, +feels not, wills not, nor is moved. Every thing +shows us that the soul undergoes always the same +vicissitudes as the body; it grows to maturity, +gains strength, becomes weak, and puts on old age, +like the body; in fine, every thing we can understand +of it goes to prove that it perishes with the +body. It is indeed folly to pretend that man will +feel when he has no organs appropriate for that +sentiment; that he will see and hear without eyes +or ears; that he will have ideas without having +senses to receive impressions from physical objects, +or to give rise to perceptions in his understanding; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +in fine, that he will enjoy or suffer when he has no +longer either nerves or sensibility.</p> + +<p>Thus every thing conspires to prove that the soul +is the same thing as the body, viewed relatively to +some of its functions, which are more obscure than +others. Every thing serves to convince us that +without the body the soul is nothing, and that all +the operations which are attributed to the soul +cannot be exercised any longer when the body is +destroyed. Our body is a machine, which, so long +as we live, is susceptible of producing the effects +which have been designated under different names, +one from another; sentiment is one of these effects, +thought is another, reflection a third. This last +passes sometimes by other names, and our brain +appears to be the seat of all our organs; it is that +which is the most susceptible. This organic machine +once destroyed or deranged, is no longer +capable of producing the same effects, or of exercising +the same functions. It is with our body as +it is with a watch which indicates the hours, and +which goes not if the spring or a pinion be broken.</p> + +<p>Cease, Eugenia, cease to torment yourself about +the fate which shall attend you when death will +have separated you from all that is dear on earth. +After the dissolution of this life, the soul shall +cease to exist; those devouring flames with which +you have been threatened by the priests will have +no effect upon the soul, which can neither be susceptible +then of pleasures nor pains, of agreeable or +sorrowful ideas, of lively or doleful reflections. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is only by means of the bodily organs that +we feel, think, and are merry or sad, happy or miserable; +this body once reduced to dust, we will +have neither perceptions nor sensations, and, by +consequence, neither memory nor ideas; the dispersed +particles will no longer have the same qualities +they possessed when united; nor will they any +longer conspire to produce the same effects. In a +word, the body being destroyed, the soul, which is +merely a result of all the parts of the body in +action, will cease to be what it is; it will be reduced +to nothing with the life's breath.</p> + +<p>Our teachers pretend to understand the soul +well; they profess to be able to distinguish it from +the body; in short, they can do nothing without +it; and therefore, to keep up the farce, they have +been compelled to admit the ridiculous dogma of +the Persians, known by the name of the <i>resurrection</i>. +This system supposes that the particles of +the body which have been scattered at death will +be collected at the last day, to be replaced in their +primitive condition. But that this strange phenomenon +may take place, it is necessary that the +particles of our destroyed bodies, of which some, +have been converted into earth, others have passed +into plants, others into animals, some of one species, +others of another, even of our own; it is +requisite, I say, that these particles, of which some +have been mixed with the waters of the deep, +others have been carried on the wings of the wind, +and which have successively belonged to many +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +different men, should be reunited to reproduce the +individual to whom they formerly belonged. If +you cannot get over this impossibility, the theologians +will explain it to you by saying, very briefly, +"Ah! it is a profound mystery, which we cannot +comprehend." They will inform you that the resurrection +is a miracle, a supernatural effect, which is +to result from the divine power. It is thus they +overcome all the difficulties which the good sense +of a few opposes to their rhapsodies.</p> + +<p>If, perchance, Madam, you do not wish to remain +content with these sublime reasons, against which +your good sense will naturally revolt, the clergy +will endeavor to seduce your imagination by vague +pictures of the ineffable delights which will be enjoyed +in Paradise by the souls and bodies of those +who have adopted their reveries; they will aver +that you cannot refuse to believe them upon their +mere word without encountering the eternal indignation +of a God of pity; and they will attempt to +alarm your fancy by frightful delineations of the +cruel torments which a God of goodness has prepared +for the greater number of his creatures.</p> + +<p>But if you consider the thing coolly, you will +perceive the futility of their flattering promises and +of their puny threatenings, which are uttered merely +to catch the unwary. You may easily discover +that if it could be true that man shall survive himself, +God, in recompensing him, would only recompense +himself for the grace which he had granted; +and when he punished him, he punished him for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +not receiving the grace which he had hardened him +against receiving. This line of conduct, so cruel +and barbarous, appears equally unworthy of a wise +God as it is of a being perfectly good.</p> + +<p>If your mind, proof against the terrors with +which the Christian religion penetrates its sectaries, +is capable of contemplating these frightful +circumstances, which it is imagined will accompany +the carefully-invented punishments which +God has destined for the victims of his vengeance, +you will find that they are impossible, and totally +incompatible with the ideas which they themselves +have put forth of the Divinity. In a word, you +will perceive that the chastisements of another life +are but a crowd of chimeras, invented to disturb +human reason, to subjugate it beneath the feet of +imposture, to annihilate forever the repose of slaves +whom the priesthood would inthrall and retain +under its yoke.</p> + +<p>In short, Eugenia, the priests would make you +believe that these torments will be horrible,—a +thing which accords not with our ideas of God's +goodness; they tell you they will be eternal,—a +thing which accords not with our ideas of the justice +of God, who, one would very naturally suppose, +will proportion chastisements to faults, and +who, by consequence, will not punish without end +the beings whose actions are bounded by time. +They tell us that the offences against God are infinite, +and, by consequence, that the Divinity, +without doing violence to his justice, may avenge +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +himself as God, that is to say, avenge himself to +infinity. In this case I shall say that this God is +not good; that he is vindictive, a character which +always announces fear and weakness. In fine, I +shall say that among the imperfect beings who +compose the human species, there is not, perhaps, +a single one who, without some advantage to himself, +without personal fear, in a word, without folly, +would consent to punish everlastingly the wretch +who might have the misfortune to offend him, but +who no longer had either the ability or the inclination +to commit another offence. Caligula found, +at least, some little amusement to forsake for a +time the cares of government, and enjoy the spectacle +of punishment which he inflicted on those +unfortunate men whom he had an interest in destroying. +But what advantage can it be to God +to heap on the damned everlasting torments? Will +this amuse him? Will their frightful punishments +correct their faults? Can these examples of the +divine severity be of any service to those on earth, +who witness not their friends in hell? Will it not +be the most astonishing of all the miracles of +Deity to make the bodies of the damned invulnerable, +to resist, through the ceaseless ages of eternity, +the frightful torments destined for them?</p> + +<p>You see, then, Madam, that the ideas which the +priests give us of hell make of God a being infinitely +more insensible, more wicked and cruel +than the most barbarous of men. They add to all +this that it will be the Devil and the apostate angels, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +that is to say, the enemies of God, whom he will +employ as the ministers of his implacable vengeance. +These wicked spirits, then, will execute +the commands which this severe judge will pronounce +against men at the last judgment. For +you must know, Madam, that a God who knows +all will at some future time take an account of +what he already knows. So, then, not content +with judging men at death, he will assemble the +whole human race with great pomp at the last or +general judgment, in which he will confirm his +sentence in the view of the whole human race, +assembled to receive their doom. Thus on the +wreck of the world will he pronounce a definitive +judgment, from which there will be no appeal. +But, in attending this memorable judgment, +what will become of the souls of men, separated +from their bodies, which have not yet been resuscitated? +The souls of the just will go directly to +enjoy the blessings of Paradise; but what is to +become of the immense crowd of souls imbued +with faults or crimes, and on whom the infallible +parsons, who are so well instructed in what is passing +in another world, cannot speak with certainty +as to their fate? According to some of these wiseacres, +God will place the souls of such as are not +wholly displeasing to him in a place of punishment, +where, by rigorous torments, they shall have +the merit of expiating the faults with which they +may stand chargeable at death. According to this +fine system, so profitable to our spiritual guides, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +God has found it the most simple method to build +a fiery furnace for the special purpose of tormenting +a certain proportion of souls who have not been +sufficiently purified at death to enter Paradise, but +who, after leaving them some years united with +the body, and giving them time necessary to +arrive at that amendment of life by which they +may become partakers of the supreme felicity of +heaven, ordains that they shall expiate their offences +in torment. It is on this ridiculous notion +that our priests have bottomed the doctrine of <i>purgatory</i>, +which every good Catholic is obliged to +believe for the benefit of the priests, who reserve to +themselves, as is very reasonable, the power of +compelling by their prayers a just and immutable +God to relax in his sternness, and liberate the captive +souls, which he had only condemned to undergo +this purgation in order that they might be made +meet for the joys of Paradise.</p> + +<p>With respect to the Protestants, who are, as +every one knows, heretics and impious, you will +observe that they pretend not to those lucrative +views of the Roman doctors. On the contrary, +they think that, at the instant of death, every man +is irrevocably judged; that he goes directly to +glory or into a place of punishment, to suffer the +award of evil by the enduring of punishments for +which God had eternally prepared both the sufferer +and his torments! Even before the reunion of +soul and body at the final judgment, they fancy +that the soul of the wicked (which, on the principle +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +of all souls being <i>spirits</i>, must be the same in +essence as the soul of the elect,) will, though deprived +of those organs by which it felt, and thought, +and acted, be capable of undergoing the agency or +action of a fire! It is true that some Protestant +theologians tell us that the fire of hell is a spiritual +fire, and, by consequence, very different from the +material fire vomited out of Vesuvius, and Ætna, +and Hecla. Nor ought we to doubt that these +informed doctors of the Protestant faith know very +well what they say, and that they have as precise +and clear ideas of a spiritual fire as they have of +the ineffable joys of Paradise, which may be as +spiritual as the punishment of the damned in hell.</p> + +<p>Such are, Madam, in a few words, the absurdities, +not less revolting than ridiculous, which the +dogmas of a future life and of the immortality of +the soul have engendered in the minds of men. +Such are the phantoms which have been invented +and propagated, to seduce and alarm mortals, to +excite their hopes and their fears; such the illusions +that so powerfully operate on weak and feeling +beings. But as melancholy ideas have more +effect upon the imagination than those which are +agreeable, the priests have always insisted more +forcibly on what men have to fear on the part of a +terrible God than on what they have to hope from +the mercy of a forgiving Deity, full of goodness. +Princes the most wicked are infinitely more respected +than those who are famed for indulgence +and humanity. The priests have had the art to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +throw us into uncertainty and mistrust by the twofold +character which they have given the Divinity. +If they promise us salvation, they tell us that we +must work it out for ourselves, "with fear and +trembling." It is thus that they have contrived to +inspire the minds of the most honest men with dismay +and doubt, repeating without ceasing that +time only must disclose who are worthy of the +divine love, or who are to be the objects of the +divine wrath. Terror has been and always will be +the most certain means of corrupting and enslaving +the mind of man.</p> + +<p>They will tell us, doubtless, that the terrors +which religion inspires are salutary terrors; that +the dogma of another life is a bridle sufficiently +powerful to prevent the commission of crimes and +restrain men within the path of duty. To undeceive +one's self of this maxim, so often thundered +in our ears, and so generally adopted on the authority +of the priests, we have only to open our +eyes. Nevertheless, we see some Christians thoroughly +persuaded of another life, who, notwithstanding, +conduct themselves as if they had nothing +to fear on the part of a God of vengeance, nor any +thing to hope from a God of mercy. When any +of these are engaged in some great project, at all +times they are tempted by some strong passion or +by some bad habit, they shut their eyes on another +life, they see not the enraged judge, they suffer +themselves to sin, and when it is committed, they +comfort themselves by saying, that God is good. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +Besides, they console themselves by the same contradictory +religion which shows them also this same +God, whom it represents so susceptible of wrath, +as full of mercy, bestowing his grace on all those +who are sensible of their evils and repent. In a +word, I see none whom the fears of hell will restrain +when passion or interest solicit obedience. The +very priests who make so many efforts to convince +us of their dogmas too often evince more wickedness +of conduct than we find in those who have +never heard one word about another life. Those +who from infancy have been taught these terrifying +lessons are neither less debauched, nor less proud, +nor less passionate, nor less unjust, nor less avaricious +than others who have lived and died ignorant +of Christian purgatory and Paradise. In fine, the +dogma of another life has little or no influence on +them; it annihilates none of their passions; it is a +bridle merely with some few timid souls, who, +without its knowledge, would never have the hardihood +to be guilty of any great excesses. This +dogma is very fit to disturb the quiet of some +honest, timorous persons, and the credulous, whose +imagination it inflames, without ever staying the +hand of great rogues, without imposing on them +more than the decency of civilization and a specious +morality of life, restrained chiefly by the +coercion of public laws.</p> + +<p>In short, to sum all up in one thought, I behold +a religion gloomy and formidable to make impressions +very lively, very deep, and very dangerous on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +a mind such as yours, although it makes but very +momentary impressions on the minds of such as +are hardened in crime, or whose dissipation destroys +constantly the effects of its threats. More lively +affected than others by your principles, you have +been but too often and too seriously occupied for +your happiness by gloomy and harassing objects, +which have powerfully affected your sensible imagination, +though the same phantoms that have +pursued you have been altogether banished from +the mind of those who have had neither your virtues, +your understanding, nor your sensibility.</p> + +<p>According to his principles, a Christian must +always live in fear; he can never know with certainty +whether he pleases or displeases God; the +least movement of pride or of covetousness, the +least desire, will suffice to merit the divine anger, +and lose in one moment the fruits of years of devotion. +It is not surprising that, with these frightful +principles before them, many Christians should +endeavor to find in solitude employment for their +lugubrious reflections, where they may avoid the +occasions that solicit them to do wrong, and embrace +such means as are most likely, according to +their notions of the likelihood of the thing, to +expiate the faults which they fancy might incur +the eternal vengeance of God.</p> + +<p>Thus the dark notions of a future life leave those +only in peace who think slightly upon it; and they +are very disconsolate to all those whose temperament +determines them to contemplate it. They +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +are but the atrocious ideas, however, which the +priests study to give us of the Deity, and by which +they have compelled so many worthy people to +throw themselves into the arms of incredulity. If +some libertines, incapable of reasoning, abjure +a religion troublesome to their passions, or which +abridges their pleasures, there are very many who +have maturely examined it, that have been disgusted +with it, because they could not consent to +live in the fears it engendered, nor to nourish the +despair it created. They have then abjured this +religion, fit only to fill the soul with inquietudes, +that they might find in the bosom of reason the +repose which it insures to good sense.</p> + +<p>Times of the greatest crimes are always times +of the greatest ignorance. It is in these times, or +usually so, that the greatest noise is made about +religion. Men then follow mechanically, and +without examination, the tenets which their priests +impose on them, without ever diving to the bottom +of their doctrines. In proportion as mankind become +enlightened, great crimes become more rare, +the manners of men are more polished, the sciences +are cultivated, and the religion which they have +coolly and carefully examined loses sensibly its +credit. It is thus that we see so many incredulous +people in the bosom of society become more +agreeable and complacent now than formerly, when +it depended on the caprice of a priest to involve +them in troubles, and to invite the people to crimes +in the hope of thereby meriting heaven. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>Religion is consoling only to those who have no +embarrassment about it; the indefinite and vague +recompense which it promises, without giving ideas +of it, is made to deceive those who make no reflections +on the impatient, variable, false, and cruel +character which this religion gives of its God. But +how can it make any promises on the part of a +God whom it represents as a tempter, a seducer—who +appears, moreover, to take pleasure in laying +the most dangerous snares for his weak creatures? +How can it reckon on the favors of a God full of +caprice, who it alternately informs us is replete +with tenderness or with hatred? By what right +does it hold out to us the rewards of a despotic and +tyrannical God, who does or does not choose men +for happiness, and who consults only his own fantasy +to destine some of his creatures to bliss and +others to perdition? Nothing, doubtless, but the +blindest enthusiasm could induce mortals to place +confidence in such a God as the priests have +feigned; it is to folly alone we must attribute the +love some well-meaning people profess to the God +of the parsons; it is matchless extravagance alone +that could prevail on men to reckon on the +unknown rewards which are promised them by +this religion, at the same time that it assures us +that God is the author of grace, but that we have +no right to expect any thing from him.</p> + +<p>In a word, Madam, the notions of another life, +far from consoling, are fit only to imbitter all the +sweets of the present life. After the sad and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +gloomy ideas which Christianity, always at variance +with itself, presents us with of its God, it then +affirms, that we are much more likely to incur his +terrible chastisements, than possessed of power by +which we may merit ineffable rewards; and it proceeds +to inform us, that God will give grace to +whomsoever he pleases, yet it remains with themselves +whether they escape damnation; and a life +the most spotless cannot warrant them to presume +that they are worthy of his favor. In good truth, +would not total annihilation be preferable to such +beings, rather than falling into the hands of a Deity +so hard-hearted? Would not every man of sense +prefer the idea of complete annihilation to that of +a future existence, in order to be the sport of the +eternal caprice of a Deity, so cruel as to damn and +torment, without end, the unfortunate beings whom +he created so weak, that he might punish them +for faults inseparable from their nature? If God +is good, as we are assured, notwithstanding the +cruelties of which the priests suppose him capable, +is it not more consonant to all our ideas of a being +perfectly good, to believe that he did not create +them to sport with them in a state of eternal damnation, +which they had not the power of choosing, +or of rejecting and shunning? Has not God treated +the beasts of the field more favorably than he has +treated man, since he has exempted them from sin, +and by consequence has not exposed them to suffer +an eternal unhappiness?</p> + +<p>The dogma of the immortality of the soul, or of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +a future life, presents nothing consoling in the +Christian religion. On the contrary, it is calculated +expressly to fill the heart of the Christian, +following out his principles, with bitterness and +continual alarm. I appeal to yourself, Madam, +whether these sublime notions have any thing consoling +in them? Whenever this uncertain idea +has presented itself to your mind, has it not filled +you with a cold and secret horror? Has the consciousness +of a life so virtuous and so spotless as +yours, secured you against those fears which are +inspired by the idea of a being jealous, severe, +capricious, whose eternal disgrace the least fault is +sure of incurring, and in whose eyes the smallest +weakness, or freedom the most involuntary, is +sufficient to cancel years of strict observance of all +the rules of religion?</p> + +<p>I know very well what you will advance to support +yourself in your prejudices. The ministers of +religion possess the secret of tempering the alarms +which they have the art to excite. They strive to +inspire confidence in those minds which they discover +accessible to fear. They balance, thus, one +passion against another. They hold in suspense +the minds of their slaves, in the apprehension that +too much confidence would only render them less +pliable, or that despair would force them to throw +off the yoke. To persons terribly frightened about +their state after death, they speak only of the hopes +which we may entertain of the goodness of God. +To those who have too much confidence, they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +preach up the terrors of the Lord, and the judgments +of a severe God. By this chicanery they +contrive to subject or retain under their yoke all +those who are weak enough to be led by the contradictory +doctrines of these blind guides.</p> + +<p>They tell you, besides, that the sentiment of the +immortality of the soul is inherent in man; that +the soul is consumed by boundless desires, and that +since there is nothing on this earth capable of satisfying +it, these are indubitable proofs that it is +destined to subsist eternally. In a word, that as +we naturally desire to exist always, we may naturally +conclude that we shall always exist. But +what think you, Madam, of such reasonings? To +what do they lead? Do we desire the continuation +of this existence, because it may be blessed and +happy, or because we know not what may become +of us? But we cannot desire a miserable existence, +or, at least, one in which it is more than probable +we may be miserable rather than happy. If, as +the Christian religion so often repeats, the number +of the elect is very small, and salvation very difficult, +the number of the reprobate very great, and +damnation very easily obtained, who is he who +would desire to exist always with so evident a risk +of being eternally damned? Would it not have +been better for us not to have been born, than to +have been compelled against our nature to play a +game so fraught with peril? Does not annihilation +itself present to us an idea preferable to that +of an existence which may very easily lead us to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +eternal tortures? Suffer me, Madam, to appeal to +yourself. If, before you had come into this world, +you had had your choice of being born, or of not +seeing the light of this fair sun, and you could have +been made to comprehend, but for one moment, +the hundred thousandth part of the risks you run +to be eternally unhappy, would you not have +determined never to enjoy life?</p> + +<p>It is an easy matter, then, to perceive the proofs +on which the priests pretend to found this dogma +of the immortality of the soul and a future life. +The desire which we might have of it could only +be founded on the hope of enjoying eternal happiness. +But does religion give us this assurance? +Yes, say the clergy, if you submit faithfully to the +rules it prescribes. But to conform one's self to +these rules, is it not necessary to have grace from +Heaven? And, are we then sure we shall obtain +that grace, or if we do, merit Heaven? Do the +priests not repeat to us, without ceasing, that God +is the author of grace, and that he only gives it to a +small number of the elect? Do they not daily tell +us that, except one man, who rendered himself +worthy of this eternal happiness, there are millions +going the high road to damnation? This being +admitted, every Christian, who reasons, would be a +fool to desire a future existence which he has so +many motives to fear, or to reckon on a happiness +which every thing conspires to show him is as uncertain, +as difficult to be obtained, as it is unequivocally +dependent on the fantasies of a capricious +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +Deity, who sports with the misfortunes of his creatures.</p> + +<p>Under every point of view in which we regard +the dogma of the soul's immortality, we are compelled +to consider it as a chimera invented by men +who have realized their wishes, or who have not +been able to justify Providence from the transitory +injustices of this world. This dogma was received +with avidity, because it flattered the desires, and +especially the vanity of man, who arrogated to +himself a superiority above all the beings that +enjoy existence, and which he would pass by and +reduce to mere clay; who believed himself the +favorite of God, without ever taxing his attention +with this other fact—that God makes him every +instant experience vicissitudes, calamities, and +trials, as all sentient natures experience; that +God made him, in fine, to undergo death, or dissolution, +which is an invariable law that all that +exists must find verified. This haughty creature, +who fancies himself a privileged being, alone agreeable +to his Maker, does not perceive that there +are stages in his life when his existence is more +uncertain and much more weak than that of the +other animals, or even of some inanimate things. +Man is unwilling to admit that he possesses not +the strength of the lion, nor the swiftness of the +stag, nor the durability of an oak, nor the solidity +of marble or metal. He believes himself the greatest +favorite, the most sublime, the most noble; he +believes himself superior to all other animals +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +because he possesses the faculties of thinking, judging, +and reasoning. But his thoughts only render +him more wretched than all the animals whom he +supposes deprived of this faculty, or who, at least, +he believes, do not enjoy it in the same degree with +himself. Do not the faculties of thinking, of remembering, +of foresight, too often render him unhappy +by the very idea of the past, the present, and +the future? Do not his passions drive him to excesses +unknown to the other animals? Are his judgments +always reasonable and wise? Is reason so +largely developed in the great mass of men that the +priests should interdict its use as dangerous? Are +mankind sufficiently advanced in knowledge to be +able to overcome the prejudices and chimeras +which render them unhappy during the greatest +part of their lives? In fine, have the beasts some +species of religious impressions, which inspire continual +terrors in their breast, making them look upon +some awful event, which imbitters their softest +pleasures, which enjoins them to torment themselves, +and which threatens them with eternal damnation? +No!</p> + +<p>In truth, Madam, if you weigh in an equitable +balance the pretended advantages of man above +the other animals, you will soon see how evanescent +is this fictitious superiority which he has arrogated +to himself. We find that all the productions +of nature are submitted to the same laws; +that all beings are only born to die; they produce +their like to destroy themselves; that all sentient +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +beings are compelled to undergo pleasures and +pains; they appear and they disappear; they are +and they cease to be; they evince under one form +that they will quit it to produce another. Such are +the continual vicissitudes to which every thing that +exists is evidently subjected, and from which man +is not exempt, any more than the other beings and +productions that he appropriates to his use as <i>lord +of the creation</i>. Even our globe itself undergoes +change; the seas change their place; the mountains +are gathered in heaps or levelled into plains; +every thing that breathes is destroyed at last, and +man alone pretends to an eternal duration.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to tell me that we degrade man +when we compare him with the beasts, deprived of +souls and intelligence; this is no levelling doctrine, +but one which places him exactly where +nature places him, but from which his puerile vanity +has unfortunately driven him. All beings are +equals; under various and different forms they act +differently; they are governed in their appetites +and passions by laws which are invariably the +same for all of the same species; every thing +which is composed of parts will be dissolved; +every thing which has life must part with it at +death; all men are equally compelled to submit to +this fate; they are equal at death, although during +life their power, their talents, and especially their +virtues, establish a marked difference, which, though +real, is only momentary. What will they be after +death? They will be exactly what they were ten +years before they were born. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>Banish, then, Eugenia, from your mind forever +the terrors which death has hitherto filled you with. +It is for the wretched a safe haven against the +misfortunes of this life. If it appears a cruel alternative +to those who enjoy the good things of this +world, why do they not console themselves with +the idea of what they do actually enjoy? Let +them call reason to their aid; it will calm the inquietudes +of their imagination, but too greatly +alarmed; it will disperse the clouds which religion +spreads over their minds; it will teach them that +this death, so terrible in apprehension, is really +nothing, and that it will neither be accompanied +with remembrance of past pleasures nor of sorrow +now no more.</p> + +<p>Live, then, happy and tranquil, amiable Eugenia! +Preserve carefully an existence so interesting +and so necessary to all those with whom you live. +Allow not your health to be injured, nor trouble +your quiet with melancholy ideas. Without being +teased by the prospect of an event which has no +right to disturb your repose, cultivate virtue, which +has always been your favorite, so necessary to your +internal peace, and which has rendered you so dear +to all those who have the happiness of being your +friends. Let your rank, your credit, your riches, +your talents be employed to make others happy, to +support the oppressed, to succor the unfortunate, +to dry up the tears of those whom you may have +an opportunity of comforting! Let your mind be +occupied about such agreeable and profitable employments +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +as are likely to please you! Call in the +aid of your reason to dissipate the phantoms which +alarm you, to efface the prejudices which you have +imbibed in early life! In a word, comfort yourself, +and remember that in practising virtue, as you +do, you cannot become an object of hatred to God, +who, if he has reserved in eternity rigorous punishments +for the social virtues, will be the strangest, +the most cruel, and the most insensible of beings!</p> + +<p>You demand of me, perhaps, "In destroying the +idea of another world, what is to become of the +remorse, those chastisements so useful to mankind, +and so well calculated to restrain them within the +bounds of propriety?" I reply, that remorse will +always subsist as long as we shall be capable of +feeling its pangs, even when we cease to fear the +distant and uncertain vengeance of the Divinity. +In the commission of crimes, in allowing one's self +to be the sport of passion, in injuring our species, +in refusing to do them good, in stifling pity, every +man whose reason is not totally deranged perceives +clearly that he will render himself odious to others, +that he ought to fear their enmity. He will blush, +then, if he thinks he has rendered himself hateful +and detestable in their eyes. He knows the continual +need he has of their esteem and assistance. +Experience proves to him that vices the most concealed +are injurious to himself. He lives in perpetual +fear lest some mishap should unfold his +weaknesses and secret faults. It is from all these +ideas that we are to look for regret and remorse, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +even in those who do not believe in the chimeras +of another world. With regard to those whose +reason is deranged, those who are enervated by +their passions, or perhaps linked to vice by the +chains of habit, even with the prospect of hell open +before them, they will neither live less vicious nor less +wicked. An avenging God will never inflict on any +man such a total want of reason as may make him +regardless of public opinion, trample decency under +foot, brave the laws, and expose himself to derision +and human chastisements. Every man of sense +easily understands that in this world the esteem +and affection of others are necessary for his happiness, +and that life is but a burden to those who by +their vices injure themselves, and render themselves +reprehensible in the eyes of society.</p> + +<p>The true means, Madam, of living happy in this +world is to do good to your fellow-creatures; to +labor for the happiness of your species is to have +virtue, and with virtue we can peaceably and +without remorse approach the term which nature +has fixed equally for all beings—a term that your +youth causes you now to see only at a distance—a +term that you ought not to accelerate by your +fears—a term, in fine, that the cares and desires +of all those who know you will seek to put off till, +full of days and contented with the part you have +played in the scene of the world, you shall yourself +desire to gently reënter the bosom of nature.</p> + +<p class="sig">I am, &c.</p> + + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_VI" id="LETTER_VI"></a>Letter VI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies +of Christianity.</p></div> + + +<p>The reflections, Madam, which I have already +offered you in these letters ought, I conceive, to +have sufficed to undeceive you, in a great measure, +of the lugubrious and afflicting notions with which +you have been inspired by religious prejudices. +However, to fulfil the task which you have imposed +on me, and to assist you in freeing yourself from +the unfavorable ideas you may have imbibed from +a system replete with irrelevancies and contradictions, +I shall continue to examine the strange mysteries +with which Christianity is garnished. They +are founded on ideas so odd and so contrary to +reason, that if from infancy we had not been familiarized +with them, we should blush at our species in +having for one instant believed and adopted them.</p> + +<p>The Christians, scarcely content with the crowd +of enigmas with which the books of the Jews are +filled, have besides fancied they must add to them +a great many incomprehensible mysteries, for which +they have the most profound veneration. Their +impenetrable obscurity appears to be a sufficient +motive among them for adding these. Their +priests, encouraged by their credulity, which nothing +can outdo, seem to be studious to multiply the +articles of their faith, and the number of inconceivable +objects which they have said must be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +received with submission, and adored even if not +understood.</p> + +<p>The first of these mysteries is the <i>Trinity</i>, which +supposes that one God, self-existent, who is a pure +spirit, is, nevertheless, composed of three Divinities, +which have obtained the names of <i>persons</i>. +These three Gods, who are designated under the +respective names of the <i>Father</i>, the <i>Son</i>, and the +<i>Holy Ghost</i>, are, nevertheless, but one God only. +These three persons are equal in power, in wisdom, +in perfections; yet the second is subordinate to the +first, in consequence of which he was compelled to +become a man, and be the victim of the wrath of +his Father. This is what the priests call the mystery +of the <i>incarnation</i>. Notwithstanding his innocence, +his perfection, his purity, the Son of God +became the object of the vengeance of a just God, +who is the same as the Son in question, but who +would not consent to appease himself but by the +death of his own Son, who is a portion of himself. +The Son of God, not content with becoming man, +died without having sinned, for the salvation of +men who had sinned. God preferred to the punishment +of imperfect beings, whom he did not +choose to amend, the punishment of his only Son, +full of divine perfections. The death of God became +necessary to reclaim the human kind from +the slavery of Satan, who without that would not +have quitted his prey, and who has been found sufficiently +powerful against the Omnipotent to oblige +him to sacrifice his Son. This is what the priests +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +designate by the name of the mystery of <i>redemption</i>.</p> + +<p>It is assuredly sufficient to expose such opinions +to demonstrate their absurdity. It is evident, if +there exists only a single God, there cannot be +three. We may, it is true, contemplate the Deity +after the manner of Plato, who, before the birth of +Christianity, exhibited him under three different +points of view, that is to say, as all-wise, as all-powerful, +as full of reason, and as infinite in goodness; +but it was verily the excess of delirium to personify +these three divine qualities, or transform them +into real beings. We can readily imagine these +moral attributes to be united in the same God, but +it is egregious folly to fashion them into three different +Gods; nor will it remedy this metaphysical +polytheism to assert that these three are one. Besides, +this revery never entered the head of the +Hebrew legislator. The Eternal, in revealing himself +to Moses, did not announce himself as triple. +There is not one syllable in the Old Testament +about this Trinity, although a notion so <i>bizarre</i>, +so marvellous, and so little consonant with our +ideas of a divine being, deserved to have been formally +announced, especially as it is the foundation +and corner stone of the Christian religion, which +was from all eternity an object of the divine solicitude, +and on the establishment of which, if we +may credit our sapient priests, God seems to have +entertained serious thoughts long before the creation +of the world.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the second person, or the second +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +God of the Trinity, is revealed in flesh; the Son +of God is made man. But how could the pure +Spirit who presides over the universe beget a son? +How could this son, who before his incarnation +was only a pure spirit, combine that ethereal essence +with a material body, and envelop himself with it? +How could the divine nature amalgamate itself +with the imperfect nature of man, and how could +an immense and infinite being, as the Deity is +represented, be formed in the womb of a virgin? +After what manner could a pure spirit fecundate +this favorite virgin? Did the Son of God enjoy +in the womb of his mother the faculties of omnipotence, +or was he like other children during his +infancy,—weak, liable to infirmities, sickness, and +intellectual imbecility, so conspicuous in the years +of childhood; and if so, what, during this period, +became of the divine wisdom and power? In fine, +how could God suffer and die? How could a just +God consent that a God exempt from all sin should +endure the chastisements which are due to sinners? +Why did he not appease himself without immolating +a victim so precious and so innocent? What +would you think of that sovereign who, in the +event of his subjects rebelling against him, should +forgive them all, or a select number of them, by +putting to death his only and beloved son, who had +not rebelled?</p> + +<p>The priests tell us that it was out of tenderness +for the human kind that God wished to accomplish +this sacrifice. But I still ask if it would not +have been more simple, more conformable to all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +our ideas of Deity, for God to pardon the iniquities +of the human race, or to have prevented them +committing transgressions, by placing them in a +condition in which, by their own will, they should +never have sinned? According to the entire system +of the Christian religion, it is evident that God +did only create the world to have an opportunity +of immolating his Son for the rebellious beings he +might have formed and preserved immaculate. +The fall of the rebellious angels had no visible end +to serve but to effect and hasten the fall of Adam. +It appears from this system that God permitted +the first man to sin that he might have the pleasure +of showing his goodness in sacrificing his "only +begotten Son" to reclaim men from the thraldom +of Satan. He intrusted to Satan as much power +as might enable him to work the ruin of our race, +with the view of afterwards changing the projects +of the great mass of mankind, by making one God +to die, and thereby destroy the power of the Devil +on the earth.</p> + +<p>But has God succeeded in these projects to the +end he proposed? Are men entirely rescued from +the dominion of Satan? Are they not still the +slaves of sin? Do they find themselves in the +happy impossibility of kindling the divine wrath? +Has the blood of the Son of God washed away +the sins of the whole world? Do those who are +reclaimed, those to whom he has made himself +known, those who believe, offend not against +heaven? Has the Deity, who ought, without +doubt, to be perfectly satisfied with so memorable a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +sacrifice, remitted to them the punishment of sin? +Is it not necessary to do something more for them? +And since the death of his Son, do we find the +Christians exempt from disease and from death? +Nothing of all this has happened. The measures +taken from all eternity by the wisdom and prescience +of a God who should find against his plans +no obstacles have been overthrown. The death +of God himself has been of no utility to the world. +All the divine projects have militated against the +free-will of man, but they have not destroyed the +power of Satan. Man continues to sin and to +die; the Devil keeps possession of the field of +battle; and it is for a very small number of the +elect that the Deity consented to die.</p> + +<p>You do indeed smile, Madam, at my being +obliged seriously to combat such chimeras. If +they have something of the marvellous in them, it +is quite adapted to the heads of children, not of +men, and ought not to be admitted by reasonable +beings. All the notions we can form of those +things must be mysterious; yet there is no subject +more demonstrable, according to those whose interest +it is to have it believed, though they are as incapable +as ourselves to comprehend the matter. +For the priests to say that they believe such absurdities, +is to be guilty of manifest falsehood; +because a proposition to be believed must necessarily +be understood. To believe what they do not +comprehend is to adhere sottishly to the absurdities +of others; to believe things which are not comprehended +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +by those who gossip about them is the +height of folly; to believe blindly the mysteries of +the Christian religion is to admit contradictions of +which they who declare them are not convinced. +In fine, is it necessary to abandon one's reason +among absurdities that have been received without +examination from ancient priests, who were either +the dupes of more knowing men, or themselves the +impostors who fabricated the tales in question?</p> + +<p>If you ask of me how men have not long ago +been shocked by such absurd and unintelligible +reveries, I shall proceed, in my turn, to explain to +you this secret of the church, this mystery of our +priests. It is not necessary, in doing this, to pay +any attention to those general dispositions of man, +especially when he is ignorant and incapable of +reasoning. All men are curious, inquisitive; their +curiosity spurs them on to inquiry, and their imagination +busies itself to clothe with mystery every +thing the fancy conjures up as important to happiness. +The vulgar mistake even what they have +the means of knowing, or, which is the same thing, +what they are least practised in they are dazzled +with; they proclaim it, accordingly, marvellous, +prodigious, extraordinary; it is a phenomenon. +They neither admire nor respect much what is +always visible to their eyes; but whatever strikes +their imagination, whatever gives scope to the +mind, becomes itself the fruitful source of other +ideas far more extravagant. The priests have had +the art to prevail on the people to believe in their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +secret correspondence with the Deity; they have +been thence much respected, and in all countries +their professed intercourse with an unseen Divinity +has given room for their announcement of things +the most marvellous and mysterious.</p> + +<p>Besides, the Divinity being a being whose impenetrable +essence is veiled from mortal sight, it +has been commonly admitted by the ignorant, that +what could not be seen by mortal eye must necessarily +be divine. Hence <i>sacred</i>, <i>mysterious</i>, and +<i>divine</i>, are synonymous terms; and these imposing +words have sufficed to place the human race on +their knees to adore what seeks not their inflated +devotion.</p> + +<p>The three mysteries which I have examined are +received unanimously by all sects of Christians; +but there are others on which the theologians are +not agreed. In fine, we see men, who, after they +have admitted, without repugnance, a certain number +of absurdities, stop all of a sudden in the way, +and refuse to admit more. The Christian Protestants +are in this case. They reject, with disdain, +the mysteries for which the Church of Rome shows +the greatest respect; and yet, in the matter of mysteries, +it is indeed difficult to designate the point +where the mind ought to stop.</p> + +<p>Seeing, then, that our doctors, better advised, +undoubtedly, than those of the Protestants, have +adroitly multiplied mysteries, one is naturally led +to conclude, they despaired of governing the mind +of man, if there was any thing in their religion that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +was clear, intelligible, and natural. More mysterious +than the priests of Egypt itself, they have found +means to change every thing into mystery; the very +movements of the body, usages the most indifferent, +ceremonies the most frivolous, have become, in the +powerful hands of the priests, sublime and divine +mysteries. In the Roman religion all is magic, all +is prodigy, all is supernatural. In the decisions +of our theologians, the side which they espouse is +almost always that which is the most abhorrent to +reason, the most calculated to confound and overthrow +common sense. In consequence, our priests +are by far the most rich, powerful, and considerable. +The continual want which we have of their +aid to obtain from Heaven that grace which it is +their province to bring down for us, places us in +continual dependence on those marvellous men who +have received their commission to treat with the +Deity, and become the ambassadors between Heaven +and us.</p> + +<p>Each of our sacraments envelops a great mystery. +They are ceremonies to which the Divinity, +they say, attaches some secret virtue, by unseen +views, of which we can form no ideas. In <i>baptism</i>, +without which no man can be saved, the water +sprinkled on the head of the child washes his spiritual +soul, and carries away the defilement which is +a consequence of the sin committed in the person +of Adam, who sinned for all men. By the mysterious +virtue of this water, and of some words +equally unintelligible, the infant finds itself reconciled +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +to God, as his first father had made him +guilty without his knowledge and consent. In all +this, Madam, you cannot, by possibility, comprehend +the complication of these mysteries, with +which no Christian can dispense, though, assuredly, +there is not one believer who knows what the virtue +of the marvellous water consists in, which is +necessary for his regeneration. Nor can you conceive +how the supreme and equitable Governor of +the universe could impute faults to those who have +never been guilty of transgressions. Nor can you +comprehend how a wise Deity can attach his favor +to a futile ceremony, which, without changing the +nature of the being who has derived an existence +it neither commenced nor was consulted in, must, +if administered in winter, be attended with serious +consequences to the health of the child.</p> + +<p>In <i>Confirmation</i>, a sacrament or ceremony, which, +to have any value, ought to be administered by a +bishop, the laying of the hands on the head of the +young confirmant makes the Holy Spirit descend +upon him, and procures the grace of God to uphold +him in the faith. You see, Madam, that the efficacy +of this sacrament is unfortunately lost in my person; +for, although in my youth I had been duly +confirmed, I have not been preserved against smiling +at this faith, nor have I been kept invulnerable +in the credence of my priests and forefathers.</p> + +<p>In the sacrament of <i>Penitence</i>, or confession, a +ceremony which consists in putting a priest in possession +of all one's faults, public or private, you will +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +discover mysteries equally marvellous. In favor of +this submission, to which every good Catholic is +necessarily obliged to submit, a priest, <i>himself a +sinner</i>, charged with full powers by the Deity, pardons +and remits, in His name, the sins against +which God is enraged. God reconciles himself +with every man who humbles himself before the +priest, and in accordance with the orders of the +latter, he opens heaven to the wretch whom he had +before determined to exclude. If this sacrament +doth not always procure grace, very distinguishing +to those who use it, it has, at all events, the advantage +of rendering them pliable to the clergy, who, +by its means, find an easy sway in their spiritual +empire over the human mind, an empire that enables +them, not unfrequently, to disturb society, and +more often the repose of families, and the very conscience +of the person confessing.</p> + +<p>There is among the Catholics another sacrament, +which contains the most strange mysteries. It is +that of the <i>Eucharist</i>. Our teachers, under pain +of being damned, enjoin us to believe that the Son +of God is compelled by a priest to quit the abodes +of glory, and to come and mask himself under +the appearance of bread! This bread becomes +forthwith the body of God—this God multiplies +himself in all places, and at all times, when and +where the priests, scattered over the face of the +earth, find it necessary to command his presence in +the shape of bread—yet we see only one and the +same God, who receives the homage and adoration +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +of all those good people who find it very ridiculous +in the Egyptians to adore lupines and onions. But +the Catholics are not simply content with worshipping +a bit of bread, which they consider by the conjurations +of a priest as divine; they eat this bread, +and then persuade themselves that they are nourished +by the body or substance of God himself. +The Protestants, it is true, do not admit a mystery +so very odd, and regard those who do as real idolaters. +What then? This marvellous dogma is, +without doubt, of the greatest utility to the priests. +In the eyes of those who admit it, they become +very important gentlemen, who have the power of +disposing of the Deity, whom they make to descend +between their hands; and thus a Catholic priest +is, in fact, the creator of his God!</p> + +<p>There is, also, <i>Extreme Unction</i>, a sacrament +which consists in anointing with oil those sick persons +who are about to depart into the other world, +and which not only soothes their bodily pains, but +also takes away the sins of their souls. If it produces +these good effects, it is an invisible and +mysterious method of manifesting obvious results; +for we frequently behold sick persons have their +fears of death allayed, though the operation may +but too often accelerate their dissolution. But our +priests are so full of charity, and they interest themselves +so greatly in the salvation of souls, that they +like rather to risk their own health beside the sick +bed of persons afflicted with the most contagious +diseases, than lose the opportunity of administering +their salutary ointment. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Ordination</i> is another very mysterious ceremony, +by which the Deity secretly bestows his invisible +grace on those whom he has selected to fill the +office of the holy priesthood. According to the Catholic +religion, God gives to the priests the power of +making God himself, as we have shown above; +a privilege which without doubt cannot be sufficiently +admired. With respect to the sensible +effects of this sacrament, and of the visible grace +which it confers, they are enabled, by the help of +some words and certain ceremonies, to change a +profane man into one that is sacred; that is to say, +who is not profane any longer. By this spiritual +metamorphosis, this man becomes capable of enjoying +considerable revenues without being obliged +to do any thing useful for society. On the contrary, +heaven itself confers on him the right of deceiving, +of annoying, and of pillaging the profane +citizens, who labor for his ease and luxury.</p> + +<p>Finally, <i>Marriage</i> is a sacrament that confers +mysterious and invisible graces, of which we in +truth have no very precise ideas. Protestants and +Infidels, who look upon marriage as a civil contract, +and not as a sacrament, receive neither more +nor less of its visible grace than the good Catholics. +The former see not that those who are married +enjoy by this sacrament any secret virtue, whence +they may become more constant and faithful to the +engagements they have contracted. And I believe +both you and I, Madam, have known many people +on whom it has only conferred the grace of cordially +detesting each other. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>I will not now enter upon the consideration of a +multitude of other magic ceremonies, admitted by +some Christian sectaries and rejected by others, but +to which the devotees who embrace them, attach +the most lofty ideas, in the firm persuasion, that +God will, on that account, visit them with his invisible +grace. All these ceremonies, doubtless, contain +great mysteries, and the method of handling +or speaking of them is exceedingly mysterious. It +is thus that the water on which a priest has pronounced +a few words, contained in his conjuring +book, acquires the invisible virtue of chasing away +wicked spirits, who are invisible by their nature. It +is thus that the oil, on which a bishop has muttered +some certain formula, becomes capable of communicating +to men, and even to some inanimate substances, +such as wood, stone, metals, and walls, +those invisible virtues which they did not previously +possess. In fine, in all the ceremonies of +the church, we discover mysteries, and the vulgar, +who comprehend nothing of them, are not the less +disposed to admire, to be fascinated with, and to +respect with a blind devotion. But soon would +they cease to have this veneration for these fooleries, +if they comprehended the design and end +the priests have in view by enforcing their observance.</p> + +<p>The priests of all nations have begun by being +charlatans, castle builders, divines, and sorcerers. +We find men of these characters in nations the +most ignorant and savage, where they live by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +ignorance and credulity of others. They are regarded +by their ignorant countrymen as superior +beings, endowed with supernatural gifts, favorites +of the very Gods, because the uninquiring multitude +see them perform things which they take to be +mighty marvellous, or which the ignorant have always +considered marvellous. In nations the most +polished, the people are always the same; persons +the most sensible are not often of the same ideas, +especially on the subject of religion; and the +priests, authorized by the ancient folly of the multitude, +continue their old tricks, and receive universal +applause.</p> + +<p>You are not, then, to be surprised, Madam, if +you still behold our pontiffs and our priests exercise +their magical rites, or rear castles before the eyes +of people prejudiced in favor of their ancient illusions, +and who attach to these mysteries a degree +of consequence, seeing they are not in a condition +to comprehend the motives of the fabricators. +Every thing that is mysterious has charms for the +ignorant; the marvellous captivates all men; persons +the most enlightened find it difficult to defend +themselves against these illusions. Hence you +may discover that the priests are always opinionatively +attached to these rites and ceremonies of +their worship; and it has never been without some +violent revolution that they have been diminished +or abrogated. The annihilation of a trifling ceremony +has often caused rivers of blood to flow. +The people have believed themselves lost and undone +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +when one bolder than the rest wished to innovate +in matters of religion; they have fancied that +they were to be deprived of inestimable advantages +and invisible but saving grace, which they have +supposed to be attached by the Divinity himself to +some movements of the body. Priests the most +adroit have overcharged religion with ceremonies, +and practices, and mysteries. They fancied that +all these were so many cords to bind the people to +their interest, to allure them by enthusiasm, and +render them necessary to their idle and luxurious +existence, which is not spent without much money +extracted from the hard earnings of the people, and +much of that respect which is but the homage of +slaves to spiritual tyrants.</p> + +<p>You cannot any longer, I persuade myself, Madam, +be made the dupe of these holy jugglers, who +impose on the vulgar by their marvellous tales. +You must now be convinced that the things which +I have touched upon as mysteries are profound absurdities, +of which their inventors can render no reasonable +account either to themselves or to others. +You must now be certified that the movements of +the body and other religious ceremonies must be +matters perfectly indifferent to the wise Being whom +they describe to us as the great mover of all things. +You conclude, then, that all these marvellous rites, +in which our priests announce so much mystery, +and in which the people are taught to consider the +whole of religion as consisting, are nothing more +than puerilities, to which people of understanding +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +ought never to submit. That they are usages calculated +principally to alarm the minds of the weak, +and keep in bondage those who have not the courage +to throw off the yoke of priests. I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_VII" id="LETTER_VII"></a>Letter VII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of +Christianity.</p></div> + + +<p>You now know, Madam, what you ought to attach +to the mysteries and ceremonies of that religion +you propose to meditate on, and adore in +silence. I proceed now to examine some of those +practices to which the priests tell us the Deity attaches +his complaisance and his favors. In consequence +of the false, sinister, contradictory, and incompatible +ideas, which all revealed religions give +us of the Deity, the priests have invented a crowd +of unreasonable usages, but which are conformable +to these erroneous notions that they have framed +of this Being. God is always regarded as a man +full of passion, sensible to presents, to flatteries, +and marks of submission; or rather as a fantastic +and punctilious sovereign, who is very seriously +angry when we neglect to show him that respect +and obeisance which the vanity of earthly potentates +exacts from their vassals.</p> + +<p>It is after these notions so little agreeable to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +Deity, that the priests have conjured up a crowd of +practices and strange inventions, ridiculous, inconvenient, +and often cruel; but by which they inform +us we shall merit the good favor of God, or disarm +the wrath of the Universal Lord. With some, all +consists in prayers, offerings, and sacrifices, with +which they fancy God is well pleased. They forget +that a God who is good, who knows all things, +has no need to be solicited; that a God who is the +author of all things has no need to be presented +with any part of his workmanship; that a God +who knows his power has no need of either flatteries +or submissions, to remind him of his grandeur, +his power, or his rights; that a God who is +Lord of all has no need of offerings which belong +to himself; that a God who has no need of any +thing cannot be won by presents, nor grudge to his +creatures the goods which they have received from +his divine bounty.</p> + +<p>For the want of making these reflections, simple +as they are, all the religions in the world are filled +with an infinite number of frivolous practices, by +which men have long strove to render themselves +acceptable to the Deity. The priests who are always +declared to be the ministers, the favorites, the +interpreters of God's will, have discovered how +they might most easily profit by the errors of mankind, +and the presents which they offer to the +Deity. They are thence interested to enter into the +false ideas of the people, and even to redouble the +darkness of their minds. They have invented +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +means to please unknown powers who dispose +of their fate—to excite their devotion and their +zeal for those invisible beings of whom they +were themselves the visible representatives. These +priests soon perceived that in laboring for the Gods +they labored for themselves, and that they could +appropriate the major part of the presents, sacrifices, +and offerings, which were made to beings who +never showed themselves in order to claim what +their devotees intended for them.</p> + +<p>You thus perceive, Madam, how the priests have +made common cause with the Divinity. Their +policy thence obliged them to favor and increase +the errors of the human kind. They talk of this +ineffable Being as of an interested monarch, jealous, +full of vanity, who gives that it may be restored +to him again; who exacts continual signs +of submission and respect; who desires, without +ceasing, that men may reiterate their marks of +respect for him; who wishes to be solicited; who +bestows no grace unless it be accorded to importunity +for the purpose of making it more valuable; +and, above all, who allows himself to be appeased +and propitiated by gifts from which his ministers +derive the greatest advantage.</p> + +<p>It is evident that it is upon these ideas borrowed +from monarchical courts here below that are +founded all the practices, ceremonies, and rites +that we see established in all the religions of the +earth. Each sect has endeavored to make its God +a monarch the most redoubtable, the greatest, the +most despotic, and the most selfish. The people +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +acquainted simply with human opinions, and full +of debasement, have adopted without examination +the inventions which the Deity has shown them as +the fittest to obtain his favor and soften his wrath. +The priests fail not to adapt these practices, which +they have invented, to their own system of religion +and personal interest; and the ignorant and vulgar +have allowed themselves to be blindly led by these +guides. Habit has familiarized them with things +upon which they never reason, and they make a +duty of the routine which has been transmitted to +them from age to age, and from father to child.</p> + +<p>The infant, as soon as it can be made to understand +any thing, is taught mechanically to join its +little hands in prayer. His tongue is forced to lisp +a formula which it does not comprehend, addressed +to a God which its understanding can never conceive. +In the arms of its nurse it is carried into +the temple or church, where its eyes are habituated +to contemplate spectacles, ceremonies, and pretended +mysteries, of which, even when it shall have +arrived at mature age, it will still understand nothing. +If at this latter period any one should ask +the reason of his conduct, or desire to know why +he made this conduct a sacred and important duty, +he could give no explanation, except that he was +instructed in his tender years to respectfully observe +certain usages, which he must regard as sacred, as +they were unintelligible to him. If an attempt +was made to undeceive him in regard to these +habitual futilities, either he would not listen, or he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +would be irritated against whoever denied the +notions rooted in his brain. Any man who wished +to lead him to good sense, and who reasoned against +the habits he had contracted, would be regarded by +him as ridiculous and extravagant, or he would +repulse him as an infidel and blasphemer, because +his instructions lead him thus to designate every +man who fails to pursue the same routine as himself, +or who does not attach the same ideas as +the devotee to things which the latter has never +examined.</p> + +<p>What horror does it not fill the Christian devotee +with if you tell him that his priest is unnecessary! +What would be his surprise if you were to prove +to him, even on the principles of his religion, that +the prayers which in his infancy he had been taught +to consider as the most agreeable to his God, are +unworthy and unnecessary to this Deity! For if +God knows all, what need is there to remind him +of the wants of his creatures whom he loves? +If God is a father full of tenderness and goodness, +is it necessary to ask him to "give us day by day +our daily bread"? If this God, so good, foresaw +the wants of his children, and knew much better +than they what they could not know of themselves, +whence is it he bids them importune him to grant +them their requests? If this God is immutable and +wise, how can his creatures change the fixed resolution +of the Deity? If this God is just and good, +how can he injure us, or place us in a situation to +require the use of that prayer which entreats the +Deity <i>not to lead us into temptation</i>? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<p>You see by this, Madam, that there is but a very +small portion of what the Christians pretend they +understand and consider absolutely necessary that +accords at all with what they tell us has been dictated +by God himself. You see that the Lord's +prayer itself contains many absurdities and ideas +totally contrary to those which every Christian +ought to have of his God. If you ask a Christian +why he repeats without ceasing this vain formula, +on which he never reflects, he can assign little other +reason than that he was taught in his infancy to +clasp his hands, repeat words the meaning of which +his priest, not himself, is alone bound to understand. +He may probably add that he has ever been taught +to consider this formula requisite, as it was the +most sacred and the most proper to merit the favor +of Heaven.</p> + +<p>We should, without doubt, form the same judgment +of that multitude of prayers which our teachers +recommend to us daily. And if we believe +them, man, to please God, ought to pass a large +portion of his existence in supplicating Heaven to +pour down its blessings on him. But if God is +good, if he cherishes his creatures, if he knows +their wants, it seems superfluous to pray to him. +If God changes not, he has never promised to alter +his secret decrees, or, if he has, he is variable in his +fancies, like man; to what purpose are all our petitions +to him? If God is offended with us, will he +not reject prayers which insult his goodness, his +justice, and infinite wisdom? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>What motives, then, have our priests to inculcate +constantly the necessity of prayer? It is that +they may thereby hold the minds of mankind in +opinions more advantageous to themselves. They +represent God to us under the traits of a monarch +difficult of access, who cannot be easily pacified, +but of whom they are the ministers, the favorites, +and servants. They become intercessors between +this invisible Sovereign and his subjects of this +nether world. They sell to the ignorant their intercession +with the All-powerful; they pray for the +people, and by society they are recompensed with +real advantages, with riches, honors, and ease. It +is on the necessity of prayer that our priests, our +monks, and all religious men establish their lazy +existence; that they profess to win a place in +heaven for their followers and paymasters, who, +without this intercession, could neither obtain the +favor of God, nor avert his chastisements and the +calamities the world is so often visited with. The +prayers of the priests are regarded as a universal +remedy for all evils. All the misfortunes of nations +are laid before these spiritual guides, who generally +find public calamities a source of profit to themselves, +as it is then they are amply paid for their +supposed mediation between the Deity and his +suffering creatures. They never teach the people +that these things spring from the course of nature +and of laws they cannot control. O, no. They +make the world believe they are the judgments of +an angry God. The evils for which they can find +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +no remedy are pronounced marks of the divine +wrath; they are supernatural, and the priests must +be applied to. God, whom they call so good, appears +sometimes obstinately deaf to their entreaties. +Their common Parent, so tender, appears to +derange the order of nature to manifest his anger. +The God who is so just, sometimes punishes men +who cannot divine the cause of his vengeance. +Then, in their distress, they flee to the priests, who +never fail to find motives for the divine wrath. +They tell them that God has been offended; that +he has been neglected; that he exacts prayers, +offerings, and sacrifices; that he requires, in order +to be appeased, that his ministers should receive +more consideration, should be heard more attentively, +and should be more enriched. Without +this, they announce to the vulgar that their harvests +will fail, that their fields will be inundated, +that pestilence, famine, war, and contagion will +visit the earth; and when these misfortunes have +arrived, they declare they may be removed by +means of prayers.</p> + +<p>If fear and terror permitted men to reason, they +would discover that all the evils, as well as the +good things of this life, are necessary consequences +of the order of nature. They would perceive that +a wise God, immutable in his conduct, cannot +allow any thing to transpire but according to those +laws of which he is regarded as the author. They +would discover that the calamities, sterility, maladies, +contagions, and even death itself are effects +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +as necessary as happiness, abundance, health, and +life itself. They would find that wars, wants, and +famine are often the effects of human imprudence; +that they would submit to accidents which they +could not prevent, and guard against those they +could foresee; they would remedy by simple and +natural means those against which they possessed +resources; and they would undeceive themselves +in regard to those supernatural means and those +useless prayers of which the experience of so many +ages ought to have disabused men, if they were +capable of correcting their religious prejudices.</p> + +<p>This would not, indeed, redound to the advantage +of the priests, since they would become useless +if men perceived the inefficacy of their prayers, +the futility of their practices, and the absence of +all rational foundation for those exercises of piety +which place the human race upon their knees. +They compel their votaries always to run down +those who discredit their pretensions. They terrify +the weak minded by frightful ideas which they +hold out to them of the Deity. They forbid them +to reason; they make them deaf to reason, by conforming +them to ordinances the most out of the +way, the most unreasonable, and the most contradictory +to the very principles on which they pretend +to establish them. They change practices, +arbitrary in themselves, or, at most, indifferent and +useless, into important duties, which they proclaim +the most essential of all duties, and the most +sacred and moral. They know that man ceases to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +reason in proportion as he suffers or is wretched. +Hence, if he experiences real misfortunes, the +priests make sure of him; if he is not unfortunate +they menace him; they create imaginary fears and +troubles.</p> + +<p>In fine, Madam, when you wish to examine with +your own eyes, and not by the help of the pretensions +set up and imposed on you by the ministers +of religion, you will be compelled to acknowledge +the things we have been considering as useful to +the priests alone; they are useless to the Deity, and +to society they are often very obviously pernicious. +Of what utility can it be in any family to behold +an excess of devotion in the mother of that family? +One would suppose it is not necessary for a lady +to pass all her time in prayers and in meditations, +to the neglect of other duties. Much less is it the +part of a Catholic mother to be closeted in mystic +conversation with her priest. Will her husband, +her children, and her friends applaud her who loses +most of her time in prayers, and meditations, and +practices, which can tend only to render her sour, +unhappy, and discontented? Would it not be +much better that a father or a mother of a family +should be occupied with what belonged to their +domestic affairs than to spend their time in masses, +in hearing sermons, in meditating on mysterious +and unintelligible dogmas, or boasting about exercises +of piety that tend to nothing?</p> + +<p>Madam, do you not find in the country you inhabit +a great many devotees who are sunk in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +debt, whose fortune is squandered away on priests, +and who are incapable of retrieving it? Content +to put their conscience to rights on religious matters, +they neither trouble themselves about the +education of their children, nor the arrangement +of their fortune, nor the discharge of their debts. +Such men as would be thrown into despair did +they omit one mass, will consent to leave their +creditors without their money, ruined by their negligence +as much as by their principles. In truth, +Madam, on what side soever you survey this +religion, you will find it good for nothing.</p> + +<p>What shall we say of those fêtes which are so +multiplied amongst us? Are they not evidently +pernicious to society? Are not all days the same +to the Eternal? Are there <i>gala</i> days in heaven? +Can God be honored by the business of an artisan +or a merchant, who, in place of earning bread on +which his family may subsist, squanders away his +time in the church, and afterwards goes to spend his +money in the public house? It is necessary, the +priests will tell you, for man to have repose. But +will he not seek repose when he is fatigued by the +labor of his hands? Is it not more necessary that +every man should labor in his vocation than go to +a temple to chant over a service which benefits +only the priests, or hear a sermon of which he can +understand nothing? And do not such as find +great scruple in doing a necessary labor on Sunday +frequently sit down and get drunk on that day, +consuming in a few hours the receipts of their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +week's labor? But it is for the interest of the +clergy that all other shops should be shut when +theirs are open. We may thence easily discover +why fêtes are necessary.</p> + +<p>Is it not contrary to all the notions which we +can form of the goodness and wisdom of the Divinity, +that religion should form into duties both +abstinence and privations, or that penitences and +austerities should be the sole proofs of virtue? +What should be said of a father who should place +his children at a table loaded with the fruits of the +earth, but who, nevertheless, should debar them +from touching certain of them, though both nature +and reason dictated their use and nutriment? Can +we, then, suppose that a Deity wise and good +interdicts to his creatures the enjoyment of innocent +pleasures, which may contribute to render life +agreeable, or that a God who has created all things, +every object the most desirable to the nourishment +and health of man, should nevertheless forbid him +their use? The Christian religion appears to doom +its votaries to the punishment of Tantalus. The +most part of the superstitions in the world have +made of God a capricious and jealous sovereign, +who amuses himself by tempting the passions and +exciting the desires of his slaves, without permitting +them the gratification of the one or the enjoyment +of the other. We see among all sects the +portraiture of a chagrined Deity, the enemy of innocent +amusements, and offended at the well being +of his creatures. We see in all countries many +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +men so foolish as to imagine they will merit +heaven by fighting against their nature, refusing +the goods of fortune, and tormenting themselves +under an idea that they will thereby render themselves +agreeable to God. Especially do they believe +that they will by these means disarm the fury +of God, and prevent the inflictions of his chastisements, +if they immolate themselves to a being who +always requires victims.</p> + +<p>We find these atrocious, fanatical, and senseless +ideas in the Christian religion, which supposes its +God as cruel to exact sufferings from men as death +from his only Son. If a God exempt from all sin is +himself also the sufferer for the sins of all, which +is the doctrine of those who maintain universal +redemption, it is not surprising to see men that are +sinners making it a duty to assemble in large +meetings, and invent the means of rendering themselves +miserable. These gloomy notions have +banished men to the desert. They have fanatically +renounced society and the pleasures of life, +to be buried alive, believing they would merit +heaven if they afflicted themselves with stripes +and passed their existence in mummical ceremonies, +as injurious to their health as useless to their +country. And these are the false ideas by which +the Divinity is transformed into a tyrant as barbarous +as insensible, who, agreeably to <i>priestcraft</i>, +has prescribed how both men and women might +live in ennui, penitence, sorrow, and tears; for the +perfection of monastic institutions consists in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +ingenious art of self-torture. But sacerdotal pride +finds its account in these austerities. Rigid monks +glory in barbarous rules, the observance of which +attracts the respect of the credulous, who imagine +that men who torment themselves are indeed the +favorites of heaven. But these monks, who follow +these austere rules, are fanatics, who sacrifice +themselves to the pride of the clergy who live in +luxury and in wealth, although their duped, imbecile +brethren have been known to make it a point +of honor to die of famine.</p> + +<p>How often, Madam, has your attention not been +aroused when you recalled to mind the fate of the +poor religious men of the desert, whom an unnecessary +vow has condemned, as it were voluntarily, +to a life as rigorous as if spent in a prison! Seduced +by the enthusiasm of youth, or forced by the +orders of inhuman parents, they have been obliged +to carry to the tomb the chains of their captivity. +They have been obliged to submit without appeal +to a stern superior, who finds no consolation in the +discharge of his slavish task but in making his +empire more hard to those beneath him. You have +seen unfortunate young ladies obliged to renounce +their rank in society, the innocent pleasures of +youth, the joys of their sex, to groan forever under +a rigorous despotism, to which indiscreet vows had +bound them. All monasteries present to us an +odious group of fanatics, who have separated +themselves from society to pass the remainder of +their lives in unhappiness. The society of these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +devotees is calculated solely to render their lives +mutually more unsupportable. But it seems +strange that men should expect to merit heaven +by suffering the torments of hell on earth; yet so +it is, and reason has too often proved insufficient +to convince them of the contrary.</p> + +<p>If this religion does not call all Christians to +these sublime perfections, it nevertheless enjoins +on all its votaries suffering and mortifying of the +body. The church prescribes privations to all her +children, and abstinences and fasts; these things +they practise among us as duties; and the devotees +imagine they render themselves very agreeable +to the Divinity when they have scrupulously fulfilled +those minute and puerile practices, by which +they tell us that the priests have proof whether +their patience and obedience be such as are dictated +by and acceptable to Heaven. What a +ridiculous idea is it, for example, to make of the +Deity a trio of persons; to teach the faithful that +this Deity takes notice of what kinds of food his +people eat; that he is displeased if they eat beef +or mutton, but that he is delighted if they eat +beans and fish! In good sooth, Madam, our +priests, who sometimes give us very lofty ideas of +God, please themselves but too often with making +him strangely contemptible!</p> + +<p>The life of a good Christian or of a devotee is +crowded with a host of useless practices, which +would be at least pardonable if they procured any +good for society. But it is not for that purpose +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +that our priests make so much ado about them; +they only wish to have submissive slaves, sufficiently +blind to respect their caprices as the orders +of a wise God; sufficiently stupid to regard all +their practices as divine duties, and they who scrupulously +observe them as the real favorites of the +Omnipotent. What good can there result to the +world from the abstinence of meats, so much +enjoined on some Christians, especially when other +Christians judge this injunction a very ridiculous +law, and contrary to reason and the order of things +established in nature? It is not difficult to perceive +amongst us that this injunction, openly violated +by the rich, is an oppression on the poor, +who are compelled to pay dearly for an indifferent, +often an unwholesome diet, that injures rather than +repairs the natural strength of their constitution. +Besides, do not the priests sell this permission to +the rich, to transgress an injunction the poor must +not violate with impunity? In fine, they seem to +have multiplied our practices, our duties, and our +tortures, to have the advantage of multiplying our +faults, and making a good bargain out of our pretended +crimes.</p> + +<p>The more we examine religion the more reason +shall we have to be convinced that it is beneficial +to the <i>priests alone</i>. Every part of this religion +conspires to render us submissive to the fantasies +of our spiritual guides, to labor for their grandeur, +to contribute to their riches. They appoint us to +perform disadvantageous duties; they prescribe +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +impossible perfections, purposely that we may transgress; +they have thereby engendered in pious minds +scruples and difficulties which they condescendingly +appease for money. A devotee is obliged to observe, +without ceasing, the useless and frivolous +rules of his priest, and even then he is subject to +continual reproaches; he is perpetually in want of +his priest to expiate his pretended faults with which +he charges himself, and the omission of duties that +he regards as the most important acts of his life, +but which are rarely such as interest society or +benefit it by their performance. By a train of religious +prejudices with which the priests infect the +mind of their weak devotees, these believe themselves +infinitely more culpable when they have +omitted some useless practice, than if they had +committed some great injustice or atrocious sin +against humanity. It is commonly sufficient for +the devotees to be on good terms with God, whether +they be consistent in their actions with man, or in +the practice of those duties they owe to their fellow +beings.</p> + +<p>Besides, Madam, what real advantage does society +derive from repeated prayers, abstinences, +privations, seclusions, meditations, and austerities, +to which religion attaches so much value? Do all +the mysterious practices of the priests produce any +real good? Are they capable of calming the passions, +of correcting vices, and of giving virtue to +those who most scrupulously observe them? Do +we not daily see persons who believe themselves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +damned if they forget a mass, if they eat a fowl on +Friday, if they neglect a confession, though they +are guilty at the same time of great dereliction to +society? Do they not hold the conduct of those +very unjust, and very cruel, who happen to have +the misfortune of not thinking and doing as they +think and act? These practices, out of which a +great number of men have created essential duties, +but too commonly absorb all moral duties; for if +the devotees are over-religious, it is rare to find +them virtuous. Content with doing what religion +requires, they trouble themselves very little about +other matters. They believe themselves the favored +of God, and that it is a proof of this if they are +detested by men, whose good opinion they are +seldom anxious to deserve. The whole life of a +devotee is spent in fulfilling, with scrupulous exactitude, +duties indifferent to God, unnecessary to +himself, and useless to others. He fancies he is +virtuous when he has performed the rites which +his religion prescribes; when he has meditated on +mysteries of which he understands nothing; when +he has struggled with sadness to do things in which +a man of sense can perceive no advantage; in fine, +when he has endeavored to practise, as much as in +him lies, the Evangelical or Christian virtues, in +which he thinks all morality essentially consists.</p> + +<p>I shall proceed in my next letter to examine these +virtues, and to prove to you that they are contrary +to the ideas we ought to form of God, useless to +ourselves, and often dangerous to others. In the +mean time, I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_VIII" id="LETTER_VIII"></a>Letter VIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection.</p></div> + + +<p>If we believe the priests, we shall be persuaded, +that the Christian religion, by the beauty of its +morals, excels philosophy and all the other religious +systems in the world. According to them, the unassisted +reason of the human mind could never +have conceived sounder doctrines of morality, more +heroical virtues, or precepts more beneficial to society. +But this is not all; the virtues known or +practised among the heathens are considered as +<i>false virtues</i>; far from deserving our esteem, and +the favor of the Almighty, they are entitled to +nothing but contempt; and, indeed, are <i>flagrant +sins</i> in the sight of God. In short, the priests labor +to convince us, that the Christian ethics are purely +divine, and the lessons inculcated so sublime, that +they could proceed from nothing less than the +Deity.</p> + +<p>If, indeed, we call that divine which men can +neither conceive nor perform; if by divine virtues +we are to understand virtues to which the mind of +man cannot possibly attach the least idea of utility; +if by divine perfections are meant those qualities +which are not only foreign to the nature of man, +but which are irreconcilably repugnant to it,—then, +indeed, we shall be compelled to acknowledge +that the morals of Christianity are divine; at least +we shall be assured that they have nothing in common +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +with that system of morality which arises +out of the nature and relations of men, but on +the contrary, that they, in many instances, confound +the best conceptions we are able to form of +virtue.</p> + +<p>Guided by the light of reason, we comprehend +under the name of virtue those habitual dispositions +of the heart which tend to the happiness +and the real advantage of those with whom +we associate, and by the exercise of which our fellow-creatures +are induced to feel a reciprocal interest in +our welfare. Under the Christian system the name +of virtues is bestowed upon dispositions which it is +impossible to possess without supernatural grace; +and which, when possessed, are useless, if not injurious, +both to ourselves and others. The morality +of Christians is, in good truth, the morality of +another world. Like the philosopher of antiquity, +they keep their eyes fixed upon the stars till they +fall into a well, unperceived, at their feet. The +only object which their scheme of morals proposes +to itself is, to disgust their minds with the things +of this world, in order that they may place their +entire affections upon things above, of which they +have no knowledge whatever; their happiness here +below forms no part of their consideration; this +life, in the view of a Christian, is nothing but a +pilgrimage, leading to another existence, infinitely +more interesting to his hopes, because infinitely +beyond the reach of his understanding. Besides, +before we can deserve to be happy in the world +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +which we do not know, we are informed that we +must be miserable in the world which we do know; +and, above all things, in order to secure to ourselves +happiness hereafter, it is especially necessary +that we altogether resign the use of our own reason; +that is to say, we must seal up our eyes in +utter darkness, and surrender ourselves to the guidance +of our priests. These are the principles upon +which the fabric of Christian morals is evidently +constructed.</p> + +<p>Let us now proceed, Madam, to a more detailed +examination of the virtues upon which the Christian +religion is built. These virtues are Evangelical, +&c. If destitute of them, we are assured that +it is in vain for us to seek the favor of the Deity.</p> + +<p>Of these virtues the first is <span class="smcap">Faith</span>. According +to the doctrine of the church, faith is the gift of +God, a supernatural virtue, by means of which we +are inspired with a firm belief in God, and in all +that he has vouchsafed to reveal to man, although +our reason is utterly unable to comprehend it. +Faith is, says the church, founded upon the word +of God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. +Thus faith supposes, that God has spoken to man—but +what evidence have we that God has spoken +to man? The Holy Scriptures. Who is it that +assures us the Holy Scriptures contain the word of +God? It is the church. But who is it that assures +us the church cannot and will not deceive us? The +Holy Scriptures. Thus the Scriptures bear witness +to the infallibility of the church—and the church, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +in return, testifies the truth of the Scriptures. +From this statement of the case, you must perceive, +that faith is nothing more than an implicit belief in +the priests, whose assurances we adopt as the foundation +of opinions in themselves incomprehensible. +It is true, that as a confirmation of the truth of +Scripture, we are referred to miracles—but it is +these identical Scriptures which report to us and +testify of those very miracles. Of the absolute impossibility +of any miracles, I flatter myself that I +have already convinced you.</p> + +<p>Besides, I cannot but think, Madam, that you +must be, by this time, thoroughly satisfied how absurd +it is to say that the understanding is convinced +of any thing which it does not comprehend; the +insight I have given you into the books which the +Christians call sacred, must have left upon your +mind a firm persuasion, that they never could have +proceeded from a wise, a good, an omniscient, a +just, and all-powerful God. If, then, we cannot +yield them a real belief, what we call faith can be +nothing more than a blind and irrational adherence +to a system devised by priests, whose crafty selfishness +has made them careful from the earliest +infancy to fill our tender minds with prepossessions +in favor of doctrines which they judged favorable +to their own interests. Interested, however, as they +are in the opinions which they endeavor to force +upon us as truth, is it possible for these priests to +believe them themselves? Unquestionably not—the +thing is out of nature. They are men like ourselves, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +furnished with the same faculties, and neither +they nor we can be convinced of any thing which +lies equally beyond the scope of us all. If they +possessed an additional sense, we should perhaps +allow that they might comprehend what is unintelligible +to us; but as we clearly see that they +have no intellectual privileges above the rest of the +species, we are compelled to conclude, that their +faith, like the faith of other Christians, is a blind +acquiescence in opinions derived, without examination, +from their predecessors; and that they +must be hypocrites when they pretend to <i>believe</i> in +doctrines of the truth of which they cannot be <i>convinced</i>, +since these doctrines have been shown to +be destitute of that degree of evidence which is +necessary to impress the mind with a feeling of +their probability, much less of their certainty.</p> + +<p>It will be said that faith, or the faculty of believing +things incredible, is the gift of God, and +can only be known to those upon whom God has +bestowed the favor. My answer is, that, if that be +the case, we have no alternative but to wait till the +grace of God shall be shed upon us—and that in +the mean time we may be allowed to doubt whether +credulity, stupidity, and the perversion of reason can +proceed, as favors, from a rational Deity who has +endowed us with the power of thinking. If God +be infinitely wise, how can folly and imbecility be +pleasing to him? If there were such a thing as +faith, proceeding from grace, it would be the privilege +of seeing things otherwise than as God has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +made them; and if that were so, it follows, that the +whole creation would be a mere cheat. No man +can believe the Bible to be the production of God +without doing violence to every consistent notion +that he is able to form of Deity! No man can believe +that one God is three Gods, and that those +three Gods are one God, without renouncing all +pretension to common sense, and persuading himself +that there is no such thing as certainty in the +world.</p> + +<p>Thus, Madam, we are bound to suspect that +what the church calls a gift from above, a supernatural +grace, is, in fact, a perfect blindness, an irrational +credulity, a brutish submission, a vague +uncertainty, a stupid ignorance, by which we are +led to acquiesce, without investigation, in every +dogma that our priests think fit to impose upon us—by +which we are led to adopt, without knowing +why, the pretended opinions of men who can have +no better means of arriving at the truth than we +have. In short, we are authorized in suspecting +that no motive but that of blinding us, in order +more effectually to deceive us, can actuate those +men who are eternally preaching to us about a virtue +which, if it could exist, would throw into utter +confusion the simplest and clearest perceptions of +the human mind.</p> + +<p>This supposition is amply confirmed by the conduct +of our ecclesiastics—forgetting what they +have told us, that grace is the gratuitous present of +God, bestowed or withheld at his sovereign pleasure, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +they nevertheless indulge their wrath against +all those who have not received the gift of faith; +they keep up one incessant anathema against all +unbelievers, and nothing less than absolute extermination +of heresy can appease their anger wherever +they have the strength to accomplish it. So +that heretics and unbelievers are made accountable +for the grace of God, although they never received +it; they are punished in this world for those advantages +which God has not been pleased to extend +to them in their journey to the next. In the +estimation of priests and devotees, the want of +faith is the most unpardonable of all offences—it +is precisely that offence which, in the cruelty of +their absurd injustice, they visit with the last rigors +of punishment, for you cannot be ignorant, Madam, +that in all countries where the clergy possess +sufficient influence, the flames of priestly charity +are lighted up to consume all those who are deficient +in the prescribed allowance of faith.</p> + +<p>When we inquire the motive for their unjust and +senseless proceedings, we are told that faith is the +most necessary of all things, that faith is of the +most essential service to morals, that without faith +a man is a dangerous and wicked wretch, a pest to +society. And, after all, is it our own choice to +have faith? Can we believe just what we please? +Does it depend upon ourselves not to think a proposition +absurd which our understanding shows us +to be absurd? How could we avoid receiving, in +our infancy, whatever impressions and opinions our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +teachers and relations chose to implant in us? +And where is the man who can boast that he has +faith—that he is fully convinced of mysteries +which he cannot conceive, and wonders which he +cannot comprehend?</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances how can faith be serviceable +to morals? If no one can have faith but +upon the assurance of another, and consequently +cannot entertain a real conviction, what becomes +of the social virtues? Admitting that faith were +possible, what connection can exist between such +occult speculations and the manifest duties of +mankind, duties which are palpable to every one +who, in the least, consults his reason, his interest, +or the welfare of the society to which he belongs? +Before I can be satisfied of the advantages of justice, +temperance, and benevolence, must I first believe +in the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, +and all the fables of the Old Testament? If I +believe in all the atrocious murders attributed by +the Bible to that God whom I am bound to consider +as the fountain of justice, wisdom, and goodness, +is it not likely that I shall feel encouraged to +the commission of crimes when I find them sanctioned +by such an example? Although unable to +discover the value of so many mysteries which I +cannot understand, or of so many fanciful and +cumbersome ceremonies prescribed by the church, +am I, on that account, to be denounced as a more +dangerous citizen than those who persecute, torment, +and destroy every one of their fellow-creatures +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +who does not think and act at their dictation? +The evident result of all these considerations must +be, that he who has a lively faith and a blind zeal +for opinions contradictory to common sense, is more +irrational, and consequently more wicked than the +man whose mind is untainted by such detestable +doctrines; for when once the priests have gained +their fatal ascendency over his mind, and have +persuaded him that, by committing all sorts of +enormities, he is doing the work of the Lord, there +can be no doubt that he will make greater havoc +in the happiness of the world, than the man whose +reason tells him that such excesses cannot be acceptable +in the sight of God.</p> + +<p>The advocates of the church will here interrupt +me, by alleging that if divested of those sentiments +which religion inspires, men would no longer live +under the influence of motives strong enough to +induce an abstinence from vice, or to urge them on +in the career of virtue when obstructed by painful +sacrifices. In a word, it will be affirmed that +unless men are convinced of the existence of an +avenging and remunerating God, they are released +from every motive to fulfil their duties to each +other in the present life.</p> + +<p>You are, doubtless, Madam, quite sensible of the +futility of such pretences, put forth by priests who, +in order to render themselves more necessary, are +indefatigable in endeavoring to persuade us that +their system is indispensable to the maintenance of +social order. To annihilate their sophistries it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +sufficient to reflect upon the nature of man, his +true interests, and the end for which society is +formed. Man is a feeble being, whose necessities +render him constantly dependent upon the support +of others, whether it be for the preservation or the +pleasure of his existence; he has no means of interesting +others in his welfare except by his manner +of conducting himself towards them; that +conduct which renders him an object of affection +to others is called virtue—whatever is pernicious +to society is called crime—and where the consequences +are injurious only to the individual himself, +it is called vice. Thus every man must +immediately perceive that he consults his own +happiness by advancing that of others—that +vices, however cautiously disguised from public +observation, are, nevertheless, fraught with ruin to +him who practises them—and that crimes are sure +to render the perpetrator odious or contemptible in +the eyes of his associates, who are necessary to his +own happiness. In short, education, public opinion, +and the laws point out to us our mutual duties +much more clearly than the chimeras of an incomprehensible +religion.</p> + +<p>Every man on consulting with himself will feel +indubitably that he desires his own conservation; +experience will teach him both what he ought to do +and what to avoid to arrive at this end; in consequence +he will shrink from those excesses which +endanger his being; he will debar himself from +those gratifications which in their course would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +render his existence miserable; and he would make +sacrifices, if it was necessary, in the view of procuring +himself advantages more real than those of +which he momentarily deprived himself. Thus he +would know what he owes to himself and what he +owes to others.</p> + +<p>Here, Madam, you have a short but perfect summary +of all morals, derived, as they must be, from +the nature of man, the uniform experience and the +universal reason of mankind. These precepts are +compulsory upon our minds, for they show us that +the consequences of our conduct flow from our actions +with as natural and inevitable a certainty as +the return of a stone to the earth after the impetus +is exhausted which detained it in the air. It is natural +and inevitable that the man who employs himself +in doing good must be preferred to the man +who does mischief. Every thinking being must be +penetrated with the truth of this incontrovertible +maxim, and all the ponderous volumes of theology +that ever were composed can add nothing to the +force of his conviction; every thinking being will, +therefore, avoid a conduct calculated to injure either +himself or others; he will feel himself under the +necessity of doing good to others, as the only +method of obtaining solid happiness for himself, +and of conciliating to himself those sentiments on +the part of others, without which he could derive +no charms from society.</p> + +<p>You perceive, then, Madam, that <i>faith</i> cannot in +any manner contribute to the correction of social +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +conduct, and you will feel that the popular supernatural +notions cannot add any thing to the obligations +that our nature imposes upon us. In fact, +the more mysterious and incomprehensible are the +dogmas of the church, the more likely are they to +draw us aside from the plain dictates of Nature +and the straight-forward directions of Reason, +whose voice is incapable of misleading us. A +candid survey of the causes which produce an +infinity of evils that afflict society will quickly +point out the speculative tenets of theology as +their most fruitful source. The intoxication of +enthusiasm and the frenzy of fanaticism concur in +overpowering reason, and by rendering men blind +and unreflecting, convert them into enemies both +of themselves and the rest of the world. It is impossible +for the worshippers of a tyrannical, partial, +and cruel God to practise the duties of justice +and philanthropy. As soon as the priests have +succeeded in stifling within us the commands of +Reason, they have already converted us into slaves, +in whom they can kindle whatever passions it may +please them to inspire us with.</p> + +<p>Their interest, indeed, requires that we should +be slaves. They exact from us the surrender of +our reason, because our reason contradicts their +impostures, and would ruin their plans of aggrandizement. +Faith is the instrument by which they +enslave us and make us subservient to their own +ambition. Hence arises their zeal for the propagation +of the faith; hence arises their implacable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +hostility to science, and to all those who refuse +submission to their yoke; hence arises their incessant +endeavor to establish the dominion of Faith, +(that is to say, their own dominion,) even by fire +and sword, the only arguments they condescend to +employ.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that society derives but +little advantage from this supernatural faith which +the church has exalted into the first of virtues. As +it regards God, it is perfectly useless to him, since +if he wishes mankind to be convinced, it is sufficient +that he wills them to be so. It is utterly unworthy +of the supreme wisdom of God, who cannot +exhibit himself to mortals in a manner contradictory +to the reason with which he has endowed +them. It is unworthy of the divine justice, which +cannot require from mankind to be convinced of +that which they cannot understand. It denies the +very existence of God himself, by inculcating a +belief totally subversive of the only rational idea +we are able to form of the Divinity.</p> + +<p>As it regards morality, faith is also useless. +Faith cannot render it either more sacred or more +necessary than it already is by its own inherent +essence, and by the nature of man. Faith is not +only useless, but injurious to society, since, under +the plea of its pretended necessity, it frequently +fills the world with deplorable troubles and horrid +crimes. In short, faith is self-contradictory, since +by it we are required to believe in things inconsistent +with each other, and even incompatible with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +the principles laid down in the books which we +have already investigated, and which contain what +we are commanded to believe.</p> + +<p>To whom, then, is faith found to be advantageous? +To a few men, only, who, availing +themselves of its influence to degrade the human +mind, contrive to render the labor of the whole +world tributary to their own luxury, splendor, and +power. Are the nations of the earth any happier +for their faith, or their blind reliance on priests? +Certainly not. We do not there find more morality, +more virtue, more industry, or more happiness; +but, on the contrary, wherever the priests are powerful, +there the people are sure to be found abject in +their minds and squalid in their condition.</p> + +<p>But Hope—Hope, the second in order of the +Christian perfections, is ever at hand to console us +for the evils inflicted by Faith. We are commanded +to be firmly convinced that those who have faith, +that is to say, those who believe in priests, shall be +amply rewarded in the other world for their meritorious +submission in this. Thus hope is founded +on faith, in the same manner as faith is established +upon hope; faith enjoins us to entertain a devout +hope that our faith will be rewarded. And what +is it we are told to hope for? For unspeakable +benefits; that is, benefits for which language contains +no expression. So that, after all, we know +not what it is we are to hope for. And how can +we feel a hope or even a wish for any object that +is undefinable? How can priests incessantly speak +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +to us of things of which they, at the same time, +acknowledge it is impossible for us to form any +ideas?</p> + +<p>It thus appears that hope and faith have one +common foundation; the same blow which overturns +the one necessarily levels the other with the +ground. But let us pause a moment, and endeavor +to discover the advantages of Christian hope +amongst men. It encourages to the practice of +virtue; it supports the unfortunate under the stroke +of affliction; and consoles the believer in the hour +of adversity. But what encouragement, what +support, what consolation can be imparted to the +mind from these undefined and undefinable shadows? +No one, indeed, will deny that hope is sufficiently +useful to the priests, who never fail to call +in its assistance for the vindication of Providence, +whenever any of the elect have occasion to complain +of the unmerited hardship or the transient +injustice of his dispensations. Besides, these +priests, notwithstanding their beautiful systems, +find themselves unable to fulfil the high-sounding +promises they so liberally make to all the faithful, +and are frequently at a loss to explain the evils +which they bring upon their flocks by means of +the quarrels they engage in, and the false notions +of religion they entertain; on these occasions the +priests have a standing appeal to hope, telling their +dupes that man was not created for this world, +that heaven is his home, and that his sufferings +here will be counterbalanced by indescribable bliss +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +hereafter. Thus, like quacks, whose nostrums have +ruined the health of their patients, they have still +left to themselves the advantage of selling hopes +to those whom they know themselves unable to +cure. Our priests resemble some of our physicians, +who begin by frightening us into our complaints, +in order that they may make us customers for the +hopes which they afterwards sell to us for their +weight in gold. This traffic constitutes, in reality, +all that is called religion.</p> + +<p>The third of the Christian virtues is Charity; +that is, to love God above all things, and our neighbors +as ourselves. But before we are required to +love God above all things, it seems reasonable that +religion should condescend to represent him as +worthy of our love. In good faith, Madam, is it +possible to feel that the God of the Christians is +entitled to our love? Is it possible to feel any +other sentiments than those of aversion towards a +partial, capricious, cruel, revengeful, jealous, and +sanguinary tyrant? How can we sincerely love +the most terrible of beings,—the living God, into +whose hands it is dreadful to think of falling,—the +God who can consign to eternal damnation +those very creatures who, without his own consent, +would never have existed? Are our theologians +aware of what they say, when they tell us that the +fear of God is the fear of a child for its parent, +which is mingled with love? Are we not bound +to hate, can we by any means avoid detesting, a +barbarous father, whose injustice is so boundless +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +as to punish the whole human race, though innocent, +in order to revenge himself upon two individuals +for the sin of the apple, which sin he himself +might have prevented if he had thought proper? +In short, Madam, it is a physical impossibility to +love above all things a God whose whole conduct, +as described in the Bible, fills us with a freezing +horror. If, therefore, the love of God, as the Jansenists +assert, is indispensable to salvation, we +cannot wonder to find that the elect are so few. +Indeed, there are not many persons who can +restrain themselves from hating this God; and the +doctrine of the Jesuits is, that to abstain from +hating him is sufficient for salvation. The power +of loving a God whom religion paints as the most +detestable of beings would, doubtless, be a proof of +the most supernatural grace, that is, a grace the +most contrary to nature; to love that which we do +not know, is, assuredly, sufficiently difficult; to +love that which we fear, is still more difficult; but +to love that which is exhibited to us in the most +repulsive colors, is manifestly impossible.</p> + +<p>We must, after all this, be thoroughly convinced +that, except by means of an invisible grace never +communicated to the profane, no Christian in his +sober senses can love his God; even those devotees +who pretend to that happiness are apt to deceive +themselves; their conduct resembles that of hypocritical +flatterers, who, in order to ingratiate themselves +with an odious tyrant, or to escape his +resentment, make every profession of attachment, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +whilst, at the bottom of their hearts, they execrate +him; or, on the other hand, they must be condemned +as enthusiasts, who, by means of a heated +imagination, become the dupes of their own illusions, +and only view the favorable side of a God +declared to be the fountain of all good, yet, nevertheless, +constantly delineated to us with every feature +of wickedness. Devotees, when sincere, are +like women given up to the infatuation of a blind +passion by which they are enamoured with lovers +rejected by the rest of the sex as unworthy of their +affection. It was said by Madame de Sévigné +that she loved God as a perfectly well-bred gentleman, +with whom she had never been acquainted. +But can the God of the Christians be esteemed a +well-bred gentleman? Unless her head was turned, +one would think that she must have been cured of +her passion by the slightest reference to her imaginary +lover's portrait as drawn in the Bible, or as it +is spread upon the canvas of our theological artists.</p> + +<p>With regard to the love of our neighbor, where +was the necessity of religion to teach us our duty, +which as men we cannot but feel, of cherishing +sentiments of good will towards each other? It is +only by showing in our conduct an affectionate +disposition to others that we can produce in them +correspondent feelings towards ourselves. The +simple circumstance of being men is quite sufficient +to give us a claim upon the heart of every +man who is susceptible of the sweet sensibilities +of our nature. Who is better acquainted than +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +yourself, Madam, with this truth? Does not your +compassionate soul experience at every moment +the delightful satisfaction of solacing the unhappy? +Setting aside the superfluous precepts of religion, +think you that you could by any efforts steel your +heart against the tears of the unfortunate? Is it +not by rendering our fellow-creatures happy that +we establish an empire in their hearts? Enjoy, +then, Madam, this delightful sovereignty; continue +to bless with your beneficence all that surround +you; the consciousness of being the dispenser of +so much good will always sustain your mind with +the most gratifying self-applause; those who have +received your kindness will reward you with their +blessings, and afford you the tribute of affection +which mankind are ever eager to lay at the feet of +their benefactors.</p> + +<p>Christianity, not satisfied with recommending +the love of our neighbor, superadds the injunction +of loving our enemies. This precept, attributed to +the Son of God himself, forms the ground on which +our divines claim for their religion a superiority of +moral doctrine over all that the philosophers of +antiquity were known to teach. Let us, therefore, +examine how far this precept admits of being reduced +to practice. True, an elevated mind may +easily place itself above a sense of injuries; a noble +spirit retains no resentful recollections; a great soul +revenges itself by a generous clemency; but it is +an absurd contradiction to require that a man shall +entertain feelings of tenderness and regard for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +those whom he knows to be bent on his destruction; +this love of our enemies, which Christianity +is so vain of having promulgated, turns out, then, +to be an impracticable commandment, belied and +denied by every Christian at every moment of his +life. How preposterous to talk of loving that +which annoys us!—of cherishing an attachment +for that which gives us pain!—of receiving an +outrage with joy!—of loving those who subject +us to misery and suffering! No; in the midst of +these trials our firmness may perhaps be strengthened +by the hope of a reward hereafter; but it is a +mere fallacy to talk of our entertaining a sincere +love for those whom we deem the authors of our +afflictions; the least that we can do is to avoid +them, which will not be looked upon as a very +strong indication of our love.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the solemn formality with +which the Christian religion obtrudes upon us +these vaunted precepts of love of our neighbor, +love of our enemies, and forgiveness of injuries, it +cannot escape the observation of the weakest +among us, that those very men who are the loudest +in praising are also the first and most constant in +violating them. Our priests especially seem to +consider themselves exempt from the troublesome +necessity of adopting for their own conduct a too +literal interpretation of this divine law. They have +invented a most convenient salvo, since they affect +to exclude all those who do not profess to think as +they dictate, not only from the kindness of neighbors, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +but even from the rights of fellow-creatures. +On this principle they defame, persecute, and destroy +every one who displeases them. When do +you see a priest forgive? When revenge is out of +his reach! But it is never their own injuries they +punish; it is never their own enemies they seek to +exterminate. Their disinterested indignation burns +with resentment against the enemies of the Most +High, who, without their assistance, would be incapable +of adjusting his own quarrels! By an unaccountable +coincidence, however, it is sure to +happen that the enemies of the church are the +enemies of the Most High, who never fails to +make common cause with the ministers of the +faith, and who would take it extremely ill if his +ministers should relax in the measure of punishment +due to their common enemy. Thus our +priests are cruel and revengeful from pure zeal; +they would ardently wish to forgive their own enemies, +but how could they justify themselves to the +God of Mercies if they extended the least indulgence +to his enemies?</p> + +<p>A true Christian loves the Creator above all +things, and consequently he must love him in preference +to the creature. We feel a lively interest +in every thing that concerns the object of our love; +from all which, it follows that we must evince our +zeal, and even, when necessary, we must not hesitate +to exterminate our neighbor, if he says or does +what is displeasing or injurious to God. In such +a case, indifference would be criminal; a sincere +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +love of God breaks out into a holy ardor in his +cause, and our merit rises in proportion to our +violence.</p> + +<p>These notions, absurd as they are, have been +sufficient in every age to produce in the world a +multitude of crimes, extravagances, and follies, +the legitimate offspring of a religious zeal. Infatuated +fanatics, exasperated by priests against +each other, have been driven into mutual hatred, +persecution, and destruction; they have thought +themselves called upon to avenge the Almighty; +they have carried their insane delusions so far as +to persuade themselves that the God of clemency +and goodness could look on with pleasure while +they murdered their brethren; in the astonishing +blindness of their stupidity, they have imagined +that in defending the temporalities of the church, +they were defending God himself. In pursuance +of these errors, contradicted even by the description +which they themselves give us of the Divinity, +the priests of every age have found means to introduce +confusion into the peaceful habitations of +men, and to destroy all who dared to resist their +tyranny. Under the laughable idea of revenging +the all-powerful Creator, these priests have discovered +the secret of revenging themselves, and that, +too, without drawing down upon themselves the +hatred and execration so justly due to their vindictive +fury and unfeeling selfishness. In the name +of the God of nature, they stifled the voice of nature +in the breasts of men; in the name of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +God of goodness, they incited men to the fury of +wild beasts; in the name of the God of mercies, +they prohibited all forgiveness!</p> + +<p>It is thus, Madam, that the earth has never +ceased to groan with the ravages committed by +maniacs under the influence of that zeal which +springs from the Christian doctrine of the love of +God. The God of the Christians, like the Janus +of Roman mythology, has two faces; sometimes +he is represented with the benign features of mercy +and goodness; sometimes murder, revenge, and +fury issue from his nostrils. And what is the +consequence of this double aspect but that the +Christians are much more easily terrified at his +frightful lineaments than they are recovered from +their fears by his aspect of mercy! Having been +taught to view him as a capricious being, they are +naturally mistrustful of him, and imagine that the +safest part they can act for themselves is to set +about the work of vengeance with great zeal; +they conclude that a cruel master cannot find fault +with cruel imitators, and that his servants cannot +render themselves more acceptable than by extirpating +all his enemies.</p> + +<p>The preceding remarks show very clearly, Madam, +the highly pernicious consequences which +result from the zeal engendered by the love of +God. If this love is a virtue, its benefits are confined +to the priests, who arrogate to themselves the +exclusive privilege of declaring when God is offended; +who absorb all the offerings and monopolize +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +all the homage of the devout; who decide +upon the opinions that please or displease him; +who undertake to inform mankind of the duties +this virtue requires from them, and of the proper +time and manner of performing them; who are +interested in rendering those duties cruel and intimidating +in order to frighten mankind into a +profitable subjection; who convert it into the instrument +of gratifying their own malignant passions, +by inspiring men with a spirit of headlong +and raging intolerance, which, in its furious course +of indiscriminate destruction, holds nothing sacred, +and which has inflicted incredible ravages upon all +Christian countries.</p> + +<p>In conformity with such abominable principles, +a Christian is bound to detest and destroy all +whom the church may point out as the enemies of +God. Having admitted the paramount duty of +yielding their entire affections to a rigorous master, +quick to resent, and offended even with the involuntary +thoughts and opinions of his creatures, +they of course feel themselves bound, by entering +with zeal into his quarrels, to obtain for him a vengeance +worthy of a God—that is to say, a vengeance +that knows no bounds. A conduct like +this is the natural offspring of those revolting +ideas which our priests give us of the Deity. A +good Christian is therefore necessarily intolerant. +It is true that Christianity in the pulpit preaches +nothing but mildness, meekness, toleration, peace, +and concord; but Christianity in the world is a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +stranger to all these virtues; nor does she ever +exercise them except when she is deficient in the +necessary power to give effect to her destructive +zeal. The real truth of the matter is, that Christians +think themselves absolved from every tie of +humanity except with those who think as they +do, who profess to believe the same creed; they +have a repugnance, more or less decided, against +all those who disagree with their priests in theological +speculation. How common it is to see persons +of the mildest character and most benevolent disposition +regard with aversion the adherents of a different +sect from their own! The reigning religion—that +is, the religion of the sovereign, or of the +priests in whose favor the sovereign declares himself—crushes +all rival sects, or, at least, makes +them fully sensible of its superiority and its hatred, +in a manner extremely insulting, and calculated to +raise their indignation. By these means it frequently +happens that the deference of the prince +to the wishes of the priests has the effect of alienating +the hearts of his most faithful subjects, and +brings him that execration which ought in justice +to be heaped exclusively upon his sanctimonious +instigators.</p> + +<p>In short, Madam, the private rights of conscience +are nowhere sincerely respected; the leaders of the +various religious sects begin, in the very cradle, to +teach all Christians to hate and despise each other +about some theological point which nobody can +understand. The clergy, when vested with power, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +never preach toleration; on the contrary, they +consider every man as an enemy who is a friend +to religious freedom, accusing him of lukewarmness, +infidelity, and secret hostility; in short, he +is denominated a false brother. The Sorbonne +declared, in the sixteenth century, that it was +heretical to say that heretics ought not to be +burned. The ferocious St. Austin preached toleration +at one period, but it was before he was +duly initiated in the mysteries of the sacerdotal +policy, which is ever repugnant to toleration. +Persecution is necessary to our priests, to deter +mankind from opposing themselves to their avarice, +their ambition, their vanity, and their obstinacy. +The sole principle which holds the church +together is that of a sleepless watchfulness on +the part of all its members to extend its power, +to increase the multitude of its slaves, to fix odium +on all who hesitate to bend their necks to its yoke, +or who refuse their assent to its arbitrary decisions.</p> + +<p>Our divines have, therefore, you see, very good +reasons for raising humility into the rank of virtue. +An amiable modesty, a diffident mildness of demeanor, +are unquestionably calculated to promote +the pleasures and the advantages of society; it is +equally certain that insolence and arrogance are +disgusting, that they wound our self-love and excite +our aversion by their repulsive conduct; but +that amiable modesty which charms all who come +within its influence is a far different quality from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +that which is designated humility in the vocabulary +of Christians. A truly humble Christian despises +his own unworthiness, avoids the esteem of others, +mistrusts his own understanding, submits with docility +to the unerring guidance of his spiritual masters, +and piously resigns to his priest the clearest +and most irrefutable conclusions of reason.</p> + +<p>But to what advantage can this pretended virtue +lead its followers? How can a man of sense and +integrity despise himself? Is not public opinion +the guardian of private virtue? If you deprive men +of the love of glory, and the desire of deserving the +approbation of their fellow-citizens, are you not +divesting them of the noblest and most powerful +incitements by which they can be impelled to benefit +their country? What recompense will remain +to the benefactors of mankind, if, first of all, we are +unjust enough to refuse them the praise they merit, +and afterwards debar them from the satisfaction of +self-applause, and the happiness they would feel in +the consciousness of having done good to an ungrateful +world? What infatuation, what amazing +infatuation, to require a man of upright character, +of talents, intelligence, and learning, to think himself +on a level with a selfish priest, or a stupid +fanatic, who deal out their absurd fables and incoherent +dreams!</p> + +<p>Our priests are never weary of telling their flocks +that pride leads on to infidelity, and that a humble +and submissive spirit is alone fitted to receive the +truths of the gospel. In good earnest, should we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +not be utterly bereft of every claim to the name of +rational beings, if we consent to surrender our judgment +and our knowledge at the command of a +hierarchy, who have nothing to give us in exchange +but the most palpable absurdities? With what face +can a reverend Doctor of Nonsense dare to exact +from my understanding a humble acquiescence in +a bundle of mysterious opinions, for which he is +unable to offer me a single solid reason? Is it, +then, presumptuous to think one's self superior to a +class of pretenders, whose systems are a mass of +falsities, absurdities, and inconsistencies, of which +they contrive to make mankind at once the dupes +and the victims? Can pride or vanity be, with +justice, imputed to you, Madam, if you see reason +to prefer the dictates of your own understanding +to the authoritative decrees of Mrs. D——, +whose senseless malignity is obvious to all her +acquaintance?</p> + +<p>If Christian humility is a virtue at all, it can be +one only in the cloister; society can derive no sort of +benefit from it; it enervates the mind; it benefits +nobody but priests, who, under the pretext of rendering +men humble, seek, in reality, only to degrade +them, to stifle in their souls every spark of science +and of courage, that they may the more easily impose +the yoke of faith, that is to say, their own +yoke. Conclude, then, with me, that the Christian +virtues are chimerical, always useless, and sometimes +pernicious to men, and attended with advantage +to none but priests. Conclude that this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +religion, with all the boasted beauty of its morality, +recommends to us a set of virtues, and enjoins a +line of conduct, at variance with good sense. Conclude +that, in order to be moral and virtuous, it is +far from necessary to adopt the unintelligible creed +of the priests, or to pride ourselves upon the empty +virtues they preach, and still less to annihilate all +sense of dignity in ourselves, by a degrading subjection +to the duties they require. Conclude, in +short, that the friend of virtue is not, of necessity, +the friend of priestcraft, and that a man may be +adorned with every human perfection, without possessing +one of the Christian virtues.</p> + +<p>All who examine this matter with a candid and intelligent +eye, cannot fail to see that true morality—that +is to say, a morality really serviceable to mankind—is +absolutely incompatible with the Christian +religion, or any other professed revelation. +Whoever imagines himself the favored object of the +Creator's love, must look down with disdain upon +his less fortunate fellow-creatures, especially if he +regards that Creator as partial, choleric, revengeful, +and fickle, easily incensed against us, even by our +involuntary thoughts, or our most innocent words +and actions; such a man naturally conducts himself +with contempt and pride, with harshness and +barbarity towards all others whom he may deem +obnoxious to the resentment of his Heavenly King. +Those men, whose folly leads them to view the +Deity in the light of a capricious, irritable, and unappeasable +despot, can be nothing but gloomy and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +trembling slaves, ever eager to anticipate the vengeance +of God upon all whose conduct or opinions +they may conceive likely to provoke the celestial +wrath. As soon as the priests have succeeded in +reducing men to a state of stupidity gross enough +to make them believe that their ghostly fathers are +the faithful organs of the divine will, they naturally +commit every species of crime, which their spiritual +teachers may please to tell them is calculated to +pacify the anger of their offended God. Men, silly +enough to accept a system of morals from guides +thus hollow in reasoning, and thus discordant in +opinion, must necessarily be unstable in their principles, +and subject to every variation that the interest +of their guides may suggest. In short, it is +impossible to construct a solid morality, if we take +for our foundation the attributes of a deity so unjust, +so capricious, and so changeable as the God +of the Bible, whom we are commanded to imitate +and adore.</p> + +<p>Persevere, then, my dear Madam, in the practice +of those virtues which your own unsophisticated +heart approves; they will insure you a rich harvest +of happiness in the present existence; they will insure +you a rich return of gratitude, respect, and +love from all who enjoy their benign influence; +they will insure you the solid satisfaction of a well-founded +self-esteem, and thus provide you with that +unfailing source of inward gratification which arises +from the consciousness of having contributed to the +welfare of the human race. I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_IX" id="LETTER_IX"></a>Letter IX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the Advantages contributed to Government by +Religion.</p></div> + + +<p>Having already shown you, Madam, the feebleness +of those succors which religion furnishes to +morals, I shall now proceed to examine whether +it procure advantages in themselves really politic, +and whether it be true, as has so often been urged +by the priests, that it is absolutely necessary to the +existence of every government. Were we disposed +to shut our eyes, and deliver ourselves up to the +language of our priests, we should believe that their +opinions are necessary to the public tranquillity, +and the repose and security of the State; that princes +could not, without their aid, govern the people, and +exert themselves for the prosperity of their empire. +Nor is this all; our spiritual pilots approach the +throne, and gaining the ear of the sovereign, make +him also believe that he has the greatest interest in +conforming to their caprices, in order to subject +men to the divine yoke of royalty. These priests +mingle in all important political quarrels, and they +too often persuade the rulers of the earth that the +enemies of the church are the enemies of all power, +and that in sapping the foundations of the altar, +the foundations of the throne are likewise necessarily +overthrown.</p> + +<p>We have, then, only to open our eyes and consult +history, to be convinced of the falsity of these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +pretensions, and to appreciate the important services +which the Christian priests have rendered to their +sovereigns. Ever since the establishment of Christianity, +we have seen, in all the countries in which +this religion has gained ground, that two rival powers +are perpetually at war one with the other. We +find <i>a</i> government within <i>the</i> government; that is +to say, we find the Church, a body of priests, continually +opposed to the sovereign power, and in +virtue of their pretended <i>divine</i> mission and <i>sacred</i> +office, pretending to give laws to all the sovereigns +of the earth. We find the clergy, puffed up and +besotted with the titles they have given themselves, +laboring to exact the obedience due to the sovereign, +pretending to chimerical and dangerous +prerogatives, which none are suffered to question, +without risking the displeasure of the Almighty. +And so well have the priesthood managed this +matter, that in many countries we actually see the +people more inclined to lean to the authority of the +Vicars of Jesus Christ than to that of the civil +government. The priesthood claim the right of +commanding monarchs themselves, and sustained +by their emissaries and the credulity of the people, +their ridiculous pretensions have engaged princes +in the most serious affairs, sown trouble and discord +in kingdoms, and so shook thrones as to compel +their occupants to make submission to an +intolerant hierarchy.</p> + +<p>Such are the important services which religion +has a thousand times rendered to kings. The people, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +blinded by superstition, could hesitate but little +between God and the princes of the earth. The +priests, being the visible organs of an invisible monarch, +have acquired an immense credit with prejudiced +minds. The ignorance of the people places +them, as well as their sovereigns, at the mercy of +the priests. Nations have continually been dragged +into their futile though bloody quarrels; princes, +for a long series of years, have either had to dispute +their authority with the clergy, or become their +tools or dupes.</p> + +<p>The continual attention which the princes of Europe +have been forced to pay to the clergy has prevented +them from occupying their thoughts about +the welfare of their subjects, who, in many instances +the dupes of the priesthood, have opposed +even the good their rulers desired to procure them. +In like manner, the heads of the people, their kings +and governors, too weak to resist the torrent of +opinions propagated by the clergy, have been forced +to yield, to bow, nay, even to caress the priesthood, +and to consent to grant it all its demands. Whenever +they have wished to resist the encroachments +of the clergy, they have encountered concealed +snares or open opposition, as the <i>holy</i> power was +either too weak to act in the face of day, or strong +enough to contend in the sunshine. When princes +have wished to be listened to by the clergy, these +last have invariably contrived to make them cowardly, +and to sacrifice the happiness and respect of +their people. Often have the hands of parricides +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +and rebels been armed, by a proud and vindictive +priesthood, against sovereigns the most worthy of +reigning. The priests, under pretext of avenging +God, inflict their anger upon monarchs themselves, +whenever the latter are found indisposed to bend +under their yoke. In a word, in <i>all</i> countries we +perceive that the ministers of religion have exercised +in all ages the most unbridled license. We +every where see empires torn by their dissensions; +thrones overturned by their machinations; princes +immolated to their power and revenge; subjects +animated to revolt against the prince that ought to +give them more happiness than they actually enjoyed; +and when we take the retrospect of these, +we find that the ambition, the cupidity, and vanity +of the clergy have been the true causes and motives +of all these outrages on the peace of the universe. +And it is thus that their religion has so often produced +anarchy, and overturned the very empires +they pretended to support by its influence.</p> + +<p>Sovereigns have never enjoyed peace but when, +shamefully devoted to priests, they submitted to +their caprices, became enslaved to their opinions, +and allowed them to govern in place of themselves. +Then was the sovereign power subordinate to the +sacerdotal, and the prince was only the first servant +of the church; she degraded him to such a +degree as to make him her hangman; she obliged +him to execute her sanguinary decrees; she forced +him to dip his hands in the blood of his own subjects +whom the clergy had proscribed; she made +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +him the visible instrument of her vengeance, her +fury, and her concealed passions. Instead of occupying +himself with the happiness of his people, +the sovereign has had the complaisance to torment, +to persecute, and to immolate honest citizens, +thus exciting the just hatred of a portion of his +people, to whom he should have been a father, to +gratify the ambition and the selfish malevolence of +some priests, always aliens in the state which nourishes +them, and who only style themselves members +of the realm in order to domineer, to distract, +to plunder, and to devour with impunity.</p> + +<p>How little soever you are disposed to reflect, you +will be convinced, Madam, that I do not exaggerate +these things. Recent examples prove to you +that even in this age, so ambitious of being considered +enlightened, nations are not secure from the +shocks that the priests have ever caused nations to +suffer. You have a hundred times sighed at the +sight of the sad follies which puerile questions have +produced among us. You have shuddered at the +frightful consequences which have resulted from the +unreasonable squabbles of the clergy. You have +trembled with all good citizens at the sight of the +tragical effects which have been brought about by +the furious wickedness of a fanaticism for which +nothing is sacred. In fine, you have seen the sovereign +authority compelled to struggle incessantly +against rebellious subjects, who pretend that their +conscience or the interests of religion have obliged +them to resist opinions the most agreeable to common +sense, and the most equitable. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our fathers, more religious and less enlightened +than ourselves, were witnesses of scenes yet more +terrible. They saw civil wars, leagues openly +formed against their sovereign, and the capital +submerged in the blood of murdered citizens; two +monarchs successively immolated to the fury of the +clergy, who kindled in all parts the fire of sedition. +They afterwards saw kings at war with their own +subjects; a famous sovereign, Louis XIV., tarnishing +all his glory by persecuting, contrary to the +faith of treaties, subjects who would have lived +tranquil, if they had only been allowed to enjoy in +peace the liberty of conscience; and they saw, in +fine, this same prince, the dupe of a false policy, +dictated by intolerance, banish, along with the +exiled Protestants, the industry of his states, and +forcing the arts and manufactures of our nation to +take refuge in the dominions of our most implacable +enemies.</p> + +<p>We see religion throughout Europe, without cessation, +exerting a baleful influence upon temporal +affairs; we see it direct the interests of princes; +we see it divide and make Christian nations enemies +of each other, because their spiritual guides +do not all entertain the same opinions. Germany +is divided into two religious parties whose interests +are perpetually at variance. We every where perceive +that Protestants are born the enemies of the +Catholics, and are always in antagonism to them; +while, on the other hand, the Catholics are leagued +with their priests against all those whose mode of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +thinking is less abject and less servile than their +own.</p> + +<p>Behold, Madam, the signal advantages that nations +derive from religion! But we are certain to +be told that these terrible effects are due to the passions +of men, and not to the Christian religion, +which incessantly inculcates charity, concord, indulgence, +and peace. If, however, we reflect even +a moment on the principles of this religion, we +should immediately perceive that they are incompatible +with the fine maxims that have never been +practised by the Christian priests, except when they +lacked the power to persecute their enemies and +inflict upon them the weight of their rage. The +adorers of a jealous God, vindictive and sanguinary, +as is obviously the character of the God of the +Jews and Christians, could not evince in their conduct +moderation, tranquillity, and humanity. The +adorers of a God who takes offence at the opinions +of his weak creatures, who reprobates and glories +in the extermination of all who do not worship him +in a particular way, for the which, by the by, he +gives them neither the means nor the inclination, +must necessarily be intolerant persecutors. The +adorers of a God who has not thought fit to illuminate +with an equal portion of light the minds of +all his creatures, who reveals his favor and bestows +his kindness on a few only of those creatures, who +leaves the remainder in blindness and uncertainty +to follow their passions, or adopt opinions against +which the favored wage war, must of necessity be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +eternally at odds with the rest of the world, canting +about their oracles and mysteries, supernatural precepts, +invented purely to torment the human mind, +to enthral it, and leave man answerable for what he +could not obey, and punishable for what he was +restrained from performing. We need not then be +astonished if, since the origin of Christianity, our +priests have never been a single moment without +disputes. It appears that God only sent his Son +upon earth that his marvellous doctrines might +prove an apple of discord both for his priests and +his adorers. The ministers of a church founded by +Christ himself, who promised to send them his +Holy Spirit to lead them into all the truth, have +never been in unison with their dogmas. We have +seen this infallible church for whole ages enveloped +in error. You know, Madam, that in the fourth +century, by the acknowledgment of the priests +themselves, the great body of the church followed +the opinions of the Arians, who disavowed even +the divinity of Jesus Christ. The spirit of God +must then have abandoned his church; else why +did its ministers fall into this error, and dispute +afterwards about so fundamental a dogma of the +Christian religion?</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding these continual quarrels, the +church arrogates to itself the right of fixing the +faith of the <i>true believers</i>, and in this it pretends to +infallibility; and if the Protestant parsons have +renounced the lofty and ridiculous pretensions of +their Catholic brethren, they are not less certain in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +the infallibility of their decisions; for they talk +with the authority of oracles, and send to hell and +damnation all who do not yield submission to their +dogmas. Thus on both sides of the cross they +wish their assertions to be received by their adherents +as if they came direct from heaven. The +priests have always been at discord among themselves, +and have perpetually cursed, anathematized, +and doomed each other to hell. The vanity of each +holy clique has caused it to adhere obstinately to its +own peculiar opinions, and to treat its adversaries +as heretics. Violence alone has generally decided +the discussions, terminated the disputes, and fixed +the standard of belief. Those pugnacious, brawling +priests who were artful enough to enlist sovereigns +on their side were <i>orthodox</i>, or, in other +words, boasted that they were the exclusive possessors +of the true doctrine. They made use of +their credit to crush their adversaries, whom they +always treated with the greatest barbarity.</p> + +<p>But, after all, whatever the clergy may say, we +shall find, even with a small share of attention, +that it has ever been kings and emperors who, in +the last resort, fixed the faith of the disputatious +Christians. It has been by downright blows of +the sword that those theological notions most +pleasing to the Deity have been sustained in all +countries. The true belief has invariably been that +which had princes for its adherents. The faithful +were those who had strength sufficient to exterminate +their enemies, whom they never failed to treat +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +as the enemies of God. In a word, princes have +been truly infallible; we should regard them as the +true founders of religious faith; they are the judges +who have decided, in all ages, what doctrines should +be admitted or rejected; and they are, in fine, the +authorities which have always fixed the religion +of their subjects.</p> + +<p>Ever since Christianity has been adopted by +some nations, have we not seen that religion has +almost entirely occupied the attention of sovereigns? +Either the princes, blinded by superstition, +were devoted to the priests, or the rulers of +nations believed that prudence exacted a concession +on their part to the clergy, the true masters +of their people, who considered nothing more +sacred or more great than the ministers of their +God. In neither case was the body politic ever +consulted; it was cowardly sacrificed to the interests +of the court, or the vanity and luxury of the +priests. It is by a continuation of superstition on +the part of the princes that we behold the church so +richly endowed in times of ignorance; when men +believed they would enrich Deity by putting all their +wealth into the hands of the priests of a good God +the declared enemy of riches. Savage warriors, destitute +of the manners of men, flattered themselves +that they could expiate all their sins by founding +monasteries and giving immense wealth to a set +of men who had made vows of poverty. It was +believed that they would merit from the All-powerful +a great advantage by recompensing laziness, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +which, in the priests, was regarded as a great good, +and that the blessings procured by their prayers +would be in proportion to the continual and pressing +demands their poverty made on the wealthy. +It is thus that by the superstition of princes, by +that of the powerful classes, and of the people +themselves, the clergy have become opulent and +powerful; that monachism was honored, and citizens +the most useless, the least submissive, and the +most dangerous, were the best recompensed, the +most considered, and the best paid. They were +loaded with benefits, privileges, and immunities; +they enjoyed independence, and they had that great +power which flowed from so great license. Thus +were priests placed above sovereigns themselves by +the imprudent devotion of the latter, and the former +were enabled to give the law and trouble the +state with impunity.</p> + +<p>The clergy, arrived at this elevation of power and +grandeur, became redoubtable even to monarchs. +They were obliged to bend under the yoke or be +at way with clerical power. When the sovereigns +yielded, they became mere slaves to the priests, the +instruments of their passions, and the vile adorers +of their power. When they refused to yield, the +priests involved them in the most cruel embarrassments; +they launched against them the anathemas +of the church; the people were incited against +them in the name of heaven; the nations divided +themselves between the celestial and the terrestrial +monarch, and the latter was reduced to great extremities +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +to sustain a throne which the priests could +shake or even destroy at pleasure. There was a +time in Europe when both the welfare of the prince +and the repose of his kingdom depended solely +upon the caprice of a priest. In these times of +ignorance, of devotion, and of commotions so favorable +to the clergy, a weak and poor monarch, +surrounded by a miserable nation, was at the mercy +of a Roman pontiff, who could at any instant +destroy his felicity, excite his subjects against him, +and precipitate him into the abyss of misery.</p> + +<p>In general, Madam, we find that in countries +where religion holds dominion, the sovereign is +necessarily dependent upon the priests; he has no +power except by the consent of the clergy; that +power disappears as soon as he displeases the self-styled +vicegerents of God, who are very soon able +to array his subjects against him. The people, in +accordance with the principles of their religion, +cannot hesitate between God and their sovereign. +God never says any thing except what his priests +say for him; and the ignorance and folly in which +they are kept by their spiritual guides prevent them +from inquiring whether God's ambassadors faithfully +render his decrees.</p> + +<p>Conclude, then, with me, that the interests of a +sovereign who would rule equitably are unable to +accord with those of the ministers of the Christian +religion, who in all ages have been the most turbulent +citizens, the most rebellious, the most difficult +to render subservient to law and order, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +whose resistance has extended to the very assassination +of obnoxious rulers. We shall be told that +Christianity is a firm support of government; that +it regards magistrates as the images of the Deity; +and that it teaches that <i>all power comes from on +high</i>. These maxims of the clergy are, however, +best calculated to lull kings on the couch of slumber; +they are calculated to flatter those on whom +the clergy can rely, and who will serve their ambition; +and their flatterers can soon change their +tone when the princes have the temerity to question +the pernicious tendency of priestly influence, +or when they do not blindly lend themselves to all +their views. Then the sovereign is an impious +wretch, a heretic; his destruction is laudable; +heaven rejoices in his overthrow. And all this is +the religion of the Bible!</p> + +<p>You know, Madam, that these odious maxims +have been a thousand times enforced by the priests, +who say the prince has <i>encroached upon the authority +of the church</i>; and the people respond that <i>it is +better to obey God than man</i>. The priests are only +devoted to the princes when the princes are blindly +led by the priests. These last preach arrogantly +that the former ought to be exterminated, when +they refuse to obey the church, that is to say, the +priests; yet, how terrible soever may be these +maxims, how dangerous soever their practice to the +security of the sovereign and the tranquillity of +the state, they are the immediate consequences +drawn from Judaism and Christianity. We find +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +in the Old Testament that the regicide is applauded; +that treason and rebellion are approved. As +soon as it is supposed that God is offended with +the thoughts of men,—as soon as it is supposed +that heretics are displeasing to him,—it is very +natural to conclude that an impious and heretical +sovereign, that is to say, one who does not obey a +clerical body that set themselves up as the directors +of his belief, who opposes the sacred views of +an infallible church, and who might occasion the +loss and apostasy of a large part of the nation,—it +is natural that the priests should conclude it to +be legitimate for subjects to attack such a prince, +alleging their religion to be the most important +thing in the world, and dearer than life itself. Actuated +by such principles, it is impossible that a +Christian zealot should not think he rendered a +service to heaven by punishing its enemy, and a +service to his country by disembarrassing it of +a chief who might interpose an obstacle to his +eternal happiness.</p> + +<p>The obedience of the clergy is never otherwise +than conditional. The priests submit to a prince, +they flatter his power, and they sustain his authority, +provided he submits to their orders, makes no +obstacles to their projects, touches none of their +interests, and changes none of the dogmas upon +which the ministers of the church have founded +their own grandeur. In fine, provided a government +recognizes, as divine, clerical privileges that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +are plainly opposed to popular rights, and tend to +subvert them, the hierarchy will submit to it.</p> + +<p>These considerations prove how dangerous are +the priesthood, since the end they purpose by all +their projects is dominion over the mind of mankind, +and by subjugating it to enslave their persons, +and render them the creatures of despotism +and tyranny. And we shall find, upon examination, +that, with one or two exceptions, the pious +have been the enemies of the progress of science +and the development of the human understanding; +for by brutalizing mankind they have invariably +striven to bind them to their yoke. Their avarice, +their thirst of power and wealth, have led them to +plunge their fellow-citizens in ignorance, in misery, +and unhappiness. They discourage the cultivation +of the earth by their system of tithes, their extortions, +and their secret projects; they annihilate +activity, talents, and industry; their pride is to +reign on the ruin of the rest of their species. The +finest countries in Europe have, when blindly submissive +to the priest, been the worst cultivated, +the thinnest peopled, and the most wretched. The +<i>Inquisition</i> in Spain, Italy, and Portugal has only +tended to impoverish those countries, to debase the +mind, and render their subjects the veriest slaves +of superstition. And in countries where we see +heaven showering down abundance, the people are +poor and famished, while the priests and monks +are opulent and bloated. Their kings are without +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +power and without glory; their subjects languish +in indigence and wretchedness.</p> + +<p>The priests boast of the utility of their office. +Independently of their prayers, from which the +world has for so many ages derived neither instruction +nor peace, prosperity nor happiness, their pretensions +to teach the rising generations are often +frivolous, and sometimes arrogant, since we have +found others equally well calculated to the discharge +of those functions, who have been good +citizens, that have not drawn from the pockets of +their neighbors the tenth of their earnings. Thus, +in what light soever we view them, the pretensions +of the priests are reduced to a nonentity, compared +to the disservice they render the community by +their exactions and dissolute lives.</p> + +<p>In what consists, in effect, the education that +our spiritual guides have, unhappily for society, +assumed the vocation of imparting to youth? +Does it tend to make reasonable, courageous, and +virtuous citizens? No; it is incontestable that it +creates ignoble men, whose entire lives are tormented +with imaginary terrors; it creates superstitious +slaves, who only possess monastic virtues, +and who, if they follow faithfully the instructions +of their masters, must be perfectly useless to society; +it forms intolerant devotees, ready to detest +all those who do not think like themselves; and it +makes fanatics, who are ready to rebel against any +government as soon as they are persuaded it is +rebellious to the church. What do the priests +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +teach their pupils? They cause them to lose +much precious time in reciting prayers, in mechanically +repeating theological dogmas, of which, even +in mature life, they comprehend nothing. They +teach them the dead languages, which, at the best, +only serve for entertainment, being by no means +necessary in the present form of society. They +terminate these fine studies by a philosophy which, +in clerical hands, has become a mere play of words, +a jargon void of sense, and which is exactly calculated +to fit them for the unintelligible science called +<i>theology</i>. But is this theology itself useful to nations? +Are the interminable disputes which arise +between profound metaphysicians of such a character +as to be interesting to the people who do not +comprehend them? Are the people of Paris and +the provinces much advanced in heavenly knowledge +when the priests dispute among themselves +about what should really be thought of grace?</p> + +<p>In regard to the instruction imparted by the +clergy, it is indeed necessary to have faith in order +to discover its utility. Their boasted instruction +consists in teaching ineffable mysteries, marvellous +dogmas, narrations and fables perfectly ridiculous, +panic terrors, fanatical and lugubrious predictions, +frightful menaces, and above all, systems so profound +that they who announce are not able to +comprehend them. In truth, Madam, in all this I +can see nothing useful. Should nations feel any +extraordinary obligations to teachers who concoct +doctrines that must always remain impenetrable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +for the whole human race? It must be confessed +that our priests, who so painfully occupy themselves +in arranging a pure creed for us, must signally +lose all their labor. At any rate, the people +are not much in the situation to profit by such +sublime toils. Very frequently the pulpit becomes +the theatre of discord; the sacred disclaimers launch +injuries at each other, infusing their own passions +into the bosoms of their <i>Christian</i> auditors, kindling +their zeal against the enemies of the church, +and becoming themselves the trumpets of party +spirit, fury, and sedition. If these preachers teach +morality, it is a kind of supernatural morality, little +adapted to the nature of man. If they inculcate +virtue, it is that theological virtue whose inutility +we have sufficiently shown. If by chance some +one among them allows himself to preach that +morality and virtue which is practical, human, and +social, you know, Madam, that he is proscribed by +his confederates, and becomes an object of their +acrimonious criticisms and their deadly hatred. +He is also disdained by devotees who are attached +to evangelical virtues that they cannot comprehend, +and who consider nothing as more important +than mysterious forms and ceremonies, in which +zealots make morality to consist.</p> + +<p>See, then, in what limits are entertained the important +services that the ministers of the Lord have +for so many centuries rendered to nations! They +are not worth, in all conscience, the excessive price +which is paid for them. On the contrary, if priests +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +were treated according to their real merit, if their +functions were appreciated at their just value, it +would, perhaps, be found that they did not merit a +larger salary than those empirics who, at the corners +of the streets, vend remedies more dangerous +than the evils they promise to cure.</p> + +<p>It is by subjecting the immense revenues, lands, +abbeys, and estates, which clerical bodies have +levied upon the credulity of men, to just and equal +taxation, as with other property; it is by rendering +the church and state entirely distinct; it is by +stripping the hierarchy of immunities not possessed +by other citizens, and of privileges both chimerical +and injurious; it is by rigorously exacting the same +civil obedience alike from priests and people,—that +government can be rightly administered, that +justice can be impartially rendered, and that the +nation, as a whole, can be trained to courage, +activity, industry, intelligence, tranquillity, and patriotism. +So long as there are two powers in a +state, they will necessarily be at variance, and the +one which arrogates the favor of the Almighty will +have immense advantages over that which claims +no authority above the earth. If both pretend to +emanate from the same source, the people would +not know which to believe; they would range +themselves on each side; the combat would be +furious, and the power of the government would +be unable to maintain itself against the many +heads of the ecclesiastical hydra. The magicians +of Pharaoh yielded to the Jewish priests, and in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +conflicts between the church and state, the immunities +of the priests,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Like Aaron's serpent, swallowed all the rest."</p></div> + +<p>If such is the case, you will inquire, Madam, how +can an enlightened civil power ever make obedient +citizens of rebellious priests, who have so long possessed +the confidence of the people, and who can +with impunity render themselves formidable to any +government? I reply, that in spite of the vigilant +cares and the redoubled efforts of the priesthood, +the people have begun to be more enlightened; +they are becoming weary of the heavy yoke, which +they would not have borne so long had they not +believed it was imposed upon them by the Most +High, and that it was necessary to their happiness. +It is impossible for error to be eternal; it must +give way to the power of truth. The priests, who +think, know this well, and the whole ecclesiastical +body continually declaim against all those who +wish to enlighten the human race and unveil the +conspiracies of their spiritual guides. They fear +the piercing eyes of philosophy; they fear the +reign of reason, which will never be that of tyranny +or anarchy. Governments, then, ought not to share +the fears of the clergy, nor render themselves the +executors of their vengeance; they injure themselves +when they sustain the cause of their turbulent +rivals, who have ever been the enemies of civil +polity and perturbers of the public repose. The +magistrates of a state league themselves with their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +enemies when they form an alliance with the +priesthood, or prevent the people from recognizing +their errors.</p> + +<p>Governments are more interested than individuals +in the destruction of errors that often lead to +confusion, anarchy, and rebellion. If men had not +become gradually enlightened, nations would now, +as formerly, be under the yoke of the Roman pontiff, +who could occasion revolution in their midst, +overturn the laws, and subvert the government. +But for the insensible progress of reason, states +would now be filled with a tumultuous crowd of +devotees, ready to revolt at the signal of an unquiet +priest or a seditious monk.</p> + +<p>You perceive, then, Madam, that men who think, +and who teach others to think, are more useful to +governments than those who wish to stifle reason +and to proscribe forever the liberty of thought. +You see that the true friends of a stable government +are those who seek most sedulously to enlighten, +educate, and elevate the people. You feel +that by banishing knowledge and persecuting philosophy, +government sacrifices its dearest interests +to a seditious clergy, whose ambition and avarice +push them to usurp boundless authority, and whose +pride always makes them indignant at being in +subjection to a power which they contend should +be subordinate to themselves.</p> + +<p>There is no priest who does not consider himself +superior to the highest ruler of any country. +We have often seen the priesthood avow pretensions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +of this character. The clergy are always +enraged when an attempt is made to subject them +to the secular power. Such an attempt they regard +as profane, and they denounce it as tyranny +whenever it is sought to be enforced. They pretend +that in all times the priesthood has been +sacred, that its rights come from God himself, and +that no government can, without sacrilege, or without +outraging the Divinity, touch the property, the +privileges, or the immunities which have been +snatched from ignorance and credulity. Whenever +the civil authority would touch the objects considered +inviolable and sacred in the hands of the +priests, their clamors cannot be appeased; they +make efforts to excite the people against the government; +they denounce all authority as tyrannical +when it has the temerity to think of subjecting +them to the laws, of reforming their abuses, and +neutralizing their power to injure. But they consider +authority legitimate when it crushes <i>their</i> +enemies, though it appears insupportable as soon +as it is reasonable and favorable to the people.</p> + +<p>The priests are essentially the most wicked of +men, and the worst citizens of a state. A miracle +would be necessary to render them otherwise. In +all countries they are the <i>spoiled children</i> of nations. +They are proud and haughty, since they +pretend it is from God himself they received their +mission and their power. They are ingrates, since +they assume to owe only to God benefits which +they visibly hold from the generosity of governments +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +and the people. They are audacious, because +for many ages they have enjoyed supremacy +with impunity. They are unquiet and turbulent, +because they are never without the desire of playing +a great part. They are quarrelsome and factious, +because they are never able to find out a +method of enabling men to understand the pretended +truths they teach. They are suspicious, +defiant, and cruel, because they sensibly feel that +they may well dread the discovery of their impostures. +They are the spontaneous enemies of truth, +because they justly apprehend it will annihilate +their pretensions. They are implacable in their +vengeance, because it would be dangerous to pardon +those who wish to crush their doctrines, whose +weakness they know. They are hypocrites, because +most of them possess too much sense to believe +the reveries they retail to others. They are +obstinate in their ideas, because they are inflated +with vanity, and because they could not consistently +deviate from a method of thinking of which +they pretend God is the author. We often see +them unbridled and licentious in their manners, because +it is impossible that idleness, effeminacy, and +luxury should not corrupt the heart. We sometimes +see them austere and rigid in their conduct +in order to impose on the people and accomplish +their ambitious views. If they are hypocrites and +rogues, they are extremely dangerous; and if they +are fanatical in good faith, or imbecile, they are not +less to be feared. In fine, we almost always see +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +them rebellious and seditious, because an authority +derived from God is not disposed to bend to authority +derived from men.</p> + +<p>You have here, Madam, a faithful portrait of the +members of a powerful body, in whose favor governments, +for a long time, have believed it their +duty to sacrifice the other interests of the state. +You here see the citizens whom prejudice most +richly recompenses, whom princes honor in the eyes +of the people, to whom they give their confidence, +whom they regard as the support of their power, +and whom they consider as necessary to the happiness +and security of their kingdoms. You can +judge yourself whether the likeness delineated is +correct. You are in a position to discover their intrigues, +their underplots, their conduct, and their +discourse, and you will always find that their constant +object is to flatter princes for the purpose of +governing them and keeping nations in slavery.</p> + +<p>It is to please citizens so dangerous that sovereigns +mingle in theological questions, take the part +of those who succeed in seducing them, persecute +all those who do not submit, proscribe with fury +the friends of reason, and by repressing knowledge +injure their own power. Because the priests, who +urge princes to sacrilege when they combat for +them, are indignant against the same princes when +they refuse to destroy the enemies of their own +particular clerical body. They likewise denounce +sovereigns as impious if the latter treat theological +disputes with the indifference they merit. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>When hereafter, reclaimed from their prejudices, +princes wish to govern for the good of all, let them +cease to hear the interested and often sanguinary +councils of these pretended divine men, who, regarding +themselves as the centre of all things, wish +to have sacrificed for this object the happiness, the +repose, the riches, and the honors of the state. +Let the sovereign never enter into their dissensions, +let him never persecute for religious opinions, +which, among sectaries, are commonly on both +sides equally ridiculous and destitute of foundation. +They would never involve the government +if the sovereign had not the weakness to mingle in +them. Let him give unlimited freedom to the +course of thinking, while he directs by just laws the +course of acting on the part of his subjects. Let +him permit every one to dream or speculate as he +pleases, provided he conducts himself otherwise as +an honest man and a good citizen. At least let +the prince not oppose the progress of knowledge, +which alone is capable of extricating his people +from ignorance, barbarity, and superstition, which +have made victims of so many Christian rulers. +Let him be assured that enlightened and instructed +citizens are more law-abiding, industrious, and +peaceable than stupid slaves without knowledge +and without reason, who will always be ready to +take all the passions with which a fanatic wishes +to inspire them.</p> + +<p>Let the sovereign especially occupy himself with +the education of his subjects, nor leave the clergy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +unobstructedly to impregnate his people with mystic +notions, foolish reveries, and superstitious practices, +which are only proper for fanatics. Let him +at least counterbalance the inculcation of these follies +by teaching a morality conformable to the good +of the state, useful to the happiness of its members, +and social and reasonable. This morality +would inform a man what he owed to himself, to +society, to his fellow-citizens, and to the magistrates +who administered the laws. This morality +would not form men who would hate each other +for speculative opinions, nor dangerous enthusiasts, +nor devotees blindly submissive to the priests. It +would create a tranquil, intelligent, and industrious +community; a body of inhabitants submissive to +reason and obedient to just and legitimate authority. +In a word, from such morality would spring +virtuous men and good citizens, and it would be the +surest antidote against superstition and fanaticism.</p> + +<p>In this manner the empire of the clergy would be +diminished, and the sovereign would have a less +portentous rival; he would, without opposition, be +assured of all rational and enlightened citizens; +the riches of the clergy would in part reënter society, +and be of use in benefiting the people; institutions +now useless would be put to advantageous +uses; a portion of the possessions of the church, +originally destined for the poor, and so long appropriated +by avaricious priests, would come into the +hands of the suffering and the indigent, their legitimate +proprietors. Supported by a nation who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +were sensible of the advantages he had procured +them, the prince would no longer fear the cries of +fanaticism, and they would soon be no longer +heard. The priests, the lazy monks, and turbulent +persons living in forced celibacy, could no longer +calculate on the future, and, aliens in the state +which nourished them, they would visibly diminish. +The government, more rich and powerful, would +be in a better situation to diffuse its benefits; and +enlightened, virtuous, and beneficent men would +constitute the support, the glory, and the grandeur +of the state.</p> + +<p>Such, Madam, are the ends which all governments +would propose who opened their eyes to +their own true interests. I flatter myself that these +designs will not appear to you either impossible or +chimerical. Knowledge and science, which begin +to be generally diffused, are already advancing +these results; they are giving an impulse to the +march of the human mind, and in time, governments +and people, without tumult or revolution, +will be freed from the yoke which has oppressed +them so long.</p> + +<p>Do we see any thing useful in the pious endowments +of our ancestors? We find them to consist +of institutions invented to continue a lazy, monastic +life; costly temples elevated and enriched by +indigent people to augment the pride of the priests, +and to erect altars and palaces. From the foundation +of Christianity the whole object of religion has +been to aggrandize the priesthood on the ruins of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +nations and governments. A jealous religion has +exclusively seized on the minds of men, and persuaded +them that they live upon earth merely to +occupy themselves with their future happiness in +the unknown regions of the empyrean. It is time +that this prestige should cease; it is time that the +human race should occupy itself with its own true +interests. The interests of the people will always +be incompatible with those of the guides who believe +they have acquired an imprescriptible right to +lead men astray. The more you examine the +Christian religion, the more will you be convinced +that it can be advantageous only to those whose +object it is easily to guide mankind after having +plunged them into darkness. I am, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_X" id="LETTER_X"></a>Letter X.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the Advantages Religion confers on those who +profess it.</p></div> + + +<p>I dare flatter myself, Madam, that I have clearly +demonstrated to you, that the Christian religion, +far from being the support of sovereign authority, +is its greatest enemy; and of having plainly convinced +you, that its ministers are, by the very nature +of their functions, the rivals of kings, and adversaries +the most to be feared by all who value or +exercise temporal power. In a word, I think I have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +persuaded you, that society might, without damage, +dispense with the services they render, or at least +dispense with paying for them so extravagantly.</p> + +<p>Let us now examine the advantages which this +religion procures to individuals, who are most +strongly convinced of its pretended truths, and who +conform the most rigidly to its precepts. Let us +see if it is calculated to render its disciples more +contented, more happy, and more virtuous than +they would be without the burden of its ministers.</p> + +<p>To decide the question, it is sufficient to look +around us, and to consider the effects that religion +produces on minds really penetrated with its pretended +truths. We shall generally find in those +who the most sincerely profess and the most exactly +practise them, a joyless and melancholy disposition, +which announces no contentment, nor that +interior peace of which they speak so incessantly, +without ever exhibiting any undoubted manifestations +of it. Whoever is in the enjoyment of peace +within, shows some exterior marks of it; but the +internal satisfaction of devotees is commonly so +concealed, that we may well suspect it of being +nothing but a mere chimera. Their interior peace, +which they allege gives them a good conscience, +is visible to others only by a bilious and petulant +humor, that is not usually much applauded by those +who come under its influence. If, however, there +are occasionally some devotees who actually display +the serene countenance of satisfaction and +enjoyment, it is because the dismal ideas of religion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +are rendered inoperative by a happy temperament; +or that such persons have not fully become impregnated +with their system of faith, whose legitimate +effect is to plunge its devotees into terrible +inquietudes and sombre chagrins.</p> + +<p>Thus, Madam, we are brought back to the contradictory +discourses of those priests who, after +having caused terror by their desolating dogmas, +attempt to reassure us by vague hopes, and exhort +us to place confidence in a God whom they have +themselves so repulsively delineated. It is idle for +them to tell us the yoke of Jesus Christ is light. It +is insupportable to those who consider it properly. +It is only light for those who bear it without reflection, +or for those who assume it in order to impose +it upon others, without intending to suffer its +annoyances themselves.</p> + +<p>Suffer me, Madam, to refer you to yourself. +Were you happy, contented, or gay, when you +made me the depository of the secret inquietudes +inflicted upon you by prejudices, and which had +commenced taking that fatal empire over your mind +which I have endeavored to destroy? Was not +your soul involved in woe in spite of your judgment? +Were you not taking measures to wither +all your happiness? In favor of religion, were you +not ready to renounce the world, and disregard all +you owe to society? If I was afflicted, I was not +surprised. The Christian religion inevitably destroys +the happiness and repose of those who are +subjected by it; alarms and terrors are the objects +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +of its pleasures; it cannot make those happy who +fully receive it. It would certainly have plunged +you into distress. All your faculties would have +been injured, and your too susceptible imagination +would have been carried to such dangerous extremes, +that many others would have grieved at the +result. A gentle and beneficent spirit, like yours, +could never receive peace from Christianity. The +evils of religion are sure, while its consolations are +contradictory and vague. They cannot give that +temper and tranquillity to the mind which is necessary +to enable men to labor for their own happiness +and that of others.</p> + +<p>In effect, as I have already observed, it is very +difficult for an individual to occupy himself with +the happiness of another when he is himself miserable. +The devotee, who imposes penances on his +own head, who is suspicious of every thing, who is +full of self-reproaches, and who is heated by visionary +meditation, by fasting and seclusion, must +naturally be irritated against all those who do not +believe it their duty to make such absurd sacrifices. +He can scarcely avoid being enraged at those +audacious persons who neglect practices or duties +that are claimed as the exactions of God. He will +desire to be with those only who view things as he +does himself; he will keep himself apart from all +others, and will end by hating them. He believes +himself obliged to make a loud and public parade +of his mode of thinking, and he signalizes his zeal +even at the risk of appearing ridiculous. If he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +showed indulgence, he would doubtless fear he +should render himself an accomplice in a neglect of +his God. He would reprehend such sinners, and it +would be with acrimony, because his own soul +was filled with it. In fine, if zealous, he would +always be under the dominion of anger, and would +only be indulgent in proportion as he was not +bigoted.</p> + +<p>Religious devotion tends to arouse fierce sentiments, +that sooner or later manifest themselves in a +manner disagreeable for others. The mystical devotees +clearly illustrate this. They are vexed with +the world, and it could not exist if the extravagances +required by religion were altogether carried +out. The world cannot be united to Jesus Christ. +God demands our entire heart, and nothing is allowed +to remain for his weak creatures. To produce +the little zeal for heaven which Christians +have, it is requisite to torment them, and thus lead +them to the practice of those marvellous virtues in +which they imagine is placed all their safety. A +strange religion, which, practised in all its rigor, +would drag society to ruin! The sincere devotee +proposes impossible attainments, of which human +nature is not capable; and as, in spite of all his +endeavors, he is unable to succeed in their acquisition, +he is always discontented with himself. He +regards himself as the object of God's anger; he +reproaches himself with all that he does; he suffers +remorse for all the pleasures he experiences, and +fears that they may occasion a fall from grace. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +For his greater security, he often avoids society +which may at any moment turn him from his pretended +duties, excite him to sin, and render him +the witness or accomplice of what is offensive to +zealots. In fine, if the devotee is very zealous, he +cannot prevent himself from avoiding or detesting +beings, who, according to his gloomy notions of +religion, are perpetually occupied in irritating God. +On the other hand, you know, Madam, that it is +chagrin and melancholy that lead to devotion. It +is usually not till the world abandons and displeases +men that they have recourse to heaven; +it is in the arms of religion that the ambitious seek +to console themselves for their disgraces and disappointed +projects; dissolute and loose women +turn devotees when the world discards them, and +they offer to God hearts wasted, and charms that +are no longer in repute. The ruin of their attractions +admonishes them that their empire is no +longer of this world; filled with vexation, consumed +with chagrin, and irritated against a society where +they were deprived of enacting an agreeable part, +they yield themselves up to devotion, and distinguish +themselves by religious follies, after having +run the race of fashionable vices, and been engaged +in worldly scandals. With rancor in their hearts, +they offer a gloomy adoration to a God who indemnifies +them most miserably for their ascetic +worship. In a word, it is passion, affliction, and +despair to which most conversions must be attributed; +and they are persons of such character +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +who deliver themselves to the priests, and these +mental aberrations and physical afflictions are the +marvellous strokes of grace of which God makes +use to lead men to himself.</p> + +<p>It is not, then, surprising if we see persons subject +to this devotion most commonly ruled by sorrow +and passion. These mental moods are perpetually +aggravated by religion, which is exactly +calculated to imbitter more and more the souls +thus filled with vexations. The conversation of a +spiritual director is a weak consolation for the loss +of a lover; the remote and flattering hopes of +another world rarely make up for the realities of +this; nor do the fictitious occupations of religion +suffice to satisfy souls accustomed to intrigues, +dissipation, and scandalous pleasures.</p> + +<p>Thus, Madam, we see that the effects of these +brilliant conversions, so well adapted to give pleasure +to the Omnipotent and to his court, present +nothing advantageous for the inhabitants of this +lower world. If the changes produced by grace +do not render those more happy upon whom they +are operated, they cannot cause much admiration +on the part of those who witness them. Indeed, +what advantages does society reap from the +greater part of conversions? Do the persons so +touched by grace become better? Do they make +amends for the evil they have done, or are they +heartily and generously engaged in doing good to +those by whom they are surrounded? A mistress, +for example, who has been arrogant and proud,—does +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +conversion render her humble and gentle? +Does the unjust and cruel man recompense those +to whom he has done evil? Does the robber +return to society the property of which he has +plundered it? Does the dissipated and licentious +woman repair by her vigilant cares the wrongs that +her disorders and dissipations have occasioned? +No, far from it. These persons so touched and +converted by God ordinarily content themselves +with praying, fasting, religious offerings, frequenting +churches, clamoring in favor of their priests, +intriguing to sustain a sect, decrying all who disagree +with their particular spiritual director, and +exhibiting an ardent and ridiculous zeal for questions +that they do not understand. In this manner +they imagine they get absolution from God, and +give indemnification to men; but society gains +nothing from their miraculous conversion. On the +other hand, devotion often exalts, infuriates, and +strengthens the passions which formerly animated +the converts. It turns these passions to new objects, +and religion justifies the intolerant and cruel +excesses into which they rush for the interest of +their sect. It is thus that an ambitious personage +becomes a proud and turbulent fanatic, and believes +himself justified by his zeal; it is thus that +a disgraced courtier cabals in the name of heaven +against his own enemies; and it is thus that a +malignant and vindictive man, under the pretext of +avenging God, seeks the means of avenging himself. +Thus, also, it happens that a woman, to indemnify +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +herself for having quitted rouge, considers +she has the right to outrage with her acrid humor +a husband whom she had previously, in a different +manner, outraged many times. She piously denounces +those who allow themselves the indulgence +of the most innocent pleasures; in the belief +of manifesting religious earnestness, she exhales +downright passion, envy, jealousy, and spite; and +in lending herself warmly to the interests of +heaven she shows an excess of ignorance, insanity, +and credulity.</p> + +<p>But is it necessary, Madam, to insist upon this? +You live in a country where you see many devotees, +and few virtuous people among them. If +you will but slightly examine the matter, you will +find that among these persons so persuaded of +their religion, so convinced of its importance and +utility, who speak incessantly of its consolations, +its sweets, and its virtues,—you will find that +among these persons there are very few who are +rendered happier, and yet fewer who are rendered +better. Are they vividly penetrated with the sentiments +of their afflicting and terrible religion? You +will find them atrabilious, disobliging, and fierce. +Are they more lightly affected by their creed? You +will then find them less bigoted, more beneficent, +social, and kind. The religion of the court, as you +know, is a continual mixture of devotion and pleasure, +a circle of the exercises of piety and dissipation, +of momentary fervor and continuous irregularities. +This religion connects Jesus Christ with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +the pomps of Satan. We there see sumptuous +display, pride, ambition, intrigue, vengeance, envy, +and libertinism all amalgamated with a religion +whose <i>maxims</i> are austere. Pious casuists, interested +for the great, approve this alliance, and give +the lie to their own religion in order to derive advantage +from circumstances and from the passions +and vices of men. If these court divines were too +rigid, they would affright their fashionable disciples +seeking to reach heaven on "flowery beds of +ease," and who embrace religion with the understanding +that they are to be allowed no inconsiderable +latitude. This is doubtless the reason why +Jansenism, which wished to renew the austere +principles of primitive Christianity, obtained no +general influence at the Parisian court. The +monkish precepts of early Christianity could only +suit men of the temper of those who first embraced +it. They were adapted for persons who were abject, +bilious, and discontented, who, deprived of +luxury, power, and honors, became the enemies of +grandeurs from which they were excluded. The +devotees had the art of making a merit of their +aversion and disdain for what they could not +obtain.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, a Christian, in consonance with his +principles, should "take no thought for the morrow;" +should have no individual possessions; should flee +from the world and its pomps; should give his +coat to the thief who stole his cloak; and, if smitten +on one cheek, should turn the other to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +aggressor. It is upon Stoicism that religious fanatics +built their gloomy philosophy. The so-called +perfections which Christianity proposes place man +in a perpetual war with himself, and must render +him miserable. The true Christian is an enemy +both of himself and the human race, and for his +own consistency should live secluded in darkness, +like an owl. His religion renders him essentially +unsocial, and as useless to himself as he is disagreeable +to others. What advantage can society +receive from a man who trembles without cessation, +who is in a state of superstitious penance, +who prays, and who indulges in solitude? Or +what better is the devotee who flies from the world +and deprives himself even of innocent pleasures, in +the fear that God might damn him for participation +in them?</p> + +<p>What results from these maxims of a moral +fanaticism? It happens that laws so atrocious +and cruel are enacted, that bigots alone are willing +to execute them. Yes, Madam, blameless as you +know my whole life to have been, consonant to +integrity and honesty as you know my conduct to +be, and free as I have ever been from intolerance, +my existence would be endangered were these letters +I am now writing to you to appear in print, or +even be circulated in manuscript with my name +attached to them as author. Yes, Christians have +made laws, now dominant here in France, which +would tie me to the stake, consume my body with +fire, bore my tongue with a red hot iron, deprive +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +me of sepulture, strip my family of my property, +and for no other cause than for my opinions concerning +Christianity and the Bible. Such is the +horrid cruelty engendered by Christianity. It has +sometimes been called in question whether a society +of atheists could exist; but we might with more +propriety ask if a society of fierce, impracticable, visionary, +and fanatical Christians, in all the plenitude +of their ridiculous system, could long subsist.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +What would become of a nation all of whose inhabitants +wished to attain perfection by delivering themselves +over to fanatical contemplation, to ascetical +penance, to monkish prayers, and to that state of +things set forth in the Acts of the Apostles? What +would be the condition of a nation where no one +took any "thought for the morrow"?—where all +were occupied solely with heaven, and all totally +neglected whatever related to this transitory and +passing life?—where all made a merit of celibacy, +according to the precepts of St. Paul?—and +where, in consequence of constant occupation in +the ceremonials of piety, no one had leisure to devote +to the well-being of men in their worldly and +temporal concerns? It is evident that such a +society could only exist in the Thebaid, and even +there only for a limited time, as it must soon be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +annihilated. If some enthusiasts exhibit examples +of this sort, we know that convents and nunneries +are supported by that portion of society which they +do not enclose. But who would provide for a +country that abandoned every thing else for the +purpose of heavenly contemplations?</p> + +<p>We may therefore legitimately conclude that the +Christian religion is not fitted for this world; that +it is not calculated to insure the happiness either +of societies or individuals; that the precepts and +counsels of its God are impracticable, and more +adapted to discourage the human race, and to +plunge men into despair and apathy, than to render +them happy, active, and virtuous. A Christian is +compelled to make an abstraction of the maxims +of his religion if he wishes to live in the world; +he is no longer a Christian when he devotes his +cares to his earthly good; and, in a word, a real +Christian is a man of another world, and is not +adapted for this.</p> + +<p>Thus we see that Christians, to humanize themselves, +are constantly obliged to depart from their +supernatural and divine speculations. Their passions +are not repressed, but on the contrary are +often thus rendered more fierce and more calculated +to disturb society. Masked under the veil of religion, +they generally produce more terrible effects. +It is then that ambition, vengeance, cruelty, anger, +calumny, envy, and persecution, covered by the +deceptive name of zeal, cause the greatest ravages, +range without bounds, and even delude those who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +are transported by these dangerous passions. Religion +does not annihilate these violent agitations +of the mind in the hearts of its devotees, but often +excites and justifies them; and experience proves +that the most rigid Christians are very far from +being the best of men, and that they have no right +to reproach the incredulous either concerning the +pretended consequences of their principles, or for +the passions which are falsely alleged to spring +from unbelief.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the charity of the peaceful ministers of +religion and of their pious adherents does not prevent +their blackening their adversaries with a view +of rendering them odious, and of drawing down +upon their heads the malevolence of a superstitious +community, and the persecution of tyrannical +and oppressive laws; their zeal for God's glory permits +them to employ indifferently all kinds of +weapons; and calumny, especially, furnishes them +always a most powerful aid. According to them, +there are no irregularities of the heart which are +not produced by incredulity; to renounce religion, +say they, is to give a free course to unbridled passions, +and he who does not believe surely indicates +a corrupt heart, depraved manners, and frightful +libertinism. In a word, they declare that every +man who refuses to admit their reveries or their +marvellous morality, has no motives to do good, +and very powerful ones to commit evil.</p> + +<p>It is thus that our charitable divines caricature +and misrepresent the opponents of their supremacy, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +and describe them as dangerous brigands, whom +society, for its own interest, ought to proscribe and +destroy. It results from these imputations that +those who renounce prejudices and consult reason +are considered the most unreasonable of men; that +they who condemn religion on account of the +crimes it has produced upon the earth, and for +which it has served as an eternal pretext, are +regarded as bad citizens; that they who complain +of the troubles that turbulent priests have so often +excited, are set down as perturbators of the repose +of nations; and that they who are shocked at the +contemplation of the inhuman and unjust persecutions +which have been excited by priestly ambition +and rascality, are men who have no idea of justice, +and in whose bosoms the sentiments of humanity +are necessarily stifled. They who despise the false +and deceitful motives by which, to the present time, +it has been vainly attempted through the other +world to make men virtuous, equitable, and beneficent, +are denounced as having no real motives to +practise the virtues necessary for their well-being +<i>here</i>. In fine, the priests scandalize those who +wish to destroy sacerdotal tyranny, and impostures +dangerous alike to nations and people, as enemies +of the state so dangerous that the laws ought to +punish them.</p> + +<p>But I believe, Madam, that you are now thoroughly +convinced that the true friends of the human +race and of governments cannot also be the friends +of religion and of priests. Whatever may be the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +motives or the passions which determine men to +incredulity, whatever may be the principles which +flow from it, they cannot be so pernicious as those +which emanate directly and necessarily from a +religion so absurd and so atrocious as Christianity. +Incredulity does not claim extraordinary privileges +as flowing from a partial God; it pretends to no +right of despotism over men's consciences; it has +no pretexts for doing violence to the minds of mankind; +and it does not hate and persecute for a +difference of opinion. In a word, the incredulous +have not an infinity of motives, interests, and pretexts +to injure, with which the zealous partisans +of religion are abundantly provided.</p> + +<p>The unbeliever in Christianity, who reflects, perceives +that without going out of this world there +are pressing and real motives which invite to virtuous +conduct; he feels the interest that he has in +self-preservation, and of avoiding whatever is calculated +to injure another; he sees himself united +by physical and reciprocal wants with men who +would despise him if he had vices, who would +detest him if he was guilty of any action contrary +to justice and virtue, and who would punish him +if he committed any crimes, or if he outraged the +laws. The idea of decency and order, the desire +of meriting the approbation of his fellow-citizens, +and the fear of being subjected to blame and punishment, +are sufficient to govern the actions of +every rational man. If, however, a citizen is in a +sort of delirium, all the credulity in the world will +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +not be able to restrain him. If he is powerful +enough to have no fear of men on this earth, he +will not regard the divine law more than the hatred +and the disdain of the judges he has constantly +before his eyes.</p> + +<p>But the priests may perhaps tell us that the fear +of an avenging God at least serves to repress a +great number of latent crimes that would appear +but for the influence of religion. Is it true, however, +that religion itself prevents these latent crimes? +Are not Christian nations full of knaves of all +kinds, who secretly plot the ruin of their fellow-beings? +Do not the most ostensibly credulous +persons indulge in an infinity of vices for which +they would blush if they were by chance brought +to light? A man who is the most persuaded that +God sees all his actions frequently does not blush +to commit deeds in secret from which he would +refrain if beheld by the meanest of human beings.</p> + +<p>What, then, avails the powerful check on the +passions which religion is said to interpose? If +we could place any reliance on what is said by our +priests, it would appear that neither public nor +secret crimes could be committed in countries +where their instructions are received; the priests +would appear like a brotherhood of angels, and +every religious man to be without faults. But men +forget their religious speculations when they are +under the dominion of violent passions, when they +are bound by the ties of habit, or when they are +blinded by great interests. Under such circumstances +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +they do not reason. Whether a man is +virtuous or vicious depends on temperament, habit, +and education. An unbeliever may have strong +passions, and may reason very justly on the subject +of religion, and very erroneously in regard to +his conduct. The religious dupe is a poor metaphysician, +and if he also acts badly he is both imbecile +and wicked.</p> + +<p>It is true the priests deny that unbelievers ever +reason correctly, and pretend they must always be +in the wrong to prefer natural sense to their authority. +But in this decision they occupy the place of +both judges and parties, and the verdict should be +rendered by disinterested persons. In the mean +time the priests themselves seem to doubt the +soundness of their own allegations; they call the +secular arm to the aid of their arguments; they +marshal on their side fines, imprisonment, confiscation +of goods, boring and branding, with hot irons, +and death at the stake, at this time in France, and +in other and in most countries of Christendom; +they use the scourge to drive men into paradise; +they enlighten men by the blaze of the fagot; they +inculcate faith by furious and bloody strokes of +the sword; and they have the baseness to stand in +dread of men who cannot announce themselves or +openly promulgate their opinions without running +the risk of punishment, and even death. This +conduct does not manifest that the priests are +strongly persuaded of the power of their arguments. +If our clerical theologians acted in good +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +faith, would they not rejoice to open a free course +to thorough discussion? Would they not be gratified +to allow doubters to propose difficulties, the +solution of which, if Christianity is so plain and +clear, would serve to render it more firm and solid? +They find it answers their ends better to use their +adversaries as the Mexicans do their slaves, whom +they shackle before attacking, and then kill for +daring to defend themselves.</p> + +<p>It is very probable unbelievers may be found +whose conduct is blamable, and this is because +they in this respect follow the same line of reasoning +as the devotee. The most fanatical partisans +of religion are forced to confess that among their +adherents a small number of the elect only are +rendered virtuous. By what right, then, do they +exact that incredulity, which pretends to nothing +supernatural, should produce effects which, according +to their own admissions, their pretended divine +religion fails to accomplish? If all believers were +invariably good men, the cause of religion would +be provided with an adamantine bulwark, and +especially if unbelievers were persons without +morality or virtue. But whatever the priests may +aver, the unbelievers are more virtuous than the +devotees. A happy temperament, a judicious education, +the desire of living a peaceable life, the +dislike to attract hatred or blame, and the habit of +fulfilling the moral duties, always furnish motives +to abstain from vice and to practise virtue more +powerful and more true than those presented by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +religion. Besides, the incredulous person has not +an infinity of resources which Christianity bestows +upon its superstitious followers. The Christian +can at any time expiate his crimes by confession +and penance, and can thus reconcile himself with +God, and give repose to his conscience; the unbeliever, +on the other hand, who has perpetrated a +wrong, can reconcile himself neither with society, +which he has outraged, nor with himself, whom he +is compelled to hate. If he expects no reward in +another life, he has no interest but to merit the +homage that in all enlightened countries is rendered +to virtue, to probity, and to a conduct constantly +honest; he has no inducement but to avoid the +penalties and the disdain that society decrees +against those who trouble its well-being, and who +refuse to contribute to its welfare.</p> + +<p>It appears evident that every man who consults +his understanding should be more reasonable than +one who only consults his imagination. It is evident +that he who consults his own nature and that +of the beings who surround him, ought to have +truer ideas of good and evil, of justice and injustice, +and of honesty and dishonesty, than he who, +to regulate his conduct, consults only the records +of a concealed God, whom his priests picture as +wicked, unjust, changeable, contradicting himself, +and who has sometimes ordered actions the most +contrary to morality and to all the ideas that we +have of virtue. It is evident that he who regulates +his conduct upon sacerdotal morality will only follow +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +the caprice and passions of the priests, and +will be a very dangerous man, while believing himself +very virtuous. In fine, it is evident that while +conforming himself to the precepts and counsels +of religion, a man may be extremely pious without +possessing the shadow of a virtue. Experience +has proved that it is quite possible to adhere to all +the unintelligible dogmas of the priests, to observe +most scrupulously all the forms, and ceremonies, +and services they recommend, and orally to profess +all the Christian virtues, without having any +of the qualities necessary to his own happiness, +and to that of the beings with whom he lives. +The saints, indeed, who are proposed to us as +models, were useless members of society. We see +them to have been either gloomy fanatics, who +sacrificed themselves to the desolating ideas of +their religion, or excited fanatics, who, under pretext +of serving religion, have perpetually disturbed +the repose of nations, or enthusiastic theologians, +who from their own dreams have deduced systems +exactly calculated to infuriate the brains of their +adherents. A saint, when he is tranquil, proposes +nothing whose accomplishment will benefit mankind, +and only aims to keep himself safe and secluded +in his retreat. A saint, when he is active, +only appears to promulgate reveries dangerous to +the world, and to uphold the interests of the +church, that he confounds with the interest of +God.</p> + +<p>In a word, Madam, I cannot too often repeat it, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +every system of religion appears to be designed for +the utility of the priests; the morality of Christianity +has in view only the interests of the priesthood; +all the virtues that it teaches have solely for +an object the church and its ministers; and these +ends are always to subject the people, to draw a +profit from their toil, and to inspire them with a +blind credulity. We ought, therefore, to practise +morality and virtue without entering into these conspiracies. +If the priests disapprove of those who +do not agree with them, and refuse to award any +probity to the thinkers who reject their injurious +and useless notions, society, which needs for its +own sustenance real and human virtues, will not +adopt the sentiments nor espouse the quarrels of +these men, visibly leagued together against it. If +the ministers of religion require their dogmas, their +mysteries, and their fanatical virtues to support +their usurped empire, the civil government has a +need of reasonable virtues, of an evident, and above +all, of a pacific morality, in order to exercise its +legitimate rights. In fine, the individuals, who compose +every society, demand a morality which will +render them happy in <i>this</i> world, without embarrassing +themselves with what only pretends to +secure their felicity in an imaginary sphere, of which +they have no ideas except those received from the +priests themselves.</p> + +<p>The priests have had the art to unite their religious +system with some moral tenets which are +really good. This renders their mysteries more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +sacred, and lends authority to their ambiguous dogmas. +By the aid of this artifice, they have given +currency to the opinion that without religion there +can be neither morality nor virtue. I hope, Madam, +in my next letter, to complete the exposure of this +prejudice, and to demonstrate, to whoever will reflect, +how uncertain, abstract, and deceitful are the +notions which religion has inspired. I shall clearly +show, that they have often infected philosophers +themselves; that up to the present time, they have +retarded the progress of morality; and that they +have transformed a science the most certain, plain, +and sensible to every thinking man, into a system +at once doubtful and enigmatical, and full of +difficulties. I am, Madam, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_XI" id="LETTER_XI"></a>Letter XI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of Human or Natural Morality.</p></div> + + +<p>By this time, Madam, you will have reflected on +what I had the honor to address to you, and perceived +how impossible it is to found a certain and +invariable morality on a religion enthusiastic, ambiguous, +mysterious, and contradictory, and which +never agreed with itself. You know that the God +who appears to have taken pleasure in rendering +himself unintelligible, that the God who is partial +and changeable, that the God whose precepts are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +at variance one with another, can never serve as +the base on which to rear a morality that shall become +practicable among the inhabitants of the +earth. In short, how can we found justice and +goodness on attributes that are unjust and evil; +yet attributes of a Being who tempts man, whom +he created, for the purpose of punishing him when +tempted? How can we know when we do the +will of a God who has said, <i>Thou shalt not kill</i>, +and who yet allows his people to exterminate whole +nations? What idea can we form of the morality +of that God who declares himself pleased with the +sanguinary conduct of Moses, of the rebel, the +assassin, the adulterer, David? Is it possible to +found the holy duties of humanity on a God whose +favorites have been inhuman persecutors and cruel +monsters? How can we deduce our duties from +the lessons of the priests of a God of peace, who, +nevertheless, breathes only sedition, vengeance, and +carnage? How can we take as models for our +conduct <i>saints</i>, who were useless enthusiasts, or +turbulent fanatics, or seditious apostates; who, +under the pretext of defending the cause of God, +have stirred up the greatest ravages on the earth? +What wholesome morality can we reap from the +adoption of impracticable virtues, from their being +supernatural, which are visibly useless to ourselves, +to those among whom we live, and in their consequences +often dangerous? How can we take as +guides in our conduct priests, whose lessons are a +tissue of unintelligible opinions, (<i>for all religion is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +but opinion</i>,) puerile and frivolous practices, which +these gentlemen prefer to real virtues? In fine, +how can we be taught <i>the truth</i>, conducted in an +unerring path, by men of a changeable morality, +calculated upon and actuated by their present interests, +and who, although they pretend to preach +good-will to men, humanity, and peace, have, as +their text-book, a volume stained with the records +of injustice, inhumanity, sedition, and perfidy?</p> + +<p>You know, Madam, that it is impossible to found +morality on notions that are so unfixed and so contrary +to all our natural ideas of virtue. By virtue, +we ought to understand the habitual dispositions +to do whatever will procure us the happiness of +ourselves and our species. By virtue, religion +understands only that which may contribute to +render us favorable to a hidden God, who attaches +his favor to practices and opinions that are too +often hurtful to ourselves, and little beneficial to +others. The morality of the Christians is a mystic +morality, which resembles the dogmas of their religion; +it is obscure, unintelligible, uncertain, and +subject to the interpretation of frail creatures. This +morality is never fixed, because it is subordinate to +a religion which varies incessantly its principles, +and which is regulated according to the pleasure +of a despotic divinity, and, more especially, according +to the pleasure of priests, whose interests are +changing daily, whose caprices are as variable as +the hours of their existence, and who are, consequently, +not always in agreement with one another. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +The writings which are the sources whence the +Christians have drawn their morality, are not only +an abyss of obscurity, but demand continual explications +from their masters, the priests, who, in explaining, +make them still more obscure, still more +contradictory. If these oracles of heaven prescribe +to us in one place the virtues truly useful, in another +part they approve, or prescribe, actions entirely opposed +to all the ideas that we have of virtue. The +same God who orders us to be good, equitable, and +beneficent, who forbids the revenging of injuries, +who declares himself to be the God of clemency +and of goodness, shows himself to be implacable +in his rage; announces himself as bringing <i>the +sword, and not peace</i>; tells us that he is come to +set mankind at variance; and, finally, in order to +revenge his wrongs, orders rapine, treason, usurpation, +and carnage. In a word, it is impossible to +find in the Scriptures any certain principles or sure +rules of morality. You there see, in one part, a +small number of precepts, useful and intelligible, +and in another part maxims the most extravagant, +and the most destructive to the good and happiness +of all society.</p> + +<p>It is in punctuality to fulfil the superstitious and +frivolous duties, that the morality of the Jews in +the Old Testament writings is chiefly conspicuous; +legal observances, rites, ceremonies, are all that +occupied the people of Israel. In recompense for +their scrupulous exactness to fulfil these duties, +they were permitted to commit the most frightful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +of crimes. The virtues recommended by the Son of +God, in the New Testament, are not in reality the +same as those which God the Father had made observable +in the former case. The New Testament +contradicts the Old. It announces that God is not +pacified by sacrifices, nor by offerings, nor by frivolous +rites. It substitutes in place of these, supernatural +virtues, of which I believe I have sufficiently +proved the inutility, the impossibility, and the incompatibility +with the well-being of man living in +society. The Son of God, by the writers of the +New Testament, is set at variance with himself; +for he destroys in one place what he establishes in +another; and, moreover, the priests have appropriated +to themselves all the principles of his mission. +They are in unison only with God when +the precepts of the Deity accord with their present +interest. Is it their interest to persecute? They +find that God ordains persecution. Are they themselves +persecuted? They find that this pacific God +forbids persecution, and views with abhorrence the +persecution of his servants. Do they find that +superstitious practices are lucrative to themselves? +Notwithstanding the aversion of Jesus Christ from +offerings, rites, and ceremonies, they impose them on +the people, they surcharge them with mysterious +rites: they respect these more than those duties +which are of essential benefit to society. If Jesus +has not wished that they should avenge themselves, +they find that his Father has delighted in vengeance. +If Jesus has declared that his kingdom is not of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +this world, and if he has shown contempt of riches, +they nevertheless find in the Old Testament sufficient +reasons for establishing a hierarchy for the +governing of the world in a spiritual sense, as kings +do in a political one,—for the disputing with +kings about their power,—for exercising in this +world an authority the most unlimited, a license +the most terrific. In a word, if they have found in +the Bible some precepts of a moral tendency and +practical utility, they have also found others to +justify crimes the most atrocious.</p> + +<p>Thus, in the Christian religion, morality uniformly +depends on the fanaticism of priests, their +passions, their interests: its principles are never +fixed; they vary according to circumstances: the +God of whom they are the organs, and the interpreters, +has not said any thing but what agrees best +with their views, and what never contravenes their +interest. Following their caprices, he changes his +advice continually; he approves, and disapproves, +of the same actions: he loves, or detests, the same +conduct; he changes crime into virtue, and virtue +into crime.</p> + +<p>What is the result from all this? It is that the +Christians have not sure principles in morality: it +varies with the policy of the priests, who are in a +situation to command the credulity of mankind, +and who, by force of menaces and terrors, oblige +men to shut their eyes on their contradictions, and +minds the most honest to commit faults the greatest +which can be committed against religion. It +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +is thus that under a God who recommends the love +of our neighbor, the Christians accustom themselves +from infancy to detest an heretical neighbor, +and are almost always in a disposition to overwhelm +him by a crowd of arguments received from +their priests. It is thus that, under a God who +ordains we should love our enemies and forgive +their offences, the Christians hate and destroy the +enemies of their priests, and take vengeance, without +measure, for injuries which they pretend to have +received. It is thus, that under a just God, a God +who never ceases to boast of his goodness, the +Christians, at the signal of their spiritual guides, +become unjust and cruel, and make a merit of +having stifled the cries of nature, the voice of +humanity, the counsels of wisdom, and of public +interest.</p> + +<p>In a word, all the ideas of justice and of injustice, +of good and evil, of happiness and of misfortune, are +necessarily confounded in the head of a Christian. +His despotic priest commands him, in the name of +God, to put no reliance on his reason, and the man +who is compelled to abandon it for the guidance +of a troubled imagination will be far more likely +to consult and admit the most stupid fanaticism as +the inspiration of the Most High. In his blindness, +he casts at his feet duties the most sacred, and he +believes himself virtuous in outraging every virtue. +Has he remorse? his priest appeases it speedily, +and points out some easy practices by which he +may soon recommend himself to God. Has he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +committed injustice, violence, and rapine? he may +repair all by giving to the church the goods of +which he has despoiled worthy citizens; or by repaying +by largesses, which will procure him the +prayers of the priests and the favor of heaven. For +the priests never reproach men, who give them of +this world's goods, with the injustice, the cruelties, +and the crimes they have been guilty, to support +the church and befriend her ministers; the faults +which have almost always been found the most +unpardonable, have always been those of most disservice +to the clergy. To question the faith and +reject the authority of the priesthood, have always +been the most frightful crimes; they are truly the +sin against the Holy Ghost, which can never be +forgiven either in this world or in that which is to +come. To despise these objects which the priests +have an interest in making to be respected, is +sufficient to qualify one for the appellation of a +blasphemer and an impious man. These vague +words, void of sense, suffice to excite horror in the +mind of the weak vulgar. The terrible word sacrilege +designates an attempt on the person, the +goods, and the rights of the clergy. The omission +of some useless practice is exaggerated and represented +as a crime more detestable than actions +which injure society. In favor of fidelity to fulfil +the duties of religion, the priest easily pardons his +slave submitting to vices, criminal debaucheries, +and excesses the most horrible. You perceive, then, +Madam, that the Christian morality has really in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +view but the utility of the priests. Why, then, +should you be surprised that they endeavor to make +themselves arbitrary and sovereign; that they deem +as faults, and as criminal, all the virtues which agree +not with their marvellous systems? The Christian +morality appears only to have been proposed to +blind men, to disturb their reason, to render them +abject and timid, to plunge them into vassalage, to +make them lose sight of the earth which they inhabit, +for visions of bliss in heaven. By the aid +of this morality, the priests have become the true +masters here below; they have imagined virtues +and practices useful only to themselves; they have +proscribed and interdicted those which were truly +useful to society; they have made slaves of their +disciples, who make virtue to consist in blind submission +to their caprices.</p> + +<p>To lay the foundations of a good morality, it +is absolutely necessary to destroy the prejudices +which the priests have inspired in us; it is necessary +to begin by rendering the mind of man energetic, +and freeing it from those vain terrors which +have enthralled it; it is necessary to renounce those +supernatural notions which have, till now, hindered +men from consulting the volume of nature, which +have subjected reason to the yoke of authority; it +is necessary to encourage man, to undeceive him +as to those prejudices which have enslaved him; +to annihilate in his bosom those false theories which +corrupt his nature, and which are, in fact, infidel +guides, destructive of the real happiness of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +species. It is necessary to undeceive him as to +the idea of his loathing himself, and especially that +other idea, that some of his fellow-creatures are not +to labor with their hands for their support, but in +spiritual matters for his happiness. In fine, it is +necessary to influence him with self-love, that he +may merit the esteem of the world, the benevolence +and consideration of those with whom he is associated +by the ties of nature or public economy.</p> + +<p>The morality of religion appears calculated to +confound society and replunge its members into +the savage state. The Christian virtues tend evidently +to isolate man, to detach him from those to +whom nature has united him, and to unite him to +the priests—to make him lose sight of a happiness +the most solid, to occupy himself only with +dangerous chimeras. We only live in society to +procure the more easily those kindnesses, succors, +and pleasures, which we could not obtain living by +ourselves. If it had been destined that we should +live miserably in this world, that we should detest +ourselves, fly the esteem of others, voluntarily afflict +ourselves, have no attachment for any one, society +would have been one heap of confusion, the human +kind savages and strangers to one another.</p> + +<p>However, if it is true that God is the author of +man, it is God who renders man sociable; it is +God who wishes man to live in society where he +can obtain the greatest good. If God is good, he +cannot approve that men should leave society to +become miserable; if God is the author of reason, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +he can only wish that men who are possessed of +reason should employ this distinguishing gift to +procure for themselves all the happiness its exercise +can bring them. If God has revealed himself, +it is not in some obscure way, but in a revelation +the most evident and clear of all those supposed +revelations, which are visibly contrary to all the +notions we can form of the Divinity. We are not, +however, obliged to dive into the marvellous to +establish the duties man owes to man, since God +has very plainly shown them in the wants of one +and the good offices of another person. But it is +only by consulting our reason that we can arrive +at the means of contributing to the felicity of our +species. It is then evident that in regarding man +as the creature of God, God must have designed +that man should consult his reason, that it might +procure him the most solid happiness, and those +principles of virtue which nature approves.</p> + +<p>What, then, might not our opinions be were we +to substitute the morality of reason for the morality +of religion? In place of a partial and reserved +morality for a small number of men, let us substitute +a universal morality, intelligible to all the +inhabitants of the earth, and of which all can find +the principles in nature. Let us study this nature, +its wants, and its desires; let us examine the +means of satisfying it; let us consider what is the +end of our existence in society; we shall see that +all those who are thus associated are compelled by +their natures to practise affection one to another, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +benevolence, esteem, and relief, if desired; we +shall see what is that line of conduct which necessarily +excites hatred, ill-will, and all those misfortunes +which experience makes familiar to mankind; +our reason will tell us what actions are the +most calculated to excite real happiness and good +will the most solid and extensive; let us weigh +these with those that are founded on visionary +theories; their difference will at once be perceptible; +the advantages which are permanent we will +not sacrifice for those that are momentary; we +will employ all our faculties to augment the happiness +of our species; we will labor with perseverance +and courage to extirpate evil from the earth; +we will assist as much as we can those who are +without friends; we will seek to alleviate their +distresses and their pains; we will merit their +regard, and thus fulfil the end of our being on +earth.</p> + +<p>In conducting ourselves in this manner, our +reason prescribes a morality agreeable to nature, +reasonable to all, constant in its operation, effective +in its exercise in benefiting all, in contributing +to the happiness of society, collectively and individually, +in distinction to the mysticism preached +up by priests. We shall find in our reason and in +our nature the surest guides, superior to the clergy, +who only teach us to benefit themselves. We +shall thus enjoy a morality as durable as the race +of man. We shall have precepts founded on the +necessity of things, that will punish those transgressing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +them, and rewarding those who obey +them. Every man who shall prove himself to be +just, useful, beneficent, will be an object of love to +his fellow-citizens; every man who shall prove +himself unjust, useless, and wicked will become +an object of hatred to himself as well as to others; +he will be forced to tremble at the violation of the +laws; he will be compelled to do that which is +good to gain the good will of mankind and preserve +the regard of those who have the power of +obliging him to be a useful member of the state.</p> + +<p>Thus, Madam, if it should be demanded of you +what you would substitute for the benefit of society, +in place of visionary reveries, I reply, a sensible +morality, a good education, profitable habits, self-evident +principles of duty, wise laws, which even +the wicked cannot misunderstand, but which may +correct their evil purposes, and recompenses that +may tend to the promotion of virtue. The education +of the present day tends only to make youth +the slaves of superstition; the virtues which it inculcates +on them are only those of fanaticism, to +render the mind subject to the priests for the +remainder of life; the motives to duty are only +fictitious and imaginary; the rewards and punishments +which it exhibits in an obscure glimmering, +produce no other effect than to make useless enthusiasts +and dangerous fanatics. The principles +on which enthusiasm establishes morality are +changing and ruinous; those on which the morality +of reason is established are fixed, and cannot be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +overturned. Seeing, then, that man, a reasonable +being, should be chiefly occupied about his preservation +and happiness—that he should love virtue—that +he should be sensible of its advantages—that +he should fear the consequences of crime—is +it to be wondered I should insist so much on the +practice of virtue as his chief good? Men ought +to hate crime because it leads to misery. Society, +to exist, must receive the united virtue of its +members, obedience to good laws, the activity and +intelligence of citizens to defend its privileges and +its rights. Laws are good when they invite the +members of society to labor for reciprocal good +offices. Laws are just when they recompense or +punish in proportion to the good or evil which is +done to society. Laws supported by a visible +authority should be founded on present motives; +and thus they would have more force than those +of religion, which are founded on uncertain motives, +imaginary and removed from this world, and +which experience proves cannot suffice to curb the +passions of bad men, nor show them their duty by +the fear of punishments after death.</p> + +<p>If in place of stifling human reason, as is too +much done, its perfectibility were studied; if in +place of deluging the world with visionary notions, +truth were inculcated; if in place of pleading a supernatural +morality, a morality agreeable to humanity +and resulting from experience were preached, +we should no longer be the dupes of imaginary +theories, nor of terrifying fables as the bases of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +virtue. Every one would then perceive that it is +to the practice of virtue, to the faithful observation +of the duties of morality, that the happiness of individuals +and of society is to be traced. Is he a +husband? He will perceive that his essential happiness +is to show kindness, attachment, and tenderness +to the companion of his life, destined by +his own choice to share his pleasures and endure +his misfortunes. And, on the other hand, she, by +consulting her true interests, will perceive that they +consist in rendering homage to her husband, in +interdicting every thought that could alienate her +affections, diminish her esteem and confidence in +him. Fathers and mothers will perceive that their +children are destined to be one day their consolation +and support in old age, and that by consequence +they have the greatest interest in inspiring +them in early life with sentiments of which they +may themselves reap the benefit when age or misfortune +may require the fruits of those advantages +that result from a good education. Their children +early taught to reflect on these things, will +find their interest to lie in meriting the kindness of +their parents, and in giving them proofs that the +virtues they are taught will be communicated to +their posterity. The master will perceive that, to +be served with affection, he owes good will, kindness, +and indulgence to those at whose hands he +would reap advantages, and by whose labor he +would increase his prosperity; and servants will +discover how much their happiness depends on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +fidelity, industry, and good temper in their situations. +Friends will find the advantages of a kindred +heart for friendship, and the reciprocity of +good offices. The members of the same family +will perceive the necessity of preserving that union +which nature has established among them, to +render mutual benefits in prosperity or in adversity. +Societies, if they reflect on the end of their association, +will perceive that to secure it they must observe +good faith and punctuality in their engagements. +The citizen, when he consults his reason, +will perceive how much it is necessary, for the good +of the nation to which he belongs, that he should +exert himself to advance its prosperity, or, in its +misfortunes, to retrieve its glory. By consequence +every one in his sphere, and using his faculties for +this great end, will find his own advantage in restraining +the bad as dangerous, and opposing enemies +to the state as enemies to himself.</p> + +<p>In a word, every man who will reflect for himself +will be compelled to acknowledge the necessity of +virtue for the happiness of the world. It is so obvious +that justice is the basis of all society; that +good will and good offices necessarily procure for +men affection and respect; that every man who respects +himself ought to seek the esteem of others; +that it is necessary to merit the good opinion of +society; that he ought to be jealous of his reputation; +that a weak being, who is every instant exposed +to misfortunes, ought to know what are his +duties, and how he should practise them for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +benefit of himself and the assembly of which he is +a member.</p> + +<p>If we reflect for one moment on the effects of the +passions, we shall perceive the necessity of repressing +them, if we would spare ourselves vain regrets +and useless sorrows, which certainly always afflict +those who obey not the laws. Thus, a single reflection +will suffice to show the impropriety of +anger, the dreadful consequences of revenge, calumny, +and backbiting. Every one must perceive +that in giving a free course to unbridled desires, he +becomes the enemy of society, and then it is the +part of the laws to restrain him who renounces his +reason and despises the motives that ought to +guide him.</p> + +<p>If it is objected that man is not a free agent, and +therefore is unable to restrain his passions, and that +consequently the law ought not to punish him, I +reply that the community are impelled by the same +necessity to hate what is injurious, and for their +own conservation and happiness have the right to +restrain an unhappily organized individual who is +impelled to injure himself and others. The inevitable +faults of men necessarily excite the hatred of +those who suffer from them.</p> + +<p>If the man who consults his reason has real and +powerful motives for doing good to others and abstaining +from injuring them, he has present motives +equally urgent to restrain him from the commission +of vice. Experience may suffice to show him that +if he becomes sooner or later the victim of his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +excesses, he ceases to be the friend of virtue, and +exists only to serve vice, which will infallibly punish +him. This being allowed, prudence, or the desire +of preserving one's self free from the contamination +of evil, ought to inculcate to every man his +path of duty; and, unless blinded by his passions, +he must perceive how much moderation in his +pleasures, temperance, chastity, contribute to happiness; +that those who transgress in these respects +are necessarily the victims of ill health, and too +often pass a life both infirm and unfortunate, which +terminates soon in death.</p> + +<p>How is it possible, then, Madam, from visionary +theories to arrive at these conclusions, and establish +from supernatural phantasms the principles of private +and public virtue? Shall we launch into unknown +regions to ascertain our duty and to keep our +station in society? Is it not sufficient if we wish +to be happy that we should endeavor to preserve ourselves +in those maxims which reason approves, and +on which virtue is founded? Every man who +would perish, who would render his existence miserable, +whoever would sacrifice permanent happiness +for present pleasure, is a fool, who reflects not +on the interests that are dearest to him.</p> + +<p>If there are any principles so clear as the morality +of humanity has been and is still proved to be, +they are such as men ought to observe. They are +not obscure notions, mysticism, contradictions, +which have made of a science the most obvious +and best demonstrated, an unintelligible science, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +mysterious and uncertain to those for whom it is +designed. In the hands of the priests, morality has +become an enigma; they have founded our duties +on the attributes of a Deity whom the mind of man +cannot comprehend, in place of founding them on +the character of man himself. They have thrown +in among them the foundations of an edifice which +is made for this earth. They have desired to regulate +our manners agreeably to equivocal oracles +which every instant contradict themselves, and +which too often render their devotees useless to +society and to themselves. They have pretended +to render their morality more sacred by inviting us +to look for recompenses and punishments removed +beyond this life, but which they announce in the +name of the Divinity. In fine, they have made +man a being who may not even strive at perfection, +by a preordination of some to bliss, and consequent +damnation of others, whose insensibility is the result +of this selection.</p> + +<p>Need we not, then, wonder that this supernatural +morality should be so contrary to the nature and +the mind of man? It is in vain that it aims at the +annihilation of human nature, which is so much +stronger, so much more powerful, than imagination. +In despite of all the subtile and marvellous speculations +of the priests, man continues always to +love himself, to desire his well being, and to flee +misfortune and sorrow. He has then always been +actuated by the same passions. When these passions +have been moderate, and have tended to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +public good, they are legitimate, and we approve +those actions which are their effects. When these +passions have been disordered, hurtful to society, or +to the individual, he condemns them; they punish +him; he is dissatisfied with his conduct which +others cannot approve. Man always loves his +pleasures, because in their enjoyment he fulfils +the end of his existence; if he exceeds their just +bounds he renders himself miserable.</p> + +<p>The morality of the clergy, on the other hand, +appears calculated to keep nature always at variance +with herself, for it is almost always without +effect even on the priesthood. Their chimeras serve +but to torture weak minds, and to set the passions +at war with nature and their dogmas. When this +morality professes to restrain the wicked, to curb +the passions of men, it operates in opposition to +the established laws of natural religion; for by +preserving all its rigor, it becomes impracticable; +and it meets with real devotees only in some few +fanatics who have renounced nature, and who +would be singular, even if their oddities were injurious +to society. This morality, adopted for the +most part by devotees, without eradicating their +habits or their natural defects, keeps them always +in a state of opposition even with themselves. +Their life is a round of faults and of scruples, of +sins and remorse, of crimes and expiations, of +pleasures which they enjoy, but for which they +again reproach themselves for having tasted. In a +word, the morality of superstition necessarily carries +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +with it into the heart and the family of its devotees +inward distress and affliction; it makes of +enthusiasts and fanatics scrupulous devotees; it +makes a great many insensible and miserable; it +renders none perfect, few good; and those only tolerable +whom nature, education, and habit had +moulded for happiness.</p> + +<p>It is our temperament which decides our condition; +the acquisition of moderate passions, of honest +habits, sensible opinions, laudable examples, and +practical virtues, is a difficult task, but not impossible +when undertaken with reason for one's guide. +It is difficult to be virtuous and happy with a temperament +so ardent as to sway the passions to its +will. One must in calmness consult reason as to +his duty. Nature, in giving us lively passions and +a susceptible imagination, has made us capable +of suffering the instant we transgress her bounds. +She then renders us necessary to ourselves, and we +cannot proceed to consult our real interest if we +continue in indulgence that she forbids. The passions +which reason cannot restrain are not to be +bridled by religion. It is in vain that we hope to +derive succors from religion if we despise and refuse +what nature offers us. Religion leaves men +just such as nature and habit have made them; +and if it produce any changes on some few, I believe +I have proved that those changes are not always +for the better.</p> + +<p>Congratulate yourself, then, Madam, on being +born with good dispositions, of having received +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +honest principles, which shall carry you through +life in the practice of virtue, and in the love of a +fine and exalted taste for the rational pleasures of +our nature. Continue to be the happiness of your +family, which esteems and honors you. Continue +to diffuse around you the blessings you enjoy; continue +to perform only those actions which are esteemed +by all the world, and all men will respect +you. Respect yourself, and others will respect you. +These are the legitimate sentiments of virtue and +of happiness. Labor for your own happiness, and +you will promote that of your family, who will love +you in proportion to the good you do it. Allow +me to congratulate myself if, in all I have said, I +have in any measure swept from your mind those +clouds of fanaticism which obscure the reason; and +to felicitate you on your having escaped from vague +theories of imagination. Abjure superstition, which +is calculated only to make you miserable; let the +morality of humanity be your uniform religion; +that your happiness may be constant, let reason be +your guide; that virtue may be the idol of your +soul, cultivate and love only what is virtuous and +good in the world; and if there be a God who is +interested in the happiness of his creatures, if +there be a God full of justice and goodness, he will +not be angry with you for having consulted your +reason; if there be another life, your happiness in +it cannot be doubtful, if God rewards every one +according to the good done here.</p> + +<p class="sig">I am, with respect, &c.</p> + + + +<hr class="chapbreak" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="LETTER_XII" id="LETTER_XII"></a>Letter XII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="smcap">Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's +Speculations, and the Indulgence which should +be extended to them.</p></div> + + +<p>Permit me, Madam, to felicitate you on the +happy change which you say has taken place in +your opinions. Convinced by reasons as simple as +obvious, your mind has become sensible of the futility +of those notions which have for a long time +agitated it; and the inefficacy of those pretended +succors which religious men boasted they could +furnish, is now apparent to you. You perceive the +evident dangers which result from a system that +serves only to render men enemies to individual +and general happiness. I see with pleasure that +reason has not lost its authority over your mind, +and that it is sufficient to show you the truth that +you may embrace it. You may congratulate yourself +on this, which proves the solidity of your judgment. +For it is glorious to give one's self up to +reason, and to be the votary of common sense. +Prejudice so arms mankind that the world is full +of people who slight their judgment; nay, who resist +the most obvious pleas of their understanding. +Their eyes, long shut to the light of truth, are unable +to bear its rays; but they can endure the glimmerings +of superstition, which plunges them in still +darker obscurity.</p> + +<p>I am not, however, astonished at the embarrassment +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +you have hitherto felt, nor at your cautious +examination of my opinions, which are better understood +the more thoroughly they are examined +and compared with those they oppose. It is impossible +to annihilate at once deep-rooted prejudices. +The mind of man appears to waver in a void +when those ideas are attacked on which it has long +rested. It finds itself in a new world, wherein all +is unknown. Every system of opinion is but the +effect of habit. The mind has as great difficulty +to disengage itself from its custom of thinking, +and reflect on new ideas, as the body has to remain +quiescent after it has long been accustomed +to exercise. Should you, for instance, propose to +your friend to leave off snuff, as a practice neither +healthful nor agreeable in company, he will not +probably listen to you, or if he should, it will be +with extreme pain that he can bring himself to +renounce a habit long familiarized to him.</p> + +<p>It is precisely the same with all our prejudices; +those of religion have the most powerful hold of +us. From infancy we have been familiarized with +them; habit has made them a sort of want we +cannot dispense with: our mode of thinking is +formed, and familiar to us; our mind is accustomed +to engage itself with certain classes of objects; and +our imagination fancies that it wanders in chaos +when it is not fed with those chimeras to which it +had been long accustomed. Phantoms the most +horrible are even clear to it; objects the most +familiar to it, if viewed with the calm eye of reason, +are disagreeable and revolting. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + +<p>Religion, or rather its superstitions, in consequence +of the marvellous and bizarre notions it +engenders, gives the mind continual exercise; and +its votaries fancy they are doomed to a dangerous +inaction when they are suddenly deprived of the +objects on which their imagination exerted its +powers. Yet is this exercise so much the more +necessary as the imagination is by far the most +lively faculty of the mind. Hence, without doubt, +it becomes necessary men should replace stale +fooleries by those which are novel. This is, moreover, +the true reason why devotion so often affords +consolation in great disgraces, gives diversion for +chagrin, and replaces the strongest passions, when +they have been quenched by excess of pleasure and +dissipation. The marvellous arguments, chimeras +multiply as religion furnishes activity and occupation +to the fancy; habit renders them familiar, and +even necessary; terrors themselves even minister +food to the imagination; and religion, the religion +of priestcraft, is full of terrors. Active and unquiet +spirits continually require this nourishment; the +imagination requires to be alternately alarmed and +consoled; and there are thousands who cannot +accustom themselves to tranquillity and the sobriety +of reason. Many persons also require phantoms +to make them religious, and they find these +succors in the dogmas of priestcraft.</p> + +<p>These reflections will serve to explain to you the +continual variations to which many persons are +subject, especially on the subject of religion. Sensible, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +like barometers, you behold them wavering +without ceasing; their imagination floats, and is +never fixed; so often as you find them freely given +up to the blackness of superstition, so often may +you behold them the slaves of pernicious prejudices. +Whenever they tremble at the feet of their priests, +then are their necks under the yoke. Even people +of spirit and understanding in other affairs are not +altogether exempt from these variations of mental +religious temperament; but their judgment is too +frequently the dupe of the imagination. And others, +again, timid and doubting, without spirit, are in +perpetual torment.</p> + +<p>What do I say? Man is not, and cannot always +be, the same. His frame is exposed to revolutions +and perpetual vicissitudes; the thoughts of his +mind necessarily vary with the different degrees of +changes to which his body is exposed. When the +body is languid and fatigued, the mind has not +usually much inclination to vigor and gayety. The +debility of the nerves commonly annihilates the +energies of the soul, although it be so remarkably +distinguished from the body; persons of a bilious +and melancholy temperament are rarely the subjects +of joy; dissipation importunes some, gayety +fatigues others. Exactly after the same fashion, +there are some who love to nourish sombre ideas, +and these religion supplies them. Devotion affects +them like the vapors; superstition is an inveterate +malady, for which there is no cure in medicine. +And it is impossible to keep him free from superstition, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +whose breast, the slave of fear, was never +sensible of courage; nay, soldiers and sailors, the +bravest of men, have too often been the victims of +superstition. It is education alone that operates +in radically curing the human mind of its errors.</p> + +<p>Those who think it sufficient, Madam, to render +a reason for the variations which we so frequently +remark in the ideas of men, acknowledge that there +is a secret bent of the minds of religious persons to +prejudices, from which we shall almost in vain endeavor +to rescue their understandings. You perceive, +at present, what you ought to think of those +secret transitions which our priests would force on +you, as the inspirations of heaven, as divine solicitations, +the effects of grace; though they are, nevertheless, +only the effects of those vicissitudes to which +our constitution is liable, and which affect the robust, +as well as the feeble; the man of health, as +well as the valetudinarian.</p> + +<p>If we might form a judgment of the correctness +of those notions which our teachers boast of, in +respect to our dissolution at death, we shall find +reason to be satisfied, that there is little or no +occasion that we should have our minds disturbed +during our last moments. It is then, say they, that +it is necessary to attend to the condition of man; +it is then that man, undeceived as to the things +of this life, acknowledges his errors. But there is, +perhaps, no idea in the whole circle of theology +more unreasonable than this, of which the credulous, +in all ages, have been the dupes. Is it not at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +the time of a man's dissolution that he is the least +capable of judging of his true interest? His bodily +frame racked, it may be, with pain, his mind is +necessarily weakened or chafed; or if he should be +free from excruciating pain, the lassitude and yielding +of nature to the irrevocable decrees of fate at +death, unfit a man for reasoning and judging of the +sophisms that are proposed as panaceas for all his +errors. There are, without doubt, as strange notions +as those of religion; but who knows that +body and soul sink alike at death?</p> + +<p>It is in the case of health that we can promise +ourselves to reason with justness; it is then that the +soul, neither troubled by fear, nor altered by disease, +nor led astray by passion, can judge soundly +of what is beneficial to man. The judgments of +the dying can have no weight with men in good +health; and they are the veriest impostors who lend +them belief. The truth can alone be known, when +both body and mind are in good health. No man, +without evincing an insensible and ridiculous presumption, +can answer for the ideas he is occupied +with, when worn out with sickness and disease; +yet have the inhuman priests the effrontery to persuade +the credulous to take as their examples the +words and actions of men necessarily deranged in +intellect by the derangement of their corporeal +frame. In short, since the ideas of men necessarily +vary with the different variations of their +bodies, the man who presumes to reason on his +death bed with the man in health, arrogates what +ought not to be conceded. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>Do not, then, Madam, be discouraged nor surprised, +if you should sometimes think of ancient +prejudices reclaiming the rights they have for a long +time exercised over your reason; attribute, then, +these vacillations to some derangement in your +frame—to some disordered movements of mind, +which, for a time, suspend your reason. Think that +there are few people who are constantly the same, +and who see with the same eyes. Our frame being +subject to continual variations, it necessarily follows +that our modes of thinking will vary. We +think one custom the result of pusillanimity, when +the nerves are relaxed and our bodies fatigued. +We think justly when our body is in health; that +is to say, when all its parts are fulfilling their +various functions. There is one mode of thinking, +or one state of mind, which in health we call uncertainty, +and which we rarely experience when +our frame is in its ordinary condition. We do not +then reason justly, when our frame is not in a condition +to leave our mind subject to incredulity.</p> + +<p>What, then, is to be done, when we would calm +our mind, when we wish to reflect, even for an +instant? Let reason be our guide, and we shall +soon arrive at that mode of thinking which shall +be advantageous to ourselves. In effect, Madam, +how can a God who is just, good, and reasonable, +be irritated by the manner in which we shall think, +seeing that our thoughts are always involuntary, +and that we cannot believe as we would, but as our +convictions increase, or become weakened? Man +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +is not, then, for one instant, the master of his ideas, +which are every moment excited by objects over +which he has no control, and causes which depend +not on his will or exertions. St. Augustine himself +bears testimony to this truth: "There is not," +says he, "one man who is at all times master of +that which presents itself to his spirit." Have we +not, then, good reason to conclude, that our thoughts +are entirely indifferent to God, seeing they are excited +by objects over which we have no control, +and, by consequence, that they cannot be offensive +to the Deity?</p> + +<p>If our teachers pique themselves on their principles, +they ought to carry along with them this truth, +that a just God cannot be offended by the changes +which take place in the minds of his creatures. +They ought to know that this God, if he is wise, +has no occasion to be troubled with the ideas that +enter the mind of man; that if they do not comprehend +all his perfections, it is because their comprehension +is limited. They ought to recollect, that +if God is all-powerful, his glory and his power cannot +be affected by the opinions and ideas of weak +mortals, any more than the notions they form of +him can alter his essential attributes. In fine, if +our teachers had not made it a duty to renounce +common sense, and to close with notions that carry +in their consequences the contradictory evidence of +their premises, they would not refuse to avow that +God would be the most unjust, the most unreasonable, +the most cruel of tyrants, if he should +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +punish beings whom he himself created imperfect, +and possessed of a deficiency of reason and common +sense.</p> + +<p>Let us reflect a little longer, and we shall find that +the theologians have studied to make of the Divinity +a ferocious master, unreasonable and changing, +who exacts from his creatures qualities they have +not, and services they cannot perform. The ideas +they have formed of this unknown being are almost +always borrowed from those of men of power, who, +jealous of their power and respect from their subjects, +pretend that it is the duty of these last to +have for them sentiments of submission, and punish +with rigor those who, by their conduct or their +discourse, announce sentiments not sufficiently respectful +to their superiors. Thus you see, Madam, +that God has been fashioned by the clergy on the +model of an uneasy despot, suspicious of his subjects, +jealous of the opinions they may entertain +of him, and who, to secure his power, cruelly chastises +those who have not littleness of mind sufficient +to flatter his vanity, nor courage enough to resist +his power.</p> + +<p>It is evident, that it is on ideas so ridiculous, and +so contrary to those which nature offers us of the +Divinity, that the absurd system of the priests is +founded, which they persuade themselves is very +sensible and agreeable to the opinions of mankind; +and which is very seriously insulted, they say, if +men think differently; and which will punish with +severity those who abandon themselves to the guidance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +of reason, the glory of man. Nothing can be +more pernicious to the human kind than this fatal +madness, which deranges all our ideas of a just +God—of a God, good, wise, all-powerful, and +whose glory and power neither the devotion nor +rebellion of his creatures can affect. In consequence +of these impertinent suppositions of the priesthood, +men have ever been afraid to form notions agreeable +to the mysterious Sovereign of the universe, on +whom they are dependent; their mind is put to the +torture to divine his incomprehensible nature, and, +in their fear of displeasing him, they have assigned +to him human attributes, without perceiving that +when they pretend to honor him, they dishonor +Deity, and that being compelled to bestow on him +qualities that are incompatible with Deity, they +actually annihilate from their mind the pure representation +of Deity, as witnessed in all nature. It +is thus, that in almost all the religions on the face +of the earth, under the pretext of making known +the Divinity, and explaining his views towards +mortals, the priests have rendered him incomprehensible, +and have actually promulgated, under the +garb of religion, nothing save absurdities, by which, +if we admit them, we shall destroy those notions +which nature gives us of Deity.</p> + +<p>When we reflect on the Divinity, do we not see +that mankind have plunged farther and farther into +darkness, as they assimilated him to themselves; +that their judgment is always disturbed when they +would make their Deity the object of their meditations; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +that they cannot reason justly, because they +never have any but obscure and absurd ideas; that +they are almost always in uncertainty, and never +agree with themselves, because their principles are +replete with doubt; that they always tremble, because +they imagine that it is very dangerous to +be deceived; that they dispute without ceasing, +because that it is impossible to be convinced of any +thing, when they reason on objects of which they +know nothing, and which the imaginations of men +are forced to paint differently; in fine, that they +cruelly torment one another about opinions equally +uninteresting, though they attach to them the greatest +importance, and because the vanity of the one +party never allows it to subscribe to the reveries +of the other?</p> + +<p>It is thus that the Divinity has become to us a +source of evil, division, and quarrels; it is thus that +his name alone inspires terror; it is thus that religion +has become the signal of so many combats, +and has always been the true apple of discord +among unquiet mortals, who always dispute with +the greatest heat, on subjects of which they can +never have any true ideas. They make it a duty +to think and reason on his attributes; and they can +never arrive at any just conclusions, because their +mind is never in a condition to form true notions +of what strikes their senses. In the impossibility +of knowing the Deity by themselves, they have recourse +to the opinion of others, whom they consider +more adroit in theology, and who pretend to an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +intimate acquaintance with God, being inspired by +him, and having secret intelligence of his purposes +with regard to the human kind. Those privileged +men teach nothing to the nations of the earth, except +what their reveries have reduced to a system, +without giving them ideas that are clear and definite. +They paint God under characters the most +agreeable to their own interests; they make of +him a good monarch for those who blindly submit +to their tenets, but terrible to those who refuse to +blindly follow them.</p> + +<p>Thus you perceive, Madam, what those men are +who have obviously made of the Deity an object so +bizarre as they announce him, and who, to render +their opinions the more sacred, have pretended that +he is grievously offended when we do not admit +implicitly the ideas they promulgate of God. In +the books of Moses God defines himself, <i>I am that +I am</i>; yet does this inspired writer detail the history +of this God as a tyrant who tempts men, and +who punishes them for being tempted; who exterminated +all the human kind by a deluge, except a +few of one family, because one man had fallen; in +a word, who, in all his conduct, behaves as a despot, +whose power dispenses with all the rules of +justice, reason, and goodness.</p> + +<p>Have the successors of Moses transmitted to us +ideas more clear, more sensible, more comprehensible +of the Divinity? Has the Son of God made +his Father perfectly known to us? Has the church, +perpetually boasting of the light she diffuses +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +among men, become more fixed and certain, to do +away our uncertainty? Alas! in spite of all +these supernatural succors, we know nothing in +nature beyond the grave; the ideas which are communicated +to us, the recitals of our infallible teachers, +are calculated only to confound our judgment, +and reduce our reason to silence. They make of +God a pure spirit; that is to say, a being who has +nothing in common with matter, and who, nevertheless, +has created matter, which he has produced +from his own fiat—his essence or substance. +They have made him the mirror of the universe, +and the soul of the universe. They have made +him an infinite being, who fills all space by his immensity, +although the material world occupies some +part in space. They have made him a being all +powerful, but whose projects are incessantly varying, +who neither can nor will maintain man in +good order, nor permit the freedom of action necessary +for rational beings, and who is alternately +pleased and displeased with the same beings and +their actions. They make him an infinite good +Father, but who avenges himself without measure. +They make of him a monarch infinitely just, but +who confounds the innocent with the guilty, who +has mingled injustice and cruelty, in causing his +own Son to be put to death to expiate the crimes +of the human kind; though they are incessantly +sinning and repenting for pardon. They make of +him a being full of wisdom and foresight, yet insensible +to the folly and shortsightedness of mortals. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +They make him a reasonable being who +becomes angry at the thoughts of his creatures, +though involuntary, and consequently necessary; +thoughts which he himself puts into their heads; +and who condemns them to eternal punishments +if they believe not in reveries that are incompatible +with the divine attributes, or who dare to doubt +whether God can possess qualities that are not +capable of being reconciled among themselves.</p> + +<p>Is it, then, surprising that so many good people +are shocked at the revolting ideas, so contradictory +and so appalling, which hurl mortals into a state +of uncertainty and doubt as to the existence of the +Deity, or even to force them into absolute denial +of the same? It is impossible to admit, in effect, +the doctrine of the Deity of priestcraft, in which +we constantly see infinite perfections, allied with +imperfections the most striking; in which, when +we reflect but momentarily, we shall find that it +cannot produce but disorder in the imagination, +and leaves it wandering among errors that reduce it +to despair, or some impostors, who, to subjugate +mankind, have wished to throw them into embarrassment, +confound their reason, and fill them with +terror. Such appear, in effect, to be the motives +of those who have the arrogance to pretend to a +secret knowledge, which they distribute among +mankind, though they have no knowledge even of +themselves. They always paint God under the +traits of an inaccessible tyrant, who never shows +himself but to his ministers and favorites, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +please to veil him from the eyes of the vulgar; +and who are violently irritated when they find any +who oppose their pretensions, or when they refuse +to believe the priests and their unintelligible +farragoes.</p> + +<p>If, as I have often said, it be impossible to believe +what we cannot comprehend, or to be intimately +convinced of that of which we can form no +distinct and clear ideas, we may thence conclude +that, when the Christians assure us they believe +that God has announced himself in some secret +and peculiar way to them that he has not done to +other men, either they are themselves deceived, or +they wish to deceive us. Their faith, or their belief +in God, is merely an acceptance of what their +priests have taught them of a Being whose existence +they have rendered more than doubtful to +those who would reason and meditate. The +Deity cannot, assuredly, be the being whom the +Christians admit on the word of their theologians. +Is there, in good truth, a man in the world who can +form any idea of a spirit? If we ask the priests +what a spirit is, they will tell us that a spirit is an +immaterial being who has none of the passions of +which men are the subjects. But what is an immaterial +spirit? It is a being that has none of the +qualities which we can fathom; that has neither +form, nor extension, nor color.</p> + +<p>But how can we be assured of the existence of +a being who has none of these qualities? It is by +<i>faith</i>, say the priests, that we must be assured of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +his existence. But what is this <i>faith</i>? It is to adhere, +without examination, to what the priests tell +us. But what is it the priests tell us of God? +They tell us of things which we can neither comprehend +nor they reconcile among themselves. The +existence, even of God, has, in their hands, become +the most impenetrable mystery in religion. But +do the priests themselves comprehend this ineffable +God, whom they announce to other men? Have +they just ideas of him? Are they themselves sincerely +convinced of the existence of a being who +unites incompatible qualities which reciprocally exclude +the one or the other? We cannot admit it; +and we are authorized to conclude, that when the +priests profess to believe in God, either they know +not what they say, or they wish to deceive us.</p> + +<p>Do not then be surprised, Madam, if you should +find that there are, in fact, people who have ventured +to doubt of the existence of the Deity of the +theologians, because, on meditating on the descriptions +given of him, they have discovered them to +be incomprehensible, or replete with contradiction. +Do not be astonished if they never listen, in reasoning, +to any arguments that oppose themselves to +common sense, and seek, for the existence of the +priests' Deity, other proofs than have yet been +offered mankind. His existence cannot be demonstrated +in revelations, which we discover, on examination, +to be the work of imposture; revelations +sap the foundations laid down for belief in a +Divinity, which they would wish to establish. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +This existence cannot be founded on the qualities +which our priests have assigned to the Divinity, seeing +that, in the association of these qualities, there +only results a God whom we cannot comprehend, +and by consequence of whom we can form no certain +ideas. This existence cannot be founded on the +moral qualities which our priests attribute to the +Divinity, seeing these are irreconcilable in the same +subject, who cannot be at once good and evil, just +and unjust, merciful and implacable, wise and the +enemy of human reason.</p> + +<p>On what, then, ought we to found the existence +of God? The priests themselves tell us that it is +on reason, the spectacle of nature, and on the +marvellous order which appears in the universe. +Those to whom these motives for believing in the +existence of the Divinity do not appear convincing, +find not, in any of the religions in the world, motives +more persuasive; for all systems of theology, +framed for the exercise of the imagination, plunge +us into more uncertainty respecting their evidence, +when they appeal to nature for proofs of what they +advance.</p> + +<p>What, then, are we to think of the God of the +clergy? Can we think that he exists, without reasoning +on that existence? And what shall we +think of those who are ignorant of this God, or +have no belief in his existence; who cannot discover +him in the works of nature, either as good or +evil; who behold only order and disorder succeeding +alternately? What idea shall we form of +those men who regard matter as eternal, as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +actuated on by laws, peculiar to itself; as sufficiently +powerful to produce itself under all the +forms we behold; as perpetually exerting itself in +nourishing and destroying itself, in combining and +dissolving itself; as incapable of love or of hatred; +as deprived of the faculties of <i>intelligence</i> and <i>sentiment</i> +known to belong to beings of our species, but +capable of supporting those beings whose organization +has made them intelligent, sensible, and +reasonable?</p> + +<p>What shall we say of those Freethinkers who +find neither good nor evil, neither order nor disorder, +in the universe; that all things are but relative +to different conditions of beings, of which they +have evidence; and that all that happens in the +universe is necessary, and subjected to destiny? +In a word, what shall we think of these men?</p> + +<p>Shall we say that they have only a different +manner of viewing things, or that they use different +words in expressing themselves? They call that +<i>Nature</i> which others call the <i>Divinity</i>; they call +that <i>Necessity</i> which all others call the <i>Divine +decrees</i>; they call that the <i>Energy</i> of <i>Nature</i> which +others call the <i>Author</i> of <i>Nature</i>; they call that +<i>Destiny</i>, or <i>Fate</i>, which others call <i>God</i>, whose laws +are always going forward.</p> + +<p>Have we, then, any right to hate and to exterminate +them? No, without doubt; at least, we +cannot admit that we have any reason that those +should perish, who speak only the same language +with ourselves, and who are reciprocally beneficial +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +to us. Nevertheless, it is to this degree of extravagance +that the baneful ideas of religion have carried +the human mind. Harassed, and set on by their +priests, men have hated and assassinated each +other, because that in religious matters they agree +not to one creed. Vanity has made some imagine +that they are better than others, more intelligible, +although they see that theology is a language +which they neither understand, nor which they +themselves could invent. The very name of Freethinker +suffices to irritate them, and to arm the +fury of others, who repeat, without ceasing, the +name of God, without having any precise idea of +the Deity. If, by chance, they imagine that they +have any notions of him, they are only confused, +contradictory, incompatible, and senseless notions, +which have been inspired in their infancy by their +priests, and those who, as we have seen, have +painted God in all those traits which their imagination +furnished, or those who appear more +conformed to their passions and interests than to +the well-being of their fellow-creatures.</p> + +<p>The least reflection will, nevertheless, suffice to +make any one perceive, that God, if he is just and +good, cannot exist as a being known to some, but +unknown to others. If Freethinkers are men void +of reason, God would be unjust to punish them for +being blind and insensible, or for having too little +penetration and understanding to perceive the force +of those natural proofs on which the existence of +the Deity has been founded. A God full of equity +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +cannot punish men for having been blind or devoid +of reason. The Freethinkers, as foolish as they are +supposed, are beings less insensible than those who +make professions of believing in a God full of qualities +that destroy one another; they are less dangerous +than the adorers of a changeable Deity, who, +they imagine, is pleased with the extermination of +a large portion of mankind, on account of their +opinions. Our speculations are indifferent to God, +whose glory man cannot tarnish—whose power +mortals cannot abridge. They may, however, be +advantageous to ourselves; they may be perfectly +indifferent to society, whose happiness they may +not affect; or they may be the reverse of all this. +For it is evident that the opinions of men do not +influence the happiness of society.</p> + +<p>Hence, Madam, let us leave men to think as they +please, provided that they act in such a manner as +promotes the general good of society. The thoughts +of men injure not others; their actions may—their +reveries never. Our ideas, our thoughts, our systems, +depend not on us. He who is fully convinced +on one point, is not satisfied on another. All men +have not the same eyes, nor the same brains; all +have not the same ideas, the same education, or the +same opinions; they never agree wholly, when they +have the temerity to reason on matters that are +enveloped in the obscurity of imaginative fiction, +and which cannot be subject to the usual evidence +accompanying matters of report, or historic +relation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<p>Men do not long dispute on objects that are +cognizable to their senses, and which they can submit +to the test of experience. The number of self-evident +truths on which men agree is very small; +and the fundamentals of morality are among this +number. It is obvious to all men of sense, that +beings, united in society, require to be regulated +by justice, that they ought to respect the happiness +of each other, that mutual succor is indispensable; +in a word, that they are obliged to practise virtue, +and to be useful to society, for personal happiness. +It is evident to demonstration, that the interest of +our preservation excites us to moderate our desires, +and put a bridle on our passions; to renounce dangerous +habits, and to abstain from vices which can +only injure our fortune, and undermine our health. +These truths are evident to every being whose passions +have not dominion over his reason; they +are totally independent of theological speculations, +which have neither evidence nor demonstration, and +which our mind can never verify; they have nothing +in common with the religious opinions on which +the imagination soars from earth to sky, nor with +the fanaticism and credulity which are so frequently +producing among mankind the most opposite principles +to morality and the well-being of society.</p> + +<p>They who are of the Freethinkers' opinions are +not more dangerous than they who are of the priests' +opinions. In short, Christianity has produced effects +more appalling than heathenism. The speculative +principles of the Freethinkers have done no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +injury to society; the contagious principles of +fanaticism and enthusiasm have only served to +spread disorder on the earth. If there are dangerous +notions and fatal speculations in the world, +they are those of the devotees, who obey a religion +that divides men, and excites their passions, and +who sacrifice the interests of society, of sovereigns, +and their subjects, to their own ambition, their avarice, +their vengeance and fury.</p> + +<p>There is no question that the Freethinker has +motives to be good, even though he admit not +notions that bridle his passions. It is true that the +Freethinker has no invisible motives, but he has +motives, and a visible restraint, which, if he reflects, +cannot fail to regulate his actions. If he doubts +about religion, he does not question the laws of +moral obligation; nor that it is his duty to moderate +his passions, to labor for his happiness and +that of others, to avoid hatred, disdain, and discord +as crimes; and that he should shun vices which +may injure his constitution, reputation, and fortune. +Thus, relatively to his morality, the Freethinker has +principles more sure than those of superstition and +fanaticism. In fine, if nothing can restrain the +Freethinker, a thousand forces united would not +prevent the fanatic from the commission of crimes, +and the violation of duties the most sacred.</p> + +<p>Besides, I believe that I have already proved that +the morality of superstition has no certain principles; +that it varies with the interests of the priests, +who explain the intentions of the Divinity, as they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +find these accordant or discordant to their views +and interests; which, alas! are too often the result +of cruel and wicked purposes. On the contrary, +the Freethinker, who has no morality but what he +draws from the nature and character of man, and +the constant events which transpire in society, has +a certain morality that is not founded either on the +caprice of circumstances or the prejudices of mankind; +a morality that tells him when he does evil, +and blames him for the evil so done, and that is +superior to the morality of the intolerant fanatic +and persecutor.</p> + +<p>You thus perceive, Madam, on which side the +morality of the Freethinkers leans, what advantages +it possesses over that inculcated on the superstitious +devotee, who knows no other rule than the +caprice of his priest, nor any other morality than +what suits the interest of the clergy, nor any other +virtues than such as make him the slave of their +will, and which are too often in opposition to the +great interests of mankind. Thus you perceive, +that what is understood by the natural morality of +the Freethinker, is much more constant and more +sure than that of the superstitious, who believe +they can render themselves agreeable to God by +the intercession of priests. If the Freethinker is +blind or corrupted, by not knowing his duties which +nature prescribes to him, it is precisely in the same +way as the superstitious, whose invisible motives +and sacred guides prevent him not from going +occasionally astray. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p> + +<p>These reflections will serve to confirm what I +have already said, to prove that morality has nothing +in common with religion; and that religion +is its own enemy, though it pretends to dispense +with support from other sources. True morality +is founded on the nature of man; the morality of +religion is founded only on the chimeras of imagination, +and on the caprice of those who speak +of the Deity in a language too often contrary to +nature and right reason.</p> + +<p>Allow me, then, Madam, to repeat to you, that +morality is the only natural religion for man; the +only object worthy his notice on earth; the only +worship which he is required to render to the Deity. +It is uniform, and replete with obvious duties, which +rest not on the dictation of priests, blabbing chit-chat +they do not understand. If it be this morality +which I have defined, that makes us what we are, +ought we not to labor strenuously for the happiness +of our race? If it be this morality that makes us +reasonable; that enables us to distinguish good from +evil, the useful from the hurtful; that makes us +sociable, and enables us to live in society to receive +and repay mutual benefits; we ought at least to +respect all those who are its friends. If it be this +morality which sets bounds to our temper, it is that +which interdicts the commission in thought, word, +or action, of what would injure another, or disturb +the happiness of society. If it attach us to the +preservation of all that is dear to us, it points out +how by a certain line of conduct we may preserve +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +ourselves; for its laws, clear and of easy practice, +inflict on those who disobey them instant punishment, +fear, and remorse; on the other hand, the +observance of its duties is accompanied with immediate +and real advantages, and notwithstanding +the depravity which prevails on earth, vice always +finds itself punished, and virtue is not always +deprived of the satisfaction it yields, of the esteem +of men, and the recompense of society; even if +men are in other respects unjust, they will concede +to the virtuous the due meed of praise.</p> + +<p>Behold, Madam, to what the dogmas of natural +religion reduce us: in meditating on it, and in +practising its duties, we shall be truly religious, +and filled with the spirit of the Divinity; we shall +be admired and respected by men; we shall be in +the right way to be loved by those who rule over +us, and respected by those who serve us; we shall +be truly happy in this world, and we shall have +nothing to fear in the next.</p> + +<p>These are laws so clear, so demonstrable, and +whose infraction is so evidently punished, whose +observance is so surely recompensed, that they +constitute the code of nature of all living beings, +sentient and reasoning; all acknowledge their authority; +all find in them the evidence of Deity, +and consider those as sceptics who doubt their +efficacy. The Freethinker does not refuse to acknowledge +as fundamental laws, those which are +obviously founded on the God of Nature, and on +the immutable and necessary circumstances of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +things cognizable to the faculties of sentient natures. +The Indian, the Chinese, the savage, perceives +these self-evident laws, whenever he is not +carried headlong by his passions into crime and +error. In fine, these laws, so true, and so evident, +never can appear uncertain, obscure, or false, as +are those superstitious chimeras of the imagination, +which knaves have substituted for the truths of +nature and the dicta of common sense; and those +devotees who know no other laws than those of the +caprices of their priests, necessarily obey a morality +little calculated to produce personal or general +happiness, but much calculated to lead to extravagance +and inconvenient practices.</p> + +<p>Hence, charming Eugenia, you will allow mankind +to think as they please, and judge of them +after their actions. Oppose reason to their systems, +when they are pernicious to themselves or +others; remove their prejudices if you can, that +they may not become the victims of their caprices; +show them the truth, which may always remove +error; banish from their minds the phantoms which +disturb them; advise them not to meditate on the +mysteries of their priests; bid them renounce all +those illusions they have substituted for morality; +and advise them to turn their thoughts on that +which conduces to their happiness. Meditate +yourself on your own nature, and the duties which +it imposes on you. Fear those chastisements which +follow inattention to this law. Be ambitious to be +approved by your own understanding, and you will +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +rarely fail to receive the applauses of the human +kind, as a good member of society.</p> + +<p>If you wish to meditate, think with the greatest +strength of your mind on your nature. Never +abandon the torch of reason; cherish truth sincerely. +When you are in uncertainty, pause, or +follow what appears the most probable, always +abandoning opinions that are destitute of foundation, +or evidence of their truth and benefit to +society. Then will you, in good truth, yield to the +impulse of your heart when reason is your guide; +then will you consult in the calmness of passion, +and counsel yourself on the advantages of virtue, +and the consequences of its want; and you may +flatter yourself that you cannot be displeasing to a +wise God, though you disbelieve absurdities, nor +agreeable to a good God in doing things hurtful +to yourself or to others.</p> + +<p>Leaving you now to your own reflections, I shall +terminate the series of Letters you have allowed +me to address you. Bidding you an affectionate +farewell,</p> + +<p class="sig">I am truly yours.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h2 class="caps"><a name="footnotes" id="footnotes"></a>Footnotes</h2> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>On account of fear of the Jews</i>, or, in other words, the intolerant +clergy of the despotic government.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> "Time effaces the comments of opinion, but it confirms the judgments +of nature."—<span class="smcap">Cicero.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> On this subject see Bayle's <i>Dict. Crit.</i>, art. <i>Hobbes</i>, Rem. N.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See what Bayle says, <i>Dict. Crit.</i>, art. <i>Origène</i>, Rem. E., art. +<i>Pauliciens</i>, Rem. E., F., M., and tom. iij. of the <i>Réponses aux Questions +d'un Provincial</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Upon this topic consult what Bayle says, <i>Continuation des Pensées +diverses sur la Comète</i>, Sections 124, 125, tome iv., Rousseau de Genève, +in his <i>Contrat Social</i>, l. 4, ch. 8. See also the <i>Lettres écrites de la +Montague</i>, letter first, pp. 45 to 54, edit. 8vo. The author discusses +the same matter, and confirms his opinions by new reasonings, which +particularly deserve perusal.—<i>Note of the Editor</i>, (<span class="smcap">Naigeon</span>.)</p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters to Eugenia, by Baron d'Holbach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA *** + +***** This file should be named 31275-h.htm or 31275-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/7/31275/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters to Eugenia + or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices + +Author: Baron d'Holbach + +Translator: Anthony C. Middleton + +Release Date: February 14, 2010 [EBook #31275] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + LETTERS TO EUGENIA; + + OR, + + A PRESERVATIVE + AGAINST RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES. + + + BY BARON D'HOLBACH, + AUTHOR OF THE SYSTEM OF NATURE, THE SOCIAL SYSTEM, + GOOD SENSE, CHRISTIANITY UNVEILED, ECCE HOMO, + UNIVERSAL MORALITY, RELIGIOUS CRUELTY, &c., &c., &c. + + + TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, BY + ANTHONY C. MIDDLETON, M. D. + + + ... "Arctis + Religionum animos nodis exsolvere pergo." + LUCRETII _De Rerum Natura_, lib. iv. _v._ 6, 7. + + + BOSTON: + PUBLISHED BY JOSIAH P. MENDUM, + AT THE OFFICE OF THE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR. + 1857. + + + + +NAIGEON'S PREFACE. + +1768. + + +For many years this work has been known under the title of _Letters to +Eugenia_. The secretive character of those, however, into whose hands +the manuscript at first fell; the singular and yet actual pleasure +that is caused generally enough in the minds of all men by the +exclusive possession of any object whatever; that kind of torpor, +servitude, and terror in which the tyrannical power of the priests +then held all minds--even those who by the superiority of their +talents ought naturally to be the least disposed to bend under the +odious yoke of the clergy,--all these circumstances united contributed +so much to stifle in its birth, if I may so express myself, this +important manuscript, that for a long time it was supposed to be lost; +so much did those who possessed it keep it carefully concealed, and so +constantly did they refuse to allow a copy to be taken. The +manuscripts, indeed, were so scarce, even in the libraries of the +curious, that the late M. De Boze, whose pleasure it was to collect +the rarest works belonging to every species of literature, could never +succeed in acquiring a copy of the _Letters to Eugenia_, and in his +time there were only three in Paris; it may have been from design, +_propter metum Judaeorum_;[1] it may have been there were actually no +more known. + +[1] _On account of fear of the Jews_, or, in other words, the +intolerant clergy of the despotic government. + +It is not till within five or six years that MSS. of these letters +have become more common; and there is reason to believe that they are +now considerably multiplied, since the copy from which this edition is +printed has been revised and corrected by collation with six others, +that have been collected without any great difficulty. Unhappily, all +these copies swarm with faults, which corrupt the sense, and +comprehend many variations, but which also, to use the language of the +Biblical critics, have served sometimes to discover and to fix the +true reading! More often, however, they have rendered it more +uncertain than it was before what one ought to be followed--a new +proof of the multiplicity of copies, because the more numerous are the +manuscripts of a work, the more they differ from each other, as any +one may be fully convinced by consulting those of the _Letter of +Thrasybulus to Leucippus_, and the various readings of the New +Testament collected by the learned Mill, and which amount to more than +thirty thousand. + +However this may be, we have spared no pains to reestablish the text +in all its purity; and we venture to say, that, with the exception of +four or five passages, which we found corrupted in all the manuscripts +that we had an opportunity to collate, and which we have amended to +the best of our ability, the edition of these letters that we now +offer to the reader will probably conform almost exactly with the +original manuscript of the author. + +With regard to the author's name and quality we can offer nothing but +conjectures. The only particulars of his life upon which there is a +general agreement are, that he lived upon terms of great intimacy with +the Marquis de la Fare, the Abbe de Chaulieu, the Abbe Terrasson, +Fontenelle, M. de Lassere, &c. The late MM. Du Marsais and Falconnet +have often been heard to declare that these letters were composed by +some one belonging to the school of Seaux. All that we can pronounce +with certainty is the fact, that it is only necessary to read the +work to be entirely convinced the author was a man of extensive +knowledge, and one who had meditated profoundly concerning the matters +upon which he has treated. His style is clear, simple, easy, and in +which we may remark a certain urbanity, that leads us to be sure that +he was not an obscure individual, nor one to whom good company and +polished society were unfamiliar. But what especially distinguishes +this work, and which should endear it to all good and virtuous people, +is the signal honesty which pervades and characterizes it from the +very beginning to the end. It is impossible to read it without +conceiving the highest idea of the author's probity, whoever he may +have been--without desiring to have had him for a friend, to have +lived with him, and, in a word, without rendering justice to the +rectitude of his intentions, even when we do not approve of his +sentiments. The love of virtue, universal benevolence, respect to the +laws, an inviolable attachment to the duties of morality, and, in +fine, all that can contribute to render men better, is strongly +recommended in these Letters. If, on the one hand, he completely +overthrows the ruinous edifice of Christianity, it is to erect, on the +other hand, the immovable foundations of a system of morality +legitimately established upon the nature of man, upon his physical +wants, and upon his social relations--a base infinitely better and +more solid than that of religion, because sooner or later the lie is +discovered, rejected, and necessarily drags with it what served to +sustain it. On the contrary, the truth subsists eternally, and +consolidates itself as it grows old: _Opinionum commenta delet dies, +naturae judicia confirmat_.[2] + +[2] "Time effaces the comments of opinion, but it confirms the +judgments of nature."--CICERO. + +The motto affixed to many of the manuscript copies of these letters +proves that the worthy man to whom we owe them did not desire to be +known as their author, and that it was neither the love of reputation, +nor the thirst of glory, nor the ambition of being distinguished by +bold opinions, which the priests, and the satellites subjected to them +by ignorance, denominate _impieties_, which guided his pen. It was +only the desire of doing good to his fellow-beings by enlightening +them, which actuated him, and the wish to uproot, so to speak, +religion itself, as being the source of all the woes which have +afflicted mankind for so many ages. This is the motto of which we +spoke:-- + + "Si j'ai raison, qu'importe a qui je suis?" + (If reason's mine, no matter who I am.) + +It is a verse of Corneille, whose application is exceedingly +appropriate, and which should be upon the frontispiece of all books of +this nature. + +We are unable to say any thing more certain concerning the person to +whom our author has addressed his work. It appears, however, from many +circumstances in these Letters, that she was not a supposititious +marchioness, like her of the _Worlds_ of M. de Fontenelle, and that +they have really been written to a woman as distinguished by her rank +as by her manners. Perhaps she was a lady of the school of the Temple, +or of Seaux. But these details, in reality, as well as those which +concern the name and the life of our author, the date of his birth, +that of his death, &c., are of little importance, and could only serve +to satisfy the vain curiosity of some idle readers, who avidiously +collect these kind of anecdotes, who receive from them a kind of +existence in the world, and who feel more satisfaction from being +instructed in them than from the discovery of a truth. I know that +they endeavor to justify their curiosity by saying that when a person +reads a book which creates a public sensation, and with which he is +himself much pleased, it is natural he should desire to know to whom a +grateful homage should be addressed. In this case the desire is so +much the more unreasonable because it cannot be satisfied; first, +because when death and proscription is the penalty, there has never +been and there never will be a man of letters so imprudent, and, to +speak plainly, so strangely daring, as to publish, or during his life +to allow a book to be printed, in which he tramples under foot +temples, altars, and the statues of the gods, and where he attacks +without any disguise the most consecrated religious opinions; +secondly, because it is a matter of public notoriety that all the +works of this character which have appeared for many years are the +secret testaments of numbers of great men, obliged during their lives +to conceal their light under a bushel, whose heads death has withdrawn +from the fury of persecutors, and whose cold ashes, consequently, do +not hear in the tomb either the importunate and denunciatory cries of +the superstitious, or the just eulogiums of the friends of truth; +thirdly and lastly, _because this curiosity, so unfortunately +entertained, may compromise in the most cruel manner the repose, the +fortune, and the liberty of the relatives and friends of the authors +of these bold books!_ This single consideration ought, then, to +determine those hazarders of conjectures, if they have really good +intentions, to wrap in the inmost folds of their hearts whatever +suspicions they may entertain concerning the author, however true or +false they may be, and to turn their inquiring spirits to a use more +beneficial for both themselves and others. + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +In 1819 an anonymous translation of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA was +published in London by Richard Carlile. This translation in some of +its parts was sufficiently complete and correct, but in others it was +at absolute variance with the original work; in other parts, also, it +was interlarded with matter not written by d'Holbach; and in others, +large portions of the original Letters were entirely omitted, as were +likewise a number of notes and the whole of the preliminary +observations, with which the volume was introduced to the public by +Naigeon, so long the intimate friend of both d'Holbach and Diderot. In +again presenting the work in an English dress, the London translation +has been made the foundation of this, but the whole has been +thoroughly revised and collated with the original. The omitted +portions have been translated and inserted in their proper places, and +though some passages of the London work, not entirely faithful to the +original, have been allowed to stand, yet the book, as it now +appears, is essentially a new one, and is the most accurate and +complete translation of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA which has ever been +made into the English language. + +The work at first came anonymously from the press, and the mystery of +its authorship was sedulously maintained in the introductory +observations of Naigeon, in consequence of the danger which then +attended the issue of Infidel productions, not only in France but +throughout Christendom. The book was printed in Amsterdam, at +d'Holbach's own expense, by Marc-Michael Rey, a noble printer, to whom +the world is greatly indebted for the inestimable aid he rendered the +philosophers. But bold as he was, and then living in a country the +most free of any in the world, he dared not openly send these LETTERS +from his own press. They were issued in 1768, in two duodecimo +volumes, without any publisher's name, and with the imprint of +_London_ on the title page, in order to set those persecutors at bay +who were prowling for victims, and who sought to burn author, printer, +and book at the same pile. The prudence of the author and printer +saved _them_ from this fate; but the book had hardly reached France +before its sale was forbidden under penalty of fines and imprisonment, +and it was condemned by an act of Parliament to be burnt by the +public executioner in the streets of Paris, all of which particulars +will be narrated in the BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF BARON D'HOLBACH, which +I am now preparing for the press. + +Of the excellence of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA, nothing need here be +said. The work speaks for itself, and abounds in that eloquence +peculiar to its author, and overflows with kindly sentiments of +humanity, benevolence and virtue. Like d'Holbach's other works, it is +distinguished by an ardent love of liberty, and an invincible hatred +of despotism; by an unanswerable logic, by deep thought, and by +profound ideas. The tyrant and the priest are both displayed in their +true colors; but while the author shows himself inexorable as fate +towards oppressive hierarchies and false ideas, he is tender as an +infant to the unfortunate, to those overburdened with unreasonable +impositions, to those who need consolation and guidance, and to those +searching after truth. Addressed, as the LETTERS were, to a lady +suffering from religious falsehoods and terrors, the object of the +writer is set forth in the motto from Lucretius which he placed on the +title page, and which may thus be expressed in English:-- + + "Reason's pure light I seek to give the mind, + And from Religion's fetters free mankind." + + A. C. M. + +The name of the lady was designedly kept in secrecy, and was unknown, +except to _a very few_, till some years after d'Holbach's death. We +now know from the _Feuilles Posthumes_ of Lequinio, who had it from +Naigeon, that the _Letters_ were written several years before their +publication, for the instruction of a lady formerly distinguished at +the French Court for her graces and virtues. They were addressed to +the charming Marguerite, Marchioness de Vermandois. Her husband held +the lucrative post of farmer-general to the king, and besides +inherited large estates. He possessed excellent natural abilities, and +his mind was strengthened and adorned by culture and letters. Had his +modesty permitted him to appear as such, he would now be known as a +poet of genius and merit, for he wrote some poems and plays that were +much admired by all who were allowed to peruse them. He was married in +1763, on the day he completed his twenty-first year, to Marguerite +Justine d'Estrades, then only nineteen years of age, and whom he saw +for the first time in his life only six weeks before they became +husband and wife. Like most of the matches then made among the higher +classes in France, this was one of a purely mercenary character. The +father of the Marquis de Vermandois, and the father of Marguerite, as +a means of joining their estates, contracted their children without +deigning to consult the wishes of the parties, and obedience or +disinheritance was the only alternative. When the compact was +concluded, Marguerite was taken from the convent where for five years +she had lived as a boarder and scholar, and commenced her married life +and her course in the fashionable world at the same time. The match +was far more fortunate than such matches then generally proved to be. +Marguerite's husband was passionately attached to her, and that +attachment was returned. The Marquis was a friend of Baron d'Holbach, +and soon after his marriage introduced his wife to him. Among all the +beauties of Paris the Marchioness was one of the most lovely and +fascinating. Her features were remarkably beautiful, and the bloom and +clearness of her complexion were such as absolutely to render +necessary the old comparison of the rose and the lily to do them +justice. To these were added a voluptuous figure, agreeable manners, +the graces and vivacity of wit, and the still more enduring +attractions of good humor, purity, and benevolence. A female like her +could not but be dear to all who enjoyed her intimacy, and a strong +friendship sprang up between her and Baron d'Holbach. Greatly pleased +with him at first, Marguerite was afterwards as greatly shocked. When +their intercourse had become so familiar as to permit that frankness +and freedom of conversation which prevails among intimate friends, she +discovered that the Baron was an unbeliever in the Christian dogmas +which she had learned at the convent, where, in consequence of her +mother's death, she had been educated. She had been taught that an +Infidel was a monster in all respects, and she was astounded to find +unbelievers in men so agreeable in manners and person, and so profound +in learning, as d'Holbach, Diderot, d'Alembert, and others. She could +deny neither their goodness nor their intellectual qualities, and +while she admired the individuals she shuddered at their incredulity. +Especially did she mourn over Baron d'Holbach. He had a wife as +charming as herself, formerly the lovely Mademoiselle d'Aine, whose +beautiful features and seductive figure presented + + "A combination, and a form, indeed, + Where every god did seem to set his seal." + +Nothing was more natural than that two such women should imbibe the +deepest tenderness for each other. But alas! the Baron's wife was +tainted with her husband's heresies; and yet in their home did the +Marchioness see all the domestic virtues exemplified, and beheld that +sweet harmony and unchangeable affection for which the d'Holbachs +were eminently distinguished among their acquaintances, and which was +remarkable from its striking contrast with the courtly and Christian +habits of the day. At a loss what to do, the Marchioness consulted her +confessor, and was advised to withdraw entirely from the society of +the Baron and his wife, unless she was willing to sacrifice all her +hopes of heaven, and to plunge headlong down to hell. Her natural good +sense and love of her friends struggled with her monastic education +and reverence for the priests. The conflict rendered her miserable; +and unable to enjoy happiness, she brooded over her wishes and her +terrors. In this state of mind she at length wrote a touching letter +to the Baron, and laid open her situation, requesting him to comfort, +console, and enlighten her. Such was the origin of the book now +presented in an English dress to the reader. It accomplished its +purpose with the Marchioness de Vermandois, and afterwards its author +concluded to publish the work, in hopes it might be equally useful to +others. + +The _Letters_ were _written_ in 1764, when d'Holbach was in the +forty-second year of his age. Twelve different works he had before +written and published, and all without the affix of his name. _Eleven_ +were upon mineralogy, the arts and the sciences, and _one_ only upon +theology. That _one_ had been secretly printed in 1761, at Nancy, with +the imprint of London, and was _honored_ with a parliamentary statute +condemning its publication and forbidding its sale or circulation. +Christian hatred bestowed upon it the additional honor of causing it +to be burned in the streets of Paris by the public executioner. But +the prudence of the author protected his life. He attributed the book +to a dead man, who had been known to entertain sceptical views. It was +entitled CHRISTIANITY UNVEILED, and bore on its title page the name of +BOULANGER. This was d'Holbach's first contribution to Infidel +literature, and the second similar work written by him was the LETTERS +TO EUGENIA. These were the preludes to more than a quarter of a +hundred different productions numbering among them such books as _Good +Sense_, _The System of Nature_, _Ecce Homo_, _Priests Unmasked_, &c., +&c., all printed anonymously or pseudonymously at his own expense, +without a possibility of pecuniary advantage, and with such +extraordinary secrecy as to show that he was actuated by no desire of +literary fame. It was love of truth alone that impelled d'Holbach to +write. Brilliant, profound, eloquent and excellent as were his +writings, attracting notice as they did from the civil and religious +powers, commented upon as they were by such men as Voltaire and +Frederick the Great, admired as they were by that class who felt and +combated the evils of tyranny as well as of religion, of kings as well +as of priests,--that class who almost drew their life from the books +of him and his compeers,--he was never seduced from the rule he +originally laid down for his literary conduct. + +A very few persons he was obliged to trust in order to get his +writings printed, and but for that fact Baron d'Holbach would now only +be known as a gentleman of great wealth, extensive benevolence, and +uncommon liberality, as a man of profound learning and agreeable +colloquial powers, as the bountiful friend of men of letters, as the +soother of the distressed, as the protector of the miserable, and as +the affectionate husband and father. So much of him we should have +known; but that he was the author of those books which roused +intolerant priests and corrupt magistrates, consistories and +parliaments, monarchs and philosophers, the people and their +oppressors,--that he was the Archimedes that thus moved the +world,--would not have been known had he not employed another +philosopher, by the name of Naigeon, to carry his manuscripts to +Amsterdam, and to direct their printing by Marc-Michel Rey. It was +Naigeon who carried the manuscript of the LETTERS TO EUGENIA to +Holland, together with a number of others by the same author, which +also appeared during the year 1768,--an eventful year in the history +of Infidel progress. The _Letters_ were carefully revised by d'Holbach +before they were sent to press. All the passages of a purely personal +character were omitted, some new matter was incorporated, and some +sentences were added purposely to keep the author and the lady he +addressed in impenetrable obscurity. To raise the veil from a man of +so much worth and genius, as well as to carry out his idea of doing +good, is one of the reasons which have led to the present preparation +and publication of this book. + + A. C. M. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + LETTER I. + + Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives which should + lead to an Examination of Religion, Page 1 + + + LETTER II. + + Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the Divinity, 29 + + + LETTER III. + + An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature of the + Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon which Christianity is + founded, 46 + + + LETTER IV. + + Of the fundamental Dogmas of the Christian Religion, 76 + + + LETTER V. + + Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Dogma of another + Life, 91 + + + LETTER VI. + + Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies of + Christianity, 120 + + + LETTER VII. + + Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of Christianity, 136 + + + LETTER VIII. + + Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection, 154 + + + LETTER IX. + + Of the Advantages contributed to Government by Religion, 184 + + + LETTER X. + + Of the Advantages Religion confers on those who profess it, 211 + + + LETTER XI. + + Of Human or Natural Morality, 233 + + + LETTER XII. + + Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's Speculations, + and the Indulgence which should be extended to them, 255 + + + + +LETTERS TO EUGENIA. + + + + +LETTER I. + + Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives which should lead + to an Examination of Religion. + + +I am unable, Madam, to express the grievous sentiments that the +perusal of your letter produced in my bosom. Did not a rigorous duty +retain me where I am, you would see me flying to your succor. Is it, +then, true that Eugenia is miserable? Is even she tormented with +chagrin, scruples, and inquietudes? In the midst of opulence and +grandeur; assured of the tenderness and esteem of a husband who adores +you; enjoying at court the advantage, so rare, of being sincerely +beloved by every one; surrounded by friends who render sincere homage +to your talents, your knowledge, and your tastes,--how can you suffer +the pains of melancholy and sorrow? Your pure and virtuous soul can +surely know neither shame nor remorse. Always so far removed from the +weaknesses of your sex, on what account can you blush? Agreeably +occupied with your duties, refreshed with useful reading and +entertaining conversation, and having within your reach every +diversity of virtuous pleasures, how happens it that fears, distastes, +and cares come to assail a heart for which every thing should procure +contentment and peace? Alas! even if your letter had not confirmed it +but too much, from the trouble which agitates you I should have +recognized without difficulty the work of superstition. This fiend +alone possesses the power of disturbing honest souls, without calming +the passions of the corrupt; and when once she gains possession of a +heart, she has the ability to annihilate its repose forever. + +Yes, Madam, for a long time I have known the dangerous effects of +religious prejudices. I was myself formerly troubled with them. Like +you I have trembled under the yoke of religion; and if a careful and +deliberate examination had not fully undeceived me, instead of now +being in a state to console you and to reassure you against yourself, +you would see me at the present moment partaking your inquietudes, and +augmenting in your mind the lugubrious ideas with which I perceive you +to be tormented. Thanks to Reason and Philosophy, an unruffled +serenity long ago irradiated my understanding, and banished the +terrors with which I was formerly agitated. What happiness for me if +the peace which I enjoy should put it in my power to break the charm +which yet binds you with the chains of prejudice? + +Nevertheless, without your express orders, I should never have dared +to point out to you a mode of thinking widely different from your +own, nor to combat the dangerous opinions to which you have been +persuaded your happiness is attached. But for your request I should +have continued to enclose in my own breast opinions odious to the most +part of men accustomed to see nothing except by the eyes of judges +visibly interested in deceiving them. Now, however, a sacred duty +obliges me to speak. Eugenia, unquiet and alarmed, wishes me to +explore her heart; she needs assistance; she wishes to fix her ideas +upon an object which interests her repose and her felicity. I owe her +the truth. It would be a crime longer to preserve silence. Although my +attachment for her did not impose the necessity of responding to her +confidence, the love of truth would oblige me to make efforts to +dissipate the chimeras which render her unhappy. + +I shall proceed then, Madam, to address you with the most complete +frankness. Perhaps at the first glance my ideas may appear strange; +but on examining them with still further care and attention, they will +cease to shock you. Reason, good faith, and truth cannot do otherwise +than exert great influence over such an intellect as yours. I appeal, +therefore, from your alarmed imagination to your more tranquil +judgment; I appeal from custom and prejudice to reflection and reason. +Nature has given you a gentle and sensible soul, and has imparted an +exquisitely lively imagination, and a certain admixture of melancholy +which disposes to despondent revery. It is from this peculiar mental +constitution that arise the woes that now afflict you. Your goodness, +candor, and sincerity preclude your suspecting in others either fraud +or malignity. The gentleness of your character prevents your +contradicting notions that would appear revolting if you deigned to +examine them. You have chosen rather to defer to the judgment of +others, and to subscribe to their ideas, than to consult your own +reason and rely upon your own understanding. The vivacity of your +imagination causes you to embrace with avidity the dismal delineations +which are presented to you; certain men, interested in agitating your +mind, abuse your sensibility in order to produce alarm; they cause you +to shudder at the terrible words, _death_, _judgment_, _hell_, +_punishment_, and _eternity_; they lead you to turn pale at the very +name of an inflexible _judge_, whose absolute decrees nothing can +change; you fancy that you see around you those demons whom he has +made the ministers of his vengeance upon his weak creatures; thus is +your heart filled with affright; you fear that at every instant you +may offend, without being aware of it, a capricious God, always +threatening and always enraged. In consequence of such a state of +mind, all those moments of your life which should only be productive +of contentment and peace, are constantly poisoned by inquietudes, +scruples, and panic terrors, from which a soul as pure as yours ought +to be forever exempt. The agitation into which you are thrown by these +fatal ideas suspends the exercise of your faculties; your reason is +misled by a bewildered imagination, and you are afflicted with +perplexities, with despondency, and with suspicion of yourself. In +this manner you become the dupe of those men who, addressing the +imagination and stifling reason, long since subjugated the universe, +and have actually persuaded reasonable beings that their reason is +either useless or dangerous. + +Such is, Madam, the constant language of the apostles of superstition, +whose design has always been, and will always continue to be, to +destroy human reason in order to exercise their power with impunity +over mankind. Throughout the globe the perfidious ministers of +religion have been either the concealed or the declared enemies of +reason, because they always see reason opposed to their views. Every +where do they decry it, because they truly fear that it will destroy +their empire by discovering their conspiracies and the futility of +their fables. Every where upon its ruins they struggle to erect the +empire of fanaticism and imagination. To attain this end with more +certainty, they have unceasingly terrified mortals with hideous +paintings, have astonished and seduced them by marvels and mysteries, +embarrassed them by enigmas and uncertainties, surcharged them with +observances and ceremonies, filled their minds with terrors and +scruples, and fixed their eyes upon a future, which, far from +rendering them more virtuous and happy here below, has only turned +them from the path of true happiness, and destroyed it completely and +forever in their bosoms. + +Such are the artifices which the ministers of religion every where +employ to enslave the earth and to retain it under the yoke. The human +race, in all countries, has become the prey of the priests. The +priests have given the name of _religion_ to systems invented by them +to subjugate men, whose imagination they had seduced, whose +understanding they had confounded, and whose reason they had +endeavored to extinguish. + +It is especially in infancy that the human mind is disposed to receive +whatever impression is made upon it. Thus our priests have prudently +seized upon the youth to inspire them with ideas that they could never +impose upon adults. It is during the most tender and susceptible age +of men that the priests have familiarized the understanding of our +race with monstrous fables, with extravagant and disjointed fancies, +and with ridiculous chimeras, which, by degrees, become objects that +are respected and that are feared during life. + +We need only open our eyes to see the unworthy means employed by +_sacerdotal policy_ to stifle the dawning reason of men. During their +infancy they are taught tales which are ridiculous, impertinent, +contradictory, and criminal, and to these they are enjoined to pay +respect. They are gradually impregnated with inconceivable mysteries +that are announced as sacred truths, and they are accustomed to +contemplate phantoms before which they habitually tremble. In a word, +measures are taken which are the best calculated to render those +blind who do not consult their reason, and to render those base who +constantly shudder whenever they recall the ideas with which their +priests infected their minds at an age when they were unable to guard +against such snares. + +Recall to mind, Madam, the dangerous cares which were taken in the +convent where you were educated, to sow in your mind the germs of +those inquietudes that now afflict you. It was there that they began +to speak to you of fables, prodigies, mysteries, and doctrines that +you actually revere, while, if these things were announced to-day for +the first time, you would regard them as ridiculous, and as entirely +unworthy of attention. I have often witnessed your laughter at the +simplicity with which you formerly credited those tales of sorcerers +and ghosts, that, during your childhood, were related by the nuns who +had charge of your education. When you entered society where for a +long time such chimeras have been disbelieved, you were insensibly +undeceived, and at present you blush at your former credulity. Why +have you not the courage to laugh, in a similar manner, at an infinity +of other chimeras with no better foundation, which torment you even +yet, and which only appear more respectable, because you have not +dared to examine them with your own eyes, or because you see them +respected by a public who have never explored them? If my Eugenia is +enlightened and reasonable upon all other topics, why does she +renounce her understanding and her judgment whenever religion is in +question? In the mean time, at this redoubtable word her soul is +disturbed, her strength abandons her, her ordinary penetration is at +fault, her imagination wanders, she only sees through a cloud, she is +unquiet and afflicted. On the watch against reason, she dares not call +that to her assistance. She persuades herself that the best course for +her to take is to allow herself to follow the opinions of a multitude +who never examine, and who always suffer themselves to be conducted by +blind or deceitful guides. + +To reestablish peace in your mind, dear Madam, cease to despise +yourself; entertain a just confidence in your own powers of mind, and +feel no chagrin at finding yourself infected with a general and +involuntary epidemic from which it did not depend on you to escape. +The good Abbe de St. Pierre had reason when he said that _devotion was +the small pox of the soul_. I will add that it is rare the disease +does not leave its pits for life. Indeed, see how often the most +enlightened persons persist forever in the prejudices of their +infancy! These notions are so early inculcated, and so many +precautions are continually taken to render them durable, that if any +thing may reasonably surprise us, it is to see any one have the +ability to rise superior to such influences. The most sublime geniuses +are often the playthings of superstition. The heat of their +imagination sometimes only serves to lead them the farther astray, and +to attach them to opinions which would cause them to blush did they +but consult their reason. Pascal constantly imagined that he saw hell +yawning under his feet; Mallebranche was extravagantly credulous; +Hobbes had a great terror of phantoms and demons;[3] and the immortal +Newton wrote a ridiculous commentary on the vials and visions of the +Apocalypse. In a word, every thing proves that there is nothing more +difficult than to efface the notions with which we are imbued during +our infancy. The most sensible persons, and those who reason with the +most correctness upon every other matter, relapse into their infancy +whenever religion is in question. + +[3] On this subject see Bayle's _Dict. Crit._, art. _Hobbes_, Rem. N. + +Thus, Madam, you need not blush for a weakness which you hold in +common with almost all the world, and from which the greatest men are +not always exempt. Let your courage then revive, and fear not to +examine with perfect composure the phantoms which alarm you. In a +matter which so greatly interests your repose, consult that +enlightened reason which places you as much above the vulgar, as it +elevates the human species above the other animals. Far from being +suspicious of your own understanding and intellectual faculties, turn +your just suspicion against those men, far less enlightened and honest +than you, who, to vanquish you, only address themselves to your lively +imagination; who have the cruelty to disturb the serenity of your +soul; who, under the pretext of attaching you only to heaven, insist +that you must sunder the most tender and endearing ties; and in fine, +who oblige you to proscribe the use of that beneficent reason whose +light guides your conduct so judiciously and so safely. + +Leave inquietude and remorse to those corrupt women who have cause to +reproach themselves, or who have crimes to expiate. Leave superstition +to those silly and ignorant females whose narrow minds are incapable +of reasoning or reflection. Abandon the futile and trivial ceremonies +of an objectionable devotion to those idle and peevish women, for +whom, as soon as the transient reign of their personal charms is +finished, there remains no rational relaxation to fill the void of +their days, and who seek by slander and treachery to console +themselves for the loss of pleasures which they can no longer enjoy. +Resist that inclination which seems to impel you to gloomy meditation, +solitude, and melancholy. Devotion is only suited to inert and +listless souls, while yours is formed for action. You should pursue +the course I recommend for the sake of your husband, whose happiness +depends upon you; you owe it to the children, who will soon, +undoubtedly, need all your care and all your instructions for the +guidance of their hearts and understandings; you owe it to the friends +who honor you, and who will value your society when the beauty which +now adorns your person and the voluptuousness which graces your figure +have yielded to the inroads of time; you owe it to the circle in which +you move, and to the world which has a right to your example, +possessing as you do virtues that are far more rare to persons of your +rank than devotion. In fine, you owe happiness to yourself; for, +notwithstanding the promises of religion, you will never find +happiness in those agitations into which I perceive you cast by the +lurid ideas of superstition. In this path you will only encounter +doleful chimeras, frightful phantoms, embarrassments without end, +crushing uncertainties, inexplicable enigmas, and dangerous reveries, +which are only calculated to disturb your repose, to deprive you of +happiness, and to render you incapable of occupying yourself with that +of others. It is very difficult to make those around us happy when we +are ourselves miserable and deprived of peace. + +If you will even slightly make observations upon those about you, you +will find abundant proofs of what I advance. The most religious +persons are rarely the most amiable or the most social. Even the most +sincere devotion, by subjecting those who embrace it to wearisome and +crippling ceremonies, by occupying their imaginations with lugubrious +and afflicting objects, by exciting their zeal, is but little +calculated to give to devotees that equality of temper, that sweetness +of an indulgent disposition, and that amenity of character, which +constitute the greatest charms of personal intercourse. A thousand +examples might be adduced to convince you that devotees who are the +most occupied in superstitious observances to please God are not +those women who succeed best in pleasing those by whom they are +surrounded. If there seems to be occasionally an exception to this +rule, it is on the part of those who have not all the zeal and fervor +which is exacted by their religion. Devotion is either a morose and +melancholy passion, or it is a violent and obstinate enthusiasm. +Religion imposes an exclusive and entire regard upon its slaves. All +that an acceptable Christian gives to a fellow-creature is a robbery +from the Creator. A soul filled with religious fervor fears to attach +itself to things of the earth, lest it should lose sight of its +jealous God, who wishes to engross constant attention, who lays it +down as a duty to his creatures that they should sacrifice to him +their most agreeable and most innocent inclinations, and who orders +that they should render themselves miserable here below, under the +idea of pleasing him. In accordance with such principles, we generally +see devotees executing with much fidelity the duty of tormenting +themselves and disturbing the repose of others. They actually believe +they acquire great merit with the Sovereign of heaven by rendering +themselves perfectly useless, or even a scourge to the inhabitants of +the earth. + +I am aware, Madam, that devotion in you does not produce effects +injurious to others; but I fear that it is only more injurious to +yourself. The goodness of your heart, the sweetness of your +disposition, and the beneficence which displays itself in all your +conduct, are all so great that even religion does not impel you to +any dangerous excesses. Nevertheless, devotion often causes strange +metamorphoses. Unquiet, agitated, miserable within yourself, it is to +be feared that your temperament will change, that your disposition +will become acrimonious, and that the vexatious ideas over which you +have so long brooded will sooner or later produce a disastrous +influence upon those who approach you. Does not experience constantly +show us that religion effects changes of this kind? What are called +_conversions_, what devotees regard as special acts of divine grace, +are very often only lamentable revolutions by which real vices and +odious qualities are substituted for amiable and useful +characteristics. By a deplorable consequence of these pretended +miracles of grace we frequently see sorrow succeed to enjoyment, a +gloomy and unhappy state to one of innocent gayety, lassitude and +chagrin to activity and hilarity, and slander, intolerance, and zeal +to indulgence and gentleness; nay, what do I say? cruelty itself to +humanity. In a word, superstition is a dangerous leaven, that is +fitted to corrupt even the most honest hearts. + +Do you not see, in fact, the excesses to which fanaticism and zeal +drive the wisest and best meaning men? Princes, magistrates, and +judges become inhuman and pitiless as soon as there is a question of +the interests of religion. Men of the gentlest disposition, the most +indulgent, and the most equitable, upon every other matter, religion +transforms to ferocious beasts. The most feeling and compassionate +persons believe themselves in conscience obliged to harden their +hearts, to do violence to their better instincts, and to stifle +nature, in order to show themselves cruel to those who are denounced +as enemies to their own manner of thinking. Recall to your mind, +Madam, the cruelties of nations and governments in alternate +persecutions of Catholics or Protestants, as either happened to be in +the ascendant. Can you find reason, equity, or humanity in the +vexations, imprisonments, and exiles that in our days are inflicted +upon the Jansenists? And these last, if ever they should attain in +their turn the power requisite for persecution, would not probably +treat their adversaries with more moderation or justice. Do you not +daily see individuals who pique themselves upon their sensibility +unblushingly express the joy they would feel at the extermination of +persons to whom they believe they owe neither benevolence nor +indulgence, and whose only crime is a disdain for prejudices that the +vulgar regard as sacred, or that an erroneous and false policy +considers useful to the state? Superstition has so greatly stifled all +sense of humanity in many persons otherwise truly estimable, that they +have no compunctions at sacrificing the most enlightened men of the +nation because they could not be the most credulous or the most +submissive to the authority of the priests. + +In a word, devotion is only calculated to fill the heart with a bitter +rancor, that banishes peace and harmony from society. In the matter +of religion, every one believes himself obliged to show more or less +ardor and zeal. Have I not often seen you uncertain yourself whether +you ought to sigh or smile at the self-depreciation of devotees +ridiculously inflamed by that religious vanity which grows out of +sectarian conventionalities? You also see them participating in +theological quarrels, in which, without comprehending their nature or +purport, they believe themselves conscientiously obliged to mingle. I +have a hundred times seen you astounded with their clamors, indignant +at their animosity, scandalized at their cabals, and filled with +disdain at their obstinate ignorance. Yet nothing is more natural than +these outbreaks; ignorance has always been the mother of devotion. To +be a devotee has always been synonymous to having an imbecile +confidence in priests. It is to receive all impulsions from them; it +is to think and act only according to them; it is blindly to adopt +their passions and prejudices; it is faithfully to fulfil practices +which their caprice imposes. + +Eugenia is not formed to follow such guides. They would terminate by +leading her widely astray, by dazzling her vivid imagination, by +infecting her gentle and amiable disposition with a deadly poison. To +master with more certainty her understanding, they would render her +austere, intolerant, and vindictive. In a word, by the magical power +of superstition and supernatural notions, they would succeed, perhaps, +in transforming to vices those happy dispositions that nature has +given you. Believe me, Madam, you would gain nothing by such a +metamorphosis. Rather be what you really are. Extricate yourself as +soon as possible from that state of incertitude and languor, from that +alternative of despondency and trouble, in which you are immersed. If +you will only take your reason and virtue for guides, you will soon +break the fetters whose dangerous effects you have begun to feel. + +Assume the courage, then, I repeat it, to examine for yourself this +religion, which, far from procuring you the happiness it promised, +will only prove an inexhaustible source of inquietudes and alarms, and +which will deprive you, sooner or later, of those rare qualities which +render you so dear to society. Your interest exacts that you should +render peace to your mind. It is your duty carefully to preserve that +sweetness of temper, that indulgence, and that cheerfulness, by which +you are so much endeared to all those who approach you. You owe +happiness to yourself, and you owe it to those who surround you. Do +not, then, abandon yourself to superstitious reveries, but collect all +the strength of your judgment to combat the chimeras which torment +your imagination. They will disappear as soon as you have considered +them with your ordinary sagacity. + +Do not tell me, Madam, that your understanding is too weak to sound +the depths of theology. Do not tell me, in the language of our +priests, that the truths of religion are mysteries that we must adopt +without comprehending them, and that it is necessary to adore in +silence. By expressing themselves in this manner, do you not see they +really proscribe and condemn the very religion to which they are so +solicitous you should adhere? Whatever is supernatural is unsuited to +man, and whatever is beyond his comprehension ought not to occupy his +attention. To adore what we are not able to know, is to adore nothing. +To believe in what we cannot conceive, is to believe in nothing. To +admit without examination every thing we are directed to admit, is to +be basely and stupidly credulous. To say that religion is above +reason, is to recognize the fact that it was not made for reasonable +beings; it is to avow that those who teach it have no more ability to +fathom its depths than ourselves; it is to confess that our reverend +doctors do not themselves understand the marvels with which they daily +entertain us. + +If the truths of religion were, as they assure us, necessary to all +men, they would be clear and intelligible to all men. If the dogmas +which this religion teaches were as important as it is asserted, they +would not only be within the comprehension of the doctors who preach +them, but of all those who hear their lessons. Is it not strange that +the very persons whose profession it is to furnish themselves with +religions knowledge, in order to impart it to others, should recognize +their own dogmas as beyond their own understanding, and that they +should obstinately inculcate to the people what they acknowledge they +do not comprehend themselves? Should we have much confidence in a +physician, who, after confessing that he was utterly ignorant of his +art, should nevertheless boast of the excellence of his remedies? +This, however, is the constant practice of our spiritual quacks. By a +strange fatality, the most sensible people consent to be the dupes of +these empirics who are perpetually obliged to avow their own profound +ignorance. + +But if the mysteries of religion are incomprehensible for even those +who inculcate it,--if among those who profess it there is no one who +knows precisely what he believes, or who can give an account of either +his conduct or belief,--this is not so in regard to the difficulties +with which we oppose this religion. These objections are simple, +within the comprehension of all persons of ordinary ability, and +capable of convincing every man who, renouncing the prejudices of his +infancy, will deign to consult the good sense that nature has bestowed +upon all beings of the human race. + +For a long period of time, subtle theologians have, without +relaxation, been occupied in warding off the attacks of the +incredulous, and in repairing the breaches made in the ruinous edifice +of religion by adversaries who combated under the flag of reason. In +all times there have been people who felt the futility of the titles +upon which the priests have arrogated the right of enslaving the +understandings of men, and of subjugating and despoiling nations. +Notwithstanding all the efforts of the interested and frequently +hypocritical men who have taken up the defence of religion, from which +they and their confederates alone are profited, these apologists have +never been able to vindicate successfully their _divine_ system +against the attacks of incredulity. Without cessation they have +replied to the objections which have been made, but never have they +refuted or annihilated them. Almost in every instance the defenders of +Christianity have been sustained by oppressive laws on the part of the +government; and it has only been by injuries, by declamations, by +punishments and persecutions, that they have replied to the +allegations of reason. It is in this manner that they have apparently +remained masters of the field of battle which their adversaries could +not openly contest. Yet, in spite of the disadvantages of a combat so +unequal, and although the partisans of religion were accoutred with +every possible weapon, and could show themselves openly, in accordance +with _law_, while their adversaries had no arms but those of reason, +and could not appear personally but at the peril of fines, +imprisonment, torture, and death, and were restricted from bringing +all their arsenal into service, yet they have inflicted profound, +immedicable, and incurable wounds upon superstition. Still, if we +believe the mercenaries of religion, the excellence of their system +makes it absolutely invulnerable to every blow which can be inflicted +upon it; and they pretend they have a thousand times in a victorious +manner answered the objections which are continually renewed against +them. In spite of this great security, we see them excessively alarmed +every time a new combatant presents himself, and the latter may well +and successfully use the most common objections, and those which have +most frequently been urged, since it is evident that up to the present +moment the arguments have never been obviated or opposed with +satisfactory replies. To convince you, Madam, of what I here advance, +you need only compare the most simple and ordinary difficulties which +good sense opposes to religion, with the pretended solutions that have +been given. You will perceive that the difficulties, evident even to +the capacities of a child, have never been removed by divines the most +practised in dialectics. You will find in their replies only subtle +distinctions, metaphysical subterfuges, unintelligible verbiage, which +can never be the language of truth, and which demonstrates the +embarrassment, the impotence, and the bad faith of those who are +interested by their position in sustaining a desperate cause. In a +word, the difficulties which have been urged against religion are +clear, and within the comprehension of every one, while the answers +which have been given are obscure, entangled, and far from +satisfactory, even to persons most versed in such jargon, and plainly +indicating that the authors of these replies do not themselves +understand what they say. + +If you consult the clergy, they will not fail to set forth the +antiquity of their doctrine, which has always maintained itself, +notwithstanding the continual attacks of the Heretics, the Mecreans, +and the Impious generally, and also in spite of the persecutions of +the Pagans. You have, Madam, too much good sense not to perceive at +once that the antiquity of an opinion proves nothing in its favor. If +antiquity was a proof of truth, Christianity must yield to Judaism, +and that in its turn to the religion of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, +or, in other words, to the idolatry which was greatly anterior to +Moses. For thousands of years it was universally believed that the sun +revolved round the earth, which remained immovable; and yet it is not +the less true that the sun is fixed, and the earth moves around that. +Besides, it is evident that the Christianity of to-day is not what it +formerly was. The continual attacks that this religion has suffered +from heretics, commencing with its earliest history, proves that there +never could have existed any harmony between the partisans of a +pretended divine system, which offended all rules of consistency and +logic in its very first principles. Some parts of this celestial +system were always denied by devotees who admitted other parts. If +infidels have often attacked religion without apparent effect, it is +because the best reasons become useless against the blindness of a +superstition sustained by the public authority, or against the torrent +of opinion and custom which sways the minds of most men. With regard +to the persecutions which the church suffered on the part of the +pagans, he is but slightly acquainted with the effects of fanaticism +and religious obstinacy who does not perceive that tyranny is +calculated to excite and extend what it persecutes most violently. + +You are not formed to be the dupe of names and authorities. The +defenders of the popular superstition will endeavor to overwhelm you +by the multiplied testimony of many illustrious and learned men, who +not only admitted the Christian religion, but who were also its most +zealous supporters. They will adduce holy divines, great philosophers, +powerful reasoners, fathers of the church, and learned interpreters, +who have successively advocated the system. I will not contest the +understanding of the learned men who are cited, which, however, was +often faulty, but will content myself with repeating that frequently +the greatest geniuses are not more clear sighted in matters of +religion than the people themselves. They did not examine the +religious opinions they taught; it may be because they regarded them +as sacred, or it may be because they never went back to first +principles, which they would have found altogether unsound, if they +had considered them without prejudice. It may also have happened +because they were interested in defending a cause with which their own +position was allied. Thus their testimony is exceptionable, and their +authority carries no great weight. + +With regard to the interpreters and commentators, who for so many +ages have painfully toiled to elucidate the divine laws, to explain +the sacred books, and to fix the dogmas of Christianity, their very +labors ought to inspire us with suspicion concerning a religion which +is founded upon such books and which preaches such dogmas. They prove +that works emanating from the Supreme Being are obscure, +unintelligible, and need human assistance in order to be understood by +those to whom the Divinity wished to reveal his will. The laws of a +wise God would be simple and clear. Defective laws alone need +interpreters. + +It is not, then, Madam, upon these interpreters that you should rely; +it is upon yourself; it is your own reason that you should consult. It +is _your_ happiness, it is _your_ repose, that is in question; and +these objects are too serious to allow their decision to be delegated +to any others than yourself. If religion is as important as we are +assured, it undoubtedly merits the greatest attention. If it is upon +this religion that depends the happiness of men both in this world and +in another, there is no subject which interests us so strongly, and +which consequently demands a more thorough, careful, and considerate +examination. Can there be any thing, then, more strange than the +conduct of the great majority of men? Entirely convinced of the +necessity and importance of religion, they still never give themselves +the trouble to examine it thoroughly; they follow it in a spirit of +routine and from habit; they never give any reason for its dogmas; +they revere it, they submit to it, and they groan under its weight, +without ever inquiring wherefore. In fine, they rely upon others to +examine it; and they whose judgment they so blindly receive are +precisely those persons upon whose opinions they should look with the +most suspicion. The priests arrogate the possession of judging +exclusively and without appeal of a system evidently invented for +their own utility. And what is the language of these priests? Visibly +interested in maintaining the received opinions, they exhibit them as +necessary to the public good, as useful and consoling for us all, as +intimately connected with morality, as indispensable to society, and, +in a word, as of the very greatest importance. After having thus +prepossessed our minds, they next prohibit our examining the things so +important to be known. What must be thought of such conduct? You can +only conclude that they desire to deceive you, that they fear +examination only because religion cannot sustain it, and that they +dread reason because it is able to unveil the incalculably dangerous +projects of the priesthood against the human race. + +For these reasons, Madam, as I cannot too often repeat, examine for +yourself; make use of your own understanding; seek the truth in the +sincerity of your heart; reduce prejudice to silence; throw off the +base servitude of custom; be suspicious of imagination; and with these +precautions, in good faith with yourself, you can weigh with an +impartial hand the various opinions concerning religion. From +whatever source an opinion may come, acquiesce only in that which +shall be convincing to your understanding, satisfactory to your heart, +conformable to a healthy morality, and approved by virtue. Reject with +disdain whatever shocks your reason, and repulse with horror those +notions so criminal and injurious to morality which religion endeavors +to palm off for supernatural and divine virtues. + +What do I say? Amiable and wise Eugenia, examine rigorously the ideas +that, by your own desire, I shall hereafter present you. Let not your +confidence in me, or your deference to my weak understanding, blind +you in regard to my opinions. I submit them to your judgment. Discuss +them, combat them, and never give them your assent until you are +convinced that in them you recognize the truth. My sentiments are +neither divine oracles nor theological opinions which it is not +permitted to canvass. If what I say is true, adopt my ideas. If I am +deceived, point out my errors, and I am ready to recognize them and to +subscribe my own condemnation. It will be very pleasant, Madam, to +learn truths of you which, up to the present time, I have vainly +sought in the writings of our divines. If I have at this moment any +advantage over you, it is due entirely to that tranquillity which I +enjoy, and of which at present you are unhappily deprived. The +agitations of your mind, the inquietudes of your body, and the +attacks of an exacting and ceremonious devotion, with which your soul +is perplexed, prevent you, for the moment, from seeing things coolly, +and hinder you from making use of your own understanding; but I have +no doubt that soon your intellect, strengthened by reason against vain +chimeras, will regain its natural vigor and the superiority which +belongs to it. In awaiting this moment that I foresee and so much +desire, I shall esteem myself extremely happy if my reflections shall +contribute to render you that tranquillity of spirit so necessary to +judge wisely of things, and without which there can be no true +happiness. + +I perceive, Madam, though rather tardily, the length of this letter; +but I hope you will pardon it, as well as my frankness. They will at +least prove the lively interest I take in your painful situation, the +sincere desire I feel to bring it to a termination, and the strong +inclination which actuates me to restore you to your accustomed +serenity. Less pressing motives would never have been sufficient to +make me break silence. Your own positive orders were necessary to lead +me to speak of objects which, once thoroughly examined, give no +uneasiness to a healthy mind. It has been a law with me never to +explain myself upon the subject of religion. Experience has often +convinced me that the most useless of enterprises is to seek to +undeceive a prejudiced mind. I was very far from believing that I +ought ever to write upon these subjects. You alone, Madam, had the +power to conquer my indolence, and to impel me to change my +resolution. Eugenia afflicted, tormented with scruples, and ready to +plunge herself into gloomy austerities and superstitions, calculated +to render her unamiable to others, without contributing happiness to +herself, honored me with her confidence, and requested counsel of her +friend. She exacted that I should speak. "It is enough," I said; "let +me write for Eugenia; let me endeavor to restore the repose she has +lost; let me labor with ardor for her upon whose happiness that of so +many others is dependent." + +Such, Madam, are the motives which induce me to take my pen in hand. +In looking forward to the time when you will be undeceived, I shall +dare at least to flatter myself that you will not regard me with the +same eyes with which priests and devotees look upon every one who has +the temerity to contradict their ideas. To believe them, every man who +declares himself against religion is a bad citizen, a madman armed to +justify his passions, a perturbator of the public repose, and an enemy +of his fellow-citizens, that cannot be punished with too much rigor. +My conduct is known to you; and the confidence with which you honor me +is sufficient for my apology. It is for you alone that I write. It is +to dissipate the clouds that obscure your mental horizon that I +communicate reflections which, but for reasons so pressing, I should +have always enclosed in my own bosom. If by chance they shall +hereafter fall into other hands than yours, and be found of some +utility, I shall felicitate myself for having contributed to the +establishment of happiness by leading back to reason minds which had +wandered from it, by making truth to be felt and known, and by +unmasking impostures which have caused so many misfortunes upon the +earth. + +In a word, I submit my reasoning to your judgment, I confide fully in +your discretion, and I allow myself to conclude that my ideas, after +you are disabused of the vain terrors with which you are now +oppressed, will fully convince you that this religion, which is +exhibited to men as a concern the most important, the most true, the +most interesting, and the most useful, is only a tissue of +absurdities, is calculated to confound reason, to disturb the +understanding, and can be advantageous to none save those who make use +of it to govern the human race. I shall acknowledge myself in the +wrong if I do not prove, in the clearest manner, that religion is +false, useless, and dangerous, and that morality, in its stead, should +occupy the spirits and animate the souls of all men. + +I shall enter more particularly into the subject in my next letter. I +shall go back to first principles, and in the course of this +correspondence I flatter myself I shall completely demonstrate that +these objects, which theology endeavors to render intricate, and to +envelop with clouds, in order to make them more respectable and +sacred, are not only entirely susceptible of being understood by you, +but that they are likewise within the comprehension of every one who +possesses even an ordinary share of good sense. If my frankness shall +appear too undisguised, I beg you to consider, Madam, that it is +necessary I should address you explicitly and clearly. I now consider +it my duty to administer an energetic and prompt remedy for the malady +with which I perceive you to be attacked. Besides, I venture to hope +that in a short time you will feel gratified that I have shown you the +truth in all its integrity and brilliancy. You will pardon me for +having dissipated the unreal and yet harassing phantoms which infested +your mind. But let my success be what it may, my efforts to confer +tranquillity upon you will at least be evidences of the interest I +take in your happiness, of my zeal to serve you, and of the respect +with which I am your sincere and attached friend. + + + + +LETTER II. + + Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the Divinity. + + +Every religion is a system of opinions and conduct founded upon the +notions, true or false, that we entertain of the Divinity. To judge of +the truth of any system, it is requisite to examine its principles, to +see if they accord, and to satisfy ourselves whether all its parts +lend a mutual support to each other. A religion, to be _true_, should +give us _true_ ideas of God; and it is by our reason alone that we are +able to decide whether what theology asserts concerning this being and +his attributes is true or otherwise. Truth for men is only conformity +to reason; and thus the same reason which the clergy proscribe is, in +the last resort, our only means of judging the system that religion +proposes for our assent. That God can only be the true God who is most +conformable to our reason, and the true worship can be no other than +that which reason approves. + +Religion is only important in accordance with the advantages it +bestows upon mankind. The best religion must be that which procures +its disciples the most real, the most extensive, and the most durable +advantages. A false religion must necessarily bestow upon those who +practise it only a false, chimerical, and transient utility. Reason +must be the judge whether the benefits derived are real or imaginary. +Thus, as we constantly see, it belongs to reason to decide whether a +religion, a mode of worship, or a system of conduct is advantageous or +injurious to the human race. + +It is in accordance with these incontestable principles that I shall +examine the religion of the Christians. I shall commence by analyzing +the ideas which their system gives us of the Divinity, which it boasts +of presenting to us in a more perfect manner than all other religions +in the world. I shall examine whether these ideas accord with each +other, whether the dogmas taught by this religion are conformable to +those fundamental principles which are every where acknowledged, +whether they are consonant with them, and whether the conduct which +Christianity prescribes answers to the notions which itself gives us +of the Divinity. I shall conclude the inquiry by investigating the +advantages that the Christian religion procures the human +race--advantages, according to its partisans, that infinitely surpass +those which result from all the other religions of the earth. + +The Christian religion, as the basis of its belief, sets forth an only +God, which it defines as a pure spirit, as an eternal intelligence, as +independent and immutable, who has infinite power, who is the cause of +all things, who foresees all things, who fills immensity, who created +from nothing the world and all it encloses, and who preserves and +governs it according to the laws of his infinite wisdom, and the +perfections of his infinite goodness and justice, which are all so +evident in his works. + +Such are the ideas that Christianity gives us of the Divinity. Let us +now see whether they accord with the other notions presented to us by +this religious system, and which it pretends were revealed by God +himself; or, in other words, that these truths were received directly +from the Deity, who concealed them from the remainder of mankind, and +deprived them of a knowledge of his essence. Thus the Christian +religion is founded upon a special revelation. And to whom was the +revelation made? At first to Abraham, and then to his posterity. The +God of the universe, then, the Father of all men, was only willing to +be known to the descendants of a Chaldean, who for a long series of +years were the exclusive possessors of the knowledge of the true God. +By an effect of his special kindness, the Jewish people was for a long +time the only race favored with a revelation equally necessary for all +men. This was the only people which understood the relations between +man and the Supreme Being. All other nations wandered in darkness, or +possessed no ideas of the Sovereign of nature but such as were crude, +ridiculous, or criminal. + +Thus, at the very first step, do we not see that Christianity impairs +the goodness and justice of its God? A revelation to a particular +people only announces a partial God, who favors a portion of his +children, to the prejudice of all the others; who consults only his +caprice, and not real merit; who, incapable of conferring happiness +upon all men, shows his tenderness solely to some individuals, who +have, however, no titles upon his consideration not possessed by the +others. What would you say of a father who, placed at the head of a +numerous family, had no eyes but for a single one of his children, and +who never allowed himself to be seen by any of them except that +favored one? What would you say if he was displeased with the rest for +not being acquainted with his features, notwithstanding he would never +allow them to approach his person? Would you not accuse such a father +of caprice, cruelty, folly, and a want of reason, if he visited with +his anger the children whom he had himself excluded from his presence? +Would you not impute to him an injustice of which none but the most +brutal of our species could be guilty if he actually punished them for +not having executed orders which he was never pleased to give them? + +Conclude, then, with me, Madam, that the revelation of a religion to +only a single tribe or nation sets forth a God neither good, +impartial, nor equitable, but an unjust and capricious tyrant, who, +though he may show kindness and preference to some of his creatures, +at any rate acts with the greatest cruelty towards all the others. +This admitted, revelation does not prove the goodness, but the caprice +and partiality of the God that religion represents to us as full of +sagacity, benevolence, and equity, and that it describes as the common +father of all the inhabitants of the earth. If the interest and +self-love of those whom he favors makes them admire the profound views +of a God because he has loaded them with benefits to the prejudice of +their brethren, he must appear very unjust, on the other hand, to all +those who are the victims of his partiality. A hateful pride alone +could induce a few persons to believe that they were, to the exclusion +of all others, the cherished children of Providence. Blinded by their +vanity, they do not perceive that it is to give the lie to universal +and infinite goodness to suppose that God was capable of favoring with +his preference some men or nations, to the exclusion of others. All +ought to be equal in his eyes if it is true they are all equally the +work of his hands. + +It is, nevertheless, upon partial revelations that are founded all the +religions of the world. In the same manner that every individual +believes himself the most important being in the universe, every +nation entertains the idea that it ought to enjoy the peculiar +tenderness of the Sovereign of nature, to the exclusion of all the +others. If the inhabitants of Hindostan imagine that it was for them +alone that Brama spoke, the Jews and the Christians have persuaded +themselves that it was only for them that the world was created, and +that it is solely for them that God was revealed. + +But let us suppose for a moment that God has really made himself +known. How could a pure spirit render himself sensible? What form did +he take? Of what material organs did he make use in order to speak? +How can an infinite Being communicate with those which are finite? I +may be assured that, to accommodate himself to the weakness of his +creatures, he made use of the agency of some chosen men to announce +his wishes to all the rest, and that he filled these agents with his +spirit, and spoke by their mouths. But can we possibly conceive that +an infinite Being could unite himself with the finite nature of man? +How can I be certain that he who professes to be inspired by the +Divinity does not promulgate his own reveries or impostures as the +oracles of heaven? What means have I of recognizing whether God really +speaks by his voice? The immediate reply will be, that God, to give +weight to the declarations of those whom he has chosen to be his +interpreters, endowed them with a portion of his own omnipotence, and +that they wrought miracles to prove their divine mission. + +I therefore inquire, What is a miracle? I am told that it is an +operation contrary to the laws of nature, which God himself has fixed; +to which I reply, that, according to the ideas I have formed of the +divine wisdom, it appears to me impossible that an immutable God can +change the wise laws which he himself has established. I thence +conclude that miracles are impossible, seeing they are incompatible +with our ideas of the wisdom and immutability of the Creator of the +universe. Besides, these miracles would be useless to God. If he be +omnipotent, can he not modify the minds of his creatures according to +his own will? + +To convince and to persuade them, he has only to will that they shall +be convinced and persuaded. He has only to tell them things that are +clear and sensible, things that may be demonstrated; and to evidence +of such a kind they will not fail to give their assent. To do this, he +will have no need either of miracles or interpreters; truth alone is +sufficient to win mankind. + +Supposing, nevertheless, the utility and possibility of these +miracles, how shall I ascertain whether the wonderful operation which +I see performed by the interpreter of the Deity be conformable or +contrary to the laws of nature? Am I acquainted with all these laws? +May not he who speaks to me in the name of the Lord execute by natural +means, though to me unknown, those works which appear altogether +extraordinary? How shall I assure myself that he does not deceive me? +Does not my ignorance of the secrets and shifts of his art expose me +to be the dupe of an able impostor, who might make use of the name of +God to inspire me with respect, and to screen his deception? Thus his +pretended miracles ought to make me suspect him, even though I were a +witness of them; but how would the case stand, were these miracles +said to have been performed some thousands of years before my +existence? I shall be told that they were attested by a multitude of +witnesses; but if I cannot trust to myself when a miracle is +performing, how shall I have confidence in others, who may be either +more ignorant or more stupid than myself, or who perhaps thought +themselves interested in supporting by their testimony tales entirely +destitute of reality? + +If, on the contrary, I admit these miracles, what do they prove to me? +Will they furnish me with a belief that God has made use of his +omnipotence to convince me of things which are in direct opposition +to the ideas I have formed of his essence, his nature, and his divine +perfections? If I be persuaded that God is immutable, a miracle will +not force me to believe that he is subject to change. If I be +convinced that God is just and good, a miracle will never be +sufficient to persuade me that he is unjust and wicked. If I possess +an idea of his wisdom, all the miracles in the world would not +persuade me that God would act like a madman. Shall I be told that he +would consent to perform miracles that destroy his divinity, or that +are proper only to erase from the minds of men the ideas which they +ought to entertain of his infinite perfections? This, however, is what +would happen were God himself to perform, or to grant the power of +performing, miracles in favor of a particular revelation. He would, in +that case, derange the course of nature, to teach the world that he is +capricious, partial, unjust, and cruel; he would make use of his +omnipotence purposely to convince us that his goodness was +insufficient for the welfare of his creatures; he would make a vain +parade of his power, to hide his inability to convince mankind by a +single act of his will. In short, he would interfere with the eternal +and immutable laws of nature, to show us that he is subject to change, +and to announce to mankind some important news, which they had +hitherto been destitute of, notwithstanding all his goodness. + +Thus, under whatever point of view we regard revelation, by whatever +miracles we may suppose it attested, it will always be in +contradiction to the ideas we have of the Deity. They will show us +that he acts in an unjust and an arbitrary manner, consulting only his +own whims in the favors he bestows, and continually changing his +conduct; that he was unable to communicate all at once to mankind the +knowledge necessary to their existence, and to give them that degree +of perfection of which their natures were susceptible. Hence, Madam, +you may see that the supposition of a revelation can never be +reconciled with the infinite goodness, justice, omnipotence, and +immutability of the Sovereign of the universe. + +They will not fail to tell you that the Creator of all things, the +independent Monarch of nature is the master of his favors; that he +owes nothing to his creatures; that he can dispose of them as he +pleases, without any injustice, and without their having any right of +complaint; that man is incapable of sounding the profundity of his +decrees; and that his justice is not the justice of men. But all these +answers, which divines have continually in their mouths, serve only to +accelerate the destruction of those sublime ideas which they have +given us of the Deity. The result appears to be, that God conducts +himself according to the maxims of a fantastic sovereign, who, +satisfied in having rewarded some of his favorites, thinks himself +justified in neglecting the rest of his subjects, and to leave them +groaning in the most deplorable misery. + +You must acknowledge, Madam, it is not on such a model that we can +form a powerful, equitable, and beneficent God, whose omnipotence +ought to enable him to procure happiness to all his subjects, without +fear of exhausting the treasures of his goodness. + +If we are told that divine justice bears no resemblance to the justice +of men, I reply, that in this case we are not authorized to say that +God is _just_; seeing that by justice it is not possible for us to +conceive any thing except a similar quality to that called justice by +the beings of our own species. If divine justice bears no resemblance +to human justice,--if, on the contrary, this justice resembles what we +call injustice,--then all our ideas confound themselves, and we know +not either what we mean or what we say when we affirm that God is +just. According to human ideas, (which are, however, the only ones +that men are possessed of,) justice will always exclude caprice and +partiality; and never can we prevent ourselves from regarding as +iniquitous and vicious a sovereign who, being both able and willing to +occupy himself with the happiness of his subjects, should plunge the +greatest number of them into misfortune, and reserve his kindness for +those to whom his whims have given the preference. + +With respect to telling us that _God owes nothing to his creatures_, +such an atrocious principle is destructive of every idea of justice +and goodness, and tends visibly to sap the foundation of all religion. +A God that is just and good owes happiness to every being to whom he +has given existence; he ceases to be just and good if he produce them +only to render them miserable; and he would be destitute of both +wisdom and reason were he to give them birth only to be the victims of +his caprice. What should we think of a father bringing children into +the world for the sole purpose of putting their eyes out and +tormenting them at his ease? + +On the other hand, all religions are entirely founded upon the +reciprocal engagements which are supposed to exist between God and his +creatures. If God owes nothing to the latter, if he is not under an +obligation to fulfil his engagements to them when they have fulfilled +theirs to him, of what use is religion? What motives can men have to +offer their homage and worship to the Divinity? Why should they feel +much desire to love or serve a master who can absolve himself of all +duty towards those who entered his service with an expectation of the +recompense promised under such circumstances? + +It is easy to see that the destructive ideas of divine justice which +are inculcated are only founded upon a fatal prejudice prevalent among +the generality of men, leading them to suppose that unlimited power +must inevitably exempt its possessor from an accordance with the laws +of equity; that force can confer the right of committing bad actions; +and that no one could properly demand an account of his conduct of a +man sufficiently powerful to carry out all his caprices. These ideas +are evidently borrowed from the conduct of tyrants, who no sooner +find themselves possessed of absolute power than they cease to +recognize any other rules than their own fantasies, and imagine that +justice has no claims upon potentates like them. + +It is upon this frightful model that theologians have formed that God +whom they, notwithstanding, assert to be a just being, while, if the +conduct they attribute to him was true, we should be constrained to +regard him as the most unjust of tyrants, as the most partial of +fathers, as the most fantastic of princes, and, in a word, as a being +the most to be feared and the least worthy of love that the +imagination could devise. We are informed that the God who created all +men has been unwilling to be known except to a very small number of +them, and that while this favored portion exclusively enjoyed the +benefits of his kindness, all the others were objects of his anger, +and were only created by him to be left in blindness for the very +purpose of punishing them in the most cruel manner. We see these +pernicious characteristics of the Divinity penetrating the entire +economy of the Christian religion; we find them in the books which are +pretended to be inspired, and we discover them in the dogmas of +predestination and grace. In a word, every thing in religion announces +a despotic God, whom his disciples vainly attempt to represent to us +as just, while all that they declare of him only proves his injustice, +his tyrannical caprices, his extravagances, so frequently cruel, and +his partiality, so pernicious to the greater portion of the human +race. When we exclaim against conduct which, in the eyes of all +reasonable men, must appear so excessively capricious, it is expected +that our mouths will be closed by the assertion that God is +omnipotent, that it is for him to determine how he will bestow +benefits, and that he is under no obligations to any of his creatures. +His apologists end by endeavoring to intimidate us with the frightful +and iniquitous punishments that he reserves for those who are so +audacious as to murmur. + +It is easy to perceive the futility of these arguments. Power, I do +contend, can never confer the right of violating equity. Let a +sovereign be as powerful as he may, he is not on that account less +blamable when in rewards and punishments he follows only his caprice. +It is true, we may fear him, we may flatter him, we may pay him +servile homage; but never shall we love him sincerely; never shall we +serve him faithfully; never shall we look up to him as the model of +justice and goodness. If those who receive his kindness believe him to +be just and good, those who are the objects of his folly and rigor +cannot prevent themselves from detesting his monstrous iniquity in +their hearts. + +If we be told that we are only as worms of earth relatively to God, or +that we are only like a vase in the hands of a potter, I reply in this +case, that there can neither be connection nor moral duty between the +creature and his Creator; and I shall hence conclude that religion is +useless, seeing that a worm of earth can owe nothing to a man who +crushes it, and that the vase can owe nothing to the potter that has +formed it. In the supposition that man is only a worm or an earthen +vessel in the eyes of the Deity, he would be incapable either of +serving him, glorifying him, honoring him, or offending him. We are, +however, continually told that man is capable of merit and demerit in +the sight of his God, whom he is ordered to love, serve, and worship. +We are likewise assured that it was man alone whom the Deity had in +view in all his works; that it is for him alone the universe was +created; for him alone that the course of nature was so often +deranged; and, in short, it was with a view of being honored, +cherished, and glorified by man that God has revealed himself to us. +According to the principles of the Christian religion, God does not +cease, for a single instant, his occupations for man, this _worm of +earth_, this _earthen vessel_, which he has formed. Nay, more: man is +sufficiently powerful to influence the honor, the felicity, and the +glory of his God; it rests with man to please him or to irritate him, +to deserve his favor or his hatred, to appease him or to kindle his +wrath. + +Do you not perceive, Madam, the striking contradictions of those +principles which, nevertheless, form the basis of all revealed +religions? Indeed, we cannot find one of them that is not erected on +the reciprocal influence between God and man, and between man and God. +Our own species, which are annihilated (if I may use the expression) +every time that it becomes necessary to whitewash the Deity from some +reproachful stain of injustice and partiality,--these miserable +beings, to whom it is pretended that God owes nothing, and who, we are +assured, are unnecessary to him for his own felicity,--the human race, +which is nothing in his eyes, becomes all at once the principal +performer on the stage of nature. We find that mankind are necessary +to support the glory of their Creator; we see them become the sole +objects of his care; we behold in them the power to gladden or afflict +him; we see them meriting his favor and provoking his wrath. According +to these contradictory notions concerning the God of the universe, the +source of all felicity, is he not really the most wretched of beings? +We behold him perpetually exposed to the insults of men, who offend +him by their thoughts, their words, their actions, and their neglect +of duty. They incommode him, they irritate him, by the capriciousness +of their minds, by their actions, their desires, and even by their +ignorance. If we admit those Christian principles which suppose that +the greater portion of the human race excites the fury of the Eternal, +and that very few of them live in a manner conformable to his views, +will it not necessarily result therefrom, that in the immense crowd of +beings whom God has created for his glory, only a very small number of +them glorify and please him; while all the rest are occupied in vexing +him, exciting his wrath, troubling his felicity, deranging the order +that he loves, frustrating his designs, and forcing him to change his +immutable intentions? + +You are, undoubtedly, surprised at the contradictions to be +encountered at the very first step we take in examining this religion; +and I take upon myself to predict that your embarrassment will +increase as you proceed therein. If you coolly examine the ideas +presented to us in the revelation common both to Jews and Christians, +and contained in the books which they tell us are _sacred_, you will +find that the Deity who speaks is always in contradiction with +himself; that he becomes his own destroyer, and is perpetually +occupied in undoing what he has just done, and in repairing his own +workmanship, to which, in the first instance, he was incapable of +giving that degree of perfection he wished it to possess. He is never +satisfied with his own works, and cannot, in spite of his omnipotence, +bring the human race to the point of perfection he intended. The books +containing the revelation, on which Christianity is founded, every +where display to us a God of goodness in the commission of wickedness; +an omnipotent God, whose projects unceasingly miscarry; an immutable +God, changing his maxims and his conduct; an omniscient God, +continually deceived unawares; a resolute God, yet repenting of his +most important actions; a God of wisdom, whose arrangements never +attain success. He is a great God, who occupies himself with the most +puerile trifles; an all-sufficient God, yet subject to jealousy; a +powerful God, yet suspicious, vindictive, and cruel; and a just God, +yet permitting and prescribing the most atrocious iniquities. In a +word, he is a perfect God, yet displaying at the same time such +imperfections and vices that the most despicable of men would blush to +resemble him. + +Behold, Madam, the God whom this religion orders you to adore _in +spirit and in truth_. I reserve for another letter an analysis of the +holy books which you are taught to respect as the oracles of heaven. I +now perceive for the first time that I have perhaps made too long a +dissertation; and I doubt not you have already perceived that a system +built on a basis possessing so little solidity as that of the God whom +his devotees raise with one hand and destroy with the other, can have +no stability attached to it, and can only be regarded as a long tissue +of errors and contradictions. + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER III. + + An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature of the + Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon which Christianity is + founded. + + +You have seen, Madam, in my preceding letter, the incompatible and +contradictory ideas which this religion gives us of the Deity. You +will have seen that the revelation which is announced to us, instead +of being the offspring of his goodness and tenderness for the human +race, is really only a proof of injustice and partiality, of which a +God who is equally just and good would be entirely incapable. Let us +now examine whether the ideas suggested to us by these books, +containing the divine oracles, are more rational, more consistent, or +more conformable to the divine perfections. Let us see whether the +statements related in the Bible, whether the commands prescribed to us +in the name of God himself, are really worthy of God, and display to +us the characters of infinite wisdom, goodness, power, and justice. + +These inspired books go back to the origin of the world. Moses, the +confidant, the interpreter, the historian of the Deity, makes us (if +we may use such an expression) witnesses of the formation of the +universe. He tells us that the Eternal, tired of his inaction, one +fine day took it into his head to create a world that was necessary to +his glory. To effect this, he forms matter out of nothing; a pure +spirit produces a substance which has no affinity to himself; although +this God fills all space with his immensity, yet still he found room +enough in it to admit the universe, as well as all the material bodies +contained therein. + +These, at least, are the ideas which divines wish us to form +respecting the creation, if such a thing were possible as that of +possessing a clear idea of a pure spirit producing matter. But this +discussion is throwing us into metaphysical researches, which I wish +to avoid. It will be sufficient to you that you may console yourself +for not being able to comprehend it, seeing that the most profound +thinkers, who talk about the creation or the eduction of the world +from nothing, have no ideas on the subject more precise than those +which you form to yourself. As soon, Madam, as you take the trouble to +reflect thereon, you will find that divines, instead of explaining +things, have done nothing but invent words, in order to render them +dubious, and to confound all our natural conceptions. + +I will not, however, tire you by a fastidious display of the blunders +which fill the narrative of Moses, which they announce to us as being +dictated by the Deity. If we read it with a little attention, we shall +perceive in every page philosophical and astronomical errors, +unpardonable in an inspired author, and such as we should consider +ridiculous in any man, who, in the most superficial manner, should +have studied and contemplated nature. + +You will find, for example, light created before the sun, although +this star is visibly the source of light which communicates itself to +our globe. You will find the evening and the morning established +before the formation of this same sun, whose presence alone produces +day, whose absence produces night, and whose different aspects +constitute morning and evening. You will there find that the moon is +spoken of as a body possessing its own light, in a similar manner as +the sun possesses it, although this planet is a dark body, and +receives its light from the sun. These ignorant blunders are +sufficient to show you that the Deity who revealed himself to Moses +was quite unacquainted with the nature of those substances which he +had created out of nothing, and that you at present possess more +information respecting them than was once possessed by the Creator of +the world. + +I am not ignorant that our divines have an answer always ready to +those difficulties which would attack their divine science, and place +their knowledge far below that of Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and even +below that of young people who have scarcely studied the first +elements of natural philosophy. They will tell us that God, in order +to render himself intelligible to the savage and ignorant Jews, spoke +in conformity to their imperfect notions, in the false and incorrect +language of the vulgar. We must not be imposed upon by this solution, +which our doctors regard as triumphant, and which they so frequently +employ when it becomes necessary to justify the Bible against the +ignorance and vulgarities contained therein. We answer them, that a +God who knows every thing, and can perform every thing, might by a +single word have rectified the false notions of the people he wished +to enlighten, and enabled them to know the nature of bodies more +perfectly than the most able men who have since appeared. If it be +replied that revelation is not intended to render men learned, but to +make them pious, I answer that revelation was not sent to establish +false notions; that it would be unworthy of God to borrow the language +of falsehood and ignorance; that the knowledge of nature, so far from +being an injury to piety, is, by the avowal of divines, the most +proper study to display the greatness of God. They tell us that +religion would be unmovable, were it conformable to true knowledge; +that we should have no objections to make to the recital of Moses, nor +to the philosophy of the Holy Scriptures, if we found nothing but what +was continually confirmed by experience, astronomy, and the +demonstrations of geometry. + +To maintain a contrary opinion, and to say that God is pleased in +confounding the knowledge of men and in rendering it useless, is to +pretend that he is pleased with making us ignorant and changeable, and +that he condemns the progress of the human mind, although we ought to +suppose him the author of it. To pretend that God was obliged in the +Scriptures to conform himself to the language of men, is to pretend +that he withdrew his assistance from those he wished to enlighten, and +that he was unable of rendering them susceptible of comprehending the +language of truth. This is an observation not to be lost sight of in +the examination of revelation, where we find in each page that God +expresses himself in a manner quite unworthy of the Deity. Could not +an omnipotent God, instead of degrading himself, instead of +condescending to speak the language of ignorance, so far enlighten +them as to make them understand a language more true, more noble, and +more conformable to the ideas which are given us of the Deity? An +experienced master by degrees enables his scholars to understand what +he wishes to teach them, and a God ought to be able to communicate to +them immediately all the knowledge he intended to give them. + +However, according to Genesis, God, after creating the world, produced +man from the dust of the earth. In the mean while we are assured that +he created him _in his own image_; but what was the image of God? How +could man, who is at least partly material, represent a pure spirit, +which excludes all matter? + +How could his imperfect mind be formed on the model of a mind +possessing all perfection, like that which we suppose in the Creator +of the universe? What resemblance, what proportion, what affinity +could there be between a finite mind united to a body, and the +infinite spirit of the Creator? These, doubtless, are great +difficulties; hitherto it has been thought impossible to decide them; +and they will probably for a long time employ the minds of those who +strive to understand the incomprehensible meaning of a book which God +provided for our instruction. + +But why did God create man? Because he wished to people the universe +with intelligent beings, who would render him homage, who should +witness his wonders, who should glorify him, who should meditate and +contemplate his works, and merit his favors by their submission to his +laws. + +Here we behold man becoming necessary to the dignity of his God, who +without him would live without being glorified, who would receive no +homage, and who would be the melancholy Sovereign of an empire without +subjects--a condition not suited to his vanity. I think it useless to +remark to you what little conformity we find between those ideas and +such as are given us of a self-sufficient being, who, without the +assistance of any other, is supremely happy. All the characters in +which the Bible portrays the Deity are always borrowed from man, or +from a proud monarch; and we every where find that instead of having +made man after his own image, it is man that has always made God after +the image of himself, that has conferred on him his own way of +thinking, his own virtues, and his own vices. + +But did this man whom the Deity has created for his glory faithfully +fulfil the wishes of his Creator? This subject that he has just +acquired--will he be obedient? will he render homage to his power? +will he execute his will? He has done nothing of the kind. Scarcely is +he created when he becomes rebellious to the orders of his Sovereign; +he eats a forbidden fruit which God has placed in his way in order to +tempt him, and by this act draws the divine wrath not only on himself, +but on all his posterity. Thus it is that he annihilates at one blow +the great projects of the Omnipotent, who had no sooner made man for +his glory than he becomes offended with that conduct which he ought to +have foreseen. + +Here he finds himself obliged to change his projects with regard to +mankind; he becomes their enemy, and condemns them and the whole of +the race (who had not yet the power of sinning) to innumerable +penalties, to cruel calamities, and to death! What do I say? To +punishments which death itself shall not terminate! Thus God, who +wished to be glorified, is not glorified; he seems to have created man +only to offend him, that he might afterwards punish the offender. + +In this recital, which is founded on the Bible, can you recognize, +Madam, an omnipotent God, whose orders are always accomplished, and +whose projects are all necessarily executed? In a God who tempts us, +or who permits us to be tempted, do you behold a being of beneficence +and sincerity? In a God who punishes the being he has tempted, or +subjected to temptation, do you perceive any equity? In a God who +extends his vengeance even to those who have not sinned, do you behold +any shadow of justice? In a God who is irritated at what he knew must +necessarily happen, can you imagine any foresight? In the rigorous +punishments by which this God is destined to avenge himself of his +feeble creatures, both in this world and the next, can you perceive +the least appearance of goodness? + +It is, however, this history, or rather this fable, on which is +founded the whole edifice of the Christian religion. + +If the first man had not been disobedient, the human race had not been +the object of the divine wrath, and would have had no need of a +Redeemer. If this God, who knows all things, foresees all things, and +possesses all power, had prevented or foreseen the fault of Adam, it +would not have been necessary for God to sacrifice his own innocent +Son to appease his fury. Mankind, for whom he created the universe, +would then have been always happy; they would not have incurred the +displeasure of that Deity who demanded their adoration. In a word, if +this apple had not been imprudently eaten by Adam and his spouse, +mankind would not have suffered so much misery, man would have enjoyed +without interruption the immortal happiness to which God had destined +him, and the views of Providence towards his creatures would not have +been frustrated. + +It would be useless to make reflections on notions so whimsical, so +contrary to the wisdom, the power, and the justice of the Deity. It is +doing quite enough to compare the different objects which the Bible +presents to us, to perceive their inutility, absurdities, and +contradictions. We there see, continually, a wise God conducting +himself like a madman. He defeats his own projects that he may +afterwards repair them, repents of what he has done, acts as if he had +foreseen nothing, and is forced to permit proceedings which his +omnipotence could not prevent. In the writings revealed by this God, +he appears occupied only in blackening his own character, degrading +himself, vilifying himself, even in the eyes of men whom he would +excite to worship him and pay him homage; overturning and confounding +the minds of those whom he had designed to enlighten. What has just +been said might suffice to undeceive us with respect to a book which +would pass better as being intended to destroy the idea of a Deity, +than as one containing the oracles dictated and revealed by him. +Nothing but a heap of absurdities could possibly result from +principles so false and irrational; nevertheless, let us take another +glance at the principal objects which this divine work continually +offers to our consideration. Let us pass on to the Deluge. The holy +books tell us, that in spite of the will of the Almighty, the whole +human race, who had already been punished by infirmities, accidents, +and death, continued to give themselves up to the most unaccountable +depravity. God becomes irritated, and repents having created them. +Doubtless he could not have foreseen this depravity; yet, rather than +change the wicked disposition of their hearts, which he holds in his +own hands, he performs the most surprising, the most impossible of +miracles. He at once drowns all the inhabitants, with the exception of +some favorites, whom he destines to re-people the earth with a chosen +race, that will render themselves more agreeable to their God. But +does the Almighty succeed in this new project? The chosen race, saved +from the waters of the deluge, on the wreck of the earth's +destruction, begin again to offend the Sovereign of nature, abandon +themselves to new crimes, give themselves up to idolatry, and +forgetting the recent effects of celestial vengeance, seem intent only +on provoking heaven by their wickedness. In order to provide a remedy, +God chooses for his favorite the idolater Abraham. To him he discovers +himself; he orders him to renounce the worship of his fathers, and +embrace a new religion. To guarantee this covenant, the Sovereign of +nature prescribes a melancholy, ridiculous, and whimsical ceremony, to +the observance of which a God of wisdom attaches his favors. The +posterity of this chosen man are consequently to enjoy, for +everlasting, the greatest advantages; they will always be the most +partial objects of tenderness, with the Almighty; they will be happier +than all other nations, whom the Deity will abandon to occupy himself +only for them. + +These solemn promises, however, have not prevented the race of Abraham +from becoming the slaves of a vile nation, that was detested by the +Eternal; his dear friends experienced the most cruel treatment on the +part of the Egyptians. God could not guarantee them from the +misfortune that had befallen them; but in order to free them again, he +raised up to them a liberator, a chief, who performed the most +astonishing miracles. At the voice of Moses all nature is confounded; +God employs him to declare his will; yet he who could create and +annihilate the world could not subdue Pharaoh. The obstinacy of this +prince defeats, in ten successive trials, the divine omnipotence, of +which Moses is the depositary. After having vainly attempted to +overcome a monarch whose heart God had been pleased to harden, God has +recourse to the most ordinary method of rescuing his people; he tells +them to run off, after having first counselled them to rob the +Egyptians. The fugitives are pursued; but God, who protects these +robbers, orders the sea to swallow up the miserable people who had the +temerity to run after their property. + +The Deity would, doubtless, have reason to be satisfied with the +conduct of a people that he had just delivered by such a great number +of miracles. Alas! neither Moses nor the Almighty could succeed in +persuading this obstinate people to abandon the false gods of that +country where they had been so miserable; they preferred them to the +living God who had just saved them. All the miracles which the Eternal +was daily performing in favor of Israel could not overcome their +stubbornness, which was still more inconceivable and wonderful than +the greatest miracles. These wonders, which are now extolled as +convincing proofs of the divine mission of Moses, were by the +confession of this same Moses, who has himself transmitted us the +accounts, incapable of convincing the people who were witnesses of +them, and never produced the good effects which the Deity proposed to +himself in performing them. + +The credulity, the obstinacy, the continual depravity of the Jews, +Madam, are the most indubitable proofs of the falsity of the miracles +of Moses, as well as those of all his successors, to whom the +Scriptures attribute a supernatural power. If, in the face of these +facts, it be pretended that these miracles are attested, we shall be +compelled, at least, to agree that, according to the Bible account, +they have been entirely useless, that the Deity has been constantly +baffled in all his projects, and that he could never make of the +Hebrews a people submissive to his will. + +We find, however, God continues obstinately employed to render his +people worthy of him; he does not lose sight of them for a moment; he +sacrifices whole nations to them, and sanctions their rapine, +violence, treason, murder, and usurpation. In a word, he permits them +to do any thing to obtain his ends. He is continually sending them +chiefs, prophets, and wonderful men, who try in vain to bring them to +their duty. The whole history of the Old Testament displays nothing +but the vain efforts of God to vanquish the obstinacy of his people. +To succeed in this, he employs kindnesses, miracles, and severity. +Sometimes he delivers up to them whole nations, to be hated, pillaged, +and exterminated; at other times he permits these same nations to +exercise over his favorite people the greatest of cruelties. He +delivers them into the hands of their enemies, who are likewise the +enemies of God himself. Idolatrous nations become masters of the Jews, +who are left to feel the insults, the contempt, and the most +unheard-of severities, and are sometimes compelled to sacrifice to +idols, and to violate the law of their God. The race of Abraham +becomes the prey of impious nations. The Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, +and Romans make them successively undergo the most cruel treatment and +suffer the most bloody outrages, and God even permits his temple to be +polluted in order to punish the Jews. + +To terminate, at length, the troubles of his cherished people, the +pure Spirit that created the universe sends his own Son. It is said +that he had already been announced by his prophets, though this was +certainly done in a manner admirably adapted to prevent his being +known on his arrival. This Son of God becomes a man through his +kindness for the Jews, whom he came to liberate, to enlighten, and to +render the most happy of mortals. Being clothed with divine +omnipotence, he performs the most astonishing miracles, which do not, +however, convince the Jews. He can do every thing but convert them. +Instead of converting and liberating the Jews, he is himself +compelled, notwithstanding all his miracles, to undergo the most +infamous of punishments, and to terminate his life like a common +malefactor. God is condemned to death by the people he came to save. +The Eternal hardened and blinded those among whom he sent his own +Son; he did not foresee that this Son would be rejected. What do I +say? He managed matters in such a way as not to be recognized, and +took such steps that his favorite people derived no benefit from the +coming of the Messiah. In a word, the Deity seems to have taken the +greatest care that his projects, so favorable to the Jews, should be +nullified and rendered unprofitable! + +When we expostulate against a conduct so strange and so unworthy of +the Deity, we are told it was necessary for every thing to take place +in such a manner, for the accomplishment of prophecies which had +announced that the Messiah should be disowned, rejected, and put to +death. But why did God, who knows all, and who foresaw the fate of his +dear Son, form the project of sending him among the Jews, to whom he +must have known that his mission would be useless? Would it not have +been easier neither to announce him nor send him? Would it not have +been more conformable to divine omnipotence to spare himself the +trouble of so many miracles, so many prophecies, so much useless +labor, so much wrath, and so many sufferings to his own Son, by giving +at once to the human race that degree of perfection he intended for +them? + +We are told it was necessary that the Deity should have a victim; that +to repair the fault of the first man, no expedient would be sufficient +but the death of another God; that the only God of the universe could +not be appeased but by the blood of his own Son. I reply, in the first +place, that God had only to prevent the first man from committing a +fault; that this would have spared him much chagrin and sorrow, and +saved the life of his dear Son. I reply, likewise, that man is +incapable of offending God unless God either permitted it or consented +to it. I shall not examine how it is possible for God to have a Son, +who, being as much a God as himself, can be subject to death. I reply, +also, that it is impossible to perceive such a grave fault and sin in +taking an apple, and that we can find very little proportion between +the crime committed against the Deity by eating an apple and his Son's +death. + +I know well enough I shall be told that these are all mysteries; but +I, in my turn, shall reply, that mysteries are imposing words, +imagined by men who know not how to get themselves out of the +labyrinth into which their false reasonings and senseless principles +have once plunged them. + +Be this as it may, we are assured that the Messiah, or the deliverer +of the Jews, had been clearly predicted and described by the +prophecies contained in the Old Testament. In this case, I demand why +the Jews have disowned this wonderful man, this God whom God sent to +them. They answer me, that the incredulity of the Jews was likewise +predicted, and that divers inspired writers had announced the death of +the Son of God. To which I reply, that a sensible God ought not to +have sent him under such circumstances, that an omnipotent God ought +to have adopted measures more efficacious and certain to bring his +people into the way in which he wished them to go. If he wished not to +convert and liberate the Jews, it was quite useless to send his Son +among them, and thereby expose him to a death that was both certain +and foreseen. + +They will not fail to tell me, that in the end the divine patience +became tired of the excesses of the Jews; that the immutable God, who +had sworn an eternal alliance with the race of Abraham, wished at +length to break the treaty, which he had, however, assured them should +last forever. It is pretended that God had determined to reject the +Hebrew nation, in order to adopt the Gentiles, whom he had hated and +despised nearly four thousand years. I reply, that this discourse is +very little conformable to the ideas we ought to have of a God who +_changes not_, whose mercy is _infinite_, and whose goodness is +_inexhaustible_. I shall tell them, that in this case the Messiah +announced by the Jewish prophets was destined for the Jews, and that +he ought to have been their liberator, instead of destroying their +worship and their religion. If it be possible to unravel any thing in +these obscure, enigmatical, and symbolical oracles of the prophets of +Judea, as we find them in the Bible,--if there be any means of +guessing the meaning of the obscure riddles, which have been decorated +with the pompous name of prophecies, we shall perceive that the +inspired writers, when they are in a good humor, always promised the +Jews a man that will redress their grievances, restore the kingdom of +Judah, and not one that should destroy the religion of Moses. If it +were for the Gentiles that the Messiah should come, he is no longer +the Messiah promised to the Jews and announced by their prophets. If +Jesus be the Messiah of the Jews, he could not be the destroyer of +their nation. + +Should I be told that Jesus himself declared that he came to fulfil +the law of Moses, and not to abolish it, I ask why Christians do not +observe the law of the Jews? + +Thus, in whatever light we regard Jesus Christ, we perceive that he +could not be the man whom the prophets have predicted, since it is +evident that he came only to destroy the religion of the Jews, which, +though instituted by God himself, had nevertheless become disagreeable +to him. If this inconstant God, who was wearied with the worship of +the Jews, had at length repented of his injustice towards the +Gentiles, it was to them that he ought to have sent his Son. By acting +in this way he would at least have saved his old friends from a +frightful _deicide_, which he forced them to commit, because they were +not able to recognize the God he sent amongst them. Besides, the Jews +were very pardonable in not acknowledging their expected Messiah in an +artisan of Galilee, who was destitute of all the characteristics which +the prophets had related, and during whose lifetime his +fellow-citizens were neither liberated nor happy. + +We are told that he performed miracles. He healed the sick, caused the +lame to walk, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. At length +he accomplished his own resurrection. It might be so believed; yet he +has visibly failed in that miracle for which alone he came upon earth. +He was never able either to persuade or to convert the Jews, who +witnessed all the daily wonders that he performed. Notwithstanding +those prodigies, they placed him ignominiously on the cross. In spite +of his divine power, he was incapable of escaping punishment. He +wished to die, to render the Jews culpable, and to have the pleasure +of rising again the third day, in order to confound the ingratitude +and obstinacy of his fellow-citizens. What is the result? Did his +fellow-citizens concede to this great miracle, and have they at length +acknowledged him? Far from it; they never saw him. The Son of God, who +arose from the dead in secrecy, showed himself only to his adherents. +They alone pretend to have conversed with him; they alone have +furnished us with the particulars of his life and miracles; and yet by +such suspicious testimony they wish to convince us of the divinity of +his mission eighteen hundred years after the event, although he could +not convince his contemporaries, the Jews. + +We are then told that many Jews have been converted to Jesus Christ; +that after his death many others were converted; that the witnesses +of the life and miracles of the Son of God have sealed their testimony +with their blood; that men will not die to attest falsehood; that by a +visible effect of the divine power, the people of a great part of the +earth have adopted Christianity, and still persist in the belief of +this divine religion. + +In all this I perceive nothing like a miracle. I see nothing but what +is conformable to the ordinary progress of the human mind. An +enthusiast, a dexterous impostor, a crafty juggler, can easily find +adherents in a stupid, ignorant, and superstitious populace. These +followers, captivated by counsels, or seduced by promises, consent to +quit a painful and laborious life, to follow a man who gives them to +understand that he will make them _fishers of men_; that is to say, he +will enable them to subsist by his cunning tricks, at the expense of +the multitude who are always credulous. The juggler, with the +assistance of his remedies, can perform cures which seem miraculous to +ignorant spectators. These simple creatures immediately regard him as +a supernatural being. He adopts this opinion himself, and confirms the +high notions which his partisans have formed respecting him. He feels +himself interested in maintaining this opinion among his sectaries, +and finds out the secret of exciting their enthusiasm. To accomplish +this point, our empiric becomes a preacher; he makes use of riddles, +obscure sentences, and parables to the multitude, that always admire +what they do not understand. To render himself more agreeable to the +people, he declaims among poor, ignorant, foolish men, against the +rich, the great, the learned; but above all, against the _priests_, +who in all ages have been _avaricious_, _imperious_, _uncharitable_, +and _burdensome_ to the people. If these discourses be eagerly +received among the vulgar, who are always morose, envious, and +jealous, they displease all those who see themselves the objects of +the invective and satire of the popular preacher. + +They consequently wish to check his progress, they lay snares for him, +they seek to surprise him in a fault, in order that they may unmask +him and have their revenge. By dint of imposture, he outwits them; +yet, in consequence of his miracles and illusions, he at length +discovers himself. He is then seized and punished, and none of his +adherents abide by him, except a few idiots, that nothing can +undeceive; none but partisans, accustomed to lead with him a life of +idleness; none but dexterous knaves, who wish to continue their +impositions on the public, by deceptions similar to those of their old +master, by obscure, unconnected, confused, and fanatical harangues, +and by declamations against _magistrates_ and _priests_. These, who +have the power in their own hands, finish by persecuting them, +imprisoning them, flogging them, chastising them, and putting them to +death. Poor wretches, habituated to poverty, undergo all these +sufferings with a fortitude which we frequently meet with in +malefactors. In some we find their courage fortified by the zeal of +fanaticism. This fortitude surprises, agitates, excites pity, and +irritates the spectators against those who torment men whose constancy +makes them looked upon as being innocent, who, it is supposed, may +possibly be right, and for whom compassion likewise interests itself. +It is thus that enthusiasm is propagated, and that persecution always +augments the number of the partisans of those who are persecuted. + +I shall leave to you, Madam, the trouble of applying the history of +our juggler, and his adherents, to that of the founder, the apostles, +and the martyrs of the Christian religion. + +With whatever art they have written the life of Jesus Christ, which we +hold only from his apostles, or their disciples, it furnishes a +sufficiency of materials on which to found our conjectures. I shall +only observe to you, that the Jewish nation was remarkable for its +credulity; that the companions of Jesus were chosen from among the +dregs of the people; that Jesus always gave a preference to the +populace, with whom he wished, undoubtedly, to form a rampart against +the _priests_; and that, at last, Jesus was seized immediately after +the most splendid of his miracles. We see him put to death immediately +after the resurrection of Lazarus, which, even according to the gospel +account, bears the most evident characters of fraud, which are visible +to every one who examines it without prejudice. + +I imagine, Madam, that what I have just stated will suffice to show +you what opinion you ought to entertain respecting the founder of +Christianity and his first sectaries. These have been either dupes or +fanatics, who permitted themselves to be seduced by deceptions, and by +discourses conformable to their desires, or by dexterous impostors, +who knew how to make the best of the tricks of their old master, to +whom they have become such able successors. In this way did they +establish a religion which enabled them to live at the people's +expense, and which still maintains in abundance those we pay, at such +a high rate, for transmitting from father to son the fables, visions, +and wonders which were born and nursed in Judea. The propagation of +the Christian faith, and the constancy of their martyrs, have nothing +surprising in them. The people flock after all those that show them +wonders, and receive without reasoning on it every thing that is told +them. They transmit to their children the tales they have heard +related, and by degrees these opinions are adopted by kings, by the +great, and even by the learned. + +As for the martyrs, their constancy has nothing supernatural in it. +The first Christians, as well as all new sectaries, were treated, by +the Jews and pagans, as disturbers of the public peace. They were +already sufficiently intoxicated with the fanaticism with which their +religion inspired them, and were persuaded that God held himself in +readiness to crown them, and to receive them into his eternal +dwelling. In a word, seeing the heavens opened, and being convinced +that the end of the world was approaching, it is not surprising that +they had courage to set punishment at defiance, to endure it with +constancy, and to despise death. To these motives, founded on their +religious opinions, many others were added, which are always of such a +nature as to operate strongly upon the minds of men. Those who, as +Christians, were imprisoned and ill-treated on account of their faith, +were visited, consoled, encouraged, honored, and loaded with +kindnesses by their brethren, who took care of and succored them +during their detention, and who almost adored them after their death. +Those, on the other hand, who displayed weakness, were despised and +detested, and when they gave way to repentance, they were compelled to +undergo a rigorous penitence, which lasted as long as they lived. Thus +were the most powerful motives united to inspire the martyrs with +courage; and this courage has nothing more supernatural about it than +that which determines us daily to encounter the most perilous dangers, +through the fear of dishonoring ourselves in the eyes of our +fellow-citizens. Cowardice would expose us to infamy all the rest of +our days. There is nothing miraculous in the constancy of a man to +whom an offer is made, on the one hand, of eternal happiness and the +highest honors, and who, on the other hand, sees himself menaced with +hatred, contempt, and the most lasting regret. + +You perceive, then, Madam, that nothing can be easier than to +overthrow the proofs by which Christian doctors establish the +revelation which they pretend is so well authenticated. Miracles, +martyrs, and prophecies prove nothing. + +Were all the wonders true that are related in the Old and New +Testament, they would afford no proof in favor of divine omnipotence, +but, on the contrary, would prove the inability under which the Deity +has continually labored, of convincing mankind of the truths he wished +to announce to them. On the other hand, supposing these miracles to +have produced all the effects which the Deity had a right to expect +from them, we have no longer any reason to believe them, except on the +tradition and recitals of others, which are often suspicious, faulty, +and exaggerated. The miracles of Moses are attested only by Moses, or +by Jewish writers interested in making them believed by the people +they wished to govern. The miracles of Jesus are attested only by his +disciples, who sought to obtain adherents, in relating to a credulous +people prodigies to which they pretended to have been witnesses, or +which some of them, perhaps, believed they had really seen. All those +who deceive mankind are not always cheats; they are frequently +deceived by those who are knaves in reality. Besides, I believe I have +sufficiently proved, that miracles are repugnant to the essence of an +immutable God, as well as to his wisdom, which will not permit him to +alter the wise laws he has himself established. In short, miracles are +useless, since those related in Scripture have not produced the +effects which God expected from them. + +The proof of the Christian religion taken from prophecy has no better +foundation. Whoever will examine without prejudice these oracles +pretended to be divine will find only an ambiguous, unintelligible, +absurd, and unconnected jargon, entirely unworthy of a God who +intended to display his prescience, and to instruct his people with +regard to future events. There does not exist in the Holy Scriptures a +single prophecy sufficiently precise to be literally applied to Jesus +Christ. To convince yourself of this truth, ask the most learned of +our doctors which are the formal prophecies wherein they have the +happiness to discover the Messiah. You will then perceive that it is +only by the aid of forced explanations, figures, parables, and +mystical interpretations, by which they are enabled to bring forward +any thing sensible and applicable to the _god-made-man_ whom they tell +us to adore. It would seem as if the Deity had made predictions only +that we might understand nothing about them. + +In these equivocal oracles, whose meaning it is impossible to +penetrate, we find nothing but the language of intoxication, +fanaticism, and delirium. When we fancy we have found something +intelligible, it is easy to perceive that the prophets intended to +speak of events that took place in their own age, or of personages who +had preceded them. It is thus that our doctors apply gratuitously to +Christ prophecies or rather narratives of what happened respecting +David, Solomon, Cyrus, &c. + +We imagine we see the chastisement of the Jewish people announced in +recitals where it is evident the only matter in question was the +Babylonish captivity. In this event, so long prior to Jesus Christ, +they have imagined finding a prediction of the dispersion of the Jews, +supposed to be a visible punishment for their _deicide_, and which +they now wish to pass off as an indubitable proof of the truth of +Christianity. + +It is not, then, astonishing that the ancient and modern Jews do not +see in the prophets what our doctors teach us, and what they +themselves imagine they have seen. Jesus himself has not been more +happy in his predictions than his predecessors. In the gospel he +announces to his disciples in the most formal manner the destruction +of the world and the last judgment, as events that were at hand, and +which must take place before the existing generation had passed away. +Yet the world still endures, and appears in no danger of finishing. It +is true, our doctors pretend that, in the prediction of Jesus Christ, +he spoke of the ruin of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus; but none but +those who have not read the gospel would submit to such a change, or +satisfy themselves with such an evasion. Besides, in adopting it we +must confess at least that the Son of God himself was unable to +prophesy with greater precision than his obscure predecessors. + +Indeed, at every page of these sacred books, which we are assured were +inspired by God himself, this God seems to have made a revelation only +to conceal himself. He does not speak but to be misunderstood. He +announces his oracles in such a way only that we can neither +comprehend them nor make any application of them. He performs miracles +only to make unbelievers. He manifests himself to mankind only to +stupefy their judgment and bewilder the reason he has bestowed on +them. The Bible continually represents God to us as a seducer, an +enticer, a suspicious tyrant, who knows not what kind of conduct to +observe with respect to his subjects; who amuses himself by laying +snares for his creatures, and who tries them that he may have the +pleasure of inflicting a punishment for yielding to his temptations. +This God is occupied only in building to destroy, in demolishing to +rebuild. Like a child disgusted with its playthings, he is continually +undoing what he has done, and breaking what was the object of his +desires. We find no foresight, no constancy, no consistency in his +conduct; no connection, no clearness in his discourses. When he +performs any thing, he sometimes approves what he has done, and at +other times repents of it. He irritates and vexes himself with what he +has permitted to be done, and, in spite of his infinite power, he +suffers man to offend him, and consents to let Satan, his creature, +derange all his projects. In a word, the revelations of the Christians +and Jews seem to have been imagined only to render uncertain and to +annihilate the qualities attributed to the Deity, and which are +declared to constitute his essence. The whole Scripture, the entire +system of the Christian religion, appears to be founded only on the +incapability of God, who was unable to render the human race as wise, +as good, and as happy as he wished them. The death of his innocent +Son, who was immolated to his vengeance, is entirely useless for the +most numerous portion of the earth's inhabitants; almost the whole +human race, in spite of the continual efforts of the Deity, continue +to offend him, to frustrate his designs, resist his will, and to +persevere in their wickedness. + +It is on notions so fatal, so contradictory, and so unworthy of a God +who is just, wise, and good, of a God that is rational, independent, +immutable, and omnipotent, on whom the Christian religion is founded, +and which religion is said to be established forever by God, who, +nevertheless, became disgusted with the religion of the Jews, with +whom he had made and sworn an eternal covenant. + +Time must prove whether God be more constant and faithful in +fulfilling his engagements with the Christians than he has been to +fulfil those he made with Abraham and his posterity. I confess, Madam, +that his past conduct alarms me as to what he may finally perform. If +he himself acknowledged by the mouth of Ezekiel that the laws he had +given to the Jews _were not good_, he may very possibly, some day or +other, find fault with those which he has given to Christians. + +Our priests themselves seem to partake of my suspicions, and to fear +that God will be wearied of that protection which he has so long +granted to his church. The inquietudes which they evince, the efforts +which they make to hinder the civilization of the world, the +persecutions which they raise against all those who contradict them, +seem to prove that they mistrust the promises of Jesus Christ, and +that they are not certainly convinced of the eternal durability of a +religion which does not appear to them divine, but because it gives +them the right to command like gods over their fellow-citizens. They +would undoubtedly consider the destruction of their empire a very +grievous thing; but yet if the sovereigns of the earth and their +people should once grow weary of the sacerdotal yoke, we may be sure +the Sovereign of heaven would not require a longer time to become +equally disgusted. + +However this may be, Madam, I venture to hope the perusal of this +letter will fully undeceive you of a blind veneration for books which +are called _divine_, although they appear as if invented to degrade +and destroy the God who is asserted to be their author. My first +letter, I feel confident, enabled you to perceive that the dogmas +established by these same books, or subsequently fabricated to justify +the ideas thus given of God, are not less contrary to all notions of a +Deity infinitely perfect. A system which in the outset is based upon +false principles can never become any thing else than a mass of +falsehoods. + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER IV. + + Of the fundamental Dogmas of the Christian Religion. + + +You are aware, Madam, that our theological doctors pretend these +revealed books, which I summarily examined in my preceding letter, do +not include a single word that was not inspired by the Spirit of God. +What I have already said to you is sufficient to show that in setting +out with this supposition, the Divinity has formed a work the most +shapeless, imperfect, contradictory, and unintelligible which ever +existed; a work, in a word, of which any man of sense would blush with +shame to be the author. If any prophecy hath verified itself for the +Christians, it is that of Isaiah, which saith, "Hearing ye shall hear, +but shall not understand." But in this case we reply that it was +sufficiently useless to speak not to be comprehended; to reveal _that_ +which cannot be comprehended is to reveal _nothing_. + +We need not, then, be surprised if the Christians, notwithstanding the +revelation of which they assure us they have been the favorites, have +no precise ideas either of the Divinity, or of his will, or the way in +which his oracles are to be interpreted. The book from which they +should be able to do so serves only to confound the simplest notions, +to throw them into the greatest incertitude, and create eternal +disputations. If it was the project of the Divinity, it would, +without doubt, be attended with perfect success. The teachers of +Christianity never agree on the manner in which they are to understand +the truths that God has given himself the trouble to reveal; all the +efforts which they have employed to this time have not yet been +capable of making any thing clear, and the dogmas which they have +successively invented have been insufficient to justify to the +understanding of one man of good sense the conduct of an infinitely +perfect Being. + +Hence, many among them, perceiving the inconveniences which would +result from the reading of the holy books, have carefully kept them +out of the hands of the vulgar and illiterate; for they plainly +foresaw that if they were read by such they would necessarily bring on +themselves reproach, since it would never fail that every honest man +of good sense would discover in those books only a crowd of +absurdities. Thus the oracles of God are not even made for those for +whom they are addressed; it is requisite to be initiated in the +mysteries of a priesthood, to have the privilege of discerning in the +holy writings the light which the Divinity destined to all his dear +children. But are the theologians themselves able to make plain the +difficulties which the sacred books present in every page? By +meditating on the mysteries which they contain, have they given us +ideas more plain of the intentions of the Divinity? No; without doubt +they explain one mystery by citing another; they scatter new +obscurities on previous obscurities; rarely do they agree among +themselves; and when by chance their opinions coincide, _we_ are not +more enlightened, nor is our judgment more convinced; on the other +hand, our reason is the more confounded. + +If they do agree on some point, it is only to tell us that human +reason, of which God is the author, is depraved; but what is the +purport of this coincidence in their opinions, if it be not to tax the +Deity with imbecility, injustice, and malignity? For why should God, +in creating a reasonable being, not have given him an understanding +which nothing could corrupt? They reply to us by saying "that the +reason of man is necessarily limited; that perfection could not be the +portion of a _creature_; that the designs of God are not like those of +man." But, in this case, why should the Divinity be offended by the +necessary imperfections which he discovers in his creatures? How can a +just God require that our mind must admit what it was not made to +comprehend? Can he who is above our reason be understood by us, whose +reason is so limited? If God be infinite, how can a finite creature +reason respecting him? If the mysteries and hidden designs of the +Divinity are of such a nature as not to be comprehended by man, what +good can we derive from their investigation? Had God designed that we +should occupy our thoughts with his purposes, would he not have given +us an understanding proportionate to the things he wished us to +penetrate? + +You see, then, Madam, that in depressing our reason, in supposing it +corrupted, our priests, at the same time, annihilate even the +necessity of religion, which cannot be either useful or important to +us, if above our comprehension. They do more in supposing human reason +depraved; they accuse God of injustice, in requiring that our reason +should conceive what cannot be conceived. They accuse him of +imbecility in not rendering this reason more perfect. In a word, in +degrading man they degrade God, and rob him of those attributes which +compose his essence. Would you call him a just and good parent, who, +wishing that his children should walk by an obscure route, filled with +difficulties, would only give them for their conduct a light too weak +to find their way, and to avoid the continual dangers by which they +are surrounded? Should you consider that the father had adequately +provided for their security by giving them in writing unintelligible +instructions, which they could not decipher by the weak light he had +given them? + +Our spiritual directors will not fail to tell us that the corruption +of reason and the weakness of the human understanding are the +consequences of sin. But why has man become sinful? How has the good +God permitted his dear children, for whom he created the universe, and +of whom he exacts obedience, to offend him, and thereby extinguish, +or, at least, weaken the light he had given them? On the other hand, +the reason of Adam ought to be, without doubt, completely perfect +before his fall. In this case, why did it not prevent that fall and +its consequences? Was the reason of Adam corrupted even beforehand by +incurring the wrath of his God? Was it depraved before he had done any +thing to deprave it? + +To justify this strange conduct of Providence, to clear him from +passing as the author of sin, to save him the ridicule of being the +cause or the accomplice of offences which he did against himself, the +theologians have imagined a _being_ subordinate to the divine power. +It is the secondary being they make the author of all the evil which +is committed in the universe. In the impossibility of reconciling the +continual disorders of which the world is the theatre with the +purposes of a Deity replete with goodness, the Creator and Preserver +of the universe, who delights in order, and who seeks only the +happiness of his creatures, they have trumped up a destructive genius, +imbued with wickedness, who conspires to render men miserable, and to +overthrow the beneficent views of the Eternal. This bad and perverse +being they call _Satan_, the _Devil_, the _Evil One_; and we see him +play a great game in all the religions of the world, the founders of +which have found in the impotence of Deity the sources of both good +and evil. By the aid of this imaginary being they have been enabled to +resolve all their difficulties; yet they could not foresee that this +invention, which went to annihilate or abridge the power of Deity, was +a system filled with palpable contradictions, and that if the Devil +were really the author of sin, it would be he, in all justice, who +ought to undergo all its punishment. + +If God is the author of all, it is he who created the Devil; if the +Devil is wicked, if he strives to counteract the projects of the +Divinity, it is the Divinity who has allowed the overthrow of his +projects, or who has not had sufficient authority to prevent the Devil +from exercising his power. If God had wished that the Devil should not +have existed, the Devil would not have existed. God could annihilate +him at one word, or, at least, God could change his disposition if +injurious to us, and contrary to the projects of a beneficent +Providence. Since, then, the Devil does exist, and does such +marvellous things as are attributed to him, we are compelled to +conclude that the Divinity has found it good that he should exist and +agitate, as he does, all his works by a perpetual interruption and +perversion of his designs. + +Thus, Madam, the invention of the Devil does not remedy the evil; on +the contrary, it but entangles the priests more and more. By placing +to Satan's account all the evil which he commits in the world, they +exculpate the Deity of nothing; all the power with which they have +supposed the Devil invested is taken from that assigned to the +Divinity; and you know very well that according to the notions of the +Christian religion, the Devil has more adherents than God himself; +they are always stirring their fellow-creatures up to revolt against +God; without ceasing, in despite of God, Satan leads them into +perdition, except one man only, who refused to follow him, and who +found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You are not ignorant that the +millions that follow the standard of Beelzebub are to be plunged with +him into eternal misery. + +But then has Satan himself incurred the disgrace of the All-powerful? +By what forfeit has he merited becoming the eternal object of the +anger of that God who created him? The Christian religion will explain +all. It informs us that the Devil was in his origin an angel; that is +to say, a pure spirit, full of perfections, created by the Divinity to +occupy a distinguishing situation in the celestial court, destined, +like the other ministers of the Eternal, to receive his orders, and to +enjoy perpetual blessedness. But he lost himself through ambition; his +pride blinded him, and he dared to revolt against his Creator; he +engaged other spirits, as pure as himself, in the same senseless +enterprise; in consequence of his rashness, he was hurled headlong out +of heaven, his miserable adherents were involved in his fall, and, +having been hardened by the divine pleasure in their foolish +dispositions, they have no other occupation assigned them in the +universe than to tempt mankind, and endeavor to augment the number of +the enemies of God, and the victims of his wrath. + +It is by the assistance of this fable that the Christian doctors +perceive the fall of Adam, prepared by the Almighty himself anterior +to the creation of the world. Was it necessary that the Divinity +should entertain a great desire that man might sin, since he would +thereby have an opportunity of providing the means of making him +sinful? In effect, it was the Devil who, in process of time, covered +with the skin of a serpent, solicited the mother of the human race to +disobey God, and involve her husband in her rebellion. But the +difficulty is not removed by these inventions. If Satan, in the time +he was an angel, lived in innocence, and merited the good will of his +Maker, how came God to suffer him to entertain ideas of pride, +ambition, and rebellion? How came this angel of light so blind as not +to see the folly of such an enterprise? Did he not know that his +Creator was all-powerful? Who was it that tempted Satan? What reason +had the Divinity for selecting him to be the object of his fury, the +destroyer of his projects, the enemy of his power? If pride be a sin, +if the idea itself of rebellion is the greatest of crimes, _sin was, +then, anterior to sin_, and Lucifer offended God, even in his state of +purity; for, in fine, a being pure, innocent, agreeable to his God, +who had all the perfections of which a creature could be susceptible, +ought to be exempt from ambition, pride, and folly. We ought, also, to +say as much for our first parent, who, notwithstanding his wisdom, his +innocence, and the knowledge infused into him by God himself, could +not prevent himself from falling into the temptation of a demon. + +Hence, in every shift, the priests invariably make God the author of +sin. It was God who tempted Lucifer before the creation of the world; +Lucifer, in his turn, became the tempter of man and the cause of all +the evil our race suffers. It appears, therefore, that God created +both angels and men to give them an opportunity of sinning. + +It is easy to perceive the absurdity of this system, to save which the +theologians have invented another still more absurd, that it might +become the foundation of all their religious revelations, and by means +of which they idly imagine they can fully justify the divine +providence. The system of truth supposes the _free will_ of man--that +he is his own master, capable of doing good or ill, and of directing +his own plans. At the words _free will_, I already perceive, Madam, +that you tremble, and doubtless anticipate a metaphysical +dissertation. Rest assured of the contrary; for I flatter myself that +the question will be simplified and rendered clear, I shall not merely +say for you, but for all your sex who are not resolved to be wilfully +blind. + +To say that man is a free agent is to detract from the power of the +Supreme Being; it is to pretend that God is not the master of his own +will; it is to advance that a weak creature can, when it pleases him, +revolt against his Creator, derange his projects, disturb the order +which he loves, render his labors useless, afflict him with chagrin, +cause him sorrow, act with effect against him, and arouse his anger +and his passions. Thus, at the first glance, you perceive that this +principle gives rise to a crowd of absurdities. If God is the friend +of order, every thing performed by his creatures would necessarily +conduce to the maintenance of this order, because otherwise the divine +will would fail to have its effect. If God has plans, they must of +necessity be always executed; if man can afflict his God, man is the +master of this God's happiness, and the league he has formed with the +Devil is potent enough to thwart the plans of the Divinity. In a word, +if man is free to sin, God is no longer Omnipotent. + +In reply, we are told that God, without detriment to his Omnipotence, +might make man a free agent, and that this liberty is a benefit by +which God places man in a situation where he may merit the heavenly +bounty; but, on the other hand, this liberty likewise exposes him to +encounter God's hatred, to offend him, and to be overwhelmed by +infinite sufferings. From this I conclude that this liberty is _not_ a +benefit, and that it evidently is inconsistent with divine goodness. +This goodness would be more real if men had always sufficient +resolution to do what is pleasing to God, conformably to order, and +conducive to the happiness of their fellow-creatures. If men, in +virtue of their liberty, do things contrary to the will of God, God, +who is supposed to have the prescience of foreseeing all, ought to +have taken measures to prevent men from abusing their liberty; if he +foresaw they would sin, he ought to have given them the means of +avoiding it; if he could not prevent them from doing ill, he has +consented to the ill they have done; if he has consented, he should +not be offended; if he is offended, or if he punish them for the evil +they have done with his permission, he is unjust and cruel; if he +suffer them to rush on to their destruction, he is bound afterwards to +take them to himself; and he cannot with reason find fault with them +for the abuse of their liberty, in being deceived or seduced by the +objects which he himself had placed in their way to seduce them, to +tempt them, and to determine their wills to do evil.[4] + +[4] See what Bayle says, _Dict. Crit._, art. _Origene_, Rem. E., art. +_Pauliciens_, Rem. E., F., M., and tom. iij. of the _Reponses aux +Questions d'un Provincial_. + +What would you say of a father who should give to his children, in the +infancy of age, and when they were without experience, the liberty of +satisfying their disordered appetites, till they should convince +themselves of their evil tendency? Would not such a parent be in the +right to feel uneasy at the abuse which they should make of their +liberty which he had given them? Would it not be accounted malice in +this parent, who should have foreseen what was to happen, not to have +furnished his children with the capacity of directing their own +conduct so as to avoid the evils they might be assailed with? Would it +not show in him the height of madness were he to punish them for the +evil which he had done, and the chagrin which they occasioned him? +Would it not be to himself that we should ascribe the sottishness and +wickedness of his children? + +You see, then, the points of view under which this system of men's +free will shows us the Deity. This free will becomes a present the +most dangerous, since it puts man in the condition of doing evil that +is truly frightful. We may thence conclude that this system, far from +justifying God, makes him capable of malice, imprudence, and +injustice. But this is to overturn all our ideas of a being perfectly, +nay, infinitely wise and good, consenting to punish his creatures for +sins which he gave them the power of committing, or, which is the +same, suffering the Devil to inspire them with evil. All the +subtilties of theology have really only a tendency to destroy the very +notions itself inculcates concerning the Divinity. This theology is +evidently the tub of the Danaides. + +It is a fact, however, that our theologians have imagined expedients +to support their ruinous suppositions. You have often heard mention +made of _predestination_ and _grace_--terrible words, which constantly +excite disputes among us, for which reason would be forced to blush if +Christians did not make it a duty to renounce reason, and which +contests are attended with consequences very dangerous to society. But +let not this surprise you; these false and obscure principles have +even among the theologians produced dissensions; and their quarrels +would be indifferent if they did not attach more importance to them +than they really deserve. + +But to proceed. The system of predestination supposes that God, in his +eternal secrets, has resolved that some men should be elected, and, +being thus his favorites, receive special grace. By this grace they +are supposed to be made agreeable to God, and meet for eternal +happiness. But then an infinite number of others are destined to +perdition, and receive not the grace necessary to eternal salvation. +These contradictory and opposite propositions make it pretty evident +that the system is absurd. It makes God, a being infinitely perfect +and good, a partial tyrant, who has created a vast number of human +beings to be the sport of his caprice and the victims of his +vengeance. It supposes that God will punish his creatures for not +having received that grace which he did not deign to give them; it +presents this God to us under traits so revolting that the theologians +are forced to avow that the whole is a profound mystery, into which +the human mind cannot penetrate. But if man is not made to lift his +inquisitive eye on this frightful mystery, that is to say, on this +astonishing absurdity, which our teachers have idly endeavored to +square to their views of Deity, or to reconcile the atrocious +injustice of their God with his infinite goodness, by what right do +they wish us to adore this mystery which they would compel us to +believe, and to subscribe to an opinion that saps the divine goodness +to its very foundation? How do they reason upon a dogma, and quarrel +with acrimony about a system of which even themselves can comprehend +nothing? + +The more you examine religion, the more occasion you will have to be +convinced that those things which our divines call _mysteries_ are +nothing else but the difficulties with which they are themselves +embarrassed, when they are unable to avoid the absurdities into which +their own false principles necessarily involve them. Nevertheless, +this word is not enough to impose upon us; the reverend doctors do not +themselves understand the things about which they incessantly speak. +They invent words from an inability to explain things, and they give +the name of _mysteries_ to what they comprehend no better than +ourselves. + +All the religions in the world are founded upon predestination, and +all the pretended revelations among men, as has been already pointed +out to you, inculcate this odious dogma, which makes Providence an +unjust mother-in-law, who shows a blind preference for some of her +children to the prejudice of all the others. They make God a tyrant, +who punishes the inevitable faults to which he has impelled them, or +into which he has allowed them to be seduced. This dogma, which served +as the foundation of Paganism, is now the grand pivot of the Christian +religion, whose God should excite no less hatred than the most wicked +divinities of idolatrous people. With such notions, is it not +astonishing that this God should appear, to those who meditate on his +attributes, an object sufficiently terrible to agitate the +imagination, and to lead some to indulge in dangerous follies? + +The dogma of another life serves also to exculpate the Deity from +these apparent injustices or aberrations, with which he might +naturally be accused. It is pretended that it has pleased him to +distinguish his friends on earth, seeing he has amply provided for +their future happiness in an abode prepared for their souls. But, as I +believe I have already hinted, these proofs that God makes some good, +and leaves others wicked, either evince injustice on his part, at +least temporary, or they contradict his omnipotence. If God can do all +things, if he is privy to all the thoughts and actions of men, what +need has he of any proofs? If he has resolved to give them grace +necessary to save them, has he not assured them they will not perish? +If he is unjust and cruel, this God is not immutable, and belies his +character; at least for a time he derogates from the perfections which +we should expect to find in him. What would you think of a king, who, +during a particular time, would discover to his favorites traits the +most frightful, in order that they might incur his disgrace, and who +should afterwards insist on their believing him a very good and +amiable man, to obtain his favor again? Would not such a prince be +pronounced wicked, fanciful, and tyrannical? Nevertheless, this +supposed prince might be pardoned by some, if for his own interest, +and the better to assure himself of the attachment of his friends, he +might give them some smiles of his favor. It is not so God, who knows +all, who can do all, who has nothing to fear from the dispositions of +his creatures. From all these reasonings, we may see that the Deity, +whom the priests have conjured up, plays a great game, very +ridiculous, very unjust, on the supposition that he tries his +servants, and that he allows them to suffer in this world, to prepare +them for another. The theologians have not failed to discover motives +in this conduct of God which they can as readily justify; but these +pretended motives are borrowed from the omnipotence of this being, by +his absolute power over his creatures, to whom he is not obliged to +render an account of his actions; but especially in this theology, +which professes to justify God, do we not see it make him a despot and +tyrant more hateful than any of his creatures? + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER V. + + Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Dogma of another Life. + + +We, have now, Madam, come to the examination of the dogma of a future +life, in which it is supposed that the Divinity, after causing men to +pass through the temptations, the trials, and the difficulties of +this life, for the purpose of satisfying himself whether they are +worthy of his love or his hatred, will bestow the recompenses or +inflict the chastisements which they deserved. This dogma, which is +one of the capital points of the Christian religion, is founded on a +great many hypotheses or suppositions, which we have already glanced +at, and which we have shown to be absurd and incompatible with the +notions which the same religion gives us of the Deity. In effect, it +supposes us capable of offending or pleasing the Author of Nature, of +influencing his humor, or exciting his passions; afflicting, +tormenting, resisting, and thwarting the plans of Deity. It supposes, +moreover, the free-will of man--a system which we have seen +incompatible with the goodness, justice, and omnipotence of the Deity. +It supposes, further, that God has occasion of proving his creatures, +and making them, if I may so speak, pass a novitiate to know what they +are worth when he shall square accounts with them. It supposes in God, +who has created men for happiness only, the inability to put, by one +grand effort, all men in the road, whence they may infallibly arrive +at permanent felicity. It supposes that man will survive himself, or +that the same being, after death, will continue to think, to feel, and +act as he did in this life. In a word, it supposes the immortality of +the soul--an opinion unknown to the Jewish lawgiver, who is totally +silent on this topic to the people to whom God had manifested himself; +an opinion which even in the time of Jesus Christ one sect at +Jerusalem admitted, while another sect rejected; an opinion about +which the Messiah, who came to instruct them, deigned to fix the ideas +of those who might deceive themselves in this respect; an opinion +which appears to have been engendered in Egypt, or in India, anterior +to the Jewish religion, but which was unknown among the Hebrews till +they took occasion to instruct themselves in the Pagan philosophy of +the Greeks, and doctrines of Plato. + +Whatever might be the origin of this doctrine, it was eagerly adopted +by the Christians, who judged it very convenient to their system of +religion, all the parts of which are founded on the marvellous, and +which made it a crime to admit any truths agreeable to reason and +common sense. Thus, without going back to the inventors of this +inconceivable dogma, let us examine dispassionately what this opinion +really is; let us endeavor to penetrate to the principles on which it +is supported; let us adopt it, if we shall find it an idea conformable +to reason; let us reject it, if it shall appear destitute of proof, +and at variance with common sense, even though it had been received as +an established truth in all antiquity, though it may have been adopted +by many millions of mankind. + +Those who maintain the opinion of the soul's immortality, regard +it--that is, the soul--as a being distinct from the body, as a +substance, or essence, totally different from the corporeal frame, and +they designate it by the name of _spirit_. If we ask them what a +spirit is, they tell us it is not matter; and if we ask them what they +understand by that which is not matter, which is the only thing of +which we cannot form an idea, they tell us it is a spirit. In general, +it is easy to see that men the most savage, as well as the most subtle +thinkers, make use of the word _spirit_ to designate all the causes of +which they cannot form clear notions; hence the word spirit hath been +used to designate a being of which none can form any idea. + +Notwithstanding, the divines pretend that this unknown being, entirely +different from the body, of a substance which has nothing conformable +with itself, is, nevertheless, capable of setting the body in motion; +and this, doubtless, is a mystery very inconceivable. We have noticed +the alliance between this spiritual substance and the material body, +whose functions it regulates. As the divines have supposed that matter +could neither think, nor will, nor perceive, they have believed that +it might conceive much better those operations attributed to a being +of which they had ideas less clear than they can form of matter. In +consequence, they have imagined many gratuitous suppositions to +explain the union of the soul with the body. In fine, in the +impossibility of overcoming the insurmountable barriers which oppose +them, the priests have made man twofold, by supposing that he contains +something distinct from himself; they have cut through all +difficulties by saying that this union is a great mystery, which man +cannot understand; and they have everlasting recourse to the +omnipotence of God, to his supreme will, to the miracles which he has +always wrought; and those last are never-failing, final resources, +which the theologians reserve for every case wherein they can find no +other mode of escaping gracefully from the argument of their +adversaries. + +You see, then, to what we reduce all the jargon of the metaphysicians, +all the profound reveries which for so many ages have been so +industriously hawked about in defence of the soul of man; an +immaterial substance, of which no living being can form an idea; a +spirit, that is to say, a being totally different from any thing we +know. All the theological verbiage ends here, by telling us, in a +round of pompous terms,--fooleries that impose on the ignorant,--that +we do not know what essence the soul is of; but we call it a spirit +because of its nature, and because we feel ourselves agitated by some +unknown agent; we cannot comprehend the mechanism of the soul; yet can +we feel ourselves moved, as it were, by an effect of the power of God, +whose essence is far removed from ours, and more concealed from us +than the human soul itself. By the aid of this language, from which +you cannot possibly learn any thing, you will be as wise, Madam, as +all the theologians in the world. + +If you would desire to form ideas the most precise of yourself, banish +from you the prejudices of a vain theology, which only consists in +repeating words without attaching any new ideas to them, and which +are insufficient to distinguish the soul from the body, which appear +only capable of multiplying beings without reason, of rendering more +incomprehensible and more obscure, notions less distinct than we +already have of ourselves. These notions should be at least the most +simple and the most exact, if we consult our nature, experience, and +reason. They prove that man knows nothing but by his material sensible +organs, that he sees only by his eyes, that he feels by his touch, +that he hears by his ears; and that when either of these organs is +actually deranged, or has been previously wanting, or imperfect, man +can have none of the ideas that organ is capable of furnishing him +with,--neither thoughts, memory, reflection, judgment, desire, nor +will. Experience shows us that corporeal and material beings are alone +capable of being moved and acted upon, and that without those organs +we have enumerated the soul thinks not, feels not, wills not, nor is +moved. Every thing shows us that the soul undergoes always the same +vicissitudes as the body; it grows to maturity, gains strength, +becomes weak, and puts on old age, like the body; in fine, every thing +we can understand of it goes to prove that it perishes with the body. +It is indeed folly to pretend that man will feel when he has no organs +appropriate for that sentiment; that he will see and hear without eyes +or ears; that he will have ideas without having senses to receive +impressions from physical objects, or to give rise to perceptions in +his understanding; in fine, that he will enjoy or suffer when he has +no longer either nerves or sensibility. + +Thus every thing conspires to prove that the soul is the same thing as +the body, viewed relatively to some of its functions, which are more +obscure than others. Every thing serves to convince us that without +the body the soul is nothing, and that all the operations which are +attributed to the soul cannot be exercised any longer when the body is +destroyed. Our body is a machine, which, so long as we live, is +susceptible of producing the effects which have been designated under +different names, one from another; sentiment is one of these effects, +thought is another, reflection a third. This last passes sometimes by +other names, and our brain appears to be the seat of all our organs; +it is that which is the most susceptible. This organic machine once +destroyed or deranged, is no longer capable of producing the same +effects, or of exercising the same functions. It is with our body as +it is with a watch which indicates the hours, and which goes not if +the spring or a pinion be broken. + +Cease, Eugenia, cease to torment yourself about the fate which shall +attend you when death will have separated you from all that is dear on +earth. After the dissolution of this life, the soul shall cease to +exist; those devouring flames with which you have been threatened by +the priests will have no effect upon the soul, which can neither be +susceptible then of pleasures nor pains, of agreeable or sorrowful +ideas, of lively or doleful reflections. + +It is only by means of the bodily organs that we feel, think, and are +merry or sad, happy or miserable; this body once reduced to dust, we +will have neither perceptions nor sensations, and, by consequence, +neither memory nor ideas; the dispersed particles will no longer have +the same qualities they possessed when united; nor will they any +longer conspire to produce the same effects. In a word, the body being +destroyed, the soul, which is merely a result of all the parts of the +body in action, will cease to be what it is; it will be reduced to +nothing with the life's breath. + +Our teachers pretend to understand the soul well; they profess to be +able to distinguish it from the body; in short, they can do nothing +without it; and therefore, to keep up the farce, they have been +compelled to admit the ridiculous dogma of the Persians, known by the +name of the _resurrection_. This system supposes that the particles of +the body which have been scattered at death will be collected at the +last day, to be replaced in their primitive condition. But that this +strange phenomenon may take place, it is necessary that the particles +of our destroyed bodies, of which some, have been converted into +earth, others have passed into plants, others into animals, some of +one species, others of another, even of our own; it is requisite, I +say, that these particles, of which some have been mixed with the +waters of the deep, others have been carried on the wings of the wind, +and which have successively belonged to many different men, should be +reunited to reproduce the individual to whom they formerly belonged. +If you cannot get over this impossibility, the theologians will +explain it to you by saying, very briefly, "Ah! it is a profound +mystery, which we cannot comprehend." They will inform you that the +resurrection is a miracle, a supernatural effect, which is to result +from the divine power. It is thus they overcome all the difficulties +which the good sense of a few opposes to their rhapsodies. + +If, perchance, Madam, you do not wish to remain content with these +sublime reasons, against which your good sense will naturally revolt, +the clergy will endeavor to seduce your imagination by vague pictures +of the ineffable delights which will be enjoyed in Paradise by the +souls and bodies of those who have adopted their reveries; they will +aver that you cannot refuse to believe them upon their mere word +without encountering the eternal indignation of a God of pity; and +they will attempt to alarm your fancy by frightful delineations of the +cruel torments which a God of goodness has prepared for the greater +number of his creatures. + +But if you consider the thing coolly, you will perceive the futility +of their flattering promises and of their puny threatenings, which are +uttered merely to catch the unwary. You may easily discover that if it +could be true that man shall survive himself, God, in recompensing +him, would only recompense himself for the grace which he had granted; +and when he punished him, he punished him for not receiving the grace +which he had hardened him against receiving. This line of conduct, so +cruel and barbarous, appears equally unworthy of a wise God as it is +of a being perfectly good. + +If your mind, proof against the terrors with which the Christian +religion penetrates its sectaries, is capable of contemplating these +frightful circumstances, which it is imagined will accompany the +carefully-invented punishments which God has destined for the victims +of his vengeance, you will find that they are impossible, and totally +incompatible with the ideas which they themselves have put forth of +the Divinity. In a word, you will perceive that the chastisements of +another life are but a crowd of chimeras, invented to disturb human +reason, to subjugate it beneath the feet of imposture, to annihilate +forever the repose of slaves whom the priesthood would inthrall and +retain under its yoke. + +In short, Eugenia, the priests would make you believe that these +torments will be horrible,--a thing which accords not with our ideas +of God's goodness; they tell you they will be eternal,--a thing which +accords not with our ideas of the justice of God, who, one would very +naturally suppose, will proportion chastisements to faults, and who, +by consequence, will not punish without end the beings whose actions +are bounded by time. They tell us that the offences against God are +infinite, and, by consequence, that the Divinity, without doing +violence to his justice, may avenge himself as God, that is to say, +avenge himself to infinity. In this case I shall say that this God is +not good; that he is vindictive, a character which always announces +fear and weakness. In fine, I shall say that among the imperfect +beings who compose the human species, there is not, perhaps, a single +one who, without some advantage to himself, without personal fear, in +a word, without folly, would consent to punish everlastingly the +wretch who might have the misfortune to offend him, but who no longer +had either the ability or the inclination to commit another offence. +Caligula found, at least, some little amusement to forsake for a time +the cares of government, and enjoy the spectacle of punishment which +he inflicted on those unfortunate men whom he had an interest in +destroying. But what advantage can it be to God to heap on the damned +everlasting torments? Will this amuse him? Will their frightful +punishments correct their faults? Can these examples of the divine +severity be of any service to those on earth, who witness not their +friends in hell? Will it not be the most astonishing of all the +miracles of Deity to make the bodies of the damned invulnerable, to +resist, through the ceaseless ages of eternity, the frightful torments +destined for them? + +You see, then, Madam, that the ideas which the priests give us of hell +make of God a being infinitely more insensible, more wicked and cruel +than the most barbarous of men. They add to all this that it will be +the Devil and the apostate angels, that is to say, the enemies of +God, whom he will employ as the ministers of his implacable vengeance. +These wicked spirits, then, will execute the commands which this +severe judge will pronounce against men at the last judgment. For you +must know, Madam, that a God who knows all will at some future time +take an account of what he already knows. So, then, not content with +judging men at death, he will assemble the whole human race with great +pomp at the last or general judgment, in which he will confirm his +sentence in the view of the whole human race, assembled to receive +their doom. Thus on the wreck of the world will he pronounce a +definitive judgment, from which there will be no appeal. But, in +attending this memorable judgment, what will become of the souls of +men, separated from their bodies, which have not yet been +resuscitated? The souls of the just will go directly to enjoy the +blessings of Paradise; but what is to become of the immense crowd of +souls imbued with faults or crimes, and on whom the infallible +parsons, who are so well instructed in what is passing in another +world, cannot speak with certainty as to their fate? According to some +of these wiseacres, God will place the souls of such as are not wholly +displeasing to him in a place of punishment, where, by rigorous +torments, they shall have the merit of expiating the faults with which +they may stand chargeable at death. According to this fine system, so +profitable to our spiritual guides, God has found it the most simple +method to build a fiery furnace for the special purpose of tormenting +a certain proportion of souls who have not been sufficiently purified +at death to enter Paradise, but who, after leaving them some years +united with the body, and giving them time necessary to arrive at that +amendment of life by which they may become partakers of the supreme +felicity of heaven, ordains that they shall expiate their offences in +torment. It is on this ridiculous notion that our priests have +bottomed the doctrine of _purgatory_, which every good Catholic is +obliged to believe for the benefit of the priests, who reserve to +themselves, as is very reasonable, the power of compelling by their +prayers a just and immutable God to relax in his sternness, and +liberate the captive souls, which he had only condemned to undergo +this purgation in order that they might be made meet for the joys of +Paradise. + +With respect to the Protestants, who are, as every one knows, heretics +and impious, you will observe that they pretend not to those lucrative +views of the Roman doctors. On the contrary, they think that, at the +instant of death, every man is irrevocably judged; that he goes +directly to glory or into a place of punishment, to suffer the award +of evil by the enduring of punishments for which God had eternally +prepared both the sufferer and his torments! Even before the reunion +of soul and body at the final judgment, they fancy that the soul of +the wicked (which, on the principle of all souls being _spirits_, +must be the same in essence as the soul of the elect,) will, though +deprived of those organs by which it felt, and thought, and acted, be +capable of undergoing the agency or action of a fire! It is true that +some Protestant theologians tell us that the fire of hell is a +spiritual fire, and, by consequence, very different from the material +fire vomited out of Vesuvius, and AEtna, and Hecla. Nor ought we to +doubt that these informed doctors of the Protestant faith know very +well what they say, and that they have as precise and clear ideas of a +spiritual fire as they have of the ineffable joys of Paradise, which +may be as spiritual as the punishment of the damned in hell. + +Such are, Madam, in a few words, the absurdities, not less revolting +than ridiculous, which the dogmas of a future life and of the +immortality of the soul have engendered in the minds of men. Such are +the phantoms which have been invented and propagated, to seduce and +alarm mortals, to excite their hopes and their fears; such the +illusions that so powerfully operate on weak and feeling beings. But +as melancholy ideas have more effect upon the imagination than those +which are agreeable, the priests have always insisted more forcibly on +what men have to fear on the part of a terrible God than on what they +have to hope from the mercy of a forgiving Deity, full of goodness. +Princes the most wicked are infinitely more respected than those who +are famed for indulgence and humanity. The priests have had the art +to throw us into uncertainty and mistrust by the twofold character +which they have given the Divinity. If they promise us salvation, they +tell us that we must work it out for ourselves, "with fear and +trembling." It is thus that they have contrived to inspire the minds +of the most honest men with dismay and doubt, repeating without +ceasing that time only must disclose who are worthy of the divine +love, or who are to be the objects of the divine wrath. Terror has +been and always will be the most certain means of corrupting and +enslaving the mind of man. + +They will tell us, doubtless, that the terrors which religion inspires +are salutary terrors; that the dogma of another life is a bridle +sufficiently powerful to prevent the commission of crimes and restrain +men within the path of duty. To undeceive one's self of this maxim, so +often thundered in our ears, and so generally adopted on the authority +of the priests, we have only to open our eyes. Nevertheless, we see +some Christians thoroughly persuaded of another life, who, +notwithstanding, conduct themselves as if they had nothing to fear on +the part of a God of vengeance, nor any thing to hope from a God of +mercy. When any of these are engaged in some great project, at all +times they are tempted by some strong passion or by some bad habit, +they shut their eyes on another life, they see not the enraged judge, +they suffer themselves to sin, and when it is committed, they comfort +themselves by saying, that God is good. Besides, they console +themselves by the same contradictory religion which shows them also +this same God, whom it represents so susceptible of wrath, as full of +mercy, bestowing his grace on all those who are sensible of their +evils and repent. In a word, I see none whom the fears of hell will +restrain when passion or interest solicit obedience. The very priests +who make so many efforts to convince us of their dogmas too often +evince more wickedness of conduct than we find in those who have never +heard one word about another life. Those who from infancy have been +taught these terrifying lessons are neither less debauched, nor less +proud, nor less passionate, nor less unjust, nor less avaricious than +others who have lived and died ignorant of Christian purgatory and +Paradise. In fine, the dogma of another life has little or no +influence on them; it annihilates none of their passions; it is a +bridle merely with some few timid souls, who, without its knowledge, +would never have the hardihood to be guilty of any great excesses. +This dogma is very fit to disturb the quiet of some honest, timorous +persons, and the credulous, whose imagination it inflames, without +ever staying the hand of great rogues, without imposing on them more +than the decency of civilization and a specious morality of life, +restrained chiefly by the coercion of public laws. + +In short, to sum all up in one thought, I behold a religion gloomy and +formidable to make impressions very lively, very deep, and very +dangerous on a mind such as yours, although it makes but very +momentary impressions on the minds of such as are hardened in crime, +or whose dissipation destroys constantly the effects of its threats. +More lively affected than others by your principles, you have been but +too often and too seriously occupied for your happiness by gloomy and +harassing objects, which have powerfully affected your sensible +imagination, though the same phantoms that have pursued you have been +altogether banished from the mind of those who have had neither your +virtues, your understanding, nor your sensibility. + +According to his principles, a Christian must always live in fear; he +can never know with certainty whether he pleases or displeases God; +the least movement of pride or of covetousness, the least desire, will +suffice to merit the divine anger, and lose in one moment the fruits +of years of devotion. It is not surprising that, with these frightful +principles before them, many Christians should endeavor to find in +solitude employment for their lugubrious reflections, where they may +avoid the occasions that solicit them to do wrong, and embrace such +means as are most likely, according to their notions of the likelihood +of the thing, to expiate the faults which they fancy might incur the +eternal vengeance of God. + +Thus the dark notions of a future life leave those only in peace who +think slightly upon it; and they are very disconsolate to all those +whose temperament determines them to contemplate it. They are but the +atrocious ideas, however, which the priests study to give us of the +Deity, and by which they have compelled so many worthy people to throw +themselves into the arms of incredulity. If some libertines, incapable +of reasoning, abjure a religion troublesome to their passions, or +which abridges their pleasures, there are very many who have maturely +examined it, that have been disgusted with it, because they could not +consent to live in the fears it engendered, nor to nourish the despair +it created. They have then abjured this religion, fit only to fill the +soul with inquietudes, that they might find in the bosom of reason the +repose which it insures to good sense. + +Times of the greatest crimes are always times of the greatest +ignorance. It is in these times, or usually so, that the greatest +noise is made about religion. Men then follow mechanically, and +without examination, the tenets which their priests impose on them, +without ever diving to the bottom of their doctrines. In proportion as +mankind become enlightened, great crimes become more rare, the manners +of men are more polished, the sciences are cultivated, and the +religion which they have coolly and carefully examined loses sensibly +its credit. It is thus that we see so many incredulous people in the +bosom of society become more agreeable and complacent now than +formerly, when it depended on the caprice of a priest to involve them +in troubles, and to invite the people to crimes in the hope of thereby +meriting heaven. + +Religion is consoling only to those who have no embarrassment about +it; the indefinite and vague recompense which it promises, without +giving ideas of it, is made to deceive those who make no reflections +on the impatient, variable, false, and cruel character which this +religion gives of its God. But how can it make any promises on the +part of a God whom it represents as a tempter, a seducer--who appears, +moreover, to take pleasure in laying the most dangerous snares for his +weak creatures? How can it reckon on the favors of a God full of +caprice, who it alternately informs us is replete with tenderness or +with hatred? By what right does it hold out to us the rewards of a +despotic and tyrannical God, who does or does not choose men for +happiness, and who consults only his own fantasy to destine some of +his creatures to bliss and others to perdition? Nothing, doubtless, +but the blindest enthusiasm could induce mortals to place confidence +in such a God as the priests have feigned; it is to folly alone we +must attribute the love some well-meaning people profess to the God of +the parsons; it is matchless extravagance alone that could prevail on +men to reckon on the unknown rewards which are promised them by this +religion, at the same time that it assures us that God is the author +of grace, but that we have no right to expect any thing from him. + +In a word, Madam, the notions of another life, far from consoling, are +fit only to imbitter all the sweets of the present life. After the sad +and gloomy ideas which Christianity, always at variance with itself, +presents us with of its God, it then affirms, that we are much more +likely to incur his terrible chastisements, than possessed of power by +which we may merit ineffable rewards; and it proceeds to inform us, +that God will give grace to whomsoever he pleases, yet it remains with +themselves whether they escape damnation; and a life the most spotless +cannot warrant them to presume that they are worthy of his favor. In +good truth, would not total annihilation be preferable to such beings, +rather than falling into the hands of a Deity so hard-hearted? Would +not every man of sense prefer the idea of complete annihilation to +that of a future existence, in order to be the sport of the eternal +caprice of a Deity, so cruel as to damn and torment, without end, the +unfortunate beings whom he created so weak, that he might punish them +for faults inseparable from their nature? If God is good, as we are +assured, notwithstanding the cruelties of which the priests suppose +him capable, is it not more consonant to all our ideas of a being +perfectly good, to believe that he did not create them to sport with +them in a state of eternal damnation, which they had not the power of +choosing, or of rejecting and shunning? Has not God treated the beasts +of the field more favorably than he has treated man, since he has +exempted them from sin, and by consequence has not exposed them to +suffer an eternal unhappiness? + +The dogma of the immortality of the soul, or of a future life, +presents nothing consoling in the Christian religion. On the contrary, +it is calculated expressly to fill the heart of the Christian, +following out his principles, with bitterness and continual alarm. I +appeal to yourself, Madam, whether these sublime notions have any +thing consoling in them? Whenever this uncertain idea has presented +itself to your mind, has it not filled you with a cold and secret +horror? Has the consciousness of a life so virtuous and so spotless as +yours, secured you against those fears which are inspired by the idea +of a being jealous, severe, capricious, whose eternal disgrace the +least fault is sure of incurring, and in whose eyes the smallest +weakness, or freedom the most involuntary, is sufficient to cancel +years of strict observance of all the rules of religion? + +I know very well what you will advance to support yourself in your +prejudices. The ministers of religion possess the secret of tempering +the alarms which they have the art to excite. They strive to inspire +confidence in those minds which they discover accessible to fear. They +balance, thus, one passion against another. They hold in suspense the +minds of their slaves, in the apprehension that too much confidence +would only render them less pliable, or that despair would force them +to throw off the yoke. To persons terribly frightened about their +state after death, they speak only of the hopes which we may entertain +of the goodness of God. To those who have too much confidence, they +preach up the terrors of the Lord, and the judgments of a severe God. +By this chicanery they contrive to subject or retain under their yoke +all those who are weak enough to be led by the contradictory doctrines +of these blind guides. + +They tell you, besides, that the sentiment of the immortality of the +soul is inherent in man; that the soul is consumed by boundless +desires, and that since there is nothing on this earth capable of +satisfying it, these are indubitable proofs that it is destined to +subsist eternally. In a word, that as we naturally desire to exist +always, we may naturally conclude that we shall always exist. But what +think you, Madam, of such reasonings? To what do they lead? Do we +desire the continuation of this existence, because it may be blessed +and happy, or because we know not what may become of us? But we cannot +desire a miserable existence, or, at least, one in which it is more +than probable we may be miserable rather than happy. If, as the +Christian religion so often repeats, the number of the elect is very +small, and salvation very difficult, the number of the reprobate very +great, and damnation very easily obtained, who is he who would desire +to exist always with so evident a risk of being eternally damned? +Would it not have been better for us not to have been born, than to +have been compelled against our nature to play a game so fraught with +peril? Does not annihilation itself present to us an idea preferable +to that of an existence which may very easily lead us to eternal +tortures? Suffer me, Madam, to appeal to yourself. If, before you had +come into this world, you had had your choice of being born, or of not +seeing the light of this fair sun, and you could have been made to +comprehend, but for one moment, the hundred thousandth part of the +risks you run to be eternally unhappy, would you not have determined +never to enjoy life? + +It is an easy matter, then, to perceive the proofs on which the +priests pretend to found this dogma of the immortality of the soul and +a future life. The desire which we might have of it could only be +founded on the hope of enjoying eternal happiness. But does religion +give us this assurance? Yes, say the clergy, if you submit faithfully +to the rules it prescribes. But to conform one's self to these rules, +is it not necessary to have grace from Heaven? And, are we then sure +we shall obtain that grace, or if we do, merit Heaven? Do the priests +not repeat to us, without ceasing, that God is the author of grace, +and that he only gives it to a small number of the elect? Do they not +daily tell us that, except one man, who rendered himself worthy of +this eternal happiness, there are millions going the high road to +damnation? This being admitted, every Christian, who reasons, would be +a fool to desire a future existence which he has so many motives to +fear, or to reckon on a happiness which every thing conspires to show +him is as uncertain, as difficult to be obtained, as it is +unequivocally dependent on the fantasies of a capricious Deity, who +sports with the misfortunes of his creatures. + +Under every point of view in which we regard the dogma of the soul's +immortality, we are compelled to consider it as a chimera invented by +men who have realized their wishes, or who have not been able to +justify Providence from the transitory injustices of this world. This +dogma was received with avidity, because it flattered the desires, and +especially the vanity of man, who arrogated to himself a superiority +above all the beings that enjoy existence, and which he would pass by +and reduce to mere clay; who believed himself the favorite of God, +without ever taxing his attention with this other fact--that God makes +him every instant experience vicissitudes, calamities, and trials, as +all sentient natures experience; that God made him, in fine, to +undergo death, or dissolution, which is an invariable law that all +that exists must find verified. This haughty creature, who fancies +himself a privileged being, alone agreeable to his Maker, does not +perceive that there are stages in his life when his existence is more +uncertain and much more weak than that of the other animals, or even +of some inanimate things. Man is unwilling to admit that he possesses +not the strength of the lion, nor the swiftness of the stag, nor the +durability of an oak, nor the solidity of marble or metal. He believes +himself the greatest favorite, the most sublime, the most noble; he +believes himself superior to all other animals because he possesses +the faculties of thinking, judging, and reasoning. But his thoughts +only render him more wretched than all the animals whom he supposes +deprived of this faculty, or who, at least, he believes, do not enjoy +it in the same degree with himself. Do not the faculties of thinking, +of remembering, of foresight, too often render him unhappy by the very +idea of the past, the present, and the future? Do not his passions +drive him to excesses unknown to the other animals? Are his judgments +always reasonable and wise? Is reason so largely developed in the +great mass of men that the priests should interdict its use as +dangerous? Are mankind sufficiently advanced in knowledge to be able +to overcome the prejudices and chimeras which render them unhappy +during the greatest part of their lives? In fine, have the beasts some +species of religious impressions, which inspire continual terrors in +their breast, making them look upon some awful event, which imbitters +their softest pleasures, which enjoins them to torment themselves, and +which threatens them with eternal damnation? No! + +In truth, Madam, if you weigh in an equitable balance the pretended +advantages of man above the other animals, you will soon see how +evanescent is this fictitious superiority which he has arrogated to +himself. We find that all the productions of nature are submitted to +the same laws; that all beings are only born to die; they produce +their like to destroy themselves; that all sentient beings are +compelled to undergo pleasures and pains; they appear and they +disappear; they are and they cease to be; they evince under one form +that they will quit it to produce another. Such are the continual +vicissitudes to which every thing that exists is evidently subjected, +and from which man is not exempt, any more than the other beings and +productions that he appropriates to his use as _lord of the creation_. +Even our globe itself undergoes change; the seas change their place; +the mountains are gathered in heaps or levelled into plains; every +thing that breathes is destroyed at last, and man alone pretends to an +eternal duration. + +It is unnecessary to tell me that we degrade man when we compare him +with the beasts, deprived of souls and intelligence; this is no +levelling doctrine, but one which places him exactly where nature +places him, but from which his puerile vanity has unfortunately driven +him. All beings are equals; under various and different forms they act +differently; they are governed in their appetites and passions by laws +which are invariably the same for all of the same species; every thing +which is composed of parts will be dissolved; every thing which has +life must part with it at death; all men are equally compelled to +submit to this fate; they are equal at death, although during life +their power, their talents, and especially their virtues, establish a +marked difference, which, though real, is only momentary. What will +they be after death? They will be exactly what they were ten years +before they were born. + +Banish, then, Eugenia, from your mind forever the terrors which death +has hitherto filled you with. It is for the wretched a safe haven +against the misfortunes of this life. If it appears a cruel +alternative to those who enjoy the good things of this world, why do +they not console themselves with the idea of what they do actually +enjoy? Let them call reason to their aid; it will calm the inquietudes +of their imagination, but too greatly alarmed; it will disperse the +clouds which religion spreads over their minds; it will teach them +that this death, so terrible in apprehension, is really nothing, and +that it will neither be accompanied with remembrance of past pleasures +nor of sorrow now no more. + +Live, then, happy and tranquil, amiable Eugenia! Preserve carefully an +existence so interesting and so necessary to all those with whom you +live. Allow not your health to be injured, nor trouble your quiet with +melancholy ideas. Without being teased by the prospect of an event +which has no right to disturb your repose, cultivate virtue, which has +always been your favorite, so necessary to your internal peace, and +which has rendered you so dear to all those who have the happiness of +being your friends. Let your rank, your credit, your riches, your +talents be employed to make others happy, to support the oppressed, to +succor the unfortunate, to dry up the tears of those whom you may have +an opportunity of comforting! Let your mind be occupied about such +agreeable and profitable employments as are likely to please you! +Call in the aid of your reason to dissipate the phantoms which alarm +you, to efface the prejudices which you have imbibed in early life! In +a word, comfort yourself, and remember that in practising virtue, as +you do, you cannot become an object of hatred to God, who, if he has +reserved in eternity rigorous punishments for the social virtues, will +be the strangest, the most cruel, and the most insensible of beings! + +You demand of me, perhaps, "In destroying the idea of another world, +what is to become of the remorse, those chastisements so useful to +mankind, and so well calculated to restrain them within the bounds of +propriety?" I reply, that remorse will always subsist as long as we +shall be capable of feeling its pangs, even when we cease to fear the +distant and uncertain vengeance of the Divinity. In the commission of +crimes, in allowing one's self to be the sport of passion, in injuring +our species, in refusing to do them good, in stifling pity, every man +whose reason is not totally deranged perceives clearly that he will +render himself odious to others, that he ought to fear their enmity. +He will blush, then, if he thinks he has rendered himself hateful and +detestable in their eyes. He knows the continual need he has of their +esteem and assistance. Experience proves to him that vices the most +concealed are injurious to himself. He lives in perpetual fear lest +some mishap should unfold his weaknesses and secret faults. It is from +all these ideas that we are to look for regret and remorse, even in +those who do not believe in the chimeras of another world. With regard +to those whose reason is deranged, those who are enervated by their +passions, or perhaps linked to vice by the chains of habit, even with +the prospect of hell open before them, they will neither live less +vicious nor less wicked. An avenging God will never inflict on any man +such a total want of reason as may make him regardless of public +opinion, trample decency under foot, brave the laws, and expose +himself to derision and human chastisements. Every man of sense easily +understands that in this world the esteem and affection of others are +necessary for his happiness, and that life is but a burden to those +who by their vices injure themselves, and render themselves +reprehensible in the eyes of society. + +The true means, Madam, of living happy in this world is to do good to +your fellow-creatures; to labor for the happiness of your species is +to have virtue, and with virtue we can peaceably and without remorse +approach the term which nature has fixed equally for all beings--a +term that your youth causes you now to see only at a distance--a term +that you ought not to accelerate by your fears--a term, in fine, that +the cares and desires of all those who know you will seek to put off +till, full of days and contented with the part you have played in the +scene of the world, you shall yourself desire to gently reenter the +bosom of nature. + + I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER VI. + + Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies of + Christianity. + + +The reflections, Madam, which I have already offered you in these +letters ought, I conceive, to have sufficed to undeceive you, in a +great measure, of the lugubrious and afflicting notions with which you +have been inspired by religious prejudices. However, to fulfil the +task which you have imposed on me, and to assist you in freeing +yourself from the unfavorable ideas you may have imbibed from a system +replete with irrelevancies and contradictions, I shall continue to +examine the strange mysteries with which Christianity is garnished. +They are founded on ideas so odd and so contrary to reason, that if +from infancy we had not been familiarized with them, we should blush +at our species in having for one instant believed and adopted them. + +The Christians, scarcely content with the crowd of enigmas with which +the books of the Jews are filled, have besides fancied they must add +to them a great many incomprehensible mysteries, for which they have +the most profound veneration. Their impenetrable obscurity appears to +be a sufficient motive among them for adding these. Their priests, +encouraged by their credulity, which nothing can outdo, seem to be +studious to multiply the articles of their faith, and the number of +inconceivable objects which they have said must be received with +submission, and adored even if not understood. + +The first of these mysteries is the _Trinity_, which supposes that one +God, self-existent, who is a pure spirit, is, nevertheless, composed +of three Divinities, which have obtained the names of _persons_. These +three Gods, who are designated under the respective names of the +_Father_, the _Son_, and the _Holy Ghost_, are, nevertheless, but one +God only. These three persons are equal in power, in wisdom, in +perfections; yet the second is subordinate to the first, in +consequence of which he was compelled to become a man, and be the +victim of the wrath of his Father. This is what the priests call the +mystery of the _incarnation_. Notwithstanding his innocence, his +perfection, his purity, the Son of God became the object of the +vengeance of a just God, who is the same as the Son in question, but +who would not consent to appease himself but by the death of his own +Son, who is a portion of himself. The Son of God, not content with +becoming man, died without having sinned, for the salvation of men who +had sinned. God preferred to the punishment of imperfect beings, whom +he did not choose to amend, the punishment of his only Son, full of +divine perfections. The death of God became necessary to reclaim the +human kind from the slavery of Satan, who without that would not have +quitted his prey, and who has been found sufficiently powerful against +the Omnipotent to oblige him to sacrifice his Son. This is what the +priests designate by the name of the mystery of _redemption_. + +It is assuredly sufficient to expose such opinions to demonstrate +their absurdity. It is evident, if there exists only a single God, +there cannot be three. We may, it is true, contemplate the Deity after +the manner of Plato, who, before the birth of Christianity, exhibited +him under three different points of view, that is to say, as all-wise, +as all-powerful, as full of reason, and as infinite in goodness; but +it was verily the excess of delirium to personify these three divine +qualities, or transform them into real beings. We can readily imagine +these moral attributes to be united in the same God, but it is +egregious folly to fashion them into three different Gods; nor will it +remedy this metaphysical polytheism to assert that these three are +one. Besides, this revery never entered the head of the Hebrew +legislator. The Eternal, in revealing himself to Moses, did not +announce himself as triple. There is not one syllable in the Old +Testament about this Trinity, although a notion so _bizarre_, so +marvellous, and so little consonant with our ideas of a divine being, +deserved to have been formally announced, especially as it is the +foundation and corner stone of the Christian religion, which was from +all eternity an object of the divine solicitude, and on the +establishment of which, if we may credit our sapient priests, God +seems to have entertained serious thoughts long before the creation of +the world. + +Nevertheless, the second person, or the second God of the Trinity, is +revealed in flesh; the Son of God is made man. But how could the pure +Spirit who presides over the universe beget a son? How could this son, +who before his incarnation was only a pure spirit, combine that +ethereal essence with a material body, and envelop himself with it? +How could the divine nature amalgamate itself with the imperfect +nature of man, and how could an immense and infinite being, as the +Deity is represented, be formed in the womb of a virgin? After what +manner could a pure spirit fecundate this favorite virgin? Did the Son +of God enjoy in the womb of his mother the faculties of omnipotence, +or was he like other children during his infancy,--weak, liable to +infirmities, sickness, and intellectual imbecility, so conspicuous in +the years of childhood; and if so, what, during this period, became of +the divine wisdom and power? In fine, how could God suffer and die? +How could a just God consent that a God exempt from all sin should +endure the chastisements which are due to sinners? Why did he not +appease himself without immolating a victim so precious and so +innocent? What would you think of that sovereign who, in the event of +his subjects rebelling against him, should forgive them all, or a +select number of them, by putting to death his only and beloved son, +who had not rebelled? + +The priests tell us that it was out of tenderness for the human kind +that God wished to accomplish this sacrifice. But I still ask if it +would not have been more simple, more conformable to all our ideas of +Deity, for God to pardon the iniquities of the human race, or to have +prevented them committing transgressions, by placing them in a +condition in which, by their own will, they should never have sinned? +According to the entire system of the Christian religion, it is +evident that God did only create the world to have an opportunity of +immolating his Son for the rebellious beings he might have formed and +preserved immaculate. The fall of the rebellious angels had no visible +end to serve but to effect and hasten the fall of Adam. It appears +from this system that God permitted the first man to sin that he might +have the pleasure of showing his goodness in sacrificing his "only +begotten Son" to reclaim men from the thraldom of Satan. He intrusted +to Satan as much power as might enable him to work the ruin of our +race, with the view of afterwards changing the projects of the great +mass of mankind, by making one God to die, and thereby destroy the +power of the Devil on the earth. + +But has God succeeded in these projects to the end he proposed? Are +men entirely rescued from the dominion of Satan? Are they not still +the slaves of sin? Do they find themselves in the happy impossibility +of kindling the divine wrath? Has the blood of the Son of God washed +away the sins of the whole world? Do those who are reclaimed, those to +whom he has made himself known, those who believe, offend not against +heaven? Has the Deity, who ought, without doubt, to be perfectly +satisfied with so memorable a sacrifice, remitted to them the +punishment of sin? Is it not necessary to do something more for them? +And since the death of his Son, do we find the Christians exempt from +disease and from death? Nothing of all this has happened. The measures +taken from all eternity by the wisdom and prescience of a God who +should find against his plans no obstacles have been overthrown. The +death of God himself has been of no utility to the world. All the +divine projects have militated against the free-will of man, but they +have not destroyed the power of Satan. Man continues to sin and to +die; the Devil keeps possession of the field of battle; and it is for +a very small number of the elect that the Deity consented to die. + +You do indeed smile, Madam, at my being obliged seriously to combat +such chimeras. If they have something of the marvellous in them, it is +quite adapted to the heads of children, not of men, and ought not to +be admitted by reasonable beings. All the notions we can form of those +things must be mysterious; yet there is no subject more demonstrable, +according to those whose interest it is to have it believed, though +they are as incapable as ourselves to comprehend the matter. For the +priests to say that they believe such absurdities, is to be guilty of +manifest falsehood; because a proposition to be believed must +necessarily be understood. To believe what they do not comprehend is +to adhere sottishly to the absurdities of others; to believe things +which are not comprehended by those who gossip about them is the +height of folly; to believe blindly the mysteries of the Christian +religion is to admit contradictions of which they who declare them are +not convinced. In fine, is it necessary to abandon one's reason among +absurdities that have been received without examination from ancient +priests, who were either the dupes of more knowing men, or themselves +the impostors who fabricated the tales in question? + +If you ask of me how men have not long ago been shocked by such absurd +and unintelligible reveries, I shall proceed, in my turn, to explain +to you this secret of the church, this mystery of our priests. It is +not necessary, in doing this, to pay any attention to those general +dispositions of man, especially when he is ignorant and incapable of +reasoning. All men are curious, inquisitive; their curiosity spurs +them on to inquiry, and their imagination busies itself to clothe with +mystery every thing the fancy conjures up as important to happiness. +The vulgar mistake even what they have the means of knowing, or, which +is the same thing, what they are least practised in they are dazzled +with; they proclaim it, accordingly, marvellous, prodigious, +extraordinary; it is a phenomenon. They neither admire nor respect +much what is always visible to their eyes; but whatever strikes their +imagination, whatever gives scope to the mind, becomes itself the +fruitful source of other ideas far more extravagant. The priests have +had the art to prevail on the people to believe in their secret +correspondence with the Deity; they have been thence much respected, +and in all countries their professed intercourse with an unseen +Divinity has given room for their announcement of things the most +marvellous and mysterious. + +Besides, the Divinity being a being whose impenetrable essence is +veiled from mortal sight, it has been commonly admitted by the +ignorant, that what could not be seen by mortal eye must necessarily +be divine. Hence _sacred_, _mysterious_, and _divine_, are synonymous +terms; and these imposing words have sufficed to place the human race +on their knees to adore what seeks not their inflated devotion. + +The three mysteries which I have examined are received unanimously by +all sects of Christians; but there are others on which the theologians +are not agreed. In fine, we see men, who, after they have admitted, +without repugnance, a certain number of absurdities, stop all of a +sudden in the way, and refuse to admit more. The Christian Protestants +are in this case. They reject, with disdain, the mysteries for which +the Church of Rome shows the greatest respect; and yet, in the matter +of mysteries, it is indeed difficult to designate the point where the +mind ought to stop. + +Seeing, then, that our doctors, better advised, undoubtedly, than +those of the Protestants, have adroitly multiplied mysteries, one is +naturally led to conclude, they despaired of governing the mind of +man, if there was any thing in their religion that was clear, +intelligible, and natural. More mysterious than the priests of Egypt +itself, they have found means to change every thing into mystery; the +very movements of the body, usages the most indifferent, ceremonies +the most frivolous, have become, in the powerful hands of the priests, +sublime and divine mysteries. In the Roman religion all is magic, all +is prodigy, all is supernatural. In the decisions of our theologians, +the side which they espouse is almost always that which is the most +abhorrent to reason, the most calculated to confound and overthrow +common sense. In consequence, our priests are by far the most rich, +powerful, and considerable. The continual want which we have of their +aid to obtain from Heaven that grace which it is their province to +bring down for us, places us in continual dependence on those +marvellous men who have received their commission to treat with the +Deity, and become the ambassadors between Heaven and us. + +Each of our sacraments envelops a great mystery. They are ceremonies +to which the Divinity, they say, attaches some secret virtue, by +unseen views, of which we can form no ideas. In _baptism_, without +which no man can be saved, the water sprinkled on the head of the +child washes his spiritual soul, and carries away the defilement which +is a consequence of the sin committed in the person of Adam, who +sinned for all men. By the mysterious virtue of this water, and of +some words equally unintelligible, the infant finds itself reconciled +to God, as his first father had made him guilty without his knowledge +and consent. In all this, Madam, you cannot, by possibility, +comprehend the complication of these mysteries, with which no +Christian can dispense, though, assuredly, there is not one believer +who knows what the virtue of the marvellous water consists in, which +is necessary for his regeneration. Nor can you conceive how the +supreme and equitable Governor of the universe could impute faults to +those who have never been guilty of transgressions. Nor can you +comprehend how a wise Deity can attach his favor to a futile ceremony, +which, without changing the nature of the being who has derived an +existence it neither commenced nor was consulted in, must, if +administered in winter, be attended with serious consequences to the +health of the child. + +In _Confirmation_, a sacrament or ceremony, which, to have any value, +ought to be administered by a bishop, the laying of the hands on the +head of the young confirmant makes the Holy Spirit descend upon him, +and procures the grace of God to uphold him in the faith. You see, +Madam, that the efficacy of this sacrament is unfortunately lost in my +person; for, although in my youth I had been duly confirmed, I have +not been preserved against smiling at this faith, nor have I been kept +invulnerable in the credence of my priests and forefathers. + +In the sacrament of _Penitence_, or confession, a ceremony which +consists in putting a priest in possession of all one's faults, public +or private, you will discover mysteries equally marvellous. In favor +of this submission, to which every good Catholic is necessarily +obliged to submit, a priest, _himself a sinner_, charged with full +powers by the Deity, pardons and remits, in His name, the sins against +which God is enraged. God reconciles himself with every man who +humbles himself before the priest, and in accordance with the orders +of the latter, he opens heaven to the wretch whom he had before +determined to exclude. If this sacrament doth not always procure +grace, very distinguishing to those who use it, it has, at all events, +the advantage of rendering them pliable to the clergy, who, by its +means, find an easy sway in their spiritual empire over the human +mind, an empire that enables them, not unfrequently, to disturb +society, and more often the repose of families, and the very +conscience of the person confessing. + +There is among the Catholics another sacrament, which contains the +most strange mysteries. It is that of the _Eucharist_. Our teachers, +under pain of being damned, enjoin us to believe that the Son of God +is compelled by a priest to quit the abodes of glory, and to come and +mask himself under the appearance of bread! This bread becomes +forthwith the body of God--this God multiplies himself in all places, +and at all times, when and where the priests, scattered over the face +of the earth, find it necessary to command his presence in the shape +of bread--yet we see only one and the same God, who receives the +homage and adoration of all those good people who find it very +ridiculous in the Egyptians to adore lupines and onions. But the +Catholics are not simply content with worshipping a bit of bread, +which they consider by the conjurations of a priest as divine; they +eat this bread, and then persuade themselves that they are nourished +by the body or substance of God himself. The Protestants, it is true, +do not admit a mystery so very odd, and regard those who do as real +idolaters. What then? This marvellous dogma is, without doubt, of the +greatest utility to the priests. In the eyes of those who admit it, +they become very important gentlemen, who have the power of disposing +of the Deity, whom they make to descend between their hands; and thus +a Catholic priest is, in fact, the creator of his God! + +There is, also, _Extreme Unction_, a sacrament which consists in +anointing with oil those sick persons who are about to depart into the +other world, and which not only soothes their bodily pains, but also +takes away the sins of their souls. If it produces these good effects, +it is an invisible and mysterious method of manifesting obvious +results; for we frequently behold sick persons have their fears of +death allayed, though the operation may but too often accelerate their +dissolution. But our priests are so full of charity, and they interest +themselves so greatly in the salvation of souls, that they like rather +to risk their own health beside the sick bed of persons afflicted with +the most contagious diseases, than lose the opportunity of +administering their salutary ointment. + +_Ordination_ is another very mysterious ceremony, by which the Deity +secretly bestows his invisible grace on those whom he has selected to +fill the office of the holy priesthood. According to the Catholic +religion, God gives to the priests the power of making God himself, as +we have shown above; a privilege which without doubt cannot be +sufficiently admired. With respect to the sensible effects of this +sacrament, and of the visible grace which it confers, they are +enabled, by the help of some words and certain ceremonies, to change a +profane man into one that is sacred; that is to say, who is not +profane any longer. By this spiritual metamorphosis, this man becomes +capable of enjoying considerable revenues without being obliged to do +any thing useful for society. On the contrary, heaven itself confers +on him the right of deceiving, of annoying, and of pillaging the +profane citizens, who labor for his ease and luxury. + +Finally, _Marriage_ is a sacrament that confers mysterious and +invisible graces, of which we in truth have no very precise ideas. +Protestants and Infidels, who look upon marriage as a civil contract, +and not as a sacrament, receive neither more nor less of its visible +grace than the good Catholics. The former see not that those who are +married enjoy by this sacrament any secret virtue, whence they may +become more constant and faithful to the engagements they have +contracted. And I believe both you and I, Madam, have known many +people on whom it has only conferred the grace of cordially detesting +each other. + +I will not now enter upon the consideration of a multitude of other +magic ceremonies, admitted by some Christian sectaries and rejected by +others, but to which the devotees who embrace them, attach the most +lofty ideas, in the firm persuasion, that God will, on that account, +visit them with his invisible grace. All these ceremonies, doubtless, +contain great mysteries, and the method of handling or speaking of +them is exceedingly mysterious. It is thus that the water on which a +priest has pronounced a few words, contained in his conjuring book, +acquires the invisible virtue of chasing away wicked spirits, who are +invisible by their nature. It is thus that the oil, on which a bishop +has muttered some certain formula, becomes capable of communicating to +men, and even to some inanimate substances, such as wood, stone, +metals, and walls, those invisible virtues which they did not +previously possess. In fine, in all the ceremonies of the church, we +discover mysteries, and the vulgar, who comprehend nothing of them, +are not the less disposed to admire, to be fascinated with, and to +respect with a blind devotion. But soon would they cease to have this +veneration for these fooleries, if they comprehended the design and +end the priests have in view by enforcing their observance. + +The priests of all nations have begun by being charlatans, castle +builders, divines, and sorcerers. We find men of these characters in +nations the most ignorant and savage, where they live by the +ignorance and credulity of others. They are regarded by their ignorant +countrymen as superior beings, endowed with supernatural gifts, +favorites of the very Gods, because the uninquiring multitude see them +perform things which they take to be mighty marvellous, or which the +ignorant have always considered marvellous. In nations the most +polished, the people are always the same; persons the most sensible +are not often of the same ideas, especially on the subject of +religion; and the priests, authorized by the ancient folly of the +multitude, continue their old tricks, and receive universal applause. + +You are not, then, to be surprised, Madam, if you still behold our +pontiffs and our priests exercise their magical rites, or rear castles +before the eyes of people prejudiced in favor of their ancient +illusions, and who attach to these mysteries a degree of consequence, +seeing they are not in a condition to comprehend the motives of the +fabricators. Every thing that is mysterious has charms for the +ignorant; the marvellous captivates all men; persons the most +enlightened find it difficult to defend themselves against these +illusions. Hence you may discover that the priests are always +opinionatively attached to these rites and ceremonies of their +worship; and it has never been without some violent revolution that +they have been diminished or abrogated. The annihilation of a trifling +ceremony has often caused rivers of blood to flow. The people have +believed themselves lost and undone when one bolder than the rest +wished to innovate in matters of religion; they have fancied that they +were to be deprived of inestimable advantages and invisible but saving +grace, which they have supposed to be attached by the Divinity himself +to some movements of the body. Priests the most adroit have +overcharged religion with ceremonies, and practices, and mysteries. +They fancied that all these were so many cords to bind the people to +their interest, to allure them by enthusiasm, and render them +necessary to their idle and luxurious existence, which is not spent +without much money extracted from the hard earnings of the people, and +much of that respect which is but the homage of slaves to spiritual +tyrants. + +You cannot any longer, I persuade myself, Madam, be made the dupe of +these holy jugglers, who impose on the vulgar by their marvellous +tales. You must now be convinced that the things which I have touched +upon as mysteries are profound absurdities, of which their inventors +can render no reasonable account either to themselves or to others. +You must now be certified that the movements of the body and other +religious ceremonies must be matters perfectly indifferent to the wise +Being whom they describe to us as the great mover of all things. You +conclude, then, that all these marvellous rites, in which our priests +announce so much mystery, and in which the people are taught to +consider the whole of religion as consisting, are nothing more than +puerilities, to which people of understanding ought never to submit. +That they are usages calculated principally to alarm the minds of the +weak, and keep in bondage those who have not the courage to throw off +the yoke of priests. I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER VII. + + Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of Christianity. + + +You now know, Madam, what you ought to attach to the mysteries and +ceremonies of that religion you propose to meditate on, and adore in +silence. I proceed now to examine some of those practices to which the +priests tell us the Deity attaches his complaisance and his favors. In +consequence of the false, sinister, contradictory, and incompatible +ideas, which all revealed religions give us of the Deity, the priests +have invented a crowd of unreasonable usages, but which are +conformable to these erroneous notions that they have framed of this +Being. God is always regarded as a man full of passion, sensible to +presents, to flatteries, and marks of submission; or rather as a +fantastic and punctilious sovereign, who is very seriously angry when +we neglect to show him that respect and obeisance which the vanity of +earthly potentates exacts from their vassals. + +It is after these notions so little agreeable to the Deity, that the +priests have conjured up a crowd of practices and strange inventions, +ridiculous, inconvenient, and often cruel; but by which they inform us +we shall merit the good favor of God, or disarm the wrath of the +Universal Lord. With some, all consists in prayers, offerings, and +sacrifices, with which they fancy God is well pleased. They forget +that a God who is good, who knows all things, has no need to be +solicited; that a God who is the author of all things has no need to +be presented with any part of his workmanship; that a God who knows +his power has no need of either flatteries or submissions, to remind +him of his grandeur, his power, or his rights; that a God who is Lord +of all has no need of offerings which belong to himself; that a God +who has no need of any thing cannot be won by presents, nor grudge to +his creatures the goods which they have received from his divine +bounty. + +For the want of making these reflections, simple as they are, all the +religions in the world are filled with an infinite number of frivolous +practices, by which men have long strove to render themselves +acceptable to the Deity. The priests who are always declared to be the +ministers, the favorites, the interpreters of God's will, have +discovered how they might most easily profit by the errors of mankind, +and the presents which they offer to the Deity. They are thence +interested to enter into the false ideas of the people, and even to +redouble the darkness of their minds. They have invented means to +please unknown powers who dispose of their fate--to excite their +devotion and their zeal for those invisible beings of whom they were +themselves the visible representatives. These priests soon perceived +that in laboring for the Gods they labored for themselves, and that +they could appropriate the major part of the presents, sacrifices, and +offerings, which were made to beings who never showed themselves in +order to claim what their devotees intended for them. + +You thus perceive, Madam, how the priests have made common cause with +the Divinity. Their policy thence obliged them to favor and increase +the errors of the human kind. They talk of this ineffable Being as of +an interested monarch, jealous, full of vanity, who gives that it may +be restored to him again; who exacts continual signs of submission and +respect; who desires, without ceasing, that men may reiterate their +marks of respect for him; who wishes to be solicited; who bestows no +grace unless it be accorded to importunity for the purpose of making +it more valuable; and, above all, who allows himself to be appeased +and propitiated by gifts from which his ministers derive the greatest +advantage. + +It is evident that it is upon these ideas borrowed from monarchical +courts here below that are founded all the practices, ceremonies, and +rites that we see established in all the religions of the earth. Each +sect has endeavored to make its God a monarch the most redoubtable, +the greatest, the most despotic, and the most selfish. The people +acquainted simply with human opinions, and full of debasement, have +adopted without examination the inventions which the Deity has shown +them as the fittest to obtain his favor and soften his wrath. The +priests fail not to adapt these practices, which they have invented, +to their own system of religion and personal interest; and the +ignorant and vulgar have allowed themselves to be blindly led by these +guides. Habit has familiarized them with things upon which they never +reason, and they make a duty of the routine which has been transmitted +to them from age to age, and from father to child. + +The infant, as soon as it can be made to understand any thing, is +taught mechanically to join its little hands in prayer. His tongue is +forced to lisp a formula which it does not comprehend, addressed to a +God which its understanding can never conceive. In the arms of its +nurse it is carried into the temple or church, where its eyes are +habituated to contemplate spectacles, ceremonies, and pretended +mysteries, of which, even when it shall have arrived at mature age, it +will still understand nothing. If at this latter period any one should +ask the reason of his conduct, or desire to know why he made this +conduct a sacred and important duty, he could give no explanation, +except that he was instructed in his tender years to respectfully +observe certain usages, which he must regard as sacred, as they were +unintelligible to him. If an attempt was made to undeceive him in +regard to these habitual futilities, either he would not listen, or +he would be irritated against whoever denied the notions rooted in +his brain. Any man who wished to lead him to good sense, and who +reasoned against the habits he had contracted, would be regarded by +him as ridiculous and extravagant, or he would repulse him as an +infidel and blasphemer, because his instructions lead him thus to +designate every man who fails to pursue the same routine as himself, +or who does not attach the same ideas as the devotee to things which +the latter has never examined. + +What horror does it not fill the Christian devotee with if you tell +him that his priest is unnecessary! What would be his surprise if you +were to prove to him, even on the principles of his religion, that the +prayers which in his infancy he had been taught to consider as the +most agreeable to his God, are unworthy and unnecessary to this Deity! +For if God knows all, what need is there to remind him of the wants of +his creatures whom he loves? If God is a father full of tenderness and +goodness, is it necessary to ask him to "give us day by day our daily +bread"? If this God, so good, foresaw the wants of his children, and +knew much better than they what they could not know of themselves, +whence is it he bids them importune him to grant them their requests? +If this God is immutable and wise, how can his creatures change the +fixed resolution of the Deity? If this God is just and good, how can +he injure us, or place us in a situation to require the use of that +prayer which entreats the Deity _not to lead us into temptation_? + +You see by this, Madam, that there is but a very small portion of what +the Christians pretend they understand and consider absolutely +necessary that accords at all with what they tell us has been dictated +by God himself. You see that the Lord's prayer itself contains many +absurdities and ideas totally contrary to those which every Christian +ought to have of his God. If you ask a Christian why he repeats +without ceasing this vain formula, on which he never reflects, he can +assign little other reason than that he was taught in his infancy to +clasp his hands, repeat words the meaning of which his priest, not +himself, is alone bound to understand. He may probably add that he has +ever been taught to consider this formula requisite, as it was the +most sacred and the most proper to merit the favor of Heaven. + +We should, without doubt, form the same judgment of that multitude of +prayers which our teachers recommend to us daily. And if we believe +them, man, to please God, ought to pass a large portion of his +existence in supplicating Heaven to pour down its blessings on him. +But if God is good, if he cherishes his creatures, if he knows their +wants, it seems superfluous to pray to him. If God changes not, he has +never promised to alter his secret decrees, or, if he has, he is +variable in his fancies, like man; to what purpose are all our +petitions to him? If God is offended with us, will he not reject +prayers which insult his goodness, his justice, and infinite wisdom? + +What motives, then, have our priests to inculcate constantly the +necessity of prayer? It is that they may thereby hold the minds of +mankind in opinions more advantageous to themselves. They represent +God to us under the traits of a monarch difficult of access, who +cannot be easily pacified, but of whom they are the ministers, the +favorites, and servants. They become intercessors between this +invisible Sovereign and his subjects of this nether world. They sell +to the ignorant their intercession with the All-powerful; they pray +for the people, and by society they are recompensed with real +advantages, with riches, honors, and ease. It is on the necessity of +prayer that our priests, our monks, and all religious men establish +their lazy existence; that they profess to win a place in heaven for +their followers and paymasters, who, without this intercession, could +neither obtain the favor of God, nor avert his chastisements and the +calamities the world is so often visited with. The prayers of the +priests are regarded as a universal remedy for all evils. All the +misfortunes of nations are laid before these spiritual guides, who +generally find public calamities a source of profit to themselves, as +it is then they are amply paid for their supposed mediation between +the Deity and his suffering creatures. They never teach the people +that these things spring from the course of nature and of laws they +cannot control. O, no. They make the world believe they are the +judgments of an angry God. The evils for which they can find no +remedy are pronounced marks of the divine wrath; they are +supernatural, and the priests must be applied to. God, whom they call +so good, appears sometimes obstinately deaf to their entreaties. Their +common Parent, so tender, appears to derange the order of nature to +manifest his anger. The God who is so just, sometimes punishes men who +cannot divine the cause of his vengeance. Then, in their distress, +they flee to the priests, who never fail to find motives for the +divine wrath. They tell them that God has been offended; that he has +been neglected; that he exacts prayers, offerings, and sacrifices; +that he requires, in order to be appeased, that his ministers should +receive more consideration, should be heard more attentively, and +should be more enriched. Without this, they announce to the vulgar +that their harvests will fail, that their fields will be inundated, +that pestilence, famine, war, and contagion will visit the earth; and +when these misfortunes have arrived, they declare they may be removed +by means of prayers. + +If fear and terror permitted men to reason, they would discover that +all the evils, as well as the good things of this life, are necessary +consequences of the order of nature. They would perceive that a wise +God, immutable in his conduct, cannot allow any thing to transpire but +according to those laws of which he is regarded as the author. They +would discover that the calamities, sterility, maladies, contagions, +and even death itself are effects as necessary as happiness, +abundance, health, and life itself. They would find that wars, wants, +and famine are often the effects of human imprudence; that they would +submit to accidents which they could not prevent, and guard against +those they could foresee; they would remedy by simple and natural +means those against which they possessed resources; and they would +undeceive themselves in regard to those supernatural means and those +useless prayers of which the experience of so many ages ought to have +disabused men, if they were capable of correcting their religious +prejudices. + +This would not, indeed, redound to the advantage of the priests, since +they would become useless if men perceived the inefficacy of their +prayers, the futility of their practices, and the absence of all +rational foundation for those exercises of piety which place the human +race upon their knees. They compel their votaries always to run down +those who discredit their pretensions. They terrify the weak minded by +frightful ideas which they hold out to them of the Deity. They forbid +them to reason; they make them deaf to reason, by conforming them to +ordinances the most out of the way, the most unreasonable, and the +most contradictory to the very principles on which they pretend to +establish them. They change practices, arbitrary in themselves, or, at +most, indifferent and useless, into important duties, which they +proclaim the most essential of all duties, and the most sacred and +moral. They know that man ceases to reason in proportion as he +suffers or is wretched. Hence, if he experiences real misfortunes, the +priests make sure of him; if he is not unfortunate they menace him; +they create imaginary fears and troubles. + +In fine, Madam, when you wish to examine with your own eyes, and not +by the help of the pretensions set up and imposed on you by the +ministers of religion, you will be compelled to acknowledge the things +we have been considering as useful to the priests alone; they are +useless to the Deity, and to society they are often very obviously +pernicious. Of what utility can it be in any family to behold an +excess of devotion in the mother of that family? One would suppose it +is not necessary for a lady to pass all her time in prayers and in +meditations, to the neglect of other duties. Much less is it the part +of a Catholic mother to be closeted in mystic conversation with her +priest. Will her husband, her children, and her friends applaud her +who loses most of her time in prayers, and meditations, and practices, +which can tend only to render her sour, unhappy, and discontented? +Would it not be much better that a father or a mother of a family +should be occupied with what belonged to their domestic affairs than +to spend their time in masses, in hearing sermons, in meditating on +mysterious and unintelligible dogmas, or boasting about exercises of +piety that tend to nothing? + +Madam, do you not find in the country you inhabit a great many +devotees who are sunk in debt, whose fortune is squandered away on +priests, and who are incapable of retrieving it? Content to put their +conscience to rights on religious matters, they neither trouble +themselves about the education of their children, nor the arrangement +of their fortune, nor the discharge of their debts. Such men as would +be thrown into despair did they omit one mass, will consent to leave +their creditors without their money, ruined by their negligence as +much as by their principles. In truth, Madam, on what side soever you +survey this religion, you will find it good for nothing. + +What shall we say of those fetes which are so multiplied amongst us? +Are they not evidently pernicious to society? Are not all days the +same to the Eternal? Are there _gala_ days in heaven? Can God be +honored by the business of an artisan or a merchant, who, in place of +earning bread on which his family may subsist, squanders away his time +in the church, and afterwards goes to spend his money in the public +house? It is necessary, the priests will tell you, for man to have +repose. But will he not seek repose when he is fatigued by the labor +of his hands? Is it not more necessary that every man should labor in +his vocation than go to a temple to chant over a service which +benefits only the priests, or hear a sermon of which he can understand +nothing? And do not such as find great scruple in doing a necessary +labor on Sunday frequently sit down and get drunk on that day, +consuming in a few hours the receipts of their week's labor? But it +is for the interest of the clergy that all other shops should be shut +when theirs are open. We may thence easily discover why fetes are +necessary. + +Is it not contrary to all the notions which we can form of the +goodness and wisdom of the Divinity, that religion should form into +duties both abstinence and privations, or that penitences and +austerities should be the sole proofs of virtue? What should be said +of a father who should place his children at a table loaded with the +fruits of the earth, but who, nevertheless, should debar them from +touching certain of them, though both nature and reason dictated their +use and nutriment? Can we, then, suppose that a Deity wise and good +interdicts to his creatures the enjoyment of innocent pleasures, which +may contribute to render life agreeable, or that a God who has created +all things, every object the most desirable to the nourishment and +health of man, should nevertheless forbid him their use? The Christian +religion appears to doom its votaries to the punishment of Tantalus. +The most part of the superstitions in the world have made of God a +capricious and jealous sovereign, who amuses himself by tempting the +passions and exciting the desires of his slaves, without permitting +them the gratification of the one or the enjoyment of the other. We +see among all sects the portraiture of a chagrined Deity, the enemy of +innocent amusements, and offended at the well being of his creatures. +We see in all countries many men so foolish as to imagine they will +merit heaven by fighting against their nature, refusing the goods of +fortune, and tormenting themselves under an idea that they will +thereby render themselves agreeable to God. Especially do they believe +that they will by these means disarm the fury of God, and prevent the +inflictions of his chastisements, if they immolate themselves to a +being who always requires victims. + +We find these atrocious, fanatical, and senseless ideas in the +Christian religion, which supposes its God as cruel to exact +sufferings from men as death from his only Son. If a God exempt from +all sin is himself also the sufferer for the sins of all, which is the +doctrine of those who maintain universal redemption, it is not +surprising to see men that are sinners making it a duty to assemble in +large meetings, and invent the means of rendering themselves +miserable. These gloomy notions have banished men to the desert. They +have fanatically renounced society and the pleasures of life, to be +buried alive, believing they would merit heaven if they afflicted +themselves with stripes and passed their existence in mummical +ceremonies, as injurious to their health as useless to their country. +And these are the false ideas by which the Divinity is transformed +into a tyrant as barbarous as insensible, who, agreeably to +_priestcraft_, has prescribed how both men and women might live in +ennui, penitence, sorrow, and tears; for the perfection of monastic +institutions consists in the ingenious art of self-torture. But +sacerdotal pride finds its account in these austerities. Rigid monks +glory in barbarous rules, the observance of which attracts the respect +of the credulous, who imagine that men who torment themselves are +indeed the favorites of heaven. But these monks, who follow these +austere rules, are fanatics, who sacrifice themselves to the pride of +the clergy who live in luxury and in wealth, although their duped, +imbecile brethren have been known to make it a point of honor to die +of famine. + +How often, Madam, has your attention not been aroused when you +recalled to mind the fate of the poor religious men of the desert, +whom an unnecessary vow has condemned, as it were voluntarily, to a +life as rigorous as if spent in a prison! Seduced by the enthusiasm of +youth, or forced by the orders of inhuman parents, they have been +obliged to carry to the tomb the chains of their captivity. They have +been obliged to submit without appeal to a stern superior, who finds +no consolation in the discharge of his slavish task but in making his +empire more hard to those beneath him. You have seen unfortunate young +ladies obliged to renounce their rank in society, the innocent +pleasures of youth, the joys of their sex, to groan forever under a +rigorous despotism, to which indiscreet vows had bound them. All +monasteries present to us an odious group of fanatics, who have +separated themselves from society to pass the remainder of their lives +in unhappiness. The society of these devotees is calculated solely to +render their lives mutually more unsupportable. But it seems strange +that men should expect to merit heaven by suffering the torments of +hell on earth; yet so it is, and reason has too often proved +insufficient to convince them of the contrary. + +If this religion does not call all Christians to these sublime +perfections, it nevertheless enjoins on all its votaries suffering and +mortifying of the body. The church prescribes privations to all her +children, and abstinences and fasts; these things they practise among +us as duties; and the devotees imagine they render themselves very +agreeable to the Divinity when they have scrupulously fulfilled those +minute and puerile practices, by which they tell us that the priests +have proof whether their patience and obedience be such as are +dictated by and acceptable to Heaven. What a ridiculous idea is it, +for example, to make of the Deity a trio of persons; to teach the +faithful that this Deity takes notice of what kinds of food his people +eat; that he is displeased if they eat beef or mutton, but that he is +delighted if they eat beans and fish! In good sooth, Madam, our +priests, who sometimes give us very lofty ideas of God, please +themselves but too often with making him strangely contemptible! + +The life of a good Christian or of a devotee is crowded with a host of +useless practices, which would be at least pardonable if they procured +any good for society. But it is not for that purpose that our priests +make so much ado about them; they only wish to have submissive slaves, +sufficiently blind to respect their caprices as the orders of a wise +God; sufficiently stupid to regard all their practices as divine +duties, and they who scrupulously observe them as the real favorites +of the Omnipotent. What good can there result to the world from the +abstinence of meats, so much enjoined on some Christians, especially +when other Christians judge this injunction a very ridiculous law, and +contrary to reason and the order of things established in nature? It +is not difficult to perceive amongst us that this injunction, openly +violated by the rich, is an oppression on the poor, who are compelled +to pay dearly for an indifferent, often an unwholesome diet, that +injures rather than repairs the natural strength of their +constitution. Besides, do not the priests sell this permission to the +rich, to transgress an injunction the poor must not violate with +impunity? In fine, they seem to have multiplied our practices, our +duties, and our tortures, to have the advantage of multiplying our +faults, and making a good bargain out of our pretended crimes. + +The more we examine religion the more reason shall we have to be +convinced that it is beneficial to the _priests alone_. Every part of +this religion conspires to render us submissive to the fantasies of +our spiritual guides, to labor for their grandeur, to contribute to +their riches. They appoint us to perform disadvantageous duties; they +prescribe impossible perfections, purposely that we may transgress; +they have thereby engendered in pious minds scruples and difficulties +which they condescendingly appease for money. A devotee is obliged to +observe, without ceasing, the useless and frivolous rules of his +priest, and even then he is subject to continual reproaches; he is +perpetually in want of his priest to expiate his pretended faults with +which he charges himself, and the omission of duties that he regards +as the most important acts of his life, but which are rarely such as +interest society or benefit it by their performance. By a train of +religious prejudices with which the priests infect the mind of their +weak devotees, these believe themselves infinitely more culpable when +they have omitted some useless practice, than if they had committed +some great injustice or atrocious sin against humanity. It is commonly +sufficient for the devotees to be on good terms with God, whether they +be consistent in their actions with man, or in the practice of those +duties they owe to their fellow beings. + +Besides, Madam, what real advantage does society derive from repeated +prayers, abstinences, privations, seclusions, meditations, and +austerities, to which religion attaches so much value? Do all the +mysterious practices of the priests produce any real good? Are they +capable of calming the passions, of correcting vices, and of giving +virtue to those who most scrupulously observe them? Do we not daily +see persons who believe themselves damned if they forget a mass, if +they eat a fowl on Friday, if they neglect a confession, though they +are guilty at the same time of great dereliction to society? Do they +not hold the conduct of those very unjust, and very cruel, who happen +to have the misfortune of not thinking and doing as they think and +act? These practices, out of which a great number of men have created +essential duties, but too commonly absorb all moral duties; for if the +devotees are over-religious, it is rare to find them virtuous. Content +with doing what religion requires, they trouble themselves very little +about other matters. They believe themselves the favored of God, and +that it is a proof of this if they are detested by men, whose good +opinion they are seldom anxious to deserve. The whole life of a +devotee is spent in fulfilling, with scrupulous exactitude, duties +indifferent to God, unnecessary to himself, and useless to others. He +fancies he is virtuous when he has performed the rites which his +religion prescribes; when he has meditated on mysteries of which he +understands nothing; when he has struggled with sadness to do things +in which a man of sense can perceive no advantage; in fine, when he +has endeavored to practise, as much as in him lies, the Evangelical or +Christian virtues, in which he thinks all morality essentially +consists. + +I shall proceed in my next letter to examine these virtues, and to +prove to you that they are contrary to the ideas we ought to form of +God, useless to ourselves, and often dangerous to others. In the mean +time, I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER VIII. + + Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection. + + +If we believe the priests, we shall be persuaded, that the Christian +religion, by the beauty of its morals, excels philosophy and all the +other religious systems in the world. According to them, the +unassisted reason of the human mind could never have conceived sounder +doctrines of morality, more heroical virtues, or precepts more +beneficial to society. But this is not all; the virtues known or +practised among the heathens are considered as _false virtues_; far +from deserving our esteem, and the favor of the Almighty, they are +entitled to nothing but contempt; and, indeed, are _flagrant sins_ in +the sight of God. In short, the priests labor to convince us, that the +Christian ethics are purely divine, and the lessons inculcated so +sublime, that they could proceed from nothing less than the Deity. + +If, indeed, we call that divine which men can neither conceive nor +perform; if by divine virtues we are to understand virtues to which +the mind of man cannot possibly attach the least idea of utility; if +by divine perfections are meant those qualities which are not only +foreign to the nature of man, but which are irreconcilably repugnant +to it,--then, indeed, we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the +morals of Christianity are divine; at least we shall be assured that +they have nothing in common with that system of morality which arises +out of the nature and relations of men, but on the contrary, that +they, in many instances, confound the best conceptions we are able to +form of virtue. + +Guided by the light of reason, we comprehend under the name of virtue +those habitual dispositions of the heart which tend to the happiness +and the real advantage of those with whom we associate, and by the +exercise of which our fellow-creatures are induced to feel a +reciprocal interest in our welfare. Under the Christian system the +name of virtues is bestowed upon dispositions which it is impossible +to possess without supernatural grace; and which, when possessed, are +useless, if not injurious, both to ourselves and others. The morality +of Christians is, in good truth, the morality of another world. Like +the philosopher of antiquity, they keep their eyes fixed upon the +stars till they fall into a well, unperceived, at their feet. The only +object which their scheme of morals proposes to itself is, to disgust +their minds with the things of this world, in order that they may +place their entire affections upon things above, of which they have no +knowledge whatever; their happiness here below forms no part of their +consideration; this life, in the view of a Christian, is nothing but a +pilgrimage, leading to another existence, infinitely more interesting +to his hopes, because infinitely beyond the reach of his +understanding. Besides, before we can deserve to be happy in the +world which we do not know, we are informed that we must be miserable +in the world which we do know; and, above all things, in order to +secure to ourselves happiness hereafter, it is especially necessary +that we altogether resign the use of our own reason; that is to say, +we must seal up our eyes in utter darkness, and surrender ourselves to +the guidance of our priests. These are the principles upon which the +fabric of Christian morals is evidently constructed. + +Let us now proceed, Madam, to a more detailed examination of the +virtues upon which the Christian religion is built. These virtues are +Evangelical, &c. If destitute of them, we are assured that it is in +vain for us to seek the favor of the Deity. + +Of these virtues the first is FAITH. According to the doctrine of the +church, faith is the gift of God, a supernatural virtue, by means of +which we are inspired with a firm belief in God, and in all that he +has vouchsafed to reveal to man, although our reason is utterly unable +to comprehend it. Faith is, says the church, founded upon the word of +God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Thus faith supposes, +that God has spoken to man--but what evidence have we that God has +spoken to man? The Holy Scriptures. Who is it that assures us the Holy +Scriptures contain the word of God? It is the church. But who is it +that assures us the church cannot and will not deceive us? The Holy +Scriptures. Thus the Scriptures bear witness to the infallibility of +the church--and the church, in return, testifies the truth of the +Scriptures. From this statement of the case, you must perceive, that +faith is nothing more than an implicit belief in the priests, whose +assurances we adopt as the foundation of opinions in themselves +incomprehensible. It is true, that as a confirmation of the truth of +Scripture, we are referred to miracles--but it is these identical +Scriptures which report to us and testify of those very miracles. Of +the absolute impossibility of any miracles, I flatter myself that I +have already convinced you. + +Besides, I cannot but think, Madam, that you must be, by this time, +thoroughly satisfied how absurd it is to say that the understanding is +convinced of any thing which it does not comprehend; the insight I +have given you into the books which the Christians call sacred, must +have left upon your mind a firm persuasion, that they never could have +proceeded from a wise, a good, an omniscient, a just, and all-powerful +God. If, then, we cannot yield them a real belief, what we call faith +can be nothing more than a blind and irrational adherence to a system +devised by priests, whose crafty selfishness has made them careful +from the earliest infancy to fill our tender minds with prepossessions +in favor of doctrines which they judged favorable to their own +interests. Interested, however, as they are in the opinions which they +endeavor to force upon us as truth, is it possible for these priests +to believe them themselves? Unquestionably not--the thing is out of +nature. They are men like ourselves, furnished with the same +faculties, and neither they nor we can be convinced of any thing which +lies equally beyond the scope of us all. If they possessed an +additional sense, we should perhaps allow that they might comprehend +what is unintelligible to us; but as we clearly see that they have no +intellectual privileges above the rest of the species, we are +compelled to conclude, that their faith, like the faith of other +Christians, is a blind acquiescence in opinions derived, without +examination, from their predecessors; and that they must be hypocrites +when they pretend to _believe_ in doctrines of the truth of which they +cannot be _convinced_, since these doctrines have been shown to be +destitute of that degree of evidence which is necessary to impress the +mind with a feeling of their probability, much less of their +certainty. + +It will be said that faith, or the faculty of believing things +incredible, is the gift of God, and can only be known to those upon +whom God has bestowed the favor. My answer is, that, if that be the +case, we have no alternative but to wait till the grace of God shall +be shed upon us--and that in the mean time we may be allowed to doubt +whether credulity, stupidity, and the perversion of reason can +proceed, as favors, from a rational Deity who has endowed us with the +power of thinking. If God be infinitely wise, how can folly and +imbecility be pleasing to him? If there were such a thing as faith, +proceeding from grace, it would be the privilege of seeing things +otherwise than as God has made them; and if that were so, it follows, +that the whole creation would be a mere cheat. No man can believe the +Bible to be the production of God without doing violence to every +consistent notion that he is able to form of Deity! No man can believe +that one God is three Gods, and that those three Gods are one God, +without renouncing all pretension to common sense, and persuading +himself that there is no such thing as certainty in the world. + +Thus, Madam, we are bound to suspect that what the church calls a gift +from above, a supernatural grace, is, in fact, a perfect blindness, an +irrational credulity, a brutish submission, a vague uncertainty, a +stupid ignorance, by which we are led to acquiesce, without +investigation, in every dogma that our priests think fit to impose +upon us--by which we are led to adopt, without knowing why, the +pretended opinions of men who can have no better means of arriving at +the truth than we have. In short, we are authorized in suspecting that +no motive but that of blinding us, in order more effectually to +deceive us, can actuate those men who are eternally preaching to us +about a virtue which, if it could exist, would throw into utter +confusion the simplest and clearest perceptions of the human mind. + +This supposition is amply confirmed by the conduct of our +ecclesiastics--forgetting what they have told us, that grace is the +gratuitous present of God, bestowed or withheld at his sovereign +pleasure, they nevertheless indulge their wrath against all those who +have not received the gift of faith; they keep up one incessant +anathema against all unbelievers, and nothing less than absolute +extermination of heresy can appease their anger wherever they have the +strength to accomplish it. So that heretics and unbelievers are made +accountable for the grace of God, although they never received it; +they are punished in this world for those advantages which God has not +been pleased to extend to them in their journey to the next. In the +estimation of priests and devotees, the want of faith is the most +unpardonable of all offences--it is precisely that offence which, in +the cruelty of their absurd injustice, they visit with the last rigors +of punishment, for you cannot be ignorant, Madam, that in all +countries where the clergy possess sufficient influence, the flames of +priestly charity are lighted up to consume all those who are deficient +in the prescribed allowance of faith. + +When we inquire the motive for their unjust and senseless proceedings, +we are told that faith is the most necessary of all things, that faith +is of the most essential service to morals, that without faith a man +is a dangerous and wicked wretch, a pest to society. And, after all, +is it our own choice to have faith? Can we believe just what we +please? Does it depend upon ourselves not to think a proposition +absurd which our understanding shows us to be absurd? How could we +avoid receiving, in our infancy, whatever impressions and opinions +our teachers and relations chose to implant in us? And where is the +man who can boast that he has faith--that he is fully convinced of +mysteries which he cannot conceive, and wonders which he cannot +comprehend? + +Under these circumstances how can faith be serviceable to morals? If +no one can have faith but upon the assurance of another, and +consequently cannot entertain a real conviction, what becomes of the +social virtues? Admitting that faith were possible, what connection +can exist between such occult speculations and the manifest duties of +mankind, duties which are palpable to every one who, in the least, +consults his reason, his interest, or the welfare of the society to +which he belongs? Before I can be satisfied of the advantages of +justice, temperance, and benevolence, must I first believe in the +Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and all the fables of the Old +Testament? If I believe in all the atrocious murders attributed by the +Bible to that God whom I am bound to consider as the fountain of +justice, wisdom, and goodness, is it not likely that I shall feel +encouraged to the commission of crimes when I find them sanctioned by +such an example? Although unable to discover the value of so many +mysteries which I cannot understand, or of so many fanciful and +cumbersome ceremonies prescribed by the church, am I, on that account, +to be denounced as a more dangerous citizen than those who persecute, +torment, and destroy every one of their fellow-creatures who does not +think and act at their dictation? The evident result of all these +considerations must be, that he who has a lively faith and a blind +zeal for opinions contradictory to common sense, is more irrational, +and consequently more wicked than the man whose mind is untainted by +such detestable doctrines; for when once the priests have gained their +fatal ascendency over his mind, and have persuaded him that, by +committing all sorts of enormities, he is doing the work of the Lord, +there can be no doubt that he will make greater havoc in the happiness +of the world, than the man whose reason tells him that such excesses +cannot be acceptable in the sight of God. + +The advocates of the church will here interrupt me, by alleging that +if divested of those sentiments which religion inspires, men would no +longer live under the influence of motives strong enough to induce an +abstinence from vice, or to urge them on in the career of virtue when +obstructed by painful sacrifices. In a word, it will be affirmed that +unless men are convinced of the existence of an avenging and +remunerating God, they are released from every motive to fulfil their +duties to each other in the present life. + +You are, doubtless, Madam, quite sensible of the futility of such +pretences, put forth by priests who, in order to render themselves +more necessary, are indefatigable in endeavoring to persuade us that +their system is indispensable to the maintenance of social order. To +annihilate their sophistries it is sufficient to reflect upon the +nature of man, his true interests, and the end for which society is +formed. Man is a feeble being, whose necessities render him constantly +dependent upon the support of others, whether it be for the +preservation or the pleasure of his existence; he has no means of +interesting others in his welfare except by his manner of conducting +himself towards them; that conduct which renders him an object of +affection to others is called virtue--whatever is pernicious to +society is called crime--and where the consequences are injurious only +to the individual himself, it is called vice. Thus every man must +immediately perceive that he consults his own happiness by advancing +that of others--that vices, however cautiously disguised from public +observation, are, nevertheless, fraught with ruin to him who practises +them--and that crimes are sure to render the perpetrator odious or +contemptible in the eyes of his associates, who are necessary to his +own happiness. In short, education, public opinion, and the laws point +out to us our mutual duties much more clearly than the chimeras of an +incomprehensible religion. + +Every man on consulting with himself will feel indubitably that he +desires his own conservation; experience will teach him both what he +ought to do and what to avoid to arrive at this end; in consequence he +will shrink from those excesses which endanger his being; he will +debar himself from those gratifications which in their course would +render his existence miserable; and he would make sacrifices, if it +was necessary, in the view of procuring himself advantages more real +than those of which he momentarily deprived himself. Thus he would +know what he owes to himself and what he owes to others. + +Here, Madam, you have a short but perfect summary of all morals, +derived, as they must be, from the nature of man, the uniform +experience and the universal reason of mankind. These precepts are +compulsory upon our minds, for they show us that the consequences of +our conduct flow from our actions with as natural and inevitable a +certainty as the return of a stone to the earth after the impetus is +exhausted which detained it in the air. It is natural and inevitable +that the man who employs himself in doing good must be preferred to +the man who does mischief. Every thinking being must be penetrated +with the truth of this incontrovertible maxim, and all the ponderous +volumes of theology that ever were composed can add nothing to the +force of his conviction; every thinking being will, therefore, avoid a +conduct calculated to injure either himself or others; he will feel +himself under the necessity of doing good to others, as the only +method of obtaining solid happiness for himself, and of conciliating +to himself those sentiments on the part of others, without which he +could derive no charms from society. + +You perceive, then, Madam, that _faith_ cannot in any manner +contribute to the correction of social conduct, and you will feel +that the popular supernatural notions cannot add any thing to the +obligations that our nature imposes upon us. In fact, the more +mysterious and incomprehensible are the dogmas of the church, the more +likely are they to draw us aside from the plain dictates of Nature and +the straight-forward directions of Reason, whose voice is incapable of +misleading us. A candid survey of the causes which produce an infinity +of evils that afflict society will quickly point out the speculative +tenets of theology as their most fruitful source. The intoxication of +enthusiasm and the frenzy of fanaticism concur in overpowering reason, +and by rendering men blind and unreflecting, convert them into enemies +both of themselves and the rest of the world. It is impossible for the +worshippers of a tyrannical, partial, and cruel God to practise the +duties of justice and philanthropy. As soon as the priests have +succeeded in stifling within us the commands of Reason, they have +already converted us into slaves, in whom they can kindle whatever +passions it may please them to inspire us with. + +Their interest, indeed, requires that we should be slaves. They exact +from us the surrender of our reason, because our reason contradicts +their impostures, and would ruin their plans of aggrandizement. Faith +is the instrument by which they enslave us and make us subservient to +their own ambition. Hence arises their zeal for the propagation of the +faith; hence arises their implacable hostility to science, and to all +those who refuse submission to their yoke; hence arises their +incessant endeavor to establish the dominion of Faith, (that is to +say, their own dominion,) even by fire and sword, the only arguments +they condescend to employ. + +It must be confessed that society derives but little advantage from +this supernatural faith which the church has exalted into the first of +virtues. As it regards God, it is perfectly useless to him, since if +he wishes mankind to be convinced, it is sufficient that he wills them +to be so. It is utterly unworthy of the supreme wisdom of God, who +cannot exhibit himself to mortals in a manner contradictory to the +reason with which he has endowed them. It is unworthy of the divine +justice, which cannot require from mankind to be convinced of that +which they cannot understand. It denies the very existence of God +himself, by inculcating a belief totally subversive of the only +rational idea we are able to form of the Divinity. + +As it regards morality, faith is also useless. Faith cannot render it +either more sacred or more necessary than it already is by its own +inherent essence, and by the nature of man. Faith is not only useless, +but injurious to society, since, under the plea of its pretended +necessity, it frequently fills the world with deplorable troubles and +horrid crimes. In short, faith is self-contradictory, since by it we +are required to believe in things inconsistent with each other, and +even incompatible with the principles laid down in the books which we +have already investigated, and which contain what we are commanded to +believe. + +To whom, then, is faith found to be advantageous? To a few men, only, +who, availing themselves of its influence to degrade the human mind, +contrive to render the labor of the whole world tributary to their own +luxury, splendor, and power. Are the nations of the earth any happier +for their faith, or their blind reliance on priests? Certainly not. We +do not there find more morality, more virtue, more industry, or more +happiness; but, on the contrary, wherever the priests are powerful, +there the people are sure to be found abject in their minds and +squalid in their condition. + +But Hope--Hope, the second in order of the Christian perfections, is +ever at hand to console us for the evils inflicted by Faith. We are +commanded to be firmly convinced that those who have faith, that is to +say, those who believe in priests, shall be amply rewarded in the +other world for their meritorious submission in this. Thus hope is +founded on faith, in the same manner as faith is established upon +hope; faith enjoins us to entertain a devout hope that our faith will +be rewarded. And what is it we are told to hope for? For unspeakable +benefits; that is, benefits for which language contains no expression. +So that, after all, we know not what it is we are to hope for. And how +can we feel a hope or even a wish for any object that is undefinable? +How can priests incessantly speak to us of things of which they, at +the same time, acknowledge it is impossible for us to form any ideas? + +It thus appears that hope and faith have one common foundation; the +same blow which overturns the one necessarily levels the other with +the ground. But let us pause a moment, and endeavor to discover the +advantages of Christian hope amongst men. It encourages to the +practice of virtue; it supports the unfortunate under the stroke of +affliction; and consoles the believer in the hour of adversity. But +what encouragement, what support, what consolation can be imparted to +the mind from these undefined and undefinable shadows? No one, indeed, +will deny that hope is sufficiently useful to the priests, who never +fail to call in its assistance for the vindication of Providence, +whenever any of the elect have occasion to complain of the unmerited +hardship or the transient injustice of his dispensations. Besides, +these priests, notwithstanding their beautiful systems, find +themselves unable to fulfil the high-sounding promises they so +liberally make to all the faithful, and are frequently at a loss to +explain the evils which they bring upon their flocks by means of the +quarrels they engage in, and the false notions of religion they +entertain; on these occasions the priests have a standing appeal to +hope, telling their dupes that man was not created for this world, +that heaven is his home, and that his sufferings here will be +counterbalanced by indescribable bliss hereafter. Thus, like quacks, +whose nostrums have ruined the health of their patients, they have +still left to themselves the advantage of selling hopes to those whom +they know themselves unable to cure. Our priests resemble some of our +physicians, who begin by frightening us into our complaints, in order +that they may make us customers for the hopes which they afterwards +sell to us for their weight in gold. This traffic constitutes, in +reality, all that is called religion. + +The third of the Christian virtues is Charity; that is, to love God +above all things, and our neighbors as ourselves. But before we are +required to love God above all things, it seems reasonable that +religion should condescend to represent him as worthy of our love. In +good faith, Madam, is it possible to feel that the God of the +Christians is entitled to our love? Is it possible to feel any other +sentiments than those of aversion towards a partial, capricious, +cruel, revengeful, jealous, and sanguinary tyrant? How can we +sincerely love the most terrible of beings,--the living God, into +whose hands it is dreadful to think of falling,--the God who can +consign to eternal damnation those very creatures who, without his own +consent, would never have existed? Are our theologians aware of what +they say, when they tell us that the fear of God is the fear of a +child for its parent, which is mingled with love? Are we not bound to +hate, can we by any means avoid detesting, a barbarous father, whose +injustice is so boundless as to punish the whole human race, though +innocent, in order to revenge himself upon two individuals for the sin +of the apple, which sin he himself might have prevented if he had +thought proper? In short, Madam, it is a physical impossibility to +love above all things a God whose whole conduct, as described in the +Bible, fills us with a freezing horror. If, therefore, the love of +God, as the Jansenists assert, is indispensable to salvation, we +cannot wonder to find that the elect are so few. Indeed, there are not +many persons who can restrain themselves from hating this God; and the +doctrine of the Jesuits is, that to abstain from hating him is +sufficient for salvation. The power of loving a God whom religion +paints as the most detestable of beings would, doubtless, be a proof +of the most supernatural grace, that is, a grace the most contrary to +nature; to love that which we do not know, is, assuredly, sufficiently +difficult; to love that which we fear, is still more difficult; but to +love that which is exhibited to us in the most repulsive colors, is +manifestly impossible. + +We must, after all this, be thoroughly convinced that, except by means +of an invisible grace never communicated to the profane, no Christian +in his sober senses can love his God; even those devotees who pretend +to that happiness are apt to deceive themselves; their conduct +resembles that of hypocritical flatterers, who, in order to ingratiate +themselves with an odious tyrant, or to escape his resentment, make +every profession of attachment, whilst, at the bottom of their +hearts, they execrate him; or, on the other hand, they must be +condemned as enthusiasts, who, by means of a heated imagination, +become the dupes of their own illusions, and only view the favorable +side of a God declared to be the fountain of all good, yet, +nevertheless, constantly delineated to us with every feature of +wickedness. Devotees, when sincere, are like women given up to the +infatuation of a blind passion by which they are enamoured with lovers +rejected by the rest of the sex as unworthy of their affection. It was +said by Madame de Sevigne that she loved God as a perfectly well-bred +gentleman, with whom she had never been acquainted. But can the God of +the Christians be esteemed a well-bred gentleman? Unless her head was +turned, one would think that she must have been cured of her passion +by the slightest reference to her imaginary lover's portrait as drawn +in the Bible, or as it is spread upon the canvas of our theological +artists. + +With regard to the love of our neighbor, where was the necessity of +religion to teach us our duty, which as men we cannot but feel, of +cherishing sentiments of good will towards each other? It is only by +showing in our conduct an affectionate disposition to others that we +can produce in them correspondent feelings towards ourselves. The +simple circumstance of being men is quite sufficient to give us a +claim upon the heart of every man who is susceptible of the sweet +sensibilities of our nature. Who is better acquainted than yourself, +Madam, with this truth? Does not your compassionate soul experience at +every moment the delightful satisfaction of solacing the unhappy? +Setting aside the superfluous precepts of religion, think you that you +could by any efforts steel your heart against the tears of the +unfortunate? Is it not by rendering our fellow-creatures happy that we +establish an empire in their hearts? Enjoy, then, Madam, this +delightful sovereignty; continue to bless with your beneficence all +that surround you; the consciousness of being the dispenser of so much +good will always sustain your mind with the most gratifying +self-applause; those who have received your kindness will reward you +with their blessings, and afford you the tribute of affection which +mankind are ever eager to lay at the feet of their benefactors. + +Christianity, not satisfied with recommending the love of our +neighbor, superadds the injunction of loving our enemies. This +precept, attributed to the Son of God himself, forms the ground on +which our divines claim for their religion a superiority of moral +doctrine over all that the philosophers of antiquity were known to +teach. Let us, therefore, examine how far this precept admits of being +reduced to practice. True, an elevated mind may easily place itself +above a sense of injuries; a noble spirit retains no resentful +recollections; a great soul revenges itself by a generous clemency; +but it is an absurd contradiction to require that a man shall +entertain feelings of tenderness and regard for those whom he knows +to be bent on his destruction; this love of our enemies, which +Christianity is so vain of having promulgated, turns out, then, to be +an impracticable commandment, belied and denied by every Christian at +every moment of his life. How preposterous to talk of loving that +which annoys us!--of cherishing an attachment for that which gives us +pain!--of receiving an outrage with joy!--of loving those who subject +us to misery and suffering! No; in the midst of these trials our +firmness may perhaps be strengthened by the hope of a reward +hereafter; but it is a mere fallacy to talk of our entertaining a +sincere love for those whom we deem the authors of our afflictions; +the least that we can do is to avoid them, which will not be looked +upon as a very strong indication of our love. + +Notwithstanding the solemn formality with which the Christian religion +obtrudes upon us these vaunted precepts of love of our neighbor, love +of our enemies, and forgiveness of injuries, it cannot escape the +observation of the weakest among us, that those very men who are the +loudest in praising are also the first and most constant in violating +them. Our priests especially seem to consider themselves exempt from +the troublesome necessity of adopting for their own conduct a too +literal interpretation of this divine law. They have invented a most +convenient salvo, since they affect to exclude all those who do not +profess to think as they dictate, not only from the kindness of +neighbors, but even from the rights of fellow-creatures. On this +principle they defame, persecute, and destroy every one who displeases +them. When do you see a priest forgive? When revenge is out of his +reach! But it is never their own injuries they punish; it is never +their own enemies they seek to exterminate. Their disinterested +indignation burns with resentment against the enemies of the Most +High, who, without their assistance, would be incapable of adjusting +his own quarrels! By an unaccountable coincidence, however, it is sure +to happen that the enemies of the church are the enemies of the Most +High, who never fails to make common cause with the ministers of the +faith, and who would take it extremely ill if his ministers should +relax in the measure of punishment due to their common enemy. Thus our +priests are cruel and revengeful from pure zeal; they would ardently +wish to forgive their own enemies, but how could they justify +themselves to the God of Mercies if they extended the least indulgence +to his enemies? + +A true Christian loves the Creator above all things, and consequently +he must love him in preference to the creature. We feel a lively +interest in every thing that concerns the object of our love; from all +which, it follows that we must evince our zeal, and even, when +necessary, we must not hesitate to exterminate our neighbor, if he +says or does what is displeasing or injurious to God. In such a case, +indifference would be criminal; a sincere love of God breaks out into +a holy ardor in his cause, and our merit rises in proportion to our +violence. + +These notions, absurd as they are, have been sufficient in every age +to produce in the world a multitude of crimes, extravagances, and +follies, the legitimate offspring of a religious zeal. Infatuated +fanatics, exasperated by priests against each other, have been driven +into mutual hatred, persecution, and destruction; they have thought +themselves called upon to avenge the Almighty; they have carried their +insane delusions so far as to persuade themselves that the God of +clemency and goodness could look on with pleasure while they murdered +their brethren; in the astonishing blindness of their stupidity, they +have imagined that in defending the temporalities of the church, they +were defending God himself. In pursuance of these errors, contradicted +even by the description which they themselves give us of the Divinity, +the priests of every age have found means to introduce confusion into +the peaceful habitations of men, and to destroy all who dared to +resist their tyranny. Under the laughable idea of revenging the +all-powerful Creator, these priests have discovered the secret of +revenging themselves, and that, too, without drawing down upon +themselves the hatred and execration so justly due to their vindictive +fury and unfeeling selfishness. In the name of the God of nature, they +stifled the voice of nature in the breasts of men; in the name of the +God of goodness, they incited men to the fury of wild beasts; in the +name of the God of mercies, they prohibited all forgiveness! + +It is thus, Madam, that the earth has never ceased to groan with the +ravages committed by maniacs under the influence of that zeal which +springs from the Christian doctrine of the love of God. The God of the +Christians, like the Janus of Roman mythology, has two faces; +sometimes he is represented with the benign features of mercy and +goodness; sometimes murder, revenge, and fury issue from his nostrils. +And what is the consequence of this double aspect but that the +Christians are much more easily terrified at his frightful lineaments +than they are recovered from their fears by his aspect of mercy! +Having been taught to view him as a capricious being, they are +naturally mistrustful of him, and imagine that the safest part they +can act for themselves is to set about the work of vengeance with +great zeal; they conclude that a cruel master cannot find fault with +cruel imitators, and that his servants cannot render themselves more +acceptable than by extirpating all his enemies. + +The preceding remarks show very clearly, Madam, the highly pernicious +consequences which result from the zeal engendered by the love of God. +If this love is a virtue, its benefits are confined to the priests, +who arrogate to themselves the exclusive privilege of declaring when +God is offended; who absorb all the offerings and monopolize all the +homage of the devout; who decide upon the opinions that please or +displease him; who undertake to inform mankind of the duties this +virtue requires from them, and of the proper time and manner of +performing them; who are interested in rendering those duties cruel +and intimidating in order to frighten mankind into a profitable +subjection; who convert it into the instrument of gratifying their own +malignant passions, by inspiring men with a spirit of headlong and +raging intolerance, which, in its furious course of indiscriminate +destruction, holds nothing sacred, and which has inflicted incredible +ravages upon all Christian countries. + +In conformity with such abominable principles, a Christian is bound to +detest and destroy all whom the church may point out as the enemies of +God. Having admitted the paramount duty of yielding their entire +affections to a rigorous master, quick to resent, and offended even +with the involuntary thoughts and opinions of his creatures, they of +course feel themselves bound, by entering with zeal into his quarrels, +to obtain for him a vengeance worthy of a God--that is to say, a +vengeance that knows no bounds. A conduct like this is the natural +offspring of those revolting ideas which our priests give us of the +Deity. A good Christian is therefore necessarily intolerant. It is +true that Christianity in the pulpit preaches nothing but mildness, +meekness, toleration, peace, and concord; but Christianity in the +world is a stranger to all these virtues; nor does she ever exercise +them except when she is deficient in the necessary power to give +effect to her destructive zeal. The real truth of the matter is, that +Christians think themselves absolved from every tie of humanity except +with those who think as they do, who profess to believe the same +creed; they have a repugnance, more or less decided, against all those +who disagree with their priests in theological speculation. How common +it is to see persons of the mildest character and most benevolent +disposition regard with aversion the adherents of a different sect +from their own! The reigning religion--that is, the religion of the +sovereign, or of the priests in whose favor the sovereign declares +himself--crushes all rival sects, or, at least, makes them fully +sensible of its superiority and its hatred, in a manner extremely +insulting, and calculated to raise their indignation. By these means +it frequently happens that the deference of the prince to the wishes +of the priests has the effect of alienating the hearts of his most +faithful subjects, and brings him that execration which ought in +justice to be heaped exclusively upon his sanctimonious instigators. + +In short, Madam, the private rights of conscience are nowhere +sincerely respected; the leaders of the various religious sects begin, +in the very cradle, to teach all Christians to hate and despise each +other about some theological point which nobody can understand. The +clergy, when vested with power, never preach toleration; on the +contrary, they consider every man as an enemy who is a friend to +religious freedom, accusing him of lukewarmness, infidelity, and +secret hostility; in short, he is denominated a false brother. The +Sorbonne declared, in the sixteenth century, that it was heretical to +say that heretics ought not to be burned. The ferocious St. Austin +preached toleration at one period, but it was before he was duly +initiated in the mysteries of the sacerdotal policy, which is ever +repugnant to toleration. Persecution is necessary to our priests, to +deter mankind from opposing themselves to their avarice, their +ambition, their vanity, and their obstinacy. The sole principle which +holds the church together is that of a sleepless watchfulness on the +part of all its members to extend its power, to increase the multitude +of its slaves, to fix odium on all who hesitate to bend their necks to +its yoke, or who refuse their assent to its arbitrary decisions. + +Our divines have, therefore, you see, very good reasons for raising +humility into the rank of virtue. An amiable modesty, a diffident +mildness of demeanor, are unquestionably calculated to promote the +pleasures and the advantages of society; it is equally certain that +insolence and arrogance are disgusting, that they wound our self-love +and excite our aversion by their repulsive conduct; but that amiable +modesty which charms all who come within its influence is a far +different quality from that which is designated humility in the +vocabulary of Christians. A truly humble Christian despises his own +unworthiness, avoids the esteem of others, mistrusts his own +understanding, submits with docility to the unerring guidance of his +spiritual masters, and piously resigns to his priest the clearest and +most irrefutable conclusions of reason. + +But to what advantage can this pretended virtue lead its followers? +How can a man of sense and integrity despise himself? Is not public +opinion the guardian of private virtue? If you deprive men of the love +of glory, and the desire of deserving the approbation of their +fellow-citizens, are you not divesting them of the noblest and most +powerful incitements by which they can be impelled to benefit their +country? What recompense will remain to the benefactors of mankind, +if, first of all, we are unjust enough to refuse them the praise they +merit, and afterwards debar them from the satisfaction of +self-applause, and the happiness they would feel in the consciousness +of having done good to an ungrateful world? What infatuation, what +amazing infatuation, to require a man of upright character, of +talents, intelligence, and learning, to think himself on a level with +a selfish priest, or a stupid fanatic, who deal out their absurd +fables and incoherent dreams! + +Our priests are never weary of telling their flocks that pride leads +on to infidelity, and that a humble and submissive spirit is alone +fitted to receive the truths of the gospel. In good earnest, should +we not be utterly bereft of every claim to the name of rational +beings, if we consent to surrender our judgment and our knowledge at +the command of a hierarchy, who have nothing to give us in exchange +but the most palpable absurdities? With what face can a reverend +Doctor of Nonsense dare to exact from my understanding a humble +acquiescence in a bundle of mysterious opinions, for which he is +unable to offer me a single solid reason? Is it, then, presumptuous to +think one's self superior to a class of pretenders, whose systems are +a mass of falsities, absurdities, and inconsistencies, of which they +contrive to make mankind at once the dupes and the victims? Can pride +or vanity be, with justice, imputed to you, Madam, if you see reason +to prefer the dictates of your own understanding to the authoritative +decrees of Mrs. D----, whose senseless malignity is obvious to all her +acquaintance? + +If Christian humility is a virtue at all, it can be one only in the +cloister; society can derive no sort of benefit from it; it enervates +the mind; it benefits nobody but priests, who, under the pretext of +rendering men humble, seek, in reality, only to degrade them, to +stifle in their souls every spark of science and of courage, that they +may the more easily impose the yoke of faith, that is to say, their +own yoke. Conclude, then, with me, that the Christian virtues are +chimerical, always useless, and sometimes pernicious to men, and +attended with advantage to none but priests. Conclude that this +religion, with all the boasted beauty of its morality, recommends to +us a set of virtues, and enjoins a line of conduct, at variance with +good sense. Conclude that, in order to be moral and virtuous, it is +far from necessary to adopt the unintelligible creed of the priests, +or to pride ourselves upon the empty virtues they preach, and still +less to annihilate all sense of dignity in ourselves, by a degrading +subjection to the duties they require. Conclude, in short, that the +friend of virtue is not, of necessity, the friend of priestcraft, and +that a man may be adorned with every human perfection, without +possessing one of the Christian virtues. + +All who examine this matter with a candid and intelligent eye, cannot +fail to see that true morality--that is to say, a morality really +serviceable to mankind--is absolutely incompatible with the Christian +religion, or any other professed revelation. Whoever imagines himself +the favored object of the Creator's love, must look down with disdain +upon his less fortunate fellow-creatures, especially if he regards +that Creator as partial, choleric, revengeful, and fickle, easily +incensed against us, even by our involuntary thoughts, or our most +innocent words and actions; such a man naturally conducts himself with +contempt and pride, with harshness and barbarity towards all others +whom he may deem obnoxious to the resentment of his Heavenly King. +Those men, whose folly leads them to view the Deity in the light of a +capricious, irritable, and unappeasable despot, can be nothing but +gloomy and trembling slaves, ever eager to anticipate the vengeance +of God upon all whose conduct or opinions they may conceive likely to +provoke the celestial wrath. As soon as the priests have succeeded in +reducing men to a state of stupidity gross enough to make them believe +that their ghostly fathers are the faithful organs of the divine will, +they naturally commit every species of crime, which their spiritual +teachers may please to tell them is calculated to pacify the anger of +their offended God. Men, silly enough to accept a system of morals +from guides thus hollow in reasoning, and thus discordant in opinion, +must necessarily be unstable in their principles, and subject to every +variation that the interest of their guides may suggest. In short, it +is impossible to construct a solid morality, if we take for our +foundation the attributes of a deity so unjust, so capricious, and so +changeable as the God of the Bible, whom we are commanded to imitate +and adore. + +Persevere, then, my dear Madam, in the practice of those virtues which +your own unsophisticated heart approves; they will insure you a rich +harvest of happiness in the present existence; they will insure you a +rich return of gratitude, respect, and love from all who enjoy their +benign influence; they will insure you the solid satisfaction of a +well-founded self-esteem, and thus provide you with that unfailing +source of inward gratification which arises from the consciousness of +having contributed to the welfare of the human race. I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER IX. + + Of the Advantages contributed to Government by Religion. + + +Having already shown you, Madam, the feebleness of those succors which +religion furnishes to morals, I shall now proceed to examine whether +it procure advantages in themselves really politic, and whether it be +true, as has so often been urged by the priests, that it is absolutely +necessary to the existence of every government. Were we disposed to +shut our eyes, and deliver ourselves up to the language of our +priests, we should believe that their opinions are necessary to the +public tranquillity, and the repose and security of the State; that +princes could not, without their aid, govern the people, and exert +themselves for the prosperity of their empire. Nor is this all; our +spiritual pilots approach the throne, and gaining the ear of the +sovereign, make him also believe that he has the greatest interest in +conforming to their caprices, in order to subject men to the divine +yoke of royalty. These priests mingle in all important political +quarrels, and they too often persuade the rulers of the earth that the +enemies of the church are the enemies of all power, and that in +sapping the foundations of the altar, the foundations of the throne +are likewise necessarily overthrown. + +We have, then, only to open our eyes and consult history, to be +convinced of the falsity of these pretensions, and to appreciate the +important services which the Christian priests have rendered to their +sovereigns. Ever since the establishment of Christianity, we have +seen, in all the countries in which this religion has gained ground, +that two rival powers are perpetually at war one with the other. We +find _a_ government within _the_ government; that is to say, we find +the Church, a body of priests, continually opposed to the sovereign +power, and in virtue of their pretended _divine_ mission and _sacred_ +office, pretending to give laws to all the sovereigns of the earth. We +find the clergy, puffed up and besotted with the titles they have +given themselves, laboring to exact the obedience due to the +sovereign, pretending to chimerical and dangerous prerogatives, which +none are suffered to question, without risking the displeasure of the +Almighty. And so well have the priesthood managed this matter, that in +many countries we actually see the people more inclined to lean to the +authority of the Vicars of Jesus Christ than to that of the civil +government. The priesthood claim the right of commanding monarchs +themselves, and sustained by their emissaries and the credulity of the +people, their ridiculous pretensions have engaged princes in the most +serious affairs, sown trouble and discord in kingdoms, and so shook +thrones as to compel their occupants to make submission to an +intolerant hierarchy. + +Such are the important services which religion has a thousand times +rendered to kings. The people, blinded by superstition, could +hesitate but little between God and the princes of the earth. The +priests, being the visible organs of an invisible monarch, have +acquired an immense credit with prejudiced minds. The ignorance of the +people places them, as well as their sovereigns, at the mercy of the +priests. Nations have continually been dragged into their futile +though bloody quarrels; princes, for a long series of years, have +either had to dispute their authority with the clergy, or become their +tools or dupes. + +The continual attention which the princes of Europe have been forced +to pay to the clergy has prevented them from occupying their thoughts +about the welfare of their subjects, who, in many instances the dupes +of the priesthood, have opposed even the good their rulers desired to +procure them. In like manner, the heads of the people, their kings and +governors, too weak to resist the torrent of opinions propagated by +the clergy, have been forced to yield, to bow, nay, even to caress the +priesthood, and to consent to grant it all its demands. Whenever they +have wished to resist the encroachments of the clergy, they have +encountered concealed snares or open opposition, as the _holy_ power +was either too weak to act in the face of day, or strong enough to +contend in the sunshine. When princes have wished to be listened to by +the clergy, these last have invariably contrived to make them +cowardly, and to sacrifice the happiness and respect of their people. +Often have the hands of parricides and rebels been armed, by a proud +and vindictive priesthood, against sovereigns the most worthy of +reigning. The priests, under pretext of avenging God, inflict their +anger upon monarchs themselves, whenever the latter are found +indisposed to bend under their yoke. In a word, in _all_ countries we +perceive that the ministers of religion have exercised in all ages the +most unbridled license. We every where see empires torn by their +dissensions; thrones overturned by their machinations; princes +immolated to their power and revenge; subjects animated to revolt +against the prince that ought to give them more happiness than they +actually enjoyed; and when we take the retrospect of these, we find +that the ambition, the cupidity, and vanity of the clergy have been +the true causes and motives of all these outrages on the peace of the +universe. And it is thus that their religion has so often produced +anarchy, and overturned the very empires they pretended to support by +its influence. + +Sovereigns have never enjoyed peace but when, shamefully devoted to +priests, they submitted to their caprices, became enslaved to their +opinions, and allowed them to govern in place of themselves. Then was +the sovereign power subordinate to the sacerdotal, and the prince was +only the first servant of the church; she degraded him to such a +degree as to make him her hangman; she obliged him to execute her +sanguinary decrees; she forced him to dip his hands in the blood of +his own subjects whom the clergy had proscribed; she made him the +visible instrument of her vengeance, her fury, and her concealed +passions. Instead of occupying himself with the happiness of his +people, the sovereign has had the complaisance to torment, to +persecute, and to immolate honest citizens, thus exciting the just +hatred of a portion of his people, to whom he should have been a +father, to gratify the ambition and the selfish malevolence of some +priests, always aliens in the state which nourishes them, and who only +style themselves members of the realm in order to domineer, to +distract, to plunder, and to devour with impunity. + +How little soever you are disposed to reflect, you will be convinced, +Madam, that I do not exaggerate these things. Recent examples prove to +you that even in this age, so ambitious of being considered +enlightened, nations are not secure from the shocks that the priests +have ever caused nations to suffer. You have a hundred times sighed at +the sight of the sad follies which puerile questions have produced +among us. You have shuddered at the frightful consequences which have +resulted from the unreasonable squabbles of the clergy. You have +trembled with all good citizens at the sight of the tragical effects +which have been brought about by the furious wickedness of a +fanaticism for which nothing is sacred. In fine, you have seen the +sovereign authority compelled to struggle incessantly against +rebellious subjects, who pretend that their conscience or the +interests of religion have obliged them to resist opinions the most +agreeable to common sense, and the most equitable. + +Our fathers, more religious and less enlightened than ourselves, were +witnesses of scenes yet more terrible. They saw civil wars, leagues +openly formed against their sovereign, and the capital submerged in +the blood of murdered citizens; two monarchs successively immolated to +the fury of the clergy, who kindled in all parts the fire of sedition. +They afterwards saw kings at war with their own subjects; a famous +sovereign, Louis XIV., tarnishing all his glory by persecuting, +contrary to the faith of treaties, subjects who would have lived +tranquil, if they had only been allowed to enjoy in peace the liberty +of conscience; and they saw, in fine, this same prince, the dupe of a +false policy, dictated by intolerance, banish, along with the exiled +Protestants, the industry of his states, and forcing the arts and +manufactures of our nation to take refuge in the dominions of our most +implacable enemies. + +We see religion throughout Europe, without cessation, exerting a +baleful influence upon temporal affairs; we see it direct the +interests of princes; we see it divide and make Christian nations +enemies of each other, because their spiritual guides do not all +entertain the same opinions. Germany is divided into two religious +parties whose interests are perpetually at variance. We every where +perceive that Protestants are born the enemies of the Catholics, and +are always in antagonism to them; while, on the other hand, the +Catholics are leagued with their priests against all those whose mode +of thinking is less abject and less servile than their own. + +Behold, Madam, the signal advantages that nations derive from +religion! But we are certain to be told that these terrible effects +are due to the passions of men, and not to the Christian religion, +which incessantly inculcates charity, concord, indulgence, and peace. +If, however, we reflect even a moment on the principles of this +religion, we should immediately perceive that they are incompatible +with the fine maxims that have never been practised by the Christian +priests, except when they lacked the power to persecute their enemies +and inflict upon them the weight of their rage. The adorers of a +jealous God, vindictive and sanguinary, as is obviously the character +of the God of the Jews and Christians, could not evince in their +conduct moderation, tranquillity, and humanity. The adorers of a God +who takes offence at the opinions of his weak creatures, who +reprobates and glories in the extermination of all who do not worship +him in a particular way, for the which, by the by, he gives them +neither the means nor the inclination, must necessarily be intolerant +persecutors. The adorers of a God who has not thought fit to +illuminate with an equal portion of light the minds of all his +creatures, who reveals his favor and bestows his kindness on a few +only of those creatures, who leaves the remainder in blindness and +uncertainty to follow their passions, or adopt opinions against which +the favored wage war, must of necessity be eternally at odds with the +rest of the world, canting about their oracles and mysteries, +supernatural precepts, invented purely to torment the human mind, to +enthral it, and leave man answerable for what he could not obey, and +punishable for what he was restrained from performing. We need not +then be astonished if, since the origin of Christianity, our priests +have never been a single moment without disputes. It appears that God +only sent his Son upon earth that his marvellous doctrines might prove +an apple of discord both for his priests and his adorers. The +ministers of a church founded by Christ himself, who promised to send +them his Holy Spirit to lead them into all the truth, have never been +in unison with their dogmas. We have seen this infallible church for +whole ages enveloped in error. You know, Madam, that in the fourth +century, by the acknowledgment of the priests themselves, the great +body of the church followed the opinions of the Arians, who disavowed +even the divinity of Jesus Christ. The spirit of God must then have +abandoned his church; else why did its ministers fall into this error, +and dispute afterwards about so fundamental a dogma of the Christian +religion? + +Notwithstanding these continual quarrels, the church arrogates to +itself the right of fixing the faith of the _true believers_, and in +this it pretends to infallibility; and if the Protestant parsons have +renounced the lofty and ridiculous pretensions of their Catholic +brethren, they are not less certain in the infallibility of their +decisions; for they talk with the authority of oracles, and send to +hell and damnation all who do not yield submission to their dogmas. +Thus on both sides of the cross they wish their assertions to be +received by their adherents as if they came direct from heaven. The +priests have always been at discord among themselves, and have +perpetually cursed, anathematized, and doomed each other to hell. The +vanity of each holy clique has caused it to adhere obstinately to its +own peculiar opinions, and to treat its adversaries as heretics. +Violence alone has generally decided the discussions, terminated the +disputes, and fixed the standard of belief. Those pugnacious, brawling +priests who were artful enough to enlist sovereigns on their side were +_orthodox_, or, in other words, boasted that they were the exclusive +possessors of the true doctrine. They made use of their credit to +crush their adversaries, whom they always treated with the greatest +barbarity. + +But, after all, whatever the clergy may say, we shall find, even with +a small share of attention, that it has ever been kings and emperors +who, in the last resort, fixed the faith of the disputatious +Christians. It has been by downright blows of the sword that those +theological notions most pleasing to the Deity have been sustained in +all countries. The true belief has invariably been that which had +princes for its adherents. The faithful were those who had strength +sufficient to exterminate their enemies, whom they never failed to +treat as the enemies of God. In a word, princes have been truly +infallible; we should regard them as the true founders of religious +faith; they are the judges who have decided, in all ages, what +doctrines should be admitted or rejected; and they are, in fine, the +authorities which have always fixed the religion of their subjects. + +Ever since Christianity has been adopted by some nations, have we not +seen that religion has almost entirely occupied the attention of +sovereigns? Either the princes, blinded by superstition, were devoted +to the priests, or the rulers of nations believed that prudence +exacted a concession on their part to the clergy, the true masters of +their people, who considered nothing more sacred or more great than +the ministers of their God. In neither case was the body politic ever +consulted; it was cowardly sacrificed to the interests of the court, +or the vanity and luxury of the priests. It is by a continuation of +superstition on the part of the princes that we behold the church so +richly endowed in times of ignorance; when men believed they would +enrich Deity by putting all their wealth into the hands of the priests +of a good God the declared enemy of riches. Savage warriors, destitute +of the manners of men, flattered themselves that they could expiate +all their sins by founding monasteries and giving immense wealth to a +set of men who had made vows of poverty. It was believed that they +would merit from the All-powerful a great advantage by recompensing +laziness, which, in the priests, was regarded as a great good, and +that the blessings procured by their prayers would be in proportion to +the continual and pressing demands their poverty made on the wealthy. +It is thus that by the superstition of princes, by that of the +powerful classes, and of the people themselves, the clergy have become +opulent and powerful; that monachism was honored, and citizens the +most useless, the least submissive, and the most dangerous, were the +best recompensed, the most considered, and the best paid. They were +loaded with benefits, privileges, and immunities; they enjoyed +independence, and they had that great power which flowed from so great +license. Thus were priests placed above sovereigns themselves by the +imprudent devotion of the latter, and the former were enabled to give +the law and trouble the state with impunity. + +The clergy, arrived at this elevation of power and grandeur, became +redoubtable even to monarchs. They were obliged to bend under the yoke +or be at way with clerical power. When the sovereigns yielded, they +became mere slaves to the priests, the instruments of their passions, +and the vile adorers of their power. When they refused to yield, the +priests involved them in the most cruel embarrassments; they launched +against them the anathemas of the church; the people were incited +against them in the name of heaven; the nations divided themselves +between the celestial and the terrestrial monarch, and the latter was +reduced to great extremities to sustain a throne which the priests +could shake or even destroy at pleasure. There was a time in Europe +when both the welfare of the prince and the repose of his kingdom +depended solely upon the caprice of a priest. In these times of +ignorance, of devotion, and of commotions so favorable to the clergy, +a weak and poor monarch, surrounded by a miserable nation, was at the +mercy of a Roman pontiff, who could at any instant destroy his +felicity, excite his subjects against him, and precipitate him into +the abyss of misery. + +In general, Madam, we find that in countries where religion holds +dominion, the sovereign is necessarily dependent upon the priests; he +has no power except by the consent of the clergy; that power +disappears as soon as he displeases the self-styled vicegerents of +God, who are very soon able to array his subjects against him. The +people, in accordance with the principles of their religion, cannot +hesitate between God and their sovereign. God never says any thing +except what his priests say for him; and the ignorance and folly in +which they are kept by their spiritual guides prevent them from +inquiring whether God's ambassadors faithfully render his decrees. + +Conclude, then, with me, that the interests of a sovereign who would +rule equitably are unable to accord with those of the ministers of the +Christian religion, who in all ages have been the most turbulent +citizens, the most rebellious, the most difficult to render +subservient to law and order, and whose resistance has extended to +the very assassination of obnoxious rulers. We shall be told that +Christianity is a firm support of government; that it regards +magistrates as the images of the Deity; and that it teaches that _all +power comes from on high_. These maxims of the clergy are, however, +best calculated to lull kings on the couch of slumber; they are +calculated to flatter those on whom the clergy can rely, and who will +serve their ambition; and their flatterers can soon change their tone +when the princes have the temerity to question the pernicious tendency +of priestly influence, or when they do not blindly lend themselves to +all their views. Then the sovereign is an impious wretch, a heretic; +his destruction is laudable; heaven rejoices in his overthrow. And all +this is the religion of the Bible! + +You know, Madam, that these odious maxims have been a thousand times +enforced by the priests, who say the prince has _encroached upon the +authority of the church_; and the people respond that _it is better to +obey God than man_. The priests are only devoted to the princes when +the princes are blindly led by the priests. These last preach +arrogantly that the former ought to be exterminated, when they refuse +to obey the church, that is to say, the priests; yet, how terrible +soever may be these maxims, how dangerous soever their practice to the +security of the sovereign and the tranquillity of the state, they are +the immediate consequences drawn from Judaism and Christianity. We +find in the Old Testament that the regicide is applauded; that +treason and rebellion are approved. As soon as it is supposed that God +is offended with the thoughts of men,--as soon as it is supposed that +heretics are displeasing to him,--it is very natural to conclude that +an impious and heretical sovereign, that is to say, one who does not +obey a clerical body that set themselves up as the directors of his +belief, who opposes the sacred views of an infallible church, and who +might occasion the loss and apostasy of a large part of the +nation,--it is natural that the priests should conclude it to be +legitimate for subjects to attack such a prince, alleging their +religion to be the most important thing in the world, and dearer than +life itself. Actuated by such principles, it is impossible that a +Christian zealot should not think he rendered a service to heaven by +punishing its enemy, and a service to his country by disembarrassing +it of a chief who might interpose an obstacle to his eternal +happiness. + +The obedience of the clergy is never otherwise than conditional. The +priests submit to a prince, they flatter his power, and they sustain +his authority, provided he submits to their orders, makes no obstacles +to their projects, touches none of their interests, and changes none +of the dogmas upon which the ministers of the church have founded +their own grandeur. In fine, provided a government recognizes, as +divine, clerical privileges that are plainly opposed to popular +rights, and tend to subvert them, the hierarchy will submit to it. + +These considerations prove how dangerous are the priesthood, since the +end they purpose by all their projects is dominion over the mind of +mankind, and by subjugating it to enslave their persons, and render +them the creatures of despotism and tyranny. And we shall find, upon +examination, that, with one or two exceptions, the pious have been the +enemies of the progress of science and the development of the human +understanding; for by brutalizing mankind they have invariably striven +to bind them to their yoke. Their avarice, their thirst of power and +wealth, have led them to plunge their fellow-citizens in ignorance, in +misery, and unhappiness. They discourage the cultivation of the earth +by their system of tithes, their extortions, and their secret +projects; they annihilate activity, talents, and industry; their pride +is to reign on the ruin of the rest of their species. The finest +countries in Europe have, when blindly submissive to the priest, been +the worst cultivated, the thinnest peopled, and the most wretched. The +_Inquisition_ in Spain, Italy, and Portugal has only tended to +impoverish those countries, to debase the mind, and render their +subjects the veriest slaves of superstition. And in countries where we +see heaven showering down abundance, the people are poor and famished, +while the priests and monks are opulent and bloated. Their kings are +without power and without glory; their subjects languish in indigence +and wretchedness. + +The priests boast of the utility of their office. Independently of +their prayers, from which the world has for so many ages derived +neither instruction nor peace, prosperity nor happiness, their +pretensions to teach the rising generations are often frivolous, and +sometimes arrogant, since we have found others equally well calculated +to the discharge of those functions, who have been good citizens, that +have not drawn from the pockets of their neighbors the tenth of their +earnings. Thus, in what light soever we view them, the pretensions of +the priests are reduced to a nonentity, compared to the disservice +they render the community by their exactions and dissolute lives. + +In what consists, in effect, the education that our spiritual guides +have, unhappily for society, assumed the vocation of imparting to +youth? Does it tend to make reasonable, courageous, and virtuous +citizens? No; it is incontestable that it creates ignoble men, whose +entire lives are tormented with imaginary terrors; it creates +superstitious slaves, who only possess monastic virtues, and who, if +they follow faithfully the instructions of their masters, must be +perfectly useless to society; it forms intolerant devotees, ready to +detest all those who do not think like themselves; and it makes +fanatics, who are ready to rebel against any government as soon as +they are persuaded it is rebellious to the church. What do the +priests teach their pupils? They cause them to lose much precious +time in reciting prayers, in mechanically repeating theological +dogmas, of which, even in mature life, they comprehend nothing. They +teach them the dead languages, which, at the best, only serve for +entertainment, being by no means necessary in the present form of +society. They terminate these fine studies by a philosophy which, in +clerical hands, has become a mere play of words, a jargon void of +sense, and which is exactly calculated to fit them for the +unintelligible science called _theology_. But is this theology itself +useful to nations? Are the interminable disputes which arise between +profound metaphysicians of such a character as to be interesting to +the people who do not comprehend them? Are the people of Paris and the +provinces much advanced in heavenly knowledge when the priests dispute +among themselves about what should really be thought of grace? + +In regard to the instruction imparted by the clergy, it is indeed +necessary to have faith in order to discover its utility. Their +boasted instruction consists in teaching ineffable mysteries, +marvellous dogmas, narrations and fables perfectly ridiculous, panic +terrors, fanatical and lugubrious predictions, frightful menaces, and +above all, systems so profound that they who announce are not able to +comprehend them. In truth, Madam, in all this I can see nothing +useful. Should nations feel any extraordinary obligations to teachers +who concoct doctrines that must always remain impenetrable for the +whole human race? It must be confessed that our priests, who so +painfully occupy themselves in arranging a pure creed for us, must +signally lose all their labor. At any rate, the people are not much in +the situation to profit by such sublime toils. Very frequently the +pulpit becomes the theatre of discord; the sacred disclaimers launch +injuries at each other, infusing their own passions into the bosoms of +their _Christian_ auditors, kindling their zeal against the enemies of +the church, and becoming themselves the trumpets of party spirit, +fury, and sedition. If these preachers teach morality, it is a kind of +supernatural morality, little adapted to the nature of man. If they +inculcate virtue, it is that theological virtue whose inutility we +have sufficiently shown. If by chance some one among them allows +himself to preach that morality and virtue which is practical, human, +and social, you know, Madam, that he is proscribed by his +confederates, and becomes an object of their acrimonious criticisms +and their deadly hatred. He is also disdained by devotees who are +attached to evangelical virtues that they cannot comprehend, and who +consider nothing as more important than mysterious forms and +ceremonies, in which zealots make morality to consist. + +See, then, in what limits are entertained the important services that +the ministers of the Lord have for so many centuries rendered to +nations! They are not worth, in all conscience, the excessive price +which is paid for them. On the contrary, if priests were treated +according to their real merit, if their functions were appreciated at +their just value, it would, perhaps, be found that they did not merit +a larger salary than those empirics who, at the corners of the +streets, vend remedies more dangerous than the evils they promise to +cure. + +It is by subjecting the immense revenues, lands, abbeys, and estates, +which clerical bodies have levied upon the credulity of men, to just +and equal taxation, as with other property; it is by rendering the +church and state entirely distinct; it is by stripping the hierarchy +of immunities not possessed by other citizens, and of privileges both +chimerical and injurious; it is by rigorously exacting the same civil +obedience alike from priests and people,--that government can be +rightly administered, that justice can be impartially rendered, and +that the nation, as a whole, can be trained to courage, activity, +industry, intelligence, tranquillity, and patriotism. So long as there +are two powers in a state, they will necessarily be at variance, and +the one which arrogates the favor of the Almighty will have immense +advantages over that which claims no authority above the earth. If +both pretend to emanate from the same source, the people would not +know which to believe; they would range themselves on each side; the +combat would be furious, and the power of the government would be +unable to maintain itself against the many heads of the ecclesiastical +hydra. The magicians of Pharaoh yielded to the Jewish priests, and in +conflicts between the church and state, the immunities of the priests, + + "Like Aaron's serpent, swallowed all the rest." + +If such is the case, you will inquire, Madam, how can an enlightened +civil power ever make obedient citizens of rebellious priests, who +have so long possessed the confidence of the people, and who can with +impunity render themselves formidable to any government? I reply, that +in spite of the vigilant cares and the redoubled efforts of the +priesthood, the people have begun to be more enlightened; they are +becoming weary of the heavy yoke, which they would not have borne so +long had they not believed it was imposed upon them by the Most High, +and that it was necessary to their happiness. It is impossible for +error to be eternal; it must give way to the power of truth. The +priests, who think, know this well, and the whole ecclesiastical body +continually declaim against all those who wish to enlighten the human +race and unveil the conspiracies of their spiritual guides. They fear +the piercing eyes of philosophy; they fear the reign of reason, which +will never be that of tyranny or anarchy. Governments, then, ought not +to share the fears of the clergy, nor render themselves the executors +of their vengeance; they injure themselves when they sustain the cause +of their turbulent rivals, who have ever been the enemies of civil +polity and perturbers of the public repose. The magistrates of a state +league themselves with their enemies when they form an alliance with +the priesthood, or prevent the people from recognizing their errors. + +Governments are more interested than individuals in the destruction of +errors that often lead to confusion, anarchy, and rebellion. If men +had not become gradually enlightened, nations would now, as formerly, +be under the yoke of the Roman pontiff, who could occasion revolution +in their midst, overturn the laws, and subvert the government. But for +the insensible progress of reason, states would now be filled with a +tumultuous crowd of devotees, ready to revolt at the signal of an +unquiet priest or a seditious monk. + +You perceive, then, Madam, that men who think, and who teach others to +think, are more useful to governments than those who wish to stifle +reason and to proscribe forever the liberty of thought. You see that +the true friends of a stable government are those who seek most +sedulously to enlighten, educate, and elevate the people. You feel +that by banishing knowledge and persecuting philosophy, government +sacrifices its dearest interests to a seditious clergy, whose ambition +and avarice push them to usurp boundless authority, and whose pride +always makes them indignant at being in subjection to a power which +they contend should be subordinate to themselves. + +There is no priest who does not consider himself superior to the +highest ruler of any country. We have often seen the priesthood avow +pretensions of this character. The clergy are always enraged when an +attempt is made to subject them to the secular power. Such an attempt +they regard as profane, and they denounce it as tyranny whenever it is +sought to be enforced. They pretend that in all times the priesthood +has been sacred, that its rights come from God himself, and that no +government can, without sacrilege, or without outraging the Divinity, +touch the property, the privileges, or the immunities which have been +snatched from ignorance and credulity. Whenever the civil authority +would touch the objects considered inviolable and sacred in the hands +of the priests, their clamors cannot be appeased; they make efforts to +excite the people against the government; they denounce all authority +as tyrannical when it has the temerity to think of subjecting them to +the laws, of reforming their abuses, and neutralizing their power to +injure. But they consider authority legitimate when it crushes _their_ +enemies, though it appears insupportable as soon as it is reasonable +and favorable to the people. + +The priests are essentially the most wicked of men, and the worst +citizens of a state. A miracle would be necessary to render them +otherwise. In all countries they are the _spoiled children_ of +nations. They are proud and haughty, since they pretend it is from God +himself they received their mission and their power. They are +ingrates, since they assume to owe only to God benefits which they +visibly hold from the generosity of governments and the people. They +are audacious, because for many ages they have enjoyed supremacy with +impunity. They are unquiet and turbulent, because they are never +without the desire of playing a great part. They are quarrelsome and +factious, because they are never able to find out a method of enabling +men to understand the pretended truths they teach. They are +suspicious, defiant, and cruel, because they sensibly feel that they +may well dread the discovery of their impostures. They are the +spontaneous enemies of truth, because they justly apprehend it will +annihilate their pretensions. They are implacable in their vengeance, +because it would be dangerous to pardon those who wish to crush their +doctrines, whose weakness they know. They are hypocrites, because most +of them possess too much sense to believe the reveries they retail to +others. They are obstinate in their ideas, because they are inflated +with vanity, and because they could not consistently deviate from a +method of thinking of which they pretend God is the author. We often +see them unbridled and licentious in their manners, because it is +impossible that idleness, effeminacy, and luxury should not corrupt +the heart. We sometimes see them austere and rigid in their conduct in +order to impose on the people and accomplish their ambitious views. If +they are hypocrites and rogues, they are extremely dangerous; and if +they are fanatical in good faith, or imbecile, they are not less to be +feared. In fine, we almost always see them rebellious and seditious, +because an authority derived from God is not disposed to bend to +authority derived from men. + +You have here, Madam, a faithful portrait of the members of a powerful +body, in whose favor governments, for a long time, have believed it +their duty to sacrifice the other interests of the state. You here see +the citizens whom prejudice most richly recompenses, whom princes +honor in the eyes of the people, to whom they give their confidence, +whom they regard as the support of their power, and whom they consider +as necessary to the happiness and security of their kingdoms. You can +judge yourself whether the likeness delineated is correct. You are in +a position to discover their intrigues, their underplots, their +conduct, and their discourse, and you will always find that their +constant object is to flatter princes for the purpose of governing +them and keeping nations in slavery. + +It is to please citizens so dangerous that sovereigns mingle in +theological questions, take the part of those who succeed in seducing +them, persecute all those who do not submit, proscribe with fury the +friends of reason, and by repressing knowledge injure their own power. +Because the priests, who urge princes to sacrilege when they combat +for them, are indignant against the same princes when they refuse to +destroy the enemies of their own particular clerical body. They +likewise denounce sovereigns as impious if the latter treat +theological disputes with the indifference they merit. + +When hereafter, reclaimed from their prejudices, princes wish to +govern for the good of all, let them cease to hear the interested and +often sanguinary councils of these pretended divine men, who, +regarding themselves as the centre of all things, wish to have +sacrificed for this object the happiness, the repose, the riches, and +the honors of the state. Let the sovereign never enter into their +dissensions, let him never persecute for religious opinions, which, +among sectaries, are commonly on both sides equally ridiculous and +destitute of foundation. They would never involve the government if +the sovereign had not the weakness to mingle in them. Let him give +unlimited freedom to the course of thinking, while he directs by just +laws the course of acting on the part of his subjects. Let him permit +every one to dream or speculate as he pleases, provided he conducts +himself otherwise as an honest man and a good citizen. At least let +the prince not oppose the progress of knowledge, which alone is +capable of extricating his people from ignorance, barbarity, and +superstition, which have made victims of so many Christian rulers. Let +him be assured that enlightened and instructed citizens are more +law-abiding, industrious, and peaceable than stupid slaves without +knowledge and without reason, who will always be ready to take all the +passions with which a fanatic wishes to inspire them. + +Let the sovereign especially occupy himself with the education of his +subjects, nor leave the clergy unobstructedly to impregnate his +people with mystic notions, foolish reveries, and superstitious +practices, which are only proper for fanatics. Let him at least +counterbalance the inculcation of these follies by teaching a morality +conformable to the good of the state, useful to the happiness of its +members, and social and reasonable. This morality would inform a man +what he owed to himself, to society, to his fellow-citizens, and to +the magistrates who administered the laws. This morality would not +form men who would hate each other for speculative opinions, nor +dangerous enthusiasts, nor devotees blindly submissive to the priests. +It would create a tranquil, intelligent, and industrious community; a +body of inhabitants submissive to reason and obedient to just and +legitimate authority. In a word, from such morality would spring +virtuous men and good citizens, and it would be the surest antidote +against superstition and fanaticism. + +In this manner the empire of the clergy would be diminished, and the +sovereign would have a less portentous rival; he would, without +opposition, be assured of all rational and enlightened citizens; the +riches of the clergy would in part reenter society, and be of use in +benefiting the people; institutions now useless would be put to +advantageous uses; a portion of the possessions of the church, +originally destined for the poor, and so long appropriated by +avaricious priests, would come into the hands of the suffering and the +indigent, their legitimate proprietors. Supported by a nation who +were sensible of the advantages he had procured them, the prince would +no longer fear the cries of fanaticism, and they would soon be no +longer heard. The priests, the lazy monks, and turbulent persons +living in forced celibacy, could no longer calculate on the future, +and, aliens in the state which nourished them, they would visibly +diminish. The government, more rich and powerful, would be in a better +situation to diffuse its benefits; and enlightened, virtuous, and +beneficent men would constitute the support, the glory, and the +grandeur of the state. + +Such, Madam, are the ends which all governments would propose who +opened their eyes to their own true interests. I flatter myself that +these designs will not appear to you either impossible or chimerical. +Knowledge and science, which begin to be generally diffused, are +already advancing these results; they are giving an impulse to the +march of the human mind, and in time, governments and people, without +tumult or revolution, will be freed from the yoke which has oppressed +them so long. + +Do we see any thing useful in the pious endowments of our ancestors? +We find them to consist of institutions invented to continue a lazy, +monastic life; costly temples elevated and enriched by indigent people +to augment the pride of the priests, and to erect altars and palaces. +From the foundation of Christianity the whole object of religion has +been to aggrandize the priesthood on the ruins of nations and +governments. A jealous religion has exclusively seized on the minds of +men, and persuaded them that they live upon earth merely to occupy +themselves with their future happiness in the unknown regions of the +empyrean. It is time that this prestige should cease; it is time that +the human race should occupy itself with its own true interests. The +interests of the people will always be incompatible with those of the +guides who believe they have acquired an imprescriptible right to lead +men astray. The more you examine the Christian religion, the more will +you be convinced that it can be advantageous only to those whose +object it is easily to guide mankind after having plunged them into +darkness. I am, &c. + + + + +LETTER X. + + Of the Advantages Religion confers on those who profess it. + + +I dare flatter myself, Madam, that I have clearly demonstrated to you, +that the Christian religion, far from being the support of sovereign +authority, is its greatest enemy; and of having plainly convinced you, +that its ministers are, by the very nature of their functions, the +rivals of kings, and adversaries the most to be feared by all who +value or exercise temporal power. In a word, I think I have persuaded +you, that society might, without damage, dispense with the services +they render, or at least dispense with paying for them so +extravagantly. + +Let us now examine the advantages which this religion procures to +individuals, who are most strongly convinced of its pretended truths, +and who conform the most rigidly to its precepts. Let us see if it is +calculated to render its disciples more contented, more happy, and +more virtuous than they would be without the burden of its ministers. + +To decide the question, it is sufficient to look around us, and to +consider the effects that religion produces on minds really penetrated +with its pretended truths. We shall generally find in those who the +most sincerely profess and the most exactly practise them, a joyless +and melancholy disposition, which announces no contentment, nor that +interior peace of which they speak so incessantly, without ever +exhibiting any undoubted manifestations of it. Whoever is in the +enjoyment of peace within, shows some exterior marks of it; but the +internal satisfaction of devotees is commonly so concealed, that we +may well suspect it of being nothing but a mere chimera. Their +interior peace, which they allege gives them a good conscience, is +visible to others only by a bilious and petulant humor, that is not +usually much applauded by those who come under its influence. If, +however, there are occasionally some devotees who actually display the +serene countenance of satisfaction and enjoyment, it is because the +dismal ideas of religion are rendered inoperative by a happy +temperament; or that such persons have not fully become impregnated +with their system of faith, whose legitimate effect is to plunge its +devotees into terrible inquietudes and sombre chagrins. + +Thus, Madam, we are brought back to the contradictory discourses of +those priests who, after having caused terror by their desolating +dogmas, attempt to reassure us by vague hopes, and exhort us to place +confidence in a God whom they have themselves so repulsively +delineated. It is idle for them to tell us the yoke of Jesus Christ is +light. It is insupportable to those who consider it properly. It is +only light for those who bear it without reflection, or for those who +assume it in order to impose it upon others, without intending to +suffer its annoyances themselves. + +Suffer me, Madam, to refer you to yourself. Were you happy, contented, +or gay, when you made me the depository of the secret inquietudes +inflicted upon you by prejudices, and which had commenced taking that +fatal empire over your mind which I have endeavored to destroy? Was +not your soul involved in woe in spite of your judgment? Were you not +taking measures to wither all your happiness? In favor of religion, +were you not ready to renounce the world, and disregard all you owe to +society? If I was afflicted, I was not surprised. The Christian +religion inevitably destroys the happiness and repose of those who are +subjected by it; alarms and terrors are the objects of its pleasures; +it cannot make those happy who fully receive it. It would certainly +have plunged you into distress. All your faculties would have been +injured, and your too susceptible imagination would have been carried +to such dangerous extremes, that many others would have grieved at the +result. A gentle and beneficent spirit, like yours, could never +receive peace from Christianity. The evils of religion are sure, while +its consolations are contradictory and vague. They cannot give that +temper and tranquillity to the mind which is necessary to enable men +to labor for their own happiness and that of others. + +In effect, as I have already observed, it is very difficult for an +individual to occupy himself with the happiness of another when he is +himself miserable. The devotee, who imposes penances on his own head, +who is suspicious of every thing, who is full of self-reproaches, and +who is heated by visionary meditation, by fasting and seclusion, must +naturally be irritated against all those who do not believe it their +duty to make such absurd sacrifices. He can scarcely avoid being +enraged at those audacious persons who neglect practices or duties +that are claimed as the exactions of God. He will desire to be with +those only who view things as he does himself; he will keep himself +apart from all others, and will end by hating them. He believes +himself obliged to make a loud and public parade of his mode of +thinking, and he signalizes his zeal even at the risk of appearing +ridiculous. If he showed indulgence, he would doubtless fear he +should render himself an accomplice in a neglect of his God. He would +reprehend such sinners, and it would be with acrimony, because his own +soul was filled with it. In fine, if zealous, he would always be under +the dominion of anger, and would only be indulgent in proportion as he +was not bigoted. + +Religious devotion tends to arouse fierce sentiments, that sooner or +later manifest themselves in a manner disagreeable for others. The +mystical devotees clearly illustrate this. They are vexed with the +world, and it could not exist if the extravagances required by +religion were altogether carried out. The world cannot be united to +Jesus Christ. God demands our entire heart, and nothing is allowed to +remain for his weak creatures. To produce the little zeal for heaven +which Christians have, it is requisite to torment them, and thus lead +them to the practice of those marvellous virtues in which they imagine +is placed all their safety. A strange religion, which, practised in +all its rigor, would drag society to ruin! The sincere devotee +proposes impossible attainments, of which human nature is not capable; +and as, in spite of all his endeavors, he is unable to succeed in +their acquisition, he is always discontented with himself. He regards +himself as the object of God's anger; he reproaches himself with all +that he does; he suffers remorse for all the pleasures he experiences, +and fears that they may occasion a fall from grace. For his greater +security, he often avoids society which may at any moment turn him +from his pretended duties, excite him to sin, and render him the +witness or accomplice of what is offensive to zealots. In fine, if the +devotee is very zealous, he cannot prevent himself from avoiding or +detesting beings, who, according to his gloomy notions of religion, +are perpetually occupied in irritating God. On the other hand, you +know, Madam, that it is chagrin and melancholy that lead to devotion. +It is usually not till the world abandons and displeases men that they +have recourse to heaven; it is in the arms of religion that the +ambitious seek to console themselves for their disgraces and +disappointed projects; dissolute and loose women turn devotees when +the world discards them, and they offer to God hearts wasted, and +charms that are no longer in repute. The ruin of their attractions +admonishes them that their empire is no longer of this world; filled +with vexation, consumed with chagrin, and irritated against a society +where they were deprived of enacting an agreeable part, they yield +themselves up to devotion, and distinguish themselves by religious +follies, after having run the race of fashionable vices, and been +engaged in worldly scandals. With rancor in their hearts, they offer a +gloomy adoration to a God who indemnifies them most miserably for +their ascetic worship. In a word, it is passion, affliction, and +despair to which most conversions must be attributed; and they are +persons of such character who deliver themselves to the priests, and +these mental aberrations and physical afflictions are the marvellous +strokes of grace of which God makes use to lead men to himself. + +It is not, then, surprising if we see persons subject to this devotion +most commonly ruled by sorrow and passion. These mental moods are +perpetually aggravated by religion, which is exactly calculated to +imbitter more and more the souls thus filled with vexations. The +conversation of a spiritual director is a weak consolation for the +loss of a lover; the remote and flattering hopes of another world +rarely make up for the realities of this; nor do the fictitious +occupations of religion suffice to satisfy souls accustomed to +intrigues, dissipation, and scandalous pleasures. + +Thus, Madam, we see that the effects of these brilliant conversions, +so well adapted to give pleasure to the Omnipotent and to his court, +present nothing advantageous for the inhabitants of this lower world. +If the changes produced by grace do not render those more happy upon +whom they are operated, they cannot cause much admiration on the part +of those who witness them. Indeed, what advantages does society reap +from the greater part of conversions? Do the persons so touched by +grace become better? Do they make amends for the evil they have done, +or are they heartily and generously engaged in doing good to those by +whom they are surrounded? A mistress, for example, who has been +arrogant and proud,--does conversion render her humble and gentle? +Does the unjust and cruel man recompense those to whom he has done +evil? Does the robber return to society the property of which he has +plundered it? Does the dissipated and licentious woman repair by her +vigilant cares the wrongs that her disorders and dissipations have +occasioned? No, far from it. These persons so touched and converted by +God ordinarily content themselves with praying, fasting, religious +offerings, frequenting churches, clamoring in favor of their priests, +intriguing to sustain a sect, decrying all who disagree with their +particular spiritual director, and exhibiting an ardent and ridiculous +zeal for questions that they do not understand. In this manner they +imagine they get absolution from God, and give indemnification to men; +but society gains nothing from their miraculous conversion. On the +other hand, devotion often exalts, infuriates, and strengthens the +passions which formerly animated the converts. It turns these passions +to new objects, and religion justifies the intolerant and cruel +excesses into which they rush for the interest of their sect. It is +thus that an ambitious personage becomes a proud and turbulent +fanatic, and believes himself justified by his zeal; it is thus that a +disgraced courtier cabals in the name of heaven against his own +enemies; and it is thus that a malignant and vindictive man, under the +pretext of avenging God, seeks the means of avenging himself. Thus, +also, it happens that a woman, to indemnify herself for having +quitted rouge, considers she has the right to outrage with her acrid +humor a husband whom she had previously, in a different manner, +outraged many times. She piously denounces those who allow themselves +the indulgence of the most innocent pleasures; in the belief of +manifesting religious earnestness, she exhales downright passion, +envy, jealousy, and spite; and in lending herself warmly to the +interests of heaven she shows an excess of ignorance, insanity, and +credulity. + +But is it necessary, Madam, to insist upon this? You live in a country +where you see many devotees, and few virtuous people among them. If +you will but slightly examine the matter, you will find that among +these persons so persuaded of their religion, so convinced of its +importance and utility, who speak incessantly of its consolations, its +sweets, and its virtues,--you will find that among these persons there +are very few who are rendered happier, and yet fewer who are rendered +better. Are they vividly penetrated with the sentiments of their +afflicting and terrible religion? You will find them atrabilious, +disobliging, and fierce. Are they more lightly affected by their +creed? You will then find them less bigoted, more beneficent, social, +and kind. The religion of the court, as you know, is a continual +mixture of devotion and pleasure, a circle of the exercises of piety +and dissipation, of momentary fervor and continuous irregularities. +This religion connects Jesus Christ with the pomps of Satan. We there +see sumptuous display, pride, ambition, intrigue, vengeance, envy, and +libertinism all amalgamated with a religion whose _maxims_ are +austere. Pious casuists, interested for the great, approve this +alliance, and give the lie to their own religion in order to derive +advantage from circumstances and from the passions and vices of men. +If these court divines were too rigid, they would affright their +fashionable disciples seeking to reach heaven on "flowery beds of +ease," and who embrace religion with the understanding that they are +to be allowed no inconsiderable latitude. This is doubtless the reason +why Jansenism, which wished to renew the austere principles of +primitive Christianity, obtained no general influence at the Parisian +court. The monkish precepts of early Christianity could only suit men +of the temper of those who first embraced it. They were adapted for +persons who were abject, bilious, and discontented, who, deprived of +luxury, power, and honors, became the enemies of grandeurs from which +they were excluded. The devotees had the art of making a merit of +their aversion and disdain for what they could not obtain. + +Nevertheless, a Christian, in consonance with his principles, should +"take no thought for the morrow;" should have no individual +possessions; should flee from the world and its pomps; should give his +coat to the thief who stole his cloak; and, if smitten on one cheek, +should turn the other to the aggressor. It is upon Stoicism that +religious fanatics built their gloomy philosophy. The so-called +perfections which Christianity proposes place man in a perpetual war +with himself, and must render him miserable. The true Christian is an +enemy both of himself and the human race, and for his own consistency +should live secluded in darkness, like an owl. His religion renders +him essentially unsocial, and as useless to himself as he is +disagreeable to others. What advantage can society receive from a man +who trembles without cessation, who is in a state of superstitious +penance, who prays, and who indulges in solitude? Or what better is +the devotee who flies from the world and deprives himself even of +innocent pleasures, in the fear that God might damn him for +participation in them? + +What results from these maxims of a moral fanaticism? It happens that +laws so atrocious and cruel are enacted, that bigots alone are willing +to execute them. Yes, Madam, blameless as you know my whole life to +have been, consonant to integrity and honesty as you know my conduct +to be, and free as I have ever been from intolerance, my existence +would be endangered were these letters I am now writing to you to +appear in print, or even be circulated in manuscript with my name +attached to them as author. Yes, Christians have made laws, now +dominant here in France, which would tie me to the stake, consume my +body with fire, bore my tongue with a red hot iron, deprive me of +sepulture, strip my family of my property, and for no other cause than +for my opinions concerning Christianity and the Bible. Such is the +horrid cruelty engendered by Christianity. It has sometimes been +called in question whether a society of atheists could exist; but we +might with more propriety ask if a society of fierce, impracticable, +visionary, and fanatical Christians, in all the plenitude of their +ridiculous system, could long subsist.[5] What would become of a +nation all of whose inhabitants wished to attain perfection by +delivering themselves over to fanatical contemplation, to ascetical +penance, to monkish prayers, and to that state of things set forth in +the Acts of the Apostles? What would be the condition of a nation +where no one took any "thought for the morrow"?--where all were +occupied solely with heaven, and all totally neglected whatever +related to this transitory and passing life?--where all made a merit +of celibacy, according to the precepts of St. Paul?--and where, in +consequence of constant occupation in the ceremonials of piety, no one +had leisure to devote to the well-being of men in their worldly and +temporal concerns? It is evident that such a society could only exist +in the Thebaid, and even there only for a limited time, as it must +soon be annihilated. If some enthusiasts exhibit examples of this +sort, we know that convents and nunneries are supported by that +portion of society which they do not enclose. But who would provide +for a country that abandoned every thing else for the purpose of +heavenly contemplations? + +[5] Upon this topic consult what Bayle says, _Continuation des Pensees +diverses sur la Comete_, Sections 124, 125, tome iv., Rousseau de +Geneve, in his _Contrat Social_, l. 4, ch. 8. See also the _Lettres +ecrites de la Montague_, letter first, pp. 45 to 54, edit. 8vo. The +author discusses the same matter, and confirms his opinions by new +reasonings, which particularly deserve perusal.--_Note of the Editor_, +(NAIGEON.) + +We may therefore legitimately conclude that the Christian religion is +not fitted for this world; that it is not calculated to insure the +happiness either of societies or individuals; that the precepts and +counsels of its God are impracticable, and more adapted to discourage +the human race, and to plunge men into despair and apathy, than to +render them happy, active, and virtuous. A Christian is compelled to +make an abstraction of the maxims of his religion if he wishes to live +in the world; he is no longer a Christian when he devotes his cares to +his earthly good; and, in a word, a real Christian is a man of another +world, and is not adapted for this. + +Thus we see that Christians, to humanize themselves, are constantly +obliged to depart from their supernatural and divine speculations. +Their passions are not repressed, but on the contrary are often thus +rendered more fierce and more calculated to disturb society. Masked +under the veil of religion, they generally produce more terrible +effects. It is then that ambition, vengeance, cruelty, anger, calumny, +envy, and persecution, covered by the deceptive name of zeal, cause +the greatest ravages, range without bounds, and even delude those who +are transported by these dangerous passions. Religion does not +annihilate these violent agitations of the mind in the hearts of its +devotees, but often excites and justifies them; and experience proves +that the most rigid Christians are very far from being the best of +men, and that they have no right to reproach the incredulous either +concerning the pretended consequences of their principles, or for the +passions which are falsely alleged to spring from unbelief. + +Indeed, the charity of the peaceful ministers of religion and of their +pious adherents does not prevent their blackening their adversaries +with a view of rendering them odious, and of drawing down upon their +heads the malevolence of a superstitious community, and the +persecution of tyrannical and oppressive laws; their zeal for God's +glory permits them to employ indifferently all kinds of weapons; and +calumny, especially, furnishes them always a most powerful aid. +According to them, there are no irregularities of the heart which are +not produced by incredulity; to renounce religion, say they, is to +give a free course to unbridled passions, and he who does not believe +surely indicates a corrupt heart, depraved manners, and frightful +libertinism. In a word, they declare that every man who refuses to +admit their reveries or their marvellous morality, has no motives to +do good, and very powerful ones to commit evil. + +It is thus that our charitable divines caricature and misrepresent the +opponents of their supremacy, and describe them as dangerous +brigands, whom society, for its own interest, ought to proscribe and +destroy. It results from these imputations that those who renounce +prejudices and consult reason are considered the most unreasonable of +men; that they who condemn religion on account of the crimes it has +produced upon the earth, and for which it has served as an eternal +pretext, are regarded as bad citizens; that they who complain of the +troubles that turbulent priests have so often excited, are set down as +perturbators of the repose of nations; and that they who are shocked +at the contemplation of the inhuman and unjust persecutions which have +been excited by priestly ambition and rascality, are men who have no +idea of justice, and in whose bosoms the sentiments of humanity are +necessarily stifled. They who despise the false and deceitful motives +by which, to the present time, it has been vainly attempted through +the other world to make men virtuous, equitable, and beneficent, are +denounced as having no real motives to practise the virtues necessary +for their well-being _here_. In fine, the priests scandalize those who +wish to destroy sacerdotal tyranny, and impostures dangerous alike to +nations and people, as enemies of the state so dangerous that the laws +ought to punish them. + +But I believe, Madam, that you are now thoroughly convinced that the +true friends of the human race and of governments cannot also be the +friends of religion and of priests. Whatever may be the motives or +the passions which determine men to incredulity, whatever may be the +principles which flow from it, they cannot be so pernicious as those +which emanate directly and necessarily from a religion so absurd and +so atrocious as Christianity. Incredulity does not claim extraordinary +privileges as flowing from a partial God; it pretends to no right of +despotism over men's consciences; it has no pretexts for doing +violence to the minds of mankind; and it does not hate and persecute +for a difference of opinion. In a word, the incredulous have not an +infinity of motives, interests, and pretexts to injure, with which the +zealous partisans of religion are abundantly provided. + +The unbeliever in Christianity, who reflects, perceives that without +going out of this world there are pressing and real motives which +invite to virtuous conduct; he feels the interest that he has in +self-preservation, and of avoiding whatever is calculated to injure +another; he sees himself united by physical and reciprocal wants with +men who would despise him if he had vices, who would detest him if he +was guilty of any action contrary to justice and virtue, and who would +punish him if he committed any crimes, or if he outraged the laws. The +idea of decency and order, the desire of meriting the approbation of +his fellow-citizens, and the fear of being subjected to blame and +punishment, are sufficient to govern the actions of every rational +man. If, however, a citizen is in a sort of delirium, all the +credulity in the world will not be able to restrain him. If he is +powerful enough to have no fear of men on this earth, he will not +regard the divine law more than the hatred and the disdain of the +judges he has constantly before his eyes. + +But the priests may perhaps tell us that the fear of an avenging God +at least serves to repress a great number of latent crimes that would +appear but for the influence of religion. Is it true, however, that +religion itself prevents these latent crimes? Are not Christian +nations full of knaves of all kinds, who secretly plot the ruin of +their fellow-beings? Do not the most ostensibly credulous persons +indulge in an infinity of vices for which they would blush if they +were by chance brought to light? A man who is the most persuaded that +God sees all his actions frequently does not blush to commit deeds in +secret from which he would refrain if beheld by the meanest of human +beings. + +What, then, avails the powerful check on the passions which religion +is said to interpose? If we could place any reliance on what is said +by our priests, it would appear that neither public nor secret crimes +could be committed in countries where their instructions are received; +the priests would appear like a brotherhood of angels, and every +religious man to be without faults. But men forget their religious +speculations when they are under the dominion of violent passions, +when they are bound by the ties of habit, or when they are blinded by +great interests. Under such circumstances they do not reason. Whether +a man is virtuous or vicious depends on temperament, habit, and +education. An unbeliever may have strong passions, and may reason very +justly on the subject of religion, and very erroneously in regard to +his conduct. The religious dupe is a poor metaphysician, and if he +also acts badly he is both imbecile and wicked. + +It is true the priests deny that unbelievers ever reason correctly, +and pretend they must always be in the wrong to prefer natural sense +to their authority. But in this decision they occupy the place of both +judges and parties, and the verdict should be rendered by +disinterested persons. In the mean time the priests themselves seem to +doubt the soundness of their own allegations; they call the secular +arm to the aid of their arguments; they marshal on their side fines, +imprisonment, confiscation of goods, boring and branding, with hot +irons, and death at the stake, at this time in France, and in other +and in most countries of Christendom; they use the scourge to drive +men into paradise; they enlighten men by the blaze of the fagot; they +inculcate faith by furious and bloody strokes of the sword; and they +have the baseness to stand in dread of men who cannot announce +themselves or openly promulgate their opinions without running the +risk of punishment, and even death. This conduct does not manifest +that the priests are strongly persuaded of the power of their +arguments. If our clerical theologians acted in good faith, would +they not rejoice to open a free course to thorough discussion? Would +they not be gratified to allow doubters to propose difficulties, the +solution of which, if Christianity is so plain and clear, would serve +to render it more firm and solid? They find it answers their ends +better to use their adversaries as the Mexicans do their slaves, whom +they shackle before attacking, and then kill for daring to defend +themselves. + +It is very probable unbelievers may be found whose conduct is +blamable, and this is because they in this respect follow the same +line of reasoning as the devotee. The most fanatical partisans of +religion are forced to confess that among their adherents a small +number of the elect only are rendered virtuous. By what right, then, +do they exact that incredulity, which pretends to nothing +supernatural, should produce effects which, according to their own +admissions, their pretended divine religion fails to accomplish? If +all believers were invariably good men, the cause of religion would be +provided with an adamantine bulwark, and especially if unbelievers +were persons without morality or virtue. But whatever the priests may +aver, the unbelievers are more virtuous than the devotees. A happy +temperament, a judicious education, the desire of living a peaceable +life, the dislike to attract hatred or blame, and the habit of +fulfilling the moral duties, always furnish motives to abstain from +vice and to practise virtue more powerful and more true than those +presented by religion. Besides, the incredulous person has not an +infinity of resources which Christianity bestows upon its +superstitious followers. The Christian can at any time expiate his +crimes by confession and penance, and can thus reconcile himself with +God, and give repose to his conscience; the unbeliever, on the other +hand, who has perpetrated a wrong, can reconcile himself neither with +society, which he has outraged, nor with himself, whom he is compelled +to hate. If he expects no reward in another life, he has no interest +but to merit the homage that in all enlightened countries is rendered +to virtue, to probity, and to a conduct constantly honest; he has no +inducement but to avoid the penalties and the disdain that society +decrees against those who trouble its well-being, and who refuse to +contribute to its welfare. + +It appears evident that every man who consults his understanding +should be more reasonable than one who only consults his imagination. +It is evident that he who consults his own nature and that of the +beings who surround him, ought to have truer ideas of good and evil, +of justice and injustice, and of honesty and dishonesty, than he who, +to regulate his conduct, consults only the records of a concealed God, +whom his priests picture as wicked, unjust, changeable, contradicting +himself, and who has sometimes ordered actions the most contrary to +morality and to all the ideas that we have of virtue. It is evident +that he who regulates his conduct upon sacerdotal morality will only +follow the caprice and passions of the priests, and will be a very +dangerous man, while believing himself very virtuous. In fine, it is +evident that while conforming himself to the precepts and counsels of +religion, a man may be extremely pious without possessing the shadow +of a virtue. Experience has proved that it is quite possible to adhere +to all the unintelligible dogmas of the priests, to observe most +scrupulously all the forms, and ceremonies, and services they +recommend, and orally to profess all the Christian virtues, without +having any of the qualities necessary to his own happiness, and to +that of the beings with whom he lives. The saints, indeed, who are +proposed to us as models, were useless members of society. We see them +to have been either gloomy fanatics, who sacrificed themselves to the +desolating ideas of their religion, or excited fanatics, who, under +pretext of serving religion, have perpetually disturbed the repose of +nations, or enthusiastic theologians, who from their own dreams have +deduced systems exactly calculated to infuriate the brains of their +adherents. A saint, when he is tranquil, proposes nothing whose +accomplishment will benefit mankind, and only aims to keep himself +safe and secluded in his retreat. A saint, when he is active, only +appears to promulgate reveries dangerous to the world, and to uphold +the interests of the church, that he confounds with the interest of +God. + +In a word, Madam, I cannot too often repeat it, every system of +religion appears to be designed for the utility of the priests; the +morality of Christianity has in view only the interests of the +priesthood; all the virtues that it teaches have solely for an object +the church and its ministers; and these ends are always to subject the +people, to draw a profit from their toil, and to inspire them with a +blind credulity. We ought, therefore, to practise morality and virtue +without entering into these conspiracies. If the priests disapprove of +those who do not agree with them, and refuse to award any probity to +the thinkers who reject their injurious and useless notions, society, +which needs for its own sustenance real and human virtues, will not +adopt the sentiments nor espouse the quarrels of these men, visibly +leagued together against it. If the ministers of religion require +their dogmas, their mysteries, and their fanatical virtues to support +their usurped empire, the civil government has a need of reasonable +virtues, of an evident, and above all, of a pacific morality, in order +to exercise its legitimate rights. In fine, the individuals, who +compose every society, demand a morality which will render them happy +in _this_ world, without embarrassing themselves with what only +pretends to secure their felicity in an imaginary sphere, of which +they have no ideas except those received from the priests themselves. + +The priests have had the art to unite their religious system with some +moral tenets which are really good. This renders their mysteries more +sacred, and lends authority to their ambiguous dogmas. By the aid of +this artifice, they have given currency to the opinion that without +religion there can be neither morality nor virtue. I hope, Madam, in +my next letter, to complete the exposure of this prejudice, and to +demonstrate, to whoever will reflect, how uncertain, abstract, and +deceitful are the notions which religion has inspired. I shall clearly +show, that they have often infected philosophers themselves; that up +to the present time, they have retarded the progress of morality; and +that they have transformed a science the most certain, plain, and +sensible to every thinking man, into a system at once doubtful and +enigmatical, and full of difficulties. I am, Madam, &c. + + + + +LETTER XI. + + Of Human or Natural Morality. + + +By this time, Madam, you will have reflected on what I had the honor +to address to you, and perceived how impossible it is to found a +certain and invariable morality on a religion enthusiastic, ambiguous, +mysterious, and contradictory, and which never agreed with itself. You +know that the God who appears to have taken pleasure in rendering +himself unintelligible, that the God who is partial and changeable, +that the God whose precepts are at variance one with another, can +never serve as the base on which to rear a morality that shall become +practicable among the inhabitants of the earth. In short, how can we +found justice and goodness on attributes that are unjust and evil; yet +attributes of a Being who tempts man, whom he created, for the purpose +of punishing him when tempted? How can we know when we do the will of +a God who has said, _Thou shalt not kill_, and who yet allows his +people to exterminate whole nations? What idea can we form of the +morality of that God who declares himself pleased with the sanguinary +conduct of Moses, of the rebel, the assassin, the adulterer, David? Is +it possible to found the holy duties of humanity on a God whose +favorites have been inhuman persecutors and cruel monsters? How can we +deduce our duties from the lessons of the priests of a God of peace, +who, nevertheless, breathes only sedition, vengeance, and carnage? How +can we take as models for our conduct _saints_, who were useless +enthusiasts, or turbulent fanatics, or seditious apostates; who, under +the pretext of defending the cause of God, have stirred up the +greatest ravages on the earth? What wholesome morality can we reap +from the adoption of impracticable virtues, from their being +supernatural, which are visibly useless to ourselves, to those among +whom we live, and in their consequences often dangerous? How can we +take as guides in our conduct priests, whose lessons are a tissue of +unintelligible opinions, (_for all religion is but opinion_,) puerile +and frivolous practices, which these gentlemen prefer to real virtues? +In fine, how can we be taught _the truth_, conducted in an unerring +path, by men of a changeable morality, calculated upon and actuated by +their present interests, and who, although they pretend to preach +good-will to men, humanity, and peace, have, as their text-book, a +volume stained with the records of injustice, inhumanity, sedition, +and perfidy? + +You know, Madam, that it is impossible to found morality on notions +that are so unfixed and so contrary to all our natural ideas of +virtue. By virtue, we ought to understand the habitual dispositions to +do whatever will procure us the happiness of ourselves and our +species. By virtue, religion understands only that which may +contribute to render us favorable to a hidden God, who attaches his +favor to practices and opinions that are too often hurtful to +ourselves, and little beneficial to others. The morality of the +Christians is a mystic morality, which resembles the dogmas of their +religion; it is obscure, unintelligible, uncertain, and subject to the +interpretation of frail creatures. This morality is never fixed, +because it is subordinate to a religion which varies incessantly its +principles, and which is regulated according to the pleasure of a +despotic divinity, and, more especially, according to the pleasure of +priests, whose interests are changing daily, whose caprices are as +variable as the hours of their existence, and who are, consequently, +not always in agreement with one another. The writings which are the +sources whence the Christians have drawn their morality, are not only +an abyss of obscurity, but demand continual explications from their +masters, the priests, who, in explaining, make them still more +obscure, still more contradictory. If these oracles of heaven +prescribe to us in one place the virtues truly useful, in another part +they approve, or prescribe, actions entirely opposed to all the ideas +that we have of virtue. The same God who orders us to be good, +equitable, and beneficent, who forbids the revenging of injuries, who +declares himself to be the God of clemency and of goodness, shows +himself to be implacable in his rage; announces himself as bringing +_the sword, and not peace_; tells us that he is come to set mankind at +variance; and, finally, in order to revenge his wrongs, orders rapine, +treason, usurpation, and carnage. In a word, it is impossible to find +in the Scriptures any certain principles or sure rules of morality. +You there see, in one part, a small number of precepts, useful and +intelligible, and in another part maxims the most extravagant, and the +most destructive to the good and happiness of all society. + +It is in punctuality to fulfil the superstitious and frivolous duties, +that the morality of the Jews in the Old Testament writings is chiefly +conspicuous; legal observances, rites, ceremonies, are all that +occupied the people of Israel. In recompense for their scrupulous +exactness to fulfil these duties, they were permitted to commit the +most frightful of crimes. The virtues recommended by the Son of God, +in the New Testament, are not in reality the same as those which God +the Father had made observable in the former case. The New Testament +contradicts the Old. It announces that God is not pacified by +sacrifices, nor by offerings, nor by frivolous rites. It substitutes +in place of these, supernatural virtues, of which I believe I have +sufficiently proved the inutility, the impossibility, and the +incompatibility with the well-being of man living in society. The Son +of God, by the writers of the New Testament, is set at variance with +himself; for he destroys in one place what he establishes in another; +and, moreover, the priests have appropriated to themselves all the +principles of his mission. They are in unison only with God when the +precepts of the Deity accord with their present interest. Is it their +interest to persecute? They find that God ordains persecution. Are +they themselves persecuted? They find that this pacific God forbids +persecution, and views with abhorrence the persecution of his +servants. Do they find that superstitious practices are lucrative to +themselves? Notwithstanding the aversion of Jesus Christ from +offerings, rites, and ceremonies, they impose them on the people, they +surcharge them with mysterious rites: they respect these more than +those duties which are of essential benefit to society. If Jesus has +not wished that they should avenge themselves, they find that his +Father has delighted in vengeance. If Jesus has declared that his +kingdom is not of this world, and if he has shown contempt of riches, +they nevertheless find in the Old Testament sufficient reasons for +establishing a hierarchy for the governing of the world in a spiritual +sense, as kings do in a political one,--for the disputing with kings +about their power,--for exercising in this world an authority the most +unlimited, a license the most terrific. In a word, if they have found +in the Bible some precepts of a moral tendency and practical utility, +they have also found others to justify crimes the most atrocious. + +Thus, in the Christian religion, morality uniformly depends on the +fanaticism of priests, their passions, their interests: its principles +are never fixed; they vary according to circumstances: the God of whom +they are the organs, and the interpreters, has not said any thing but +what agrees best with their views, and what never contravenes their +interest. Following their caprices, he changes his advice continually; +he approves, and disapproves, of the same actions: he loves, or +detests, the same conduct; he changes crime into virtue, and virtue +into crime. + +What is the result from all this? It is that the Christians have not +sure principles in morality: it varies with the policy of the priests, +who are in a situation to command the credulity of mankind, and who, +by force of menaces and terrors, oblige men to shut their eyes on +their contradictions, and minds the most honest to commit faults the +greatest which can be committed against religion. It is thus that +under a God who recommends the love of our neighbor, the Christians +accustom themselves from infancy to detest an heretical neighbor, and +are almost always in a disposition to overwhelm him by a crowd of +arguments received from their priests. It is thus that, under a God +who ordains we should love our enemies and forgive their offences, the +Christians hate and destroy the enemies of their priests, and take +vengeance, without measure, for injuries which they pretend to have +received. It is thus, that under a just God, a God who never ceases to +boast of his goodness, the Christians, at the signal of their +spiritual guides, become unjust and cruel, and make a merit of having +stifled the cries of nature, the voice of humanity, the counsels of +wisdom, and of public interest. + +In a word, all the ideas of justice and of injustice, of good and +evil, of happiness and of misfortune, are necessarily confounded in +the head of a Christian. His despotic priest commands him, in the name +of God, to put no reliance on his reason, and the man who is compelled +to abandon it for the guidance of a troubled imagination will be far +more likely to consult and admit the most stupid fanaticism as the +inspiration of the Most High. In his blindness, he casts at his feet +duties the most sacred, and he believes himself virtuous in outraging +every virtue. Has he remorse? his priest appeases it speedily, and +points out some easy practices by which he may soon recommend himself +to God. Has he committed injustice, violence, and rapine? he may +repair all by giving to the church the goods of which he has despoiled +worthy citizens; or by repaying by largesses, which will procure him +the prayers of the priests and the favor of heaven. For the priests +never reproach men, who give them of this world's goods, with the +injustice, the cruelties, and the crimes they have been guilty, to +support the church and befriend her ministers; the faults which have +almost always been found the most unpardonable, have always been those +of most disservice to the clergy. To question the faith and reject the +authority of the priesthood, have always been the most frightful +crimes; they are truly the sin against the Holy Ghost, which can never +be forgiven either in this world or in that which is to come. To +despise these objects which the priests have an interest in making to +be respected, is sufficient to qualify one for the appellation of a +blasphemer and an impious man. These vague words, void of sense, +suffice to excite horror in the mind of the weak vulgar. The terrible +word sacrilege designates an attempt on the person, the goods, and the +rights of the clergy. The omission of some useless practice is +exaggerated and represented as a crime more detestable than actions +which injure society. In favor of fidelity to fulfil the duties of +religion, the priest easily pardons his slave submitting to vices, +criminal debaucheries, and excesses the most horrible. You perceive, +then, Madam, that the Christian morality has really in view but the +utility of the priests. Why, then, should you be surprised that they +endeavor to make themselves arbitrary and sovereign; that they deem as +faults, and as criminal, all the virtues which agree not with their +marvellous systems? The Christian morality appears only to have been +proposed to blind men, to disturb their reason, to render them abject +and timid, to plunge them into vassalage, to make them lose sight of +the earth which they inhabit, for visions of bliss in heaven. By the +aid of this morality, the priests have become the true masters here +below; they have imagined virtues and practices useful only to +themselves; they have proscribed and interdicted those which were +truly useful to society; they have made slaves of their disciples, who +make virtue to consist in blind submission to their caprices. + +To lay the foundations of a good morality, it is absolutely necessary +to destroy the prejudices which the priests have inspired in us; it is +necessary to begin by rendering the mind of man energetic, and freeing +it from those vain terrors which have enthralled it; it is necessary +to renounce those supernatural notions which have, till now, hindered +men from consulting the volume of nature, which have subjected reason +to the yoke of authority; it is necessary to encourage man, to +undeceive him as to those prejudices which have enslaved him; to +annihilate in his bosom those false theories which corrupt his nature, +and which are, in fact, infidel guides, destructive of the real +happiness of the species. It is necessary to undeceive him as to the +idea of his loathing himself, and especially that other idea, that +some of his fellow-creatures are not to labor with their hands for +their support, but in spiritual matters for his happiness. In fine, it +is necessary to influence him with self-love, that he may merit the +esteem of the world, the benevolence and consideration of those with +whom he is associated by the ties of nature or public economy. + +The morality of religion appears calculated to confound society and +replunge its members into the savage state. The Christian virtues tend +evidently to isolate man, to detach him from those to whom nature has +united him, and to unite him to the priests--to make him lose sight of +a happiness the most solid, to occupy himself only with dangerous +chimeras. We only live in society to procure the more easily those +kindnesses, succors, and pleasures, which we could not obtain living +by ourselves. If it had been destined that we should live miserably in +this world, that we should detest ourselves, fly the esteem of others, +voluntarily afflict ourselves, have no attachment for any one, society +would have been one heap of confusion, the human kind savages and +strangers to one another. + +However, if it is true that God is the author of man, it is God who +renders man sociable; it is God who wishes man to live in society +where he can obtain the greatest good. If God is good, he cannot +approve that men should leave society to become miserable; if God is +the author of reason, he can only wish that men who are possessed of +reason should employ this distinguishing gift to procure for +themselves all the happiness its exercise can bring them. If God has +revealed himself, it is not in some obscure way, but in a revelation +the most evident and clear of all those supposed revelations, which +are visibly contrary to all the notions we can form of the Divinity. +We are not, however, obliged to dive into the marvellous to establish +the duties man owes to man, since God has very plainly shown them in +the wants of one and the good offices of another person. But it is +only by consulting our reason that we can arrive at the means of +contributing to the felicity of our species. It is then evident that +in regarding man as the creature of God, God must have designed that +man should consult his reason, that it might procure him the most +solid happiness, and those principles of virtue which nature approves. + +What, then, might not our opinions be were we to substitute the +morality of reason for the morality of religion? In place of a partial +and reserved morality for a small number of men, let us substitute a +universal morality, intelligible to all the inhabitants of the earth, +and of which all can find the principles in nature. Let us study this +nature, its wants, and its desires; let us examine the means of +satisfying it; let us consider what is the end of our existence in +society; we shall see that all those who are thus associated are +compelled by their natures to practise affection one to another, +benevolence, esteem, and relief, if desired; we shall see what is that +line of conduct which necessarily excites hatred, ill-will, and all +those misfortunes which experience makes familiar to mankind; our +reason will tell us what actions are the most calculated to excite +real happiness and good will the most solid and extensive; let us +weigh these with those that are founded on visionary theories; their +difference will at once be perceptible; the advantages which are +permanent we will not sacrifice for those that are momentary; we will +employ all our faculties to augment the happiness of our species; we +will labor with perseverance and courage to extirpate evil from the +earth; we will assist as much as we can those who are without friends; +we will seek to alleviate their distresses and their pains; we will +merit their regard, and thus fulfil the end of our being on earth. + +In conducting ourselves in this manner, our reason prescribes a +morality agreeable to nature, reasonable to all, constant in its +operation, effective in its exercise in benefiting all, in +contributing to the happiness of society, collectively and +individually, in distinction to the mysticism preached up by priests. +We shall find in our reason and in our nature the surest guides, +superior to the clergy, who only teach us to benefit themselves. We +shall thus enjoy a morality as durable as the race of man. We shall +have precepts founded on the necessity of things, that will punish +those transgressing them, and rewarding those who obey them. Every +man who shall prove himself to be just, useful, beneficent, will be an +object of love to his fellow-citizens; every man who shall prove +himself unjust, useless, and wicked will become an object of hatred to +himself as well as to others; he will be forced to tremble at the +violation of the laws; he will be compelled to do that which is good +to gain the good will of mankind and preserve the regard of those who +have the power of obliging him to be a useful member of the state. + +Thus, Madam, if it should be demanded of you what you would substitute +for the benefit of society, in place of visionary reveries, I reply, a +sensible morality, a good education, profitable habits, self-evident +principles of duty, wise laws, which even the wicked cannot +misunderstand, but which may correct their evil purposes, and +recompenses that may tend to the promotion of virtue. The education of +the present day tends only to make youth the slaves of superstition; +the virtues which it inculcates on them are only those of fanaticism, +to render the mind subject to the priests for the remainder of life; +the motives to duty are only fictitious and imaginary; the rewards and +punishments which it exhibits in an obscure glimmering, produce no +other effect than to make useless enthusiasts and dangerous fanatics. +The principles on which enthusiasm establishes morality are changing +and ruinous; those on which the morality of reason is established are +fixed, and cannot be overturned. Seeing, then, that man, a reasonable +being, should be chiefly occupied about his preservation and +happiness--that he should love virtue--that he should be sensible of +its advantages--that he should fear the consequences of crime--is it +to be wondered I should insist so much on the practice of virtue as +his chief good? Men ought to hate crime because it leads to misery. +Society, to exist, must receive the united virtue of its members, +obedience to good laws, the activity and intelligence of citizens to +defend its privileges and its rights. Laws are good when they invite +the members of society to labor for reciprocal good offices. Laws are +just when they recompense or punish in proportion to the good or evil +which is done to society. Laws supported by a visible authority should +be founded on present motives; and thus they would have more force +than those of religion, which are founded on uncertain motives, +imaginary and removed from this world, and which experience proves +cannot suffice to curb the passions of bad men, nor show them their +duty by the fear of punishments after death. + +If in place of stifling human reason, as is too much done, its +perfectibility were studied; if in place of deluging the world with +visionary notions, truth were inculcated; if in place of pleading a +supernatural morality, a morality agreeable to humanity and resulting +from experience were preached, we should no longer be the dupes of +imaginary theories, nor of terrifying fables as the bases of virtue. +Every one would then perceive that it is to the practice of virtue, to +the faithful observation of the duties of morality, that the happiness +of individuals and of society is to be traced. Is he a husband? He +will perceive that his essential happiness is to show kindness, +attachment, and tenderness to the companion of his life, destined by +his own choice to share his pleasures and endure his misfortunes. And, +on the other hand, she, by consulting her true interests, will +perceive that they consist in rendering homage to her husband, in +interdicting every thought that could alienate her affections, +diminish her esteem and confidence in him. Fathers and mothers will +perceive that their children are destined to be one day their +consolation and support in old age, and that by consequence they have +the greatest interest in inspiring them in early life with sentiments +of which they may themselves reap the benefit when age or misfortune +may require the fruits of those advantages that result from a good +education. Their children early taught to reflect on these things, +will find their interest to lie in meriting the kindness of their +parents, and in giving them proofs that the virtues they are taught +will be communicated to their posterity. The master will perceive +that, to be served with affection, he owes good will, kindness, and +indulgence to those at whose hands he would reap advantages, and by +whose labor he would increase his prosperity; and servants will +discover how much their happiness depends on fidelity, industry, and +good temper in their situations. Friends will find the advantages of a +kindred heart for friendship, and the reciprocity of good offices. The +members of the same family will perceive the necessity of preserving +that union which nature has established among them, to render mutual +benefits in prosperity or in adversity. Societies, if they reflect on +the end of their association, will perceive that to secure it they +must observe good faith and punctuality in their engagements. The +citizen, when he consults his reason, will perceive how much it is +necessary, for the good of the nation to which he belongs, that he +should exert himself to advance its prosperity, or, in its +misfortunes, to retrieve its glory. By consequence every one in his +sphere, and using his faculties for this great end, will find his own +advantage in restraining the bad as dangerous, and opposing enemies to +the state as enemies to himself. + +In a word, every man who will reflect for himself will be compelled to +acknowledge the necessity of virtue for the happiness of the world. It +is so obvious that justice is the basis of all society; that good will +and good offices necessarily procure for men affection and respect; +that every man who respects himself ought to seek the esteem of +others; that it is necessary to merit the good opinion of society; +that he ought to be jealous of his reputation; that a weak being, who +is every instant exposed to misfortunes, ought to know what are his +duties, and how he should practise them for the benefit of himself +and the assembly of which he is a member. + +If we reflect for one moment on the effects of the passions, we shall +perceive the necessity of repressing them, if we would spare ourselves +vain regrets and useless sorrows, which certainly always afflict those +who obey not the laws. Thus, a single reflection will suffice to show +the impropriety of anger, the dreadful consequences of revenge, +calumny, and backbiting. Every one must perceive that in giving a free +course to unbridled desires, he becomes the enemy of society, and then +it is the part of the laws to restrain him who renounces his reason +and despises the motives that ought to guide him. + +If it is objected that man is not a free agent, and therefore is +unable to restrain his passions, and that consequently the law ought +not to punish him, I reply that the community are impelled by the same +necessity to hate what is injurious, and for their own conservation +and happiness have the right to restrain an unhappily organized +individual who is impelled to injure himself and others. The +inevitable faults of men necessarily excite the hatred of those who +suffer from them. + +If the man who consults his reason has real and powerful motives for +doing good to others and abstaining from injuring them, he has present +motives equally urgent to restrain him from the commission of vice. +Experience may suffice to show him that if he becomes sooner or later +the victim of his excesses, he ceases to be the friend of virtue, and +exists only to serve vice, which will infallibly punish him. This +being allowed, prudence, or the desire of preserving one's self free +from the contamination of evil, ought to inculcate to every man his +path of duty; and, unless blinded by his passions, he must perceive +how much moderation in his pleasures, temperance, chastity, contribute +to happiness; that those who transgress in these respects are +necessarily the victims of ill health, and too often pass a life both +infirm and unfortunate, which terminates soon in death. + +How is it possible, then, Madam, from visionary theories to arrive at +these conclusions, and establish from supernatural phantasms the +principles of private and public virtue? Shall we launch into unknown +regions to ascertain our duty and to keep our station in society? Is +it not sufficient if we wish to be happy that we should endeavor to +preserve ourselves in those maxims which reason approves, and on which +virtue is founded? Every man who would perish, who would render his +existence miserable, whoever would sacrifice permanent happiness for +present pleasure, is a fool, who reflects not on the interests that +are dearest to him. + +If there are any principles so clear as the morality of humanity has +been and is still proved to be, they are such as men ought to observe. +They are not obscure notions, mysticism, contradictions, which have +made of a science the most obvious and best demonstrated, an +unintelligible science, mysterious and uncertain to those for whom it +is designed. In the hands of the priests, morality has become an +enigma; they have founded our duties on the attributes of a Deity whom +the mind of man cannot comprehend, in place of founding them on the +character of man himself. They have thrown in among them the +foundations of an edifice which is made for this earth. They have +desired to regulate our manners agreeably to equivocal oracles which +every instant contradict themselves, and which too often render their +devotees useless to society and to themselves. They have pretended to +render their morality more sacred by inviting us to look for +recompenses and punishments removed beyond this life, but which they +announce in the name of the Divinity. In fine, they have made man a +being who may not even strive at perfection, by a preordination of +some to bliss, and consequent damnation of others, whose insensibility +is the result of this selection. + +Need we not, then, wonder that this supernatural morality should be so +contrary to the nature and the mind of man? It is in vain that it aims +at the annihilation of human nature, which is so much stronger, so +much more powerful, than imagination. In despite of all the subtile +and marvellous speculations of the priests, man continues always to +love himself, to desire his well being, and to flee misfortune and +sorrow. He has then always been actuated by the same passions. When +these passions have been moderate, and have tended to the public +good, they are legitimate, and we approve those actions which are +their effects. When these passions have been disordered, hurtful to +society, or to the individual, he condemns them; they punish him; he +is dissatisfied with his conduct which others cannot approve. Man +always loves his pleasures, because in their enjoyment he fulfils the +end of his existence; if he exceeds their just bounds he renders +himself miserable. + +The morality of the clergy, on the other hand, appears calculated to +keep nature always at variance with herself, for it is almost always +without effect even on the priesthood. Their chimeras serve but to +torture weak minds, and to set the passions at war with nature and +their dogmas. When this morality professes to restrain the wicked, to +curb the passions of men, it operates in opposition to the established +laws of natural religion; for by preserving all its rigor, it becomes +impracticable; and it meets with real devotees only in some few +fanatics who have renounced nature, and who would be singular, even if +their oddities were injurious to society. This morality, adopted for +the most part by devotees, without eradicating their habits or their +natural defects, keeps them always in a state of opposition even with +themselves. Their life is a round of faults and of scruples, of sins +and remorse, of crimes and expiations, of pleasures which they enjoy, +but for which they again reproach themselves for having tasted. In a +word, the morality of superstition necessarily carries with it into +the heart and the family of its devotees inward distress and +affliction; it makes of enthusiasts and fanatics scrupulous devotees; +it makes a great many insensible and miserable; it renders none +perfect, few good; and those only tolerable whom nature, education, +and habit had moulded for happiness. + +It is our temperament which decides our condition; the acquisition of +moderate passions, of honest habits, sensible opinions, laudable +examples, and practical virtues, is a difficult task, but not +impossible when undertaken with reason for one's guide. It is +difficult to be virtuous and happy with a temperament so ardent as to +sway the passions to its will. One must in calmness consult reason as +to his duty. Nature, in giving us lively passions and a susceptible +imagination, has made us capable of suffering the instant we +transgress her bounds. She then renders us necessary to ourselves, and +we cannot proceed to consult our real interest if we continue in +indulgence that she forbids. The passions which reason cannot restrain +are not to be bridled by religion. It is in vain that we hope to +derive succors from religion if we despise and refuse what nature +offers us. Religion leaves men just such as nature and habit have made +them; and if it produce any changes on some few, I believe I have +proved that those changes are not always for the better. + +Congratulate yourself, then, Madam, on being born with good +dispositions, of having received honest principles, which shall carry +you through life in the practice of virtue, and in the love of a fine +and exalted taste for the rational pleasures of our nature. Continue +to be the happiness of your family, which esteems and honors you. +Continue to diffuse around you the blessings you enjoy; continue to +perform only those actions which are esteemed by all the world, and +all men will respect you. Respect yourself, and others will respect +you. These are the legitimate sentiments of virtue and of happiness. +Labor for your own happiness, and you will promote that of your +family, who will love you in proportion to the good you do it. Allow +me to congratulate myself if, in all I have said, I have in any +measure swept from your mind those clouds of fanaticism which obscure +the reason; and to felicitate you on your having escaped from vague +theories of imagination. Abjure superstition, which is calculated only +to make you miserable; let the morality of humanity be your uniform +religion; that your happiness may be constant, let reason be your +guide; that virtue may be the idol of your soul, cultivate and love +only what is virtuous and good in the world; and if there be a God who +is interested in the happiness of his creatures, if there be a God +full of justice and goodness, he will not be angry with you for having +consulted your reason; if there be another life, your happiness in it +cannot be doubtful, if God rewards every one according to the good +done here. + + I am, with respect, &c. + + + + +LETTER XII. + + Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's Speculations, and + the Indulgence which should be extended to them. + + +Permit me, Madam, to felicitate you on the happy change which you say +has taken place in your opinions. Convinced by reasons as simple as +obvious, your mind has become sensible of the futility of those +notions which have for a long time agitated it; and the inefficacy of +those pretended succors which religious men boasted they could +furnish, is now apparent to you. You perceive the evident dangers +which result from a system that serves only to render men enemies to +individual and general happiness. I see with pleasure that reason has +not lost its authority over your mind, and that it is sufficient to +show you the truth that you may embrace it. You may congratulate +yourself on this, which proves the solidity of your judgment. For it +is glorious to give one's self up to reason, and to be the votary of +common sense. Prejudice so arms mankind that the world is full of +people who slight their judgment; nay, who resist the most obvious +pleas of their understanding. Their eyes, long shut to the light of +truth, are unable to bear its rays; but they can endure the +glimmerings of superstition, which plunges them in still darker +obscurity. + +I am not, however, astonished at the embarrassment you have hitherto +felt, nor at your cautious examination of my opinions, which are +better understood the more thoroughly they are examined and compared +with those they oppose. It is impossible to annihilate at once +deep-rooted prejudices. The mind of man appears to waver in a void +when those ideas are attacked on which it has long rested. It finds +itself in a new world, wherein all is unknown. Every system of opinion +is but the effect of habit. The mind has as great difficulty to +disengage itself from its custom of thinking, and reflect on new +ideas, as the body has to remain quiescent after it has long been +accustomed to exercise. Should you, for instance, propose to your +friend to leave off snuff, as a practice neither healthful nor +agreeable in company, he will not probably listen to you, or if he +should, it will be with extreme pain that he can bring himself to +renounce a habit long familiarized to him. + +It is precisely the same with all our prejudices; those of religion +have the most powerful hold of us. From infancy we have been +familiarized with them; habit has made them a sort of want we cannot +dispense with: our mode of thinking is formed, and familiar to us; our +mind is accustomed to engage itself with certain classes of objects; +and our imagination fancies that it wanders in chaos when it is not +fed with those chimeras to which it had been long accustomed. Phantoms +the most horrible are even clear to it; objects the most familiar to +it, if viewed with the calm eye of reason, are disagreeable and +revolting. + +Religion, or rather its superstitions, in consequence of the +marvellous and bizarre notions it engenders, gives the mind continual +exercise; and its votaries fancy they are doomed to a dangerous +inaction when they are suddenly deprived of the objects on which their +imagination exerted its powers. Yet is this exercise so much the more +necessary as the imagination is by far the most lively faculty of the +mind. Hence, without doubt, it becomes necessary men should replace +stale fooleries by those which are novel. This is, moreover, the true +reason why devotion so often affords consolation in great disgraces, +gives diversion for chagrin, and replaces the strongest passions, when +they have been quenched by excess of pleasure and dissipation. The +marvellous arguments, chimeras multiply as religion furnishes activity +and occupation to the fancy; habit renders them familiar, and even +necessary; terrors themselves even minister food to the imagination; +and religion, the religion of priestcraft, is full of terrors. Active +and unquiet spirits continually require this nourishment; the +imagination requires to be alternately alarmed and consoled; and there +are thousands who cannot accustom themselves to tranquillity and the +sobriety of reason. Many persons also require phantoms to make them +religious, and they find these succors in the dogmas of priestcraft. + +These reflections will serve to explain to you the continual +variations to which many persons are subject, especially on the +subject of religion. Sensible, like barometers, you behold them +wavering without ceasing; their imagination floats, and is never +fixed; so often as you find them freely given up to the blackness of +superstition, so often may you behold them the slaves of pernicious +prejudices. Whenever they tremble at the feet of their priests, then +are their necks under the yoke. Even people of spirit and +understanding in other affairs are not altogether exempt from these +variations of mental religious temperament; but their judgment is too +frequently the dupe of the imagination. And others, again, timid and +doubting, without spirit, are in perpetual torment. + +What do I say? Man is not, and cannot always be, the same. His frame +is exposed to revolutions and perpetual vicissitudes; the thoughts of +his mind necessarily vary with the different degrees of changes to +which his body is exposed. When the body is languid and fatigued, the +mind has not usually much inclination to vigor and gayety. The +debility of the nerves commonly annihilates the energies of the soul, +although it be so remarkably distinguished from the body; persons of a +bilious and melancholy temperament are rarely the subjects of joy; +dissipation importunes some, gayety fatigues others. Exactly after the +same fashion, there are some who love to nourish sombre ideas, and +these religion supplies them. Devotion affects them like the vapors; +superstition is an inveterate malady, for which there is no cure in +medicine. And it is impossible to keep him free from superstition, +whose breast, the slave of fear, was never sensible of courage; nay, +soldiers and sailors, the bravest of men, have too often been the +victims of superstition. It is education alone that operates in +radically curing the human mind of its errors. + +Those who think it sufficient, Madam, to render a reason for the +variations which we so frequently remark in the ideas of men, +acknowledge that there is a secret bent of the minds of religious +persons to prejudices, from which we shall almost in vain endeavor to +rescue their understandings. You perceive, at present, what you ought +to think of those secret transitions which our priests would force on +you, as the inspirations of heaven, as divine solicitations, the +effects of grace; though they are, nevertheless, only the effects of +those vicissitudes to which our constitution is liable, and which +affect the robust, as well as the feeble; the man of health, as well +as the valetudinarian. + +If we might form a judgment of the correctness of those notions which +our teachers boast of, in respect to our dissolution at death, we +shall find reason to be satisfied, that there is little or no occasion +that we should have our minds disturbed during our last moments. It is +then, say they, that it is necessary to attend to the condition of +man; it is then that man, undeceived as to the things of this life, +acknowledges his errors. But there is, perhaps, no idea in the whole +circle of theology more unreasonable than this, of which the +credulous, in all ages, have been the dupes. Is it not at the time of +a man's dissolution that he is the least capable of judging of his +true interest? His bodily frame racked, it may be, with pain, his mind +is necessarily weakened or chafed; or if he should be free from +excruciating pain, the lassitude and yielding of nature to the +irrevocable decrees of fate at death, unfit a man for reasoning and +judging of the sophisms that are proposed as panaceas for all his +errors. There are, without doubt, as strange notions as those of +religion; but who knows that body and soul sink alike at death? + +It is in the case of health that we can promise ourselves to reason +with justness; it is then that the soul, neither troubled by fear, nor +altered by disease, nor led astray by passion, can judge soundly of +what is beneficial to man. The judgments of the dying can have no +weight with men in good health; and they are the veriest impostors who +lend them belief. The truth can alone be known, when both body and +mind are in good health. No man, without evincing an insensible and +ridiculous presumption, can answer for the ideas he is occupied with, +when worn out with sickness and disease; yet have the inhuman priests +the effrontery to persuade the credulous to take as their examples the +words and actions of men necessarily deranged in intellect by the +derangement of their corporeal frame. In short, since the ideas of men +necessarily vary with the different variations of their bodies, the +man who presumes to reason on his death bed with the man in health, +arrogates what ought not to be conceded. + +Do not, then, Madam, be discouraged nor surprised, if you should +sometimes think of ancient prejudices reclaiming the rights they have +for a long time exercised over your reason; attribute, then, these +vacillations to some derangement in your frame--to some disordered +movements of mind, which, for a time, suspend your reason. Think that +there are few people who are constantly the same, and who see with the +same eyes. Our frame being subject to continual variations, it +necessarily follows that our modes of thinking will vary. We think one +custom the result of pusillanimity, when the nerves are relaxed and +our bodies fatigued. We think justly when our body is in health; that +is to say, when all its parts are fulfilling their various functions. +There is one mode of thinking, or one state of mind, which in health +we call uncertainty, and which we rarely experience when our frame is +in its ordinary condition. We do not then reason justly, when our +frame is not in a condition to leave our mind subject to incredulity. + +What, then, is to be done, when we would calm our mind, when we wish +to reflect, even for an instant? Let reason be our guide, and we shall +soon arrive at that mode of thinking which shall be advantageous to +ourselves. In effect, Madam, how can a God who is just, good, and +reasonable, be irritated by the manner in which we shall think, seeing +that our thoughts are always involuntary, and that we cannot believe +as we would, but as our convictions increase, or become weakened? Man +is not, then, for one instant, the master of his ideas, which are +every moment excited by objects over which he has no control, and +causes which depend not on his will or exertions. St. Augustine +himself bears testimony to this truth: "There is not," says he, "one +man who is at all times master of that which presents itself to his +spirit." Have we not, then, good reason to conclude, that our thoughts +are entirely indifferent to God, seeing they are excited by objects +over which we have no control, and, by consequence, that they cannot +be offensive to the Deity? + +If our teachers pique themselves on their principles, they ought to +carry along with them this truth, that a just God cannot be offended +by the changes which take place in the minds of his creatures. They +ought to know that this God, if he is wise, has no occasion to be +troubled with the ideas that enter the mind of man; that if they do +not comprehend all his perfections, it is because their comprehension +is limited. They ought to recollect, that if God is all-powerful, his +glory and his power cannot be affected by the opinions and ideas of +weak mortals, any more than the notions they form of him can alter his +essential attributes. In fine, if our teachers had not made it a duty +to renounce common sense, and to close with notions that carry in +their consequences the contradictory evidence of their premises, they +would not refuse to avow that God would be the most unjust, the most +unreasonable, the most cruel of tyrants, if he should punish beings +whom he himself created imperfect, and possessed of a deficiency of +reason and common sense. + +Let us reflect a little longer, and we shall find that the theologians +have studied to make of the Divinity a ferocious master, unreasonable +and changing, who exacts from his creatures qualities they have not, +and services they cannot perform. The ideas they have formed of this +unknown being are almost always borrowed from those of men of power, +who, jealous of their power and respect from their subjects, pretend +that it is the duty of these last to have for them sentiments of +submission, and punish with rigor those who, by their conduct or their +discourse, announce sentiments not sufficiently respectful to their +superiors. Thus you see, Madam, that God has been fashioned by the +clergy on the model of an uneasy despot, suspicious of his subjects, +jealous of the opinions they may entertain of him, and who, to secure +his power, cruelly chastises those who have not littleness of mind +sufficient to flatter his vanity, nor courage enough to resist his +power. + +It is evident, that it is on ideas so ridiculous, and so contrary to +those which nature offers us of the Divinity, that the absurd system +of the priests is founded, which they persuade themselves is very +sensible and agreeable to the opinions of mankind; and which is very +seriously insulted, they say, if men think differently; and which will +punish with severity those who abandon themselves to the guidance of +reason, the glory of man. Nothing can be more pernicious to the human +kind than this fatal madness, which deranges all our ideas of a just +God--of a God, good, wise, all-powerful, and whose glory and power +neither the devotion nor rebellion of his creatures can affect. In +consequence of these impertinent suppositions of the priesthood, men +have ever been afraid to form notions agreeable to the mysterious +Sovereign of the universe, on whom they are dependent; their mind is +put to the torture to divine his incomprehensible nature, and, in +their fear of displeasing him, they have assigned to him human +attributes, without perceiving that when they pretend to honor him, +they dishonor Deity, and that being compelled to bestow on him +qualities that are incompatible with Deity, they actually annihilate +from their mind the pure representation of Deity, as witnessed in all +nature. It is thus, that in almost all the religions on the face of +the earth, under the pretext of making known the Divinity, and +explaining his views towards mortals, the priests have rendered him +incomprehensible, and have actually promulgated, under the garb of +religion, nothing save absurdities, by which, if we admit them, we +shall destroy those notions which nature gives us of Deity. + +When we reflect on the Divinity, do we not see that mankind have +plunged farther and farther into darkness, as they assimilated him to +themselves; that their judgment is always disturbed when they would +make their Deity the object of their meditations; that they cannot +reason justly, because they never have any but obscure and absurd +ideas; that they are almost always in uncertainty, and never agree +with themselves, because their principles are replete with doubt; that +they always tremble, because they imagine that it is very dangerous to +be deceived; that they dispute without ceasing, because that it is +impossible to be convinced of any thing, when they reason on objects +of which they know nothing, and which the imaginations of men are +forced to paint differently; in fine, that they cruelly torment one +another about opinions equally uninteresting, though they attach to +them the greatest importance, and because the vanity of the one party +never allows it to subscribe to the reveries of the other? + +It is thus that the Divinity has become to us a source of evil, +division, and quarrels; it is thus that his name alone inspires +terror; it is thus that religion has become the signal of so many +combats, and has always been the true apple of discord among unquiet +mortals, who always dispute with the greatest heat, on subjects of +which they can never have any true ideas. They make it a duty to think +and reason on his attributes; and they can never arrive at any just +conclusions, because their mind is never in a condition to form true +notions of what strikes their senses. In the impossibility of knowing +the Deity by themselves, they have recourse to the opinion of others, +whom they consider more adroit in theology, and who pretend to an +intimate acquaintance with God, being inspired by him, and having +secret intelligence of his purposes with regard to the human kind. +Those privileged men teach nothing to the nations of the earth, except +what their reveries have reduced to a system, without giving them +ideas that are clear and definite. They paint God under characters the +most agreeable to their own interests; they make of him a good monarch +for those who blindly submit to their tenets, but terrible to those +who refuse to blindly follow them. + +Thus you perceive, Madam, what those men are who have obviously made +of the Deity an object so bizarre as they announce him, and who, to +render their opinions the more sacred, have pretended that he is +grievously offended when we do not admit implicitly the ideas they +promulgate of God. In the books of Moses God defines himself, _I am +that I am_; yet does this inspired writer detail the history of this +God as a tyrant who tempts men, and who punishes them for being +tempted; who exterminated all the human kind by a deluge, except a few +of one family, because one man had fallen; in a word, who, in all his +conduct, behaves as a despot, whose power dispenses with all the rules +of justice, reason, and goodness. + +Have the successors of Moses transmitted to us ideas more clear, more +sensible, more comprehensible of the Divinity? Has the Son of God made +his Father perfectly known to us? Has the church, perpetually boasting +of the light she diffuses among men, become more fixed and certain, +to do away our uncertainty? Alas! in spite of all these supernatural +succors, we know nothing in nature beyond the grave; the ideas which +are communicated to us, the recitals of our infallible teachers, are +calculated only to confound our judgment, and reduce our reason to +silence. They make of God a pure spirit; that is to say, a being who +has nothing in common with matter, and who, nevertheless, has created +matter, which he has produced from his own fiat--his essence or +substance. They have made him the mirror of the universe, and the soul +of the universe. They have made him an infinite being, who fills all +space by his immensity, although the material world occupies some part +in space. They have made him a being all powerful, but whose projects +are incessantly varying, who neither can nor will maintain man in good +order, nor permit the freedom of action necessary for rational beings, +and who is alternately pleased and displeased with the same beings and +their actions. They make him an infinite good Father, but who avenges +himself without measure. They make of him a monarch infinitely just, +but who confounds the innocent with the guilty, who has mingled +injustice and cruelty, in causing his own Son to be put to death to +expiate the crimes of the human kind; though they are incessantly +sinning and repenting for pardon. They make of him a being full of +wisdom and foresight, yet insensible to the folly and shortsightedness +of mortals. They make him a reasonable being who becomes angry at the +thoughts of his creatures, though involuntary, and consequently +necessary; thoughts which he himself puts into their heads; and who +condemns them to eternal punishments if they believe not in reveries +that are incompatible with the divine attributes, or who dare to doubt +whether God can possess qualities that are not capable of being +reconciled among themselves. + +Is it, then, surprising that so many good people are shocked at the +revolting ideas, so contradictory and so appalling, which hurl mortals +into a state of uncertainty and doubt as to the existence of the +Deity, or even to force them into absolute denial of the same? It is +impossible to admit, in effect, the doctrine of the Deity of +priestcraft, in which we constantly see infinite perfections, allied +with imperfections the most striking; in which, when we reflect but +momentarily, we shall find that it cannot produce but disorder in the +imagination, and leaves it wandering among errors that reduce it to +despair, or some impostors, who, to subjugate mankind, have wished to +throw them into embarrassment, confound their reason, and fill them +with terror. Such appear, in effect, to be the motives of those who +have the arrogance to pretend to a secret knowledge, which they +distribute among mankind, though they have no knowledge even of +themselves. They always paint God under the traits of an inaccessible +tyrant, who never shows himself but to his ministers and favorites, +who please to veil him from the eyes of the vulgar; and who are +violently irritated when they find any who oppose their pretensions, +or when they refuse to believe the priests and their unintelligible +farragoes. + +If, as I have often said, it be impossible to believe what we cannot +comprehend, or to be intimately convinced of that of which we can form +no distinct and clear ideas, we may thence conclude that, when the +Christians assure us they believe that God has announced himself in +some secret and peculiar way to them that he has not done to other +men, either they are themselves deceived, or they wish to deceive us. +Their faith, or their belief in God, is merely an acceptance of what +their priests have taught them of a Being whose existence they have +rendered more than doubtful to those who would reason and meditate. +The Deity cannot, assuredly, be the being whom the Christians admit on +the word of their theologians. Is there, in good truth, a man in the +world who can form any idea of a spirit? If we ask the priests what a +spirit is, they will tell us that a spirit is an immaterial being who +has none of the passions of which men are the subjects. But what is an +immaterial spirit? It is a being that has none of the qualities which +we can fathom; that has neither form, nor extension, nor color. + +But how can we be assured of the existence of a being who has none of +these qualities? It is by _faith_, say the priests, that we must be +assured of his existence. But what is this _faith_? It is to adhere, +without examination, to what the priests tell us. But what is it the +priests tell us of God? They tell us of things which we can neither +comprehend nor they reconcile among themselves. The existence, even of +God, has, in their hands, become the most impenetrable mystery in +religion. But do the priests themselves comprehend this ineffable God, +whom they announce to other men? Have they just ideas of him? Are they +themselves sincerely convinced of the existence of a being who unites +incompatible qualities which reciprocally exclude the one or the +other? We cannot admit it; and we are authorized to conclude, that +when the priests profess to believe in God, either they know not what +they say, or they wish to deceive us. + +Do not then be surprised, Madam, if you should find that there are, in +fact, people who have ventured to doubt of the existence of the Deity +of the theologians, because, on meditating on the descriptions given +of him, they have discovered them to be incomprehensible, or replete +with contradiction. Do not be astonished if they never listen, in +reasoning, to any arguments that oppose themselves to common sense, +and seek, for the existence of the priests' Deity, other proofs than +have yet been offered mankind. His existence cannot be demonstrated in +revelations, which we discover, on examination, to be the work of +imposture; revelations sap the foundations laid down for belief in a +Divinity, which they would wish to establish. This existence cannot +be founded on the qualities which our priests have assigned to the +Divinity, seeing that, in the association of these qualities, there +only results a God whom we cannot comprehend, and by consequence of +whom we can form no certain ideas. This existence cannot be founded on +the moral qualities which our priests attribute to the Divinity, +seeing these are irreconcilable in the same subject, who cannot be at +once good and evil, just and unjust, merciful and implacable, wise and +the enemy of human reason. + +On what, then, ought we to found the existence of God? The priests +themselves tell us that it is on reason, the spectacle of nature, and +on the marvellous order which appears in the universe. Those to whom +these motives for believing in the existence of the Divinity do not +appear convincing, find not, in any of the religions in the world, +motives more persuasive; for all systems of theology, framed for the +exercise of the imagination, plunge us into more uncertainty +respecting their evidence, when they appeal to nature for proofs of +what they advance. + +What, then, are we to think of the God of the clergy? Can we think +that he exists, without reasoning on that existence? And what shall we +think of those who are ignorant of this God, or have no belief in his +existence; who cannot discover him in the works of nature, either as +good or evil; who behold only order and disorder succeeding +alternately? What idea shall we form of those men who regard matter as +eternal, as actuated on by laws, peculiar to itself; as sufficiently +powerful to produce itself under all the forms we behold; as +perpetually exerting itself in nourishing and destroying itself, in +combining and dissolving itself; as incapable of love or of hatred; as +deprived of the faculties of _intelligence_ and _sentiment_ known to +belong to beings of our species, but capable of supporting those +beings whose organization has made them intelligent, sensible, and +reasonable? + +What shall we say of those Freethinkers who find neither good nor +evil, neither order nor disorder, in the universe; that all things are +but relative to different conditions of beings, of which they have +evidence; and that all that happens in the universe is necessary, and +subjected to destiny? In a word, what shall we think of these men? + +Shall we say that they have only a different manner of viewing things, +or that they use different words in expressing themselves? They call +that _Nature_ which others call the _Divinity_; they call that +_Necessity_ which all others call the _Divine decrees_; they call that +the _Energy_ of _Nature_ which others call the _Author_ of _Nature_; +they call that _Destiny_, or _Fate_, which others call _God_, whose +laws are always going forward. + +Have we, then, any right to hate and to exterminate them? No, without +doubt; at least, we cannot admit that we have any reason that those +should perish, who speak only the same language with ourselves, and +who are reciprocally beneficial to us. Nevertheless, it is to this +degree of extravagance that the baneful ideas of religion have +carried the human mind. Harassed, and set on by their priests, men +have hated and assassinated each other, because that in religious +matters they agree not to one creed. Vanity has made some imagine +that they are better than others, more intelligible, although they +see that theology is a language which they neither understand, nor +which they themselves could invent. The very name of Freethinker +suffices to irritate them, and to arm the fury of others, who repeat, +without ceasing, the name of God, without having any precise idea of +the Deity. If, by chance, they imagine that they have any notions of +him, they are only confused, contradictory, incompatible, and +senseless notions, which have been inspired in their infancy by their +priests, and those who, as we have seen, have painted God in all +those traits which their imagination furnished, or those who appear +more conformed to their passions and interests than to the well-being +of their fellow-creatures. + +The least reflection will, nevertheless, suffice to make any one +perceive, that God, if he is just and good, cannot exist as a being +known to some, but unknown to others. If Freethinkers are men void of +reason, God would be unjust to punish them for being blind and +insensible, or for having too little penetration and understanding to +perceive the force of those natural proofs on which the existence of +the Deity has been founded. A God full of equity cannot punish men +for having been blind or devoid of reason. The Freethinkers, as +foolish as they are supposed, are beings less insensible than those +who make professions of believing in a God full of qualities that +destroy one another; they are less dangerous than the adorers of a +changeable Deity, who, they imagine, is pleased with the extermination +of a large portion of mankind, on account of their opinions. Our +speculations are indifferent to God, whose glory man cannot +tarnish--whose power mortals cannot abridge. They may, however, be +advantageous to ourselves; they may be perfectly indifferent to +society, whose happiness they may not affect; or they may be the +reverse of all this. For it is evident that the opinions of men do not +influence the happiness of society. + +Hence, Madam, let us leave men to think as they please, provided that +they act in such a manner as promotes the general good of society. The +thoughts of men injure not others; their actions may--their reveries +never. Our ideas, our thoughts, our systems, depend not on us. He who +is fully convinced on one point, is not satisfied on another. All men +have not the same eyes, nor the same brains; all have not the same +ideas, the same education, or the same opinions; they never agree +wholly, when they have the temerity to reason on matters that are +enveloped in the obscurity of imaginative fiction, and which cannot be +subject to the usual evidence accompanying matters of report, or +historic relation. + +Men do not long dispute on objects that are cognizable to their +senses, and which they can submit to the test of experience. The +number of self-evident truths on which men agree is very small; and +the fundamentals of morality are among this number. It is obvious to +all men of sense, that beings, united in society, require to be +regulated by justice, that they ought to respect the happiness of each +other, that mutual succor is indispensable; in a word, that they are +obliged to practise virtue, and to be useful to society, for personal +happiness. It is evident to demonstration, that the interest of our +preservation excites us to moderate our desires, and put a bridle on +our passions; to renounce dangerous habits, and to abstain from vices +which can only injure our fortune, and undermine our health. These +truths are evident to every being whose passions have not dominion +over his reason; they are totally independent of theological +speculations, which have neither evidence nor demonstration, and which +our mind can never verify; they have nothing in common with the +religious opinions on which the imagination soars from earth to sky, +nor with the fanaticism and credulity which are so frequently +producing among mankind the most opposite principles to morality and +the well-being of society. + +They who are of the Freethinkers' opinions are not more dangerous than +they who are of the priests' opinions. In short, Christianity has +produced effects more appalling than heathenism. The speculative +principles of the Freethinkers have done no injury to society; the +contagious principles of fanaticism and enthusiasm have only served to +spread disorder on the earth. If there are dangerous notions and fatal +speculations in the world, they are those of the devotees, who obey a +religion that divides men, and excites their passions, and who +sacrifice the interests of society, of sovereigns, and their subjects, +to their own ambition, their avarice, their vengeance and fury. + +There is no question that the Freethinker has motives to be good, even +though he admit not notions that bridle his passions. It is true that +the Freethinker has no invisible motives, but he has motives, and a +visible restraint, which, if he reflects, cannot fail to regulate his +actions. If he doubts about religion, he does not question the laws of +moral obligation; nor that it is his duty to moderate his passions, to +labor for his happiness and that of others, to avoid hatred, disdain, +and discord as crimes; and that he should shun vices which may injure +his constitution, reputation, and fortune. Thus, relatively to his +morality, the Freethinker has principles more sure than those of +superstition and fanaticism. In fine, if nothing can restrain the +Freethinker, a thousand forces united would not prevent the fanatic +from the commission of crimes, and the violation of duties the most +sacred. + +Besides, I believe that I have already proved that the morality of +superstition has no certain principles; that it varies with the +interests of the priests, who explain the intentions of the Divinity, +as they find these accordant or discordant to their views and +interests; which, alas! are too often the result of cruel and wicked +purposes. On the contrary, the Freethinker, who has no morality but +what he draws from the nature and character of man, and the constant +events which transpire in society, has a certain morality that is not +founded either on the caprice of circumstances or the prejudices of +mankind; a morality that tells him when he does evil, and blames him +for the evil so done, and that is superior to the morality of the +intolerant fanatic and persecutor. + +You thus perceive, Madam, on which side the morality of the +Freethinkers leans, what advantages it possesses over that inculcated +on the superstitious devotee, who knows no other rule than the caprice +of his priest, nor any other morality than what suits the interest of +the clergy, nor any other virtues than such as make him the slave of +their will, and which are too often in opposition to the great +interests of mankind. Thus you perceive, that what is understood by +the natural morality of the Freethinker, is much more constant and +more sure than that of the superstitious, who believe they can render +themselves agreeable to God by the intercession of priests. If the +Freethinker is blind or corrupted, by not knowing his duties which +nature prescribes to him, it is precisely in the same way as the +superstitious, whose invisible motives and sacred guides prevent him +not from going occasionally astray. + +These reflections will serve to confirm what I have already said, to +prove that morality has nothing in common with religion; and that +religion is its own enemy, though it pretends to dispense with support +from other sources. True morality is founded on the nature of man; the +morality of religion is founded only on the chimeras of imagination, +and on the caprice of those who speak of the Deity in a language too +often contrary to nature and right reason. + +Allow me, then, Madam, to repeat to you, that morality is the only +natural religion for man; the only object worthy his notice on earth; +the only worship which he is required to render to the Deity. It is +uniform, and replete with obvious duties, which rest not on the +dictation of priests, blabbing chit-chat they do not understand. If it +be this morality which I have defined, that makes us what we are, +ought we not to labor strenuously for the happiness of our race? If it +be this morality that makes us reasonable; that enables us to +distinguish good from evil, the useful from the hurtful; that makes us +sociable, and enables us to live in society to receive and repay +mutual benefits; we ought at least to respect all those who are its +friends. If it be this morality which sets bounds to our temper, it is +that which interdicts the commission in thought, word, or action, of +what would injure another, or disturb the happiness of society. If it +attach us to the preservation of all that is dear to us, it points out +how by a certain line of conduct we may preserve ourselves; for its +laws, clear and of easy practice, inflict on those who disobey them +instant punishment, fear, and remorse; on the other hand, the +observance of its duties is accompanied with immediate and real +advantages, and notwithstanding the depravity which prevails on earth, +vice always finds itself punished, and virtue is not always deprived +of the satisfaction it yields, of the esteem of men, and the +recompense of society; even if men are in other respects unjust, they +will concede to the virtuous the due meed of praise. + +Behold, Madam, to what the dogmas of natural religion reduce us: in +meditating on it, and in practising its duties, we shall be truly +religious, and filled with the spirit of the Divinity; we shall be +admired and respected by men; we shall be in the right way to be loved +by those who rule over us, and respected by those who serve us; we +shall be truly happy in this world, and we shall have nothing to fear +in the next. + +These are laws so clear, so demonstrable, and whose infraction is so +evidently punished, whose observance is so surely recompensed, that +they constitute the code of nature of all living beings, sentient and +reasoning; all acknowledge their authority; all find in them the +evidence of Deity, and consider those as sceptics who doubt their +efficacy. The Freethinker does not refuse to acknowledge as +fundamental laws, those which are obviously founded on the God of +Nature, and on the immutable and necessary circumstances of things +cognizable to the faculties of sentient natures. The Indian, the +Chinese, the savage, perceives these self-evident laws, whenever he is +not carried headlong by his passions into crime and error. In fine, +these laws, so true, and so evident, never can appear uncertain, +obscure, or false, as are those superstitious chimeras of the +imagination, which knaves have substituted for the truths of nature +and the dicta of common sense; and those devotees who know no other +laws than those of the caprices of their priests, necessarily obey a +morality little calculated to produce personal or general happiness, +but much calculated to lead to extravagance and inconvenient +practices. + +Hence, charming Eugenia, you will allow mankind to think as they +please, and judge of them after their actions. Oppose reason to their +systems, when they are pernicious to themselves or others; remove +their prejudices if you can, that they may not become the victims of +their caprices; show them the truth, which may always remove error; +banish from their minds the phantoms which disturb them; advise them +not to meditate on the mysteries of their priests; bid them renounce +all those illusions they have substituted for morality; and advise +them to turn their thoughts on that which conduces to their happiness. +Meditate yourself on your own nature, and the duties which it imposes +on you. Fear those chastisements which follow inattention to this law. +Be ambitious to be approved by your own understanding, and you will +rarely fail to receive the applauses of the human kind, as a good +member of society. + +If you wish to meditate, think with the greatest strength of your mind +on your nature. Never abandon the torch of reason; cherish truth +sincerely. When you are in uncertainty, pause, or follow what appears +the most probable, always abandoning opinions that are destitute of +foundation, or evidence of their truth and benefit to society. Then +will you, in good truth, yield to the impulse of your heart when +reason is your guide; then will you consult in the calmness of +passion, and counsel yourself on the advantages of virtue, and the +consequences of its want; and you may flatter yourself that you cannot +be displeasing to a wise God, though you disbelieve absurdities, nor +agreeable to a good God in doing things hurtful to yourself or to +others. + +Leaving you now to your own reflections, I shall terminate the series +of Letters you have allowed me to address you. Bidding you an +affectionate farewell, + + I am truly yours. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters to Eugenia, by Baron d'Holbach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA *** + +***** This file should be named 31275.txt or 31275.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/7/31275/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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