credunt?*

    * "What will become of men who mistake small things and do not
believe in greater?"

    194. ... Let them at least learn what is the religion they attack,
before attacking it. If this religion boasted of having a clear view
of God, and of possessing it open and unveiled, it would be
attacking it to say that we see nothing in the world which shows it
with this clearness. But since, on the contrary, it says that men
are in darkness and estranged from God, that He has hidden Himself
from their knowledge, that this is in fact the name which He gives
Himself in the Scriptures, Deus absconditus;* and finally, if it
endeavours equally to establish these two things: that God has set
up in the Church visible signs to make Himself known to those who
should seek Him sincerely, and that He has nevertheless so disguised
them that He will only be perceived by those who seek Him with all
their heart; what advantage can they obtain, when, in the negligence
with which they make profession of being in search of the truth,
they cry out that nothing reveals it to them; and since that
darkness in which they are, and with which they upbraid the Church,
establishes only one of the things which she affirms, without touching
the other, and, very far from destroying, proves her doctrine?

    * Is. 45. 15. "Thou art a God that hidest thyself."

    In order to attack it, they should have protested that they had
made every effort to seek Him everywhere, and even in that which the
Church proposes for their instruction, but without satisfaction. If
they talked in this manner, they would in truth be attacking one of
her pretensions. But I hope here to show that no reasonable person can
speak thus, and I venture even to say that no one has ever done so. We
know well enough how those who are of this mind behave. They believe
they have made great efforts for their instruction when they have
spent a few hours in reading some book of Scripture and have
questioned some priests on the truths of the faith. After that, they
boast of having made vain search in books and among men. But,
verily, I will tell them what I have often said, that this
negligence is insufferable. We are not here concerned with the
trifling interests of some stranger, that we should treat it in this
fashion; the matter concerns ourselves and our all.

    The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great
consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have
lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is. All our
actions and thoughts must take such different courses, according as
there are or are not eternal joys to hope for, that it is impossible
to take one step with sense and judgment unless we regulate our course
by our view of this point which ought to be our ultimate end.

    Thus our first interest and our first duty is to enlighten
ourselves on this subject, whereon depends all our conduct.
Therefore among those who do not believe, I make a vast difference
between those who strive with all their power to inform themselves and
those who live without troubling or thinking about it.

    I can have only compassion for those who sincerely bewail their
doubt, who regard it as the greatest of misfortunes, and who,
sparing no effort to escape it, make of this inquiry their principal
and most serious occupation.

    But as for those who pass their life without thinking of this
ultimate end of life, and who, for this sole reason that they do not
find within themselves the lights which convince them of it, neglect
to seek them elsewhere, and to examine thoroughly whether this opinion
is one of those which people receive with credulous simplicity, or one
of those which, although obscure in themselves, have nevertheless a
solid and immovable foundation, I look upon them in a manner quite
different.

    This carelessness in a matter which concerns themselves, their
eternity, their all, moves me more to anger than pity; it astonishes
and shocks me; it is to me monstrous. I do not say this out of the
pious zeal of a spiritual devotion. I expect, on the contrary, that we
ought to have this feeling from principles of human interest and
self-love; for this we need only see what the least enlightened
persons see.

    We do not require great education of the mind to understand that
here is no real and lasting satisfaction; that our pleasures are
only vanity; that our evils are infinite; and, lastly, that death,
which threatens us every moment, must infallibly place us within a few
years under the dreadful necessity of being for ever either
annihilated or unhappy.

    There is nothing more real than this, nothing more terrible. Be we
as heroic as we like, that is the end which awaits the world. Let us
reflect on this and then say whether it is not beyond doubt that there
is no good in this life but in the hope of another; that we are
happy only in proportion as we draw near it; and that, as there are no
more woes for those who have complete assurance of eternity, so
there is no more happiness for those who have no insight into it.

    Surely then it is a great evil thus to be in doubt, but it is at
least an indispensable duty to seek when we are in such doubt; and
thus the doubter who does not seek is altogether completely unhappy
and completely wrong. And if besides this he is easy and content,
professes to be so, and indeed boasts of it; if it is this state
itself which is the subject of his joy and vanity, I have no words
to describe so silly a creature.