How can people hold these opinions? What joy can we find in the
expectation of nothing but hopeless misery? What reason for boasting
that we are in impenetrable darkness? And how can it happen that the
following argument occurs to a reasonable man?

    "I know not who put me into the world, nor what the world is,
nor what I myself am. I am in terrible ignorance of everything. I know
not what my body is, nor my senses, nor my soul, not even that part of
me which thinks what I say, which reflects on all and on itself, and
knows itself no more than the rest. I see those frightful spaces of
the universe which surround me, and I find myself tied to one corner
of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am put in this place
rather than in another, nor why the short time which is given me to
live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the
whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see
nothing but infinites on all sides, which surround me as an atom and
as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All
I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very
death which I cannot escape.

    "As I know not whence I come, so I know not whither I go. I know
only that, in leaving this world, I fall for ever either into
annihilation or into the hands of an angry God, without knowing to
which of these two states I shall be for ever assigned. Such is my
state, full of weakness and uncertainty. And from all this I
conclude that I ought to spend all the days of my life without
caring to inquire into what must happen to me. Perhaps I might find
some solution to my doubts, but I will not take the trouble, nor
take a step to seek it; and after treating with scorn those who are
concerned with this care, I will go without foresight and without fear
to try the great event, and let myself be led carelessly to death,
uncertain of the eternity of my future state."

    Who would desire to have for a friend a man who talks in this
fashion? Who would choose him out from others to tell him of his
affairs? Who would have recourse to him in affliction? And indeed to
what use in life could one put him?

    In truth, it is the glory of religion to have for enemies men so
unreasonable; and their opposition to it is so little dangerous that
it serves, on the contrary, to establish its truths. For the Christian
faith goes mainly to establish these two facts: the corruption of
nature, and redemption by Jesus Christ. Now I contend that, if these
men do not serve to prove the truth of the redemption by the
holiness of their behaviour, they at least serve admirably to show the
corruption of nature by sentiments so unnatural.

    Nothing is so important to man as his own state, nothing is so
formidable to him as eternity; and thus it is not natural that there
should be men indifferent to the loss of their existence, and to the
perils of everlasting suffering. They are quite different with
regard to all other things. They are afraid of mere trifles; they
foresee them; they feel them. And this same man who spends so many
days and nights in rage and despair for the loss of office, or for
some imaginary insult to his honour, is the very one who knows without
anxiety and without emotion that he will lose all by death. It is a
monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time this
sensibility to trifles and this strange insensibility to the
greatest objects. It is an incomprehensible enchantment, and a
supernatural slumber, which indicates as its cause an all-powerful
force.

    There must be a strange confusion in the nature of man, that he
should boast of being in that state in which it seems incredible
that a single individual should be. However, experience has shown me
so great a number of such persons that the fact would be surprising,
if we did not know that the greater part of those who trouble
themselves about the matter are disingenuous and not, in fact, what
they say. They are people who have heard it said that it is the
fashion to be thus daring. It is what they call "shaking off the
yoke," and they try to imitate this. But it would not be difficult
to make them understand how greatly they deceive themselves in thus
seeking esteem. This is not the way to gain it, even I say among those
men of the world who take a healthy view of things and who know that
the only way to succeed in this life is to make ourselves appear
honourable, faithful, judicious, and capable of useful service to a
friend; because naturally men love only what may be useful to them.
Now, what do we gain by hearing it said of a man that he has now
thrown off the yoke, that he does not believe there is a God who
watches our actions, that he considers himself the sole master of
his conduct, and that he thinks he is accountable for it only to
himself.? Does he think that he has thus brought us to have henceforth
complete confidence in him and to look to him for consolation, advice,
and help in every need of life? Do they profess to have delighted us
by telling us that they hold our soul to be only a little wind and
smoke, especially by telling us this in a haughty and self-satisfied
tone of voice? Is this a thing to say gaily? Is it not, on the
contrary, a thing to say sadly, as the saddest thing in the world?

    If they thought of it seriously, they would see that this is so
bad a mistake, so contrary to good sense, so opposed to decency, and
so removed in every respect from that good breeding which they seek,
that they would be more likely to correct than to pervert those who
had an inclination to follow them. And, indeed, make them give an
account of their opinions, and of the reasons which they have for
doubting religion, and they will say to you things so feeble and so
petty, that they persuade you of the contrary. The following is what a
person one day said to such a one very appositely: "If you continue to
talk in this manner, you will really make me religious." And he was