r
 
 A PRESERVATIVE 
 
 AGAINST RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES. 
 
 ,Pti// ^ H ' 
 
 - 
 
 BY BARON D'ftOLBACH 
 
 49r\ -n 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE SYSTEM OF NATURE, THE SOCIAL, SYSTEM, GOOD Q . 
 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." 
 
 LUCKETII De Rerum JVatura, lib. iv. v. 6, 7. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBLISHED BY JOSIAH P. MENDUM, 
 
 1870.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
 
 JOSIAIJ P. MENDUM, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 ELECTROTYBED AT THE 
 BOSTOK STEREOTYPE TOUNDRT.
 
 NAIGEOFS PREFACE 
 
 1768. 
 
 FOR many years this work has been known 
 under the title of Letters to Eugenia. The secre- 
 tive 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, servi- 
 tude, 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 manu- 
 script, 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 manu-
 
 IV NAIGEON 8 PREFACE. 
 
 scripts, 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 belong- 
 ing to every species of literature, could never 
 succeed in acquiring a copy of the Letters to Eu- 
 genia, and in his time there were only three in 
 Paris ; it may have been from design, propter 
 metum Judceorum ; * it may have been there we're 
 actually no more known. 
 
 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 con- 
 siderably multiplied, since the copy from which 
 this edition is printed has been revised and cor- 
 rected 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 nu- 
 merous are the manuscripts of a work, the more 
 
 * On account of fear of the Jews, or, in other words, the intolerant 
 clergy of the despotic government.
 
 NAIGEON S PREPACK. T 
 
 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 read- 
 ings 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, witli 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 Abbd 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 belong- 
 ing to the school of Seaux. All that we can pro- 
 nounce with certainty is the fact, that it is only
 
 vi NAIGEON'S PREFACE. 
 
 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 ilpon 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 unfa- 
 miliar. 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 be- 
 ginning 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 foun- 
 dations of a system of morality legitimately estab-
 
 NAIGEON'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 lished upon the nature of man, upon his physical 
 wants, and upon his social relations a base in- 
 finitely better and more solid than that of religion, 
 because sooner or later the lie is discovered, re- 
 jected, 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, natures judicia 
 confirmed.* 
 
 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 am- 
 bition 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.) 
 
 * " Time effaces the comments of opinion, but it confirms the judg- 
 ments of nature." CICERO.
 
 viii NAIGEON'S PHEFACE. 
 
 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 anything more certain 
 concerning the person to whom our author has 
 addressed his w r ork. 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 
 tittle importance, and could only serve to satisfy 
 the vain curiosity of some idle readers, who avid- 
 iously 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 de- 
 sire to know to whom a grateful homage should 
 be addressed. In this case the desire is so much
 
 NAIGEON S PREFACE. IX 
 
 the more unreasonable because it cannot be satis- 
 fied ; first, because when death and proscription is A/ 
 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 reli- 
 gious opinions; secondly, because it is a matter 
 of public notoriety that all the works of this char- 
 acter 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, con- 
 sequently, do not hear in the tomb either the im- 
 portunate and denunciatory cries of the supersti- 
 tious, or the just eulogiums of the friends of truth ; 
 thirdly and lastly, because this curiosity, so unfor- 
 tunately 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
 
 x NAIGEON'S PREFACE. 
 
 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 LET- 
 TERS 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 byd'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' Hoi- 
 bach 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 trans- 
 lated 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,
 
 Xll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 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 sedu- 
 lously 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 ines- 
 timable 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, with- 
 out any publisher's name, and with the imprint of 
 London on the title page, in order to set those per- 
 secutors 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
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xiii 
 
 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'Hol- 
 bach's other works, it is distinguished by an ardent 
 love of liberty, and an invincible hatred of despot- 
 ism ; 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 overbur- 
 dened with unreasonable impositions, to those who 
 need consolation and guidance, and to those search- 
 ing 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 Eng- 
 lish: 
 
 " Reason's pure light I seek to give the mind, 
 And from Religion's fetters free mankind." 
 
 6 A. C. M.
 
 xiv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 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, Mar- 
 chioness de Vermandois. Her husband held the 
 lucrative post of farmer-general to the king, and 
 besides inherited large estates. He possessed ex- 
 cellent natural abilities, and his mind was strength- 
 ened 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'Es- 
 trades, 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 Verman- 
 dois, and the father of Marguerite, as a means of
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xv 
 
 joining their estates, contracted their children with- 
 out deigning to consult the wishes of the parties, 
 and obedience or disinheritance was the only alter- 
 native. When the compact was concluded, Mar- 
 guerite 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 beau- 
 tiful, 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 dea'r to all who enjoyed her 
 intimacy, and a strong friendship sprang up be- 
 tween her and Baron d'Holbach. Greatly pleased 
 with him at first, Marguerite was afterwards as
 
 xvi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 greatly shocked. When their intercourse had be- 
 come so familiar as to permit that frankness and 
 freedom of conversation which prevails among in- 
 timate 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 unbe- 
 lievers in men so agreeable in manners and person, 
 and so profound in learning, as d'Holbach, Didero^ 
 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 pre- 
 sented 
 
 " 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
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xvii 
 
 unchangeable affection for which the d'Holbachs 
 were eminently distinguished among their acquaint- 
 ances, 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 with- 
 draw 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 
 retired to her husband's country seat, where 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, request- 
 ing 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 
 b*
 
 XV111 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 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 execu- 
 tioner. 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 litera- 
 ture, and the second similar work written by him 
 was the LETTERS TO EUGENIA. These were the pre- 
 ludes 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 actu- 
 ated by no desire of literary fame. It was love of 
 truth alone that impelled d'Holbach to write. Bril- 
 liant, profound, eloquent and excellent as were his 
 writings, attracting notice as they did from the
 
 TRANSLATOR'^ PREFACE. xix 
 
 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 benevo- 
 lence, and uncommon liberality, as a man of pro- 
 found 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 phi- 
 losophers, 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,
 
 xx TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 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 prep- 
 aration 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, 130 
 
 (xxi)
 
 XX11 CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 OF THE PIOUS RITES, PRAYERS, AND AUSTERITIES OF CHRIS- 
 TIANITY, 136 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 OF EVANGELICAL VIRTUES AND CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, 154 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 OF THE ADVANTAGES CONTRIBUTED TO GOVERNMENT BY RE- 
 LIGION, 184 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 OF THE ADVANTAGES RELIGION CONFERS ON THOSE WHO PRO- 
 FESS IT, 211 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 OF HUMAN OR NATURAL MORALITY, 5233 
 
 LETTER X-II. 
 
 OF THE SMALL CONSEQUENCE TO BE ATTACHED TO MEN'S SPEC- 
 ULATIONS, AND THE INDULGENCE WHICH SHOULD BE EX- 
 TENDED TO THEM,... 255
 
 
 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 (xxiii)
 
 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 suc- 
 cor. Is it, then, true that Eugenia is miserable ? 
 Is even she tormented with chagrin, scruples, and 
 inquietudes ? In the midst of opulence and gran- 
 deur ; -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 melan- 
 choly 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 occu- 
 pied with your duties, refreshed with useful reading 
 and entertaining conversation, and having within 
 1 (i)
 
 2 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 pro- 
 cure contentment and peace ? Alas ! even if your 
 letter had not confirmed it but too much, from the 
 trouble which agitates you I should have recog- 
 nized 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 under- 
 standing, 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
 
 LETTER I. 3 
 
 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 exam- 
 ining them with still further care and attention, they 
 will cease to shock you. Reason, good faith, and 
 truth cannot do otherwise than exert great influ- 
 ence 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 im- 
 parted an exquisitely lively imagination, and a cer- 
 tain admixture of melancholy which disposes to 
 despondent revery. It is from this peculiar mental
 
 4 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 constitution that arise the woes that now afflict 
 you. Your goodness, candor, and sincerity pre- 
 clude your- suspecting in others either fraud or 
 malignity. The gentleness of your character pre- 
 vents 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 con- 
 sult your own reason and rely upon your own un- 
 derstanding. 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, judg- 
 ment, 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 con- 
 sequence of such a state of mind, all those mo- 
 ments 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
 
 LETTER I. 5 
 
 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 actu- 
 ally 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 dis- 
 covering 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 paint- 
 ings, 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 for- 
 ever in their bosoms. 
 1*
 
 * 
 
 6 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 Such are the artifices which the ministers of re- 
 ligion 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 understand- 
 ing 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 
 \J 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 im- 
 pregnated with inconceivable mysteries that are 
 announced as sacred truths, and they are accus- 
 tomed to contemplate phantoms before which they 
 habitually tremble. In a word, measures are taken 
 which are the best calculated to render those blind
 
 LETTER I. 7 
 
 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, prodi- 
 gies, 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 sim- 
 plicity 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. en- 
 lightened and reasonable upon all other topics, 
 why does she renounce her understanding and her
 
 8 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 her- 
 self 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 invol- 
 untary 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
 
 LETTER I. 9 
 
 consult their reason. Pascal constantly imagined >k 
 that he saw hell yawning under his feet; Malle- 
 branche was extravagantly credulous ; Hobbes had 
 a great terror of phantoms and demons ; * and the 
 immortal Newton wrote a ridiculous commentary v 
 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 sensi- 
 ble persons, and those who reason with the most 
 correctness upon every other matter, relapse into 
 their infancy whenever religion is in question. 
 
 Thus, Madam, you need not blush for a weak- 
 ness 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, Jt 
 and fear not to examine with perfect composure 
 the phantoms which alarm you. In a matter which 
 so greatly interests your repose, consult that en- 
 lightened 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 van- 
 quish 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 
 
 * On this subject see Bayle's Diet. Crit., art. Hobbes, Rem. N.
 
 10 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 un- 
 derstandings ; 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 vo- 
 luptuousness 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
 
 LETTER I. 11 
 
 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, embarrass- 
 ments without end, crushing uncertainties, inex- 
 plicable enigmas, and dangerous reveries, which 
 are only calculated to disturb your repose, to de- 
 prive you of happiness, and to render you incapa- 
 ble 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 disposi- 
 tion, and that amenity of character, which consti- 
 tute the greatest charms of personal intercourse. 
 A thousand examples might be adduced to con- 
 vince you that devotees who are the most occupied 
 in superstitious observances to please God are not
 
 12 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 im- 
 poses 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 atten- 
 tion, who lays it down as a duty to his creatures 
 that they should sacrifice to him their most agree- 
 able and most innocent inclinations, and who orders 
 that they should render themselves miserable here 
 below, under the^ idea of pleasing him. In accord- 
 ance with such principles, we generally see devotees 
 executing with much fidelity the duty of torment- 
 ing 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 inhabit- 
 ants 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 dis- 
 position, and the beneficence which displays itself 
 in all your conduct, are all so great that even reli-
 
 LETTER I. 13 
 
 gion does not impel you to any dangerous excesses. 
 Nevertheless, devotion often causes strange meta- 
 morphoses. 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 conse- \ 
 quence of these pretended miracles of grace we 
 frequently see sorrow succeed to enjoyment, a 
 gloomy and unhappy state to one of innocent gay- 
 ety, 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 danger- 
 ous leaven, that is fitted to corrupt even the most J 
 honest hearts. 
 
 Do you not see, in fact, the excesses to which 
 fanaticism and zeal drive the wisest and best mean- 
 ing 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 equi- 
 table, upon every other matter, religion transforms to 
 2
 
 c 
 
 14 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ferocious beasts. The most feeling and compassion- 
 ate 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 hu- 
 manity 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 modera- 
 tion or justice. Do you not daily see individuals 
 who pique themselves upon their sensibility un- 
 blushingly 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 estima- 
 ble, 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
 
 LETTER I. 15 
 
 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 ridicu- 
 lously 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 poi- 
 son. To master with more certainty her under- 
 standing, 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
 
 16 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 exam- 
 ine for yourself this religion, which, far from pro- 
 curing 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 ren- 
 der peace to your mind. It is your duty carefully 
 to preserve that sweetness of temper, that indul- 
 gence, 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 dis- 
 appear 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
 
 LETTER I. 1< 
 
 truths of religion are mysteries that we must adopt 
 without comprehending them, and that it is neces- 
 sary 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 super- 
 natural is unsuited to man, and whatever is beyond 
 his comprehension ought not to occupy his atten- 
 tion. 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 with- 
 out 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 en- 
 tertain 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 them- 
 selves with religious knowledge, in order to impart 
 it to others, should recognize their own dogmas as 
 beyond their own understanding, and that they 
 2*
 
 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 should obstinately inculcate to the people what 
 they acknowledge they do not comprehend them- 
 selves? 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 those empirics who are perpetu- 
 ally obliged to avow their own profound ignorance. 
 
 But if the mysteries of religion are incompre- 
 hensible 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 ordi- 
 nary 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 under- 
 standings of men, and of subjugating and despoil-
 
 LETTER I. 19 
 
 ing 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 suc- 
 cessfully 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 them- 
 selves 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 ser- 
 vice, yet they have inflicted profound, immedica- 
 ble, and incurable wounds upon superstition. Still, 
 if we believe the mercenaries of religion, the excel- 
 lence of their system makes it absolutely invulner- 
 able to every blow which can be inflicted upon it; 
 and they pretend Ihey have a thousand times in a
 
 20 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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, unin- 
 telligible verbiage, which can never be the language 
 of truth, and which demonstrates the embarrass- 
 ment, 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 per- 
 sons most versed in such jargon, and plainly indi- 
 cating that the authors of these replies do not 
 themselves understand what they say. 
 
 If you consult the clergy, they will not fail to
 
 LETTER I. 21 
 
 set forth the antiquity of their doctrine, which has 
 always maintained itself, notwithstanding the con- 
 tinual 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 j / 
 favor. If antiquity was a proof of truth, Chris- 
 tianity 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 for- 
 merly 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 appar- 
 ent effect, it is because the best reasons become 
 useless against the blindness of a superstition sus- 
 tained by the public authority, or against the tor- 
 rent of opinion and custom which sways the minds 
 of most men. With regard to the persecutions
 
 22 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 sup- 
 porters. They will adduce holy divines, great 
 philosophers, powerful reasoners, fathers of the 
 church, and learned interpreters, who have succes- 
 sively 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 mat- 
 ters 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 commenta-
 
 LETTEE I. 23 
 
 tors, 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 con- 
 cerning a religion which is founded upon such 
 books and which preaches such dogmas. They 
 prove that works emanating from the Supreme Be- 
 ing are obscure, unintelligible, and need human 
 assistance in order to be understood by those to -v 
 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 de- 
 cision 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
 
 24 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 ex- 
 amine it; and they whose judgment they so blind- 
 ly receive are precisely those persons upon whose 
 opinions they should look with the most suspicion. 
 The priests arrogate the possession of judging ex- 
 clusively 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 pro- 
 hibit 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 impar-
 
 LETTER I. 25 
 
 tial 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 ora- 
 cles nor theological opinions which it is not per- 
 mitted 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 tran- 
 quillity which I enjoy, and of which at present you 
 are unhappily deprived. The agitations of your 
 mind, the inquietudes of your body, and the at- 
 3
 
 26 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 tacks 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 w T hich actuates me to re- 
 store 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 ob- 
 jects which, once thoroughly examined, give no un- 
 easiness 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
 
 LETTER I.' 27 
 
 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 hap- 
 piness 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 devo- 
 tees 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 citi- 
 zen, 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 suffi- 
 cient 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 reflec- 
 tions 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
 
 28 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 than yours, and be found of some utility, I shall 
 felicitate myself for having contributed to the es- 
 tablishment of happiness by leading back to reason 
 minds which had wandered from it, by making 
 truth to be felt and known, and by unmasking im- 
 postures which have caused so many misfortunes 
 upon the earth. 
 
 In a word, I submit my reasoning to your judg- 
 ment, I confide fully in your discretion, and I allow 
 myself to conclude that my ideas, after you are dis- 
 abused 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 intri- 
 cate, and to envelop with clouds, in order to make 
 them more respectable and sacred, are not only 
 entirely susceptible of being understood by you,
 
 LETTER II. 29 
 
 but that they are likewise within the comprehen- 
 sion 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 admin- 
 ister an energetic and prompt remedy for the mal- 
 ady 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 par- 
 don 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 evi- 
 dences 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 ITS 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
 
 30 LETTEES TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ourselves whether all its parts lend a mutual sup- 
 port 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 disci- 
 ples the most real, the most extensive, and the most 
 durable advantages. A false religion must neces- 
 sarily 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 ad- 
 vantageous or injurious to the human race. 
 
 It is in accordance with these incontestable prin- 
 ciples 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 per- 
 fect manner than all other religions in the world.
 
 LETTER II. 31 
 
 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 parti- 
 sans, 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 good- 
 ness 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 re- 
 vealed by God himself; or, in other words, that these 
 truths were received directly from the Deity, who 
 concealed them from the remainder of mankind,
 
 32 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 and deprived them of a knowledge of his essence. 
 Thus the Christian religion is founded upon a 
 special revelation. And to whom was the revela- 
 tion 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 individ- 
 uals, who have, however, no titles upon his consid- 
 eration 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
 
 LETTER II. 33 
 
 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 ap- 
 proach 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 rev- 
 elation of a religion to only a single tribe or nation 
 sets forth a God neither good, impartial, nor equita- 
 ble, 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 ad- 
 mitted, 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
 
 34 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 him- 
 self 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
 
 LETTER II. 35 
 
 ~\ 
 
 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 omnip- 
 otence, 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 incompati- 
 ble with our ideas of the wisdom and immutability 
 of the Creator of the universe. Besides, these mira- 
 cles would be useless to God. If he be omnipotent, 
 can he not modify the -minds of his creatures ac- ( 
 cording 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
 
 
 36 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 my- 
 self 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 perform- 
 ing, how shall I have confidence in others, who may 
 be either more ignorant oj more stupid than my- 
 self, 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 oppo-
 
 LETTER II. 37 
 
 sition to the ideas I have formed of his essence, 
 his nature, and his divine perfections ? If I be per- 
 suaded 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 un- 
 just 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 de- 
 stroy 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, how- 
 ever, is what would happen were God himself to 
 perform, or to grant the power of performing, mira- 
 cles 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 pur- 
 posely to convince us that his goodness was insuf- 
 ficient for the welfare of his creatures ; he would 
 make a vain parade of his power, to hide his ina- 
 bility 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 
 4
 
 38 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 exist- 
 ence, 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 inca- 
 pable 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 destruc- 
 tion 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 re- 
 warded some of his favorites, thinks himself jus- 
 tified 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,
 
 LETTER II. 39 
 
 and beneficent God, whose omnipotence ought to 
 enable him to procure happiness to all his sub- 
 jects, without fear of exhausting the treasures of 
 his goodness. 
 
 If we are told that divine justice bears no re- 
 semblance 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 sove- 
 reign who, being both able and willing to occupy 
 himself with the happiness of his subjects, should 
 plunge the greatest number of them into misfor- 
 tune, 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 de- 
 structive 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 hap- 
 piness to every being to whom he has given exist-
 
 40 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ence ; 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 crea- 
 tures. 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 th'eir homage and worship to the Di- 
 vinity ? 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 found- 
 ed upon a fatal prejudice prevalent among the 
 generality of men, leading them to suppose that 
 unlimited power must inevitably exempt its pos- 
 sessor 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 pow- 
 erful to carry out all his caprices. These ideas are 
 evidently borrowed from the conduct of tyrants,
 
 LETTER II. 41 
 
 who no sooner find themselves possessed of abso- 
 lute 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 imagi- / 
 nation 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 pun- 1 
 ishing them in the most cruel manner. "We see 
 these pernicious characteristics of the Divinity pen- 
 etrating the entire economy of the Christian reli- 
 gion ; we find them in the books which are pre- 
 tended 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 extrava- 
 gances, so frequently cruel, and his partiality, so per- 
 nicious to the greater portion of the human race. J 
 4*
 
 4*2 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 When we exclaim against conduct which, in the 
 eyes of all reasonable men, must appear so exces- 
 sively capricious, it is expected that our mouths 
 will be closed by the assertion that God is omnipo- 
 tent, that it is for him to determine how he will 
 bestow benefits, and that he is under no obliga- 
 tions 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 argu- 
 ments. 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 sin- 
 cerely ; 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 be- 
 lieve him to be just and good, those who are the 
 objects of his folly and rigor cannot prevent them- 
 selves 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
 
 LETTER II. 43 
 
 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. Ac- 
 cording to the principles of the Christian religion, 
 God does not cease, for a single instant, his occu- 
 pations 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 con- 
 tradictions 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,
 
 44 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 no- 
 tions 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 neg- 
 lect 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 sup- 
 pose that the greater portion of the human race ex- 
 cites 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 oc- 
 cupied in vexing him, exciting his wrath, troubling
 
 LETTER II. 45 
 
 his felicity, deranging the order that he loves, frus- 
 trating his designs, and forcing him to change his 
 immutable intentions ? 
 
 You are, undoubtedly, surprised at the contra- 
 dictions 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. Jf you coolly 
 examine the ideas presented to us in the revelation 
 common both to Jews and Christians, and con- 
 tained 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 un- 
 doing 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 x 
 where display to us a God of goodness in the com- 
 mission of wickedness ; an omnipotent God, whose 
 projects unceasingly miscarry ; an immutable God, 
 changing his maxims and his conduct ; an omnis- 
 cient God, continually deceived unawares ; a reso- \ 
 lute 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
 
 c 
 
 40 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 all-sufficient God, yet subject to jealousy ; a pow- 
 erful God, yet suspicious, vindictive, and cruel ; 
 and a just God, yet permitting and prescribing the 
 most atrocious iniquities. In a word, he is a per- 
 fect God, yet displaying at the same time such im- 
 perfections 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 re- 
 serve 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 disser- 
 tation ; and I doubt not you have already per- 
 ceived that a system built on a basis possessing so 
 little solidity as that of the God whom his devo- 
 tees 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 con- 
 tradictions. 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
 
 LETTER III. 4i 
 
 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 wis- 
 dom, 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
 
 48 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 pure spirit producing matter. But this discussion 
 is throwing us into metaphysieal researches, which I 
 wish to avoid. It will be sufficient to you that you 
 may console yourself for not being able to compre- 
 hend 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 ex- 
 plaining things, have done nothing but invent 
 words, in order to render them dubious, and to con- 
 found all our natural conceptions. 
 
 I will not, however, tire you by a fastidious dis- 
 play of the blunders which fill the narrative of 
 Moses, which they announce to us as being dic- 
 tated by the Deity. If we read it with a little 
 attention, we shall perceive in every page philo- 
 sophical 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 pres- 
 ence alone produces day, whose absence produces 
 night, and whose different aspects constitute morn- 
 ing and evening. You will there find that the
 
 LETTER III. 49 
 
 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 pos- 
 sess 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 him- 
 self 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 vulgari- 
 ties 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 
 5
 
 50 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 great- 
 ness 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 con- 
 tinually 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 change- 
 able, 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 lan- 
 guage 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 exam- 
 ination of revelation, where we find in each page 
 that God expresses himself in a manner quite un- 
 worthy of the Deity. Could not an omnipotent 
 God, instead of degrading himself, instead of con-
 
 LETTER III. 51 
 
 descending to speak the language of ignorance, so 
 far enlighten them as to make them understand a 
 language more true, more noble, and more conform- 
 able 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 cre- 
 ating 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
 
 52 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 hom- 
 age, 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-suffi- 
 cient being, who, without the assistance of any 
 other, is supremely happy. All the characters in 
 which the Bible portrays the Deity are always bor- 
 rowed 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 con- 
 ferred 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 Cre- 
 ator? 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
 
 LETTER in. 53 
 
 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 sincer- 
 ity ? In a God who punishes the being he has 
 tempted, or subjected to temptation, do you per- 
 ceive any equity ? In a God who extends his ven- 
 geance 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 ap- 
 pearance of goodness ? 
 5*
 
 54 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 no- 
 tions 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, con- 
 tinually, 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
 
 LETTER III. 55 
 
 is forced to permit proceedings which his omnipo- 
 tence could not prevent. In the writings revealed 
 by this God, he appears occupied only in blacken- 
 ing his own character, degrading himself, vilifying 
 himself, even in the eyes of men whom he would 
 excite to worship him and pay him homage ; over- 
 turning 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 con- 
 taining the oracles dictated and revealed by him. 
 Nothing but a heap of absurdities could possibly 
 result from principles so false and irrational ; never- 
 theless, 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.
 
 OO LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 cove- 
 nant, the Sovereign of nature prescribes a melan- 
 choly, ridiculous, and whimsical ceremony, to the 
 observance of which a God of wisdom attaches his 
 favors. The posterity of this chosen man are con- 
 sequently 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 pre- 
 vented 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 per- 
 formed the most astonishing miracles. At the 
 voice of Moses all nature is confounded ; God
 
 LETTER III. 57 
 
 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 r 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 peo- 
 ple ; he tells them to run off, after having first 
 counselled them to rob the Egyptians. The fugi- 
 tives are pursued ; but God, who protects these rob- 
 bers, 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 mira- 
 cles. 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 stub- 
 bornness, which was still more inconceivable and 
 wonderful than the greatest miracles. These won- 
 ders, which are now extolled as convincing proofs 
 of the divine mission of Moses, were by the con- 
 fession of this same Moses, who has himself trans- 
 mitted us the accounts, incapable of convincing 
 the people who were witnesses of them, and never
 
 58 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 produced the good effects which the Deity pro- 
 posed to himself in performing them. 
 
 The credulity, the obstinacy, the continual de- 
 pravity of the Jews, Madam, are the most indubi- 
 table 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 sub- 
 missive 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 usurpa- 
 tion. 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 his- 
 tory 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 per- 
 mits these same nations to exercise over his favor- 
 ite people the greatest of cruelties. He delivers
 
 LETTER III. 59 
 
 them into the hands of their enemies, who are like- 
 wise the enemies of God himself. Idolatrous na- 
 tions 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 cher- 
 ished 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 liberat- 
 ing the Jews, he is himself compelled, notwith- 
 standing 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
 
 60 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 his own Son ; he did not foresee that this Son 
 would be rejected. What do I say ? He man- 
 aged matters in such a way as not to be recog- 
 nized, 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 unprof- 
 itable ! 
 
 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 prophe- 
 cies 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 suffer- 
 ings 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
 
 LETTER III. 61 
 
 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 com- 
 mitting 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 pos- 
 sible 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 com- 
 mitted 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 Mes- 
 siah, 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 
 6
 
 62 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 cer- 
 tain 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 thou- 
 sand 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 ob- 
 scure riddles, which have been decorated with the 
 pompous name of prophecies, we shall perceive
 
 LETTER III. 63 
 
 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 wor- 
 ship 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
 
 64 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 
 y 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 acknowl- 
 edged 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 suspi- 
 cious 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
 
 LETTER III. 65 
 
 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 fisliers of 
 men; that is to say, he will enable them to subsist 
 by his cunning tricks, at the expense of the multi- 
 tude 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 him- 
 self, and confirms the high notions which his parti- 
 sans 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 em- 
 piric becomes a preacher ; he makes use of riddles, 
 obscure sentences, and parables to the multitude, x \ 
 
 that always admire what they do not understand. 
 
 c *
 
 66 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 ava- 
 ricious, 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 them- 
 selves 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 out- 
 wits 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 andpriests. These, who have the power 
 in their own hands, finish by persecuting them, im- 
 prisoning them, flogging them, chastising them, and 
 putting them to death. Poor wretches, habituated 
 to poverty, undergo all these sufferings with a forti- 
 tude which we frequently meet with in malefactors. 
 In some we find their courage fortified by the zeal
 
 LETTER III. 67 
 
 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 sup- 
 posed, may possibly be right, and for whom com- 
 passion 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 adher- 
 ents, 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 ma- 
 terials 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 \vere 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
 
 08 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 conforma- 
 ble 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 re- 
 ligion 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 prop- 
 agation 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 fanati- 
 cism 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
 
 LETTER III. 69 
 
 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 reiigious 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 rig- 
 orous 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. Cow- 
 ardice would expose us to infamy all the rest of our 
 days. There is nothing miraculous in the con- 
 stancy 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
 
 70 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 mira- 
 cles 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 peo- 
 ple prodigies to which they pretended to have been 
 witnesses, or which some of them, perhaps, believed 
 they had really seen. All those who deceive man- 
 kind are not always cheats; they are frequently 
 deceived by those who are knaves in reality. Be- 
 sides, I believe I have sufficiently proved, that 
 miracles are repugnant to the essence of an immu- 
 table 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.
 
 LETTER III. 71 
 
 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, unintel- 
 ligible, 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 x 
 doctors which are the formal prophecies wherein 1 s 
 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 intelli- 
 gible, it is easy to perceive that the prophets in- 
 tended io 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 hap- 
 pened respecting David, Solomon, Cyrus, &c. 
 
 We imagine we see the chastisement of the
 
 72 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 Jewish people announced in recitals where it is 
 evident the only matter in question was the Baby- 
 lonish captivity. In this event, so long prior to 
 Jesus Christ, they have imagined finding a predic- 
 tion 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 genera- 
 tion 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 Ves- 
 pasian 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. Be- 
 sides, 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 -him- 
 self, this God seems to have made a revelation only 
 to conceal himself. He does not speak but to be
 
 LETTER III. 73 
 
 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 occu- 
 pied only in building to destroy, in demolishing to 
 rebuild. Like a child disgusted with its play- 
 things, 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 crea- 
 ture, derange all his projects. In a word, the reve- 
 lations 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 
 7
 
 74 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 religion, appears to be founded only on the incapa- 
 bility 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 inhabit- 
 ants ; 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
 
 LETTER III. 75 
 
 his church. The inquietudes which they evince, 
 the efforts which they make to hinder the civiliza- 
 tion 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 sacer- 
 dotal 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 de- 
 grade and destroy the God who is asserted to be 
 their author. My first letter, I feel confident, ena- 
 bled 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.
 
 c 
 
 76 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Or THE FUNDAMENTAL DOGMAS OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 You are aware, Madam, that our theological 
 doctors pretend these revealed books, which I sum- 
 marily 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 unin- 
 telligible 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 compre- 
 hended ; to reveal that which cannot be compre- 
 hended 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 eter- 
 nal disputations. If it was the project of the
 
 LETTER IV. 77 
 
 Divinity, it would, without doubt, be attended with \ 
 perfect success. The teachers of Christianity never 
 agree on the manner in which they are to under- 
 stand 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 
 cf making any thing clear, and the dogmas which 
 they have successively invented have been insuffi- 
 cient to justify to the understanding of one man 
 of good sense the conduct of an infinitely perfect / 
 Being. 
 
 Hence, many among them, perceiving the incon- 
 veniences 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 riot 
 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 des- 
 tined to all his dear children. But are the theolo- 
 gians 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 inten- 
 tions of the Divinity? No; without doubt they 
 explain one mystery by citing another ; they scatter
 
 78 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 new obscurities on previous obscurities ; rarely do 
 they agree among themselves ; and when by chance 
 their opinions coincide, we are not more enlight- 
 ened, 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 coinci- 
 dence 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 noth- 
 ing 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 crea- 
 ture ; 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 rea- 
 son is so limited ? If God be infinite, how can a 
 finite creature reason respecting him ? If the mys- 
 teries 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 ?
 
 LETTER IV. 79 
 
 You see, then, Madam, that in depressing our 
 reason, in supposing it corrupted, our priests, at 
 the same time, annihilate even the necessity of 
 relioion, which cannot be either useful or important V 
 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 com- 
 pose 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 pro- 
 vided 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 obe- 
 dience, 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.
 
 
 SO LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 In this case, why did it not prevent that fall and 
 its consequences ? Was the reason of Adam cor- 
 rupted 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 him- 
 self, the theologians have imagined a being subor- 
 dinate 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 misera- 
 ble, and to overthrow the beneficent views of the 
 Eternal. This bad and perverse being they call 
 Satan, the Devil, the Evil One ; and w T e see him 
 play a great game in all the religions of the w^orld, 
 the founders of which have found in the impo- 
 tence 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
 
 LETTER IV. 81 
 
 if the Devil were really the author of sin,- it would 
 be he, in all justice, who ought to undergo all its J 
 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 ex- 
 isted, 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 con- 
 trary 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 per- 
 version of his designs. 
 
 Thus, Madam, the invention of the Devil does 
 not remedy the evil ; on the contrary, it but entan- 
 gles 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
 
 82 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 igno- 
 rant 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 dis- 
 grace of the All-powerful? By what forfeit has 
 he merited becoming the eternal object of the 
 anger of that God who created him ? The Chris- 
 tian 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 minis- 
 ters 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 sense- 
 less 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 fool- 
 ish dispositions, they have no other occupation 
 assigned them in the universe than to tempt man- 
 kind, 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, pre-
 
 LETTER IV. 83 
 
 pared 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 re- 
 bellion. 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 ex- 
 empt from ambition, pride, and folly. We ought, 
 also, to say as much for our first parent, who, not- 
 withstanding his wisdom, his innocence, and the 
 knowledge infused into him by God himself, could 
 not prevent himself from falling into the tempta- 
 tion of a demon.
 
 84 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 sys- 
 tem, to save which the theologians have invented 
 another still more absurd, that it might become^he 
 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 direct- 
 ing 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,
 
 LETTER IV. 85 
 
 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 crea- 
 tures would necessarily conduce to the mainte- 
 nance 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 detri- 
 ment 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 in- 
 consistent with divine goodness. This goodness 
 would be more real if men had always sufficient 
 resolution to do what is pleasing to God, conform- 
 ably 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 foresee- 
 ing 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
 
 86 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 of- 
 fended ; 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* 
 
 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 ac- 
 counted 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 
 
 * See what Bayle says, Diet. Crit., art. Origene, Rem. E., art. 
 Pauliciens, Rem. E., F., M., and torn. iij. of the R?po)ises aux Ques- 
 tions d'lin Provincial.
 
 LETTER IV. 87 
 
 they occasioned him ? Would it not- be to him- 
 self 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 danger- 
 ous, since it puts man in the condition of doing 
 evil that is truly frightful. We may thence con- 
 clude that this system, far from justifying God, 
 makes him capable of malice, imprudence, and' in- 
 justice. But this is to overturn all our ideas of a 
 being perfectly, nay, infinitely wise and good, con- 
 senting 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 sup- 
 positions. 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 dan- 
 gerous 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
 
 88 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 attach more importance to them than they really 
 deserve. 
 
 But to proceed. The system of predestination 
 supposes that God, in his eternal secrets, has re- 
 solved 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 sal- 
 vation. These contradictory and opposite propo- 
 sitions 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 sup- 
 poses 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 astonish- 
 ing absurdity, which our teachers have idly en- 
 deavored 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 ?
 
 LETTER IV. 89 
 
 How do they reason upon a dogma, and quarrel 
 with acrimony about a -system of which even them- 
 selves can comprehend nothing ? 
 
 The more you examine religion, the more occa- 
 sion you will have to be convinced that those 
 things which our divines call mysteries are nothing 
 else but the difficulties with which they are them- 
 selves 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 *N 
 give the name of mysteries to what they compre- 
 hend 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 ty- 
 rant, 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 divini- 
 ties of idolatrous people. With such notions, is it 
 not astonishing that this God should appear, to 
 8*
 
 90 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 excul- 
 pate the Deity from these apparent injustices or 
 aberrations, with which he might naturally be ac- 
 cused. 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 in- 
 justice 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 immuta- 
 ble, 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 dis- 
 cover 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
 
 LETTER V. 91 
 
 himself of the attachment of his friends, he might 
 give them some smiles of his favor. It is not so 
 with God, who knows all, who can do all, who has 
 nothing to fear from the dispositions of his crea- 
 tures. 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 pro- 
 fesses to justify God, do we not see it make him a 
 despot and tyrant more hateful than any of his 
 creatures ? J 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 sup- 
 posed that the Divinity, after causing men to pass 
 through the temptations, the trials, and the diffi-
 
 9:2 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 culties 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 in- 
 compatible 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 pas- 
 sions; afflicting, tormenting, resisting, and thwart- 
 ing the plans of Deity. It supposes, moreover, the 
 free-will of man a system w T hich we have seen in- 
 compatible with the goodness, justice, and omnipo- 
 tence 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 sup- 
 poses the immortality of the soul an opinion un- 
 known to the Jewish lawgiver, who is totally silent 
 on this topic to the people to whom God had man- 
 ifested himself; an opinion which even in the time
 
 LETTER V. 93 
 
 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 them- 
 selves in this respect ; an opinion which appears 
 to have been engendered in Egypt, or in India, ante- 
 rior to the Jewish religion, but which was unknown 
 among the Hebrews till they took occasion to in- 
 struct themselves in the Pagan philosophy of the 
 Greeks, and doctrines of Prato. 
 
 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 incon- 
 ceivable dogma, let us examine dispassionately 
 what this opinion really is ; let us endeavor to pen- 
 etrate to the principles on which it is supported ; 
 let us adopt it, if we shall find it an idea conforma- 
 ble 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 estab- 
 lished truth in all antiquity, though it may have 
 been adopted by many millions of mankind. 
 
 Those who maintain the opinion of the soul's im- 
 mortality, 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
 
 94 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 ^forrn 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 ; arid this, doubtless, is a mystery very 
 inconceivable. We have noticed the alliance be- 
 tween 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 insur- 
 mountable barriers which oppose them, the priests 
 have made man twofold, by supposing that he con- 
 tains something distinct from himself; they have 
 cut through all difficulties by saying that this union 
 is a great mystery, which man cannot understand-,
 
 LETTER V. 95 
 
 and they have everlasting recourse to the omnipo- 
 tence 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 argu- 
 ment 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 theo- 
 logical 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 can- 
 not 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 pre- 
 cise of yourself, banish from you the prejudices of 
 a vain theology, which only consists in repeating 
 words without attaching any new ideas to them,
 
 96 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 and which are insufficient to distinguish the soul 
 from the body, which appear only capable of mul- 
 tiplying beings without reason, of rendering more 
 incomprehensible and more obscure, notions less 
 distinct than we already have of ourselyes. 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 corpo- 
 real 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 under- 
 stand of it goes to prove that it perishes with the 
 body. Jt 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 ;
 
 LETTER V. 97 
 
 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 ma- 
 chine, once destroyed or deranged, is no longer 
 capable of producing the same effects, or of exer- 
 cising 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 sus- 
 ceptible then of pleasures nor pains, of agreeable or 
 sorrowful ideas, of lively or doleful reflections. 
 9
 
 98 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 It is only by means of the bodily organs that 
 we feel, think, and are merry or sad, happy or mis- 
 erable; this body once reduced to dust, we will 
 have neither perceptions nor sensations, and, by 
 consequence, neither memory nor ideas ; the dis- 
 persed particles will no longer have the same quali- 
 ties 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 resurrec- 
 tion. 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 phe- 
 nomenon 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 spe- 
 cies, 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
 
 LETTER V. 99 
 
 different men, should be reunited to reproduce the 
 individual to whom they formerly belonged. If 
 you cannot get over this impossibility, the theolo- 
 gians 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 resur- 
 rection 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 en- 
 joyed 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 indig- 
 nation 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 pre- 
 pared 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 him- 
 self, God, in recompensing him, would only recom- 
 pense himself for the grace which he had granted ; 
 and when he punished him, he punished him for
 
 100 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 secta- 
 ries, is capable of contemplating these frightful 
 circumstances, which it is imagined will accom- 
 pany 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 jus- 
 tice of God, who, one would very naturally sup- 
 pose, 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 in- 
 finite, and, by consequence, that the Divinity, 
 without doing violence to his justice, may avenge
 
 LETTER V. 101 
 
 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 him- 
 self, 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 inclina- 
 tion to commit another offence. Caligula found, 
 at least, some little amusement to forsake for a 
 time the cares of government, and enjoy the spec- 
 tacle of punishment which he inflicted on those 
 unfortunate men whom he had an interest in de- 
 stroying. 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 invulnej- 
 able, to resist, through the ceaseless ages of eter- 
 nity, 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 in- 
 finitely 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, 
 9*
 
 102 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 that is to say, the enemies of God, whom he will 
 employ as the ministers of his implacable ven- 
 geance. These wicked spirits, then, will execute 
 the commands which this severe judge will pro- 
 nounce 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 resusci- 
 tated? 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 pass- 
 ing in another world, cannot speak with certainty 
 as to their fate ? According to some of these wise- 
 acres, God will place the souls of such as are not 
 wholly displeasing to him in a place of punish- 
 ment, where, by rigorous torments, they shall have 
 the merit of expiating the faults w r ith which they 
 may stand chargeable at death. According to this 
 fine system, so profitable to our spiritual guides,
 
 LETTER V. 103 
 
 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 of- 
 fences in torment. It is on this ridiculous notion 
 that our priests have bottomed the doctrine of pur- 
 gatory, 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 cap- 
 tive souls, which he had only condemned to under- 
 go 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
 
 104 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 of all souls being spirits^ must be the same in 
 essence as the soul of the elect,) will, though de- 
 prived 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 ^Etna, 
 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 absurdi- 
 ties, 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 illu- 
 sions that so powerfully operate on weak and feel- 
 ing 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 re- 
 spected than those who are famed for indulgence 
 and humanity. The priests have had the art to
 
 LETTER V. 105 
 
 throw us into uncertainty and mistrust by the two- 
 fold 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 dis- 
 may 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 unde- 
 ceive one's self of this maxim, so often thundered 
 in our ears, and so generally adopted on the au- 
 thority of the priests, we have only to open our 
 eyes. Nevertheless, we see some Christians thor- 
 oughly persuaded of another life, who, notwith- 
 standing, 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.
 
 106 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 Besides, they console themselves by the same contra- 
 dictory 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 wicked- 
 ness 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 avari- 
 cious 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 hardi- 
 hood 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 spe- 
 cious 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 impres- 
 sions very lively, very deep, and very dangerous on
 
 LETTER V. 107 
 
 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 im- 
 agination, though the same phantoms that have 
 pursued you have been altogether banished from 
 the mind of those who have had neither your vir- 
 tues, your understanding, nor your sensibility. 
 
 According to his principles, a Christian must 
 always live in fear ; he can never know with cer- 
 tainty 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 de- 
 votion. It is not surprising that, with these fright- 
 ful 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 em- 
 brace 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 tempera- 
 ment determines them to contemplate it. They
 
 108 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 dis- 
 gusted 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 be- 
 come 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 incred- 
 ulous 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.
 
 LETTER V. 109 
 
 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 reflec- 
 tions 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 w r ho consults only his own fan- 
 tasy 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 
 10
 
 110 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 pro- 
 ceeds to inform us, that God will give grace to 
 whomsoever he pleases, yet it remains with them- 
 selves 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 dam- 
 nation, 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
 
 LETTER V. Ill 
 
 a future life, presents nothing consoling in the 
 Christian religion. On the contrary, it is calcu- 
 lated 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 con-, 
 soling 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 con- 
 sciousness 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, w T hose 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 sup- 
 port 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 dis- 
 cover 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
 
 112 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 preach up the terrors of the Lord, and the judg- 
 ments 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 con- 
 tradictory doctrines of these blind guides. 
 
 They tell you, besides, that the sentiment of the 
 immortality o 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 satis- 
 fying it, these are indubitable proofs that it is 
 destined to subsist eternally. In a w r ord, that as 
 we naturally desire to exist always, we may natu- 
 rally 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 diffi- 
 cult, 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 annihila- 
 tion itself present to us an idea preferable to that 
 of an existence which may very easily lead us to
 
 LETTER V. 113 
 
 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 riot 
 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 happi- 
 ness. 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 un- 
 certain, as difficult to be obtained, as it is unequiv- 
 ocally dependent on the fantasies of a capricious 
 10*
 
 114 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 Deity, who sports with the misfortunes of his crea- 
 tures. 
 
 Under every point of view in which we regard 
 the dogma of the soul's immortality, we are com- 
 pelled 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 disso- 
 lution, which is an invariable law that all that 
 exists must find verified. This haughty creature, 
 who fancies himself a privileged being, alone agree- 
 able 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 great- 
 est favorite, the most sublime, the most noble ; he 
 believes himself superior to all other animals
 
 LETTER V. 115 
 
 because he possesses the faculties of thinking, judg- 
 ing, 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 re- 
 membering, of foresight, too often render him un- 
 happy by the very idea of the past, the present, and 
 the future ? Do not his passions drive him to ex- 
 cesses unknown to the other animals ? Are his judg- 
 ments 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 con- 
 tinual terrors in their breast, making them look upon 
 some awful event, which imbitters their softest 
 pleasures, which enjoins them to torment them- 
 selves, and which threatens them with eternal dam- 
 nation ? 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 evanes- 
 cent is this fictitious superiority which he has arro- 
 gated to himself. We find that all the produc- 
 tions 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
 
 110 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 moun- 
 tains 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 doc- 
 trine, but one which places him exactly where 
 nature places him, but from which his puerile van- 
 ity 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.
 
 LETTER V. 117 
 
 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 alter- 
 native 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 in- 
 quietudes 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 Euge- 
 nia ! 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 em-
 
 118 . LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ployments 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 your- 
 self, 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 punish- 
 ments 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 con- 
 tinual need he has of their esteem and assistance. 
 Experience proves to him that vices the most con- 
 cealed are injurious to himself. He lives in per- 
 petual 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,
 
 LETTER V. 119 
 
 
 
 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 happi- 
 ness, 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 
 kibor 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.
 
 120 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 OF THE MYSTERIES, SACRAMENTS, AND RELIGIOUS CERE- 
 MONIES 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 contradic- 
 tions, I shall continue to examine the strange mys- 
 teries 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 famil- 
 iarized 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 noth- 
 ing can outdo, seem to be studious to multiply the 
 articles' of their faith, and the number of incon- 
 ceivable objects which they have said must be
 
 LKTTER VI. 121 
 
 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 Divini- 
 ties, 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 mys- 
 tery of the incarnation. Notwithstanding his inno- 
 cence, 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 pun- 
 ishment of imperfect beings, whom he did not 
 choose to amend, the punishment of his only Son, 
 full of divine perfections. The death of God be- 
 came 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 suf- 
 ficiently powerful against the Omnipotent to oblige 
 him to sacrifice his Son. This is what the priests 
 1J
 
 122 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 designate by the name of the mystery of redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 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 good- 
 ness ; but it was verily the excess of delirium to per- 
 sonify 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 dif- 
 ferent Gods ; nor will it remedy this metaphysical 
 polytheism to assert that these three are one. Be- 
 sides, this revery never entered the head of the 
 Hebrew legislator. The Eternal, in revealing him- 
 self 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 for- 
 mally announced, especially as it is the foundation 
 and corner stone of the Christian religion, which 
 was from all eternity an object of the divine solici- 
 tude, and on the establishment of which, if we 
 may credit our sapient priests, God seems to have 
 entertained serious thoughts long before the crea- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 Nevertheless, the second person, or the second
 
 LETTER VI. 123 
 
 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 omnip- 
 otence, 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 immo- 
 lating 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. accom- 
 plish this sacrifice. But I still ask if it would not 
 have been more simple, more conformable to all
 
 124 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 our ideas of Deity, for God to pardon the iniqui- 
 ties 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 sys- 
 tem 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
 
 LETTER VI. 125 
 
 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 pre- 
 science of a God who should find against his plans 
 na 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 
 1hey 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 inter- 
 est it is to have it believed, though they are as in- 
 capable as ourselves to comprehend the matter. 
 For the priests to say that they believe such ab- 
 surdities, is to be guilty of manifest falsehood ; 
 because a proposition to be believed must necessa- 
 rily be understood. To believe what they do not 
 comprehend is to adhrre sotti^hly to the absurdities 
 of others ; to believe things which are not compre- 
 11*
 
 126 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 bended 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 imagi- 
 nation busies itself to clothe with mystery every 
 thing the fancy conjures up as important to happi- 
 ness. 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 oilier 
 ideas far more extravagant. The priests have had 
 the art to prevail on the people to believe in their
 
 LETTER VI. 127 
 
 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 im- 
 penetrable essence is veiled from mortal sight, it 
 has been commonly admitted by the ignorant, that 
 what could not be seen by mortal eye must neces- 
 sarily 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 num- 
 ber of absurdities, stop all of a sudden in the way, 
 and refuse to admit more. The Christian Protes- 
 tants 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 mys- 
 teries, 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
 
 128 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 was clear, intelligible, and natural. More mysteri- 
 ous 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 over- 
 throw common sense. In consequence, our priests 
 are by far the most rich, powerful, and considera- 
 ble. 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 Heav- 
 en and us. 
 
 Each of our sacraments envelops a great mys- 
 tery. 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 OH the head of the child washes his spirit- 
 ual 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 myste- 
 rious virtue of this water, and of some words 
 equally unintelligible, the infant finds itself recon-
 
 LETTER VI. 129 
 
 ciled to God, as his first father had made him 
 guilty without his knowledge and consent. In all 
 this, Madam, you cannot, by possibility, compre- 
 hend the complication of these mysteries, with 
 which no Christian can dispense, though, assuredly, 
 there is not one believer who knows what the vir- 
 tue of the marvellous water consists in, which is 
 necessary for his regeneration. Nor can you con- 
 ceive 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 per- 
 son ; for, although in my youth I had been duly 
 confirmed, I have not been preserved against smil- 
 ing 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 pos- 
 session of all one's faults, public or private, you will
 
 130 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 discover mysteries equally marvellous. In favor of 
 this submission, to which every good Catholic is 
 necessarily obliged to submit, a priest, himself a 
 f sinner, charged with full powers by the Deity, par- 
 \ dons 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 advan- 
 tage of rendering them pliaWe to the clergy, who, 
 by its means, find an easy sway in their spiritual 
 empire over the human mind, an empire that en- 
 ables them, not unfrequently, to disturb society, and 
 more often the repose of families, and the very con- 
 science 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
 
 LETTER VI. 131 
 
 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 worship- 
 ping a bit of bread, which they consider by the con- 
 jurations of a priest as divine ; they eat this bread, 
 and then persuade themselves that they are nour- 
 ished 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 idol- 
 aters. 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 A 
 is, in fact, the creator of his God ! 
 
 There is, also, Extreme Unction, a sacrament 
 which consists in anointing with oil those sick per- 
 sons 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 pro- 
 duces 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 them- 
 selves 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.
 
 132 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 Cath- 
 olic religion, God gives to the priests the power of 
 making God himself, as we have shown above ; 
 a privilege which without doubt cannot be suffi- 
 ciently 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 en- 
 joying considerable revenues without being obliged 
 to do any thing useful for society. On the con- 
 trary, heaven itself confers on him the right of de- 
 ceiving, 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 con- 
 tract, 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.
 
 LETTER VI. 133 
 
 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 in- 
 visible grace. All these ceremonies, doubtless, con- 
 tain 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 pro- 
 nounced 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 commu- 
 nicating to men, and even to some inanimate sub- 
 stances, such as wood, stone, metals, and walls, 
 those invisible virtues which they did not pre- 
 viously 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 fool- 
 eries, if they comprehended the design and end 
 the priests have in view by enforcing their ob- 
 servance. 
 
 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 
 
 12
 
 134 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ignorance and credulity of others. They are re- 
 garded by their ignorant countrymen as superior 
 beings, endowed with supernatural gifts, favorites 
 of the very Gods, because the uninquiring multi- 
 tude see them perform things which they take to be 
 mighty marvellous, or which the ignorant have al- 
 ways 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 mul- 
 titude, continue their old tricks, and receive univer- 
 sal applause. 
 
 You are not, then, to be surprised, Madam, if 
 you still behold our pontiffs and our priests exercise 
 then- magical rites, or rear castles before the eyes 
 of people prejudiced in favor of their ancient illu- 
 sions, 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; per- 
 sons the most enlightened find it difficult to defend 
 themselves against these illusions. Hence you 
 may discover that the priests are always opinion- 
 atively 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 cer- 
 emony has often caused rivers of blood to flow. 
 The people have believed themselves lost and un-
 
 LETTER VI. 135 
 
 done when one bolder than the rest wished to inno- 
 vate 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 ihe 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, Mad- 
 am, 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 ab- 
 surdities, of which their inventors can render no rea- 
 sonable 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
 
 136 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ought never to submit. That they are usages cal- 
 culated principally to alarm the minds of the weak, 
 and keep in bondage those who have not the cour- 
 age 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 at- 
 tach to the mysteries and ceremonies of that reli- 
 gion 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 at- 
 taches his complaisance and his favors. In conse- 
 quence of the false, sinister, contradictory, and in- 
 compatible 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 poten- 
 tates exacts from their vassals. 
 
 It is after these notions so little agreeable to the
 
 LETTER VII. 187 
 
 Deity, that the priests have conjured up a crowd of 
 practices and strange inventions, ridiculous, incon- 
 venient, 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 for- 
 get 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 flat- 
 teries or submissions, to remind him of his gran- 
 deur, 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 al- 
 ways Heclared to be the ministers, the favorites, the 
 interpreters of God's will, have discovered how 
 they might most easily profit by the errors of man- 
 kind, 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 
 12*
 
 138 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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, jeal- 
 ous, full of vanity, who gives that it may be re- 
 stored 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 importu- 
 nity 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 bor- 
 rowed 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
 
 LETTER VII. 139 
 
 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 under- 
 stand 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 con- 
 ceive. In the arms of its nurse it is carried into 
 the temple or church, where its eyes are habituated 
 to contemplate spectacles, ceremonies, and pre- 
 tended mysteries, of which, even when it shall have 
 arrived at mature age, it will still understand noth- 
 ing. If at this latter period any one should ask 
 the reason of his conduct, or desire to know why 
 he made this conduct a sacreci 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
 
 140 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 him- 
 self, 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 religiqn, 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 reso- 
 lution 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 ?
 
 LETTER VII. 141 
 
 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 dic- 
 tated 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 judg- 
 ment of that multitude of prayers which our teach- 
 ers 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 peti- 
 tions to him ? If God is offended with us, will he 
 not reject prayers which insult his goodness, his 
 justice, and infinite wisdom ?
 
 V 
 
 142 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 What motives, then, have our priests to incul- 
 cate 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 inter- 
 cession 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 them- 
 selves, 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
 
 LETTER VII. 143 
 
 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, ap- 
 pears sometimes obstinately deaf to their entrea- 
 ties. 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 atten- 
 tively, and should be more enriched. Without 
 this, they announce to the vulgar that their har- 
 vests 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, mala- 
 dies, contagions, and even death itself are effects
 
 V 
 
 144 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 advan- 
 tage of the priests, since they would become use- 
 less 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 Imman race upon their knees. 
 They compel their votaries always to run down 
 those who discredit their pretensions. They ter- 
 rify the \veak 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 con- 
 forming them to ordinances the most out of the 
 way, the most unreasonable, and the most contra- 
 dictory to the very principles on which they pre- 
 tend 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
 
 LETTER VII. 145 
 
 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 preten- 
 sions 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 ex- 
 ercises of piety that tend to nothing ? 
 
 Madam, do you not find in the country you in- 
 habit a great many devotees who are sunk in 
 13
 
 146 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 debt, whose fortune is squandered away on priests, 
 and who are incapable of retrieving it ? Content 
 to put their conscience to rights on religious mat- 
 ters, they neither trouble themselves about the 
 education of their children, nor tire 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 neg- 
 ligence 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
 
 LETTER VH. 147 
 
 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 Di- 
 vinity, 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 then- use and nutriment ? Can 
 we, then, suppose that a Deity wise and good 
 interdicts to his creatures the enjoyment of inno- 
 cent 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 permit- 
 ting them the gratification of the one or the enjoy- 
 ment of the other. We see among all sects the 
 portraiture of a chagrined Deity, the enemy of in- 
 nocent amusements, and offended at the well being 
 of his creatures. We see in all countries many
 
 148 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 them- 
 selves agreeable to God. Especially do they be- 
 lieve that they will by these means disarm the fury 
 of God, and prevent the inflictions of his chastise- 
 ments, 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 them- 
 selves miserable. These gloomy notions have 
 banished men to the desert. They have fanati- 
 cally 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 ceremo- 
 nies, 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 bar- 
 barous 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
 
 LETTER VII. 149 
 
 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, imbe- 
 cile 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 unne- 
 cessary vow has condemned, as it were voluntarily, 
 to a life as rigorous as if spent in a prison ! Se- 
 duced 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 se*, 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 
 13*
 
 150 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 ful- 
 filled those minute and puerile practices, by which 
 they tell us that the priests have proof whether 
 their patience and obedience be such as are dic- 
 tated 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 >ut 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
 
 LETTER VII. 151 
 
 that our priests make so much ado about them ; 
 they only wish to have submissive slaves, suffi- 
 ciently 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 scru- 
 pulously 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 per- 
 ceive amongst us that this injunction, openly vio- 
 lated 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 
 faulty, and making a good bargain out of our pre- 
 tended crimes. 
 
 The more we examine religion the more reason 
 shall we have to be convinced that it is beneficial 
 1o 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
 
 152 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 impossible perfections, purposely that we may trans- 
 gress ; they have thereby engendered in pious minds 
 scruples and difficulties which they condescendingly 
 appease for money. A devotee is obliged to ob- 
 serve, 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 w r hich are rarely such as interest society or 
 benefit it by their performance. By a train of reli- 
 gious prejudices with which the priests infect the 
 mind of their weak devotees, these believe them- 
 selves 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 fel- 
 low beings. 
 
 Besides, Madam, what real advantage does so- 
 ciety 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 pas- 
 sions, of correcting vices, and of giving virtue to 
 those who most scrupulously observe them ? Do 
 we not daily see persons who believe themselves
 
 LETTER VII. 153 
 
 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 ex- 
 actitude, 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.
 
 1'54 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 un- 
 assisted reason of the human mind could never 
 have conceived sounder doctrines of morality, more 
 heroical virtues, or precepts more beneficial to so- 
 ciety. 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 
 noihing but contempt; and, indeed, are flagrant 
 sins in the sight of God. In short, the priests labor 
 1o 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 com-
 
 LETTER VIII. 155 
 
 mon with that system of morality which arises 
 out of the nature and relations of men, but on 
 the contrary, that they, in many instances, con- 
 found 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 dispo- 
 sitions 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 in- 
 jurious, both to ourselves and others. The moral- 
 ity 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
 
 150 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 our- 
 selves happiness hereafter, it is especially necessary 
 that we altogether resign the use of our own rea- 
 son ; that is to say, we must seal up our eyes in 
 utter darkness, and surrender ourselves to the gui- 
 dance 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 Chris- 
 tian religion is built. These virtues are Evangeli- 
 cal, &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, all hough 
 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,
 
 LETTER VIII. 157 
 
 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 foun- 
 dation 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 im- 
 possibility 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 ab- 
 surd 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 self- 
 ishness has made them careful from the earliest 
 infancy to fill our tender minds with prepossessions 
 in favor of doctrines which they judged favorable 
 to then* 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 our- 
 14
 
 158 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 selves, 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 unin- 
 telligible 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 exami- 
 nation, from their predecessors ; and that they 
 must be hypocrites when they pretend to believe in 
 doctrines of the truth of which they cannot be con- 
 vinced, 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 be- 
 lieving 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 privi- 
 lege of seeing things otherwise than as God has
 
 LETTER VIII. 159 
 
 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 be- 
 lieve that one God is three Gods, and that those 
 three Gods are one God, without renouncing all 
 pretension to common sense, and persuading him- 
 self 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 super- 
 natural grace, is, in fact, a perfect blindness, an ir- 
 rational 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 vir- 
 tue 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 con- 
 duct of our ecclesiastics forgetting what they 
 have told us, that grace is the gratuitous present of 
 God, bestowed or withheld at his sovereign pleas-
 
 160 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ure, they nevertheless indulge their wrath against 
 V all those who have not received the gift of faith ; 
 they keep up one incessant anathema against all 
 unbelievers, and nothing less than absolute exter- 
 mination of heresy can appease their anger wher- 
 ever 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 ad- 
 vantages which God has not been pleased to ex- 
 tend 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, Mad- 
 am, that in all countries where the clergy possess 
 sufficient influence, the flames of priestly charity 
 are lighted up to consume all those who are defi- 
 cient 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 prop- 
 osition absurd which our understanding shows us 
 to be absurd ? How could we avoid receiving, in 
 our infancy, whatever impressions and opinions our
 
 LETTER VIII. 161 
 
 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 ser- 
 viceable to morals ? If no one can have faith but 
 i 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 jus- 
 tice, temperance, and benevolence, must I first be- 
 lieve 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 con- 
 sider as the fountain of justice, wisdom, and good- 
 ness, is it not likely that I shall feel encouraged to 
 the commission of crimes when I find them sanc- 
 tioned 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, tor- 
 ment, and destroy every one of their fellow-crea- 
 14*
 
 162 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 tures 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 ac- 
 ceptable 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
 
 LETTER VIII. 163 
 
 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 in- 
 teresting others in his welfare .except by his man- 
 ner 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 conse- 
 quences are injurious only to the individual him- 
 self, 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 opin- 
 ion, and the laws point out to us our mutual duties 
 much more clearly than the chimeras of an incom- 
 prehensible 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 conse- 
 quence he will shrink from those excesses which 
 endanger his being; he will debar himself from 
 those gratifications which in their course would
 
 104 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 render his existence miserable ; and he would make 
 sacrifices, if it was necessary, in the view of pro- 
 curing 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 sum- 
 mary 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 ac- 
 tions 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 nat- 
 ural and inevitable that the man who employs him- 
 self 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
 
 LETTER VIII. 1G5 
 
 conduct, and you will feel that the popular super- 
 natural notions cannot add any thing to the obli- 
 gations 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 im- 
 possible for the worshippers of a tyrannical, par- 
 tial, 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 aggran- 
 dizement. Faith is the instrument by which they 
 enslave us and make us subservient to their own 
 ambition. Hence arises their zeal for the propaga- 
 tion of the faith ; hence arises their implacable
 
 160 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 hostility to science, and to all those who refuse 
 submission to their yoke ; hence arises their inces- 
 sant 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 suffi- 
 cient that he wills them to be so. It is utterly un- 
 worthy of the supreme wisdom of God, who cannot 
 exhibit himself to mortals in a manner contradic- 
 tory 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 inconsis- 
 tent with each other, and even incompatible with
 
 LETTER VIII. 107 
 
 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 advan- , 
 tageous? To a few men, only, who, availing \f 
 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? 
 Certainty not. We do not there find more moral- 
 ity, more, virtue, more industry, or more happiness ; 
 but, on the contrary, wherever the priests are power- 
 ful, 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 meri- 
 torious 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 con- 
 tains 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
 
 168 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 over- 
 turns 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 shad- 
 ows ? No one, indeed, will deny that hope is suf- 
 ficiently useful to the priests, who never fail to cail 
 in its assistance for the vindication of Providence, 
 whenever any of the elect have occasion to com- 
 plain 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
 
 LETTER VIII. 169 
 
 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 neigh- 
 bors 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 
 15
 
 c 
 
 170 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ;- 
 is to punish the whole human race, though inno- 
 cent, in order to revenge himself upon two indi- 
 viduals for the sin of the apple, which sin he him- 
 self 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 Jan- 
 senists 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 ar& apt to deceive 
 themselves ; their conduct resembles that of hypo- 
 critical flatterers, who, in order to ingratiate them- 
 selves with an odious tyrant, or to escape his 
 resentment, make every profession of attachment,
 
 LETTER VIII. 171 
 
 whilst, at the bottom of their hearts, they execrate 
 him ; or, on the other hand, they must be con- 
 demned as enthusiasts, who, by means of a heated 
 imagination, become the dupes of their own illu- 
 sions, and only view the favorable side of a God 
 declared to be the fountain of all good, yet, never- , 
 theless, constantly delineated to us with every fea- ) 
 ture 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 gentle- 
 man, 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 imagi- 
 nary 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 suffi- 
 cient 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
 
 172 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 delightfuLsovereignty ; 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 then- 
 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 re- 
 duced 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
 
 LETTER VIII. 173 
 
 those whom he knows to be bent on his destruc- 
 tion ; 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 strength- 
 ened 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 neigh- 
 15*
 
 174 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 bors, but even from the rights of fellow-creatures. 
 On this principle they defame, persecute, and de- 
 stroy 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 in- 
 capable of adjusting his own quarrels ! By an un- 
 accountable 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 punish- 
 ment due to their common enemy. Thus our 
 priests are cruel and revengeful from pure zeal ; 
 they would ardently wish to forgive their own ene- 
 mies, but how could they justify themselves to the 
 God of Mercies if they extended the least indul- 
 gence to his enemies ? 
 
 A true Christian loves the Creator above all 
 things, and consequently he must love him in pref- 
 erence 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 hesi- 
 tate 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
 
 LETTER VIII. 175 
 
 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. In- 
 fatuated 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 descrip- 
 tion which they themselves give us of the Divinity, 
 the priests of every age have found means to in- 
 troduce 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 discov- 
 ered the secret of revenging themselves, and that, 
 too, without drawing down upon themselves the 
 hatred and execration so justly due to their vindic- 
 tive fury and unfeeling selfishness. In the name 
 of the God of nature, they stifled the voice of na- 
 ture in the breasts of men ; in the name of the
 
 176 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 extir- 
 pating all his enemies. 
 
 The preceding remarks show very clearly, Mad- 
 am, the highly pernicious consequences which 
 result from the zeal engendered, by the love of 
 God. If this love is a virtue, its benefits are con- 
 fined to the priests, who arrogate to themselves the 
 exclusive privilege of declaring when God is of- 
 fended ; who absorb all the offerings and monopo-
 
 LETTER VIII. 177 
 
 lize all the homage of the devout ; who decide \ 
 upon the opinions that please or displease him ; Y 
 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 in- 
 timidating in order to frighten mankind into a 
 profitable subjection ; who convert it into the in- 
 strument of gratifying their own malignant pas- 
 sions, 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 invol- 
 untary thoughts and opinions of his creatures, 
 they of course feel themselves bound, by entering 
 with zeal into his quarrels, to obtain for him a ven- 
 geance worthy of a God that is to say, a ven- 
 geance 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
 
 178 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 Chris- 
 tians 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 theologi- 
 cal speculation. How common it is to see persons 
 of the mildest character and most benevolent dis- 
 position regard with aversion the adherents of a dif- 
 ferent sect from their own ! The reigning religion 
 that is, the religion of the sovereign, or of the 
 priests in whose favor the sovereign declares him- 
 self 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 fre- 
 quently happens that the deference of the prince 
 to the wishes of the priests has the effect of alien- 
 ating 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,
 
 LETTER VIII. 179 
 
 never preach toleration ; on the contrary, they 
 consider every man as an enemy who is a friend 
 to religious freedom, accusing him of. lukewarm- 
 ness, 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 tol- 
 eration 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 ava- 
 rice, their ambition, their vanity, and their obsti- 
 nacy. 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 decis- 
 ions. 
 
 Our divines have, therefore, you see, very good 
 reasons for raising humility into the rank of virtue. 
 An amiable modesty, a diffident mildness of de- 
 meanor, 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 ex- 
 cite our aversion by their repulsive conduct ; but 
 that amiable modesty which charms all who come 
 within its influence is a far different quality from
 
 180 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 do- 
 cility to the unerring guidance of his spiritual mas- 
 ters, 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 bene- 
 fit 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 un- 
 grateful world ? What infatuation, what amazing 
 infatuation, to require a man of upright character, 
 of talents, intelligence, and learning, to think him- 
 self on a level with a selfish priest, or a stupid 
 fanatic, who deal out their absurd fables and in- 
 coherent 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
 
 LETTER VIII. 181 
 
 not be utterly bereft of every claim to the name of 
 rational beings, if we consent to surrender our judg- 
 ment 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 understand- 
 ing 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 ren- 
 dering 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 im- 
 pose the yoke of faith, that is to say, their own 
 yoke. Conclude, then, with me, that the Christian 
 virtues are chimerical, always useless, and some- 
 times pernicious to men, and attended with ad- 
 vantage to none but priests. Conclude that this 
 16
 
 182 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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. Con- 
 clude 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 sub- 
 jection 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 pos- 
 sessing one of the Christian virtues. 
 
 All who examine this matter with a candid and in- 
 telligent eye, cannot fail to see that true morality 
 that is to say, a morality really serviceable to man- 
 kind is absolutely incompatible with the Chris- 
 tian 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 him- 
 self 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 un- 
 appeasable despot, can be nothing but gloomy and
 
 LETTER VIII. 183 
 
 trembling slaves, ever eager to anticipate the ven- 
 geance 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, arid thus discordant in 
 opinion, must necessarily be unstable in their prin- 
 ciples, and subject to every variation that the in- 
 terest 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 un- 
 just, 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 in- 
 sure 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.
 
 184 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 OF THE ADVANTAGES CONTRIBUTED TO GOVERNMENT BY 
 RELIGION. 
 
 HAVING already shown you, Madam, the feeble- 
 ness 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 necessa- 
 rily overthrown. 
 
 We have, then, only to open our eyes and con- 
 sult history, to be convinced of the falsity of these
 
 LETTER IX. 185 
 
 pretensions, and to appreciate the important services 
 which the Christian priests have rendered to their 
 sovereigns. Ever since the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity, we have seen, in all the countries in which 
 this religion has gained ground, that two rival pow- 
 ers 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, con- 
 tinually 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 sov- 
 ereign, 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 w T e 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 dis- 
 cord in kingdoms, and so shook thrones as to com- 
 pel their occupants to make submission to an 
 intolerant hierarchy. 
 
 Such are the important services which religion 
 has a thousand times rendered to kings. The peo- 
 16*
 
 186 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 pie, blinded by superstition, could hesitate but litile 
 between God and the princes of the earth. The 
 priests, being the visible organs of an invisible mon- 
 arch, have acquired an immense credit with preju' 
 diced 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 Eu- 
 rope have been forced to pay to the clergy has pre- 
 vented them from occupying their thoughts about 
 the. welfare of their subjects, who, in many in- 
 stances 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. When- 
 ever 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 cow- 
 ardly, and to sacrifice the happiness and respect of 
 their people. Often have the hands of parricides
 
 LETTER IX. 187 
 
 and rebels been armed, by a proud and vindictive 
 priesthood, against sovereigns the most worthy of 
 reigning. The priests, under pretext of avengingX 
 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 exer- 
 cised 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 en- 
 joyed ; 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 pro- 
 duced 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 ser- 
 vant 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 sub- 
 jects whom the clergy had proscribed ; she made
 
 18.8 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 / him the visible instrument of her vengeance, her 
 fury, and her concealed passions. Instead of oc- 
 cupying 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 nour- 
 ishes them, and who only style themselves mem- 
 bers 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 exagger- 
 ate these things. Recent examples prove to you 
 that even in this age, so ambitious of being con- 
 sidered 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 sov- 
 ereign 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 com- 
 mon sense, and the most equitable.
 
 LETTER IX. 189 
 
 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., tarnish- 
 ing 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 impla- 
 cable enemies. 
 
 We see religion throughout Europe, without ces- 
 sation, exerting a baleful influence upon temporal 
 affairs ; we see it direct the interests of princes ; 
 we see it divide and make Christian nations en- 
 emies 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 per- 
 ceive 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
 
 190 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 thinking is less abject and less servile than their 
 own. 
 
 Behold, Madam, the signal advantages that na- 
 tions derive from religion ! But we are certain to 
 be told that these terrible effects are due to the pas- 
 sions of men, and not to the Christian religion, 
 which incessantly inculcates charity, concord, in- 
 dulgence, and peace. If, however, we reflect even 
 a moment on the principles of this religion, we 
 should immediately perceive that they are incom- 
 patible 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 sangui- 
 nary, as is obviously the character of the God of the 
 Jews and Christians, could not evince in their con- 
 duct 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 illu- 
 minate 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
 
 LETTER IX. 191 
 
 eternally at odds with the rest of the world, canting \, 
 about their oracles and mysteries, supernatural pre- 
 cepts, invented purely to torment the human mind, I 
 to enthral it, and leave man answerable for what he J 
 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
 
 192 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 adher- 
 ents as if they came direct from heaven. The 
 priests have always been at discord among them- 
 selves, 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, brawl- 
 ing priests who were artful enough to enlist sove- 
 reigns on their side were orthodox^ or, in other 
 words, boasted that they were the exclusive pos- 
 sessors 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 extermi- 
 nate their enemies, whom they never failed to treat
 
 LETTER IX. 193 
 
 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 sove- 
 reigns? Either the princes, blinded by supersti- 
 tion, were devoted to the priests, or the rulers of 
 nations believed that prudence exacted a conces- 
 sion 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 inter- 
 ests 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, des- 
 titute 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-power- 
 ful a great advantage by recompensing laziness, 
 17
 
 194 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 press- 
 ing 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 citi- 
 zens 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 for- 
 mer 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 war 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 embarrass- 
 ments ; 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 ex-
 
 LETTER IX. 195 
 
 tremities 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 fa- 
 vorable to the clergy, a weak and poor monarch, 
 surrounded by a miserable nation, was at the mer- 
 cy 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- x 
 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 j 
 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 faith- 
 fully 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 tur- 
 bulent citizens, the most rebellious, the most diffi- 
 cult to render subservient to law and order, and
 
 196 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 whose resistance has extended to the very assassi- 
 nation 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 slum- 
 ber ; they are calculated to natter those on whom 
 the clergy can rely, and who will serve their ambi- 
 tion ; and their flatterers can soon change their 
 tone when the princes have the temerity to ques- 
 tion 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 author' 
 ity 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
 
 LETTER IX. 197 
 
 in the Old Testament that the regicide is applaud- 
 ed; 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 direct- 
 ors 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. Ac- 
 tuated 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 author- 
 ity, 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 govern- 
 ment recognizes, as divine, clerical privileges that 
 17*
 
 198 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 man- 
 kind, and by subjugating it to enslave their per- 
 sons, and render them the creatures of despotism 
 and tyranny. And we shall find, upon examina- 
 tion, 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 extor- 
 tions, 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 sub- 
 missive to the priests, 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
 
 LETTER IX. 199 
 
 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 instruc- 
 tion nor peace, prosperity nor happiness, their pre- 
 tensions to teach the rising generations are often 
 frivolous, and sometimes arrogant, since we have 
 found others equally well calculated to the dis- 
 charge 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 tor- 
 mented with imaginary terrors ; it creates super- 
 stitious slaves, who only possess monastic virtues, 
 and who, if they follow faithfully the instructions 
 of their masters, must be perfectly useless to soci- 
 ety ; 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
 
 200 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 teach their pupils ? They cause them to lose 
 much precious time in reciting prayers, in mechan- 
 ically 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 calcu- 
 lated to fit them for the unintelligible science called 
 theology. But is this theology itself useful to na- 
 tions ? Are the interminable disputes which arise 
 between profound metaphysicians of such a char- 
 acter as to be interesting to the people who do not 
 comprehend them ? Are the people of Paris and 
 the provinces much advanced in heavenly knowl- 
 edge 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 pro- 
 found 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 
 v. doctrines that must always remain impenetrable
 
 LETTER IX. 201 
 
 for the whole human race ? It must be confessed 
 that our priests, who so painfully occupy them- 
 selves in arranging a pure creed for us, must sig- 
 nally 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, kin- 
 dling 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 
 rrrorality 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 compre- 
 hend, 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 im- 
 portant 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
 
 202 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 cor- 
 ners 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 pa- 
 triotism. 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
 
 LETTER IX. :_/. 203 
 
 conflicts between the church and state, the immu- 
 nities 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 pos- 
 sessed 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 w r ould 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 them- 
 selves when they sustain the cause of their turbu- 
 lent 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
 
 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 enemies when they form an alliance with the 
 priesthood, or prevent the people from recognizing 
 their errors. 
 
 Governments. are more interested than individ- 
 uals 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 pon- 
 tiff, 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 govern- 
 ment are those who seek most sedulously to en- 
 lighten, educate, and elevate the people. You feel 
 that by banishing knowledge and persecuting phi- 
 losophy, 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 him- 
 self superior to the highest ruler of any country. 
 We have often seen the priesthood avow preten-
 
 LETTER IX. 205 
 
 sions of this character. The clergy are always 
 enraged when an attempt is made to subject them 
 to the secular power. Such an attempt they re- 
 gard as profane, and they denounce it as tyranny 
 whenever it is sought to be enforced. They pre- 
 tend that in all times the priesthood has been 
 sacred, that its rights come from God himself, and 
 that no government can, without sacrilege, or with- 
 out 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 con- 
 sidered inviolable and sacred in the hands of the 
 priests, their clamors cannot be appeased ; they 
 make efforts to excite the people against the govern- 
 ment ; 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 con- 
 sider 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 na- 
 tions. They are proud and haughty, since they V^ 
 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 govern- 
 18
 
 206 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ments and the people. They are audacious, be- 
 cause for many ages they have enjoyed supremacy 
 with impunity. They are unquiet and turbulent, 
 because they are never without the desire of play- 
 ing a great part. They are quarrelsome and fac- 
 tious, because they are never able to find out a 
 method of enabling men to understand the pre- 
 tended truths they teach. They are suspicious, 
 defiant, and cruel, . because they sensibly feel that 
 they may well dread the discovery of their impos 
 tures. 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 par- 
 don those who wish to crush their doctrines, whose 
 weakness they know. They are hypocrites, be- 
 cause most of them possess too much sense to be- 
 lieve the reveries they retail to others. They are 
 obstinate in their ideas, because they are inflated 
 with vanity, and because they could not consist- 
 ently deviate from a method of thinking of which 
 they pretend God is the author. We often see 
 them unbridled and licentious in their manners, be- 
 cause it is impossible that idleness, effeminacy, and 
 luxury should not corrupt the heart. We some- 
 times 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
 
 LETTER IX. 207 
 
 them rebellious and seditious, because an authority 
 derived from God is not disposed to bend to au- 
 thority derived from men. 
 
 You have here, Madam,-^, faithful portrait of the 
 members of a powerful body, in whose favor gov- 
 ernments, 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 hap- 
 piness and security of their kingdoms. You can 
 judge yourself whether the likeness delineated is 
 correct. You are in a position to discover their in- 
 trigues, their underplots, their conduct, and their 
 discourse, and you will always find that their con- 
 stant object is to flatter princes for the purpose of 
 governing them and keeping nations in slavery. 
 
 It is to please citizens so dangerous that sover- 
 eigns 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.
 
 208 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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, re- 
 garding 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 founda- 
 tion. 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
 
 LETTER IX. 209 
 
 unobstructedly to impregnate his people with mys- 
 tic notions, foolish reveries, and superstitious prac- 
 tices, which are only proper for fanatics. Let him 
 at least counterbalance the inculcation of these fol- 
 lies by teaching a morality conformable to the good 
 of the state, useful to the happiness of its mem- 
 bers, and social and reasonable. This morality 
 would inform a man what he owed to himself, to 
 society, to his fellow-citizens, and to the magis- 
 trates 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 o'bedient to just and legitimate author- 
 ity. 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 soci- 
 ety, and be of use in benefiting the people ; insti- 
 tutions now useless would be put to advantageous 
 uses; a portion of the possessions of the church, 
 originally destined for the poor, and so long appro- 
 priated by avaricious priests, would come into the 
 hands of the suffering and the indigent, their le- 
 gitimate proprietors. Supported by a nation who 
 18*
 
 210 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 govern- 
 ments 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, govern- 
 ments 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 endow- 
 ments of our ancestors ? We find them to consist 
 of institutions invented to continue a lazy, monas- 
 tic life ; costly temples elevated and enriched by 
 indigent people to augment the pride of the priests, 
 and to erect altars and palaces. From the founda- 
 tion of Christianity the whole object of religion has 
 been to aggrandize the priesthood on the ruins of
 
 LETTER X. 211 
 
 nations and governments. A jealous religion has 
 exclusively seized on the minds of men, and per- 
 suaded 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 be- 
 lieve 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 con- 
 vinced you, that its ministers are, by the very nature 
 of their functions, the rivals of kings, and adver- 
 saries the most to be feared by all who value or 
 exercise temporal power. In a word, I think I have
 
 212 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 pre- 
 tended truths. We shall generally find in those 
 who the most sincerely profess and the most ex- 
 actly practise them, a joyless and melancholy dis- 
 position, which announces no contentment, nor that 
 interior peace of which they speak so incessantly, 
 without ever exhibiting any undoubted manifesta- 
 tions 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, 
 V 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 dis- 
 play the serene countenance of satisfaction and 
 enjoyment, it is because the dismal ideas of religion
 
 LETTER X. ... 213 
 
 are rendered inoperative by a happy temperament ; 
 or that such persons have not fully become im- 
 pregnated with their system of faith, whose legiti- 
 mate effect is to plunge its devotees into terrible 
 inquietudes and sombre chagrins. 
 
 Thus, Madam, we are brought back to the con- 
 tradictory 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 reflec- 
 tion, 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 judg- 
 ment ? 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 de- 
 stroys the happiness and repose of those who are 
 subjected by it ; alarms and terrors are the objects
 
 214 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 ex- 
 tremes, 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 neces- 
 sary 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 mis- 
 erable. 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 vision- 
 ary 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 dod. 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
 
 LETTER X. 215 
 
 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 senti- 
 ments, that sooner or later manifest themselves in a 
 manner disagreeable for others. The mystical dev- 
 otees clearly illustrate this. They are vexed with 
 the world, and it could not exist if the extrava- 
 gances required by religion were altogether carried 
 out. The world cannot be united to Jesus Christ. 
 God demands our entire heart, and nothing is" al- 
 lowed to remain for his weak creatures. To pro- 
 duce 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 acqui- 
 sition, 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.
 
 21t> LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 For his greater security, he often avoids society 
 which may at any moment turn him from his pre- 
 tended 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 dis- 
 pleases 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 dis- 
 appointed 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 attrac- 
 tions 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 distin- 
 guish 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 in- 
 demnifies them most miserably for their ascetic 
 worship. In a word, it is passion, affliction, and 
 despair to which most conversions must be at- 
 tributed; and they are persons of such character
 
 LETTER X. 217 
 
 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 sub- 
 ject to this devotion most commonly ruled by sor- 
 row and passion. These mental moods are per- 
 petually 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 V 
 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 pleas- 
 ure 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 admira- 
 tion on the part of those who witness them. In- 
 deed, 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, 
 19
 
 218 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 t'o 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, frequent- 
 ing churches, clamoring in favor of their priests, 
 intriguing to sustain a sect, decrying all who dis- 
 agree with their particular spiritual director, and 
 exhibiting an ardent and ridiculous zeal for ques- 
 tions 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 ob- 
 jects, 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 be- 
 lieves 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 him- 
 self. Thus, also, it happens that a woman, to in-
 
 LETTER X. 219 
 
 demnify 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 de- 
 nounces those who allow themselves the indul- 
 gence 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 dev- 
 otees, 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 senti- 
 ments 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 pleas- 
 ure, a circle of the exercises of piety and dissipa- 
 tion, of momentary fervor and continuous irregu- 
 larities. This religion connects Jesus Christ with
 
 220 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 the pomps of Satan. We there see sumptuous 
 display, pride, ambition, intrigue, vengeance, envy, 
 and libertinism ah 1 amalgamated with a religion 
 whose maxims are austere. Pious casuists, inter- 
 ested for the great, approve this alliance, and give 
 the lie to their own religion in order to derive ad- 
 vantage from circumstances and from the passions 
 and vices of men. If these court divines were too 
 rigid, they would affright their fashionable disci- 
 ples seeking to reach heaven on " flowery beds of 
 ease," and who embrace religion with the under- 
 standing that they are to be allowed no inconsid- 
 erable 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 ab- 
 ject, 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 smit- 
 ten on one cheek, should turn the other to the
 
 LETTER X. 221 
 
 aggressor.. It is upon Stoicism that religious fanat- 
 ics 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 disa- 
 greeable to others. What advantage can society 
 receive from a man who trembles without cessa- 
 tion, 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 participa- 
 tion in them ? 
 
 What results from these maxims of a moral ^ 
 fanaticism ? It happens that laws so atrocious v 
 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 let- 
 ters 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 
 19*
 
 222 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 me of sepulture, strip my family of my property, 
 and for no other cause than for my opinions con- 
 cerning Christianity and the Bible. Such is the 
 horrid cruelty engendered by Christianity. It has 
 sometimes been called in question whether a socie- 
 ty of atheists could exist ; but we might with more 
 propriety ask if a society of fierce, impracticable, vis- 
 ionary, and fanatical Christians, in all the plenitude 
 of their ridiculous system, could long subsist.* 
 What would become of a nation all of whose inhab- 
 itants wished to attain perfection by delivering them- 
 selves 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 de- 
 vote 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 
 
 * Upon this topic consult what Bayle says, Continuation des Pensees 
 diverses sur la Comete, Sections 124, 125, tome iv., Rousseau de Gentve, 
 in his Contrat Social, 1. 4, ah 8. See also the Lettres tcrites 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.)
 
 LETTER X. 223 
 
 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 ? 
 
 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 them- 
 selves, are constantly obliged to depart from their 
 supernatural and divine speculations. Their pas- , 
 sions are not repressed, but on the contrary are Y 
 often thus rendered more fierce and more calculated 
 to disturb society. Masked under the veil of reli- 
 gion, 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
 
 224 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 are -transported by these dangerous passions. Re- 
 ligion 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 pre- 
 vent their blackening their adversaries with a view 
 of rendering them odious, and of drawing down 
 upon their heads the malevolence of a supersti- 
 tious community, and the persecution of tyrannical 
 and oppressive laws ; their zeal for God's glory per- 
 mits 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 pas- 
 sions, and he who does not believe surely indi- 
 cates a corrupt heart, depraved manners, and fright- 
 ful 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,
 
 LETTER X. 225 
 
 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 persecu- / 
 tions 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 benefi- 
 cent, 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 thor- 
 oughly convinced that the true friends of Ihe human 
 race and of governments cannot also be the friends 
 of religion and of priests. Whatever may be the
 
 226 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 man- 
 kind; 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 pre- 
 texts to injure, with which the zealous partisans 
 of religion are abundantly provided. 
 
 The unbeliever in Christianity, who reflects, per- 
 ceives that without going out of this world there 
 are pressing and real motives which invite to vir- 
 tuous conduct ; he feels the interest that he has in 
 self-preservation, and of avoiding whatever is cal- 
 culated 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 pun- 
 ishment, 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
 
 LETTER X. - 227 
 
 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, how- 
 ever, 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 then* 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 circum-
 
 228 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 stances 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 sub- 
 ject of religion, and very erroneously in regard to 
 his conduct. The religious dupe is a poor meta- 
 physician, and if he also acts badly he is both im- 
 becile 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 author- 
 ity. 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, confisca- 
 tion 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 argu- 
 ments. If our clerical theologians acted in good
 
 LETTER X. 229 
 
 faith, would they not rejoice to open a free course 
 to thorough discussion ? Would they not be grati- 
 fied 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 reason- 
 ing 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, accord- 
 ing 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 edu- 
 cation, 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 
 20
 
 230 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 unbe- 
 liever, 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 evi- 
 dent 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 injus- 
 tice, 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 fol-
 
 LETTER X. 231 
 
 low the caprice and passions of the priests, and 
 will be a very dangerous man, while believing him- 
 self 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 pro- 
 fess 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 pre- 
 text 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 man- 
 kind, 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,
 
 232 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 every system of religion appears to be designed for 
 the utility of the priests ; the morality of Christian- 
 ity has in view only the interests of the priest- 
 hood ; 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 con- 
 spiracies. 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 com- 
 pose every society, demand a morality which will 
 render them happy in this world, without embar- 
 rassing 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 re- 
 ligious system with some moral tenets which are 
 really good. This renders their mysteries more
 
 LETTER XI. 233 
 
 sacred, and lends authority to their ambiguous dog- 
 mas. 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 re- 
 flect, 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 per- 
 ceived how impossible.it is to found a certain and 
 invariable morality on a religion enthusiastic, am- 
 biguous, 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 
 20*
 
 234 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 at variance one with another, can never serve as 
 the base on which to rear a morality that shall be- 
 come 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 adulterer7 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 conse- 
 quences often dangerous ? How can we take as 
 guides in our conduct priests, whose lessons are a 
 tissue of unintelligible opinions, (for all religion is
 
 LETTER XI. 235 
 
 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 in- 
 terests, and who, although they pretend to preafh 
 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 con- 
 trary to all our natural ideas of virtue. By virtue, 
 we ought to understand the habitual dispositions 
 to do \vhatever 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 re- 
 ligion ; 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, accord- 
 ing to the pleasure of priests, whose interests are 
 changing daily, whose caprices are as variable as 
 the hours of their existence, and who are, conse- 
 quently, not always in agreement with one another.
 
 23G LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 The writings which are the sources whence the 
 Christians have drawn their morality, are not only 
 an abyss of obscurity, but demand continual expli- 
 cations from their masters, the priests, who, in ex- 
 plaining, 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 op- 
 posed 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, usurpa- 
 tion, 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 happi- 
 ness 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
 
 LETTER XI. 237 
 
 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 ob- 
 servable in the former case. The New Testament 
 contradicts the Old. It announces that God is not 
 pacified by sacrifices, nor by offerings, nor by frivo- 
 lous rites. It substitutes in place of these, super- 
 natural virtues, of which I believe I have sufficiently 
 proved the inutility, the impossibility, and the in- 
 compatibility 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 appro- 
 priated to themselves all the principles of his mis- 
 sion. 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 them- 
 selves 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
 
 238 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 this world, and if he has shown contempt of riches, 
 they nevertheless find in the Old Testament suffi- 
 cient 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 uni- 
 formly 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 inter- 
 preters, 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 Ihe 
 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 great- 
 est which can be committed against religion. It
 
 LETTER XI. 239 
 
 is thus that under a God who recommends the love 
 of our neighbor, the Christians accustom them- 
 selves from infancy to detest an heretical neighbor, 
 and are almost always in a disposition to over- 
 whelm 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, with- 
 out 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 virtxious 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
 
 240 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 re- 
 paying 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 dis- 
 service 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 sac- 
 rilege designates an attempt on the person, the 
 goods, and the rights of the clergy. The omission 
 of some useless practice is exaggerated and repre- 
 sented 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
 
 LETTER XI. 241 
 
 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 in- 
 habit, 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 sub- 
 mission 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 neces- 
 sary to begin by rendering the mind of man ener- 
 getic, 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 
 21
 
 242 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 species. It is necegsary 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 asso- 
 ciated 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 evi- 
 dently 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 happi- 
 ness 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,
 
 LETTER XI. 243 
 
 he can only wish that men who are possessed of 
 reason should employ this distinguishing gift to 
 procure for themselves all the happiness its exer- 
 cise 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 showji 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 moral- 
 ity of religion ? In place of a partial and reserved 
 morality for a small number of men, let us substi- 
 tute 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 clesires ; 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,
 
 244 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 benevolence, esteem, and relief, if desired ; we 
 shall see what is that line of conduct which neces- 
 sarily excites hatred, ill-will, and all those misfor- 
 tunes which experience makes familiar to man- 
 kind ; 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 percepti- 
 ble ; the advantages which are permanent we will 
 not sacrifice for those that are momentary; we 
 will employ all our faculties to augment the happi- 
 ness of our species ; we will labor with persever- 
 ance 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, effec- 
 tive in its exercise in benefiting all, in contributing 
 to the happiness of society, collectively and indi- 
 vidually, 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 trans-
 
 LETTER XI. 245 
 
 grossing 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 shah 1 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 pre- 
 serve 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 socie- 
 ty, 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 educa- 
 tion of the present day tends only to make youth 
 the slaves of superstition ; the virtues which it in- 
 culcates 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 punish- 
 ments which it exhibits in an obscure glimmering, 
 produce no other effect than to make useless en- 
 thusiasts and dangerous fanatics. The principles 
 on which enthusiasm establishes morality are 
 changing and. ruinous ; those on which the moral- 
 ity of reason is established are fixed, and cannot be 
 21*
 
 246 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 overturned. Seeing, then, that- man, a reasonable 
 being, should be chiefly occupied about his preser- 
 vation 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 mo- 
 tives, 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 su- 
 pernatural morality, a morality agreeable to human- 
 ity and resulting from experience were preached, 
 we should no longer be the dupes of imaginary 
 theories, nor of terrifying fables as the bases of
 
 LETTER XI. 247 
 
 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 in- 
 dividuals and of society is to be traced. Is he a 
 husband ? He will perceive that his essential hap- 
 piness is to show kindness, attachment, and ten- 
 derness 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 consola- 
 tion and support in old age, and that by conse- 
 quence they have the greatest interest in inspiring 
 them in early life with sentiments of which they 
 may themselves reap the benefit when age or mis- 
 fortune may require the fruits of those advantages 
 that result from a good education. Their chil- 
 dren, 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, kind- 
 ness, 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
 
 248 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 fidelity, industry, and good temper in their situa- 
 tions. Friends will find the advantages of a kin- 
 dred 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 associa- 
 tion, will perceive that to secure it they must ob- 
 serve good faith and punctuality in their engage- 
 ments. 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 re- 
 straining the bad as dangerous, and opposing ene- 
 mies 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 ob- 
 vious 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 re- 
 spects 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 reputa- 
 tion ; that a weak being, who is every instant ex- 
 posed to misfortunes, ought to know what are his 
 duties, and how he should practise them for the
 
 LETTER XI. 249 
 
 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 repress- 
 ing them, if we would spare ourselves vain regrets 
 and useless sorrows, which certainly always afflict 
 those who obey not the laws. Thus, a single re- 
 flection will suffice to show the impropriety of 
 anger, the dreadful consequences of revenge, cal- 
 umny, 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 inevi- 
 table 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 ab- 
 staining 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
 
 V 
 
 250 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 contamina- 
 tion 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 hap- 
 piness ; 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 pri- 
 vate and public virtue ? Shall we launch into un- 
 known 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 our- 
 selves in those maxims which reason approves, and 
 on which virtue is founded? Every man who 
 would perish, who would render his existence mis- 
 erable, whoever would sacrifice permanent happi- 
 ness 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 moral- 
 ity 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,
 
 LETTER XI. 251 
 
 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 reg- 
 ulate 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 re- 
 sult 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 spec- 
 ulations 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 p'as- 
 sions have been moderate, and have tended to the
 
 252 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 vari- 
 ance 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 in- 
 jurious 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 car-
 
 LETTER XI. 253 
 
 ries with it into the heart and the family of its dev- 
 otees 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 tol- 
 erable whom nature, education, and habit had 
 moulded for happiness. 
 
 It is our temperament which decides our condi- 
 tion ; the acquisition of moderate passions, of hon- 
 est habits, sensible opinions, laudable examples, and 
 practical virtues, is a difficult task, but not impossi- 
 ble when undertaken with reason for one's guide. 
 It is difficult to be virtuous and happy with a tem- 
 perament 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 pas- 
 sions 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 re- 
 fuse 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 be- 
 lieve 1 have proved that those changes are not al- 
 ways for the better. 
 
 Congratulate yourself, then, Madam, on being 
 born with good dispositions, of having received 
 22
 
 254 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 ; con- 
 tinue to perform only those actions which are es- 
 teemed 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. 255 
 
 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 fu- 
 tility 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 your- 
 self on this, which proves the solidity of your judg- 
 ment. 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 re- 
 sist the most obvious pleas of their understanding. 
 Their eyes, long shut to the light of truth, are un- 
 able to bear its rays ; but they can endure the glim- 
 merings of superstition, which plunges them in still 
 darker obscurity. 
 
 I am not, however, astonished at the embarrass-
 
 256 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 ment you have hitherto felt, nor at your cautious 
 examination of my opinions, which are better un- 
 derstood the more thoroughly they are examined 
 and compared with those they oppose. ' It is im- 
 possible to annihilate at once deep-rooted preju- 
 dices. 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 re- 
 main 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 prej udices ; 
 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 rea- 
 son, are disagreeable and revolting.
 
 LETTER XII. 257 
 
 Religion, or rather its superstitions, in conse- 
 quence 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, more- 
 over, 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 occupa- 
 tion 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 so- 
 briety of reason. Many persons also require phan- 
 toms 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. Sen- 
 22*
 
 258 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 sible, 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 sub- 
 jects 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 super-
 
 LETTER XII. 259 
 
 stition, 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 en- 
 deavor to rescue their understandings. You per- 
 ceive, 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 solici- 
 tations, the effects of grace ; though they are, never- 
 theless, only the effects of those vicissitudes to which 
 our constitution is liable, and which affect the ro- 
 bust, 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 credu- 
 lous, in all ages, have been the dupes. Is it not at
 
 200 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 yield- 
 ing 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 no- 
 tions 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 dis- 
 ease, 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 pre- 
 sumption, can answer for the ideas he is occupied 
 with, when worn out with sickness and disease ; 
 yet have the inhuman priests the effrontery to per- 
 suade 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 neces- 
 sarily 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.
 
 LETTER XII. 261 
 
 Do not, then, Madam, be discouraged nor sur- 
 prised, 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 fol- 
 lows 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 un- 
 certainty, 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 con- 
 dition 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
 
 262 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 him- 
 self bears testimony to this truth : " There is not," 
 says he, " one man who is at all times master of 
 ihat 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 ex- 
 cited 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 princi- 
 ples, 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 compre- 
 hend all his perfections, it is because their compre- 
 hension is limited. They ought to recollect, that 
 if God is all-powerful, his glory and his power can- 
 not 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 iinrea- 
 sonable, the most cruel of tyrants, if he should
 
 LETTER XII. 203 
 
 punish beings whom he himself created imperfect, 
 and. possessed of a deficiency of reason and com- 
 mon sense. 
 
 Let us reflect a little longer, and we shall find that 
 the theologians have studied to make of the Divin- 
 ity 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 sub- 
 jects, pretend that it is the duty of these last to 
 have for them sentiments of submission, and pun- 
 ish with rigor those who, by their conduct or their 
 discourse, announce sentiments not sufficiently re- 
 spectful 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 sub- 
 jects, jealous of the opinions they may entertain 
 of him, and who, to secure his power, cruelly chas- 
 tises 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 gui-
 
 264 . LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 dance 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 agrt-eu- 
 ble to the mysterious Sovereign of the universe, on 
 whom they are dependent ; jtheir 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 
 V qualities that are incompatible with Deity, they 
 actually annihilate from their mind the pure repre- 
 sentation 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 incompre- 
 hensible, 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 medita-
 
 LETTER XII. * ' 265 
 
 tions ; 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, be- 
 cause 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 great- 
 est 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 re- 
 ligion 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 re- 
 course to the opinion of others, whom they consider 
 more adroit in theology, and who pretend to an 
 23
 
 266 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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, ex- 
 cept what their reveries have reduced to a system, 
 without giving them ideas that are clear and defi- 
 nite. 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 liim, 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 his- 
 tory of this God as a tyrant who tempts men, and 
 who punishes them for being tempted; who exter- 
 minated 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 des- 
 pot, 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 comprehensi- 
 ble 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
 
 LETTER XII. 267 
 
 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 com- 
 municated to us, the recitals of our infallible teach- 
 ers, 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, never- 
 theless, 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 im- 
 mensity, although the material world occupies some 
 part in space. They have made him a being all 
 powerful, but whose projects are incessantly vary- 
 ing, who neither can nor will maintain man in 
 good order, nor permit the freedom of action ne- 
 cessary for rational beings, and w r ho 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 in- 
 sensible to the folly and shortsightedness of mor-
 
 268 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 tals. 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 embar- 
 rassment, 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
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 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 re- 
 fuse to believe the priests and their unintelligible 
 farragoes. 
 
 If, as I have often said, it be impossible to be- 
 lieve what we cannot comprehend, or to be inti- 
 mately 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 be- 
 lief in God, is merely an acceptance of what their 
 priests have taught them of a Being whose exist- 
 ence 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 im- 
 material 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 
 23*
 
 270 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 his existence. But what is this faith ? It is to ad- 
 here, 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 com- 
 prehend nor they reconcile among themselves. The 
 existence, even of God, has, in their hands, become 
 the most impenetrable mystery in religion. But 
 d6 the priests themselves comprehend this ineffable 
 God, whom they announce to other men ? Have 
 they just ideas of him ? Are they themselves sin- 
 cerely convinced of the existence of a being who 
 unites incompatible qualities which reciprocally ex- 
 clude 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 ven- 
 tured to doubt of the existence of the Deity of the 
 theologians, because, on meditating on the descrip- 
 tions given of him, they have discovered them to 
 be incomprehensible, or replete with contradiction. 
 Do not be astonished if they never listen, in reason- 
 ing, 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 demon- 
 strated in revelations, which we discover, on exam- 
 ination, to be the work of imposture ; revelations 
 sap the foundations laid down for belief in a 
 Divinity, which they would wish to establish.
 
 LETTER XII. 271 
 
 This existence cannot be founded on the qualities 
 which our priests have assigned to the Divinity, see- 
 ing 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 cer- 
 tain 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, mo- 
 tives 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 rea- 
 soning 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 dis- 
 cover him in the works of nature, either as good or 
 evil ; who behold only order and disorder succeed- 
 ing alternately ? What idea shall we form of. 
 those men who regard matter as eternal, as
 
 272 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 actuated on by laws peculiar to itself; as suf- 
 ficiently 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 sen- 
 timent known to belong to beings of our species, but 
 capable of supporting those beings whose organi- 
 zation has made them intelligent, sensible, and 
 reasonable ? 
 
 What shall we say of those Freethinkers who 
 find neither good nor evil, neither order nor dis- 
 order, in the universe ; that all things are but rela- 
 tive 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 exter- 
 minate 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
 
 LETTER XII. 273 
 
 to us. Nevertheless, it is to this degree of extrava- 
 gance 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 Free- 
 thinker 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 im- 
 agination 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
 
 274 LETTERS' TO EUGENIA. 
 
 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 quali- 
 ties that destroy one another ; they are less dan- 
 gerous 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 
 V of men injure not others ; their actions may their 
 reveries never. Our ideas, our thoughts, our sys- 
 tems, 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 evi- 
 dence accompanying matters of report, or historic 
 relation.
 
 LETTER XII. 275 
 
 Men do not long dispute on objects that are 
 cognizable to their senses, and which they can sub- 
 mit 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 dan- 
 gerous habits, and to abstain from vices which can 
 only injure our fortune, and undermine our health. 
 These truths are evident to every being whose pas- 
 sions 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 noth- 
 ing 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 prin- 
 ciples 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 ef- 
 fects more appalling than heathenism. The specu- 
 lative principles of the Freethinkers have done no
 
 276 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 injury to society ; the contagious principles of 
 fanaticism and enthusiasm have only served to 
 spread disorder on the earth. If there are danger- 
 ous 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 ava- 
 rice, 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 mod- 
 erate 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 princi- 
 ples ; that it varies with the interests of the priests, 
 who explain the intentions of the Divinity, as they
 
 LETTER XII. 277 
 
 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 man- 
 kind ; 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 advan- 
 tages it possesses over that inculcated on the super- 
 stitious 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. 
 24
 
 278 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 These reflections will serve to confirm what I 
 have already said, to prove that morality has noth- 
 ing 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 im- 
 agination, 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 1 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
 
 LETTER XII. 279 
 
 ourselves ; for its laws, clear and of easy practice, 
 inflict on those who disobey them instant punish- 
 ment, fear, and remorse ; on the other hand, the 
 observance of its duties is accompanied with im- 
 mediate 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 au- 
 thority; all find in them the evidence of Deity, 
 and consider those as sceptics who doubt their 
 efficacy. The Freethinker does not refuse to ac- 
 knowledge as fundamental laws, those which are 
 obviously founded on the God of Nature, and on 
 the immutable and necessary circumstances of
 
 280 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 
 
 things cognizable to the faculties of sentient na- 
 tures. The Indian, the Chinese, the savage, per- 
 ceives 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 moral- 
 ity little calculated to produce personal or general 
 happiness, but much calculated to lead to extrava- 
 gance and inconvenient practices. 
 
 Hence, charming Eugenia, you will allow man- 
 kind to think as they please, and judge of them 
 after their actions. Oppose reason to their sys- 
 tems, 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 phantom^ 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
 
 LETTER XII. 281 
 
 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 sin- 
 cerely. When you are in uncertainty, pause, or 
 follow what appears the most probable, always 
 abandoning opinions that are destitute of foun- 
 dation, 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 
 flatterf.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. 
 
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