happiness, and the end of sufferings--does it
require, I say, any thing but plain, common sense, to perceive--that the
idea of such a being is an idea without model, and that he himself is
merely a phantom of the imagination? Is any thing necessary but common
sense to perceive, at least, that it is folly and madness for men to hate
and damn one another about unintelligible opinions concerning a being of
this kind? In short, does not every thing prove, that Morality and Virtue
are totally incompatible with the notions of a God, whom his ministers
and interpreters have described, in every country, as the most capricious,
unjust, and cruel of tyrants, whose pretended will, however, must serve as
law and rule the inhabitants of the earth?

To discover the true principles of Morality, men have no need of theology,
of revelation, or of gods: They have need only of common sense. They have
only to commune with themselves, to reflect upon their own nature, to
consider the objects of society, and of the individuals, who compose
it; and they will easily perceive, that virtue is advantageous, and vice
disadvantageous to themselves. Let us persuade men to be just, beneficent,
moderate, sociable; not because such conduct is demanded by the gods, but,
because it is pleasant to men. Let us advise them to abstain from vice
and crime; not because they will be punished in another world, but because
they will suffer for it in this.--_These are,_ says Montesquieu, _means
to prevent crimes--these are punishments; these reform manners--these are
good examples._

The way of truth is straight; that of imposture is crooked and dark.
Truth, ever necessary to man, must necessarily be felt by all upright
minds; the lessons of reason are to be followed by all honest men. Men are
unhappy, only because they are ignorant; they are ignorant, only because
every thing conspires to prevent their being enlightened; they are wicked
only because their reason is not sufficiently developed.

By what fatality then, have the first founders of all sects given to
their gods ferocious characters, at which nature revolts? Can we imagine
a conduct more abominable, than that which Moses tells us his God showed
towards the Egyptians, where that assassin proceeds boldly to declare, in
the name and by the order of _his God_, that Egypt shall be afflicted
with the greatest calamities, that can happen to man? Of all the different
ideas, which they give us of a supreme bein