woman who cried _fire! murder!
assassination!_ while her husband held her hands to prevent her from
striking him.

160.

Notwithstanding the bloody tragedies, which Religion often acts, it is
insisted, that, without Religion, there can be no Morality. If we judge
theological opinions by their effects, we may confidently assert, that all
Morality is perfectly incompatible with men's religious opinions.

"Imitate God," exclaim the pious. But, what would be our Morality, should
we imitate this God! and what God ought we to imitate? The God of the
Deist? But even this God cannot serve us as a very constant model of
goodness. If he is the author of all things, he is the author both of good
and evil. If he is the author of order, he is also the author of disorder,
which could not take place without his permission. If he produces, he
destroys; if he gives life, he takes it away; if he grants abundance,
riches, prosperity, and peace, he permits or sends scarcity, poverty,
calamities, and wars. How then can we receive as a model of permanent
beneficence, the God of Deism or natural religion, whose favourable
dispositions are every instant contradicted by all the effects we behold?
Morality must have a basis less tottering than the example of a God, whose
conduct varies, and who cannot be called good, unless we obstinately shut
our eyes against the evil which he causes or permits in this world.

Shall we imitate the _beneficent, mighty Jupiter_ of heathen antiquity? To
imitate such a god, is to admit as a model, a rebellious son, who ravishes
the throne from his father. It is to imitate a debauchee, an adulterer,
one guilty of incest and of base passions, at whose conduct every
reasonable mortal would blush. What would have been the condition of men
under paganism, had they imagined, like Plato, that virtue consisted in
imitating the gods!

Must we imitate the God of the Jews! Shall we find in _Jehovah_ a model
for our conduct? This is a truly savage god, made for a stupid, cruel,
and immoral people; he is always furious, breathes nothing but vengeance,
commands carnage, theft, and unsociability. The conduct of this god cannot
serve as a model to that of an honest man, and can be imitated only by a
chief of robbers.

Shall we then imitate the _Jesus_ of the Christians? Does this God, who
died to appease the implacable fury of his father, furnish us an example
which men ought to follow? Alas! we shall see in him only a