God, or
rather a fanatic, a misanthrope, who, himself plunged in wretchedness and
preaching to wretches, will advise them to be poor, to combat with and
stifle nature, to hate pleasure, seek grief, and detest themselves. He
will tell them to leave father, mother, relations, friends, etc., to
follow him. "Fine morality!" you say. It is, undoubtedly, admirable: it
must be divine, for it is impracticable to men. But is not such sublime
morality calculated to render virtue odious? According to the so much
boasted morality of the _man_-God of the Christians, a disciple of his in
this world must be like _Tantalus_, tormented with a burning thirst, which
he is not allowed to quench. Does not such morality give us a wonderful
idea of the author of nature? If, as we are assured, he has created all
things for his creatures, by what strange whim does he forbid them the
use of the goods he has created for them? Is pleasure then, which man
continually desires, only a snare, which God has maliciously laid to
surprise his weakness?

161.

The followers of Christ would have us regard, as a miracle, the
establishment of their Religion, which is totally repugnant to nature,
opposite to all the propensities of the heart, and inimical to sensual
pleasures. But the austerity of a doctrine renders it the more marvellous
in the eyes of the vulgar. The same disposition, which respects
inconceivable mysteries as divine and supernatural, admires, as divine and
supernatural, a Morality, that is impracticable, and beyond the powers of
man.

To admire a system of Morality, and to put it in practice, are two very
different things. All Christians admire and extol the Morality of the
gospel; which they do not practise.

The whole world is more or less infected with a Religious morality,
founded upon the opinion, that to please the Divinity, it is absolutely
necessary to render ourselves unhappy upon earth. In all parts of our
globe, we see penitents, fakirs, and fanatics, who seem to have profoundly
studied the means of tormenting themselves, in honour of a being whose
goodness all agree in celebrating. Religion, by its essence, is an enemy
to the joy and happiness of men. "Blessed are the poor, blessed are
they, who weep; blessed are they, who suffer; misery to those, who are
in abundance and joy." Such are the rare discoveries, announced by
Christianity!

162.

What is a Saint in every religion? A man, who prays, and fasts, who