ve what is useful or hurtful to him. It
suffices that man needs his fellow-creature, in order to know that he must
fear to excite sentiments unfavourable to himself. Thus the feeling and
thinking being has only to feel and think, in order to discover what he
must do for himself and others. I feel, and another feels like me; this is
the foundation of all morals.

172.

We can judge of the goodness of a system of Morals, only by its conformity
to the nature of man. By this comparison, we have a right to reject it,
if contrary to the welfare of our species. Whoever has seriously meditated
Religion; whoever has carefully weighed its advantages and disadvantages,
will be fully convinced, that both are injurious to the interests of Man,
or directly opposite to his nature.

"To arms! the cause of your God is at stake! Heaven is outraged! The faith
is in danger! Impiety! blasphemy! heresy!" The magical power of these
formidable words, the real value of which the people never understand,
have at all times enabled priests to excite revolts, to dethrone kings, to
kindle civil wars, and to lay waste. If we examine the important objects,
which have produced so many ravages upon earth, it appears, that either
the foolish reveries and whimsical conjectures of some theologian who did
not understand himself, or else the pretensions of the clergy, have broken
every social bond and deluged mankind with blood and tears.

173.

The sovereigns of this world, by associating the Divinity in the
government of their dominions, by proclaiming themselves his vicegerents
and representatives upon earth, and by acknowledging they hold their power
from him, have necessarily constituted his ministers their own rivals or
masters. Is it then astonishing, that priests have often made kings feel
the superiority of the Celestial Monarch? Have they not more than once
convinced temporal princes, that even the greatest power is compelled to
yield to the spiritual power of opinion? Nothing is more difficult than
to serve two masters, especially when they are not agreed upon what they
require.

The association of Religion with Politics necessarily introduced double
legislation. The law of God, interpreted by his priests, was often
repugnant to the law of the sovereign, or the interest of the state. When
princes have firmness and are confident of the love of their subjects,
the law of God is sometimes forced to yield to the wise intentions of th