To a devotee,
Religion is a veil, which covers all passions; pride, ill-humour,
anger, revenge, impatience, and rancour. Devotion arrogates a tyrannical
superiority, which banishes gentleness, indulgence, and gaiety; it
authorizes people to censure their neighbours, to reprove and revile the
profane for the greater glory of God. It is very common to be devout, and
at the same time destitute of every virtue and quality necessary to social
life.

177.

It is asserted, that the dogma of another life is of the utmost importance
to peace and happiness; that without it, men would be destitute of motives
to do good. What need is there of terrors and fables to make man sensible
how he ought to conduct himself? Does not every one see, that he has the
greatest interest, in meriting the approbation, esteem, and benevolence of
the beings who surround him, and in abstaining from every thing, by which
he may incur the censure, contempt, and resentment of society? However
short an entertainment, a conversation, or visit, does not each desire to
act his part decently, and agreeably to himself and others? If life is but
a passage, let us strive to make it easy; which we cannot effect, if we
fail in regard for those who travel with us. Religion, occupied with
its gloomy reveries, considers man merely as a pilgrim upon earth; and
therefore supposes that, in order to travel the more securely, he must
forsake company, and deprive himself of pleasure and amusements, which
might console him for the tediousness and fatigue of the journey. A
stoical and morose philosopher sometimes gives us advice as irrational
as that of Religion. But a more rational philosophy invites us to spread
flowers upon the way of life, to dispel melancholy and banish terrors, to
connect our interest with that of our fellow-travellers, and by gaiety and
lawful pleasures, to divert our attention from difficulties and accidents,
to which we are often exposed; it teaches us, that, to travel agreeably,
we should abstain from what might be injurious to ourselves, and carefully
shun what might render us odious to our associates.

178.

It is asked, _what motives an Atheist can have to do good?_ The motive to
please himself and his fellow-creatures; to live happily and peaceably;
to gain the affection and esteem of men. "Can he, who fears not the gods,
fear any thing?" He can fear men; he can fear contempt, dishonour, the
punishment of the laws; in short, he