e feared, than an assassin who
believes nothing? Is a very devout tyrant less tyrannical than an undevout
tyrant?

181.

Nothing is more uncommon, than to see men consistent. Their opinions never
influence their conduct except when conformable to their temperaments,
passions, and interests. Daily experience shows, that religious opinions
produce much evil and little good. They are hurtful, because they often
favour the passions of tyrants, of ambitious men, of fanatics, and of
priests; they are of no effect, because incapable of counter-balancing the
present interests of the greater part of mankind. Religious principles
are of no avail, when they act in opposition to ardent desires; though not
unbelievers, men then conduct themselves as if they believed nothing.

We shall always be liable to err, when we judge of the opinions of men
by their conduct, or of their conduct by their opinions. A religious man,
notwithstanding the unsociable principles of a sanguinary religion, will
sometimes by a happy inconsistency, be humane, tolerant, and moderate; the
principles of his religion do not then agree with the gentleness of his
character. Libertines, debauchees, hypocrites, adulterers, and rogues,
often appear to have the best ideas upon morals. Why do they not reduce
them to practice? Because their temperament, their interest, and their
habits do not accord with their sublime theories. The rigid principles of
Christian morality, which many people regard as divine, have but little
influence upon the conduct of those, who preach them to others. Do they
not daily tell us, _to do what they preach, and not what they practise?_

The partisans of Religion often denote an infidel by the word _libertine_.
It is possible that many unbelievers may have loose morals, which is
owing to their temperament, and not to their opinions. But how does
their conduct affect their opinions? Cannot then an immoral man be a good
physician, architect, geometrician, logician, or metaphysician? A man of
irreproachable conduct may be extremely deficient in knowledge and reason.
In quest of truth, it little concerns us from whom it comes. Let us not
judge men by their opinions, nor opinions by men; let us judge men by
their conduct, and their opinions by their conformity with experience and
reason and by their utility to mankind.

182.

Every man, who reasons, soon becomes an unbeliever; for reason shows, that
theology is nothing but a ti