ertain the clearest truths; it has
converted the art of reasoning into a jargon of words; it has carried the
human mind into the airy regions of metaphysics, and there employed it in
vainly fathoming an obscure abyss. Instead of physical and simple causes,
this transformed philosophy has substituted supernatural, or rather,
_occult_ causes; it has explained phenomena difficult to be conceived by
agents still more inconceivable. It has filled language with words, void
of sense, incapable of accounting for things, better calculated to obscure
than enlighten, and which seems invented expressly to discourage man,
to guard him against the powers of his mind, to make him mistrust the
principles of reason and evidence, and to raise an insurmountable barrier
between him and truth.

202.

Were we to believe the partisans of Religion, nothing could be explained
without it; nature would be a perpetual enigma, and man would be incapable
of understanding himself. But, what does this Religion in reality explain?
The more we examine it, the more we are convinced that its theological
notions are fit only to confuse our ideas; they change every thing into
mystery: they explain difficult things by things that are impossible. Is
it a satisfactory explanation of phenomena, to attribute them to unknown
agents, to invisible powers, to immaterial causes? Does the human mind
receive much light by being referred to _the depths of the treasures of
divine wisdom_, to which, we are repeatedly told, it is vain to extend
our rash enquiries? Can the divine nature, of which we have no conception,
enable us to conceive the nature of man?

Ask a Christian, what is the origin of the world? He will answer, that God
created it. What is God? He cannot tell. What is it to create? He knows
not. What is the cause of pestilence, famine, wars, droughts, inundations
and earthquakes? The anger of God. What remedies can be applied to these
calamities? Prayers, sacrifices, processions, offerings, and ceremonies
are, it is said, the true means of disarming celestial fury. But why is
heaven enraged? Because men are wicked. Why are men wicked? Because their
nature is corrupt. What is the cause of this corruption? It is, says the
theologian, because the first man, beguiled by the first woman, ate an
apple, which God had forbidden him to touch. Who beguiled this woman into
such folly? The devil. Who made the devil? God. But, why did God make this
devil, destined