essions of this
celestial love, man feels the need of approaching his Creator, of
finding in Him the provident Ruler of the human destinies, and of
expecting from His kindness the future triumph of good, and an ultimate
perfection of all things. God, providence, and the immortality of the
soul, become then for him incontestable truths: and at such a knowledge
he does not arrive by way of laborious instruction and logical
demonstrations; but it springs up, as it were, in his inward feeling,
which prompts him to regulate his life according to that sublime model
of moral perfection; therefore, although reason furnishes not to him
logical proofs of these truths, yet he finds the presentiment of them
within his heart, he feels them, he accepts them with a force more
sentimental than intellectual, he embraces them with enthusiasm, and can
no longer detach himself from them; in short he _believes_ them.

XLVI. Thus, with the same confidence with which man admits as true, what
is demonstrated to his reason by solid arguments,--and he is then said
to be _convinced_,--does he likewise give his assent to the noble
inspirations of his heart, not yet depraved by abject inclinations,--and
he is then said to be _persuaded_. Thus there are two kinds of truths,
equally ascertained, and therefore equally admissible; the one
proceeding from intellect and called rational truth, the other formed in
the heart, and called moral truth. The source of the latter might also
properly be called _good sense_, which in fact acts, in many
circumstances of life, in lieu of pure reason. A man endowed with good
sense, and who has not yet become a slave to sensual appetites, will not
doubt for a moment, even without having ever been acquainted with the
proofs, that lying, calumniating, blaspheming, false swearing, robbing,
murdering, betraying friendship, country or honour, are culpable and
abominable actions. Other truths based on good sense are also the
following: the faith we have in friendship, in the rectitude of those
who administer justice, in the fidelity of a beloved object, in the
tenderness of parents, in the excellence of virtue, and above all, in
the wisdom, goodness, and providence of God; all these things we admit
within our souls, not in consequence of a cold calculation of the
intellect, but through an irresistible impulse of the heart, and in
consequence of a sort of presentiment springing from the consciousness
of our own noble spirit