r facts. Such is the grand
cause which claims all the efforts which we are wasting too often in
barren conflicts--the cause of God. But do I say the truth? Is it the
cause of God which is at stake? When a surgeon, by a successful
operation, has restored sight to a blind man, we are not wont to say
that he has rendered a service to the sun. This cause is our own; it is
that of society at large, it is that of families, that of individuals;
it is the cause which concerns our dignity, our happiness; it is the
cause of all, even of those who attack it in words of which they do not
calculate the import, and who, were they to succeed in banishing God
from the public conscience, would, with us, recoil in terror at sight of
the frightful abysses into which we all should fall together.

It is time to sum up these considerations.

Inert and unintelligent matter is not the cause of life and
intelligence.

Human consciences would be plunged in irremediable misery, if ever they
could be persuaded that there is nothing superior to man.

The universe is the work of wisdom and of power; it is the creation of
the Infinite Mind. What can still be wanting to our hearts? The thought
that God desires our good,--that He loves us. If it is so, we shall be
able to understand that our cause is His, that He is not an impassible
sun whose rays fall on us with indifference, but a Father who is moved
at our sorrows, and who would have us find joy and peace in Him. This
will be the subject of our next and concluding lecture.

FOOTNOTES:

[160] Firmissimum hoc afferri videtur, cur deos esse credamus, quod
nulla gens tam fera, nemo omnium tam sit immanis, cujus mentem non
imbuerit deorum opinio. Multi de diis prava sentiunt, id enim vitioso
more effici solet; omnes tamen esse vim et naturam divinam
arbitrantur.... Omni autem in re consentio omnium gentium, lex naturae
putanda est.--_Tuscul._ i. 13.

[161] _In presence of Heaven, we must believe or deny._ See Lecture III.

[162] _Profession de foi du vicaire Savoyard._

[163]

Thou hadst only forgotten one point,
And that was, to light thy lantern.

[164] _Harmonices mundi libri quinque_.

[165] The authenticity of this reply is disputed; M. Arago gives it in
different terms; but the question is of small consequence here as one of
historical criticism, my object being not to establish a fact, but to
put an idea in a strong light by means of an example.

[166]