for
morals outside of human nature, you go wrong; no other is solid and
sure. The aid of the so-called sanctions of theology is not only
needless, but mischievous. The alliance of the realities of duty with
theological phantoms exposes duty to the same ruin which daylight brings
to the superstition that has been associated with duty. It sets up the
arbitrary demands of a varying something, named Piety, in place of the
plain requirements of Right. As for saying that without God man cannot
have moral sentiments, or, in other words, cannot distinguish between
vice and virtue, it is as if one said that, without the idea of God, man
would not feel the necessity of eating and drinking.

The writer then breaks out into a long and sustained contrast, from
which we may make a short extract to illustrate the heat to which the
battle had now come:

"Nature invites man to love himself, incessantly to augment the sum of
his happiness: Religion orders him to love only a formidable God who is
worthy of hatred; to detest and despise himself, and to sacrifice to his
terrible idol the sweetest and most lawful pleasures. Nature bids man
consult his reason, and take it for his guide: Religion teaches him that
this reason is corrupted, that it is a faithless, truthless guide,
implanted by a treacherous God, to mislead his creatures. Nature tells
man to seek light, to search for the truth: Religion enjoins upon him to
examine nothing, to remain in ignorance. Nature says to man: 'Cherish
glory, labour to win esteem, be active, courageous, industrious:'
Religion says to him: 'Be humble, abject, pusillanimous, live in
retreat, busy thyself in prayer, meditation, devout rites; be useless to
thyself, and do nothing for others.' Nature proposes for her model, men
endowed with noble, energetic, beneficent souls, who have usefully
served their fellow-citizens: Religion makes a show and a boast of the
abject spirits, the pious enthusiasts, the phrenetic penitents, the vile
fanatics, who for their ridiculous opinions have troubled empires....
Nature tells children to honour, to love, to hearken to their parents,
to be the stay and support of their old age: Religion bids them prefer
the oracle of their God, and to trample father and mother under foot,
when divine interests are concerned. Nature commands the perverse man to
blush for his vices, for his shameless desires, his crimes: Religion
says to the most corrupt: 'Fear to kindle the wrath of a God