ing to the
unfortunate? Doubtless the brain of these unfortunate ones has been
disturbed by their misfortunes, since they forget that God is the
arbiter of things, the sole dispenser of the events of this world. In
this case ought they not to blame Him for the evils for which they would
find consolation in His arms? Unfortunate father! you console yourself
in the bosom of Providence for the loss of a cherished child or of a
wife, who made your happiness! Alas! do you not see that your God has
killed them? Your God has rendered you miserable; and you want Him to
console you for the fearful blows He has inflicted upon you.

The fantastic and supernatural notions of theology have succeeded so
thoroughly in overcoming the simplest, the clearest, the most natural
ideas of the human spirit, that the pious, incapable of accusing God of
malice, accustom themselves to look upon these sad afflictions as
indubitable proofs of celestial goodness. Are they in affliction, they
are told to believe that God loves them, that God visits them, that God
wishes to try them. Thus it is that religion changes evil into good!
Some one has said profanely, but with reason: "If the good God treats
thus those whom He loves, I beseech Him very earnestly not to think of
me." Men must have formed very sinister and very cruel ideas of their
God whom they call so good, in order to persuade themselves that the
most frightful calamities and the most painful afflictions are signs of
His favor! Would a wicked Genii or a Devil be more ingenious in
tormenting his enemies, than sometimes is this God of goodness, who is
so often occupied with inflicting His chastisements upon His dearest
friends?

LXXIX.--A GOD WHO PUNISHES THE FAULTS WHICH HE COULD HAVE PREVENTED, IS A
FOOL, WHO ADDS INJUSTICE TO FOOLISHNESS.

What would we say or a father who, we are assured, watches without
relaxation over the welfare of his feeble and unforeseeing children, and
who, however, would leave them at liberty to go astray in the midst of
rocks, precipices, and waters; who would prevent them but rarely from
following their disordered appetites; who would permit them to handle,
without precaution, deadly arms, at the risk of wounding themselves
severely? What would we think of this same father, if, instead of
blaming himself for the harm which would have happened to his poor
children, he should punish them for their faults in the most cruel way?
We would say, with reason, t