in
the way of His justice; to implore the assistance of God in our
calamities, means to appeal to the very author of these calamities in
order to represent to Him our welfare; that He ought to rectify in our
favor His plan, which is not beneficial to our interests. The optimist,
or the one who thinks that everything is good in the world, and who
repeats to us incessantly that we live in the best world possible, if he
were consistent, ought never to pray; still less should he expect
another world where men will be happier. Can there be a better world
than the best possible of all worlds? Some of the theologians have
treated the optimists as impious for having claimed that God could not
have made a better world than the one in which we live; according to
these doctors it is limiting the Divine power and insulting it. But do
not theologians see that it is less offensive for God, to pretend that
He did His best in creating the world, than to say that He, having the
power to produce a better one, had the malice to make a very bad one? If
the optimist, by his system, does wrong to the Divine power, the
theologian, who treats him as impious, is himself a reprobate, who
wounds the Divine goodness under pretext of taking interest in God.

LXXXVIII.--THE REPARATION OF THE INIQUITIES AND THE MISERIES OF THIS
WORLD IN ANOTHER WORLD, IS AN IDLE CONJECTURE AND AN ABSURD SUPPOSITION.

When we complain of the evils of which this world is the theater, we are
referred to another world; we are told that there God will repair all
the iniquities and the miseries which He permits for a time here below.
However, if leaving His eternal justice to sleep for a time, God could
consent to evil during the period of the existence of our globe, what
assurance have we that during the existence of another globe, Divine
justice will not likewise sleep during the misfortunes of its
inhabitants? They console us in our troubles by saying, that God is
patient, and that His justice, although often very slow, is not the less
certain. But do you not see, that patience can not be suited to a being
just, immutable, and omnipotent? Can God tolerate injustice for an
instant? To temporize with an evil that one knows of, evinces either
uncertainty, weakness, or collusion; to tolerate evil which one has the
power to prevent, is to consent that evil should be committed.

LXXXIX.--THEOLOGY JUSTIFIES THE EVIL AND INJUSTICE PERMITTED BY ITS GOD,
ONLY BY CO