every country to purify
souls and render Heaven favorable to nations. Here, they practice
circumcision upon a child to procure it Divine benevolence; there, they
pour water upon his head to wash away the crimes which he could not yet
have committed; in other places he is told to plunge himself into a
river whose waters have the power to wash away all his impurities; in
other places certain food is forbidden to him, whose use would not fail
to excite celestial indignation; in other countries they order the
sinful man to come periodically for the confession of his faults to a
priest, who is often a greater sinner than he.

CLIV.--CHARLATANRY OF THE PRIESTS.

What would we say of a crowd of quacks, who every day would exhibit in a
public place, selling their remedies and recommending them as
infallible, while we should find them afflicted with the same
infirmities which they pretend to cure? Would we have much confidence in
the recipes of these charlatans, who would bawl out: "Take our remedies,
their effects are infallible--they cure everybody except us?" What would
we think to see these same charlatans pass their lives in complaining
that their remedies never produce any effect upon the patients who take
them? Finally, what idea would we form of the foolishness of the common
man who, in spite of this confession, would continue to pay very high
for remedies which will not be beneficial to him? The priests resemble
alchemists, who boldly assert that they have the secret of making gold,
while they scarcely have clothing enough to cover their nudity.

The ministers of religion incessantly declaim against the corruption of
the age, and complain loudly of the little success of their teachings,
at the same time they assure us that religion is the universal remedy,
the true panacea for all human evils. These priests are sick themselves;
however, men continue to frequent their stands and to have faith in
their Divine antidotes, which, according to their own confession, cure
nobody!

CLV.--COUNTLESS CALAMITIES ARE PRODUCED BY RELIGION, WHICH HAS TAINTED
MORALITY AND DISTURBED ALL JUST IDEAS AND ALL SOUND DOCTRINES.

Religion, especially among modern people, in taking possession of
morality, totally obscured its principles; it has rendered men unsocial
from a sense of duty; it has forced them to be inhuman toward all those
who did not think as they did. Theological disputes, equally
unintelligible for the parties