Is this virtue? Is a being of this stamp of any use to
himself or to others? Would not society be dissolved, and would not men
retrograde into barbarism, if each one should be fool enough to wish to
be a saint?

It is evident that the literal and rigorous practice of the Divine
morality of the Christians would lead nations to ruin. A Christian who
would attain perfection, ought to drive away from his mind all that can
alienate him from heaven--his true country. He sees upon earth but
temptations, snares, and opportunities to go astray; he must fear
science as injurious to faith; he must avoid industry, as it is a means
of obtaining riches, which are fatal to salvation; he must renounce
preferments and honors, as things capable of exciting his pride and
calling his attention away from his soul; in a word, the sublime
morality of Christ, if it were not impracticable, would sever all the
ties of society.

A saint in the world is no more useful than a saint in the desert; the
saint has an unhappy, discontented, and often irritable, turbulent
disposition; his zeal often obliges him, conscientiously, to disturb
society by opinions or dreams which his vanity makes him accept as
inspirations from Heaven. The annals of all religions are filled with
accounts of anxious, intractable, seditious saints, who have
distinguished themselves by ravages that, for the greater glory of God,
they have scattered throughout the universe. If the saints who live in
solitude are useless, those who live in the world are very often
dangerous. The vanity of performing a role, the desire of distinguishing
themselves in the eyes of the stupid vulgar by a strange conduct,
constitute usually the distinctive characteristics of great saints;
pride persuades them that they are extraordinary men, far above human
nature; beings who are more perfect than others; chosen ones, which God
looks upon with more complaisance than the rest of mortals. Humility in
a saint is, is a general rule, but a pride more refined than that of
common men. It must be a very ridiculous vanity which can determine a
man to continually war with his own nature!

CLXIII.--HUMAN NATURE IS NOT DEPRAVED; AND A MORALITY WHICH CONTRADICTS
THIS FACT IS NOT MADE FOR MAN.

A morality which contradicts the nature of man is not made for him. But
you will say that man's nature is depraved. In what consists this
pretended depravity? Is it because he has passions? But are not passions
the