k them if the Lord can show indulgence to
those who are in error? Immediately their charity disappears, and the
dominating clergy will tell you that the prince carries the sword but to
sustain the interests of the Most High; they will tell you that for love
of the neighbor, you must persecute, imprison, exile, or burn him. You
will find tolerance among a few priests who are persecuted themselves,
but who put aside Christian charity as soon as they have the power to
persecute in their turn.

The Christian religion which was originally preached by beggars and by
very wretched men, strongly recommends alms-giving under the name of
charity; the faith of Mohammed equally makes it an indispensable duty.
Nothing, no doubt, is better suited to humanity than to assist the
unfortunate, to clothe the naked, to lend a charitable hand to whoever
needs it. But would it not be more humane and more charitable to foresee
the misery and to prevent the poor from increasing? If religion, instead
of deifying princes, had but taught them to respect the property of
their subjects, to be just, and to exercise but their legitimate rights,
we should not see such a great number of mendicants in their realms. A
greedy, unjust, tyrannical government multiplies misery; the rigor of
taxes produces discouragement, idleness, indigence, which, on their
part, produce robbery, murders, and all kinds of crime. If the
sovereigns had more humanity, charity, and justice, their States would
not be peopled by so many unfortunate ones whose misery becomes
impossible to soothe.

The Christian and Mohammedan States are filled with vast and richly
endowed hospitals, in which we admire the pious charity of the kings and
of the sultans who erected them. Would it not have been more humane to
govern the people well, to procure them ease, to excite and to favor
industry and trade, to permit them to enjoy in safety the fruits of
their labors, than to oppress them under a despotic yoke, to impoverish
them by senseless wars, to reduce them to mendicity in order to gratify
an immoderate luxury, and afterward build sumptuous monuments which can
contain but a very small portion of those whom they have rendered
miserable? Religion, by its virtues, has but given a change to men;
instead of foreseeing evils, it applies but insufficient remedies. The
ministers of Heaven have always known how to benefit themselves by the
calamities of others; public misery became their element; t