are
beyond the reach of laws? He can be assured by constant experience that
there is no vice which, in the nature of things, does not bring its own
punishment. If he wishes to preserve himself, he will avoid all those
excesses which can be injurious to his health; he would not desire to
live and linger, thus becoming a burden to himself and others. In regard
to secret crimes, he would avoid them through fear of being ashamed of
himself, from whom he can not hide. If he has reason, he will know the
price of the esteem that an honest man should have for himself. He will
know, besides, that unexpected circumstances can unveil to the eyes of
others the conduct which he feels interested in concealing. The other
world gives no motive for doing well to him who finds no motive for it
here.

CLXXIX.--AN ATHEISTICAL KING WOULD BE PREFERABLE TO ONE WHO IS RELIGIOUS
AND WICKED, AS WE OFTEN SEE THEM.

The speculating atheist, the theist will tell us, may be an honest man,
but his writings will cause atheism in politics. Princes and ministers,
being no longer restrained by the fear of God, will give themselves up
without scruple to the most frightful excesses. But no matter what we
can suppose of the depravity of an atheist on a throne, can it ever be
any greater or more injurious than that of so many conquerors, tyrants,
persecutors, of ambitious and perverse courtiers, who, without being
atheists, but who, being very often religious, do not cease to make
humanity groan under the weight of their crimes? Can an atheistical king
inflict more evil on the world than a Louis XI., a Philip II., a
Richelieu, who have all allied religion with crime? Nothing is rarer
than atheistical princes, and nothing more common than very bad and very
religious tyrants.

CLXXX.--THE MORALITY ACQUIRED BY PHILOSOPHY IS SUFFICIENT TO VIRTUE.

Any man who reflects can not fail of knowing his duties, of discovering
the relations which subsist between men, of meditating upon his own
nature, of discerning his needs, his inclinations, and his desires, and
of perceiving what he owes to the beings necessary to his own happiness.
These reflections naturally lead to the knowledge of the morality which
is the most essential for society. Every man who loves to retire within
himself in order to study and seek for the principles of things, has no
very dangerous passions; his greatest passion will be to know the truth,
and his greatest ambition to show i