riests of the Lord! that the passions cause unbelievers; you
pretend that they renounce religion through interest, or because it
interferes with their irregular inclinations; you assert that they
attack your Gods because they fear their punishments. Ah! yourselves in
defending this religion and its chimeras, are you, then, really exempt
from passions and interests? Who receive the fees of this religion, on
whose behalf the priests are so zealous? It is the priests. To whom does
religion procure power, credit, honors, wealth? To the priests! In all
countries, who make war upon reason, science, truth, and philosophy and
render them odious to the sovereigns and to the people? Who profit by
the ignorance of men and their vain prejudices? The priests! You are, O
priests, rewarded, honored, and paid for deceiving mortals, and you
punish those who undeceive them. The follies of men procure you
blessings, offerings, expiations; the most useful truths bring to those
who announce them, chains, sufferings, stakes. Let the world judge
between us.

CLXXXVIII.--PRIDE, PRESUMPTION, AND CORRUPTION OF THE HEART ARE MORE
OFTEN FOUND AMONG PRIESTS THAN AMONG ATHEISTS AND UNBELIEVERS.

Pride and vanity always were and always will be the inherent vices of
the priesthood. Is there anything that has a tendency to render men
haughty and vain more than the assumption of exercising Heavenly power,
of possessing a sacred character, of being the messengers of the Most
High? Are not these dispositions continually increased by the credulity
of the people, by the deference and the respect of the sovereigns, by
the immunities, the privileges, and the distinctions which the clergy
enjoy? The common man is, in every country, more devoted to his
spiritual guides, whom he considers as Divine men, than to his temporal
superiors, whom he considers as ordinary men. Village priests enjoy more
honor than the lord or the judge. A Christian priest believes himself
far above a king or an emperor. A Spanish grandee having spoken hastily
to a monk, the latter said to him, arrogantly, "Learn to respect a man
who has every day your God in his hands and your queen at his feet."

Have the priests any right to accuse the unbelievers of pride? Do they
distinguish themselves by a rare modesty or profound humility? Is it not
evident that the desire to domineer over men is the essence of their
profession? If the Lord's ministers were truly modest, would we see them