otic, deaf-mute, blind from birth, maimed, foolish and
insane? My brother is handsome and well-shaped: I am ugly, weakly,
rickety, and a hunchback. Yet we are sons of the same mother. Some are
born into opulence, others into the most dreadful want. Why am I not a
prince and a great lord, instead of a poor pilgrim on the earth,
ungrateful and rebellious? Why was I born in Europe and at Paris,
whereby civilization and art life is rendered supportable and easy,
instead of seeing the light under the burning skies of the tropics,
where, dressed out in a beastly muzzle, a skin black and oily, and locks
of wool, I should have been exposed to the double torments of a deadly
climate and a barbarous society? Why is not a wretched African negro in
my place in Paris, in conditions of comfort? We have, either of us,
done nothing to entitle us to our assigned places: we have invited
neither this favor nor that disgrace. Why is the unequal distribution of
the terrible evils that fall upon some men, and spare others? How have
those deserved the partiality of fortune, who live in happy lands, while
many of their brethren suffer and weep in other parts of the world?"

Figuier continues: "Some men are endowed with all benefits of mind;
others, on the contrary, are devoid of intelligence, penetration and
memory. They stumble at every step in their rough life-paths. Their
limited intelligence and their imperfect faculties expose them to all
possible mortifications and disasters. They can succeed in nothing, and
Fate seems to have chosen them for the constant objects of its most
deadly blows. There are beings who, from the moment of their birth to
the hour of their death, utter only cries of suffering and despair. What
crime have they committed? Why are they here on earth? They have not
petitioned to be here; and if they could, they would have begged that
this fatal cup might be taken from their lips. They are here in spite of
themselves, against their will. God would be unjust and wicked if he
imposed so miserable an existence upon beings who have done nothing to
incur it, and have not asked for it. But God is not unjust or wicked:
the opposite qualities belong to his perfect essence. Therefore the
presence of man on such or such parts of the earth, and the unequal
distribution of evil on our globe, must remain unexplained. If you know
a doctrine, a philosophy, or a religion that solves these difficulties,
I will destroy this book, and confe