me it is not, and if I am an advocate for austerity in principle and
action, it is because it renders sentiment more deep and permanent. If I
love reason in religion, that is to say, if I reject contradictory
dogmas and human means of producing effect upon men, it is because I
perceive the Deity in reason as well as in enthusiasm; and if I cannot
bear that man should be deprived of any one of his faculties, it is
because I conceive them all barely sufficient to comprehend truths which
reflection reveals to him, as well as the instinct of the heart, namely,
the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. What can be added
to these sublime ideas, to their union with virtue? What can we add
thereto that is not beneath them? The poetical enthusiasm which gives
you so many charms, is not, I venture to assert, the most salutary
devotion. Corinne, how could we by this disposition prepare for the
innumerable sacrifices which duty exacts of us! There was no revelation,
except by the flights of the soul, when human destiny, present and
future, only revealed itself to the mind through clouds; but for us, to
whom Christianity has rendered it clear and positive, feeling may be our
recompense, but ought not to be our only guide: you describe the
existence of the blessed, not that of mortals. Religious life is a
combat, not a hymn. If we were not condemned in this world to repress
the evil inclinations of others and of ourselves, there would in truth
be no distinction to be made except between cold and enthusiastic souls.
But man is a harsher and more formidable creature than your heart paints
him to you; and reason in piety, and authority in duty, are a necessary
curb to the wanderings of his pride.

"In whatever manner you may consider the external pomp and multiplied
ceremonies of your religion, believe me, my love, the contemplation of
the universe and its author, will be always the chief worship; that
which will fill the imagination, without any thing futile or absurd
being found in it upon investigation. Those dogmas which wound my reason
also cool my enthusiasm. Undoubtedly the world, such as it is, is a
mystery which we can neither deny nor comprehend; it would therefore be
foolish to refuse credence to what we are unable to explain; but that
which is contradictory is always of human creation. The mysteries of
heavenly origin are above the lights of the mind; but not in opposition
to them. A German philosopher[31] has s