who understands his true interests; he
knows they are united to those of his nation; he knows that a prince can
be neither great, nor powerful, nor beloved, nor respected, so long as
he will command but miserable slaves; he knows that equity, benevolence,
and vigilance will give him more real rights over men than fabulous
titles which claim to come from Heaven. He will feel that religion is
useful but to the priests; that it is useless to society, which is often
troubled by it; that it must be limited to prevent it from doing injury;
finally, he will understand that, in order to reign with glory, he must
make good laws, possess virtues, and not base his power on impositions
and chimeras.

CLIII.--THE DOMINANT PASSIONS AND CRIMES OF PRIESTCRAFT. WITH THE
ASSISTANCE OF ITS PRETENDED GOD AND OF RELIGION, IT ASSERTS ITS PASSIONS
AND COMMITS ITS CRIMES.

The ministers of religion have taken great care to make of their God a
terrible, capricious, and changeable tyrant; it was necessary for them
that He should be thus in order that He might lend Himself to their
various interests. A God who would be just and good, without a mixture
of caprice and perversity; a God who would constantly have the qualities
of an honest man or of a compliant sovereign, would not suit His
ministers. It is necessary to the priests that we tremble before their
God, in order that we have recourse to them to obtain the means to be
quieted. No man is a hero to his valet de chambre. It is not surprising
that a God clothed by His priests in such a way as to cause others to
fear Him, should rarely impose upon those priests themselves, or exert
but little influence upon their conduct. Consequently we see them behave
themselves in a uniform way in every land; everywhere they devour
nations, debase souls, discourage industry, and sow discord under the
pretext of the glory of their God. Ambition and avarice were at all
times the dominating passions of the priesthood; everywhere the priest
places himself above the sovereign and the laws; everywhere we see him
occupied but with the interests of his pride, his cupidity, his despotic
and vindictive mood; everywhere he substitutes expiations, sacrifices,
ceremonies, and mysterious practices; in a word, inventions lucrative to
himself for useful and social virtues. The mind is confounded and reason
interdicted with the view of ridiculous practices and pitiable means
which the ministers of the gods invented in