ccept conjectures in order to destroy facts which we can not
dispute.

CLXVII.--THE INVENTION OF HELL IS TOO ABSURD TO PREVENT EVIL.

No one dreams about another life when he is very much absorbed in
objects which he meets on earth. In the eyes of a passionate lover, the
presence of his mistress extinguishes the fires of hell, and her charms
blot out all the pleasures of Paradise. Woman! you leave, you say, your
lover for your God? It is that your lover is no longer the same in your
estimation; or your lover leaves you, and you must fill the void which
is made in your heart. Nothing is more common than to see ambitious,
perverse, corrupt, and immoral men who are religious, and who sometimes
exhibit even zeal in its behalf; if they do not practice religion, they
promise themselves they will practice it some day; they keep it in
reserve as a remedy which, sooner or later, will be necessary to quiet
the conscience for the evil which they intend yet to do. Besides,
devotees and priests being a very numerous, active, and powerful party,
it is not astonishing to see impostors and thieves seek for its support
in order to gain their ends. We will be told, no doubt, that many honest
people are sincerely religious without profit; but is uprightness of
heart always accompanied with intelligence? We are cited to a great
number of learned men, men of genius, who are very religious. This
proves that men of genius can have prejudices, can be pusillanimous, can
have an imagination which seduces them and prevents them from examining
objects coolly. Pascal proves nothing in favor of religion, except that
a man of genius can possess a grain of weakness, and is but a child when
he is weak enough to listen to prejudices. Pascal himself tells us "that
the mind can be strong and narrow, and just as extended as it is weak."
He says more: "We can have our senses all right, and not be equally able
in all things; because there are men who, being right in a certain
sphere of things, lose themselves in others."

CLXVIII.--ABSURDITY OF THE MORALITY AND OF THE RELIGIOUS VIRTUES
ESTABLISHED SOLELY IN THE INTEREST OF THE PRIESTS.

What is virtue according to theology? It is, we are told, the conformity
of men's actions with the will of God. But who is God? He is a being
whom no one is able to conceive of, and whom, consequently, each one
modifies in his own way. What is the will of God? It is what men who
have seen God, or whom God has i