occupying
themselves with their vain quarrels, they had applied themselves to the
useful sciences; if they had sought the true principles of physics, of
government, and of morals. Who would dare reproach the opulence and
credit of a corporation which, consecrating its leisure and its
authority to the public good, should use the one for studying and
meditating, and the other for enlightening equally the minds of the
sovereigns and the subjects?

Priests! lay aside your idle fancies, your unintelligible dogmas, your
despicable quarrels; banish to imaginary regions these phantoms, which
could be of use to you only in the infancy of nations; take the tone of
reason, instead of sounding the tocsin of persecution against your
adversaries; instead of entertaining the people with foolish disputes,
of preaching useless and fanatical virtues, preach to them humane and
social morality; preach to them virtues which are really useful to the
world; become the apostles of reason, the lights of the nations, the
defenders of liberty, reformers of abuses, the friends of truth, and we
will bless you, we will honor you, we will love you, and you will be
sure of holding an eternal empire over the hearts of your fellow-beings.

CXCI.--WHAT A HAPPY AND GREAT REVOLUTION WOULD TAKE PLACE IN THE
UNIVERSE, IF PHILOSOPHY WAS SUBSTITUTED FOR RELIGION!

Philosophers, in all ages, have taken the part that seemed destined for
the ministers of religion. The hatred of the latter for philosophy was
never more than professional jealousy. All men accustomed to think,
instead of seeking to injure each other, should unite their efforts in
combating errors, in seeking truth, and especially in dispelling the
prejudices from which the sovereigns and subjects suffer alike, and
whose upholders themselves finish, sooner or later, by becoming the
victims.

In the hands of an enlightened government the priests would become the
most useful of citizens. Could men with rich stipends from the State,
and relieved of the care of providing for their own subsistence, do
anything better than to instruct themselves in order to be able to
instruct others? Would not their minds be better satisfied in
discovering truth than in wandering in the labyrinths of darkness? Would
it be any more difficult to unravel the principles of man's morals, than
the imaginary principles of Divine and theological morals? Would
ordinary men have as much trouble in understanding the simple