riests; the latter loudly call upon the
powers that be, for assistance; they need the assistance of kings to
sustain their arguments and their Gods. These clamors show the weakness
of their cause.

"They are in embarrassment when they cry for help."

It is not permitted to err in the matter of religion; on every other
subject we can be deceived with impunity; we pity those who go astray,
and we have some liking for the persons who discover truths new to us.
But as soon as theology supposes itself concerned, be it in errors or
discoveries, a holy zeal is kindled; the sovereigns exterminate; the
people fly into frenzy; and the nations are all stirred up without
knowing why. Is there anything more afflicting than to see public and
individual welfare depend upon a futile science, which is void of
principles, which has no standing ground but imagination, and which
presents to the mind but words void of sense? What good is a religion
which no one understands; which continually torments those who trouble
themselves about it; which is incapable of rendering men better; and
which often gives them the credit of being unjust and wicked? Is there a
more deplorable folly, and one that ought more to be abated, than that
which, far from doing any good to the human race, does but blind it,
cause transports, and render it miserable, depriving it of truth, which
alone can soften the rigor of fate?

CCVI.--RELIGION IS PANDORA'S BOX, AND THIS FATAL BOX IS OPEN.

Religion has in every age kept the human mind in darkness and held it in
ignorance of its true relations, of its real duties and its true
interests. It is but in removing its clouds and phantoms that we may
find the sources of truth, reason, morality, and the actual motives
which inspire virtue. This religion puts us on the wrong track for the
causes of our evils, and the natural remedies which we can apply. Far
from curing them, it can but multiply them and render them more durable.

Let us, then, say, with the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke, in his
posthumous works: "Theology is the Box of Pandora; and if it is
impossible to close it, it is at least useful to give warning that this
fatal box is open."

*****

I believe, my dear friends, that I have given you a sufficient
preventative against all these follies. Your reason will do more than my
discourses, and I sincerely wish that we had only to complain of being
deceived! But human blood has flowed since the time of Co