step without wounding,
tormenting, crushing a multitude of sentient beings which he finds in
his path, while he himself, at every step, is exposed to a throng of
evils seen or unseen, which may lead to his destruction. Is not the very
thought of death sufficient to mar his greatest enjoyment? During the
whole course of his life he is subject to sufferings; there is not a
moment when he feels sure of preserving his existence, to which he is so
strongly attached, and which he regards as the greatest gift of
Divinity.

LIX.--IN VAIN DOES THEOLOGY EXERT ITSELF TO ACQUIT GOD OF MAN'S DEFECTS.
EITHER THIS GOD IS NOT FREE, OR HE IS MORE WICKED THAN GOOD.

The world, it will be said, has all the perfection of which it was
susceptible; by the very reason that the world was not the God who made
it, it was necessary that it should have great qualities and great
defects. But we will answer, that the world necessarily having great
defects, it would have been better suited to the nature of a good God
not to create a world which He could not render completely happy. If
God, who was, according to you, supremely happy before the world was
created, had continued to be supremely happy in the created world, why
did He not remain in peace? Why must man suffer? Why must man exist What
is his existence to God? Nothing or something. If his existence is not
useful or necessary to God, why did He not leave him in nothingness? If
man's existence is necessary to His glory, He then needed man, He lacked
something before this man existed!

We can forgive an unskillful workman for doing imperfect work, because
he must work, well or ill, or starve; this workman is excusable; but
your God is not. According to you, He is self-sufficient; in this case,
why does He create men? He has, according to you, all that is necessary
to render man happy; why, then, does He not do it? You must conclude
that your God has more malice than goodness, or you must admit that God
was compelled to do what He has done, without being able to do
otherwise. However, you assure us that your God is free; you say also
that He is immutable, although beginning in time and ceasing in time to
exercise His power, like all the inconstant beings of this world. Oh,
theologians! you have made vain efforts to acquit your God of all the
defects of man; there is always visible in this God so perfect, "a tip
of the [human] ear."

LX.--WE CAN NOT BELIEVE IN A DIVINE PROVIDENCE,