t for
the attainment of happiness it suffices that one be virtuous. Thus, if the
soul follows reason and the orders that God has given it, it is assured of
its happiness, even though one may not find a sufficiency thereof in this
life.

19. Having thus endeavoured to point out the disadvantages of my
hypothesis, our gifted author sets forth the advantages of his own. He
believes that it alone is capable of saving our freedom, that all our
felicity rests therein, that it increases our goods and lessens our evils,
and that an agent possessing this power is so much the more complete. These
advantages have almost all been already disproved. We have shown that for
the securing of our freedom it is enough that the representations of goods
and of evils, and other inward or outward dispositions, should incline us
without constraining us. Moreover one does not see how pure indifference
can contribute to felicity; on the contrary, the more indifferent one is,
the more insensitive and the less capable of enjoying what is good will one
prove to be. Besides the hypothesis proves too much. For if an indifferent
power could give itself the consciousness of good it could also give itself
the most perfect happiness, as has been already shown. And it is manifest
that there is nothing which would set limits to that power, since limits
would withdraw it from its pure indifference, whence, so our author
alleges, it only emerges of itself, or rather wherein it has never been.
Finally one does not see wherein the perfection of pure indifference lies:
on the contrary, there is nothing more imperfect; it would render knowledge
and goodness futile, and would reduce everything to chance, with no rules,
and no measures that could be taken. There are, however, still some
advantages adduced by our author which have not been discussed. He
considers then that by this power alone are we the true cause to which our
actions can be imputed, since otherwise we should be under the compulsion
of external objects; likewise that by this power alone can one ascribe to
oneself the merit of one's own felicity, and feel pleased with [426]
oneself. But the exact opposite is the case: for when one happens upon the
action through an absolutely indifferent movement, and not as a result of
one's good or bad qualities, is it not just as though one were to happen
upon it blindly by chance or hazard? Why then should one boast of a good
action, or why should one be c