not know in what rank to place himself. He has plainly gone
astray, and fallen from his true place without being able to find it
again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully everywhere in
impenetrable darkness.

428

If it is a sign of weakness to prove God by nature, do not despise
Scripture; if it is a sign of strength to have known these
contradictions, esteem Scripture.

429

The vileness of man in submitting himself to the brutes, and in even
worshipping them.

430

_For Port Royal. The beginning, after having explained the
incomprehensibility._--The greatness and the wretchedness of man are so
evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us both that there
is in man some great source of greatness, and a great source of
wretchedness. It must then give us a reason for these astonishing
contradictions.

In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that there is a God;
that we ought to love Him; that our true happiness is to be in Him, and
our sole evil to be separated from Him; it must recognise that we are
full of darkness which hinders us from knowing and loving Him; and that
thus, as our duties compel us to love God, and our lusts turn us away
from Him, we are full of unrighteousness. It must give us an explanation
of our opposition to God and to our own good. It must teach us the
remedies for these infirmities, and the means of obtaining these
remedies. Let us therefore examine all the religions of the world, and
see if there be any other than the Christian which is sufficient for
this purpose.

Shall it be that of the philosophers, who put forward as the chief good,
the good which is in ourselves? Is this the true good? Have they found
the remedy for our ills? Is man's pride cured by placing him on an
equality with God? Have those who have made us equal to the brutes, or
the Mahommedans who have offered us earthly pleasures as the chief good
even in eternity, produced the remedy for our lusts? What religion,
then, will teach us to cure pride and lust? What religion will in fact
teach us our good, our duties, the weakness which turns us from them,
the cause of this weakness, the remedies which can cure it, and the
means of obtaining these remedies?

All other religions have not been able to do so. Let us see what the
wisdom of God will do.

"Expect neither truth," she says, "nor consolation from men. I am she
who formed you, and who alone can teach you what you are. But you a