“Philosophists was a name given to several persons in France, who entered into a combination to overthrow the religion of Jesus, and eradicate from the human heart every religious sentiment.  The man more particularly to whom this idea first occurred, was Voltaire, who being weary (as he said himself) of hearing it repeated that twelve men were sufficient to establish Christianity, resolved to prove that one might be sufficient to overturn it.  Full of this project, he swore, before the year 1730, to devote his life to its accomplishment, and for some time he flattered himself that he should enjoy alone the glory of destroying the Christian religion.  He found, however, that associates would be necessary; and from the numerous tribe of his admirers and disciples, he chose D’Alembert and Diderot, as the most proper persons to co-operate with him in his designs.  He contrived also to enlist Frederick II., king of Prussia, who became one of his most zealous coadjutors, until he found that Voltaire was waging war with the throne as well as the altar.  This, indeed, was not originally Voltaire’s intention.  He was vain; from natural disposition an aristocrat, and an admirer of royalty.  But when he found that almost every sovereign but Frederick disapproved of his ambitious designs, as soon as he perceived their issue, he determined to oppose all the governments on earth rather than forfeit the glory with which he flattered himself, of vanquishing Christ and his apostles in the field of controversy.

“He now set himself, with his associates, D’Alembert and Diderot, to excite universal discontent with the established order of things.  For this purpose, they formed secret societies, assumed new names, and employed an enigmatical language.  In their secret meetings they professed to celebrate the mysteries of Mythra; and their great object, as they professed to one another, was to confound the wretch, meaning Jesus Christ.  Hence their secret watchword was ’Crush the wretch.’  The following are some of their doctrines, as found in their books expressly designed for general circulation.  Sometimes standing out in their naked horror, at other times enveloped in sophistry and disguise.  The Universal Cause, that God of the philosophers, of the Jews, and of the Christians, is but a chimera and a phantom—­The phenomena of nature only prove the existence of God to a few prepossessed men—­It is more reasonable to admit, with Manes, of a two-fold God, than of the God of Christianity—­We can not know whether a God really exists, or whether there is any difference between good and evil, or vice and virtue—­Nothing can be more absurd than to believe the soul a spiritual being—­The immortality of the soul, so far from stimulating men to the practise of virtue, is nothing but a barbarous, desperate, fatal tenet, and contrary to all legislation—­All ideas of justice and injustice, of virtue and vice, of glory and infamy, are purely arbitrary, and dependent on