if the earth remains a desert, is it God who has depopulated it?  Is it his rapacity which robs the husbandman, ravages the fruitful fields, and wastes the earth, or is it the rapacity of those who govern?  Is it his pride which excites murderous wars, or the pride of kings and their ministers?  Is it the venality of his decisions which overthrows the fortunes of families, or the corruption of the organs of the law?  Are they his passions which, under a thousand forms, torment individuals and nations, or are they the passions of man?  And if, in the anguish of their miseries, they see not the remedies, is it the ignorance of God which is to blame, or their ignorance?  Cease then, mortals, to accuse the decrees of Fate, or the judgments of the Divinity!  If God is good, will he be the author of your misery?  If he is just, will he be the accomplice of your crimes?  No, the caprice of which man complains is not the caprice of fate; the darkness that misleads his reason is not the darkness of God; the source of his calamities is not in the distant heavens, it is beside him on the earth; it is not concealed in the bosom of the divinity; it dwells within himself, he bears it in his own heart.

Thou murmurest and sayest:  What! have an infidel people then enjoyed the blessings of heaven and earth?  Are the holy people of God less fortunate than the races of impiety?  Deluded man! where then is the contradiction which offends thee?  Where is the inconsistency which thou imputest to the justice of heaven?  Take into thine own hands the balance of rewards and punishments, of causes and effects.  Say:  when these infidels observed the laws of the heavens and the earth, when they regulated well-planned labors by the order of the seasons and the course of the stars, should the Almighty have disturbed the equilibrium of the universe to defeat their prudence?  When their hands cultivated these fields with toil and care, should he have diverted the course of the rains, suspended the refreshing dews, and planted crops of thorns?  When, to render these arid fields productive, their industry constructed aqueducts, dug canals, and led the distant waters across the desert, should he have dried up their sources in the mountains?  Should he have blasted the harvests which art had nourished, wasted the plains which peace had peopled, overthrown cities which labor had created, or disturbed the order established by the wisdom of man?  And what is that infidelity which founded empires by its prudence, defended them by its valor, and strengthened them by its justice—­which built powerful cities, formed capacious ports, drained pestilential marshes, covered the ocean with ships, the earth with inhabitants; and, like the creative spirit, spread life and motion throughout the world?  If such be infidelity, what then is the true faith?  Doth sanctity consist in destruction?  The God who peoples the air with birds, the earth with animals, the waters with fishes—­the God who animates