Whom does the idea of God overawe?  A few weak men disappointed and disgusted with this world; some persons whose passions are already extinguished by age, by infirmities, or by reverses of fortune.  Religion is a restraint but for those whose temperament or circumstances have already subjected them to reason.  The fear of God does not prevent any from committing sin but those who do not wish to sin very much, or who are no longer in a condition to sin.  To tell men that Divinity punishes crime in this world, is to claim as a fact that which experience contradicts constantly The most wicked men are usually the arbiters of the world, and those whom fortune blesses with its favors.  To convince us of the judgments of God by sending us to the other life, is to make us accept conjectures in order to destroy facts which we can not dispute.

CLXVII.—­THE INVENTION OF HELL IS TOO ABSURD TO PREVENT EVIL.

No one dreams about another life when he is very much absorbed in objects which he meets on earth.  In the eyes of a passionate lover, the presence of his mistress extinguishes the fires of hell, and her charms blot out all the pleasures of Paradise.  Woman! you leave, you say, your lover for your God?  It is that your lover is no longer the same in your estimation; or your lover leaves you, and you must fill the void which is made in your heart.  Nothing is more common than to see ambitious, perverse, corrupt, and immoral men who are religious, and who sometimes exhibit even zeal in its behalf; if they do not practice religion, they promise themselves they will practice it some day; they keep it in reserve as a remedy which, sooner or later, will be necessary to quiet the conscience for the evil which they intend yet to do.  Besides, devotees and priests being a very numerous, active, and powerful party, it is not astonishing to see impostors and thieves seek for its support in order to gain their ends.  We will be told, no doubt, that many honest people are sincerely religious without profit; but is uprightness of heart always accompanied with intelligence?  We are cited to a great number of learned men, men of genius, who are very religious.  This proves that men of genius can have prejudices, can be pusillanimous, can have an imagination which seduces them and prevents them from examining objects coolly.  Pascal proves nothing in favor of religion, except that a man of genius can possess a grain of weakness, and is but a child when he is weak enough to listen to prejudices.  Pascal himself tells us “that the mind can be strong and narrow, and just as extended as it is weak.”  He says more:  “We can have our senses all right, and not be equally able in all things; because there are men who, being right in a certain sphere of things, lose themselves in others.”

CLXVIII.—­ABSURDITY OF THE MORALITY AND OF THE RELIGIOUS VIRTUES ESTABLISHED SOLELY IN THE INTEREST OF THE PRIESTS.