XVIII.—­CONTINUATION.

A thing is impossible when it is composed of two ideas so antagonistic, that we can not think of them at the same time.  Evidence can be relied on only when confirmed by the constant testimony of our senses, which alone give birth to ideas, and enable us to judge of their conformity or of their incompatibility.  That which exists necessarily, is that of which the non-existence would imply contradiction.  These principles, universally recognized, are at fault when the question of the existence of God is considered; what has been said of Him is either unintelligible or perfectly contradictory; and for this reason must appear impossible to every man of common sense.

XIX.—­THE EXISTENCE OF GOD IS NOT PROVED.

All human intelligences are more or less enlightened and cultivated.  By what fatality is it that the science of God has never been explained?  The most civilized nations and the most profound thinkers are of the same opinion in regard to the matter as the most barbarous nations and the most ignorant and rustic people.  As we examine the subject more closely, we will find that the science of divinity by means of reveries and subtleties has but obscured it more and more.  Thus far, all religion has been founded on what is called in logic, a “begging of the question;” it supposes freely, and then proves, finally, by the suppositions it has made.

XX.—­TO SAY THAT GOD IS A SPIRIT, IS TO SPEAK WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING AT ALL.

By metaphysics, God is made a pure spirit, but has modern theology advanced one step further than the theology of the barbarians?  They recognized a grand spirit as master of the world.  The barbarians, like all ignorant men, attribute to spirits all the effects of which their inexperience prevents them from discovering the true causes.  Ask a barbarian what causes your watch to move, he will answer, “a spirit!” Ask our philosophers what moves the universe, they will tell you “it is a spirit.”

XXI.—­SPIRITUALITY IS A CHIMERA.

The barbarian, when he speaks of a spirit, attaches at least some sense to this word; he understands by it an agent similar to the wind, to the agitated air, to the breath, which produces, invisibly, effects that we perceive.  By subtilizing, the modern theologian becomes as little intelligible to himself as to others.  Ask him what he means by a spirit?  He will answer, that it is an unknown substance, which is perfectly simple, which has nothing tangible, nothing in common with matter.  In good faith, is there any mortal who can form the least idea of such a substance?  A spirit in the language of modern theology is then but an absence of ideas.  The idea of spirituality is another idea without a model.

XXII.—­ALL WHICH EXISTS SPRINGS FROM THE BOSOM OF MATTER.