4.  If God is as well-disposed as they assure us He is, could He not at least, without bestowing an infinite happiness upon men, communicate to them that degree of happiness of which finite beings are susceptible?  In order to be happy, do we need an Infinite or Divine happiness?

5.  If God has not been able to render men happier than they are here below, what will become of the hope of a Paradise, where it is pretended that the elect or chosen few will rejoice forever in ineffable happiness?  If God could not or would not remove evil from the earth (the only sojourning place we know of), what reason could we have to presume that He can or will remove it from another world, of which we know nothing?  More than two thousand years ago, according to Lactance, the wise epicure said:  “Either God wants to prevent evil, and can not, or He can and will not; or He neither can nor will, or He will and can.  If He wants to, without the power, He is impotent; if He can, and will not, He is guilty of malice which we can not attribute to Him; if He neither can nor will, He is both impotent and wicked, and consequently can not be God; if He wishes to and can, whence then comes evil, or why does He not prevent it?” For more than two thousand years honest minds have waited for a rational solution of these difficulties; and our theologians teach us that they will not be revealed to us until the future life.

LVIII.—­ANOTHER IDLE FANCY.

We are told of a pretended scale for human beings; it is supposed that God has divided His creatures into different classes, each one enjoying the degree of happiness of which he is susceptible.  According to this romantic arrangement, all beings, from the oyster to the angel, enjoy the happiness which belongs to them.  Experience contradicts this sublime revery.  In the world where we are, we see all sentient beings living and suffering in the midst of dangers.  Man can not step without wounding, tormenting, crushing a multitude of sentient beings which he finds in his path, while he himself, at every step, is exposed to a throng of evils seen or unseen, which may lead to his destruction.  Is not the very thought of death sufficient to mar his greatest enjoyment?  During the whole course of his life he is subject to sufferings; there is not a moment when he feels sure of preserving his existence, to which he is so strongly attached, and which he regards as the greatest gift of Divinity.

LIX.—­IN VAIN DOES THEOLOGY EXERT ITSELF TO ACQUIT GOD OF MAN’S DEFECTS.  EITHER THIS GOD IS NOT FREE, OR HE IS MORE WICKED THAN GOOD.