LXXVIII.—­It is absurd to call him A god of justice and goodness, who inflicts evil indiscriminately on the good and the wicked, upon the innocent and the guilty; it is idle to demand that the unfortunate should console themselves for their misfortunes, in the very arms of the one who alone is the author of them.

Physical evil commonly passes as the punishment of sin.  Calamities, diseases, famines, wars, earthquakes, are the means which God employs to chastise perverse men.  Therefore, they have no difficulty in attributing these evils to the severity of a just and good God.  However, do we not see these plagues fall indiscriminately upon the good and the wicked, upon the impious and the pious, upon the innocent and the guilty?  How can we be made to admire, in this proceeding, the justice and the goodness of a being, the idea of whom appears so consoling to the unfortunate?  Doubtless the brain of these unfortunate ones has been disturbed by their misfortunes, since they forget that God is the arbiter of things, the sole dispenser of the events of this world.  In this case ought they not to blame Him for the evils for which they would find consolation in His arms?  Unfortunate father! you console yourself in the bosom of Providence for the loss of a cherished child or of a wife, who made your happiness!  Alas! do you not see that your God has killed them?  Your God has rendered you miserable; and you want Him to console you for the fearful blows He has inflicted upon you.

The fantastic and supernatural notions of theology have succeeded so thoroughly in overcoming the simplest, the clearest, the most natural ideas of the human spirit, that the pious, incapable of accusing God of malice, accustom themselves to look upon these sad afflictions as indubitable proofs of celestial goodness.  Are they in affliction, they are told to believe that God loves them, that God visits them, that God wishes to try them.  Thus it is that religion changes evil into good!  Some one has said profanely, but with reason:  “If the good God treats thus those whom He loves, I beseech Him very earnestly not to think of me.”  Men must have formed very sinister and very cruel ideas of their God whom they call so good, in order to persuade themselves that the most frightful calamities and the most painful afflictions are signs of His favor!  Would a wicked Genii or a Devil be more ingenious in tormenting his enemies, than sometimes is this God of goodness, who is so often occupied with inflicting His chastisements upon His dearest friends?

LXXIX.—­A GOD WHO PUNISHES THE FAULTS WHICH HE COULD HAVE PREVENTED, IS A FOOL, WHO ADDS INJUSTICE TO FOOLISHNESS.