Search for the true good.—­Ordinary men place the good in fortune and external goods, or at least in amusement.  Philosophers have shown the vanity of all this, and have placed it where they could.

463

[Against the philosophers who believe in God without Jesus Christ]

Philosophers.—­They believe that God alone is worthy to be loved and admired; and they have desired to be loved and admired of men, and do not know their own corruption.  If they feel full of feelings of love and admiration, and find therein their chief delight, very well, let them think themselves good.  But if they find themselves averse to Him, if they have no inclination but the desire to establish themselves in the esteem of men, and if their whole perfection consists only in making men—­but without constraint—­find their happiness in loving them, I declare that this perfection is horrible.  What! they have known God, and have not desired solely that men should love Him, but that men should stop short at them!  They have wanted to be the object of the voluntary delight of men.

464

Philosophers.—­We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.

Our instinct makes us feel that we must seek our happiness outside ourselves.  Our passions impel us outside, even when no objects present themselves to excite them.  External objects tempt us of themselves, and call to us, even when we are not thinking of them.  And thus philosophers have said in vain, “Retire within yourselves, you will find your good there.”  We do not believe them, and those who believe them are the most empty and the most foolish.

465

The Stoics say, “Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find your rest.”  And that is not true.

Others say, “Go out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement.”  And this is not true.  Illness comes.

Happiness is neither without us nor within us.  It is in God, both without us and within us.

466

Had Epictetus seen the way perfectly, he would have said to men, “You follow a wrong road”; he shows that there is another, but he does not lead to it.  It is the way of willing what God wills.  Jesus Christ alone leads to it:  Via, veritas.[175]

The vices of Zeno[176] himself.

467

The reason of effects.—­Epictetus.[177] Those who say, “You have a headache;” this is not the same thing.  We are assured of health, and not of justice; and in fact his own was nonsense.

And yet he believed it demonstrable, when he said, “It is either in our power or it is not.”  But he did not perceive that it is not in our power to regulate the heart, and he was wrong to infer this from the fact that there were some Christians.

468

No other religion has proposed to men to hate themselves.  No other religion then can please those who hate themselves, and who seek a Being truly lovable.  And these, if they had never heard of the religion of a God humiliated, would embrace it at once.