But we need fear nothing of the sort for Emile, who always declines to pay attention to what is beyond his reach, and listens with profound indifference to things he does not understand.  There are so many things of which he is accustomed to say, “That is no concern of mine,” that one more or less makes little difference to him; and when he does begin to perplex himself with these great matters, it is because the natural growth of his knowledge is turning his thoughts that way.

We have seen the road by which the cultivated human mind approaches these mysteries, and I am ready to admit that it would not attain to them naturally, even in the bosom of society, till a much later age.  But as there are in this same society inevitable causes which hasten the development of the passions, if we did not also hasten the development of the knowledge which controls these passions we should indeed depart from the path of nature and disturb her equilibrium.  When we can no longer restrain a precocious development in one direction we must promote a corresponding development in another direction, so that the order of nature may not be inverted, and so that things should progress together, not separately, so that the man, complete at every moment of his life, may never find himself at one stage in one of his faculties and at another stage in another faculty.

What a difficulty do I see before me!  A difficulty all the greater because it depends less on actual facts than on the cowardice of those who dare not look the difficulty in the face.  Let us at least venture to state our problem.  A child should always be brought up in his father’s religion; he is always given plain proofs that this religion, whatever it may be, is the only true religion, that all others are ridiculous and absurd.  The force of the argument depends entirely on the country in which it is put forward.  Let a Turk, who thinks Christianity so absurd at Constantinople, come to Paris and see what they think of Mahomet.  It is in matters of religion more than in anything else that prejudice is triumphant.  But when we who profess to shake off its yoke entirely, we who refuse to yield any homage to authority, decline to teach Emile anything which he could not learn for himself in any country, what religion shall we give him, to what sect shall this child of nature belong?  The answer strikes me as quite easy.  We will not attach him to any sect, but we will give him the means to choose for himself according to the right use of his own reason.

     Incedo per ignes
     Suppositos cineri doloso.—­Horace, lib. ii. ode I.

No matter!  Thus far zeal and prudence have taken the place of caution.  I hope that these guardians will not fail me now.  Reader, do not fear lest I should take precautions unworthy of a lover of truth; I shall never forget my motto, but I distrust my own judgment all too easily.  Instead of telling you what I think myself, I will tell you the thoughts of one whose opinions carry more weight than mine.  I guarantee the truth of the facts I am about to relate; they actually happened to the author whose writings I am about to transcribe; it is for you to judge whether we can draw from them any considerations bearing on the matter in hand.  I do not offer you my own idea or another’s as your rule; I merely present them for your examination.