and my mind, which is already less active, would be less able to perceive the truth.  Here I shall rest, lest the love of contemplation, developing step by step into an idle passion, should make me lukewarm in the performance of my duties, lest I should fall into my former scepticism without strength to struggle out of it.  More than half my life is spent; I have barely time to make good use of what is left, to blot out my faults by my virtues.  If I am mistaken, it is against my will.  He who reads my inmost heart knows that I have no love for my blindness.  As my own knowledge is powerless to free me from this blindness, my only way out of it is by a good life; and if God from the very stones can raise up children to Abraham, every man has a right to hope that he may be taught the truth, if he makes himself worthy of it.

“If my reflections lead you to think as I do, if you share my feelings, if we have the same creed, I give you this advice:  Do not continue to expose your life to the temptations of poverty and despair, nor waste it in degradation and at the mercy of strangers; no longer eat the shameful bread of charity.  Return to your own country, go back to the religion of your fathers, and follow it in sincerity of heart, and never forsake it; it is very simple and very holy; I think there is no other religion upon earth whose morality is purer, no other more satisfying to the reason.  Do not trouble about the cost of the journey, that will be provided for you.  Neither do you fear the false shame of a humiliating return; we should blush to commit a fault, not to repair it.  You are still at an age when all is forgiven, but when we cannot go on sinning with impunity.  If you desire to listen to your conscience, a thousand empty objections will disappear at her voice.  You will feel that, in our present state of uncertainty, it is an inexcusable presumption to profess any faith but that we were born into, while it is treachery not to practise honestly the faith we profess.  If we go astray, we deprive ourselves of a great excuse before the tribunal of the sovereign judge.  Will he not pardon the errors in which we were brought up, rather than those of our own choosing?

“My son, keep your soul in such a state that you always desire that there should be a God and you will never doubt it.  Moreover, whatever decision you come to, remember that the real duties of religion are independent of human institutions; that a righteous heart is the true temple of the Godhead; that in every land, in every sect, to love God above all things and to love our neighbour as ourself is the whole law; remember there is no religion which absolves us from our moral duties; that these alone are really essential, that the service of the heart is the first of these duties, and that without faith there is no such thing as true virtue.