the subtleties with which their folly torments itself?

And you, credulous men, show me the effect of your practices! In so many
centuries, during which you have been following or altering them, what
changes have your prescriptions wrought in the laws of nature? Is the
sun brighter? Is the course of the seasons varied? Is the earth more
fruitful, or its inhabitants more happy? If God be good, can your
penances please him? If infinite, can your homage add to his glory? If
his decrees have been formed on foresight of every circumstance, can
your prayers change them? Answer, O inconsistent mortals!

Ye conquerors of the earth, who pretend you serve God! doth he need your
aid? If he wishes to punish, hath he not earthquakes, volcanoes, and
thunder? And cannot a merciful God correct without extermination?

Ye Mussulmans, if God chastiseth you for violating the five precepts,
how hath he raised up the Franks who ridicule them? If he governeth
the earth by the Koran, by what did he govern it before the days of the
prophet, when it was covered with so many nations who drank wine, ate
pork, and went not to Mecca, whom he nevertheless permitted to raise
powerful empires? How did he judge the Sabeans of Nineveh and of
Babylon; the Persian, worshipper of fire; the Greek and Roman idolators;
the ancient kingdoms of the Nile; and your own ancestors, the Arabians
and Tartars? How doth he yet judge so many nations who deny, or know
not your worship--the numerous castes of Indians, the vast empire of
the Chinese, the sable race of Africa, the islanders of the ocean, the
tribes of America?

Presumptuous and ignorant men, who arrogate the earth to yourselves! if
God were to gather all the generations past and present, what would be,