impossible not to see, especially in literary works destined to a
success of fashion, the seductive influence of art, the precautions of
prudence, the concessions made to public opinion; but we cannot wholly
explain the incredible contradictions of the Holbachs and Renans,
without allowing full weight to that need for God which shows itself
even in the farthest wanderings of human thought by sudden and abrupt
returns.

The illusion which deifies matter in motion is gross enough. It belongs
only to minds which Cicero called, in the aristocratic pride of a Roman
gentleman, the plebeians of philosophy.[136] It requires, in fact, no
great reflection to understand that truth, beauty, and goodness are
neither atoms nor a certain movement of atoms. The attempt, which is to
form the subject of our study to-day, that of deifying man, is a far
more subtle one. Let us first of all inquire into the origin of the
strange worship which humanity accords to itself.

Nature, considered separately from the beings which receive sensible
impressions from it, has neither heat nor light. In a world peopled by
the blind, light would have no name. If all men were entirely paralyzed
as to their sensations, the idea of heat would not exist. Light and
heat, regarded as existing in matter itself, without reference to
sensitive organizations, are, in the opinion of our natural
philosophers, only determinate movements. In the same way, if nature
were without any spectator whatever, beauty would not exist; if there
were nowhere any intelligence, truth would no longer be. In the same way
again, if there were no wills, goodness, which is nothing else than the
law of the will, would be a word deprived of all meaning. Beauty
expresses the object of the perceptions of the soul. Truth denotes the
quality of the judgments of intelligences. Goodness (I speak of moral