Prisons have been built and the stake has been set up in the name of
God: let us get rid of God, and we shall have toleration. Observe well
the bearing of this mode of argument. Let us get rid of fire, and we
shall have no more conflagrations; let us get rid of water, and no more
people will be drowned. No doubt,--but humanity will perish of drought
and of cold.

Let us examine this subject seriously: it is well worth our while. If
toleration proceeds from the enfeebling of religious belief, we ought
among various nations to meet with toleration in an inverse proportion
to the degree of their faith. This is a question then of history. Let us
study facts. Recollecting first of all that ancient Rome did not draw
forth a germ of liberty from its scepticism, let us throw a glance over
existing communities.

Sweden is far behind England in regard to liberty of conscience. Is it
that religious convictions are weaker in England than in Sweden? Has the
religious liberty which Great Britain practises sprung from
indifference? Is it not rather that that land produces an energetic
race, and that it has been so often drenched with the blood of the
followers of different forms of worship, that that blood cried at length
to heaven, and that the conscience of the people heard it? There is more
religious liberty in France than in Spain. Is it the case that the true
cause of the intolerance of the Spanish people is a more lively and more
general faith than that of the French? That is not so certain.

Switzerland is one of the countries in which is enjoyed the greatest
liberty of opinion. Is Switzerland a land of indifference? Was not the
comparative firmness of its citizens' convictions remarked during the
conflicts of the last century? Do not the United States bear in large