35. Divines act very wisely in teaching men their religious principles
before they are capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood, or
their left hand from their right. It would be as difficult to instill
into the mind of a man, forty years old, the extravagant notions that
are given us of the divinity, as to eradicate them from the mind of
him who had imbibed them from infancy.


36. It is observed, that the wonders of nature are sufficient to lead
us to the existence of a God, and fully to convince us of this important
truth. But how many are there in the world who have the time, capacity,
or disposition, necessary to contemplate Nature and meditate her progress?
Men, for the most part, pay no regard to it. The peasant is not struck
with the beauty of the sun, which he sees every day. The sailor is
not surprised at the regular motion of the ocean; he will never draw
from it theological conclusions. The phenomena of nature prove the
existence of a God only to some prejudiced men, who have been early
taught to behold the finger of God in every thing whose mechanism
could embarrass them. In the wonders of nature, the unprejudiced
philosopher sees nothing but the power of nature, the permanent and
various laws, the necessary effects of different combinations of matter
infinitely diversified.


37. Is there any thing more surprising than the logic of these divines,
who, instead of confessing their ignorance of natural causes, seek
beyond nature, in imaginary regions, a cause much more unknown than
that nature, of which they can form at least some idea? To say, that