and damn one another about unintelligible opinions concerning a being
of this kind? In short, does not every thing prove, that Morality
and Virtue are totally incompatible with the notions of a God,
whom his ministers and interpreters have described, in every
country, as the most capricious, unjust, and cruel of tyrants,
whose pretended will, however, must serve as law and rule the
inhabitants of the earth?

To discover the true principles of Morality, men have no need of
theology, of revelation, or of gods: They have need only of common
sense. They have only to commune with themselves, to reflect upon
their own nature, to consider the objects of society, and of the
individuals, who compose it; and they will easily perceive, that
virtue is advantageous, and vice disadvantageous to themselves.
Let us persuade men to be just, beneficent, moderate, sociable;
not because such conduct is demanded by the gods, but, because it
is pleasant to men. Let us advise them to abstain from vice and
crime; not because they will be punished in another world, but
because they will suffer for it in this.--_These are,_ says Montesquieu,
_means to prevent crimes--these are punishments; these reform manners--
these are good examples._

The way of truth is straight; that of imposture is crooked and dark.
Truth, ever necessary to man, must necessarily be felt by all upright
minds; the lessons of reason are to be followed by all honest men.
Men are unhappy, only because they are ignorant; they are ignorant,
only because every thing conspires to prevent their being enlightened;
they are wicked only because their reason is not sufficiently developed.

By what fatality then, have the first founders of all sects given to