wisdom, become an atheist.--What! you say; an atheist in spite of
our hypothesis!--No, but because of our hypothesis. One's
thought must have been raised above divine things for a long time
to be entitled to suppose a personality beyond man, a life beyond
this life. For the rest, have no fears for your salvation. God
is not angry with those who are led by reason to deny him, any
more than he is anxious for those who are led by faith to worship
him; and, in the state of your conscience, the surest course for
you is to think nothing about him. Do you not see that it is
with religion as with governments, the most perfect of which
would be the denial of all? Then let no political or religious
fancy hold your soul captive; in this way only can you now keep
from being either a dupe or a renegade. Ah! said I in the days
of my enthusiastic youth, shall I not hear the tolling for the
second vespers of the republic, and our priests, dressed in white
tunics, singing after the Doric fashion the returning hymn:
Change o Dieu, notre servitude, comme le vent du desert en un
souffle rafraichissan! . . . . . But I have despaired of
republicans, and no longer know either religion or priests.

I should like also, in order to thoroughly secure your judgment,
dear reader, to render your soul insensible to pity, superior to
virtue, indifferent to happiness. But that would be too much to
expect of a neophyte. Remember only, and never forget, that
pity, happiness, and virtue, like country, religion, and love,
are masks. . . .


SYSTEM OF ECONOMICAL CONTRADICTIONS: OR, THE PHILOSOPHY OF
MISERY.