Contradictory precepts inculcated in youth.

he himself in praising the truth, takes great care how he speaks it (28). In fact, the man who should write the true history of his times, in a Catholic country, would set all these worshippers of the God of truth against him (29). In such a country, a man to guard himself from persecution, must either be dumb, a fool, or a liar.

Suppose a preceptor, by force of application, should inspire his pupil with candour and humanity; his spiritual director enters, and tells him that we may pardon mankind their vices, but not their errors; that in the latter case indulgence is a crime, and that every one who does not think as he does should be burned.

Such is the ignorance and contradiction of a theologian, that he declaims against the passions at the very moment he would excite emulation in his pupil. He then forgets that emulation is a passion, and a very strong passion too if we judge by its effects.

In every part of education, therefore, there is contradiction. What is the cause? An ignorance of the true principles of this science; they have nothing but confused ideas about it. Mankind should be enlightened; the priest opposes it. Does the truth dawn a moment upon them? Its rays are absorbed in the darkness of scholastics. Error and crime both search for obscurity, the one in words (30), the other in the night. Let not, however, all the contradictions of our education be charged to theology; there are some also that arise from the vices of government. How

Contradictory precepts inculcated in youth.

will you persuade a youth to be faithful to society, and to keep the secret of another, when even in England, the government, under a most frivolous pretext, opens the letters of private persons and betrays the public confidence? How can you flatter yourself with an expectation of inspiring him with a horror of spies and informers, when he sees them honoured, rewarded, and pensioned.

When a young man comes from the college, and mixes with the world, he is expected to render himself agreeable and constantly preserve his chastity! At the period that the passion of love is most sensibly felt, must a young man be indifferent to women, and live in the midst of them without desire? Can parental stupidity imagine that when government builds a theatre for operas, and custom sets it open to young men, that, fond of their virginity, they will always behold with an eye of indifference, a spectacle in which the endearments, the transports, and magical power of

* If they would really damp the desires of love in a young man, what should they do? Institute violent exercises, and inspire youth with a taste for them. Exercise is in this case the most efficacious lecture. The more we perspire, the more of the animal spirits we exhaust, the less vigour remains for love. The coldness and indifference of the savages of Canada, proceeds from the fatigue and inanition produced by their long and wearisome huntings.

Method of rendering education less dependent on chance.

love, are painted in the most brilliant colours, and enter their minds by all the organs of the senses *.

I should never have done if I would make a catalogue of all the contradictions in the European education, and especially in that of the Papists. In the thick fog of errors, how shall we discover the path of virtue? The Catholic, therefore, frequently wanders from it. So that without fixed principles in this matter, it is to his situation, to books, to friends, and to the mistresses that chance has given him, that he owes his virtues or vices. But is there any method of rendering the education of men more independent of chance? and if there be, how is it to be attained?

Teach nothing but the truth. Error is continually at variance with itself: the truth never.

Do not abandon the education of the people to two powers, who having two opposite interests, constantly teach two contradictory moralities (31).

By what fatality, it will be said, have almost all nations confided to the priesthood the moral instruc

* Let it not be imagined, from what is here said, that I am for destroying the opera, or the drama. I only mean to condemn the contradiction in our customs and precepts. I am neither an enemy to the theatre, nor in this matter of the opinion of M. Rousseau. The theatres are incontestibly pleasing. Now there is no pleasure that in the hands of a wise government may not, by being made the recompence of virtue, become its productive principle.

Necessity for a reform of the Popish religion.

tion of their youth! What is the moral of Papists? A medly of superstitions. However there is nothing which the sacerdotal power cannot execute by the aid of superstition. For by that it robs the magistrates of their authority, and kings of their legitimate power: it is by that it subdues the people, and acquires a power over them which is frequently superior to the laws; and finally, by that it corrupts the very principles of morality. What remedy is there for this evil? There is but one. This science must be entirely reformed. A new spirit must preside over the formation of its new principles, and every part of it must be directed to the public welfare.

It is time that under the title of the holy ministers of morality, the magistrates should found it on principles that are simple, clear, and consistent with the general prosperity, and of which all the inhabitants may form ideas equally just and precise. But will the simplicity and uniformity of these principles agree with the different passions of men?

Their desires may be different, but their manner of regarding objects is essentially the same. They see well and do ill. Every one being born with a just discernment discovers the truth, when it is presented to him in a clear light. With regard to youth, they have more avidity for it, as they are less accustomed to break it, and have less interest to see objects different from what they really are. The minds of young people cannot be drawn from the truth without force.

VOL. I.

Ε

Το

Reasons against a reform in religion.

To produce this effect, all the patience and all the art of modern education are required; and even then they see by fits the light of natural reason, and the falsity of those opinions with which their memories are charged. Why then do they not efface those, and substitute in their place new ideas? Such a change of ideas requires time and pains, and is too difficult a task for the greatest part of mankind, who frequently descend to the grave before they have acquired clear and precise ideas of virtue.

When will they have just ideas? When the religious system shall coincide with the national prosperity: when religions, the habitual instruments of sacerdotal ambition, shall become the felicity of the public. Is it possible to conceive such a religion? The examination of this question deserves the attention of the sagacious part of mankind. I shall therefore, by the way, take a view of the false religions.

CHAP. XI.

OF FALSE RELIGIONS.

EVERY religion," says Hobbes," founded on the "fear of an invisible power, is a tale, that, avowed "by a nation, bears the name of religion, and disa

"Yowed