Prejudice tends to confirm in us the opinions of those who are charged
with our instruction. We believe them more skillful than we are; we
suppose them thoroughly convinced themselves of the things they teach
us. We have the greatest confidence in them. After the care they have
taken of us when we were unable to assist ourselves, we judge them
incapable of deceiving us. These are the motives which make us adopt a
thousand errors without other foundation than the dangerous word of
those who have educated us; even the being forbidden to reason upon what
they tell us, does not diminish our confidence, but contributes often to
increase our respect for their opinions.
XXXV.--MEN WOULD NEVER HAVE BELIEVED IN THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN THEOLOGY
IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN TAUGHT AT AN AGE WHEN THEY WERE INCAPABLE OF
REASONING.
The instructors of the human race act very prudently in teaching men
their religious principles before they are able to distinguish the true
from the false, or the left hand from the right. It would be as
difficult to tame the spirit of a man forty years old with the
extravagant notions which are given us of Divinity, as to banish these
notions from the head of a man who has imbibed them since his tenderest
infancy.