We call Providence the generous care which Divinity shows in providing
for our needs, and in watching over the happiness of its beloved
creatures. But, as soon as we look around, we find that God provides for
nothing. Providence neglects the greatest part of the inhabitants of
this world. Against a very small number of men, who are supposed to be
happy, what a multitude of miserable ones are groaning beneath
oppression, and languishing in misery! Whole nations are compelled to
starve in order to indulge the extravagances of a few morose tyrants,
who are no happier than the slaves whom they oppress! At the same time
that our philosophers energetically parade the bounties of Providence,
and exhort us to place confidence in it, do we not see them cry out at
unforeseen catastrophes, by which Providence plays with the vain
projects of men; do we not see that it overthrows their designs, laughs
at their efforts, and that its profound wisdom pleases itself in
misleading mortals? But how can we place confidence in a malicious
Providence which laughs at and sports with mankind? How can I admire the
unknown course of a hidden wisdom whose manner of acting is inexplicable
to me? Judge it by its effects! you will say; it is by these I do judge
it, and I find that these effects are sometimes useful and sometimes
injurious to me.
We think to justify Providence by saying, that in this world there are
more blessings than evil for each individual man. Let us suppose that
the blessings which this Providence makes us enjoy are as one hundred,
and that the evils are as ten per cent.; would it not always result that
against these hundred degrees of goodness, Providence possesses a tenth
degree of malignity?--which is incompatible with the perfection we
suppose it to have.
All the books are filled with the most flattering praises of Providence,
whose attentive care is extolled; it would seem to us, as if in order to
live happy here below, man would have no need of exerting himself.
However, without labor, man could scarcely live a day. In order to live,
I see him obliged to sweat, work, hunt, fish, toil without relaxation;
without these secondary causes, the First Cause (at least in the
majority of countries) could provide for none of his needs. If I examine
all parts of this globe, I see the uncivilized as well as the civilized
man in a perpetual struggle with Providence; he is compelled to ward off
the blows which it sends in the form of hurricanes, tempests, frost,
hail, inundations, sterility, and the divers accidents which so often
render all their labors useless. In a word, I see the human race
continually occupied in protecting itself from the wicked tricks of this
Providence, which is said to be busy with the care of their happiness. A
devotee admired Divine Providence for having wisely made rivers to flow
through all the places where men had built large cities. Is not this
man's way of reasoning as sensible as that of many learned men who do
not cease from telling us of Final Causes, or who pretend to perceive
clearly the benevolent views of God in the formation of things?
LIII.--THIS PRETENDED PROVIDENCE IS LESS OCCUPIED IN CONSERVING THAN IN
DISTURBING THE WORLD--MORE AN ENEMY THAN A FRIEND OF MAN.
Do we see, then, that Divine Providence manifests itself in a sensible
manner in the conservation of its admirable works, for which we honor
it? If it is Divine Providence which governs the world, we find it as
much occupied in destroying as in creating; in exterminating as in
producing. Does it not at every instant cause thousands of those same
men to perish, to whose preservation and well-being it is supposed to
give its continual attention? Every moment it loses sight of its beloved
creatures; sometimes it tears down their dwellings; sometimes it
destroys their harvests, inundates their fields, devastates by a
drought, arms all nature against man, sets man against man, and finishes
by causing him to expire in pain. Is this what you call preserving a
universe? If we attempted to consider without prejudice the equivocal
conduct of Providence relative to mankind and to all sentient beings, we
should find that very far from resembling a tender and careful mother,
it rather resembles those unnatural mothers who, forgetting the
unfortunate fruits of their illicit amours, abandon their children as
soon as they are born; and who, pleased to have conceived them, expose
them without mercy to the caprices of fate.
The Hottentots--wiser in this particular than other nations, who treat
them as barbarians--refuse, it is said, to adore God, because if He
sometimes does good, He as often does harm. Is not this reasoning more
just and more conformed to experience than that of so many men who
persist in seeing in their God but kindness, wisdom, and foresight; and
who refuse to see that the countless evils, of which the world is the
theater, must come from the same Hand which they kiss with transport?