It is not a question of taking sides between Russia and Turkey; for
these States will, sooner or later, come to an understanding without
my intervention.
It is not a question of declaring oneself in favour of one English
faction and against another; for they will soon have disappeared, to
make room for others.
I am not endeavouring to choose between Greek and Armenian
Christians, Eutychians and Jacobites, Christians who are called
Papists and Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, the primitive folk
called Quakers, Anabaptists, Jansenists, Molinists, Socinians,
Pietists, and so many other ’ists. I wish to live in peace with all
these gentlemen, whenever I may meet them, and never dispute with
them; because there is not a single one of them who, when he has a
crown to share with me, will not know his business perfectly, or who
would spend a single penny for the salvation of my soul or his own.
I am not going to take sides between the old and the new French
Parliaments; because in a few years there will be no question of
either of them.
Nor between the ancients and the moderns; because the trial would be
endless.
Nor between the Jansenists and the Molinists; because they exist no
longer, and, thank God, five or six thousand volumes have become as
useless as the works of St. Ephraim.
Nor between the partisans of the French and the Italian opera;
because it is a mere matter of fancy.
The subject I have in mind is but a trifle--namely, the question
whether there is or is not a God; and I am going to examine it in all
seriousness and good faith, because it interests me, and you also.
I