My uncle Sosthène was a freethinker, like many others, a freethinker
from sheer stupidity. People are very often religious for the same reason.
The mere sight of a priest threw him into a violent rage; he would shake
his fist and grimace at him, and touch a piece of iron when the priest's
back was turned, forgetting that the latter action showed a belief after
all, the belief in the evil eye.
Now when beliefs are unreasonable, one should either have all or none
at all. I myself am a freethinker; I revolt at all the dogmas which have
invented the fear of death, but I feel no anger toward places of worship,
be they Catholic Apostolic, Roman, Protestant, Greek, Russian, Buddhist,
Jewish, or Mohammedan. I have a peculiar manner of looking at them and
explaining them. A place of worship represents the homage paid by man to
the unknown. The more extended our thoughts and our views become, the more
the unknown diminishes, and the more places of worship will decay. I,
however, instead of incense burners, would fit them up with telescopes,
microscopes, and electrical machines; that is all.
My uncle and I differed on nearly every point. He was a patriot, while
I was not--for, after all, patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg
from which wars are hatched.
My uncle was a Freemason, and I used to declare that they are stupider
than the pious old ladies. That is my opinion, and I maintain it; if we
must have any religion at all, the old one is good enough for me.
Those imbeciles simply imitate priests. Their symbol is a triangle
instead of a cross. They have chapels which they call lodges, and a whole
lot of different sects: the Scottish rite, the French rite, the Grand
Orient, a collection of balderdash that would make a cat laugh.
What is their object? Mutual help to be obtained by tickling the palms
of each other's hands. I see no harm in it, for they put into practice the
Christian precept: "Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you."
The only difference consists in the tickling, but it does not seem worth
while to make such a fuss about lending a poor devil five francs.
Convents whose duty and business it is to administer alms and help, put
the letters "J.M.J." at the head of their communications. The Masons
put three periods in a row after their signature. It is six of one and
half a dozen of the other.
My uncle's reply used to be:
"We are raising up a religion against a religion; Free-thought will kill
clericalism. Freemasonry is the headquarters of those who are demolishing
all deities."
"Very well, my dear uncle," I would reply (in my heart I felt inclined
to say, "You old idiot!"); "it is just that which I am blaming you for.
Instead of destroying, you are organizing competition; it is only a case
of lowering the prices. And then, if you only admitted freethinkers among
you I could understand it, but you admit anybody. You have a number of
Catholics among you, even the leaders of the party. Pius IX is said to
have been one of you before he became Pope. If you call a society with
such an organization a bulwark against clericalism, I think it is an
extremely weak one."
"My dear boy," my uncle would reply, with a wink, "our most formidable
actions are political; slowly and surely we are everywhere undermining
the monarchical spirit."
Then I broke out: "Yes, you are very clever! If you tell me that
freemasonry is an election-machine, I will grant it. I will never deny
that it is used as a machine to control candidates of all shades;
if you say that it is only used to hoodwink people, to drill them to go
to the voting-urn as soldiers are sent under fire, I agree with you; if
you declare that it is indispensable to all political ambitions because
it changes all its members into electoral agents, I should say to you,
'That is as clear as daylight.' But when you tell me that it serves to
undermine the monarchical spirit, I can only laugh in your face.
"Just consider that vast and democratic association which had Prince
Napoleon for its Grand Master under the Empire; which has the Crown Prince
for its Grand Master in Germany, the Czar's brother in Russia, and to
which the Prince of Wales and King Humbert and nearly all the royalists
of the globe belong."
"You are quite right," my uncle said; "but all these persons are serving
our projects without knowing it."
"And vice versa, what?"