From every thing which has been hitherto said, it evidently results that
all the errors of mankind, of whatever nature they may be, arise from
man's having renounced reason, quitted experience, and refused
the evidence of his senses that he might be guided by imagination,
frequently deceitful; by authority, always suspicious. Man will ever
mistake his true happiness as long as he neglects to study nature, to
investigate her laws, to seek in her alone the remedies for those
evils which are the consequence of his errors: he will be an enigma to
himself, as long as he shall believe himself double; that he is moved by
an inconceivable spiritual power, of the laws and nature of which he is
ignorant; his intellectual, as well as his moral faculties, will remain
unintelligible to him if he does not contemplate them with the same
eyes as he does his corporeal qualities; if he does not view them as
submitted in every thing to the same impulse, as governed by the same
regulations. The system of his pretended free agency is without support;
experience contradicts it every instant, and proves that he never ceases
to be under the influence of necessity in all his actions; this truth,
far from being dangerous to man, far from being destructive of his
morals, furnishes him with their true basis by making him feel the
necessity of those relations which subsists between sensible beings
united in society: who have congregated with a view of uniting their
common efforts for their reciprocal felicity. From the necessity of
these relations, spring the necessity of his duties; these point out to
him the sentiments of love, which he should accord to virtuous conduct;
that aversion he should have for what is vicious; the horror he should
feel for every thing criminal. From hence the true foundation of _Moral
Obligation_ will be obvious, which is only the necessity of talking
means to obtain the end man proposes to himself by uniting in society;
in which each individual for his own peculiar interest, his own
particular happiness, his own personal security, is obliged to display
dispositions requisite to conciliate the affections of his associates;
to hold a conduct suitable to the preservation of the community; to
contribute by his actions to the happiness of the whole. In a word, it
is upon the necessary action and re-action of the human will upon the
necessary attraction and repulsion of man's soul, that all his morals
are bottomed: it is the unison of his will, the concert of his actions,
that maintains society; it is rendered miserable by his discordance; it
is dissolved by his want of union.
From what has been said, it may be concluded that the names under which
man has designated the concealed causes acting in nature, and their
various effects, are never more than _necessity_ considered under
different points of view, with the original cause of which--the great
_cause of causes_--he must ever remain ignorant. It will be found that
what he calls _order_, is a necessary consequence of causes and effects,
of which he sees, or believes he sees, the entire connection, the
complete routine, which pleases him as a whole, when he finds it
conformable to his existence. In like manner it will be seen that what
he calls _confusion_, is a consequence of like necessary causes and
effects, of which he loses the concatenation, which he therefore thinks
unfavourable to himself, or but little suitable to his being. That he
has designated by the names of--
_Intelligence_, those necessary causes that necessarily operate the
chain of events which he comprises under the term _order_:
_Divinity_, those necessary but invisible causes which give play to
nature, in which every thing acts according to immutable and necessary
laws:
_Destiny_ or _fatality_, the necessary connection of those unknown
causes and, effects which he beholds in the world:
_Chance_, those effects which he is not able to foresee, or of which he
is ignorant of the necessary connection, with their causes:
_Intellectual_ and _moral faculties_, those effects and those
modifications necessary to an organized being, whom he has supposed to
be moved by an inconceivable agent; who he has believed distinguished
from his body, of a nature totally different from it, and which he has
designated by the word SOUL. In consequence, he has believed this agent
immortal; not dissoluble like the body. It has been shewn that the
marvellous doctrine of another life, is founded upon gratuitous
suppositions, contradicted by reflections, unsupported by experience,
that may or may not be, without man's knowing any thing on the subject.
It has been proved, that the hypothesis is not only useless to man's
morals, but again, that it is calculated to palsy his exertions; to
divert him from actively pursuing the true road to his own happiness;
to fill him with romantic caprices; to inebriate him with opinions
prejudicial to his tranquillity; in short, to lull to slumber the
vigilance of legislators; by dispensing them from giving to education,
to the institutions, to the laws of society, all that attention, which
it is the duty and for his interest they should bestow. It must have
been felt, that _politics_ has unaccountably rested itself upon wrong
opinions; upon ideas little capable of satisfying those passions, which
every thing conspires to kindle in the heart of man; who ceases to view
the future, while the present seduces and hurries him along. It has been
shewn, that contempt of death is an advantageous sentiment, calculated
to inspire man's mind with courage; to render him intrepid; to induce
him to undertake that which may be truly useful to society; in short,
from what has preceded, it will be obvious, what is competent to conduct
man to happiness, and also what are the obstacles that error opposes to
his felicity.
Let us not then, be accused of demolishing prejudice, without edifying
the mind; with combating error without substituting truth; with
underrating the power of the great _cause of causes_; with sapping
at one and the same time the foundations of superstition and of sound
morals. The last is necessary to man; it is founded upon his nature; its
duties are certain, they must last as long as the human race remains; it
imposes obligations on him, because, without it, neither individuals
nor society could be able to subsist, either obtain or enjoy those
advantages which nature obliges them to desire.
Listen then, O man! to those morals which are established upon,
experience; which are grounded upon the necessity of things; do not
lend thine ear to those superstitions founded upon reveries; rested upon
imposture; built upon the capricious whims of a disordered imagination.
Follow the lessons of those humane, those gentle morals, which conduct
man to virtue, by the voice of happiness: turn a deaf ear to the
inefficacious cries of superstition, which renders man really unhappy;
which can never make him reverence VIRTUE; which renders truth hateful;
which paints veracity in hideous colours; in short, let him see if
REASON, without the assistance of a rival, who prohibits its use, will
not more surely conduct him towards that great end, which is the object
of his research, which is the natural tendency of all his views.
Indeed, what benefit has the human race hitherto drawn from those
sublime, those supernatural notions with which superstition has
fed mortals during so many ages? All those phantoms conjured--up by
ignorance--brooded by imagination; all those hypothesis, subtile as
they are irrational; from which experience is banished, all those
words devoid of meaning with which languages are crowded; all those
fantastical hopes; those panic terrors which have been brought to
operate on the will of man; what have they done? Has any or the whole of
them rendered him better, more enlightened to his duties, more
faithful in their performance? Have those marvellous systems, or those
sophistical inventions, by which they have been supported, carried
conviction to his mind, reason into his conduct, virtue into his heart?
Have they led him to the least acquaintance with the great _Cause
of Causes?_ Alas! it is a lamentable fact, that cannot be too often
exposed, that all these things have done nothing more than plunge the
human understanding into that darkness from which it is difficult to be
withdrawn; sown in man's heart the most dangerous errors; of which it is
scarcely possible to divest him; given birth to those fatal passions,
in which may be found the true source of those evils, with which his
species is afflicted: but have never enlightened his mind with truth,
nor led him to that right healthy worship, which man best pays by a
rational enjoyment of the faculties with which he is gifted.
Cease then, O mortal! to let thyself he disturbed with chimeras, to
let thy mind be troubled with phantoms which thine own imagination has
created, or to which arch imposture has given birth. Renounce thy vague
hopes, disengage thyself from thine overwhelming fears, follow without
inquietude the necessary routine which nature has marked out for thee;
strew the road with flowers if thy destiny permits; remove, if thou art
able, the thorns scattered over it. Do not attempt to plunge thy views
into an impenetrable futurity; its obscurity ought to be sufficient to
prove to thee, that it is either useless or dangerous to fathom. Think
of making thyself happy in that existence which is known to thee: if
thou wouldst preserve thyself, be temperate, be moderate, be reasonable:
if thou seekest to render thy existence durable, be not prodigal of
pleasure; abstain from every thing that can be hurtful to thyself,
injurious to others: be truly intelligent; that is to say, learn to
esteem thyself, to preserve thy being, to fulfil that end which at each
moment thou proposest to thyself. Be virtuous, to the end that thou
mayest render thyself solidly happy, that thou mayest enjoy the
affections, secure the esteem, partake of the assistance of those by
whom thou art surrounded; of those beings whom nature has made necessary
to thine own peculiar felicity. Even when they should be unjust, render
thyself worthy of their applause, of thine own love, and thou shalt
live content, thy serenity shall not be disturbed, the end of thy career
shall not slander thy life; which will be exempted from remorse: death
will be to thee the door to a new existence, a new order, in which
thou wilt be submitted, as thou art at present, to the eternal laws of
nature, which ordains, that to LIVE HAPPY HERE BELOW, THOU MUST MAKE
OTHERS HAPPY. Suffer thyself then, to be drawn gently along thy journey,
until thou shalt sleep peaceable on that bosom which has given thee
birth: if contrary to thine expectation, there should be another life of
eternal felicity, thou canst not fail being a partaker.
For thou, wicked unfortunate! who art found in continual contradiction
with thyself; thou whose disorderly machine can neither accord with
thine own peculiar nature, nor with that of thine associates, whatever
may be thy crimes, whatever may be thy fears of punishment in another
life, thou art at least already cruelly punished in this? Do not thy
follies, thy shameful habits, thy debaucheries, damage thine health?
Dost thou not linger out life in disgust, fatigued with thine own
excesses? Does not listlessness punish thee for thy satiated passions?
Has not thy vigour, thy gaiety, thy content, already yielded to
feebleness, crouched under infirmities, given place to regret? Do not
thy vices every day dig thy grave? Every time thou hast stained thyself
with crime, hast thou dared without horror to return into thyself, to
examine thine own conscience? Hast thou not found remorse, error, shame,
established in thine heart? Hast thou not dreaded the scrutiny of thy
fellow man? Hast thou not trembled when alone; unceasingly feared, that
truth, so terrible for thee, should unveil thy dark transgressions,
throw into light thine enormous iniquities? Do not then any longer
fear to part with thine existence, it will at least put an end to those
richly merited torments thou hast inflicted on thyself; _Death, in
delivering the earth from an incommodious burthen, will also deliver
thee from thy most cruel enemy, thyself_.