reason that they do not find within
themselves the lights which convince them of it, neglect to seek them
elsewhere, and to examine thoroughly whether this opinion is one of those
which people receive with credulous simplicity, or one of those which,
although obscure in themselves, have nevertheless a solid and immovable
foundation, I look upon them in a manner quite different.
This carelessness in a matter which concerns themselves, their eternity,
their all, moves me more to anger than pity; it astonishes and shocks me; it
is to me monstrous. I do not say this out of the pious zeal of a spiritual
devotion. I expect, on the contrary, that we ought to have this feeling from
principles of human interest and self-love; for this we need only see what
the least enlightened persons see.
We do not require great education of the mind to understand that here is no
real and lasting satisfaction; that our pleasures are only vanity; that our
evils are infinite; and, lastly, that death, which threatens us every
moment, must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful
necessity of being for ever either annihilated or unhappy.
There is nothing more real than this, nothing more terrible. Be we as heroic
as we like, that is the end which awaits the world. Let us reflect on this
and then say whether it is not beyond doubt that there is no good in this
life but in the hope of another; that we are happy only in proportion as we
draw near it; and that, as there are no more woes for those who have
complete assurance of eternity, so there is no more happiness for those who
have no insight into it.
Surely then it is a great evil thus to be in doubt, but it is at least an
indispensable duty to seek when we are in such doubt; and thus the doubter
who does not seek is altogether completely unhappy and completely wrong. And
if besides this he is easy and content, profess
.
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