Nothing is more false than this maxim.  It is enough for a man to be what he is, to be a sensible being in order to distinguish that which pleases or displeases him.  It is enough that a man knows that another man is a sensible being like himself, in order for him to know what is useful or injurious to him.  It is enough that man needs his fellow-creature, in order that he should fear that he might produce unfavorable impressions upon him.  Thus a sentient and thinking being needs but to feel and to think, in order to discover that which is due to him and to others.  I feel, and another feels, like myself; this is the foundation of all morality.

CLXXII.—­RELIGION AND ITS SUPERNATURAL MORALITY ARE FATAL TO THE PEOPLE, AND OPPOSED TO MAN’S NATURE.

We can judge of the merit of a system of morals but by its conformity with man’s nature.  According to this comparison, we have a right to reject it, if we find it detrimental to the welfare of mankind.  Whoever has seriously meditated upon religion and its supernatural morality, whoever has weighed its advantages and disadvantages, will become convinced that they are both injurious to the interests of the human race, or directly opposed to man’s nature.

“People, to arms!  Your God’s cause is at stake!  Heaven is outraged!  Faith is in danger!  Down upon infidelity, blasphemy, and heresy!”

By the magical power of these valiant words, which the people never understand, the priests in all ages were the leaders in the revolts of nations, in dethroning kings, in kindling civil wars, and in imprisoning men.  When we chance to examine the important objects which have excited the Celestial wrath and produced so many ravages upon the earth, it is found that the foolish reveries and the strange conjectures of some theologian who did not understand himself, or, the pretensions of the clergy, have severed all ties of society and inundated the human race in its own blood and tears.

CLXXIII.—­HOW THE UNION OF RELIGION AND POLITICS IS FATAL TO THE PEOPLE AND TO THE KINGS.

The sovereigns of this world in associating the Deity in the government of their realms, in pretending to be His lieutenants and His representatives upon earth, in admitting that they hold their power from Him, must necessarily accept His ministers as rivals or as masters.  Is it, then, astonishing that the priests have often made the kings feel the superiority of the Celestial Monarch?  Have they not more than once made the temporal princes understand that the greatest physical power is compelled to surrender to the spiritual power of opinion?  Nothing is more difficult than to serve two masters, especially when they do not agree upon what they demand of their subjects.  The anion of religion with politics has necessarily caused a double legislation in the States.  The law of God, interpreted by His priests,