the voice of rebellion and of cowardice, the voice of baseness and ignominy.  There is war in my soul.  Enlightened by this inner spectacle, I cast my eyes once more over that world in which I have seen shining everywhere some divine rays; and I see that by a triple gate, lofty and wide, evil has entered thither, accompanied by error and deformity.  Then I understand that all may become profane; I understand that there is an erring science, a corrupting art, a moral system full of immorality.  But these words take for me a new meaning.  There is no sacred evil, there is no profane good; there are no sacred errors and profane truths.  Where God is, all is holy; where there is rebellion against God, all is evil.  And so the God who is my light is my fortress also; my heart is strengthened while it is set at liberty, and I can join the ancient song of Israel: 

     Jehovah is our strength and tower.

Yes, Sirs, God is in all, because He is the universal principle of being; but He is not in all after the same manner.  God is in the pure heart by the joy which He gives to it; He is in the frivolous heart by the void and the vexation which urge it to seek a better destiny; He is in the corrupt heart by that merciful remorse which does not permit it to wander, without warning, from the springs of life.  God makes use of all for the good of His creatures.  He is everywhere by the direct manifestation of His will, except in the acts of rebellious liberty, and in the shadow of pain which follows that evil light which leads astray from Him.

Having said that the idea of God the Creator alone satisfies the reason, and raises up, upon the basis of reason, man’s conscience and heart, I should wish to show you, in conclusion, that this idea renders an account of the great systems of error which divide the human mind between them.  Truth bears this lofty mark, that it never overthrows a doctrine without causing any portion of truth which it may have contained to pass into its own bosom.

What then,—­apart from declared atheism, from the dualism which has almost disappeared, and from faith in God the Creator,—­are the great systems which share the human mind between them?  There are two:  deism and pantheism.

What is deism?  It is a doctrine which acknowledges that there is one God, the cause of the universe; but a God who is in a manner withdrawn from His own work, and who leaves it to go on alone.  God has regulated things in the mass, but not in detail, or, to employ an expression of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (who came at a later period to entertain better opinions), “God is like a king who governs his kingdom, but who does not trouble himself to ascertain whether all the taverns in it are good ones.”  The idea of a general government of God which does not descend to details—­such is the essence of deism.