Infidelity, not to believe in the Eucharist, because it is not seen.

Superstition to believe propositions.  Faith, etc.

256

I say there are few true Christians, even as regards faith.  There are many who believe but from superstition.  There are many who do not believe solely from wickedness.  Few are between the two.

In this I do not include those who are of truly pious character, nor all those who believe from a feeling in their heart.

257

There are only three kinds of persons; those who serve God, having found Him; others who are occupied in seeking Him, not having found Him; while the remainder live without seeking Him, and without having found Him.  The first are reasonable and happy, the last are foolish and unhappy; those between are unhappy and reasonable.

258

Unusquisque sibi Deum fingit.[101]

Disgust.

259

Ordinary people have the power of not thinking of that about which they do not wish to think.  “Do not meditate on the passages about the Messiah,” said the Jew to his son.  Thus our people often act.  Thus are false religions preserved, and even the true one, in regard to many persons.

But there are some who have not the power of thus preventing thought, and who think so much the more as they are forbidden.  These undo false religions, and even the true one, if they do not find solid arguments.

260

They hide themselves in the press, and call numbers to their rescue. 
Tumult.

Authority.—­So far from making it a rule to believe a thing because you have heard it, you ought to believe nothing without putting yourself into the position as if you had never heard it.

It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.

Belief is so important!  A hundred contradictions might be true.  If antiquity were the rule of belief, men of ancient time would then be without rule.  If general consent, if men had perished?

False humanity, pride.

Lift the curtain.  You try in vain; if you must either believe, or deny, or doubt.  Shall we then have no rule?  We judge that animals do well what they do.  Is there no rule whereby to judge men?

To deny, to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what the race is to a horse.

Punishment of those who sin, error.

261

Those who do not love the truth take as a pretext that it is disputed, and that a multitude deny it.  And so their error arises only from this, that they do not love either truth or charity.  Thus they are without excuse.

262

Superstition and lust.  Scruples, evil desires.  Evil fear; fear, not such as comes from a belief in God, but such as comes from a doubt whether He exists or not.  True fear comes from faith; false fear comes from doubt.  True fear is joined to hope, because it is born of faith, and because men hope in the God in whom they believe.  False fear is joined to despair, because men fear the God in whom they have no belief.  The former fear to lose Him; the latter fear to find Him.