virtuous and able? We at once come to blows, as each claims to
be the most virtuous and able. Let us then attach this quality to something
indisputable. This is the king's eldest son. That is clear, and there is no
dispute. Reason can do no better, for civil war is the greatest of evils.

321. Children are astonished to see their comrades respected.

322. To be of noble birth is a great advantage. In eighteen years it places
a man within the select circle, known and respected, as another have merited
in fifty years. It is a gain of thirty years without trouble.

323. What is the Ego?

Suppose a man puts himself at a window to see those who pass by. If I pass
by, can I say that he placed himself there to see me? No; for he does not
think of me in particular. But does he who loves someone on account of
beauty really love that person? No; for the small-pox, which will kill
beauty without killing the person, will cause him to love her no more.

And if one loves me for my judgement, memory, he does not love me, for I can
lose these qualities without losing myself. Where, then, is this Ego, if it
be neither in the body nor in the soul? And how love the body or the soul,
except for these qualities which

they are often at first ready to
think they can convince others; and are apt to engage in talk with every
one they meet with, almost to this end; and when they are disappointed,
are ready to wonder that their reasonings seem to make no more
impression. Many fall under such a mistake as to be ready to doubt of
their good estate, because there was so much use made of their own
reason in the convictions they have received; they are afraid that they
have no illumination above the natural force of their own faculties: and
many make that an objection against the spirituality of their
convictions, that it is so easy to see things as they now see them. They
have often heard, that conversion is a work of mighty power, manifesting
to the soul what neither man nor angel can give such a conviction of;
but it seems to them that these things are so plain and easy, and
rational, that any body can see them. If they are asked, why they never
saw thus before, they say, it seems to them it was because they never
thought of it. But very often these difficulties are soon removed by
those of another nature; for when God withdraws, they find themselves as
it were blind again, they for the present lose their realizing sense of
those things that looked so plain to them, and, by all they can do, they
cannot recover it, till God renews the influence of His Spirit. ...

than nature that of
supplying material for conception. The whole visible world is only an
imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approaches it. We
may enlarge our conceptions beyond an imaginable space; we only produce
atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere,
the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short, it
is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God that imagination
loses itself in that thought.

Returning to himself, let man consider what he is in comparison with all
existence; let him regard himself as lost in this remote corner of nature;
and from the little cell in which he finds himself lodged, I mean the
universe, let him estimate at their true value the earth, kingdoms, cities,
and himself. What is a man in the Infinite?

But to show him another prodigy equally astonishing, let him examine the
most delicate things he knows. Let a mite be given him, with its minute body
and parts incomparably more minute, limbs with their joints, veins in the
limbs, blood in

incomprehensible monster.

421. I blame equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to
blame him, and those who choose to amuse themselves; and I can only approve
of those who seek with lamentation.

422. It is good to be tired and wearied by the vain search after the true
good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.

423. Contraries. After having shown the vileness and the greatness of
man.--Let man now know his value. Let him love himself, for there is in him
a nature capable of good; but let him not for this reason love the vileness
which is in him. Let him despise himself, for this capacity is barren; but
let him not therefore despise this natural capacity. Let him hate himself,
let him love himself; he has within him the capacity of knowing the truth
and of being happy, but he possesses no truth, either constant or
satisfactory.

I would then lead man to the desire of finding truth; to be free from
passions, and ready to follow it where he may find it, knowing how much his
knowledge is obscured by the passions. I would, indeed, that he should hate
in himself the lust which determined his will by itself so that it may not
blind him in making his choice, and may not hinder him when he has chosen.

809. The combinations of miracles.

810. The second miracle can suppose the first, but the first cannot suppose
the second.

811. Had it not been for the miracles, there would have been no sin in not
believing in Jesus Christ.

812. "I should not be a Christian, but for the miracles," said Saint
Augustine.

813. Miracles.--How I hate those who make men doubt of miracles! Montaigne
speaks of them as he should in two places. In one, we see how careful he is;
and yet, in the other, he believes and makes sport of unbelievers.

However it may be, the Church is without proofs if they are right.

814. Montaigne against miracles.

Montaigne for miracles.

815. It is not possible to have a reasonable belief against miracles.

816. Unbelievers the most credulous. They believe the miracles of Vespasian,
in order not to believe those of Moses.

817. Title: How it happens that men believe so many liars, who say that they
have seen miracles, and do not believe any of those who say that they have
secrets to make men immortal, or restore youth to...

damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all
probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder
that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom
you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and
that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their
case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect
despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of
God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those
poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you
now enjoy! And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein
Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and
crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are
flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily
coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately
in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy
state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and
washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of
the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To
see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see
so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to ...

simple reason that it is accepted. It is the
mystical foundation of its authority; whoever carries it back to first
principles destroys it. Nothing is so faulty as those laws which correct
faults. He who obeys them because they are just obeys a justice which is
imaginary and not the essence of law; it is quite self-contained, it is law
and nothing more. He who will examine its motive will find it so feeble and
so trifling that, if he be not accustomed to contemplate the wonders of
human imagination, he will marvel that one century has gained for it so much
pomp and reverence. The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle
established customs, sounding them even to their source, to point out their
want of authority and justice. We must, it is said, get back to the natural
and fundamental laws of the State, which an unjust custom has abolished. It
is a game certain to result in the loss of all; nothing will be just on the
balance. Yet people readily lend their ear to such arguments. They shake off
the yoke as soon as they recognise it; and the great profit by their ruin
and by that of these curious investigators of accepted customs. But from a
contrary mistake men sometimes think they can justly do everything which is
not without an example. That is why the wisest of legislators said that it
was necessary to deceive men for their own good; and another, a good
politician, Cum veritatem qua liberetur ignoret, expedit quod fallatur.43 We ...

the knot so high, or, better
speaking, so low, that we are quite incapable of reaching it; so that it is
not by the proud exertions of our reason, but by the simple submissions of
reason, that we can truly know ourselves.

These foundations, solidly established on the inviolable authority of
religion, make us know that there are two truths of faith equally certain:
the one, that man, in the state of creation, or in that of grace, is raised
above all nature, made like unto God and sharing in His divinity; the other,
that in the state of corruption and sin, he is fallen from this state and
made like unto the beasts.

These two propositions are equally sound and certain. Scripture manifestly
declares this to us, when it says in some places: Deliciae meae esse cum
filiis hominum.65 Effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem.66 Dii estis,67
etc.; and in other places, Omnis caro faenum.68 Homo assimilatus est
jumentis insipientibus, et similis factus est illis.69 Dixi in corde meo de
filiis hominum.70

Whence it clearly seems that man by grace is made like unto God, and a
partaker in His divinity, and that without grace he is like unto the brute
beasts.

free. Restraints will soon vanish, and they will not
conceal from one another what they meet with. And it has been a practice
which, in the general, has been attended with many good effects, and
what God has greatly blessed amongst us: but it must be confessed, there
may have been some ill consequences of it; which yet are rather to be
laid to the indiscreet management of it than to the practice itself; and
none can wonder, if among such a multitude some fail of exercising so
much prudence in choosing the time, manner, and occasion of such
discourse, as is desirable.

SECTION III. This Work Further Illustrated in Particular Instances.