- The
recasting and reduction of human nature to the Jacobin type.
Let not Man go astray, let us lead him on, let us direct minds and
souls, and, to this end, let us enfold him in our doctrines. He needs
general ideas and the daily experiences flowing out of them; he needs
some theory explaining the origin and nature of things, one which
assigns him his place and the part he has to play in the world, which
teaches him his duties, which regulates his life, which fixes the days
he shall work and the days he shall rest, which stamps itself on his
mind through commemorations, festivals and ceremonies, through a
catechism and a calendar. Up to this time Religion has been the power
charged with this service, interpreted and served by the Church; now
it is to be Reason, interpreted and served by the State. - In this
connection, many among us, disciples of the encyclopedists, constitute
Reason a divinity, and honor her with a system of worship; but it is
plain that they personify an abstraction; their improvised goddess is
simply an allegorical phantom; none of them see in her the intelligent
cause of the world; in the depths of their hearts they deny this
Supreme Cause, their pretended religion being merely a show or a sham.
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