STUDY VIII. 193 



But wherefore is man the only one of all ani- 

 mals fubjeded to other evils than thole of Na- 

 ture? Wherefore fhould he have been abandoned 

 to himfelf, difpofed as he is to go aflray ? He is, 

 therefore, the vidim of fome malignant Being. 



It is the province of Religion to take us up 

 where Philofophy leaves us. The nature of the 

 ills which we endure, unfolds their origin. If 

 man renders himfelf unhappy, it is becaufe he 

 would, himfelf, be the arbiter of his own felicity. 

 Man is a god in exile. The reign of Saturn^ the 

 Golden Age, Pandoras box, from which ifTued 

 every evil, and at the bottom of which hope alone 

 remained ; a thoufand fimilar allegories, difFufed 

 over all Nations, atteft the felicity, and the fall, of 

 a firft Man. 



But there is no need to have recourfe to foreign 

 teftimonies. We carry the mod unqueftionable 

 evidence in ourfelves. The beauties of Nature 

 bear witnefs to the exiftence of GOD, and the mi- 

 feries of Man confirm the truths of Religion. 

 There exifts not a lingle animal but what is 

 lodged, clothed, fed, by the hand of Nature, 

 without care, and almoft without labour. Man 

 alone, from his birth upward, is overwhelmed with 

 calamity. Firft, he is born naked ; and pofTefTed 

 of fo little inftinâ:, that if the mother who bare 



VOL. II. o him, 



