EELIG10N AND MORALITY. 173 



So far as we have gone at present, there has been 

 no question of morality. All doctrines relating to the 

 creation of the world, the government of man by- 

 superior beings, and his destiny after death, are con- 

 jectures which have been given out as facts, handed 

 down with many adornments by tradition, and ac- 

 cepted by posterity as " revealed religion." They are 

 theories more or less rational, which uncivilized men 

 have devised, in order to explain the facts of life, 

 and which civilized men believe that they believe. 

 These doctrines are not in themselves of any moral 

 value. It is of no consequence, morally speaking, 

 whether a man believes, that the world has been made 

 by one god or by twenty. A savage is not of necessity 

 a better man because he believes that he lives under 

 the dominion of invisible tyrants, who will com- 

 pel him, some day or other, to migrate to another 

 hand. 



There is a moral sentiment in the human breast 

 which, like intelligence, is born of obscure instincts, 

 and which gradually becomes developed. Since the 

 gods of men are the reflected images of men, it is 

 evident, that as men become developed in morality, 

 the character of their gods will also be improved. 

 The king of a savage land punishes only offences 

 against himself and his dependants. But when that 

 people become more civilized, the king is regarded as 

 the representative of public law. In the same man- 

 ner the gods of a savage people demand nothing from 

 their subjects but taxes and homage. They punish 

 only heresy, which is equivalent to treason : blasphemy, 

 which is equivalent to insult ; and the withholding of 

 tribute and adoration, which is equivalent to rebellion. 

 And these are the offences, which even amongst civi- 



