And here let us have the courage to make a cruel observation, in days when religion is nothing more than a useful means to some, and a poesy to others.

Devotion causes a moral ophthalmia.

By some providential grace, it takes from souls on the road to eternity the sight of many little earthly things.

In a word, pious persons, devotes, are stupid on various points.

This stupidity proves with what force they turn their minds to celestial matters; although the Voltairean Chevalier de Valois declared that it was difficult to decide whether stupid people became naturally pious, or whether piety had the effect of making intelligent young women stupid.