Not only should sentiment not be excluded from virtue, as Kant in his excessive austerity demands, but it should be considered its ornament and bloom. "The virtuous man," says Aristotle, "is he who takes pleasure in doing virtuous acts." One should therefore endeavor to awaken in one's self, if one has not yet experienced it, or develop, if one has already experienced it, the noble pleasure which accompanies great sentiments. On the other hand, and for the same reason that it is a duty for man to develop within him, in the limits of the possible, the share of sensibility he may have received from nature, it is also his duty not to encourage this same disposition too much if he should be inclined this way. For sensibility should only be an auxiliary and a stimulant to virtue; it should never take its place: otherwise it will lead us astray. An exaggerated sensibility often smothers the voice of justice, enervates us, and deprives us of the robust courage we need in life. There is a reasonable limit which tact and experience alone can teach us. Morality can only give advice and directions. More precise rules are impossible, and would be ridiculous. There is no moral thermometer to indicate the degree of heart-heat each of us is allowed and is obliged to have. Let us only say, that in so delicate a matter, it is better to have too much sensibility than too little. CHAPTER XV. RELIGIOUS MORALITY.--RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AND DUTIES. SUMMARY. Are there duties toward God? =Duties toward God.--Analysis of the religious sentiment.=--Two elements: 1, the sentiment of the infinite; 2, the need of hope and consolation. Can sentiment become a duty? =Indirect duties toward God.=--Piety united with all the acts of life: 1, obedience; 2, resignation; 3, love of God united to that of man. =The idea of God in morals.=--God the surety of the moral law. =Religious society.=--Fénélon and Epictetus. =Religious rights.=--Liberty of conscience: liberty of opinion, liberty of worship, liberty of propagandism. It is not our purpose to speak here of the different forms of religious thought among men: this is the special domain of conscience; but among all these forms, is there no common ground which may be said to belong to the human soul, and which is found to be the same with the sages of pagan antiquity and the modern philosophers, although they may not have adopted any special form of worship? Yes. This common ground of all religion is the idea of God.