several philosophers, have appeared to me to be weak, where they most wish to rise; I mean, in the extent and loftiness of their views. I need not speak to those who deny even the existence of a God. Alas! if they are so unhappy as to shut their eyes, and not to admit this resplendant light; if they have a soul so insensible, as not to be affected with the comfortable truths which flow from such a noble thought; if they are become deaf to the interesting voice of nature; if they trust more to their weak reasoning, than the warnings of conscience and sensibility; at least, let them not spread their disastrous doctrine, which, like the head of Medusa, would transform every thing into stone. Let them remove from us that frightful monster, or let his hoarse hissing be only heard in the dreary solitude, of which their heart presents the idea; let them spare the human race, and have pity on the distress into which they would be plunged, if the mild light, which serves to guide them, were ever to be obscured: in short, if they really believe that morality can agree with atheism, let them give the first proof of it, by remaining silent; but if they cannot abstain from publishing their opinions, let a remnant of generosity induce them to inform us of their dangerous tendency, by placing in the frontispiece of their works this terrible inscription of Dante’s: _Lasciat’ ogni speranza voi ch’ entrate_. CHAP. XVI. _The same Subject continued. Reflections on Intolerance._ The surface of the earth represents to us about the two hundred and fortieth part of the surperfice of the different opaque bodies which revolve round the sun. The fixed stars are so many suns, which, according to all appearance, serve equally to enlighten and fertilize planets similar to those we are acquainted with. A famous astronomer[7] has lately discovered fifty thousand new stars in a zone fifteen degrees in length and two in breadth, a space which corresponds with the thirteen hundred and sixty-fourth part of the celestial sphere. Thus, supposing that we perceive an equal number of stars in every other parallel section of the firmament, the quantity we should be acquainted with would rise to near sixty-nine millions. And if each of these stars were the centre of a planetary system, resembling the one we inhabit, we should have an idea of the existence of a number of habitable globes, whose extent would be sixteen or seventeen millions of times more considerable than the surface of the earth[8]. However, the ingenious invention which assists us to explore the vaulted firmament is susceptible of new improvement; and even at the period when it may arrive at the greatest perfection, the space which our astronomic knowledge may have taken possession of, will only be a point in the vast extent which our imagination can conceive.