That pressing recommendation to do good in secret, without ostentation, is the result of a salutary and profound thought: the legislator of our religion undoubtedly had perceived that the praises of men was not a basis sufficiently steady to serve for the support of morality; and he discerned, that vanity, allowed to enjoy these kind of triumphs, was too dissipated to be a faithful guide; but the most important part of that precept is, that morality would be very circumscribed, if men only adhered to those just actions which all the world might see; there are not many opportunities to do good in public, and the whole of life may be filled by unseen virtues: in short, from that continual relation with our conscience, a relation instituted by religion, there results an inestimable benefit; for it is easy to perceive, that if we have within us a clear-sighted and severe judge, this same judge turns consoler and friend every time that we are unjustly condemned, or when events do not answer according to the purity of our intentions; and we believe then that we have almost two souls, one aiding and sustaining the other on every occasion in which virtue unites them. The severe censure of superstition, which we find throughout the gospel, is derived from an idea as reasonable as enlightened; men are too much disposed to make their religion consist of little exterior practices, always easier than the conflicts with and triumphs over the passions: our minds seize with avidity every extraordinary idea; when they are in part of our own creating, they aid our self-love to subjugate our imagination; man is not at the age of maturity terrified by those phantoms which annoy his infancy; but mysteries, occult causes, extraordinary appearances, continue to make an impression on his mind; and like the wonders of nature, form too large a circle round his thoughts; it is by ideas more proportioned to his strength, by mere superstition, that he permits himself often to be led captive: we love trivial commands, observances, and scruples, because we are little ourselves, and that in our weakness we would wish to know every instant the limits of our obligations.