forms only a necessary introduction? It would not be sufficient to endow institutions; it would be still more necessary to pay the scholars for their time; since, for the lower class, time is, even very early in life, their only means of subsistence. Nevertheless, morality is not, like other human sciences, a knowledge, that we may be at liberty to acquire at our leisure; the quickest instruction is still too slow, since man has a natural power of doing evil before his mind is in a state to apply to reflection, and connect the most simple ideas. It is not then a political catechism which would be proper for the instruction of the people; it is not a course of precepts founded on the union of public and private interest, which can suit with the measure of their understanding; when a doctrine of that kind would appear as just as it seems to me liable to be disputed, they will never be able to render the principles of it distinct enough, to apply them to the purposes of instructing those whose education continues for so short a time. Morality, founded on religion, by its active influence, is precisely adapted to the particular situation of the greater number of men; and this agreement is so perfect, that it seems one of the remarkable features of universal harmony. Religion alone has power to persuade with celerity, because it excites passion, whilst it informs the understanding, because it alone has the means of rendering obvious what it recommends; because it speaks in the name of God, and it is easy to inspire respect for him, whose power is every where evident to the eyes of the simple and skilful, to the eyes of children, and men advanced to maturity.