Religious instruction, in assembling all the means proper to excite men to virtue, neglects not, it is true, to point out the relations, which exist between the observance of the laws of morality and the happiness of life; but it is as an accessary motive, that these considerations are presented; and it is not necessary to support them by the same proofs as a fundamental principle requires. Also, when people are taught early that vices and crimes lead to misery on earth, these doctrines make not a lasting impression on them, but in proportion as we succeed at the same time, in convincing them of the constant influence of a Providence over all the events of this world. One important reason still exempts religious professors, from attaching themselves to demonstrate, that the principal advantages which excite the envy of men, are an absolute consequence of the observance of the laws of order: it is, that sacrifices, supported by an idea of duty, are changed into real satisfactions; and the sentiments, which the virtuous enjoy from piety, compose an essential part of their happiness. But what consolation can a man have by way of return; what secret approbation can we grant him, when we know not any other authority than that of political morality, and when virtue is nothing but an opposition between private and public interest? Religion certainly proposes to man his own happiness, as an object and ultimate end; but as this happiness is placed at a distance, religion conducts us to it by wholesome restrictions and temporary sacrifices; it regards only the sublimest part of us, that which disunites us from the present moment, in order to connect us with futurity; it offers us hopes, which withdraw us from worldly interest, so far as is necessary to prevent us from being immoderately devoted to the disorderly impressions of our senses, and the tyranny of our passions. Irreligion, on the contrary, whose lessons teach us, that we are only masters of the present moment, concentres us more and more within ourselves, and there is nothing beautiful or good in this condition; for grandeur, of every kind, relates to the extent of those relations which we comprehend; and, in a like acceptation, our sentiments submit to the same laws.