That which we perceive most clearly is, that there is a correspondence, a harmony between all the parts of our moral nature; and therefore we cannot deny the existence of our natural inclination towards goodness, nor consider this inclination as a disposition which has not need of any religious sentiment to acquire strength, and become a rational conductor through the rough road of life. The production of salutary fruits requires, before all things, a favourable soil; but this advantage would be useless without seed and the labour of the husbandman, and the fertilizing warmth of the sun: the Author of Nature has thought fit that a great number of causes should concur continually to renovate the productions of the earth; and the same intention, the same plan, seems to have determined the principle and the developement of all the gifts of the mind: it is necessary, in order to attach intelligent beings to the love of virtue, and respect for morality, that not only happy natural dispositions, but still more, a judicious education, good laws, and, above all, a continual intercourse with the Supreme Being, from which alone can arise firm resolutions, and every ardent thought, should concur; but men ambitious of submitting a great number of relations to their weak comprehension, would wish to confine them to a few causes. We shall discover, every moment, the truth of this observation; actuated by a similar motive, many wish to attribute every thing to education; whilst others pretend, that our natural dispositions are the only source of our actions and intentions, of our vices and virtues. Perhaps, in fact, there is, in the universe, but one expedient and spring, one prolific idea, the root of every other: yet, as it is at the origin of this idea, and not in its innumerable developements, that its unity can be perceived, the first grand disposer of nature: only ought to be in possession of the secret; and we, who see, of the immense mechanism of the world, but a few wheels, become almost ridiculous, when we make choice sometimes of one, and sometimes of another, to refer to it exclusively, the cause of motion, and the simplest properties of the different parts of the natural or moral world. CHAP. IV. _An Objection drawn from the good Conduct of many irreligious Men._ You may think, perhaps, after having read the preceding chapter, that I have taken little room to treat a question on which so much has been written; but if it be allowed that I have made some approaches to truth, I shall not need any excuse. The researches after truth resemble those circles which we trace sometimes one round another; the furthest from the centre has necessarily the greatest extent. I will then endeavour, with the same brevity, to examine the objection which is to make the subject of this chapter.