But how beautiful is the world, when it is represented to us as the result of a single and grand thought, and when we find every where the stamp of an eternal intelligence; and how pleasing to live with the sentiments of astonishment and adoration deeply impressed on our hearts! But what a subject of glory are the endowments of the mind, when we can consider them as a participation of a sublime nature, of which God alone is the perfect model. And how delightful then to yield to the ambition of elevating ourselves still more, by exercising our thoughts and improving all our faculties! In short, how many charms has the observation of nature, when, at every new discovery, we believe we advance a step towards an acquaintance with that exalted wisdom which has prescribed laws to the universe, and maintains it in harmony! It is then, and only then, that the study is truly interesting, and the progress of knowledge becomes an increase of happiness. Yes, under the influence of opinions, arising from the notions of materialists, all is languishing in our curiosity, all is mere instinct in our admiration, all is fictitious in the sentiments which we have of ourselves; but with the idea of a God, all is lively, all is reasonable and true: in short, this happy and prolific idea appears as necessary to the moral nature of man, as heat is to plants and to all the vegetable world. You may think, perhaps, that in examining the influence of religion on happiness, I have dwelt on several considerations, which are not of equal importance to all men; there are, indeed, some more particularly adapted to that part of society, whose minds are improved by education; but I am very far from wishing to divert a moment my attention from the numerous class of the inhabitants of the earth, whose happiness and misery arises from a simple idea, proportioned to the extent of their interests and reflections.