Those who seem to have a more pressing and constant need of the assistance of religion, have been left by the misfortunes of their parents to the wide world, devoid of property, and deprived also of those resources which depend on education. This class of men, condemned to hard labour, are, as it were, confined in a rough and uniformly barren path, where every day resembles the last, where they have not any confused expectations, or flattering illusion to divert them: they know that there is a wall of separation between them and fortune; and if they carried their views in life forward, they would only discover the dreadful state any infirmity would reduce them to; and the deplorable situation to which they might be exposed, by the cruel neglect which attends old age. With what transport, in this situation, would they not catch at the comfortable hopes which religion presents! With what satisfaction would they not learn, that after this probationary state, where so much disproportion overwhelmed them, there would come a time of equality! What would be their complaints, if they were to renounce a sentiment which still conforms itself, for their advantage, to a general idea, the only one, in short, of which they can make use in all events and circumstances of life. It is God’s will, they say to themselves, and this first thought supports their resignation: God will recompense you, God will return it to you, say they to others, when they receive alms; and these words remind them, that the God of the rich and powerful is also theirs; and that far from being indifferent to their fate, He deigns Himself to discharge their obligations. How many other popular expressions continually recal the same sentiment of confidence and consolation. It is this continual relation of the poor with the Deity which raises them in their own eyes, and which prevents their sinking under the weight of contempt with which they are oppressed, and gives them sometimes courage to resist the pride of earthly greatness. What grander effect could be produced by an idea so simple? Thus, among the different things which characterise religion, I remark, above all, what seems more particularly the seal of a divine hand; it is, that the moral advantages, of which religion is the source, resembling the grand blessings of nature, belong equally to all men; and as the sun, in the distribution of its rays, observes neither rank nor fortune, in the same way those comforting sentiments, which are connected with the conception of a Supreme Being, and the hopes united to it, become the property of the poor as well as the rich, of the weak as well as the powerful, and can be as securely enjoyed under the lowly roof of a cottage, as in a superb palace. It is civil laws which increase, or give a sanction to the inequality of possessions; and it is religion which sweetens the bitterness of this hard disproportion.