It is in the name of Jesus, himself become God, that fanaticism ignominiously condemned to the stake men like Giodano Bruno, Vanini, Étienne Dolet, John Huss, Savanarola, and numerous other heroic victims; that the Inquisition ordered Galileo to belie his conscience; that thousands and thousands of unfortunates accused of witchcraft were burnt alive in popular ceremonies; it was with the express benediction of Pope Gregory XIII that the butchery of St. Bartholomew drenched Paris in blood.

What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?

Nature is so varied in its modes of action, so multiple in the manisftations of its power, that we have no night to set any limits to its capabilities.

If the existence of human beings leads to nothing, what is all this comedy about?

The supernatural does not exist.

The present inhabitation of Mars be a race superior to ours is very probable.

Men have had the vanity to pretend that the whole creation was made for them, while in reality the whole creation does not suspect their existence.