Reflect, my son, upon this text, for all human power lies in it.
"Science asserts and demonstrates it.

Man, intelligent and free, is an animal wholly unpremeditated upon this planet.

Produced by unexpected combinations and haphazard transformations, in the midst of a general subordination of matter, he figures as a dissonance and a revolt! "Nature has engendered without having conceived him.

The result is as if a turkey-hen had unconsciously hatched the egg of an eagle.
Terrified at the monster, she has sought to control it, and has overloaded it with instincts, commonly called duties, and police regulations known as religion.

Each one of these shackles broken, each one of these servitudes overthrown, marks a step toward the thorough emancipation of humanity.
"I must say to you, however, that I die in the faith of my century, believing in matter uncreated, all-powerful, and eternal--the Nature of the ancients.