How much to be regretted, that he did not leave to the theologians of his time the task of settling their own differences; that he did not give himself up to the search for truth, without reserve and without the fear of offending God by using all the intelligence that God had given him.

How much to be regretted that he took for masters men who were not worthy to be his disciples, and was foolish enough to think Arnauld, De Sacy, and Nicole, better men than himself." (Sec.

14.) The Philosophic Thoughts are designed for an answer in form to the more famous Thoughts of this champion of popular theology.

The first of the following extracts, for instance, recalls a memorable illustration of Pascal's sublime pessimism.

A few passages will illustrate sufficiently the line of argument which led the foremost men at the opening of the philosophic revolution to reject the pretensions of Christianity:-- What voices! what cries! what groans! Who is it that has shut up in dungeons all these piteous souls?
What crimes have the poor wretches committed?
Who condemns them to such torments?
_The God whom they have offended_.