The assumption on which Diderot's argument rests is, that as so many different creeds all make the same exclusive claim, the claim is equally false throughout.

Volney's argument turns more directly on the merits, and implies that all religions are equally morbid or pathological products, because they all lead to conduct condemned by their own most characteristic maxims.

Volney's concrete presentation of comparative religion was highly effective for destructive purposes, though it would now be justly thought inadequate.

(See _Oeuv.

de Volney_, i.