Nevertheless, since they are part of human nature, let us accept them like so many streams tumbling down a slope, but on condition that they remain in their own beds and that they have many but no new ones and never one bed alone for itself.
"I do not want a dominant religion, nor the establishment of new ones.

The Catholic, Reformed, and Lutheran systems, established by the Concordat, are sufficient."[5113] Their direction and force are intelligible, and their irruptions can be guarded against.

Moreover, the present inclinations and configurations of the human soil favor them; the child follows the road marked out by the parent, and the man follows the road marked out when a child.
"Listen,[5114] last Sunday, here at Malmaison, while strolling alone in the solitude enjoying the repose of nature, my ear suddenly caught the sound of the church-bell at Rueil.

I was moved, so strong is the force of early habits and education! I said to myself, What an impression this must make on simple, credulous people!" Let us gratify them; let us give back these bells and the rest to the Catholics.

After all, the general effect of Christianity is beneficial.
"As far as I am concerned,[5115] I do not see in it the mystery of the incarnation, but the mystery of social order, the association of religion with paradise, an idea of equality which keeps the rich from being massacred by the poor." "Society[5116] could not exist without an inequality of fortunes, and an inequality of fortunes without religion.[5117] A man dying of starvation alongside of one who has abundance would not yield to this difference unless he had some authority which assured him that God so orders it that there must be both poor and rich in the world, but that in the future, and throughout eternity, the portion of each will be changed.[5118]" Alongside of the repressive police exercised by the State there is a preventive police exercised by the Church.