said, that this negligence is
insufferable. We are not here concerned with the trifling interests of some
stranger, that we should treat it in this fashion; the matter concerns
ourselves and our all.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to
us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to
be indifferent as to knowing what it is. All our actions and thoughts must
take such different courses, according as there are or are not eternal joys
to hope for, that it is impossible to take one step with sense and judgment
unless we regulate our course by our view of this point which ought to be
our ultimate end.

Thus our first interest and our first duty is to enlighten ourselves on this
subject, whereon depends all our conduct. Therefore among those who do not
believe, I make a vast difference between those who strive with all their
power to inform themselves and those who live without troubling or thinking
about it.

I can have only compassion for those who sincerely bewail their doubt, who
regard it as the greatest of misfortunes, and who, sparing no effort to
escape it, make of this inquiry their principal and most serious occupation.

But as for those who pa