Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/35

 Both Greek  and  Roman  historians  tell  a similar  tale. Plutarch, for  instance,  expresses himself in  the  following  terms:  "If  one  were to  wander  over  the  whole  world,  one  might find  cities  without  walls,  without  literature, and  without  written  laws,  .  .  .  but  a  city without  temples  and  divinities  no  one  has discovered  as  yet."

In our  own  day  research  has  been  carried so far  that  scarcely  any  country  has  remained unexplored, or  any  nation  unknown. And all honest  explorers  bear  unanimous  witness that just  as  it  was  of  old,  so  also  in  modern times there  is  no  nation  which  does  not  possess its  own  religion.

4. To  go  yet  further! Religion is  the mainspring of  all  virtue,  the  solid  foundation of all  morality;  and  he  who  should  attempt to found,  extend,  and  perpetuate  the  kingdom of  virtue  apart  from  the  kingdom  of  religion, would  be  like  a  man  who  should  build a house  upon  the  sand. Without religion, man is  the  sport  of  his  passions. He resembles a  ship  which,  being  destitute  of cable  or  anchor,  is  certain  sooner  or  later  to go  to  pieces  on  the  rocks  when  overtaken  by a  storm. In a  way,  religion  is  to  man  what the flower  is  to  the  plant;  if  the  flower  is  cut off, the  fruit  is  destroyed  at  the  same  time.

Now, my  dear  young  friend,  you  know  what you ought  to  think  of  the  frivolous  way  of talking  which  those  adopt  who  assert  that people can  get  on  very  well  without  religion.