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me most quickly to the true one.
SECTION VII: MORALITY AND DOCTRINE
425. Second part.--That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor
justice.
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means
they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and
of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different
views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the
motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.
And yet, after such a great number of years, no one without faith has
reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes and
subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak, learned
and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and
all conditions.
A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly convince us
of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. But example teaches
us little. No resemblance is ever so perfect that there is not some slight
difference; and hence we expect that our hope will not be deceived on this
occasion as before. And thus, while the present never satisfies us,
experience dupes us and, from misfortune to misfortune, leads us to death,
their eternal crown.
What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but
that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him
only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his
surroundi
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