The clergy is ignorant, though with honorable and even
brilliant exceptions. It is too much cut off from general society, and
consigned to a sort of caste, of which it would be most desirable to
break down the barriers, in order to allow the influence of the
representatives of religion to extend itself more freely. The young
nobles, and the university students in general, are, in too large a
proportion, imbued with irreligious principles. Various atheistical
writings, those of Feuerbach amongst others, have been translated into
Russian, printed abroad, and furtively introduced into the empire. M.
Herzen, a well-known writer, has published, under the pseudonyme of
Iscander, a work full of talent, but in which come plainly into view the
worst tendencies of our time.[86] In his eyes, life is itself its own
end and cause. Faith in God is the portion of the ignorant crowd, and
atheism, like all the high truths of science, like the differential
calculus and the laws of physics, is the exclusive possession of the
philosophical few. When Robespierre declared atheism aristocratic, he
was right in this sense, for atheism is above the reach of the vulgar;
but when he concluded that atheism was false, he made a great mistake.
This error, which led him to establish the worship of the Supreme Being,
was one of the causes of his fall.
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