the following manner:—"Religion must direct society towards the great end of the most rapid possible amelioration of the condition of the poorest class."
Those who ought to lay the foundation of the New Christianity, and constitute themselves the chiefs of the new church, are those most qualified to contribute, by their labours, to increase the well-being of the poor. The duties of the clergy will be reduced to the teaching of the New Christian doctrine, in the perfecting of which the chiefs of the church will labour without ceasing.
Such, in few words, is the character which, in present circumstances, true Christianity ought to develop. We proceed now to compare this idea of a religious institution with the religions which exist in Europe and America: from this comparison we shall easily collect a proof that all the pretended Christian religions which are now professed are nothing but heresies; that is to say, that they do not tend directly to the most rapid possible amelioration of the well-being of the poor, which is the only object of true Christianity.
THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.
The Catholic, Apostolical, and Roman Association is the most numerous of all European and American institutions. It possesses still many great advantages over all other sects to which the inhabitants of these two continents are attached.
It immediately succeeded the Christian association, which gives it a certain varnish of orthodoxy.
Its clergy inherit a great part of the riches which the Christian clergy collected in the numerous victories which they obtained, during fifteen centuries, in fighting for the aristocracy of talent against the aristocracy of birth, and contending for the religious supremacy of peaceful over military men.
The chiefs of the Catholic church have preserved the sovereignty of the city, which, during twenty centuries, has constantly ruled the world; first, by the
