( ii )
the human heart is a profound abyss, the Religions that have prevailed in the world have brought to light its most hidden secrets: They alone have imprinted on the heart all the forms it is capable of receiving. They triumph over every thing that has been deemed most essential to our nature. In short it has been owing to them that man has been either a Brute or an Angel.
This is not all the advantage of this study: Without it our knowledge of mankind must be extremely superficial. Who knows not the influence which Religion has on manners and laws? Intimately blended, as it were, with the original formation of different nations, it directs and governs all their thoughts and actions. In one place we see it enforcing and supporting despotism; in another restraining it: It has constituted the very soul and spirit of more than one republic. Conquerors have frequently been unable to depress it, ‘even’ by force; and it is generally either the soul to animate or the arm to execute the operations of politics.
Religion acts by such pressing motives, and speaks so strongly to mens most important and dearest interests, that where it happens not to be analagous to the national character of the people who have adopted
