"Letters To Eugenia; Or, A Preservative Against Religious Prejudices" by baron d' Paul Henri Thiry Holbach (translated by Anthony C. Middleton). Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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baron d' Paul Henri Thiry Holbach. Letters To Eugenia; Or, A Preservative Against Religious Prejudices
Letters To Eugenia; Or, A Preservative Against Religious Prejudices
Table of Contents
NAIGEON'S PREFACE
1768
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
LETTERS TO EUGENIA
LETTER I. Of the Sources of Credulity, and of the Motives which should lead to an examination of religion
LETTER II. Of the Ideas which Religion gives us of the Divinity
LETTER III. An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature of the Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon which Christianity is founded
LETTER IV. Of the fundamental dogmas of the Christian Religion
LETTER V. Of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Dogma of another Life
LETTER VI. Of the Mysteries, Sacraments, and Religious Ceremonies of Christianity
LETTER VII. Of the pious Rites, Prayers, and Austerities of Christianity
LETTER VIII. Of Evangelical Virtues and Christian Perfection
LETTER IX. Of the advantages contributed to Government by Religion
LETTER X. On the Advantages Religion confers on those who profess it
LETTER XI. Of Human or Natural Morality
LETTER XII. Of the small Consequence to be attached to Men's Speculations, and the Indulgence which should be extended to them
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baron d' Paul Henri Thiry Holbach
Published by Good Press, 2019
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Such is, Madam, the constant language of the apostles of superstition, whose design has always been, and will always continue to be, to destroy human reason in order to exercise their power with impunity over mankind.. Throughout the globe the perfidious ministers of religion have been either the concealed or the declared enemies of reason, because they always see reason opposed to their views. Every where do they decry it, because they truly fear that it will destroy their empire by discovering their conspiracies and the futility of their fables. Every where upon its ruins they struggle to erect the empire of fanaticism and imagination. To attain this end with more certainty, they have unceasingly terrified mortals with hideous paintings, have astonished and seduced them by marvels and mysteries, embarrassed them by enigmas and uncertainties, surcharged them with observances and ceremonies, filled their minds with terrors and scruples, and fixed their eyes upon a future, which, far from rendering them more virtuous and happy here below, has only turned them from the path of true happiness, and destroyed it completely and forever in their bosoms.
Such are the artifices which the ministers of religion every where employ to enslave the earth and to retain it under the yoke. The human race, in all countries, has become the prey of the priests. The priests have given the name of religion to systems invented by them to subjugate men, whose imagination they had seduced, whose understanding they had confounded, and whose reason they had endeavored to extinguish.
