Reasons For Unbelief

Reasons for Unbelief, by Louis Viardot. PUBLISHER’S PREFACE: THIS valuable and interesting work of LOWS VIARDOT was originally written and published in France, and called The Apology of An Unbeliever. It met with remarkable success, and several editions were disposed of. Reasons for Unbelief is the title chosen for the present edition, because the arguments which the author styles “apologies” arc in fact reasons, and reasons so profound, so clear and convincing, that they rise to the dignity of demonstrations. This view is maintained by the eminent scholar, SAINTE BEUVE, in the following brilliant and sympathetic letter to the author: “ MY DEAR FRIEND: "I have read your Apology, which ought not to take that name, for the wise man has no need to defend himself. It is a compte rendu which you make, not for others, but for yourself. It appears to me exact and logical in all points. The creation would be the first miracle. The eternity of the world once admitted, all else follows. The fixedness of law is a source of consolation for those who reflect, and, at the same time, a cause for sadness. We submit with gravity. This respectful and mute gravity of the thoughtful man is, in its way, a religion, an homage rendered to the majesty of the universe. Our desires, ephemeral and contradictory as they are, prove nothing; they are as clouds which meet at the will of the winds, but above them soars and reigns the order of the stars. You, my dear friend, are of the religion of Democritus, of AristotIe, of Epicurus, of Lucretius, of Seneca, of Spinoza, of Buffon, of Diderot, of Goethe, of Humboldt. It is good enough company." SAINTE-BEUVE. ** Need I say more?
Emmett F. Fields