Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
Such is the weakness, such the perversity, of the human race that it is better, no doubt, for it to be subject to all conceivable superstitions, provided they be not murderous, than to live without religion.
When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother.
