"IV. To go yet further! Religion is the mainspring of all virtue, the solid foundation of all morality; and he who should attempt to found, extend, and perpetuate the kingdom of virtue apart from the kingdom of religion, would be like a man who should build a house upon the sand. Without religion, man is the sport of his passions. He resembles a ship which, being destitute of cable or anchor, is certain sooner or later to go to pieces on the rocks when overtaken by a storm. In a way, religion is to man what the flower is to the plant; if the flower is cut off, the fruit is destroyed at the same time.
Now, my dear young friend, you know what you ought to think of the frivolous way of talking which those adopt who assert that people can get on very well without religion. Yes, they can get on, but after what fashion! Do you, therefore, repeat with heart and voice the following lines:
Come, sacred Light, from Heave above
With power the heart of man to raise
And teach to hymn his Maker's praise,
And with that brightness let him shine
In presence of the King divine."
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