13. All religions are in accord with each other in the acknowledgement of such first principles as the existence of the soul, at the same time not demonstrating it. They agree neither in belief concerning its origins, its past history, or its future destiny, and above all, in that which is the most essential, the conditions upon which its future happiness depends. The greater part of them accept pictures of the future imposed on them by the belief of their adepts, which can be supported only by blind faith, unable to endure a serious examination; the destiny which they accord to the soul being allied in their dogmas to ideas of the material world, and the mechanism of the universe universally entertained in primitive times, are irreconcilable with the actual state of knowledge. Being able to lose only by examination and discussion, their devotees deem it better to proscribe both.
