ABSTRACT
No, this age is not servilely devoted to the worship of matter. The civilization of Europe has been accused of having fallen into the slough of materialism, and of sinking every day still deeper in it. This is an extreme injustice. Certainly there are, in our day, corrupted and avaricious individuals. Alas! all vices are common in all ages. It has come within the designs of Providence, as everything teaches us, that men should be incessantly warned of the fragility of their nature, by examples always afflicting, and sometimes hideous. If, at certain moments, materialism has appeared to spread itself over the social body like a furious leprosy, these moments have been short, and they also offered the striking spectacle of devotedness and virtue. If there was licentiousness in France under the Directory, is it to be thence inferred that there was no disinterestedness and heroism in our armies, that our magistracy was not pure, and that the people despaired of liberty? Because the Jewish people worshipped the golden calf during the few days that Moses passed on Mount Sinai, has it been ever said that idolatry was their worship after they quitted Egypt?
