The arrangement by dialogues.—What ought I to do? I see only obscurity everywhere. Shall I believe that I am nothing, shall I believe that I am God?
All things change and succeed each other.—You are mistaken; there is....
A letter to lead to the search after God.
And then to cause him to be sought for among the philosophers, sceptics and dogmatists, who trouble all who seek them.
To pity those atheists who seek, for are they not unhappy enough?—To rail against those who make a boast of it.
To begin by pitying unbelievers, they are miserable enough by their condition. We ought not to revile them except where it may be serviceable, but it does them harm.
The arrangement. A letter of advice to a friend to lead him to seek, and he will answer: What is the good of seeking, since nothing comes to light.—Then to answer him: "Do not despair."—And he will answer that he would be glad to find some light, but that according to this very Religion, thus to believe, will be of no use to him: and that therefore he would as soon not seek. And to answer to that: The machine.
The arrangement. After the letter that we ought to seek God, to write the letter on the removal of obstacles; which is the discourse on the machine, on preparing the machine, on seeking by reason.
The letter which shows the use of proofs by the machine. Faith is different from proof; the one is human, the other the gift of God. Justus ex fide vivit. It is this faith that God himself puts into the heart, of which the proof is often the instrument, fides ex auditu; but this faith is in the heart, and makes us say not scio, but credo.
In the letter on Injustice may come the absurdity of the rule that the elder takes all. My friend, you were born on this side the mountain, it is therefore just that your elder brother should take all.