Are there not notions common to all men necessary to this purpose?
SELIM.
Yes; I have travelled with Paul Lucas, and wherever I went I saw that man respected his father and mother; that he thought himself bound to keep his promise; that he pitied oppressed innocence; that he detested persecution; that he regarded freedom of thinking as a right of nature, and the enemies of that freedom as the enemies of the human race. They who think differently appear to me to be badly organized, and monsters, like those who are born without eyes or heads.
OSMIN.
These necessary things—are they necessary in all times, and in all places?
SELIM.
Yes: otherwise they would not be necessary to human kind.
OSMIN.
Therefore, a new creed is not necessary to mankind. Men could live in society, and perform all their duties towards God, before they believed that Mahomet had frequent conversations with the angel Gabriel.
SELIM.