Bayle had asked, If a society of atheists could subsist?—Voltaire answers, “Yes, if they are also philosophers. But men are seldom philosophers; “if there is a hamlet, to be good it must have a religion.”176 “I want my lawyer, my tailor, and my wife to believe in God,” says “A” in “A, B, C”; “so, I imagine, I shall be less robbed and less deceived.” “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.”
