I was speaking of religion. Sunday is rigorously observed. And yet, either I am much mistaken or there is a great depth of doubt and indifference hidden under these external forms. No political passion mixes in with irreligion as with us, but for all that religion has no more power. It's a very strong impulsion which was given in former times and which is now diminishing every day.
Faith is evidently inert.
The abstractions of dogma, the discussions especially appropriate to a religious doctrine, that's however what the human spirit loves to plunge into when a belief has seized it strongly. Besides, it's evident that here, generally speaking, religion does not profoundly stir the souls. In France those who believe manifest this belief by sacrifices of time, of effort, of fortune. One feels they are acting under the sway of a passion which dominates them and whose agents they have become. It's true that at their side is a sort of brute who has a horror of the very name of religion and who does not even very easily discern the good from the bad.