Sophron and Neophilus, or The School of Wisdom

to effect. It is not long since all of Germany was no less attentive to the voice of another preacher of Deism natural religion than it is now to our Horus likely a pseudonym for the author or a character in the work. The notorious Wolfenbüttel Fragments threatened Christianity with no less than total destruction, and promised every attentive reader and impartial researcher no less than complete conviction. Every friend of truth grasped at them eagerly and read, and when he had finished reading, he remained what he had been before. The unbeliever rejoiced to have gained one more defender of his system, even if he found himself cheated of the hope of receiving new weapons from him with which he could win a decisive victory over his opposition. The doubter found himself no less deceived in the expectation of complete certainty with which he had flattered himself, and wandered as before in his labyrinth, without hope of ever finding a way out. And the Christian did not even consider exchanging his reasonable religious system for the sake of a few doubts that did not concern the main matter...