Genre:

Miscellaneous, Extact

Publications extracted:

François R, vicomte de Chateaubriand

Subjects:

Gender, Unbelief, Astronomy

    Asks: 'How is it possible that a female can be an Atheist? [...] The feeblest creature in nature, even on the verge of death, or the loss of her charms, who shall sustain this being who smiles and expires, if her hopes extend not beyond an ephemeral existence?' (300). Pictures the miserable end of the 'infidel wife'—chiefly the loss of her husband and of the affection of her children. Concludes by stating: 'When the Atheist, at the term of his career, discovers the delusions of a false philosophy, when annihilation, like an appalling meteor, begins to appear above the horizon, he would fain return to God' (301).