Editing Alphonse de Lamartine (section)

==Religious belief==
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===On the spirit of the times===
[[Image:Jean-Léon Gérôme-portrait of a Lady-1849.jpg|200px|thumb|upright|Portrait of [[Elisa de Lamartine|Madame de Lamartine]] by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]] (1849)]]
<blockquote>Thanks to the increase of general reason, to the light of philosophy, to the inspiration of Christianity, to the progress of the idea of justice, of charity, and of fraternity, in laws, manners, and religion, society in America, in Europe, and in France, especially since the Revolution, has broken down all these barriers, all these denominations of caste, all these injurious distinctions among men. Society is composed only of various conditions, professions, functions, and ways of life, among those who form what we call a Nation; of proprietors of the soil, and proprietors of houses; of investments, of handicrafts, of merchants, of manufacturers, of formers; of day-laborers becoming farmers, manufacturers, merchants, or possessors of houses or capital, in their turn; of the rich, of those in easy circumstances, of the poor, of workmen with their hands, workmen with their minds; of day-laborers, of those in need, of a small number of men enjoying considerable acquired or inherited wealth, of others of a smaller fortune painfully increased and improved, of others with property only sufficient for their needs; there are some, finally, without any personal possession but their hands, and gleaning for themselves and for their families, in the workshop, or the field, and at the threshold of the homes of others on the earth, the asylum, the wages, the bread, the instruction, the tools, the daily pay, all those means of existence which they have neither inherited, saved, nor acquired. These last are what have been improperly called ''the People''.
:— ''Atheism Among the People'', by Alphonse de Lamartine (1850), pp. 19–20<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/atheismamongpeop00lama |title=Atheism among the people |author=Lamartine, Alphonse de, 1790–1869 |via=Internet Archive |access-date=2016-04-21}}</ref></blockquote>

===On Catholic priests===
Alphonse de Lamartine as quoted in "A Priest" by Robert Nash (1943) on Catholic priests:

<blockquote>"There is a man in every parish, having no family, but belonging to a family is worldwide; who is called in as a witness and adviser in all the important affairs of human life. No one comes into the world or goes out of it without his ministrations. He takes the child from its mother's arms, and parts with him only at the grave. He blesses and consecrates the cradle, the bridal chamber, the bed of death, and the bier. He is one whom innocent children instinctively venerate and reverence, and to whom men of venerable age come to seek for wisdom, and call him father; at whose feet men fall down and lay bare the innermost thoughts of their souls, and weep their most sacred tears. He is one whose mission is to console the afflicted, and soften the pains of body and soul; to whose door come alike the rich and the poor. He belongs to no social class, because he belongs equally to all. He is one, in fine, who knows all, has a right to speak unreservedly, and whose speech, inspired from on high, falls on the minds and hearts of all with the authority of one who is divinely sent, and with the constraining power of one who has an unclouded faith."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://catholicpamphlets.net/pamphlets/A%20PRIEST.pdf# |format=PDF |title=A Priest |author=Rev. Robert Nash |publisher=Catholicpamplets.net |access-date=2016-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427145600/http://catholicpamphlets.net/pamphlets/A%20PRIEST.pdf |archive-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>