–Pirx. Nat Hist, cap, de Dee. n’eut-il pas €té plus conforme aux vues d'un Dieu jaloux desa gloire et si bien intentionné pour l'homme, d'écrire d'une facon non sujette a dispute, son nom, ses attributs, ses volontés permanentes en caractères ineffaçables et lisible également pour tous les habitans de la terrel Personne alors n'auroit pu douter de l'existence d'un Dieu, de ses volontés claires, de ses intentions visibles, Sous les yeux de ce Dieu si terrible personne n'auroit eu l'audace de violer ses ordonnances; nul mortel n'est ose se mettre dans le cas d’attirer sa colére; ensin nul homme n'eat eu le front d'en imposer en son nom, ou d'interpréter ses volontés suivant ses propres funtainies, En offet, quand meme on admettroit l'existence du Dieu théologique, et la réalité des attributs si discordans qu'on lui donne, l’on ne peut en rien conclure, pour autoriner la conduite ou les cultes qu'on prescrit de lui rendro, La théologie est vraiment le tonneau des Danades. A force de qualités contradictoires et d'assertionn hanardees, elle a, pour ainst dire, tellement garoté son Dieu qu’elle la mis dans l'impossibilité d'agir. Sil eat infiniment bon, qu’elle raison aurions nous de le conindro " Silest infiniment sate, de quoi mous inquiétor our notre sort" Sil sait tout, pourquoi l'avertir de now honolus, et le fatiguer de nos prières? Sil est partout, pourquoi lui elever des temples? Soil est maitre do tout, pourquoi lui faire des sacrifices et des offrandes? M'll eat juste, comment croire qu'il punisse des creatures qu'il a remples de foiblesses Si la grace fait tout en elles, quelle raison auroit-il de les recompenser? S'il eat tout-puissant, comment l'offenser, comment lui reauntov's S'il eat vasounable, comment se mettroit-il en colow contre des aveugles, A qui il a laisse la liberté de delaisonner' Silest immuable, de quel droit pretendrions-nous faire changer scs decrets? Soil est inconcevable, pourquoi nous en occuper ? Sul. A ranls, rounQuo 'll Nuvras Nots tou, ras coxv Auxeu i Si la connoissance d'un thieu est la plus necessaire, pourquoi n'est-elle pas la plus evidente, et la plus claire *—Système de la Nature, London, - 8 , The enlightened and benevolent Pliny thus publicly professes himself an atheist:-Quapropter effigieus Dei, formamque quartere, imbecillitatis humane reor. Quisquis est Deus (si mode est alius et quacunque in parte, totus est sensus, totus est visus, totus auditus, totus annar, totus animi, totus sui. - - - - lumperfecta vero in homine nature precipua solatia me deum quidem posse omnia. Namgue nec sibi potest movieu conscistere.sivelit, quod homini dedit optimum in tanus vita penis : nec mortales a termitate donare, aut revocare defunctoss nec facere ut qui vixit non : vixent, qui honores gest non sesserit, nullumque habere in preteritum jus, preterquam oblivionis, atque ut facetis quoque argumentis societas hec cum deo copule tur, ut bis dena viginia non sini, et multa similiter ef-, ficere non posse—Per qur, declaratur haud dubie, nature potentiam id quoque esse, quod Deum vocamus, The consistent Newtonian is necessarily an atheist. See Sir W. Darw wove's 4cademical Questions, chap. iii. —Sir W, seems to consider the atheism to which it leads, as a sufficient presumption of the falsehood of the sustem of travitations but surely it is more consistent with the good faith of philosophy to admit a deduction from facts than an hypothesis incapable of proof, although it might no : the obstinate preconceptions of the simob. Had this author, instead of inveighing against the guilt and absurdity of atheism, demoustrated its falsehood, his conduct would have been more suited to the modesty of the sceptic and the toleration of the philosopher. Omnia enim per Dei potentiam facta sunt: imo, quia natura potentia nulla est misi ipsa Dei potentia, arten est nos catemus Dei potentiam non intelligere, quatemus causas naturales ignoramus; adeoque stulte ad eandem Dei potentiam recurritur, quando rei alicujus, causam naturalem, sive est, ipsam Dei potentiam ignoramus— Spinosa, Tract. Theologico-Pol, chap. i, page 14 Note 14, page 1 17, col. 2. Ahasuerus, rise! • Ahasuerus the Jew crept forth from the dark cave of Mount Carmel. Near two thousand years have elapsed since he was first goaded by never-ending restlessness to rove the globe from pole to pole. When our Lord was wearied with the burthen of his ponderous cross, and wanted to rest before the door of Ahasuerus, the unfeeling wretch drove him away with brutality The Saviour of nankind staggered, sinking under the heavy load, but uttered no complaint. An angel of death appeared before Ahasuerus, and exclaimed indig- | nantly, “Barbarian thou hast denied rest to the Son of Man: be it denied thee also, until he comes to judge the world." • A black demon, let loose from hell upon Ahasuerus, goads him now from country to country : he is denied the consolation which death affords, and preciuded from the rest of the peaceful grave. - Ahasuerus crept forth from the dark cave of Mount Carmel— he shook the dust from his beard—and taking up one of the sculls heaped there, hurled it down the eminence : it rebounded from the earth in shivered atoms. This was my father! roared Ahasuerus. Seven more sculls rolled down from rock to rock ; while the infuriate Jew, following them with ghastly looks, exclaimed—And these were my wives! He still continued to hurl down scull after scull, roaring in dreadful accents—And these, and these, and these were my children: They could die; but it reprobate wretch. alas! I cannot die! Dreadful beyond conception is the judgment that hangs over me. Jerusalem fell — I crushed the sucking babe, and precipitated novelf inte the destructive flames. I cursed the Romans—but alas' alas' the restless curse held me by the hair, –and 1 could not die! • Rome the giantess fell—l placed myself before the falling statue—she fell, and did not crush one. Nations sprung up and disappeared before mes—but I remained and did not doe. From cloud-encircled cliffs ded 1 precipitate myself into the ocean; but the feamine ballows cast me upon the shore, and the burning arrow of existence pierced my cold beart again. I leared onto Etna's flamine abyss, and roared with the giants for tes mankind, and plunged in the tempest of the raging battle. I roared defiance to the infuriate Gaul, defiance to the victorious German; but arrows and spears rebounded in shivers from my body. The Saracen's flaming sword broke upon my scull balls in vain hissed upon me: the lightnings of battle glared harmless around my loins: in vain did the elephant trample on me, in vain the iron hoof of the wrathful steed . The mine, big with destructive power, burst upon me, and hurled me high in the air—I fell on heaps of smoking limbs, but was only singed. The giant's steel club rebounded from my body; the executioner's hand could not strangle me, the tiger's tooth could not pierce me, nor would the hungry lion in the circus devour me. I cohabited with poisonous snakes, and pinched the red crest of the dragon. The serpent stung, but could not destroy me.—The dragon tormented, but dared not to devour me.—I now provoked the fury of tyrants: I said to Nero, Thou art a bloodhound ! I said to Christiern, Thou art a bloodhound! I said to Muley Ismail, Thou art a bloodhound"—The tyrants invented cruel torinents, but did not kill me.————— Ha! not to be able to die—not to be able to die—not to be permitted to rest after the toils of life—to be doomed to be imprisoned for ever in the clay-formed dungeon—to be for ever clogged with this worthless body, its load of diseases and infirmities—to be condemned to hold for milleniums that yawning monster Sameness, and Time, that hungry hyena, ever bearing children, and ever devouring again her offspring!—lla! not to be permitted to die! Awful avenger in heaven, hast thou in thine armoury of wrath a punishment more dreadful then let it thunder upon me, command a hurricane to sweep me down to the foot of Carmel, that I there may lie extended; may pant, and writhe, and die!" This fragment is the translation of part of some German work, whose title I have vainly endeavoured to discover. I picked it up, dirty and torn, some years ago, in Lincoln’s-Inn Fields. Note 15, page 1 18, col. 1. I will beget a Son, and be shall bear A book is put into our hands when children, called the Bible, the purport of whose history is briefly this: That God made the earth in six days, and there planted a delightful garden, in which he placed the first pair of human beings. In the midst of the garden he planted a tree, whose fruit, although within their reach, they were forbidden to touch. That the Devil, in the shape of a snake, persuaded them to eat of this fruit; in consequence of which God condemned both them and their posterity yet unborn, to satisfy his justice by their eternal misery. That, four thousand years after these events (the human race in the mean while having gone unredeemed to perdition), God engendered with the betrothed wife of a carpenter in Judea (whose virginity was nevertheless uninjured), and begat a Son, whose name was Jesus Christ; and who was crucified and died, in order that no more men might be devoted to hell-fire, he bearing the burthen of his Father's displeasure by proxy. The book states, in addition, that the soul of whoever disbelieves this sacrifice will be burned with everlasting fire. During many ages of misery and darkness this story gained implicit belief; but at length men arose who suspected that it was a fable and imposture, and that Jesus Christ, so far from being a God, was only a man like themselves. But a numerous set of men, who derived and still derive immense emoluments sron this opinion, in the shape of a popular belief, told the vulgar, that, if they did not believe in the Bible, they would be damned to all eternity; and burned, imprisoned, and poisoned all the unbiassed and unconnected inquirers who occasionally arose. They still oppress them, so far as the people, now become more enlightened, will allow. The belief in all that the Bible contains, is called Christianity. A Rounan governor of Judea, at the instances of a priest-led mob, crucified a man called Jesus eighteen centuries ago. He was a man of pure life, who desired to rescue his countrymen from the tyranny of their barbarous and degrading superstitions. The common fate of all who desire to benefit mankind awaited him. The rabble, at the instigation of the priests, demanded his death, although his very judge made public acknowledgment of his innocence. Jesus was sacrificed to the honour of that God with whom he was afterwards confounded. It is of importance, therefore, to distinguish between the pretended character of this being as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and his real character as a man, who, for a vain attempt to reform the world, paid the forfeit of his life to that overbearing tyranny which has since so long desolated the universe in his name. Whilst the one is a hypocritical demon, who announces himself as the God of compassion and peace, even whilst he stretches forth his blood-red hand with the sword of discord to waste the earth, having confessedly devised this scheme of desolation from eternity; the other stands in the foremost list of those true heroes, who have died in the glorious martyrdom of liberty, and have braved torture, contempt, and poverty, in the cause of suffering humanity." The vulgar, ever in extremes, became persuaded that the crucifixion of Jesus was a supernatural event. Testimonies of miracles, so frequent in unenlightened ages, were not wanting to prove that he was something divine. This belief, rolling through the lapse of ages, met with the reveries of Plato and the reasonings of Aristotle, and acquired force and extent, until the divinity of Jesus became a dogma, which to dispute was death, which to doubt was infamy. Christianity is now the established religion: he who attempts to impugn it, must be contented to behold murderers and traitors take precedence of him in public opinion: though, if his genius be equal to his courage, and assisted by a peculiar coalition of circumstances, future ages may exalt him to a divinity, and persecute others in his name, as he was persecuted in the name of his predecessor in the homage of the world. The same means that have supported every other popular belief, have supported Christianity. War, inprisonment, assassination, and falsehood; deeds of unexampled and incomparable atrocity have made it what it is. The blood shed by the votaries of the God of mercy and peace, since the establishment of his religion, would probably suffice to drown all other sectaries now on the habitable globe. We derive from our ancestors a faith thus fostered and supported : we quarrel, persecute, and hate for its maintenance. Even under a ! since writing this note, I have seen reason to suspect that Jesus was an ambitious man, who aspired to the throne of Judea. government which, whilst it infringes the very right of thought and speech, boasts of permitting the liberty of the press, a man is pilloried and imprisoned because he is a deist, and no one raises his voice in the indignation of outraged humanity. But it is ever a proof that the falsehood of a proposition is felt by those who use coercion, not reasoning, to procure its admission; and a dispassionate observer would feel himself more powerfully interested in favour of a man, who, depending on the truth of his opinions, simply stated his reasons for entertaining them, than in that of his aggressor, who daringly avowing his unwillingness or incapacity to answer them by argument, proceeded to repress the energies and break the spirit of their promulgator by that torture and imprisonment whose intliction he could command. Analogy seems to favour the opinion, that as, like other systems, Christianity has arisen and augmented, so like them it will decay and perish; that, as violence, darkness, and deceit, not reasoning and persuasion, have procured its admission among mankind, so, when enthusiasm has subsided, and time, that infallible controverter of false opinions, has involved its pretended evidences in the darkness of antiquity, it will become obsolete; that Milton's poem alone will give permanency to the remembrance of its absurdities; and that men will laugh as heartily at grace, faith, redemption, and original sin, as they now do at the metamorphoses of Jupiter, the miracles of Romish saints, the efficacy of witchcraft, and the appearance of departed spirits. Had the Christian religion commenced and continued by the mere force of reasoning and persuasion, the preceding analogy would be inadmissible. We should never speculate on the future obsoleteness of a system perfectly conformable to mature and reason: it would endure so long as they endured; it would be a truth as indisputable as the light of the sun, the criminality of murder, and other facts, whose evidence, depending on our organization and relative situations, must remain acknowledged as satisfactory so long as man is man. It is an incontrovertible fact, the consideration of which ought to repress the hasty conclusions of credulity, or moderate its obstinacy in maintaining them, that, had the Jews not been a fanatical race of men, had even the resolution of Pontius Pilate been equal to his candour, the Christian religion never could have prevailed, it could not even have existed: on so feeble a thread hangs the most cherished opinion of a sixth of the human race! When will the vulgar learn humility When will the pride of ignorance blush at having believed before it could comprehend ? Either the Christian religion is true, or it is false: if true, it comes from God, and its authenticity can admit of doubt and dispute no further than its omnipotent author is willing to allow. Either the power or the goodness of God is called in question, if he leaves those doctrines most essential to the well-being of man in doubt and dispute; the only ones which, since their promulgation, have been the subject of unceasing cavil, the cause of irreconcileable hatred. If God has spoken, why is the universe not convinced * There is this passage in the Christian Scriptures: • Those who obey not God, and believe not the Gospel of his Son, shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” This is the pivot upon which all religions turn: they all assume that it is in our power to believe or not to be lieve; whereas the mind can only believe that which it thinks true. A human being can only be supposed accountable for those actions which are influenced by his will. But belief is utterly distinct from and unconnected with volition: it is the apprehension of the agreement or disagreement of the ideas that compose any proposition. Belief is a passion, or involuntary operation of the mind, and, like other passions, its intensity is precisely proportionate to the degrees of excitement. Wolition is essential to merit or demerit. But the Christian religion attaches the highest possible degrees of merit and demerit to that which is worthy of neither, and which is totally unconnected with the peculiar faculty of the mind, whose presence is essential to their being. Christianity was intended to reform the world: had an all-wise Being planned it, nothing is more improbable than that it should have failed : omniscience would infallibly have foreseen the inutility of a scheme which experience demonstrates, to this age, to have been utterly unsuccessful. Christianity inculcates the necessity of supplicating the Deity. Prayer may be considered under two points of view;-as an endeavour to change the intentions of God, or as a formal testimony of our obedience. But the former case supposes that the caprices of a limited intelligence can occasionally instruct the Creator of the world how to regulate the universe; and the latter, a certain degree of servility analogous to the loyalty demanded by earthly tyrants. Obedience indeed is only the pitiful and cowardly egotism of him who thinks that he can do something better than reason. Christianity, like all other religions, rests upon miracles, prophecies, and martyrdoms. No religion ever existed, which had not its prophets, its attested mira cles, and, above all, crowds of devotees who would bear patiently the most horrible tortures to prove its authenticity. It should appear that in no case can a discriminating mind subscribe to the genuineness of a miracle. A miracle is an infraction of nature's law. by a supernatural cause: by a cause acting beyond that eternal circle within which all things are included. God breaks through the law of nature, that he may convince mankind of the truth of that revelation which, in spite of his precautions, has been, since its introduction, the subject of unceasing schism and cavil. Miracles resolve themselves into the following question : —Whether it is more probable the laws of nature, hitherto so immutably harmonious, should have undergone violation, or that a man should have told a lie? Whether it is more probable that we are ignorant of the natural cause of an event, or that we know the supernatural one That, in old times, when the powers of nature were less known than at present, a certain set of men were themselves deceived, or had some Lidden motive for deceiving others; or that God begat a son, who, in his legislation, measuring merit by belief, evidenced himself to be totally ignorant of the powers of the human mind—of what is voluntary, and what is the contrary? instances of men deceiving others either from vanity or interest, or themselves being deceived by the limitedness of their views and their ignorance of natural causes: but where is the accredited case of God having come upon earth, to give the lie to his own creations? There would be something truly wonderful in the appearance of a ghost; but the assertion of a child that he saw one as he passed through the church-yard is universally admitted to be less miraculous. But even supposing that a man should raise a dead body to life before our eyes, and on this fact rest his claim to being considered the son of God;—the Humane Society restores drowned persons, and because it makes no mystery of the method it employs, its members are not mistaken for the sons of God. All that we have a right to infer from our ignorance of the cause of any event is, that we do not know it: had the Mexicaus attended to this simple rule when they heard the cannon of the Spaniards, they would not have considered them as gods: the experiments of modern chemistry would have defied the wisest philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome to have accounted for them on natural principles. An author of strong common sense has observed, that - a miracle is no miracle at second-hand;" he might have added, that a miracle is no miracle in any case; for until we are acquainted with all matural causes, we have no reason to imagine others. There remains to be considered another proof of Christianity—Prophecy. A book is written before a certain event, in which this event is foretold; how could the prophet have foreknown it without inspiration? how could he have been inspired without God? The greatest stress is laid on the prophecies of Moses and Hosea on the dispersion of the Jews, and that of Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah. The prophecy of Moses is a collection of every possible cursing and blessing; and it is so far from being marvellous that the one of dispersion should have been fulfilled, that it would have been more surprising if, out of all these, none should have taken effect. In Deuteronomy, chap. xxviii, ver. 64, where Moses explicitly foretells the dispersion, he states that they shall there serve gods of wood and stone : « And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the carth even to the other, and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even gods of wood and stone. • The Jews are at this day remarkably tenacious of their religion. Moses also declares that they shall be subjected to these causes for disobedience to his ritual : . And it shall come to pass, if thou will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all the commandments and statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thce. • Is this the real reason? The third, fourth and fifth chapters of Hosea are a piece of immodest confession. The indelicate type might apply in a hundred senses to a hundred things. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is more explicit, yet it does not exceed in clearness the oracles of Delphos. The historical proof, that Moses, Isaiah and Hosea did write when they are said to have written, is far from being clear and circumstantial. Ilut prophecy requires proof in its character as a miracle; we have no right to suppose that a man fore knew future events from God, until it is demonstrated that he neither could know them by his own exertions, nor that the writings which contain the prediction could possibly have been fabricated after the event pretended to be foretold. It is more probable that writings, pretending to divine inspiration, should have been fabricated after the fulfilment of their pretended prediction, than that they should have really been divinely inspired; when we consider that the latter supposition makes God at once the creator of the human mind and ignorant of its primary powers, particularly as we have numberless instances of false religions, and forged prophecies of things long past, and no accredited case of God having conversed with men directly or indirectly. It is also possible that the description of an event might have foregone its occurrence; but this is far from being a legitimate proof of a divine revelation, as many men, not pretending to the character of a prophet, have ne— vertheless, in this sense, prophesied. Lord Chesterfield was never yet taken for a prophet, even by a bishop, yet he uttered this remarkable prediction : • The despotic government of France is screwed up to the highest pitch; a revolution is fast approaching; that revolution, I am convinced, will be radical and sanguinary.” This appeared in the letters of the prophet long before the accomplishment of this wonderful prediction. Now, have these particulars come to pass, or have they not? If they have, how could the Earl have foreknown them without inspiration? If we admit the truth of the Christian religion on testimony such as this, we must admit, on the same strength of evidence, o that God has affixed the highest rewards to belief, and " the eternal tortures of the never-dying worm to disbelief; both of which have been demonstrated to be involuntary. The last proof of the Christian religion depends on the influence of the Holy Ghost. Theologians divide the influence of the Holy Ghost into its ordinary and extraordinary modes of operation. The latter is supposed to be that which inspired the Prophets and Apostles; and the former to be the grace of God, which summarily makes known the truth of his revelation, to those whose mind is fitted for its reception by a submissive perusal of his word. Persons convinced in this manner, can do any thing but account for their conviction, describe the time at which it happened, or the manner in which it came upon them. It is supposed to enter the mind by other channels than those of the senses, and therefore professes to be superior to reason founded on their experience. Admitting, however, the usefulness or possibility of a divine revelation, unless we demolish the foundations of all human knowledge, it is requisite that our reason should previously demonstrate its genuineness; for, before we extinguish the steady ray of reason and common sense, it is fit that we should discover whether we cannot do without their assistance, whether or no there be any other which may suffice to guide us through the labyrinth of life: ' for, if a man is to be inspired upon all occasions, if he is to be sure of a thing because he is sure, if the ordinary operations of the spirit are not to be considered very extraordinary modes of demonstration, if enthusiasm is to usurp the place of proof, and madness that of sanity, all reasoning is superfluous. * See Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, book iv, chap. xix, on Enthusiasm. The Mahometan dies fighting for his prophet, the Indian immolates himself at the chariot-wheels of Brahma, the Hottentot worships an insect, the Negro a bunch of feathers, the Mexican sacrifices human victims! Their degree of conviction, must certainly be very strong : it cannot arise from conviction, it must from feelings, the reward of their prayers. If each of these should affirm, in opposition to the strongest possible arguments, that inspiration carried internal evidence, I fear their inspired brethren, the orthodox Missionaries, would be so uncharitable as to pronounce them obstinate. Miracles cannot be received as testimonies of a disputed fact, because all human testimony has ever been insufficient to establish the possibility of miracles. That which is incapable of proof itself, is no proof of any thing else. Prophecy has also been rejected by the test of reason. Those, then, who have been actually inspired, are the only true believers in the Christian religion. Mox numine viso virginei tummere sinus, innuptaque mater Arcano stupuit compleri viscera partu Auctorem peritura suum. Mortalia corda Artificern texere poli, latuitgue sub uno Pectore, quitotum late complectitur orbem. Clatt's ax, Carmen Paschali. Does not so monstrous and disgusting an absurdity carry its own infamy and refutation with itself? Note 16, page 120, col. 2. Him (still from hope to hope the bliss pursuing. Which, from the exhaustless lore of human weal Dawns on the virtuous mind), the thoughts that rise In time-destroying infiniteness, gift With self-enshrined eternity, etc. Time is our consciousness of the succession of ideas in our mind. Vivid sensation, of either pain or pleasure, makes the time seem long, as the common phrase is, because it renders us more acutely conscious of our ideas. If a mind be conscious of a hundred ideas during one minute, by the clock, and of two hundred during another, the latter of these spaces would actually occupy so much greater extent in the mind as two exceed one in quantity. If, therefore, the human mind, by any future improvement of its sensibility, should become conscious of an infinite number of ideas in a minute, that minute would be eternity. I do not hence infer that the actual space between the birth and death of a man will ever be prolonged; but that his sensibility is perfectible, and that the number of ideas which his mind is capable of receiving is indefinite. One man is stretched on the rack during twelve hours; another sleeps soundly in his bed: the difference of time perceived by these two persons is immense; one hardly will believe that half an hour has elapsed, the other could credit that centuries had flown during his agony. Thus, the life of a man of virtue and talent who should die in his thirtieth year, is, with regard to his own feelings, longer than that of a miserable priest-ridden slave, who dreams out a century of dulness. The one has perpetually cultivated his mental faculties, has rendered himself master of his thoughts, can abstract and generalize amid the lethargy of every-day business;– the other can slumber over the brightest moments of his being, and is unable to remember the happiest hour of his life. Perhaps the perishing ephemeron enjoys a longer life than the tortoise. mark flood of timet Roll as it listeth thee—I measure not By months or moments thy ambiguous course. Another may stand by me on the brink, And watch the bubble whirl’d beyond his ken That pauses at my feet. The sense of love, The thirst for action, and the impassion'd thought. Proton; my being: if I wake no more, My life more actual living will contain Than some grey veteran's of the world's cold school. whose listless hours unprofitably roll, By one enthusiast feeling unredeem'd. See Godwin's Pol. Jus. vol. i., page 411 :-and Condorcet, Esquisse d'un Tableau. Historique des Progres de l'Esprit Humain, Epoque ix. Note 17, page 12o, col. 2. I hold that the depravity of the physical and moral nature of man originated in his unnatural habits of life. The origin of man, like that of the universe of which he is a part, is enveloped in impenetrable mystery. His generations either had a beginning, or they had not. The weight of evidence in favour of each of these suppositions seems tolerably equal; and it is perfectly unimportant, to the present argument, which is assumed. The language spoken however by the mythology of nearly all religions seems to prove, that at some distant period man forsook the path of nature, and sacrificed the purity and happiness of his being to unnatural appetites. The date of this event seems to have also been that of some great change in the climates of the earth, with which it has an obvious correspondence. The allegory of Adam and Eve eating of the tree of evil, and entailing upon their posterity the wrath of God, and the loss of everlasting life, admits of no other explanation than the disease and crime that have flowed from unnatural diet. Milton was so well aware of this, that he makes Raphael thus exhibit to Adam the consequence of his disobedience. ––––– Immediately a place And how many thousands more might not be added to this frightful catalogue! The story of Prometheus is one likewise which, although universally admitted to be allegorical, has never been satisfactorily explained. Prometheus stole fire from heaven, and was chained for this crime to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture continually devoured his liver, that grew to meet its hunger. Hesiod says, that, before the time of Prometheus, mankind were exempt from suffering; that they enjoyed a vigorous youth, and that death, when at length it came, approached like sleep, and gently closed their eyes. Again, so general was this opinion, that Horace, a Poet of the Augustan age, writes— Audax omnia perpeti, |