him. All such little tales, prejudice readily credited; but they who are acquainted with human nature very well know, that both the usurper Clovis and the usurper Rollo, or Rolf, turned Christians, that they might more safely rule over Christians, as the Turks, on their becoming masters of the empire of Constantinople, turned Mussulmen, to ingratiate themselves with the Mussulmen.

RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES.

If your nurse has told you that Ceres presides over grain; or that Visnou and Xaca have several times become men; or that Sanmoncodom came upon earth, and cut down a forest; or that Odin expects you in his hall towards Jutland; or that Mahomet, or some other, has made a journey into heaven; lastly, if your governor afterwards inculcates into your brain the traces made in it by your nurse, you will never get rid of them during your life. Should your judgment attempt to efface these prejudices, your acquaintance, and especially your female acquaintance, will charge you with impiety, and terrify you; then your dervise, lest his income may suffer some curtailment, will accuse you to the cadi; the cadi will do his best to have you impaled, for he would have all under him blockheads, thinking that blockheads make tamer subjects than others; and thus things will go on till your acquaintance, the dervise, and the cadi shall begin to perceive that folly does no good, and that persecution is abominable.

RELIGION.

RELIGION.

QUESTION 1.

DR. Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, author

of one of the most learned pieces that ever appeared, in vol. i. p. 8. expresses himself to this purpose: "A religion, or society, not "founded on the belief of a future state, ought "to be supported by an extraordinary provi "dence: the Jewish religion was not founded 66 on the belief of a future state; therefore it "must have been supported by an extraordinary "providence.'

Several divines have declared against him, and, disputant like, have retorted his argument on himself.

"A religion not founded on the doctrine of "the soul's immortality, and eternal rewards, "must be false. Now Judaism had no such te"nets; therefore Judaism, so far from being "supported by providence, was, according to

your principles, a false and savage religion, "which denied any such thing as providence."

Others of the bishop's adversaries maintained that the immortality of the soul was known among the Jews, even in Moses's time; but he very evidently proved against them, that neither in the Decalogue, nor Leviticus, nor Deuteronomy, is one single word said of this belief; and that it is ridiculous to go about wresting and corrupting a few passages of the other books, in support of a truth about which their book of laws is silent.

The bishop, though he composed four volumes to demonstrate that the Jewish law proposed nei

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ther punishments nor rewards after death, has not been able to give his adversaries any very satisfactory answer. They urged," either Moses "was acquainted with this doctrine, and then he "deceived the Jews in not making it public; or "he was ignorant of it; and if so, he was inca"pable of founding a good religion. Indeed, "had the religion been good, why was it abo"lished? A true religion should suit all times "and places; it should be like the light of the "sun, which shines in all lands and throughout "all generations."

This prelate, with all his erudition and sagacity, has been hard put to it in making his way through all these difficulties; but what system is without difficulties?

QUESTION II.

Another learned person, a much greater philo. sopher, and one of the most profound metaphysicians of the times, produces strong reasons to prove, that the first religion was Polytheism; and that, before improved reason came to see there could be only one Supreme Being, men began with believing several gods.

I, on the contrary, presume to believe that they began with worshipping only one God, and that, afterwards, human weakness adopted several others; and I conceive the thing to be thus.

It is not to be doubted but villages and country towns were prior to large cities; and that men were divided into small republics before they were united in large empires. It is very natural, that a town, terrified at the thunder; dis

tressed

tressed by the ruin of its harvest; insulted by a neighbouring town; daily feeling its weakness, and every where perceiving an invisible power, soon came to say, There is some being above us, which does us good and hurt.

It seems to me impossible that they should have said: there are two powers; for wherefore several? In every thing we begin with the simple, then proceed to the compound, and often an improvement of knowledge brings us back again to the simple: this is the process of the human mind:

Which being was first worshipped? was it the sun, was it the moon? I can hardly believe it. Only let us take a view of children, they are pretty nearly on a footing with ignorant men. The beauty and benefit of that luminous body which animates nature, make no impression on them; as insensible are they of the conveniences we derive from the moon, or of the regular variations of its course; they do not so much as think of these things; they are accustomed to them. What men do not fear, they never worship. Children look up to the sky with as much indifference as on the ground; but, at a tempest, the poor creatures tremble and run and hide themselves. I am inclined to think it was so with primitive men. They who first observed the course of the heavenly bodies, and brought them to be objects of admiration and worship, must necessarily have had a tincture of philosophy; the error was too exalted for rude illiterate husbandmen.

Thus the cry of a village would have been no more than this: There is a power which thun

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ders, which sends down hail on us, which causes our children to die, let us, by all means, appease it; but which way? Why, we see, that little presents will sooth angry people, let us try what little presents will do with this power. He must also to be sure have a name or title; and that, which naturally presents itself first, is chief, master, lord: thus is this power called my Lord. Hence it probably was, that the first Ægyptians called their god Knef; the Syrians, Adoni; the neighbouring nations Baal or Bel, or Melch or Moloc; the Scythians Pape; all words signifying Lord, Master.

In like manner almost all America was found to be divided into multitudes of little colonies, all with their patron deity. The Mexicans and Peruvians themselves, who were large nations, had but one only God; the former worshipping Mango Kapack, the other the God of war, whom they called Vilipusti, as the Hebrews had stiled their lord, Sabaoth.

It is not from any superiority or exercise of reason, that all nations began with worshipping only one Deity; for had they been philosophers, they would have the universal God of nature and not the god of a village; they would have examined the infinite testimonies acknowledged of a creating and preserving being; but they examined nothing; they only perceived, and such is the progress of our weak understanding. Every town perceived its weakness and want of a powerful protector. This tutelary and terrible being they fancied to reside in a neighbouring forest, or mountain, or in a cloud. They fancied only one such power, because in war the town had but one chief; this being they imagined to be corporeal,