Marcellinus ftanding up, thanked him for furnishing them with fuch an exquifite moral treat; "How natural," exclaimed he, " on fuch a profpect of the world we inhabit, for the pious mind to adopt those strains in which the Hebrew poets first led the way, infpired by the fublime fubject, and called upon all nature to affist them in hymning and celebrating in their fongs the common creator and benefactor:

"Not only the young and old, and those of every age and clafs of the human race; but all the irrational tribes of those who fill the air, and walk the earth, and creep on the ground, or that glide along the watery element; the different families of living creatures, who in their different ways fhew themfelves, bufy and chearful and happy;

"And, not fatisfied with this tribute, ftill in bolder strains they invoke the mountains and hills and plains, and every tree and shrub that grows, to contribute their fhare of praife, for being made to afford fhelter and delight to fo many living beings, and for other numberlefs uses;

Nay,

"Nay, they invite even fummer and winter to join the general chorus of praise; the changing feafons fo neceffary to the health of man and beaft, the growth and prefervation of each herb and fruit-bearing tree, and to the ripening of the fruits of the earth, by which the whole is fuftained and filled with gladnefs."

And though these holy men were not fuch deep philofophers as we boaft ourfelves to be, they hereby fhewed that they had attained to the chief end of all true philofophy, in having learned to read and trace out in his works the hand and kindnefs of the One Supreme, the benevolent creator, and divine artift.

From these few inftances produced by you out of the inexhauftible ftore that remains behind, we are able with fatisfaction to fee that the creator loveth all his creatures, and has brought them all into life to bestow upon them a happiness suited to them.

But what ftill more concerns us: You have pointed out, and enabled us to difcern from what

what fimple principles, and by what easy natural proceffes, the rational, moral cha racter is formed, and from primeval dust and clay, whence we were first taken, becomes capable of rifing to fome faint, though infinitely diftant refemblance of the all good, and all perfect being,

Yet I fear that this will be regarded merely as beautiful theory; and thefe fine capacities of the rational nature thought to be bestowed in vain, and never likely to be brought to maturity, when we take a furvey of the world at large, and fean what mankind have been in all ages, and ftill are, in a moral view. And I fhould be led almoft to defpair, if you, Photinus, were not to continue to give us your kind help to explore what the momentous fubject will produce.

At

At their next meeting, after talking for fome time together upon indifferent matters, Marcellinus turned the difcourfe, obferving, that as Photinus had fhewn to their intire fatisfaction, that the animal creation below us, in all their infinite variety and gradations, most usefully filled the places affigned them, and were happy therein as far as we could perceive and judge; and was going on to inveftigate and afcertain how far the fame could be faid of the human race, he thought that to do full juftice to the fubject, it would be neceffary to take in the hiftory of the origin of mankind as delivered in our facred books; and as there were different opinions entertained about it, to have it in fome meafure fettled among them, what credit was to be given to that most antient hiftory of all others, how it is to be understood, and what is to be gathered from it. Concerning thefe points, that the adjusting of them might not divert Photinus from purfuing his main fubject, he should take the liberty to fubmit his own fentiments to them, which he had reafon to believe were not much different from their own, as it was a matter that had often fallen in their way.

Now

Now it feemed to be generally allowed, by those who had fearched into, and were beft qualified to form a right judgment concerning the cofmogony recorded in the entrance of the book of Genefis, that the account of things therein given had been handed down to Mofes from the first parents. of mankind, through the channel of Noah and his defcendants; which, from the longevity of mankind at that period would not need to pass through many hands; and their high importance would fecure diligence and fidelity in the conveyance.

In the first three chapters of the book, we have the most momentous documents and information concerning the one true God, and fole creator of all things, his character, and that of his creature, man. We there learn, what we might prefume to be the fact, that mankind were not left to themselves, to the investigations of reafon, to fpell out and acquire the knowlege of the Being that made them, and of their duty to him; which, though attainable by their natural powers, would have been a matter of very flow operation and accomplishment; but that they re