omen; but a bad one, when a rook makes a noife from the fame quarter. PANETIUS was the only STOIC, amongst the GREEKS, who fo much as doubted with regard to auguries and divinations*. MARCUS ANTONINUS † tells us, that he himfelf had received many admonitions from the gods in his fleep. It is true, EPICTETUS ‡ forbids us to regard the language of rooks and ravens; but it is not, that they do not speak truth: It is only, because they can foretel nothing but the breaking of our neck or the forfeiture of our eftate; which are circumftances, fays he, that nowife concern us. Thus the STOICS join a philofophical enthusiasm to a religious fuperftition. The force of their mind, being all turned to the fide of morals, unbent itself in that of religion ||. PLATO introduces SOCRATES affirming, that the accufation of impiety raised against him was owing entirely to his rejecting fuch fables, as thofe of SATURN's caftrating his father, URANUS, and JUPITER's dethroning SATURN: Yet in a fubfequent dialogue §, SOCRATES confeffes, that the doc trine of the mortality of the foul was the received opinion of the people. Is there, here any contradiction? Yes, furely: But the contradiction is not in PLATO; it is in the people, whofe religious principles in general are always composed of * Cicero de Divin, lib. i. cap. 3. & 7. + Ench. § 17 + Lib. i. § 17. The Stoics, I own, were not quite orthodox in the etablished religion; but one may fee, from thefe inftances, that they went a great way: And the people undoubtedly went every length. + Eutyphro. § Phado. the the most difcordant parts; especially in an age, when fuperftition fate so easy and light upon them ‡. XENOPHON'S Conduct, as related by himself, is, at once, an inconteftible proof of the general credulity of mankind in those ages, and the incoherencies, in all ages, of men's opinions in religious matters. That great captain and philofopher, the difciple of SOCRATES, and one who has delivered fome of the moft refined fentiments with regard to a deity, gave all the following marks of vulgar, pagan superstition. By SOCRATES's advice, he confulted the oracle of DELPHI, before he would engage in the expedition of CYRUS. De exped. lib. iii. p. 294. ex edit. Leuncl. Sees a dream the night after the generals were feized; which he pays great regard to, but thinks ambiguous. Id. p. 295. He and the whole army regard fneezing as a very lucky omen. Id. p. 300. Has another dream, when he comes to the river CENTRITES, which his fellow general CHIROSOPHUS, alfo pays great regard to. Id. lib. iv. p. 323. The GREEKS fuffering from a cold north wind, facrifice to it, and the historian obferves, that it immediately abated. Id. p. 329. XENOPHON confults the facrifices in fecret, before he would form any refolution with himself about fettling a colony. Lib. v. p. 359. He himself a very skilful augur. Id. p. 361. Is determined by the victims to refufe the fole command of the army, which was offered him. Lib. vi. p. 273. CLEANDER, the SPARTAN, though very defirous of it, refuses it for the fame reason. Id. p. 392. XENOPHON mentions an old dream with the interpretation given him, when he first joined CYRUS. P. 373. Mentions alfo the place of HERCULES's descent into hell as believing it, and fays the marks of it are still remaining. Id. p. 375. Had almoft ftarved the army rather than lead to the field against the aufpices. Id. p. 382, 383. His friend, EUCLIDES, the augur, would not believe that he had brought no money from the expedition; till he (EUCLIDES) facrificed, and then he saw the matter clearly in the Exta. Lib. vii. p. 425. The fame philofopher, propofing a project of mines for the increase of the ATHENIAN revenues, advises them first to confult the oracle. De rat. red. p. 392. That all this devotion was not a farce, in order to serve a political purpose, appears both from the facts themselves, and from the genius of that age, when little or nothing could be gained by hypocrify. Befides, XENOPHON, as appears from his Memorabilia, was a kind of heretic in thofe times, which no political devotee ever is. It is for the fame reason, I maintain, that NEWTON, LOCKE, CLARKE, &c. being Arians or Socinians, were very fincere in the creed they profeffed: And I always oppose this argument to fome libertines, who will needs have it, that it was impoffible but tha thefe great philofophers must have been hypocrites. The fame CICERO, who affected, in his own family, to appear a devout religionist, makes no fcruple, in a public court of judicature, of treating the doctrine of a future ftate as a moft ridiculous fable, to which no body could give any attention *. SALLUST † reprefents CESAR as fpeaking the same language in the open fenate ‡. But that all these freedoms implied not a total and univerfal infidelity and scepticism amongst the people, is too apparent to be denied. Though fome parts of the national religion hung loose upon the minds of men, other parts adhered more closely to them: And it was the great business of the sceptical philofophers to show, that there was no more foundation for one than for the other. This is the artifice of COTTA in the dialogues concerning the nature of the gods. He refutes thewhole system of mythology by leading the orthodox, gradually from the more momentous ftories, which were believed, to the more frivolous, which every one ridiculed: From the gods to the goddeffes; from the goddeffes to the nymphs; from the nymphs to the fawns and fatyrs. His mafter CARNEADES had employed the fame method of reasoning ||.. + De bello CATILIN. Pro CLUENTIO. cap. 61. CICERO (Tufc. Quæft.) lib. 1. cap. 5, 6. and SENECA (Epift. 24.) as alfo Juve NAL. (Satyr. 2.) maintain that there is no boy or old woman fo ridiculous as to believe the poets in their accounts of a future ftate. Why then does LuCRETIUS fo highly exalt his mafter for freeing us from these terrors? Perhaps the generality of mankind were then in the difpofition of CEPHALUS in PLATO (de Rep. lib. i.) who while he was young and healthful could ridicule these ftories; but as foon as he became old and infirm, began to entertain apprehenfions of their truth. This, wee nay obferve, not to be unusual even at prefent. SEXT. EMPIR, adverf. MATHEM. lib. viii.. Upon Upon the whole, the greatest and most obfervable differences between a traditional, mythological religion, and a fyftematical, fcholaftical one, are two: The former is often more reasonable, as confifting only of a multitude of ftories, which, however groundless, imply no express abfurdity and demonstrative contradiction; and fits also so easy and light on men's minds, that though it may be as univerfally received, it makes no fuch deep impreffion on the affections and understanding, SECT. XIII. Impious Conceptions of the divine Nature in most popular Religions of both kinds. The primary religion of mankind arifes chiefly from an anxious fear of future events; and what ideas will naturally be entertained of invifible, unknown powers, while men lie under difmal apprehenfions of any kind, may easily be conceived. Every image of vengeance, feverity, cruelty, and malice must occur and muft augment the affright and horror, which oppreffes the amazed religionist. A panic having once seized the mind, the active fancy ftill farther multiplies the objects of terror; while that profound darkness, or, what is worse, that glimmering light, with which we are invironed, represents the spectres of divinity under the most dreadful appearances imaginable. And no idea of perverfe wickedness can: be framed, which those terrified devotees do not readily, without fcruple, apply to their deity.. This appears the natural state of religion, when furveyed in one light. But if we confider, on the other hand,, that spirit of praise and eulogy, which neceffarily has place in all religions, and! and which is the confequence of these very terrors, we must expect a quite contrary fyftem of theology to prevail. Every virtue, every excellence, muft be afcribed to the divinity, and no exaggeration be deemed fufficient to reach those perfections, with which he is endowed. Whatever ftrains of panegyric can be invented, are immediately embraced, without confulting any arguments or phænomena. And it is esteemed a sufficient confirmation of them, that they give us more magnificent ideas of the divine object of our worship and adoration. Here therefore is a kind of contradiction between the different principles of human nature, which enter into religion. Our natural terrors present the notion of a devilish and malicious deity: Our propensity to praise leads us to acknowlege an excellent and divine. The influence of thefe oppofite principles are various, according to the different fituation of the human understanding. In very barbarous and ignorant nations, fuch as the AFRICANS and INDIANS, nay even the JAPONESE, who can form no extenfive ideas of power and knowlege, worship may be paid to a being, whom they confess to be wicked and detestable; though they may be cautious, perhaps, of pronouncing this judgment of him in public, or in his temple, where he may be supposed to hear their reproaches. Such rude, imperfect ideas of the Divinity adhere long to all idolaters; and it may fafely be affirmed, that the GREEKS themselves never got entirely rid of them. It is remarked by XENOPHON*, in praise of SOCRATES, that that philofopher * Mem. lib. i. 3 affented |