order to carry mens attention beyond the present course of things, or lead them into any inference concerning invisible intelligent power, they must be actuated by fome paffion which prompts their thought and reflection; fome motive which urges their first enquiry. But what paffion fhall we here have recourfe to, for explaining an effect of fuch mighty confequence? Not fpeculative curiofity furely, or the pure love of truth. That motive is too refined for fuch grofs apprehenfions; and would lead mer. into enquiries concerning the frame of nature; a subject too large and comprehenfive for their narrow capacities. No paffions, therefore, can be fuppofed to work upon fuch barbarians but the ordinary affections of human life; the anxious concern for happinefs, the dread of future mifery, the terror of death, the thirst of revenge, the appetite for food and other neceffaries. Agitated by hopes and fears of this nature, especially the latter, men fcrutinize, with a trembling curiofity, the course of future caufes, and examine the various and contrary events of human life. And in this difordered fcene, with eyes ftill more difordered and astonished, they fee the firft obfcure traces of divinity. SECT. III. The fame Subject continued. WE are placed in this world as in a great theatre, where the true fprings and causes of every event are entirely concealed from us; nor have we either fufficient wifdom to forefee, or power to prevent, thofe ills with which we are continually threatened. We hang in perpetual fufpenfe between life and death, health and ficknefs, plenty and want; which are diftributed amongst the human fpecies by fecret and unknown caufes, whofe operation is oft unexpected, and always unaccountable. These unknown causes, then, become the conftant object of our hope and fear; and while the paffions are kept in perpetual alarm alarm by an anxious expectation of the events, the imagination is equally employed in forming ideas of thofe powers on which we have fo entire a dependence. Could men anatomize nature according to the most probable, at least the moft intelligible philofophy, they would find, that thefe caufes are nothing but the particular fabric and ftructure of the minute parts of their own bodies and of external objects; and that, by a regular and conftant machinery, all the events are produced about which they are fo much concerned. But this philofophy exceeds the comprehenfion of the ignorant multitude, who can only conceive the unknown caufes in a general and confufed manner; though their imagination, perpetually employed on the same subject, muft labour to form fome particular and diftinct idea of them. The more they confider these causes themfelves, and the uncertainty of their operation, the lefs fatisfaction do they meet with in their researches; and, however unwilling, they must at last have abandoned fo arduous an attempt, were it not for a propenfity in human nature, which leads into a fyftem that gives them fome fatisfaction. There is an univerfal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propenfity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, afcribe malice or good will to every thing that hurts or pleases us. Hence the frequency and beauty of the prosopopæia in poetry; where trees, mountains, and ftreams, are perfonified, and the inanimate parts of nature acquire fentiment and paffion. And though these poetical figures and expreffions gain not on the belief, they may serve, at least, to prove a certain tendency in the imagination, without which they could neither be beautiful nor natural. A a 2 natural. Nor is a river-god or hamadryad always taken for a mere poetical or imaginary perfonage; but may fometimes enter into the real creed of the ignorant vulgar; while each grove or field is reprefented as poffeffed of a particular genius or invifible power, which inhabits and protects it. Nay, philofophers cannot entirely exempt themselves from this natural frailty; but have oft afcribed to inanimate matter the horror of a vacuum, fympathies, antipathies, and other affections of human nature. The abfurdity is not lefs while we caft our eyes upwards; and transferring, as is too ufual, human paffions and infirmities to the Deity, represent him as jealous and revengeful, capricious and partial, and, in fhort, a wicked and foolish man, in every respect but his fuperior power and authority. No wonder, then, that mankind, being placed in fuch an abfolute ignorance of caufes, and being at the fame time fo anxious concerning their future fortune, fhould immediately acknowledge a dependence on invifible powers, poffeffed of fentiment and intelligence. The unknown causes, which continually employ their thought, appearing always in the fame afpect, are all apprehended to be of the fame kind or fpecies. Nor is it long before we afcribe to them thought and reafon and paflion, and fometimes even the limbs and figures of men, in order to bring them nearer to a refemblance with ourfelves. In proportion as any man's courfe of life is governed by accident, we always find, that he encreafes in fuperftition; as may particularly be obferved of gamefters and failors; who, though, of all mankind, the leaft capable of serious reflection, abound most in frivolous and fuperftitious apprehenfions. The gods, fays CORIOLANUS in DIONYSIUS*, have an influence in every affair; but above all, in war; where the event is fo uncertain. All human life, especially before the inftitution of order and good government, * Lib. vi being fubject to fortuitous accidents; it is natural, that fuperftition fhould prevail every where in barbarous ages, and put men on the most earnest enquiry concerning those invifible powers, who difpofe of their happiness or mifery. Ignorant of astronomy and the anatomy of plants and animals, and too little curious to observe the admirable adjustment of final causes, they remain still unacquainted with a first and fupreme Creator, and with that infinitely perfect fpirit, who alone, by his almighty will, beftowed order on the whole frame of nature. Such a magnificent idea is too big for their narrow conceptions, which can neither obferve the beauty of the work, nor comprehend the grandeur of its author. They fuppofe their deities, however potent and invifible, to be nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps raifed from among mankind, and retaining all human paffions and appetites, together with corporeal limbs and organs. Such limited beings, though mafters of human fate, being, each of them, incapable of extending his influence every where, must be vastly multiplied, in order to anfwer that variety of events which happen over the whole face of nature. Thus every place is ftored with a crowd of local deities; and thus polytheifm has prevailed, and still prevails, among the greatest part of uninftructed mankind*. Any of the human affections may lead us into the notion of invifible, intelligent power; hope as well as fear, gratitude as well as affliction: But if we examine our own hearts, or obferve what paffes around The following lines of EURIPIDES are so much to the prefent purpose, that I cannot forbear quoting them: Ουκ εσιν υδεν πιςον, ντ ενδεξια, Ουτ' αν καλώς πρασσονία μη πράξειν κακώς. Σεβωμεν αυτής. HECUBA. "There is nothing fecure in the world; no glory, no profperity. The gods "tofs all life into confufion; mix every thing with its reverfe; that all of us, "from our ignorance and uncertainty, may pay them the more worship and reverence.' us, we fhall find, that men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable paffions. Profperity is eafily received as our due, and few queftions are afked concerning its cause or author. It begets cheerfulness and activity and alacrity, and a lively enjoyment of every focial and fenfual pleasure: And during the state of mind, men have little leifure or inclination to think of the unknown invisible regions. On the other hand, every difaftrous accident alarms us, and fets us on enquiries concerning the principles whence it arofe: Apprehenfions fpring up with regard to futurity: And the mind, funk into diffidence, terror, and melancholy, has recourse to every method of appeafing those secret intelligent powers, on whom our fortune is fuppofed entirely to depend. No topic is more ufual with all popular divines than to display the advantages of affliction, in bringing men to a due fenfe of religion; by fubduing their confidence and fenfuality, which, in times of profperity, make them forgetful of a divine providence. Nor is this topic confined merely to modern religions. The ancients have alfo employed it. Fortune has never liberally, without envy, fays a GREEK hiftorian*, bestowed an unmixed happiness on mankind; but with all her gifts has ever conjoined fome difaftrous circumftance, in order to chaftife men into a reverence for the gods, whom, in a continued courfe of profperity, they are apt to neglect and forget. What age or period of life is the most addicted to fuperftition? The weakest and moft timid. What fex? The fame answer must be given. The leaders and examples of every kind of fuperftition, fays STRABot, are the women. Thefe excite the men to devotion and fupplications, and the obfervance of religious days. It is rare to meet with one that lives apart from the females, and yet is addicted to fuch practices. And nothing can, for this reafon, be more improbable, than DIOD. SIC. lib. iii. + Lib. vii. the |