where proscribed, and the religion of nature, once more become the religion of Europe; what advantage will you have derived to your country, or to yourselves from the exchange? I know your answer, you will have freed the world from the hypocrisy of priests, andthe tyranny of superftion. No; you forget that Lycurgus, and Numa, and Odin, and Mango-Capac, and all the great legislators of ancient and modern story, have been of opinion,that the affairs of civil society, could not well be conducted, without some religion; you must of neceffity introduce a priesthood, with probably as much hypocrisy; a religion, with affuredly more superftition, than that which you now reprobate with such indecent and illgrounded contempt, But, I will tell you, from what you will have freed the world; you will have freed it from its abhorrence of vice, and from every powerful incentive to virtue; you will, with the religion, have brought back the deprayed morality of Paganism; you will have robbed mankind of their firm assurance of another life; and thereby, you will have despoiled them of their patience, of their humility, of their charity, of their chastity, of all those mild and filent virtues, which, however despicable they may appear in your eyes, are the only ones which meliorate and sublime our nature; which Pagan

ism never knew, which spring from Chriftianity alone, which do, or might conftitute our comfort in this life, and without the possession of which, another life, if after all there fhould happen to be one, must, (unless a miracle be exerted in the alteration of our disposition,) be more miserable, and more mischievous than this is.*

Perhaps it may be contended, that the universal light of reason, the truth and fitness of things, are of themselves sufficient to exalt the nature, and to regulate the manners of mankind. The philosophers of Greece and Rome, undoubtedly present us with the most convincing proof, how far unenlightened reason can carry her investigations towards the perfection of ethics. The powers of intellect which they displayed, and the obstacles they surmounted in discovering these valuable truths, are I own not equitably estimated, when rigidly viewed through the medium of the Chriftian revelation. I confess too, that their attainments ought be compared alone with the ignorance of the multitudes that surrounded, and preceded them. Then muft they appear, what they indisputably were, VOL. V. A a wonder

Letters to Gibbon.

wonderful efforts of the human mind.

Then will they become the bright dawn of the intellectual morning, which shone more and more unto the perfect day*. But, how diftinctly visible, at the same time, were many of their moral ine capacities and defects, even to some among themselves. Aristodemus declared to Socrates, he would willingly worship the gods, whenever their ambassadors descended to inform him what to perform, and what to avoid. The enlight ened Socrates himself observed, on contemplating the insufficiency of natural reason to reform the world, that the labors of moralists must be vain and ineffectual, unless the Supreme Being should commission some teacher to instruct mankind. The great Roman orator, also, expressed an ardent wish for the discovery of a new de monstration to prove, that virtue alone was suf ficient for happiness. This general dissatisfaction, then, this universal uncertainty, clearly evinces the necessity of a divine revelation, and may be considered as the voice of philosophy complaining of her own deficiencies, and implor ing the Supreme Being, to point out the path of duty to her impatient and bewildered followers.

The groundless and mistaken commendation of natural law is, however, eternally and fondly dwelt úpon. But, look into the first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and you will see the extent of its influence over the Gentiles of those days; or if you dislike St. Paul's authority, and the manners of scriptural antiquity, look into the more admired accounts of modern voyages; and examine its influence over the Pagans of our own times; over the sensual inhabitants of Otaheite for instance, over the Cannibals of New Zealand, or the remorseless savages of America. "But, these men are Barbarians." The laws of nature, notwithstanding extends to them. "But, they have misused their reason." They have then the more need of, and would be the more thankful for that revelation, which, with a thoughtless and faftidious self-sufficiency, is deemed ufeless. But, it may be said, these are not the facts which ought to be taken; that the civilized states of China, Japan, India, and Persia, are those alone which should be referred to. Let them be taken; and with them joined also all the nations which flourished in learning and in arts, before Christianity was ever heard of in the world. Let Egypt, let Greece, let Rome be added; shall we find the ground stronger, or the argument in reality the more valid?

LETTER LXXXVIII.

PHILOSOPHERS incessantly cry out, extricate yourselves from prejudice; shake off the restraints, religion has imposed upon you; and wholly, and implicitly, be guided by nature. But, what is this nature? And what am I to understand by the words natural reason, natural evidence, natural and essential order, moral sense, and internal natural sentiment? Especially when I look to what the high prieft of infidelity himself, Bayle says, in a moment of extreme condescension? La raison, est une principe de destruction, & non d'edification. Elle n'eft propre qu'à former des doutes à droite, & a gauche, pour éterniser les disputes, à faire connoître a l'homme ses ténébres & son impuissance, & la necessité d'une autre revelation, qui est celle des ecritures.

We

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