"souls rather than a lover of them; a cruel vindictive tyrant, "an impotent or a wrathful dæmon, rather than an all-power"ful beneficent Father of spirits: Yet all this is a mystery. "He has secret reasons for his conduct that are impenetrable; "and though he appears unjust and barbarous, yet we must "believe the contrary, because what is injustice, crime, cru"elty, and the blackest malice in us, is in him justice, mercy, "and sovereign goodness." Thus the incredulous free'thinkers, the judaizing Christians, and the fantalistic doctors, have disfigured and dishonoured the sublime mysteries of our holy faith; thus they have confounded the nature of good ' and evil; transformed the most monstrous passions into divine attributes, and surpassed the pagans in blasphemy, by ascribing to the Eternal Nature, as perfections, what makes the most horrid crimes amongst men. The grosser pagans ⚫ contented themselves with divinizing lust, incest, and adultery; but the predestinarian doctors have divinized cruelty, wrath, fury, vengeance, and all the blackest vices.' See the Chevalier Ramsay's philosophical principles of natural and revealed religion, Part II. p. 401.

The same author asserts, in other places, that the Arminian and Molinist schemes serve very little to mend the matter: And having thus thrown himself out of all received sects of Christianity, he is obliged to advance a system of his own, which is a kind of Origenism, aad supposes the pre-existence of the souls both of men and beasts, and the eternal salvation and conversion of all men, beasts, and devils. But this notion, being quite peculiar to himself, we need not treat of. I thought the opinions of this ingenious author very curious; but I pretend not to warrant the justness of them.

INDEX.

*The NUMERAL LETTERS refer to the Volume, and the
FIGURES to the Page.

A

A BASEMENT, not the natural consequence of polytheism, ii. 422.
Abstraction, what, ii. 467, Note (P.)

Absurdity, not always the greatest in polytheism, ii. 424.
greedily coveted by popular religions, ii. 425.
Acheans, employed force in forming their league, i. 452.
their number, i. 423.

Addison quoted, i. 83, 188. ii. 176.

schines quoted, i. 321, 419.

Æschines Socraticus quoted, ii. 357.

Etolians, their number, i. 423.

Agathocles, the tyrant, his cruelty, i. 401, 530, Note (CC.)
Agreeableness, a source of merit, ii. 286.

to ourselves, ibid. &c.

to others, ii. 297, &c.

Agriculture, how best encouraged, i. 256, 257, 410.

Alcoran, its ethics, i. 223.

Alexander the impostor of Lucian, his artifice, ii. 120.

Alexander the Great, his saying to Parmenio, ii. 288.
his toleration, ii. 421.

his emulation of Bacchus, ii. 423.

Alexandria, its size and number of its inhabitants, i. 427.

Allegiance, its obligation, whence, i. 460. ii. 242.

Allegory has naturally place in polytheism, ii. 404.

Anacreon quoted, ii. 372.

Analogies, and sometimes slight, have influence in jurisprudence, ii. 254,

346.

Anaxagoras, the first theist, and the first accused of atheism, ii, 486
Note (ZZ.)

Ancillarioli, what, ii. 496, Note (XX.)

Angels, modern, equivalent to the deities of the philosophers, ii. 402.
Animals, their reason, ii. 105, &c.

Antioch, its size, i. 427.

Antipater, the Cyreniac, his saying, i. 172.

Appian Alexandrinus quoted, i. 322, 369, 389, 394, 398, 400, 404, 415,
438. ii. 364.

Arnobius quoted, ii. 400, 407.

Ariosto, his character, i. 226, quoted, 84.

Aristides the sophist quoted. i. 534, Note (KK.)

Aristocracy, Polish, Venetian, in what respects different, i. 14, 15.
Aristophanes not impious according to the ideas of antiquity, ii. 399.
quoted, i. 384.

Aristotle quoted, i. 208, 384, 421, 430, ü. 354, 486, Note (YY.)
Armstrong, Dr, quoted, ii. 353.

Arrian quoted, i. 124, 346, 407. ii. 421, 424.

Atheism, whether possible, ii. 150.

Athenæus quoted, i. 418, 419, 421.

Athens, i. 89, 253, 321, 403, 417, 418, 420, 451.

Athenians, on what they chiefly valued themselves, ii. 295.

Athenian man of merit, ii. 359, &c.

Augustine (Saint) his dogmatism, ii. 432.

Augustus, his impiety mixed with superstition, ii. 400.
his superstition, ii. 433.

his age compared with that of Camillus, i. 254.

Aunoy, Madame, quoted, i. 183.

Aurelius, Marcus, his theism, ii. 404, his superstition, 436.

Austria, house of, causes of its decay, i. 356.

Authority of teachers useful, i. 115.

B

BACON, quoted, i. 50, 85, 204, 262, ii. 130, 255, 410.

Balance of power, i. 30, 531, &c.—Of trade, i. 307, &c.—Of property,

i. 30, 42.

Banks and paper-credit, whether advantageous, i. 281, 317.

Barbarity, an attribute of the Deity in popular religions, ii. 465.

Bartoli's plans of ancient buildings, i. 425.

Bayle, quoted, ii. 423, 466.

Beauty, why the object of pride, ii. 180.

Belief, what, ii. 49, & c.

Bellarmine, Cardinal, his saying, ii. 423.

Benevolence, i. 79. disinterested zeal, ii. 233, &c. its kinds, 334, a vir-

tue, 214. from its utility, 217. from its agreeableness, 293.

Berkeley, Dr, a real sceptic, ii. 466, Note (N.) quoted, i. 204.

Berne, canton of, its treasure, i. 322.

Bentivoglio quoted, i. 205.

Boccace quoted, i. 174.

Boileau quoted, ii. 289.

Bolingbroke quoted, i. 24, 40.

Boulanvilliers quoted, i. 543. ii. 413,
Brasidas, his saying, ii. 423.

Brumoy, Pere, quoted, ii. 399.

C

CASAR quoted, i. 394, 437, 438, 520, Note (K.) ii. 399, 408.

his account of the number slaughtered in his wars, i. 532, Note
(FF.)

Cambyses, his extravagance, ii. 427.

Capitolinus quoted, i. 484.

Caprice, an attribute of the Deity in popular religions, ii. 432.

Carlisle, Earl, of, quoted, i. 26.

Cartes, Des, quoted, i. 239. ii. 456, Note (D.)

Carthage, its size and number of its inhabitants, i. 430.

Carthaginians, their human sacrifices, ii. 487, Note (BBB.)

Catholics, Roman, genius of their religion, i. 72.

led into absurdities, ii. 428.

Cato de Re Rustica, quoted, i. 387.

Cato of Utica, his speech to Cæsar, i. 269.

Cause and effect, its ideas, whence, ii. 24, &c. Its definition, 77, 459,
Note (G.)

Causes, moral, how far they contribute to national characters, i. 194.

physical, how far, i. 203.

Causation, a reason of association, ii. 22, 51, &c.

Cavalier party, i. 63.

Cervantes, his merit, i. 188, quoted, 230.

Chance, what, ii. 57. Its influence in society, 111.

Characters, national, i. 195, &c.

Charles XII. of Sweden, his character, ii. 295.

Chastity, its merit, whence, ii. 244.

Cheerfulness, its merit, whence, ii. 286.

China, its excellence and defects, i. 115.

Christian religion founded in faith, not in reason, ii. 131.

Cicero quoted, i. 17, 87, 94, 98, 171, 341, 580, 400, 408, 417, 420, 439,

522, Note (0.) ii. 52, 215, 218, 354, 373, 431.

City, reasons which limit the greatness of every city, i. 430.

Cleanliness, its merit, whence, ii. 303.

Clergy, why no friends to liberty, i. 59.

Cold, greater in ancient times, i. 431, 432.

Colonesi and Orsini, parties in modern Rome, i. 51.

Columella quoted, i. 305, 383, 388, 389, 434, 489, 525, Note (T.)

Comitia centuriata et tributa, their different powers, i. 367.

Commerce, its advantages, i. 252. Foreign, its advantages, 259, 260,

Commonwealth, perfect idea of it, i. 492.

Companionable qualities, ii. 298, &c.

Comparison, its effect, i. 74. necessary to forming the taste, 234.
Compte, Pere le, quoted, ii. 398.

Condé, Prince of, a saying of his, i. 113,

Confucius, his disciples deists, i. 71.

Congreve, his character, i. 190.

Conjunction frequent, constant, the only circumstance from which we
know cause and effect, ii. 70, 77, &c.

Connection, necessary, our idea of it, ii. 60, &c.

Constantine, Emperor, his innovation, i. 343.

Constitution, British, i. 24, 47, &c.

Contiguity, a reason of association, ii. 20, 49.

Contract, original, i. 442, &c.

Conventions, whether the source of justice, ii. 344, &c.

Conviction, strongest, but not more general, in theism, ii, 427, 428.

Corn distributed in Rome, i. 425, 426.

Corneille, his character, i. 190.

Corpus juris civilis quoted, i. 585, 527, Note (Y.)

Courage, how far national, i. 206.

its merit, whence, ii. 290.

Country party, i. 26, 59, 66.

Court party, ibid.

Creation or formation of the world enters not into the primitive religion,
i. 465.

Credit, public, its abuses, i. 246, 347, &c.

Curtius, Quintus, quoted, i. 206, 346, 558, Note (NN.) ii. 400, 407.
Custom or habit the source of experimental reasoning, ii. 46.

the great guide of life, ii. 44.

Customs, some remarkable ones, i. 363, &c.

Cyrus boasts of his drunkenness, i. 208.

D

Darius Hystaspes records his ability in drinking on his tomb-stone, i. 209.
Datames, the only barbarian, a general, i. 271.

Decency, its merit, whence, ii. 303.

Debt, public, its advantages, i. 349.

its disadvantages, i. 350, 351.
Deists united with the independents, i. 72.

Delicacy of passion, how hurtful, i. 3, &c.

of taste, how advantageous, i. 3, 4, 5, what it is, 229, whence its
merit, ii. 296.

Democracy, without a representative, hurtful, i. 15, 14.

Demosthenes, his character, i. 99, quoted, 99, 321, 332, 364, S66, 380,
384, 394, 408, 420, 530, Note (CC.) 535, Note (HH.)

Desire, aversion, ii. 184.

Diodorus Siculus, his character, i. 532, Note (EE.)

superstitious, yet not a theist, ii. 401.

quoted, i. 207, 254, 321, $33, 395, 396, 399, 401,

402, 404, 406, 407. 409, 413, 416, 418, 422, 425, 427, 482, 437,
443, 511, Note (A.) 514, Note (D.) 540, Note (QQ.) ii. 218, 396,
599, 400, 446, 447.