receive the retribution he has designed to men according to their doings in this life.― Locke, vol. ii. 332.

Il n'y a point, et jamais il n'y a eu de nation persuadée que tout finit à la mort. Aucune n'a reçu des legislateurs la Croyance d'une autre vie: les legislateurs l'ont trouvée partout, les uns n'ont parlé de cette doctrine, parce qu'elle etoit suffisamment établie; Les autres en ont parlé, non pour la prouver; ce qui n'etoit nullement necessaire: mais pour la détailler et pour en faire les consequences. La persuasion de l'immortalité de l'ame, aussi bien que celle de l'existence de Dieu est le dogme du genre humain et la foi de la nature. L'Erreur contraire est ou le délire d'un philosophe, qui veut se singulariser, ou le souhait interessé d'un homme vicieux et corrompu.-Dela Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 236,

in note.

Quella man: quel volto

Quelli fragili membra, onde vai cinto,
Son queste-

Solo una vesta tua. Quel che le avviva
Puro Raggio immortal, che non ha parti
E sciaglier non si puó, che vuol, che intende,
Che ramenta, che pensa, &c.

Che non perde con gli anni, il suo vigore
Quello non muore.

Metastasio. Dream of Scipio.

Gutta cœlestis ;

Effusa sum in terram;

Fonti me restitue,

Unde sum effusa

Profuga vagans.

Apud Synesium, Hym. cxi.

The thought "that our existence terminates with this life," doth naturally check the soul in any generous pursuit, contracts her views, and fixes them on temporary and selfish ends. It dethrones the reason, extinguishes all noble and heroic sentiments, and subjects the mind to the slavery of every present passion.-Berkley.

It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well;
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink with years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Addison's Cato.

CERTAINTY AND DOUBTS.

These points being known, ignorance of other points or doubts affect not the certainty of reasoning. The consciousness of knowing little, need not beget a distrust of that which we do know.-Paley.

Sed tamen, ut maneamus, in perspicuis firmius et constantius, majore quâdam opus est vel arte vel diligentiâ, ne ab iis quæ clara sint ipsa persese, quasi præstigiis quibusdam et captionibus, depellamur.-Cic.

As nothing is more laudable than an enquiry after truth, so nothing is more irrational than to pass away our lives without determining ourselves one way or other in those points which are of the last importance to us. There are, indeed, many things from which we may withhold our assent; but, in cases by which we are to regulate our lives, it is the greatest absurdity to be wavering and unsettled, without closing with that side which appears the most safe and the most probable. When, therefore, by reading or discourse, we find ourselves thoroughly convinced of the truth of any article, and of the reasonableness of our belief in it, we

should never after suffer ourselves to call it in question. We may, perhaps, forget the arguments which occasioned our conviction, but we ought to remember the strength they had with us, and therefore still to retain the conviction they once produced. This is no more than what we do in every common art and science; nor is it possible to act otherwise, considering the weakness and limitation of our intellectual faculties. It is in this manner, that the mathematician proceeds upon propositions which he has once demonstrated; and, though the demonstration may have slipped out of his memory, he builds upon the truth, because he knows it was demonstrated. This rule is absolutely necessary for weaker minds, and in some measure for men of the greatest abilities; but even these last should lay up in their memories, and always keep by them in readiness those arguments which appear to them of the greatest strength, and which cannot be got over by all the doubts and cavils of infidelity.-Addison, No. 465, Spec. Sparsim.

As we know by experience that, in several things which in respect of us are invested with the highest degree of certainty, there are many difficulties notwithstanding which we are incapable of resolving to our satisfaction in consequence of the limits of the mind; it should be a

rule, that when a truth is sufficiently evinced by solid reasons, whatever can be objected against it, ought not to stagger or weaken our conviction as long as they are such difficulties only as embarrass or puzzle the mind, without invalidating the proofs themselves. Since there is a wide difference between seeing a thing is absurd, and not knowing all that regards it; between an unanswerable question in relation to a truth, and an unanswerable objection against it.Burlemac.

It is an old and true distinction, that things may be above our reason without being contrary to it. Of this kind are the power, the nature, and the universal presence of God, with innumerable other points.-Swift.

MORAL CERTAINTY.

We may own that, because of the infinite variety of circumstances, we can hardly come to a final décision in our examination of all particular cases; yet that does not at all shake our moral certainty, or lessen the use of it; for the impossibility of doing any thing without us, either by the use of our senses, or with the help of instruments, as to make a line perfectly right, a single surface exactly round or plain, a single body completely regular, such an impossibility