enquire no farther: a term that is not familiar, makes an impreffion, and captivates weak reafon. This obfervation accounts for a mode of writing formerly in common ufe, that of stuffing our language with Latin words and phrafes. Thefe are now laid afide as useless; because a proper emphasis in reading, makes an impreffion deeper than any foreign term can do.

There is one proof of the imbecillity of human reason in dark times, which would scarce be believ ed, were not the fact fuported by incontestable evidence. Instead of explaining any natural appear ance by searching for a caufe, it has been common to account for it by inventing a fable, which gave fatisfaction without enquiring farther. For example, inftead of giving the true caufe of the fucceffion of day and night the facred book of the Scandinavians, termed Edda, accounts for that fucceffion by a tale : "The giant Nor had a daughter named Night, of a "dark complexion. She was wedded to Daglin"gar, of the family of the gods. They had a male "child, which they named Day, beautiful and fhin"ing like all of his father's family. The univerfal "father took Night and Day, placed them in hea"ven, and gave to each a horfe and a car, that

they might travel round the world, the one after "the other. Night goes first upon her horse named "Rimfaxe, [Frofty Mane], who moiftens the earth "with the foam that drops from his bit, which is "the dew, The horfe belonging to Day is named

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Skinfaxe, [Shining Mane], who by his radiant "mane illuminates the air and the earth." It is obferved by the tranflator of the Edda, that this way of accounting for things is well fuited to the turn of the human mind, endowed with curiofity that is keen; but eafily fatisfied, often with words instead of ideas. Zoroafter, by a fimilar fable accounts for the growth of evil in this world. He invents a good and an evil principle named Oromazes and Arimanes,

who are in continual conflict for preference. At the last day, Oromazes will be reunited to the fupreme God, from whom he iffued. Arimanes will be fubdued, darkness destroyed; and the world, purified by an univerfal conflagration, will become a luminous and fhining abode, from which evil will be excluded. I return to the Edda, which is ftored with fables of this kind. The highest notion the favages can form of the gods, is that of men endowed with extraordinary power and knowledge. The only puzzling circumstance is, how they differ fo much from other men as to be immortal. The Edda accounts for it by the following fable. "The gods prevented the "effect of old age and decay, by eating certain "apples, trusted to the care of Iduna. Loke, the "Momus of the Scandinavians, craftily conveyed away Iduna, and concealed her in a wood, "under the custody of a giant. The gods, beginning to wax old and gray, detected the au"thor of the theft; and, by terrible menaces, "compelled him to employ his utmoft cunning, "for regaining Iduna and her apples, in which he CC was fuccefsful." The origin of poetry is thus accounted for in the fame work: "The gods "formed Cuafer, who traverfed the earth, teaching "wisdom to men. He was treacherously flain "by two dwarfs, who mixed honey with his "blood, and compofed a liquor that renders all "who drink of it poets. Thefe dwarfs having "incurred the refentment of a certain giant, were

exposed by him upon a rock, furrounded on "all fides with the fea. They gave for their ran"fom the faid liquor, which the giant delivered

to his daughter Gunloda. The precious po"tion was eagerly fought for by the gods; but "how were they to come at it? Odin, in the "fhape of a worm, crept through a crevive in

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"to the cavern where the liquor was concealed. "Then refuming his natural fhape, and obtaining "Gunioda's confent to take three draughts, he "fucked up the whole; and transforming himfelf into an eagle, flew away to Afgard."The giant, who was a magician, flew with "all speed after Odin, and came up with him "near the gate of Afgard. The gods iffued out "of their palaces to aflift their mafter; and pre"fented to him all the pitchers they could lay "hands on, which he inftantly filled with the "precious liquor. But in the hurry of discharging his load, Odin poured only part of the liquor through his beak, the reft being emitted through a lefs pure vent. The former is be"ftowed liberally on all who apply for it; by "which means the world is peftered with an "endless quantity of wretched verfes." Ignorance is equally credulous in all ages. Albert, furnamed the Great, flourished in the thirteenth century, and was a man of real knowledge.During the courfe of his education he was remarkably dull; and fome years before he died became a fort of changeling. That fingularity produced the following ftory. The holy Virgin, appearing to him, demanded, whether he would excel in philofophy or in theology: upon his chufing the former, fhe promifed, that he fhould become an incomparable philofopher; but added, that to punish him for not preferring theology, he fhould become ftupid again as at first.

Upon a flight view, it may appear unaccountable, that even the groffeft favages fhould take a childifh tale for a folid reafon. But nature aids the deception where things are related in a lively manner, and every circumftance appears as paffing in our fight, we take all for granted as true (a). Can an ignorant ruftic doubt of infpiration,

(a) Elements of Criticism, vol. 1. p. 100, edit. 5,

ration, when he fees as it were the poet fipping the pure celestial liquor? And how can that poet fail to produce bad verfes, who feeds on the excrements that drop from the fundament even of a deity?

In accounting for natural appearances, even good writers have betrayed a weakness in rea-. foning, little inferior to that above-mentioned. They do not indeed put off their difciples with a tale; but they put them off with a mere fuppofition, not more real than the tale. Descartes afcribes the motion of the planets to a vortex of ether whirling round and round. He thought. not of enquiring whether there really be fuch a vortex, nor what makes it move. M. Buffon forms the earth out of a splinter of the fun, ftruck off by a comet. May not one be permitted humbly to enquire of that eminent philofopher, what formed the comet? This paffes for folid reafoning; and yet we laugh at the poor Indian, who fupports the earth from falling by an elephant, and the elephant by a tortoife.

It is still more ridiculous to reafon upon what is acknowledged to be a fiction, as if it were real.Such are the fictions admitted in the Roman law. A Roman taken captive in war, loft his privilege of being a Roman citizen; for freedom was held effential to that privilege. But what if he made his escape after perhaps an hour's detention? The hardship in that cafe ought to have fuggested an alteration of the law, fo far as to fufpend the privilege no longer than the captivity fubfifted. But the ancient Romans were not fo ingenious, They remedied the hardship by a fiction, that the man never had been a captive. The Frederician code banishes from the law of Pruffia an endless number of fictions found in the Roman

law.

law (a). Yet afterward, treating of perfonal rights, it is laid down as a rule, That a child in the womb is feigned or fuppofed to be born when the fiction is for its advantage (b). To a weak reasoner, a fiction is a happy contrivance for refolving intricate queftions. Such is the constitution of England, that the English law-courts are merely territorial; and that no fact happening abroad comes under their cognifance. An Englishman, after murdering his fellowtraveller in France, returns to his native country. What is to be done? for guilt ought not to pass unpunished. The crime is feigned to have been cominitted in England.

Ancient histories are full of incredible facts that paffed current during the infancy of reafon, which at prefent would be rejected with contempt. Every one who is converfant in the history of ancient nations, can recall inftances without end. Does any perfon believe at prefent, though gravely reported by historians, that in old Rome there was a law, for cutting into pieces the body of a bankrupt, and diftributing the parts among his creditors? The ftory of Porfenna and Scevola is highly romantic; and the story of Vampires in Hungary, fhamefully abfurd. There is no reason to believe, there ever was fuch a ftate as that of the Amazons; and the story of Thaleftris and Alexander the Great is certainly a fiction. Scotch hiftorians defcribe gravely and circumftantially the battle of Luncarty, as if they had been eye-witneffes. A peafant and his two fons, it is faid, were ploughing in an adjacent field, during the heat of the action. Enraged at their countrymen for turning their backs, they broke the plough in pieces; and each laying hold of a part, rufhed into the midst of the battle, and obtained a complete victory over the Danes. This ftory has every mark of fiction: A man following unconcernedly his ordinary

(*) Preface, § 28.

(6) Part 1, book 1. title 4. § 4,