thoughts and affections prone to earth, either confume their lives in puny policies, or flay their fellow creatures, or perish themselves, in the infatiable pur fuit of gain. 'Tis to the few elect in wisdom and in virtue, that I addrefs myself, to admire with me the immenfity of the univerfe, with the established order of it; the boundless abyfs in which it floats its buoyant, its felf-fufpended course; the omnipotent intelligence which refpires throughout; and that eternity, of which a moment only is accorded to us tranfitory, and detached individuals, who vegetate, who feel, and think. Here ends the tranflation. The The author of the above metaphysi-: cal reflections, begins his philofophy, in general terms, after the fame manner that Pope does, in his Univerfal Prayer. "Father of all, in every age, "By faint, by favage, or by fage, • Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!" And as our poet was a good catholic, I fuppofe the little tract I have here quoted, to be fo far orthodox; but as to the eternity of matter, and perpetual harmony of the fpheres, I leave thofe points to be difcuffed by better theolo-. gians, than I pretend to be. · And And indeed I think it, but a becom ing duty and fubmiffion to the authority of our church, to fufpend our opinions, for the present, in all matters of a theological nature, 'till the house of convocation fhall have reconfidered the thirty nine articles, which I hear they have now in contemplation; that we may know what we are to believe, for the future. But to be serious again, I think that an Atheist must want a relish for the fine arts, and a tafte for all the fciences For my own part were I an unbeliever, I would read nothing but ballads and novels, for the rest of my life; and Noble's circulating library fhould be my only study for any thing higher would be be only time thrown away; as all *moral, manners, or fentiment, which terminated (as in fuch a fuppofition they must do) in themselves, would be like acting a hero on the ftage, withreference to real life. out any CHAP. LVIII. CONFIDENCE. WH HAT are you going to do? faid a friend, upon feeing me about to turn a beef-fteak on my plate, at his houfe in the country. I want to fee how it looks, on the other fide, faid I. You may take it for granted, he replied, that cooks, like the rest of the world, take care to turn the best VOL. II. P fide fide outward; and fuch a piece of curiofity may fometimes be the occafion of lofing you your ftomach, or your dinner-" But one would not chufe to "fwallow the peck of dirt, all at once." You reafon right, if you were in a Cook's Shop; but please to take notice, that there is no other meat in the house, than what you fee now on the table; and believe me that the meal will do you more good, than a little dirt, if there fhould be any, can do harm. you There are more Golden Rules, than one; and this I take to be among the richeft of them. Try, turn, and exa mine your companions and mistreffes, while you are yet in the Cook's Shop, before |