NOTES ON BOOK III. IT P. 10. [A]. T may not be improper, on this occasion, to present the Reader with an extract from a Letter of the late President MONTESQUIEU to the Author, who had given him some account of Lord Bolingbroke's Posthumous Works, just then on the point of publication-" J'ay lu quelques ouvrages de My Lord Bolingbroke—Or, Monsieur, dans cet ouvrage posthume, dont vous me donnes une idée, il me semble qu'il vous prepare une matiere "continuelle de triomphe. Celui qui attaque la 33 Religion revelée n'attaque que la Religion revelée; "mais celui qui attaque la Religion naturelle attaque "toutes les Religions du monde. Si l'on enseigne aux hommes qu'ils n'ont pas ce frein ci, ils peuvent penser qu'ils en ont un autre: Mais il est bien plus pernicieux de leur enseigner qu'ils n'en ont pas du tout. Il n'est pas impossible d'attaquer une Religion revelée, parce qu'elle existe par des faits particuliers, et que les faits, par leur nature, peuvent être une matiere de dispute: mais il n'en 66 86 66 est pas de même de la Religion naturelle; elle est "tirée de la nature de l'homme, dont on ne peut pas disputer, et du sentiment interieur de l'homme, "dont on ne peut pas disputer encore. J'ajoute à σε 66 ceci, Quel peut être le motif d'attaquer la Reli gion revelée en Angleterre ? on l'y a tellement purgé de tout prejugé destructeur qu'elle n'y peut "faire de mal, et qu'elle y peut faire, au contraire, une infinité de biens. Je sais, qu'un homme en Espagne ou en Portugal que l'on va bruler, ou qui craint d'être brulé, parce qu'il ne croit point "de certains articles dependans ou non de la Re 66 66 66 ligion revelée, a une juste sujet de l'attaquer, parce qu'il peut avoir quelque esperance de pourvoir à sa defence naturelle: Mais il n'en est pas de même en Angleterre, où tout homme qui attaque la Religion revelée l'attaque sans interest, "et où cet homme quand il reussiroit, quand même "il il auroit raison dans le fond, ne feroit que detruire 66 une infinité de biens pratiques pour établir une "verité purement speculative. J'ay eté ravi, &c. "A Paris, ce 26 May, 1754.” MONTESQUIEU." P. 10. [B] Strabo's words are-Kai ¢ées, i ἀπειλάς, ἢ διὰ λόγων, ἢ διὰ τύπων αώρων, "Fears and threatenings either by words or dreadful forms." Casaubon, who corrected the last word very justly, has given us no explanation of the allusion in this obscure sentence. I am persuaded, the author had in his mind the dreadful words spoken, and the representations representations exhibited in the Mysteries, for the very purpose the author here mentions: so άTTEIλa's refers to λόγων, and φόβες to τύπων αώρων. The reader, who remembers what has been said in the section of the Mysteries, in the foregoing book, concerning this matter, will be inclined to believe this to be the true explanation.. P. 17. [C] And, without doubt, this was amongst the reasons for his declining, throughout the whole course of his life, the study and the teaching of physics, or natural philosophy, which had a direct tendency to shake and overturn one half of the national religion, namely the worship of, what were called, the celestial Gods, or Host of Heaven. P. 18. [D] We have, indeed, been told, that, to his Cock he might have added a Bull; for that the Philosopher was now in a delirium, occasioned by the cicuta, to which, Scribonius Largus attributes this effect. But I apprehend, the eminent persons who then attended the last moments of the expiring Philosopher (and must have been well apprised of the nature of a draught, whose legal application to criminals of state had made its effects familiar to every one) would have been the first to observe this symptom, if, indeed, the drug had any such property. Whereas they speak of Socrates as perfectly in his senses when he made this request; and I think They are rather to be relied on who understood AA3 understood what related both to the sacrifice and the drug, than They who know so little of either; especially as we find this.rite was exactly suitable to the foregoing declaration of CONFORMITY, in his defence before his judges. P. 21. [E] Duplex enim erat doctrinæ genus apud antiquas gentes, δημώδες και απόῤῥητον, doctrina vulgaris & doctrina arcana: idque non tantum ob diversitatem materiæ, sed eandem sæpe materiam duplici modo tractabant, populari & philosophica. Archæol. Phil. I. i. c. 8.-See this matter explained at large by the very learned author of the Critical Inquiry into the Opinions and Practice of the ancient Philosophers, &c. 2d edit. chap. xi. xii. & xiii. P. 21. [F] The author of the philosophical piece commonly ascribed to Origen, says, That "he sometimes complied with the popular opinion, "and declared that the universe would be one day 66 destroyed. Καὶ Παρμενίδης ἓν μὲν τὸ πᾶν ὑποτίθεται, “ ΑΙΔΙΟΝΤΕ, καὶ ἀγέννητον, καὶ σφαιροειδὲς ἐδ ̓ αὐτὸς “ ΕΚΦΕΥΓΩΝ ΤΗΝ ΤΩΝ πολλῶν ΔΟΞΑΝ, πρ λέγων καὶ γῆν ΤΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΑΡΧΑΣ, τὴν μὲν γῆν, ὡς ὕλην· τὸ δὲ πῦρ, ὡς αἴτιον, καὶ ποιν “ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΕΙΠΕ ΦΘΕΙΡΕΣΘΑΙ. It appears "too from this passage that he spoke popularly, "when he said that the world was made, or had σε a beginning; and that this doctrine was merely popular, may be seen too from the following ❝ words "words of Themistius. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ Παρμενίδης 4· ἐν τοῖς πρὸς δόξαν, τὸ θερμὸν ποιεῖ καὶ τὸ ψυχράν ἀρχὰς, ὧν τὸ μὲν πῦρ, τὸ δὲ γῆν προσαγορεύει. It is "then evident from these passages that, in his "exoterics, he gave the world both a beginning “and an end. But then in his other writings he "denied that it had either. I need not quote "Cicero, Plutarch, or Eusebius, to prove this; "the following verses of his own are sufficient for my present purpose: 66 Αὐτὰρ ἀκίνητον μεγάλων ἐν πείρασι δεσμῶν “ Εσιν ΑΝΑΡΧΟΝ, ΑΠΑΥΣΤΟΝ, ἐπεὶ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΣ καὶ “ ΟΛΕΘΡΟΣ 66 Τῇδε μαλ ̓ ἐπλάχθησαν, ἄπωσε δὲ πίςις ἀληθής. See the Critical Inquiry into the Opinions and Practice of the ancient Philosophers, p. 225. 2d edit. P. 29. [G] One of the Answerers of The Divine Legation says, "What a noble field would have "been here opened for the FATHERS, could they "have charged the Pagan sages and philosophers "with the dissimulation which Mr. W. has here "done! Could they have loaded them with the "crime of believing one thing and teaching another, "with LYING, with imposing on the credulity of "the people; what a display of rhetoric should we "have had! Could there have been a more fit "occasion for satire or declamation?-BUT THEY NEVER REPROACH THEM ON THAT ACCOUNT." Dr. Sykes's པ A A 4 |