the Hindoos, their character is altogether different.

In war the Birmans possess complete intrepidity. About the middle of the late century, their country was overrun by a neighbouring people of similar manners; but it was found that nothing short of extermination could render the conquest permanent. They cast off the yoke, invaded in their turn the country of their conquerors, and subdued it; but before this object could be accomplished, they were under the necessity of almost completely depopulating the territory.

In ordinary business, also, the same vigour appears; their labourers are found equal in bodily strength and persevering industry to those of any other nation in the world. In the southern part, likewise, of the same eastern peninsula of India, the Malays, who are Mahometans, and among whom a feudal government is established, are known to be the most daring and intrepid of mankind.

It seems evident, therefore, that their superstition alone, together with the arrangements founded upon it, is the cause of the weakness of the character of the Hindoos; and that by operating upon them during several thousand years, it has at length been productive, not merely of intellectual, but of permanent corporeal imbecility. This appears to establish the important fact

in the natural history of man, that if his voluntary energies are greatly decreased in any one respect, they are apt to sustain a diminution in every other.

Thus superstition, when carried to an extreme, appears to be one of the most enfeebling sentiments which can acquire dominion over the human mind. In Europe, the Pope's soldiers were long proverbially contemptible. The ancient native government of Indostan is, in like manner, theocratic, or that of priests, and is equally weak. Even among the mountains of High Tartary, which have been called the nursery of nations, and from which a vigorous race has repeatedly issued to overwhelm the corrupted states of the south and the west, and to renovate the human species, a superstitious or priestly government exists in one quarter, Thibet, under a visible and mortal divinity, somewhat similar to the Roman pontiff, but with still higher pretensions. It is not a little singular, that the subjects of the Lama of Thibet are just as incapable of defending themselves as the subjects of our European Pope.

So far as devotion is a passion which impedes the perfect exercise of the faculties, it ought to be suppressed, and rational religion adopted in its stead.

Rational religion, as distinguished from morality in general, consists of four things: First,

of a knowledge of the existence and character of the Author of the universe; Secondly, of an acquaintance with the relation in which we are placed with regard to him; Thirdly, it consists of the practice of those duties of which he is more particularly the object; and, lastly, it consists of a correct discernment of the tendency of his works, or of the future destiny of man.-I proceed to the consideration of each of these branches of Religion, or, as it is called, of Theology.

CHAP. II.

OF THE EXISTENCE AND CHARACTER OF THE
DEITY.

THE rational belief of the existence of a Deity rests upon the following principle: There can be no change without a sufficient reason for its taking place; there can be no motion without a mover; no contrivance without a contriver; no building without a builder; no piece of mechanism without a mechanic; and no work of art without an artist. If a contrivance exhibit un

common ingenuity, the contriver must possess uncommon skill; and if a building be immensely great, the builder must have possessed immense power.

The structure of the universe at large, and of the various plants and animals that this world contains, exhibits so many instances of skilful contrivance and arrangement, that we cannot avoid acknowledging it to be a work of art. In a dialogue mentioned by Xenophon between Socrates and Aristodemus a sceptic, it is justly remarked by Socrates, that " it is evidently apparent, that he who at the beginning made man, endued him with senses, because they were good for him;-eyes, wherewith to be"hold whatever was visible, and ears to hear "whatever was to be heard, For say to what purpose should odours be prepared, if the

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sense of smelling had been denied? Or why "the distinctions of bitter and sweet, of savoury "and unsavoury, unless a palate had been like"wise given, conveniently placed, to arbitrate

between them, and declare the difference? Is 46 not that Providence in a most eminent man"ner conspicuous which because the eye of 46 man is so delicate in its contexture, hath "therefore prepared eyelids, like doors, whereby "to secure it, which extend themselves when"ever it is needful, and again close when sleep " approaches?—Are not these eyelids provided,

"as it were, with a fence on the edge of them,

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to keep off the wind, and guard the eye? "Even the eyebrow itself is not without its office, but, as a pent-house, is prepared to turn "off the sweat, which, falling from the forehead, "might enter and annoy that no less tender "than astonishing part of us. Is it not to be "admired, that the ears should take in sounds of

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every sort; and yet are not too much filled "with them?-That the fore-teeth of the animal "should be formed in such a manner as is evidently best suited for the cutting of its food, as those on the side for grinding it to pieces?— "That the mouth, through which this food is conveyed, should be placed so near the nose "and the eyes, as to prevent the passing unno"ticed whatever is unfit for nourishment; while "Nature, on the contrary, hath set at a distance, "and concealed from the senses, all that might "disgust or any way offend them? And canst “thou still doubt, Aristodemus, whether a dispo"sition of parts like this should be the work of "chance, or of wisdom and contrivance?"

Indeed, in every production of nature, so much art is displayed, that we are, as it were, compelled to confess that this universe has been contrived and arranged by Intelligence or Mind, and by a very skilful mind too. It is evident, however, that the objects of Nature could not contrive and arrange themselves.