the divers operations and relations of these, and that the whole of their pretended history, is nothing more than a description of their various phoenomena, drawn by the first naturalists who observed them, but taken in a contrary sense by the vulgar who did not understand it, or by succeeding generations who forgot it. In a word, it will be discovered, that all the theological notions respecting the origin of the world, the nature of God, the revelation of his laws, and the manifestation of his person, are merely recitals of astronomical facts, figurative and emblematical narratives of the motion and influence of the heavenly bodies and it will be thus convincingly seen, that the very idea of the Divinity, at present so obscure, abstracted, and metaphysical, was, according to its primitive model, merely that of the powers of the material universe, considered sometimes analytically, as they appear in their agents and their phoenomena, and sometimes synthetically, as forming one whole, and exhibiting an harmonious relation in all its parts: and this investigation will shew, that the name God has been bestowed sometimes upon the wind, fire, water, and the whole of the elements; sometimes upon the sun, the stars, the planets, and their influences; sometimes upon the universe at large, or the component mass of visible nature; sometimes upon abstract and metaphysical qualities, such as space, duration, motion, and intelligence, and altogether with this result, that the idea of a Deity has not originated from the miraculous revelation of invisible beings, but has been the natural production of the human mind it

self, the progress and revolutions of which in the knowledge of the visible universe and its material agents it has constantly and uniformly followed.

"Yes, in vain do nations refer the origin of their religion to heavenly inspiration: in vain do their dogmas plead a supernatural commencement of things; the original barbarism of the human race, attested by their own monuments (s 3.), belies at once all their assertions: and, what is more, an existing and irresistible fact bears a victorious testimony against the dubious and uncertain facts of past times: for since man receives no ideas but through the medium of his senses (t 3.), it evidently follows, that every notion, attributed to any other origin than that of sensation and experience, is an erroneous hypothesis invented at some period posterior to that of the pretended events. But, indeed, we need only take a very cursory view of the different religious systems relating to the origin of the world and the action of the Gods, to discover at every turn, both in the ideas and the language, an anticipation of a state of things, which had no existence till a long time subsequent to the period supposed. Hence, fortified and rendered impregnable by all these contradictions, reason, at once discarding every thing which has to step beyond nature for its proof, and regarding every historical system as inadmissibly bad, which militates against probability, establishes its own, and says with confidence:

"Before any nation received dogmas alrea

dy invented from another nation; before one generation inherited the ideas of a preceding generation, none of these complicated systems had existence. The first human beings, the simple children of nature, antecedent to every event, being entire strangers to every species of knowledge, were born without any idea of those articles of faith which are the result of scholastic disputation of those religious rites, founded on arts and usages which had as yet no existence; of those precepts, which suppose the pre-developement of the passions; of those codes of law, which suppose a language and a social system not then in being; of that God, the whole of whose attributes imply a previous knowledge of physical objects, and the yery idea of whose actions is suggested by the experience of a despotical form of government; or, in fine, of that soul and all those metaphysical or spiritual existences, which we are told are not the object of the senses, but which, however, we must forever have remained unacquainted with, if our understanding had not gained intelligence of them by the perceptive feelings or sensations of our organs (u 3.) Before it could arrive at all these notions, an immense series of preliminary facts and results, must have been progressively traced and explored. Man, originally in a savage state, must have learned from slow and repeated trials the scientific use of his organs. Successive generations must have invented, multiplied, and refined upon the means of subsistence; and the understanding, disengaged from attending to the first

wants of nature, must have risen to the complicated art of comparing ideas, digesting reasonings, and seizing upon abstract similitudes."

SECT. I. Origin of the idea of God: Worship of the elements and physical powers of nature.

"It was not till after having surmounted these obstacles, and run a long career in the night of history, that man, reflecting on his own condition, began to perceive himself in subjection to powers superior to his own and independent of his will. The sun gave him light and warmth; fire burned, thunder terrified, water drowned, the winds buffetted him; all beings acted upon him in a powerful manner not to be resisted. For a long time, an automaton or mere animal-machine, he remained passive to this action, without ever enquiring into the cause of it; but the moment he began to be prompted by the feeling of desire to account to himself for it, he was electrified with astonishment; and, passing from the surprise of the first impulse of thought to the reverie of curiosity, he formed a series of inferences.

"At first, on considering the action of the elements upon him, he conceived, relatively to himself, an idea of weakness, of subjection, and, relatively to them, an idea of power, of domination; and this idea of power was the primitive and fundamental type of all his conceptions of the Divinity.

"The action of natural bodies, in the second place, excited in him sensations of plea

sure or pain, of good or evil. As a natural consequence of his organization, he became affected with love or aversion towards them, he desired or dreaded their presence; and thus fear or hope became the origin of every idea of religion.

Afterwards, judging of every thing by comparison, and remarking in those beings a spontaneous motion analagous to his own, he supposed a will, an intelligence to be connected with that motion, similar to what he felt existing in himself; and hence he was led, by induction, to a further conclusion.-Having found by experience that certain modes of behaviour towards his fellow-creatures, wrought a change in their affections and influenced their conduct, he had recourse to the same modes of behaviour in order to influence the powerful beings of the universe.-When my fellow-being, of superior strength," said he to himself," is disposed to injure me, I humble myself before him, and my prayer has the knack of appeasing him. I will therefore to the powerful beings that assail me:-I will supplicate the intelligences of the winds, of the planets, of the waters, and they will understand me. I will conjure them to avert the calamities, and to grant me the blessings which are at their disposal:-I will work upon their feelings by my tears, and win their compassion by my gifts and offerings, and by this means I shall be enabled to enjoy the benefit of a comfort

able existence."

pray

"Thus man, in the native simplicity of his heart during the infancy of his reason, held