No. 634. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1714.

' O fKaxitrrav tfi/ityos t^yurra 0eeir.

BOOBATBS APUD XXX.

The fewer onr wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.

It was the common boast of the heathen philosophers, that by the efficacy of their several doctrines they made human nature resemble the divine. How much mistaken soever they might be in the several means they proposed for this end, it must be owned that the design was great and glorious. The finest works of invastion and imagination are of very little weight when put in tht balance with what refines and exalts the rational mind. Lonsicis excuses Homer very handsomely, when he says the poet made his gods like men, that he might make his men ap}>ear like the gods. But it must be allowed that several of the ancient philosophers acted as Cicero wishes Homer had done; they endeavoured rather to make men like gods, than gods like men.

According to this general maxim in philosophy, some of tbeta have endeavoured to place men in such a state of pleasure, or indolence at least, as they vainly imagined the happiness of the Supreme Being to consist in. On the other hand, the most virtuous sect of philosophers have created a chimerical wise mas, whom they made exempt from passions and pain, and thought a enough to pronounce him all sufficient

This last character, when divested of the glare of human philosophy that surrounds it, signifies no more than that a good and wise man should so arm himself with patience, as not to yield tamely to the violence of passion and pain; that he should leant so to suppress and contract his desires as to have few wants; and that he should cherish so many virtues in his soul, as to have a perpetual source of pleasure in himself.

The Christian religion requires that, after having framed tbt best idea we are able of the Divine nature, it should be our next care to conform ourselves to it as far as our imperfections will permit I might mention several passages in the sacred writings oa this head, to which I might add many maxims and wise sayings of moral authors among the Greeks and Romans.

I shall only instance a remarkable passage, to this purpose, out of Julian's Cassars.* That emperor having represented all tb* Roman emperors, with Alexander the Great, as passing in review before the gods, and striving for the superiority, lets them all drop

* Spnnheim, Les Ccsara de L'Empercur Julien, 4to. 1728.

excepting Alexander, Julius Caesar, Augustus C«sar, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Constantino. Each of these great heroes of antiquity lays in his claim for the upper place; and in order to it, sets forth his actions after the most advantageous manner. But the gods, instead of heiug dazzled with the lustre of their actions, inquire hy Mercury into the proper motive and governing principle that influenced them throughout the whole series of their lives and exploits. Alexander tells them that his aim was to conquer; Julius Caesar, that his was to gain the highest post in his country ; Augustus, to govern well; Trajan, that his was the same as that of Alexander, namely to conquer. The question, at length, was put to Marcus Aurelius, who replied, with great modesty, that it had always been his care to imitate the gods. This conduct seems to have gained him the most votes and best place in the whole assembly Marcus Aurelius, being afterwards asked to explain himself, declares, that by imitating the gods, he endeavoured to imitate them in the use of his understanding, and of all other faculties; and, in particular, that it was always his study to have as few wants as possible in himself, and to do all the good he could to others.

Among the many methods by which revealed religion has advanced morality, this is one, that it has given us a more just and perfect idea of that Being whom every reasonable creature ought to imitate. The young man, in a heathen comedy, might justify his lewdness by the example of Jupiter; as, indeed there was scarce any crime that might not be countenanced by those notions of the Deity which prevailed among the common people in the heathen world. Revealed religion sets forth a proper object for imitation in that Being, who is the pattern, as wall as the source, of all spiritual perfection.

While we remain in this life we are subject to innumerable temptations, which, if listened to, will make us deviate from reason and goodness, the only things wherein we can imitate the Supreme Being. In the next life we meet with nothing to excite our inclinations that doth not deserve them. I shall therefore dismiss my reader with this maxim, viz., " Our happiness in this world proceeds from the suppression of our desires, but in the next world from the gratification of them."

[The Author uncertain.]

No. 635. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1714.

Sentio te sedem hominnm ac domnm contemplari : quse si tibi pairs (at est) ita videtur, haw ccelestia semper spectato; ilia hamana contemnits.

CICERO SOUS. SOP.

I perceive yon contemplate the seat arid habitation of men; which, if it appears as little to you as it really is, fix your eyes perpetually upon heavenly objects, and despise earthly.

The following essay comes from the ingenious author of tb# letter upon Novelty, printed in a late Spectator:* the notions are drawn from the Platonic way of thinking; but, as they contribute to raise the mind, and may inspire noble sentiments of our own future grandeur and happiness, I think it well deserves to be presented to the public.

" If the unviverse be the creature of an intelligent mind, this mind could have no immediate regard to himself in producing it. He needed not to make trial of his omnipotence to be informed what effects were within its reach; the world, as existing in his eternal idea, was then as beautiful as now it is drawn forth into being; and in the immense abyss of his essence are contained far brighter scenes than will be ever set forth to view; it being impossible that the great Author of nature should bound his own power, by giving existence to a system of creatures so perfect that he cannot improve upon it by any other exertions of his Almighty will. Between finite and infinite there is an unmeasured interval not to be tilled up in endless ages; for which reason the most excellent of all God's works must be equally short of what his power is able to produce as the most imperfect, and may be exceeded with the same ease.

This thought hath made some imagine (what it must be confessed is not impossible) that the unfathomed space is ever teeming with new births, the younger still inheriting a greater perfection than the elder. But as this doth not fall within my present view, I shall content myself with taking notice, that the consideration now mentioned proves undeniably, • that the ideal worlds in the Divine understanding yield a prospect incomparably more ample, various, and delightful, than any created world can do: and ton therefore, as it is not to be supposed, that God should make a world merely of inanimate matter, however diversified or inhabited only by creatures of no higher an order than brutes, so the end for which he designed his reasonable offspring is the contemplation of his works, the enjoyment of himself, and in both to be happy;

No. 626.

having, to this purpose, endowed them with correspondent faculties and desires. He can have no greater pleasure from a hare review of his works than from the survey of his own ideas: hut we may be assured that he is well pleased in the satisfaction derived to beings capable of it, and for whose entertainment he hath erected this immense theatre. Is not this more than an intimation of our immortality ? Man, who, when considered as on his probation for a happy existence hereafter, is the most remarkable instance of Divine wisdom, if we cut him off from all relation to eternity, is the most wonderful and unaccountable composition in the whole creation. He hath capacities to lodge a much greater variety of knowledge than he will be ever master of, and an unsatisfied curiosity to tread the secret paths of nature and providence: but, with this, his organs, in their present structure, are rather fitted to serve the necessities of a vile body, than to minister to his understanding, and, from the little spot to which he is chained, he can frame but wandering guesses concerning the innumerable worlds of light that encompass him, which, though in themselves of a prodigious bigness, do but just glimmer in the remote spaces of the heavens; and when, with a great deal of time and pains, he hath laboured a little way up the steep ascent of truth, and beholds with pity the grovelling multitude beneath, in a moment bis foot slides, and he tumbles down headlong into the grave.

Thinking on this, I am obliged to believe, in justice to the Creator of the world, that there is another state when man shall be better situated for contemplation, or rather have it in his power to remove from object to object, and from world to world ; and be accommodated with senses, and other helps, for making the quickest and most amazing discoveries. How doth such a genius as Sir Isaac Newton, from amidst the darkness that involves human understanding break forth, and appear like one of another species! The vast machine we inhabit lies open to him ; he seems not unacquainted with the general laws that govern it; and while with the transport of a philosopher he beholds and admires the glorious work, he is capable of paying at once a more devout and more rational homage to his Maker. But, alas! how narrow is the prospect of even such a mind! And how obscure, to the compass that is taken in by the ken of an angel, or of a soul but newly escaped from its imprisonment in the body ! For my part, I freely indulge my soul in the confidence of its future grandeur; it pleases me to think that I, who know so small a portion of the works of the Creator, and with slow and painful steps creep up and down on the surface of this globe, shall ere long shoot away with the swiftness of imagination, trace out the hidden springs of nature's operations, be able to keep pace with the heavenly bodies in the rapidity of their career, be a spectator of the long chain of events in the natural and moral worlds, visit the several apartments of the creation, know how they are furnished and how inhabited, comprehend the order, and measure the magnitudes and distances of those orhs, which to us seem disposed without any regular design, and set all in the same circle; observe the dependence of the parts of each system, and (if our minds are big enough to grasp the theory) of the several systems upon one another, from whence results the harmony of the universe. In eternity a great deal may be done of this kind. I find it of use to cherish this generous ambition; for, besides the secret refreshment diBuses through my soul, it engages me in an endeavour to improve my faculties, as well as to exercise them conformable to the rank I now hold among reasonable beings, and the hope I have of being once advanced to a more exalted station.

The other and the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he cannot form a wish. Dim at best are the conceptions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in suspense, neither discovering nor hiding himself; by which means the libertine hath a handle to dispute his existence, while the most are content to speak him fair, but in their hearts prefer every trifling satisfaction to the favour of their Maker, and ridicule the good man for the singularity of his choice. Will there not a time come, when the Freethinker shall see his impious schemes overturned, and be made a convert to the truths he hates; when deluded mortals shall be convinced of the folly of their pursuits; and the few wise, who followed the guidance of Heaven, and scorning the blandishments of sense, and the sordid bribery of the world, aspired to a celestial abode, shall stand possessed of their utmost wish in the vision of the Creator ? Here the mind heaves a thought now and then towards him, and hath some transient glances of his presence; when, in the instant it thinks itself to have the fastest hold, the object eludes its expectations, and it falls back tired and baffled to the ground. Doubtless there is some more perfect way of conversing with heaTenly beings. Are not spirits capable of mutual intelligence, unless immersed in bodies, or by their intervention? Must superior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of sociable beings, that of conversing with, and knowing eaoh other? What would they have done had matter never been created ? I suppose, not have lived in eternal solitude. As incorporeal substances are of • noble order, so, be sure, their manner of intercourse is answerably more expedite and intimate. This method of communication we call intellectual vision, as somewhat analogous to the sens? of seeing which is the medium of our acquaintance with this visible world. And in some such way can God make himself the object of immediate intuition to the blessed; and as he can, it is not improbable that he will, always condescending, is the circumstances of doing it, to the weakness and proportion of