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prife, he came out a Quaker. Seeing myfelf furrounded with a body of Freethinkers, and scoffers at religion, who were making themselves merry at the fober looks and thoughtful brows of those who had been in the cave; I thrust them all in, one after another, and locked the door apon them. Upon my opening it, they all looked, as if they had been frighted out of their wits, and were marching away with ropes in their hands to a wood that was within fight of the place. I found they were not able to bear themselves in their firft ferious thoughts; but knowing thefe would quickly bring them to a better frame of mind, I gave them into the cuftody of their friends till that happy change was wrought in them.

THE laft that was brought to me was a young woman, who at the first fight of my fhort face fell into an immoderate fit of laughter, and was forced to hold her fides all the while her mother was fpeaking to me. Upon this I interrupted the old lady, and taking her daughter by the hand, Madam, faid I, be pleafed to retire into my closet, while your mother tells me your cafe. I then put her into the mouth of the cave, when the mother, after having begged pardon for the girl's rudeness, told me, that the often treated her father and the gravest of her relations in the fame manner; that she would fit giggling and laughing with her companions from one end of a tragedy to the other; nay, that fhe would fometimes burst out in the middle of a fermon, and fet the whole congregation a ftaring at her. The mother was going on, when the young lady came out of the cave to us with a compofed countenance, and a low curtfy. She was a girl of fuch exuberant mirth, that her vifit to Trophonius only reduced her to a more than ordinary decency of behaviour, and made a very pretty prude of her. After having performed innumerable cures, I looked about me with great fatisfaction, and faw all my patients walking by themselves in a very penfive and mufing pofture, fo that the whole place feemed covered with philofophers. I was at length refolved to go into the cave myself, and fee what it was that had produced fuch wonderful effects upon the company; but as I was ftooping at the entrance, the door being fomething low, I gave fuch a nod in my chair, that I awaked. After having recovered myself

from

from my first startle, I was very well pleafed at the accident which had befallen me, as not knowing but a little stay in the place might have spoiled my Spectators.

No 600.

Wednesday, September 29.

-Solemque fuum, fua fidera norunt.

Virg. Æn. 6. v. 641.

Stars of their own, and their own funs they know. Dryden,

HAVE always taken a particular pleafure in examining the opinions which men of different religions, different ages, and different countries, have entertained concerning the immortality of the foul, and the ftate of happiness which they promise themselves in another world. For whatever prejudices and errors human nature lies under, we find that either reason, or tradition from our firft parents, has difcovered to all people fomething in thefe great points which bear analogy to truth, and to the doctrines opened to us by divine revelation. I was lately difcourfing on this fubject with a learned perfon, who has been very much converfant among the inhabitants of the more western parts of Afric. Upon his converfing with several in that country, he tells me that their notion of heaven, or of a future state of happiness, is this, that every thing we there with for will immediately prefent itself to us. We find, fay they, our fouls are of fuch a nature that they require variety, and are not capable of being always delighted with the fame objects. The fupreme Being, therefore, in compliance with this taste of happiness which he has planted in the foul of man, will raife up from time to time, fay they, every gratification which it is in the humour to be pleased with. If we wish to be in groves or bowers, among running ftreams or falls of water, we shall immediately find ourselves in the midst of fuch a scene as we defire. If we would be entertained with mufic and the melody of founds, the confort ar rifes upon our wish, and the whole region about us is filled with harmony. In fhort, every defire will be fol

lowed

No 600. lowed by fruition, and whatever a man's inclination directs him to will be prefent with him. Nor is it material whether the fupreme Power creates in conformity to our wishes, or whether he only produces fuch a change in our imagination, as makes us believe ourselves converfant among thofe fcenes which delight us. Our happiness will be the fame, whether it proceed from external objects, or from the impreffions of the Deity upon our own private fancies. This is the account which I have received from my learned friend. Notwithstanding this fyftem of belief be in general very chimerical and vifionary, there is fomething fublime in its manner of confidering the influence of a divine Being on a human foul. It has alfo, like most other opinions of the Heathen world upon thefe important points, it has, I fay, its foundation in truth, as it fuppofes the fouls of good men after this life to be in a state of perfect happiness, that in this state there will be no barren hopes, nor fruitless wishes, and that we fhall enjoy every thing we can defire. But the particular circumftance which I am moft pleased with in this scheme, and which arifes from a juft reflection upon human nature, is that variety of pleasures which it fuppofes the fouls of good men will be poffeffed of in another world. This I think highly probable, from the dictates both of reafon and revelation. The foul confifts of many faculties, as the underftanding, and the will, with all the fenfes, both outward and inward; or, to fpeak more philofophically, the foul can exert herself in many different ways of action. She can understand, will, imagine, fee, and hear, love, and difcourfe, and apply herfelf to many other the like exercises of different kinds and natures; but what is more to be confidered, the foul is capable of receiving a moft exquifite pleafure and fatiffaction from the exercife of any of thefe its powers, when they are gratified with their proper objects; fhe can be entirely happy by the fatisfaction of the memory, the fight, the hearing, or any other mode of perception. Every faculty is as a diftinct taste in the mind, and hath objects accommodated to its proper relifh. Dr Tillotson fomewhere fays, that he will not prefume to determine in what confifts the happiness of the bleft, because God Almighty is capable of making the foul happy by ten thou

fand

fand different ways. Befides those feveral avenues to pleasure which the foul is endowed with in this life; it is not impollible, according to the opinion of many eminent divines, but there may be new faculties in the fouls of good men made perfect, as well as new fenfes in their glorified bodies. This we are fure of, that there will be new objects offered to all thofe faculties which are ef fential to us.

We are likewife to take notice, that every particular faculty is capable of being employed on a very great variety of objects. The understanding, for example, may be happy in the contemplation of moral, natural, mathematical, and other kinds of truth. The memory likewife may turn itself to an infinite multitude of objects, efpecially when the foul fhall have paffed through the fpace of many millions of years, and fhall reflect with pleasure on the days of eternity. Every other faculty be confidered in the fame extent.

may

WE cannot queftion but that the happiness of a foul will be adequate to its nature, and that it is not endowed with any faculties which are to lie ufelefs and unemployed. The happiness is to be the happiness of the whole man, and we may eafily conceive to ourfelves the happinefs of the foul, whilst any one of its faculties is in the fruition of its chief good. The happiness may be of a more exalted nature in proportion as the faculty employed is fo; but as the whole foul acts in the exertion of any of its particular powers, the whole foul is happy in the pleafure which arifes from any of its particular acts. notwithstanding, as has been before hinted, and as it has been taken notice of by one of the greatest modern philofophers, we divide the foul into feveral powers and faculties, there is no fuch divifion in the foul itself, fince it is the whole foul that remembers, underftands, wills, or imagines. Our manner of confidering the memory, understanding, will, imagination, and the like faculties, is for the better enabling us to exprefs ourselves in fuch abstracted fubjects of fpeculation, not that there is any fuch divifion in the foul itself.

For

SEEING then that the foul has many different faculties, or, in other words, many different ways of acting; that at can be intenfely pleafed, or made happy by all thefe different

VOL. VIII.

be en

different faculties, or ways of acting; that it may
dowed with feveral latent faculties, which it is not at pre-
fentin a condition to exert; that we cannot believe the
foul is endowed with any faculty which is of no use to it;
that whenever any one of these faculties is tranfcendent-
ly pleafed, the foul is in a state of happiness; and in the
laft place, confidering that the happiness of another world
is to be the happinefs of the whole man; who can que-
ftion but that there is an infinite variety in those pleasures
we are speaking of; and that this fulness of joy will be
up of all thofe pleafures which the nature of the
foul is capable of receiving?

made

man.

WE fhall be the more confirmed in this doctrine, if we obferve the nature of variety with regard to the mind of The foul does not care to be always in the fame bent. The faculties relieve one another by turns, and receive an additional pleasure from the novelty of those objects about which they are converfant.

REVELATION likewife very much confirms this notion, under the different views which it gives us of our future happiness. In the defcription of the throne of God, it reprefents to us all thofe objects which are able to gratify the fenfes and imagination: in very many places it intimates to us all the happiness which the understanding can poffibly receive in that state, where all things fhall be revealed to us, and we shall know even as we are known; the raptures of devotion, of divine love, the pleasure of converfing with our bleffed Saviour, with an innumerable hoft of angels, and with the spirits of juft men made perfect, are likewife revealed to us in feveral parts of the holy writings. There are alfo mentioned those hierarchies or governments, in which the blessed shall be ranged one above another, and in which we may be fure a great part of our happiness will likewise confift; for it will not be there as in this world, where every one is aiming at power and fuperiority; but, on the contrary, every one will find that station the most proper for him in which he is placed, and will probably think that he could not have been fo happy in any other station. These, and many other par ticulars, are marked in divine revelation, as the feveral ingredients of our happinefs in heaven, which all imply fuch a variety of joys, and fuch a gratification of the foul

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