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Med. Alas! you are much more a man than I am.

Val. You have nothing to do but to learn to think; you were born with a capacity for it; and though, when a bird in the cage of the Inquisition, the holy office clipped your wings, they may grow again. A man who does not understand geometry, may learn it. There is nobody that cannot be, in some degree, instructed. It is a shame to trust our souls in the hands of those we should be afraid to trust with our money. Come, come, venture to think for yourself.

Med. But they say, that if all the world thus thought for themselves, it would be productive of strange confusion.

Val. Quite the contrary, I assure you. Does not every one speak his mind freely of the entertainment at a theatre, and is the representation interrupted by it? But if any insolent protector of a bad poet should start up, and insist upon the audience approving what they might dislike, what would be the consequence? They would naturally go to loggerheads, as they sometimes do at the playhouses in London. The exercise of such tyranny over the minds of men has been productive, in a great degree, of the miseries that have befallen mankind. We have been happy in England since every man has been at liberty to speak his own mind.

Med. And we are very quiet at Lisbon, where nobody is permitted to say any thing.

Val. You are quiet, but you are not happy. Your tranquillity is that of galley-slaves, who tug the oar, and keep time in silence.

Med. Do you think, then, that my soul is in the gallev?
Val. Yes; and I would deliver you from thence.

Med. But what if I find myself quite at ease there
Val. Nay, then you deserve to remain.

FRIENDSHIP

Is a tacit contract between two sensible and virtuous persons; I say sensible, for a monk or a hermit may not be wicked, yet live strangers to friendship. I add virtuous, for the wicked have only accomplices: the voluptuous have companions; the designing have associates; the men of business have partners; the politicians form a factious band; the bulk of idle men have connexions; princes have courtiers; but virtuous men alone have friends. Cethegus was Cataline's accomplice, and Mecenas was Octavius's courtier; but Cicero was Atticus's friend.

What is implied in this contract between two tender and ingenuous souls? Its obligations are stronger and weaker, according to their degree of sensibility, and the number of good offices performed, &c.

The enthusiasm of friendship was stronger among the Greeks and Arabs, than among us. The tales on friendship composed by those people are admirable; we have nothing like them in every thing we are somewhat dry and jejune.

Among the Greeks friendship was a point of religion, and an object of the legislature. The Thebans had a regiment. called the regiment of lovers, and a fine one I dare say it was; some have mistaken it for a regiment of Sodomites, but this is a gross error, taking an accessory for a principal. Among the Greeks, friendship was recommended, both by the law and by religion. Unhappily their manners allowed of pederasty; but the law is not to be charged with any shameful abuses.

GLORY.

BEN-AL-BETIF, that worthy superior of the dervises, one day said to them, Brethren, it is very fit that you should often use that sacred form in our Koran, "In the name of the most merciful God;" for God showeth mercy, and you learn to practise it by the frequent repetition of words recommending a virtue, without which there would be few people remaining on earth: but, brethren, far be it from you to imitate the presumption of those who are continually boasting, that what they do is for the glory of God. When a raw scholar maintains a thesis on the Categories, before some furred ignoramus of a president, he is sure to write, in large characters, at the head of his thesis, Ek allha, abron doxa, Ad majoram Dei gloriam. So a devout Mussulman, having caused his saloon to be white-washed, must have the like folly engraved over the door. A Saka likewise carries water to promote God's glory. This is a devout practice of a profane custom. What would you say of a pitiful chiaoux who, when emptying our sultan's close-stool, should bawl out, To the greater glory of our invincible monarch? Now, certainly, the difference is greater between the sultan and God, than between the pitiful chiaoux and the sublime sultan.

Ye

poor earth-worms, called men, what have you in common with the glory of the Infinite Essence? Can he desire glory? Can he receive any from you? Can he enjoy it?

gran

How long, ye two-legged, featherless animals, will you make God in your likeness! Being yourselves vain and fond of glory, God must needs be so too! Were there several Gods, each of them would be desirous of the applause of his equals, and in that would consist the glory of a god. If infinite deur might be brought into a comparison with the extremity of meanness, such a god would be like king Alexander, or Scander, who would enter the list against kings only: but you, poor creatures, what glory can you give to God? Forbear any longer to profane his sacred name. An emperor, named Octavius Augustus, ordered no panegyrics to be made on him, in the schools of Rome, that his name might not be debased. But you can neither debase nor exalt the Supreme Being. Prostrate yourselves, and worship in silence.

Thus spoke Ben-al-betif, and the dervises shouted, Glory to God! well has Ben-al-betif spoken.

GOD.

In the reign of Arcadius, Logomacos, a theologue of Constantinople, went into Scythia, and stopped at the foot of mount Caucasus, in the fertile plains of Zephirim, bordering on Colchis. The good old man, Dondindac, was, after a light repast, kneeling in his large hall, between his vast sheep-fold and his ample barn, with his wife, his five sons, and five daughters, some of his kindred, and his domestics, all chaunting the praises of the bounteous Giver of all good things. "Ho! what art thou about Idolater?" said Logomacos to him. am no idolater," said Dondindac. "An idolater thou must be," replied Logomacos; "as being a Scythian, or at least, no Greek. Well, and what wast thou gabbling in thy Scythian jargon ?”—“ All languages are alike in God's ear," answered the Scythian: "we were singing his praises."-" Very extraordinary indeed," added the theologue; "a Scythian family worshipping God, without any previous instruction from us!" He soon entered into conversation with Dondindac, for the theologue had a smattering of the Scythian, and the other understood a little Greek. This conversation is lately come to light, in a manuscript kept in the imperial library at Constantinople.

Logo. I will see whether thou knowest thy catechism: why prayest thou to God?

Dond. Because it is just and proper to worship the Supreme Being, as of him we hold all we have.

Logo. Pretty well for a barbarian: and what askest thou o him?

Dond. I thank God for the good things he gives me, and even for the crosses with which he tries me. But, as for asking any thing of him, that is what I never presume to do: he knows what we stand in need of better than ourselves; besides, I should be afraid to ask for sun-shine, when rain would better suit my neighbour.

Logo. Ah! I apprehended we should soon have some nonsense or other from him. Let us take a retrospect of things.

Who told thee there is a God?

Dond. All nature.

Logo. That is nothing: what idea hast thou of God? Dond. That he is my creator, my master, who will reward me if I do well, and punish me if I do amiss.

Logo. That is but trivial and low : let us come to the essential. Is God infinite, secundum quid, or in his essence? Dond. I do not understand you.

Logo. Stupid dolt! Is God in a place, or out of all place, or is he every where?

Dond. I know nothing of that: it may be just as you please.

Logo. Ignorant wretch! Well; can he make what has been, not to have been; or that a stick shall not have two ends? Is futurity to him as future or as present? How does he do to bring nothing into existence, and to annihilate existence?

Dond. I never bestow a thought on those things.

Logo. What an oaf is this! well, I must let myself down ; I must suit myself to the meanness of his intellects. Tell me, friend, believest thou that matter can be eternal?

Dond. What is it to me whether it exists from eternity or not? I did not exist from eternity. God is always my master and instructor. He has given me the knowledge of justice, and it is my duty to act accordingly. I do not desire to be a philosopher: let me be a man.

Logo. What a plague it is to have to do with such thickheaded creatures! I must proceed gradually with him. What is God?

Dond. My sovereign, my judge, my father.

Logo. That is not what I ask

you. What is his nature?

Dond. To be powerful and good.

Logo. But whether is he corporeal or spiritual?

Dond. How should I know?

Logo. What! not know what a spirit is?

Dond. Not I, in the least; and what would I be the better for such knowledge? Will it mend my morals, make me a better husband, a better father, a better master, or a better member of society?

Logo. A man must be absolutely taught what a spirit is; since it is—it is-it is.-Well, we will let that alone till another time.

Dond. I fancy, instead of being able to tell me what it is, you will rather tell me what it is not. But, after so much questioning, may I take the freedom to ask you a question? I was, formerly, in one of your temples, and why do you paint God with a long beard?

Logo. That is a very abstruse question, and the solution of which would be above your comprehension, without some preliminary instruction.

Dond. Before you enter on your instruction, I must tell you a circumstance, which I hope never to forget. I had just built a summer-house at the end of my garden; and one day, sitting in it, I heard a mole and a chafer descanting: "A superb edifice it certainly is," said the mole; "and of very great parts must that mole have been who built it."-" A mole forsooth! I say a mole too!" quoth the chafer: "the architect of that building could be no other than some chafer of an extraordinary genius." This colloquy put me on a resolution never to dispute.

GOVERNMENTS, WHICH IS THE BEST ?

I NEVER yet knew any man who had not governed some state or other. I do not speak of their high mightinesses the ministers, who govern in reality, some two or three years, others six months, and others as many weeks; I mean all other men, who, over a bottle, or in their closet, display their system of government, and reform navy, army, law, finances, and church.

Abbe Bourzeis took upon himself to govern France, about the year 1645, under the name of cardinal Richelieu, and composed that Political Will, in which he is for having the nobility enrolled in the cavalry for three years; the land-tax to be paid to the chambers of accounts and the parliament, and taking away from the king the produce of the salt-tax. In order to take the field with 50,000 men, he makes it a point of economy, to raise 100,000. He affirms, that "Provence alone, has many more fine sea-ports than Spain and Italy put together."