THE Justice which I have now done Mr Pope is agreeable to the public Voice This goes fo far, that I have seen several of bis Readers admire him, like the reft, tho they did not understand him, and indeed were very far from understanding him. I am pleafed with thinking that a few Lines from his Pen have had Credit enough to reconcile the Vulgar to the Notion of a Plurality of Worlds, which a great many Persons, even now, refuse to admit. However, this is a Notion that our Age has great Reafon to congratulate itself upon; it seems to me to be of very great Ufe to raise our Admiration of the incomprehenfible Infinity of our Cre

ator.

I never find myself more fenfibly touched with the Pleasure of Exifting, than when I apply myself to run through the Gradations of Beings. The little Knowledge which I have in the Anatomy of Plants, and their Fruits,, makes them already appear to me a Subject worthy of exhaufting my Admiration. I lofe myfelf in the Search of the Distribution of their Claffes, their Genera, Species, and Individuals, which, clofely examin'd, present new and undeterminable Differences between

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them

them. What Tranfports do I feel when I attend to what Mr De Reaumur bas difco, cover'd to us (which he makes us hope that be will fill continue to do) about the smallest of animal Beings, and which the Ignorance and ftupid Negligence of Men made them look upon with fo much Contempt! In Proportion as my Tafte for the Knowledge of Nature grows strong and advances, it feems to me that our Earth alone contains Wonders enough to take up whole Lives infi nitely longer than mine.

· OUR Sun gives Light to fifteen other Planets, and perhaps a greater Number too far off to be visible to our Sight. Telescopes have taught us that the Number of Suns is above all Computation, and that beyond this innumerable Multitude, whofe Distance furpaffes all Imagination, it is very probable that an unbounded Immenfity is fill filled with Creatures, for the Wisdom and Power of God are abfolutely infinite.

BUT what is this Syftem itfelf of innumerable Creatures, infinite as it is fuppofed, compared with the Infinity of God? There is an infinite Diftance, between what receiv'd its whole Existence elsewhere, and the true Being

Being, the abfolutely Infinite, whofe Exist ence is neceffarily eternal.

WHAT am I then, a little Particle, an Atom of this Immenfity? What am I, in· comparison of the adorable infinite God? Nothing. I lofe fight of myself in this Abyss: But I foon find myself again, and that with Rapture. I am a Part of this immenfe Work: The almighty Hand of its great and all-powerful Author formed me too. He faw, and still fees all his Works. There is none but exifts by him, none but what is prefent to him. There is no Object fo little, upon which it is fo eafy for me to fix my Sight, as for him to make an infinite Number prefent to him. I am then honoured with his Regard, I have nothing from myfelf, but all from him. How gloriously does this Thought draw me from Non-Existence! I seem to myself coming out of nothing. In this Suppofition I find myself obliged conftantly to study myself, in order to acquire a Knowledge of all that I have received, and render Thanks to the adorable Author of my Being for all bis Gifts, and to confirm myself in the Ufe that I ought to make of them. If I was an Effect of Chance, if I knew neither from

whence

whence I came, nor to what I was appointed, my own Existence would be a Burthen to me, and I could not have any Regard for

. But as I am the Work of my God, the Creator of the Universe, I cannot help congratulating myself upon my Existence: I cannot help loving, praifing, and reverencing myself, and fearing to dishonour myself by Negligencies and Deviations. Since I am no longer for myself, all my Defires tend to difcover what I ought to do with myself: With this Defire these Ideas arife: I find in myfelf a Monitor that teaches me what I ought to be employ'd in while I live, and perfuades me what I have to hope for after Death. With a Fear, however, of being flatter'd by thefe agreeable Hopes, and deceiving myself in the Choice of my Employments, I come to perceive a Light which Socrates had so much wish'd for, and which he hop'd that God would honour Mankind with. I convince myself of the Truth of a Revelation, which gives an unshaken Conftancy to all that Reafon bad already inftructed me in, and prefents me still with new Objects and new Hopes. It is fo far from being poffible that the giving myself up.

to

to thefe glorious Expectations fhould be fu fpected of Pride, that it would be Ingratitude, Shame, Haughtiness, and Brutality, not to tend with all my Powers to that Rank to which I am called. Infinite Goodnefs has created Men capable of making a. free Choice, capable of Self-determination, in order to enter into Treaty with them, to be loved of them by Choice, to honour them by a Goodness that furpaffes all Understanding, by Returns of his Affection towards Beings capable of giving themselves to him, from whom they received all, and to whom. they entirely belong.

WHOEVER will follow thefe Truths, (and where is it that they do not lead to?) Whoever will make Tryal of them, will find here the folid and infinite Happiness for. which our Soul was formed. And as there is one Aliment the most common of all, and of which the reft have need, in order to make: them the better relifhed, in like man ner is there a Stock of Reflections, which is › the Bafis of our Pleasure, and heightens, the Value of all the innocent Amusements: that Life prefents us with. All the Charms · of Sight, all the Delights of Mufic, all the