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foever they might be in the feveral means they propofed for this end, it must be owned that the defign was great and glorious. The finest works of invention and imagination are of very little weight when put in the balance with what refines and exalts the rational mind. Longinus excufes Homer very handfomely, when he fays the poet made his gods like men, that he might make his men appear like the gods. But it must be allowed that several of the ancient philofophers 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 philofophy, fome of them have endeavoured to place men in fuch a ftate of pleasure, or indolence at least, as they vainly imagined the happiness of the Supreme Being to confift in. On the other hand, the moft virtuous fect of philofophers have created a chimerical wife man, whom they made exempt from paffions and pain, and thought it enough to pronounce him all-fufficient.

This laft character, when divefted of the glare of human philofophy that furrounds it, fignifics no more than that a good and wife man fhould fo arm himself with patience, as not to yield tamely to the violence of paffion and pain; that he fhould learn fo to fupprefs and contract his defires as to have few wants; and that he fhould cherish fo many virtues in his foul as to have a perpetual fource of pleasure in himself.

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The Christian religion requires that, after having framed the best idea we are able of the divine nature, it fhould be our next care to conform ourselves to it as far as our imperfections will permit. I might mention feveral paffages in the Sacred Writings on this head, to which I might add many maxims and wife fayings of moral authors among the Greeks and Romans.

I fhall only inftance a remarkable paflage, to this purpose, out of JULIAN'S "Cæfars."* That emperor having reprefented all the Roman emperors, with Alexander the Great, as paffing in review before the gods, and ftriving for the fuperiority, lets them all drop, excepting Alexander, Julius Cæfar, Auguftus Cæfar, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Conftantine. Each of thefe great heroes of antiquity lays in his claim for the upper place; and, in order to it, fets forth his actions after the moft advantageous manner. But the gods, instead of being dazzled with the luftre of their actions, inquire by Mercury into the proper motive and governing principle that influ enced them throughout the whole series of their lives and exploits. Alexander tells them that his aim was to conquer; Julius Cæfar that his was to gain the highest poft in his country; Auguftus, to govern well; Trajan, that his was the fame as that of Alexander, namely, to conquer. The queftion, at length, was put to Marcus Aurelius,

*SPANHIEM" Les Cefars" de L'Empereur JULIEN, traduits du Grec, 4to. 1728, pallini.

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who replied, with great modefty, that "it had "always been his care to imitate the gods." This conduct feems to have gained him the most votes and beft place in the whole affembly. -Marcus Aurelius being afterwards afked to explain himself, declares that, by imitating the the gods, he endeavoured to imitate them in the ufe of his understanding and all other faculties; and, in particular, that it was always his study to have as few wants as poffible 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 juft and perfect idea of that Being whom every reafonable creature ought to imitate. The young man, in a heathen comedy, might juftify his lewdness by the example of Jupiter; as, indeed, there was fearce any crime that might not be countenanced by thofe notions of the Deity which prevailed among the common people in the heathen world. Revealed religion fets forth a proper object for imitation in that Being who is the pattern, as well as the fource, of all fpiritual perfection.

While we remain in this life we are fubject to innumerable temptations, which, if liftened to, will make us deviate from reafon and goodnefs, 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 deferve them. I fhall therefore difmifs my reader with this maxim, viz. "Our happiness VOL. VIII.

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"in this world proceeds from the fuppreffion "of our defires, but in the next world from the gratification of them."

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N° 635. Monday, December 20, 1714.

Sentio te fedem hominum ac domum contemplari; que fi tibi parva (ut eft) ita videtur, hæc cæleftia femper fpectato; illa humana contemnito. CICERO Somn. Scip.

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

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HE following Effay comes from the in

Tgenious author of the letter upon novelty,

printed in a late SPECTATOR *: the notions are drawn from the Platonic way of thinking; but, as they contribute to raife the mind, and may infpire noble fentiments of our own future grandeur and happiness, I think it well deferves to be prefented to the Public.

F the univerfe be the creature of an intelli

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gent 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

SPECTATOR, N° 626, By Mr. H. Grove.

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reach: the world, as exifting in his eternal idea, was then as beautiful as now it is drawn forth into being; and in the immenfe abyfs of his effence are contained far brighter fcenes than will be ever fet forth to view; it being impoffible that the great Author of nature should bound his own power by giving existence to a fyftem of creatures fo 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 filled up in endless ages; for which reason the most excellent of all God's works must be equally fhort of what his power is able to produce as the most imperfect, and may be exceeded with the fame

eafe.

This thought hath made fome imagine (what it must be confeffed is not impoffible) that the unfathomed space is ever teeming with new births, the younger ftill inheriting greater perfection than the elder. But, as this doth not fall within my prefent view, I fhall content myself with taking notice that the confideration now mentioned proves undeniably, that the ideal worlds in the Divine understanding yield a profpect more ample, various, and delightful, than any created world can do: and that therefore, as it is not to be fuppofed that God should make a world merely of inanimate matter, however diverfified or inhabited only by creatures of no higher an order than brutes, fo the end for which he defigned his reafonable offspring is the contemplation of his works, the enjoyment of Dd 2 himfelf

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