ARCADIA. 409 



feoârd, which with no fmall difficulty we efcaped. 

 After running fiich a dreadful rifk, we durft not 

 venture again to difembark on fuch inhofpitable 

 fliores, which Nature has to no purpofe placed 

 under a ïky fo ferene. 



I was fo irritated at the crofs accidents of an 

 expedition undertaken for the fervice of Man- 

 kind, and efpecially at this laft inftance of perfidy, 

 that I faid to Cephas i " The whole Earth, I be- 

 *' lieve, Egypt excepted, is peopled with barbar 

 *' rians. I am perfuaded that abfurd opinions, in 

 *^ human religions, and ferocious manners, are the 

 *' natural portion of all Nations ; and it is, un- 

 " doubtedly, the will of Jupiter, that they fliould 

 *' be for ever abandoned to thefe ; for he has fub- 

 *' divided them by fo many different languages, 

 ** that the mod beneficent of Mankind, fo far 

 ** from having it in his power to reform ihem, is 

 *' not capable of fo much as making himfelf under- 

 " ftood by them." 



Cephas thus replied : *' Let us not accufe Jit- 

 " piter of the ills which infeft Mankind. The 

 ** human mind is fo contraded, that though we 

 *' fometimes feel ourfelves much incommoded, it 

 *' is impoflible for us to imagine how we could 

 ** mend our condition. If we remove a fingle one 

 ** of the natural evils of which we fo bitterly com- 



" plain, 



