STUDY VII^ 73 



If we make ufe of thefe teftimonles of our 

 weaknefs, and of thefe indications of our heart, in 

 the ftudy of religion, we fliall find that there is 

 nothing that can pretend to that name, on the face 

 of the Earth, fo perfcdiy adapted to the wants of 

 human nature, as the religion of the Bible. I fay 

 nothing of the antiquity of it's traditions. The 

 Poets of moft Nations, Ovid among the reft, have 

 fung the Creation, the happintfs of the Golden 

 Age, the indifcreet curiofity of the firft woman, 

 the miferies which ifTued from Pandora's Box, and 

 the Univerfal Deluge, as if they had copied thefe 

 Hiftories from the Book of Genefis. 



To the Mofaic account of the Creation, and the 

 recent exiftence of the World, have been obje(5ted 

 the antiquity and the multiplicity of certain lavas 

 in volcanos. But have thefe obfervations been ac- 

 curately made ? Volcanos muft have emitted their 

 fiery currents more frequently in the earlier ages, 

 U'hen the Earth was more covered with forefts, and 

 when the Ocean, loaded with it's vegetable fpoils, 

 fupplied more abundant matter to their furnaces. 

 Befides, as I have faid in the courfe of this Work, 

 it is impoffible for us to diftinguifh between what 

 is old and what is modern in the ftrudure of the 

 World. The hand of Creation muft have mani- 

 fefted the imprefs of ages upon it, from the mo- 

 ment of it's birth. Were we to fuppofe it eternal, 



and 



