I8S STUDIES OF NATURE. 



*^ But," we are told, " every thing dies with 

 ** us. Here we ought to believe our own expe- 

 " rience ; we were nothing before our birth, and 

 " we fliall be nothing after death." 1 adopt the 

 analogy ; but if I take my point of comparifon 

 from the moment when I was nothing, and when 

 I came into exiftence, What becomes of this argu- 

 ment ? Is not one pofitive proof better than all 

 the negative proofs in tne world ? You conclude 

 from an unknown paft to an unknown future, to 

 perpetuate the nothingnefs of Man ; and I, for 

 my part, deduce my confequence from the pre- 

 fent, which I know, to the future, which I do not 

 know, as an affurancie of this future exiftence. I 

 proceed on the prefumption of a goodnefs and a 

 juftice to come, from the inftances of goodnefs 

 and juftice which I adtually fee diffufed over the 

 Univerfe. 



Befides, if we have, in our prefent flate, the 

 (iefire and the pre-fentiment only of a life to 

 come ; and if no one ever returned thence to give 

 us information concerning it, the rcafon is, a 

 proof more fenfible would be inconfiftent with the 

 nature of our prefent life on the Earth. Evidence 

 on this point muft involve the fame inconveni- 

 ences with that of the exiftence of GOD. Were 

 we affured by fome fenfible demonftration, that a 

 world to come was prepared for us, I have the 



fuUeft 



