bodies to each oth3r -, and to what degree, on what occaGons, 

 and in what circnm (lances the moft general laws of nature may 

 ftiU be found to vary, or to have varied, we are profoundly 

 ignorant. But with regard to the laws that originate in the 

 nature, and are effential to the conftitution of rational agents, 

 particularly of the human kind, the cafe is very different; 

 though they alfo often reflrid, qualify, or modify each other 

 to a furprifing degree, yet the extent, to which, in confe- 

 quence of thefe modifications, the apparent anomalies of human 

 condu<5l can reach as long as men retain the ufe of their 

 reafon, is perfedly known,* and aberration beyond this limit 

 being inconfiftent with rational nature muft be deemed ira- 

 poflible. 



If therefore the laws of phyfical and thofc of moral nature 

 be in any cafe fo oppofed to each other, that both cannot be 

 reconciled, but one or other muft be deemed to have been in- 

 fringed, it is eafy to difcover which of them, the one being 

 abfolutely, the others only hypothetically inviolable, namely, 

 an- certain known circumftances. 



I NOW 



• Nous qui rommes hommes, ne f^avons ncnifl pas bicn Jufgu' a qutl point J'autres 

 honimes ont pu «tre ou impolleurs ou dupes ? 



roNTENELi-s's Hill, dc* OracTcs, p. 12, in 8vo. 



M 



