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difcovered, appeared furprifing, not only to the vulgar and illite- 

 rate, but even to learned men, at a time when natural philofophy 



was in its dawn. What was the confequence ?— Chemiftry 



fpawned an illegitimate brood. The firft chemifts deluded them- 

 felves, and the world, with the hopes, of tranfmuting metals, and 

 finding the grand elixir ; and the enthufiaftic fpirit of the Germans 

 difplayed itfelf, in the dreams and deftrudive purfuits of alchemy, 

 and the fanciful extravagancies of the Rojicrucians. — In more mo- 

 dern times, religious fanatioifm has re-appeared, and fhewn, 

 (though under forms lefs alarming and hideous than formerly) a 

 powerful force of enthufiafm ; in the trances, the abfurd raptures, 

 and extatic vifions of the Myjlics, from Jacob Behmen down to 

 Emanuel Swedenborg ; not to fpeak of the grofs but harmlefs fol- 

 lies of the Moravian brethren. In thofe latter days, when the 

 ftudy of natural knowledge became univerfally prevalent, when 

 the experiments in , eledricity were fo much extended, and medi- 

 cine and the economy of nature were cultivated, with extraordi- 

 nary care, and produced a variety of furprifing difcoveries— here 

 again the enthufiaftic temper of the Germans fliewe^ itfelf, by en- 

 grafting on natural philofophy and medicine the wild chimeras of 

 animal magnetifm, and the pernicious illufions oi Mefmer. Lafl- 

 ly — in thefe days, of innovation, enquiry, and feepticifra, it re- 

 mained for Germany to originate the unaccountable and incoherent 

 fed' of the Illuminati ; a fed of fhreds and patches, a fed com- 

 pofed of contradidions^ which boldly attempts, to combine in one 



chaotifi. 



