- 49 



ia fine, all thofe events, which mock the rules of human wifdom, and the 

 laws of moral calculation, and are afcribed, by fuperficial obfervers, to 

 chance or fortune. What a flriking analogy prevails between tlic phyfical 

 and moral world ! what minute invifible materials, how fecret in their ge- 

 neration, and low, in their original, of how little weight or power, in 

 the disjunftive, ate the feeds of commotion or change, in the material 

 world, congregated together, and fublimed in air, or concealed and la- 

 bouring in the womb of earth, they produce the ftorm and temped ; 

 overwhelm the ftrong tower ; uproot the giant oak ; tear the folid rock 

 from its bafe ; change the courfe of mighty rivers ; and fwallow up po- 

 pulous cities, with their inhabitants ! equally minute, impalpable, and of 

 fmall moment and eftimation, in the eyes of fuperficial obfervers, are, at 

 mofl times, the political agencies and moral caufes, which fill the intel- 

 leftual fyftem with fiorm, convulfion, change and diflblution, which 

 fubvert the moil powerful fi:ates, and the mofl: abfolutc fovereignties ; and 

 proftrate on earth, or engulph from view, all that has been, for ages, 

 reputed mofl: great and venerable among men. 



When we confider the various fprings and motives of human aftion, 

 ^ which the daring and impetuous may employ, by chance, the profound 



and politic, on principle and by defign, to gain a power, and purchafe, 

 with which they turn and wield the human infl:rument, and make it moll 

 efficacioufly perform the purpofed work of the mover ; we mufl: be coht 

 vinced, that there is none more potent than the Pr;«c/)>/^ of Credulity.— ~ 

 The force and aptitude of epidemic credulity, and of popular delufion to 

 forward, and even to produce great revolutions, is exemplified, in almofl: 

 every page of his hifl:ory. We fhall fee, particularly, in the details of 

 civil commotion, how this great moving fpring is perpetually touched, and 

 praftically employed : fometimes to agitate religious enthufiafra, to render 

 a feft, a party, or an individual odious : at other times, to conciliate to- 

 wards them the confidence and attachment of a populace. Sometimes, 

 the principle of credulity becomes the means of mifleading the public at- 

 tention, of imprefllng falfe notions of the views and motives of govern- 

 ments, and dates; and of concealiij^ their real charafters, and purpofes. 

 Vol. IX. (,'!>'' Sometimes 



