Chap.XVIIL ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 547 



It Is an obfervatlon as old as the days of Plato *, that vanity, and 

 a fond conceit of wifdom and fuperior parts, is the great fource of A- 

 thcifm. And it is an obfervation that, I believe, will be found as true 

 now as it was then ; at lead, the believers of that kind that I have 



converfed 



* The paffage is in the loth book of his LawSy in the beginning, where he fays, 

 That we are not to Imagine that luft, intemperance, or violent paflions of any kind, 

 are the only caufe of Atheifm ; but what chiefly gives rife to it is, »fcx9r» [txXx '/;c6xi7rn, 

 liK»vrx inxi fityta-Tn <p^cty»rii' * A grievous ignorance, but appearing to itfelf the 



* greateft wifdom/ And, a little after, he calls Atheifm t«» 7r*>x Ttoxxtn ^'o^x^aumr 

 fiHBt cri^MTXTtt vTrxfrmy A«y«». * That which, to many, fecms the wifeft of all doc- 



* trines.* 



The triumph of the Atheift over religion and popular prejudices, is finely defcribed 

 by Lucretius, in the praife he bellows upon his mafter Epicurus : 



Quem nee fama Dcum, nee fulmina, nee minitanti 



Murmure compreflit coelum, fed eo magis acrem 



Virtutem irritat animi, confringerc ut ardla 



Naturae primus portarum clauflra cupiret ; 



Ergo vivida vis animi pcrvicit, et extra 



ProcelTit longe flammantia moenia mundi, 



Atque omne immenfum peragravit mente animoque:— -— 



And again, 



Quare rcliglo pedibus (uhjcCiz viciflim 



Obteritur, nos exaequat vi6toria coelo. Lib. I. 



This philofophical pride, joined to the vanity of a French bel efprit, has produced 

 fuch works as Le /y/leme dc !a Nature, Traite fur /' Efprit, I' Homme Machine, not to 

 mention works of the fame kind in our own country, which are as difgraccful to 

 philofophy, as they are pernicious and hurtful to fociety, and an infult upon its laws. 

 A fcholar, however, and a man of tafte, would read their works with fome pleafure 

 as he docs the poems of Lucretius, if it could be faid of them, what Lucretius fays 

 very truly of himfelf, that 



■Mufaeo contingit cunfla lepore. 



But I will venture to affirm, that no man, who, by the ftudy of the bcft monu- 

 mentsof the writing art, has learned to know what good writing is, will approve of 

 the ftyle of thofc writers, any more than of their matter. 



i^»v 



