I20 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



they likened to a Divinity in many refpects, and particularly in this, 

 that, in every thing he did, he had the whole fyfteni of the Univerfe 

 in view, and never aded from partial confiderations. Such Virtue as 

 this, it is evident, can only be the Virtue of a philofopher, and a 

 philofopher of the moft exalted kind : But all the Virtues, even thofe 

 of vulgar men, muft have a reference to fome Syftem, greater or lefs, 

 and from thence derive that Beauty which is effential to Virtue. 



As there can be no Virtue without a Senfe of the Beautiful, fo nei- 

 ther can there be any Religion ; for there can be no Religion with- 

 out the higheft admiration of the Deity. Now, the proper obje£t 

 of admiration is Beauty ; for the Grand, the Sublime, the Majeftic, 

 are but names for the higheft order of Beauty, which we contem- 

 plate in the greateft and moft awful objeds. A Religion, therefore, 

 of which the only pafTion is Terror and Conftcrnation, without any 

 mixture of Love, Admiration, or Joy, in the Contemplation of the 

 objedt of its worfhip, is truly no Religion, but a pannic terror, and 

 miferable diforder of Mind. Nor ought fuch a diabolical Religion to 

 be dignified with the name of Enthu/ta/m, which is one of the no- 

 bleft pafTions in our Nature, and which, in a certain degree, muft al- 

 ways accompany true Religion ; For it is nothing elfe but a high and 

 ecftatic admiration of Beauty in any objedl ; and the higher the ob- 

 jeft is, the more rapturous and tranfporting the admiration fhould 

 be. The Deity, therefore, being the higheft of all objedls, the Re- 

 ligious Enthufiafm ought, for that rcafon, to be the higheft. The 

 next to it is the Enthufiafm of the philofopher, who contemplates 



the 



Great City; lib. 2. p. 16. — Marcus Antoninus, in another paflage, lib. 9. par. 3. gives 

 an example of the difference betwixt a common ofHce or duty, and a x.xTt^Suft» or per- 

 fcft right aflion, with refpe(5l to the fear of death : Who chearfullv fubmiis to death, 

 as a thing as natural as to be born, to grow, bring forth teeth, or any other natural 

 operation, and that is abfolutely necefTary to the order of Nature, according to which 

 there is a cor.ftant fucceflion of generation and corruption, compofition and difToIution— 

 He is a wife and virtuous man : But, who fubmits only in the view of leaving a bad 

 world, and being free of prefent pain and mifery, is but a vulgar min. 



