172 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IT, 



not by their reafon, but by their fenfes, it is neceflary, that, ia 

 the popular religion of every country, there fhould be a great 

 deal of pomp and {how, rites and ceremonies, fuch as we have feen 

 there were in the Jewifh religion, and that of the other countries I 

 have mentioned. Among the Egyptians, their facred animals were 

 fo many memorials of their Gods conftantly before their eyes : So 

 that there was among them more of prefent deity than in any other 

 nation. It is therefore not to be wondered, that they were the moft 

 religious of all nations. And as no people can be happy or well 

 governed without religion, they were for that reafon the happieft 

 people, I believe, that ever exifted, and the beft governed, for the 

 longed tra£l of time, of any nation that we hear of. 



And here we may obferve the difference betwixt the religion of 

 the philofopher, and that of the common man ; the philofopher, 

 having cultivated and improved, by the ftudy of fcience and philofo- 

 phy, that particle of divinity which is in him, forms the ideas of 

 immaterial fubftances, and of intelligence unembodied ; and at lafi: 

 attains to the idea of a fupreme intelligence governing this univerfe, 

 and of numbers of other intelligences under him. And thus he 

 may be faid to live in the world of fpirics, being feparated from bo- 

 dy as much as he can be in this life. While the vulgar mind, im- 

 merfed in body, is only converfant with objeds material, knowing 

 nothing of fuperior intelligences, and not even of lis own, never 

 having ftudied it. Far lefs can he know any thing of the fupreme 

 intelligence, unlefs by figns and fymbols, rites and ceremonies, and 

 other things perceived by his fenfes. But even xhh/eafual religion, 

 as it may be called, if it be well conduded by the rulers of the 

 ftate, will make a great impreflion upon him, and infpire him with 

 religious fentiments, which muft have a great effed upon his man- 

 ners and condutl in this life, and will prepare him alfo for a better 

 life in the next world. But a religion of contetttplation, fuch as 

 that of the philofopher, is not fit for an uninftrudted mind, being, 

 in fuch a mind, apt to run into fanaticifm and wild enthufiafm. 



CHAP. 



