58 MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 



which is best known in Britain, is his Letters 

 to his Daughter on the Truth of the Christian 

 Religion. We can find room but for a very short 

 quotation, which, however, will illustrate the sim- 

 plicity and power of his style. " Your father, who 

 now addresses you, during the period of a long 

 life, spent in continual labour and study, thought 

 himself obliged to consecrate some of his leisure 

 hours to inquiries on the subject of religion. The 

 result of which has been, that those truths which 

 have been called in question, always appeared to 

 him the more evident and respectable, the more at- 

 tentively he examined the reasons and proofs on 

 which they were founded. Who are those sceptics 

 and sneerers, who, in this our day so much abound ? 

 I have read the works of their most famous authors. 

 Not one of them was capable of understanding the 

 true and precise acceptation of the terms made use 

 of in the sacred writings; not one of them had 

 entered deep enough into the study of nature to 

 trace Divinity in the various objects which surround 

 us, notwithstanding those displays are so numerous 

 and illustrious in every work of creation, whether 

 we consider its design or disposition. Therefore, 

 that which furnished Hobbes with a subject of 

 infidelity, confirmed Newton in his faith ; that 

 which was to Ofray a matter of sport, was to 

 Boerhaave an extensive theme for wonder and ado- 

 ration." 



The Baron both spoke and wrote the Gennan 

 language with much elegance and purity. Dr 



