386 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



attend it. So much for the Origin of thofe mat- 

 ters ; we mail now fee what hiftory relates con- 

 cerning them. 



II. The arfcient inhabitants of Afia, in gene- 

 ncral, partook of the ardor of their climate, and 

 the Chaldeans, in particular, were the greateft 

 vifionaries- and the pooreft philofophers in the 

 whole world. They faw that there was evil in 

 the world, and they could tell how to afcribe it 

 to the All-perfect Being : for they did not per- 

 ceive, that the terms, good and bad, convey ideas 

 tnat are merely relative or comparative, like 

 thofe of great and little ; that there could be 

 no fuch thing as good, if there were no evil 

 by which it might be compared ; and that this 

 proceeds from the very eflence of all beings- 

 whatfoever. They therefore fuppofed there were 

 two primordial beings, one of which was the au- 

 thor of all good, and whom they named Oro- 

 waffles. Divinity or God j and the other the au- 

 thor of all evil, whom they called Arimanius y 

 Demon or Devil. They did not perceive that 

 it was a far greater offence to the Divinity to 

 fuppofe an oppofite being, another creator and 

 producer befide him, than to fuppofe that he 

 had produced an evil that was unavoidable and 

 abiolutely necefiary, and an evil the idea of 

 which is alfo conftantly relative. 



% ^ 



III. When this Arimanius or devil, however, 

 was once invented, they did not fail a according 



to 



