GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 483 



other passive ; and that every thing has been 

 formed from a fluid or chaotic state. 



3. That, with very few individual exceptions, 

 they have all maintained the existence of an In- 

 telligent First Cause ; whether united with, and 

 constituting the informing mind of the stupen- 

 dous whole, as taught by the Chaldeans, Egyp- 

 tians, Phoenicians, Hindoos, Orpheus, Thales, 

 Pythagoras, Hippocrates, and the Stoics ; or ex- 

 isting apart from nature, as an incorporeal Intel- 

 ligence, who governs the universe by delegated 

 laws. 



4. That Bishop Berkeley was right in vindi- 

 cating the ancients from the charge of Atheism, 

 (however erroneous their views concerning the 

 Divine Nature may have been,) which is wholly 

 incompatible with the almost universal belief in 

 a presiding Intelligence. 



It was observed by Cicero, that " the higher we 

 ascend towards the origin of antiquity, or the 

 divine descent of knowledge, the more clear are 

 the traces of truth." And notwithstanding many 

 striking exceptions might be adduced in opposi- 

 tion to this remark, it is extremely probable that 

 in the primitive ages of the world, before it was 

 filled with books, and the minds of men with- 

 drawn from the study of things to that of words, 

 they were more open to the genial impulses of 

 nature, and communed with her more familiarly 

 face to face. 



