53^ 



R;ELIGiON. 



REMARKS 



N 



THE 



J ri 



M, 



as 



their language, their manners, cufloms, and many other 



mftances, prove the Afiatic orig 



of the 



why (hould 



we not alfo fufped: their religious principles to have been derived 

 from the fame fource : fecondlyy the indolence and fupinenefs of 



man 



kind is fo great in mofl matters, which require reafoning, at- 

 tention, and judgment, or which, fuppofe a great many abflradt 

 ideas, that we rather choofe to follow a beaten track, than to ftrike 

 out a new one, by dint of argumentation, and by a conflant exertion 



f attention and judgment 



It feems therefore more natural, that 



th 



ihould have adopted the notions of their ancefto 



forefathers, -than to imagine .that they formed the whole fyflem of 

 their religion, by the mere ilrength of their underilandings. 

 Laftly, there is, beyond all doubt, fo great an agreement between 



rehgious principles of Taheitee, and its neighbourhood, and 



the 



thofe of the reft of the Eaft, that we 



heiitate a moment 



pronouncing them to have been imported from Afia 3 nay, if we go 



ftep further in our enquiry 



muft foon find, that th 



not a country, nor a nation exifting, which has not prefervcd fome 

 ideas in their religion, which, when attended to, prove that they 

 were handed down to them by tradition : now, by going backward 

 into remote ages, there muft be at laft a place where we muft ftop ; 



1 



nd this, though ever fo remote in antiquity, feems to have obtained 



thefe notions from the very fource. Mankind, colkaively in its 



2 



infant 



