ON MATTERS OP BELIEF. 



barifm from whence thefe guardian deities of the hu- 

 man race had drawn it. — But thefe revolving returns 

 of the pair, in other forms, this eternal conflict of good 

 and evil, this demolition of that which is, for making 

 room for that which is to be, belongs to the great 

 order of things, the plan whereof is as infcrutable tq 

 you mortals, as the hand that conducts its execution is 

 concealed. It behoves you to comply with neceffity, 

 and to do that to which you feel yourfelves called, 

 without impatience or wearinefs. Like Lucian, when 

 he was borne through the air, with Paedeia in her cha- 

 riot, or like Triptolemus, in the fable, in the dragon- 

 drawn car of Ceres, do thou ftrew all kinds of good 

 feeds on the earth, unconcerned (for thou foweft not 

 for thyfelf) what fruit it lhall bring forth ; whether it 

 fhall fall on good ground, or on the fand, in the water, 

 or on the naked rock. Some part of it will always 

 fpring up, carried perhaps, by fome wind or wave, into 

 a quite different foil from that wherein the feed firft 

 fell, — perhaps not until long after thou art no' more*" 

 Away, then, my friend, with that uncomfortable 

 thought ! And, as we are now in a fituation (our little 

 domeftic circle excepted) wherein we can ferve the 

 world no otherwife than by our good intentions, — 

 let us always be ftrew ing, from time to time, fomewhat 

 whereof we are convinced (at leaft as certainly as man- 

 kind can be convinced of any thing) that the grains 

 are found and good — and then let heaven caufe it to 

 thrive or not, as the great Pepromene has predeter- 

 mined* 



You have feen that what I write contains a feries 

 of facts, that fupply us with the hillory of the 



a % world 



