OP THE ISLE OF CERIGO. IQ<J 



lies to religion, utterly rejected optimlfin, becaufe he 

 can find no fufficient evidences in its favour, and be- 

 caufe, moreover, it is expofed to infurmountable ob- 

 jections. 



Its imain evidence is, I think, built upon the doc- 

 trine of the moral attributes of God. Thefe, however, 

 are not fufceptible of any demon fir at ion, and are con- 

 feffedly a mere human mode of reprefentation. 



OP THE ISLE OP CERIGO, ANTIENTLY CALLED 



CYTHERA. 



w HO has not heard of the ifle of Cvthera, fo much 

 celebrated by antient and modern poets^ the darling 

 abode of the goddefs of beauty and pleaiure ? The 

 abbe Spallanzani, profeffor of natural hiftory at Pavia, 

 paid a vilit to this illand a few years ago, and found 

 nothing on it to induce a mortal, much lefs a god- 

 defs, to wifh to be there. He difcovered not fo much 

 as a trace of its boafted fertility, fplendor, or beauty. 

 He calls it an affemblage of barren and tremendous 

 rocks, which the government of Venice have jultly ap- 

 pointed to be the place of bani'fhment for the dange- 

 rous fyrens and marks that in fell: the flxeets of that 

 city. What chiefly attracted his notice was an unde- 

 fcribable variety of volcanic productions, which were 

 partly mixed with petrified marine bodies, and are 

 clfewhere only found in chalk ftones. He held this for 



a new 



