382 GST THE LAWS OF MATURE. 



I do not expecl that fuch events, which are mani-' 

 feftly in the rank of locomutative motion, will be pre- 

 tended by any one to be immediate operations of the 

 divine will. It is not allowed, according to rational 

 philofophy, in the explanation of particular events, 

 which are parts of the fenlible world, to take refuge in 

 the will, or the immediate agency of an hyperphyfical 

 being. Befldes, it can only with great impropriety be 

 faid of the Supreme Being that he has volition. The 

 conclulion from the foregoing conn" derations arifes of 

 itfelf. The firft requisite to the credibility of a facl is 

 its phyfical poffibility. When this is wanting, the re- 

 lator of fuch a faft can have no claim whatever on our 

 acceptation and belief. 



The reafon for our rejection of his teftimony is 

 drawn from the nature of the matter itfelf, i. e. from 

 its phyfical ifnpoffibility. 



This reafon then is fully decifive. When once wc 

 have attended to it, Proculeius may exclaim as loud as 

 he pleafes : " Romans, this prince* whofe death you 

 <c lament, is not dead. He is afcended into heaven, 

 <c where he now fits by the fide of Jupiter." The an- 

 nalifts may affure us to the end of time that Romulus 

 appeared to more than a thou land perfons. More afc 

 lured of the juflnefs of our axioms than of the veracity 

 of their witneiTes ; taught by a thoufand experiences of 

 the mendacity of mankind, but not even by one, of 

 their ability in miracles *, we might reply to fuch a re- 

 lator, in the words of Diderot : Tous les peuples onfc 

 de ces faits, a qui, pour etre merveilleux, il ne manque 



* That the fpirit or foul of Romulus might take its flight to live 

 and operate in another fphere is eaiily conceivable 5 the matter here 

 is only with his body. 



que 



