58 MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 
whicli is best knowm in Britain, is his Letters 
to his Daughter on the Truth of the Christian 
Religion. We can find room but for a very short 
quotation, which, however, will illustrate the sim- 
plicity and power of his style. “ Your father, who 
now addresses you, during the period of a long 
life, spent in continual labour and study, thought 
himself obliged to consecrate some of his leisure 
hours to inquiries on the subject of religion. The 
result of which has been, that those truths which 
have been called in question, always appeared to 
him the more evident and respectable, the more at- 
tentively he examined the reasons and proofs on 
which they were founded. Who are those sceptics 
and sneerers, who, in this our day so much abound ? 
I have Tead the works of their most famous authors. 
Not one of them was capable of understanding the 
true and precise acceptation of the terms made use 
of in the sacred writings ; not one of them had 
entered deep enough into the study of nature to 
trace Divinity in the various objects which surround 
us, notwithstanding those displays are so numerous 
and illustrious in every work of creation, whether 
we consider its design or disposition. Therefore, 
that which furnished Hobbes with a subject of 
infidelity, confirmed Newton in his faith; that 
which was to Ofray a matter of sport, was to 
Boerhaave an extensive theme for wonder and ado- 
ration.” 
The Baron both spoke and wrote the German 
language with much elegance and purity. Dr 
