and unintelligible, it was neceflary to make 
a new tranflation, he ordered Meflrs. Beau- 
fobre and Lenfant to undertake the work; 
which they executed, with the addition of a 
commentary on all the difficult paflages, &c. 
This attention to the Gofpel in the Pruf- 
fian monarch was not the effect of his reli- 
gious veneration for the writings of the 
Evangelifts ; it muft therefore be afcribed to 
his political fagacity: it was, however, an 
evident acknowledgment of its importance 
to fociety, and a plain confeffion of its ne- 
ceffity. But, be his faith what it might, in 
his various correfpondence with Unbeliev- 
ers, he always fpeaks of the morality of the 
Gofpel with veneration. 
A human Being totally deftitute of reli- 
gion, is not a degree above the brute crea- 
tion. Particular fyftems of Religion out of 
the queftion, it requires very little reflection 
to perceive, that the wonderful creation 
around you is not the effect of any fortui- 
tous arrangement of inanimate matter; an 
opinion, though ftrenuoufly maintained by 
fome philofophers, much too abfurd to de- 
ferve a ferious refutation : It is fuppofing an 
effett without a caufe, than which nothing 
can be more ridiculous. What were the 
fenti- 
