pends fo much upon man, that two and two could not be equal to four, nor fire produce heat, nor the fun light, without an act of the human understanding. OF GOD. That it is unreasonable to believe GOD to be infinitely wife and good, while there is any evil or diforder in the universe. That we have no good reafon to think the univerfe proceeds from a cause. That as the exiftence of the external world is queftionable, we are at a lofs to find arguments by which we may prove the exiftence of the Supreme Being, or any of his attributes. That when we speak of Power, as an attribute of any being, GOD himfelf not excepted, we ufe words with out meaning. That we can form no idea of power, nor of any being endued with power, much less of one endued with infinite power; and that we can never have reafon to believe, that any object or quality of any object exifts, of which we cannot form an idea.* OF THE MORALITY OF HUMAN That every human action is neceffary, and could not have been different from what it is. That moral, intellectual, and corporeal virtues are nearly of the fame kind-In other words, that to want honefty, and to want understanding, The poor prodigal Gentile, in the parable, was hardly reduced to feed upon fuch HUSKS as thefe. How good and how joyful a thing muft it be, for one, that has been fo reduced to return to the houfe of his heavenly Father, where there is bread enough and to Spare-to know the only true GOD, and JESUS CHRIST, whom he bath fent! and to want a leg, are equally the objects of moral difapprobation. That adultery must be practised, if men would obtain all the advantages of life; that, if generally practifed, it would in time cease to be fcandalous; and that, if practifed fecretly and frequently, it would by degrees come to be thought no crime at all. Laftly, as the foul of man, according to Mr. HUME, becomes every moment a different being, the confequence muft be, that the crimes committed by him at one time, cannot be imputable to him at another.* I believe, Doctor SMITH, the reader is now fully prepared to enter into the fpirit of your concluding fentence, which therefore shall be mine. "My Enquiry concerning the Principles of "Morals is of all my writings, hiftorical, philofophical, or literary, incomparably the "BEST." LIFE, p. 16. "I have always confidered Mr. "HUME, both in his life time, and fince his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of A PERFECTLY “WISE AND VIRTUOUS MAN, as perhaps the nature of human frailty "will permit." LETTERS ON INFIDELITY, INTRODUCTORY LETTER, TO W. S. ESQ. DEAR SIR, You OU express your furprise, that after the favourable manner in which the Letter to Dr. Smith was received by the public, and the service which, as you are pleased to say, was effected by it, nothing farther should have been attempted; espe |