believe any thing without the evidence of his senses, but their own assertions..

The antipathy with which the over-informed regard the under-informed, and the fear tinctured with dislike with which the latter contemplate the former, in its nature and effects most resembles that mutual repulsion which subsists between those who have no claim to distinction, but the single one arising from the possession of wealth; and those whose claims are so many and so manifest, that they attain pre-eminence and consideration without it. Yet among the many witty, and many learned, who regard with supreme contempt

"Those to whom the world unknown
“With all its shadowy shapes is shewn,”

some may be found, who can accredit or create very strange voices and appear`ances of their own, when it happens to suit their system: Of these many instan

ces might be given. The conclusion drawn from the inebriation of self-confident knowledge, tends pretty much tó the same point with that inferred from the delusions of ignorance. For, of the world unseen, we know nothing but what we are told, and he who does not believe in the only intelligence afforded us must be equally ignorant, though not equally blameless. From all this it appears, that humble trust in the truths revealed to us and full confidence in the divine protection is the only certain remedy for the delusions of the imagination.

who slight or disbelieve revelation have not been exempted from meeting with things supernatural and as incomprehensible in their tendency, as the most vulgar visions of the most ignorant peasant. Witness the younger Lord Lyttleton's story of the mysterious hunter, or if the

letters ascribed to him, should be given up as apocryphal, still the vision by which his approaching death was announced, remains upon record uncontradicted.

Of the general belief which prevailed even in fashionable circles of this last apparition, I shall say little, either as to its existence, or its effects; because those who do, or do not believe in revealed re, ligion, might be from different motives equally concerned to establish or destroy the evidence of the fact.

But there is a most extraordinary : claim on our credulity advanced by a cotemporary nobleman whose literary reputation is better established than that of his orthodoxy, and who indeed mentions every subject of that nature with great levity, when he mentions it at all.

In his life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the most accomplished unbeliever of his day, he records a testimony against revelation of a very singular nature,

It seems this learned and gallant person" by observation, travel, and deep thought," had discovered that the belief of revelation was merely a proof of the credulity of weak well-meaning peo ple, and far below one who was at once an accomplished chevalier, a nobleman, and a philosopher.

He had at the time, the merit of originality, and his opinions were bright in all the gloss of novelty: Yet thinking probably that opinions pleasing and suitable to such exalted and informed persons as himself, might not be so perfectly convenient for the vulgar, who were accustomed to support themselves under hardships and privations with the belief which he had relinquished, his lordship appears to have felt some humane qualms about diminishing the few comforts of those whose hope is not of this world, by publishing his opinions. He prayed

however for direction, what to do in this

very difficult case: A case which admitted of no alternative.

Either Lord Cherbury's sublime discovery must have rested with himself, and the applause due to such exalted wisdom and profound knowledge be lost, on a very great number of good wellmeaning people, who were going quietly on as they thought in their heaven-ward path, must be plunged in doubt and darkness, and robbed of their best consolation. Now, who ever heard of so considerate and humane a sceptic as Lord Cherbury. He first hesitated between the gratifying his own vanity, as leader of a sect, and the consequences which might result from it to others, and then actually prayed for direction: Nay, more, he did not pray in vain, for his historian. tells us, that a voice was distinctly heard, encouraging, and even authorizing him to proceed. The noble historian of the noble unbeliever relates this calmly, with