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THE

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION

I

TO VOLUME THE SECOND.

KNOW not, whether among the mul

titude of interesting objects which history offers to our reflection, there are any more worthy to engage our thoughts, than te different Religions which have appeared with splendour in the world.

It is on this ftage, if I may be allowed the expreffion, that men are represented, as they really are; that their characters are distinctly marked and truly exhibited. Here they display all the foibles, the paffions and wants of the heart; the resources, the powers and the imperfections of the mind.

It is only by studying the different Religions that we become fenfible how far our natures are capable of being debafed by prejudices, or elevated, even above themfelves, by found and folid principles. If VOL. II.

a

the

the human heart is a profound abyss, the Religions that have prevailed in the world have brought to light its most hidden secrets: They alone have imprinted on the heart all the forms it is capable of receiving. They triumph over every thing that has been deemed most effential to our nature. In fhort it has been owing to them that man has been either a Brute or an Angel.

This is not all the advantage of this study: Without it our knowledge of mankind must be extremely fuperficial. Who knows not the influence which Religion has on manners and laws? Intimately blended, as it were, with the original formation of different nations, it directs and governs all their thoughts and actions. In one place we fee it enforcing and fupporting defpotifm; in another reftraining it: It has conftituted the very foul and fpirit of more than one republic. Conquerors have frequently been unable to deprefs it, even' by force; and it is generally either the foul to animate or the arm to execute the operations of politics.

Religion acts by fuch preffing motives, and speaks fo ftrongly to mens most important and deareft interefts, that where it happens not to be analagous to the national character of the people who have adopted

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