such a time; that the physician could be no where but in the town where he was; that thine aunt was to send for him; and that he was to prescribe for her those medicaments which have effected her cure. A peasant imagines that the hail which has fallen in his ground is purely matter of chance; but the philosopher knows that there is no such thing as chance; and that by the constitution of the world, it must necessarily have hailed that day, in that very place. Some, alarmed at this truth, are for having it, as straitened debtors offer half to their creditors, desiring some forbearance for the remainder. There are, say they, necessary events (1), and others which are not so: but it would be odd, indeed, that one part of this world were fixed and not the other; that some things which happen were to happen, and that others which happen were not necessarily to happen. On a close examination, the doctrine which opposes that of destiny, must appear loaded with absurdities, and contrary to the idea of an eternal providence: but many are destined to reason wrongly, others not (1) The physical world is subject to invariable laws; man, therefore, as a physical being, is, like other bodies, governed by those invariable laws: but as an intelligent being, his nature requires him to be a free agent. Our author has taken his notions on this article, and on that of Liberty, from Mr. Locke, who denies that there is such a power in man as a Liberty of Will; which you may see refuted by the ingenious Dr. Clarke, on the Being and Attributes, p. 86. not to reason at all, and others to persecute those who do reason. You ask me what, then, becomes of liberty? I understand you not. I know nothing of that liberty you speak of, nor yourself, indeed; else you would not be so long controverting about its nature. If you will, or, rather, if you can, calmly examine with me what it is, turn to the letter L. DREAMS. "Somnia quæ ludunt animos volitantibus umbris, Non delubra deum, nec ab æthere numina mittunt, Sed sua quisque facit." BUT how so, when all the senses are deadened in sleep, is there one within still alive and active ()? What! when your eyes have lost their (1) M. Voltaire does not seem to be sufficiently acquainted with the cause of dreams, or to have rightly examined that part of natural philosophy. In order to clear up this matter, we should previously inquire into the nature of waking and sleeping. Waking consists in this, that the animal spirits being at that time in great plenty in the brain, and capable of being easily determined to run from thence through all the nerves, they fill them in such a manner as to keep all the capillaments of them stretched and distinct from each other. Sleeping, on the contrary, is caused by a scarcity, or failure, of spirits; so that the pores of the brain, through which the spirits usually run into the nerves, not being kept open by the continual flowing their sight, and your ears their hearing, do you still see and hear in your dreams? The dog hunts in his dreams, barks, chases his prey, and feasts on his reward. That the poet versifies in his sleep, the mathematician views figures, the metaphysician reasons right or wrong, we have many striking instances. Is this the action only of the body's organs, or is it merely the soul, which, now freed from the power of the senses, acts in the full enjoyment of its properties. If the organs alone produce our dreams by night, why not our ideas by day? If it be merely the soul, acting of itself, and quiet by the suspension of the senses, which is the only cause and subject of all your sleeping ideas, whence is it, that they are almost ever irrational, irregular, and incoherent? Can it be, that, in the time of the soul's most abstract quietude, its imagination should be the most confused? Is it fantastical when free? Were it born with metaphysical ideas, as some writers, who were troubled with waking flowing of the spirits, shut up of themselves. The spirits being dissipated, and no new ones flowing in, the capillaments of the nerves will become soft, and cleave to each other; and if, at that time, any object makes an impression on any part of the body, those nerves cannot transmit it to the brain. And hence it follows, that there can be no sensation. But, it may happen that, while we are asleep, some of the animal spirits which are in the brain may shake some of the parts of the brain, in the same manner as they would be shaken by an external object affecting the corporeal senses; then there will be a sensation raised in the soul, and such a sort of perception is called a dream. waking dreams, have affirmed, its pure and luminous ideas of being, of infinitude, and of all primary principles, naturally should awake in her with the greatest energy when the body is sleeping, and men should philosophise best in their dreams. Whatever system you espouse, however you may labour to prove that memory stirs the brain, and your brain your soul, you must allow that, in all your ideas in sleep, you are intirely passive; your will has no share in those images. Thus it is clear, that you can think seven or eight hours on a stretch, without having the least inclination to think, and even without being certain that you do think. Consider this, and tell me what is man's compound? Superstition has always dealt much in dreams; nothing, indeed, was more natural. A man deeply concerned about his mistress who lies ill, dreams that he sees her dying; and the next day she actually dies: then, to be sure, God had given him previous knowledge of his beloved's death. A commander of an army dreams of gaining a battle; gains it; then the gods had intimated to him that he should be conqueror. It is only such dreams as meet with some accomplishment that are taken notice of, the others we think not worth remembrance. Dreams make full as great a part of ancient history as oracles. The end of ver. 26. cap. xix. of Leviticus, the Vulgate renders thus: "Thou shalt no "observe dreams (')." But the word DREAM (1) Most translations have TIMES. is is not in the Hebrew; and it would be some thing odd, that the observance of dreams should be forbidden in the same book, which tells us that Joseph saved Egypt, and brought his family to great prosperity by interpreting three dreams. The interpretation of dreams and visions was so common, that something beyond this knowledge was required; the magician was sometimes even to guess what another had dreamed. Nebuchadnezzar forgetting a dream, ordered the magicians, on pain of death, to find it out; Daniel the Jew, who was of the same school as the magicians, saved their lives, both finding out and interpreting the king's dream. This and many other accounts prove, that oneiromancy, or the intrepretation of dreams, was not prohibited by the Jewish institutes. END, FINAL CAUSES. A MAN, it seems, must be stark mad to deny that the stomach is made for digestion, the eye to see, and the ear to hear. On the other hand, he must be strangely attached to final causes, to affirm, that stone was made to build houses, and that China breeds silk worms to furnish Europe with sattin. But it is said, if God has manifestly made one thing with design, he had a design in every thing. To allow a Providence in one case, and deny it in another, is ridiculous. Whatever is made was foreseen and arranged; now every arrangement has its object, every effect its cause; therefore every thing is equally the result, or the product of a final cause; therefore it is equally true that noses were made to wear spectacles, to say and |