mote God's glory. This is a devout practice of a prophane custom. What would you say of a pitiful Chiaoux, who, when emptying our Sultan's close-stool should bawl out, To the greater glory of our invincible monarch? Now certainly the difference is greater between the Sultan and God, than between the pitiful Chiaoux and the sublime Sultan.

Ye poor earth-worms, called men, what have you in common with the glory of the infinite essence? Can he desire glory, can he receive any from you? Can he enjoy it? How long, ye twolegged featherless animals, will you make God in your likeness! being yourselves vain and fond of glory, God must needs be so too! Were there several Gods, each of them would be desirous of the applause of his equals, and in that would consist the glory of a God. If infinite grandeur might be brought into a comparison with the extremity of meanness, such a God would be like King Alexander or Scander, who would enter the lift against kings only: but you, poor creatures, what glory can you give to God? Forbear any longer to prophane his sacred name. An emperor, named Octavius Augustus, ordered no panegerics to be made on him in the schools of Rome, that his name might not be debased. But you can neither debase, nor exalt the Supreme Being. Prostrate yourselves, and worship in silence.

Thus spoke Ben-al-bétif, and the Dervises shouted, Glory to God! well has Ben-al-bétif spoken.

GOD

GOD.

IN the reign of Arcadius, Logomacos, a theo

logue of Constantinople, went into Scythia, and stopped at the foot of mount Caucasus in the fertile plains of Zephirim, bordering on Colchis. The good old man Dondindac was, after a light repast, kneeling in his large hall between his vast sheepfold and his ample barn, with his wife, his five sons and five daughters, some of his kindred and his domestics, all chanting the praises of the bounteous giver of all good things, Ho! what art thou about, idolater, said Logomacos to him? I am no idolater said Dondindac. An idolater thou must be, said Logomacos, as being a Scythian, or at least no Greek. Well, and what wast thou gabbling in thy Scythian jargon? All languages are alike in God's ear, answered the Scythian; we were singing his praises. Very extraordinary indeed, replied the theologue, a Scythian family worshipping God without any previous instruction from us! He soon entered into a conversation with Dondindac, for the the. ologue had a smattering of the Scythian, and the other understood a little Greek. This conversation is lately come to light in a manuscript kept in the Imperial library at Constantinople.

LOG. I will see whether thou knowest thy catechism; why prayest thou to God?

DON. Because it is just and proper to worship the Supreme Being, as of him we hold all we have.

LOG. Pretty well for a barbarian: and what afkest thou of him?

DON. I thank God for the good things he

gives me, and even for the crosses with which he tries me. But as for asking him any thing, that's what I never presume to do; he knows what we stand in need of better than ourselves; besides, I should be afraid to ask for sun-shine, when rain would better suit my neighbour.

LOG. Ah! I apprehended we should soon have some nonsense or other from him. Let us take a retrospect of things: who told thee there is a God?

DON. All nature.

LOG. That's nothing; what idea hast thou of God?

DON. That he is my creator, my master, who will reward me if I do well, and punish me if I do amiss.

LOG. That is but trivial and low; let us come to the essential. Is God infinite" secundum quid," or in his essence?

DON. I don't understand you.

LOG. Stupid dolt! is God in a place, or out of all place, or is he every where ?

DON. I know nothing of that; it may be just as you please.

LOG.. Ignorant wretch! Well; can he make what has been not to have been, or that a stick shall not have two ends? Is futurity to him as future or as present? How does he do to bring nothing into existence, and to annihilate existence? DON. I never bestow a thought on those things.

LOG. What an oaf is this! well, I must let myself down, I must suit myself to the meanness of his intellects. Tell me, friend, believest thou that matter can be eternal ?

DON. What is it to me whether it exists from

eternity

eternity or not? I did not exist from eternity. God is always my master and instructor. He has given me the knowledge of justice, and it is my duty to act accordingly. I do not desire to be a philosopher, let me be a man.

LOG. What a plague it is to have to do with such thick-headed creatures. I must proceed gra dually with him? What is God?

DON. My sovereign, my judge, my father. LOG. That's not what I ask you; what is his nature?

DON. To be powerful and good.

LOG. But whether is he corporeal or spiritual?

DON. How should I know.

LOG. What! not know what a spirit is!

DON. Not I in the least, and what should I be the better for such knowledge? Will it mend my morals, make me a better husband, a better father, better master, or better member of socięty?

LOG. A man must be absolutely taught what a spirit is, since it is, it is, it is will let that alone till another time.

not.

well, we

It

DON. I fancy, instead of being able to tell me what it is, you will rather tell me what it is But after so much questioning, may I take the freedom to ask you a question? I was for. merly in one of your temples, and why do you paint God with a long beard.

4

LOG. That is a very abstruse question, and the solution of which would be above your comprehension, without some preliminary instruc tions.

DON. Before you enter on your instructions, I must tell you a circumstance, which I hope

never to forget. I had just built a summerhouse at the end of my garden; and one day sitting in it, heard a mole and a chafer descanting on it: A superb edifice it certainly is, said the mole, and of very great parts must that mole-have been who built it. A mole forsooth! I say a mole too! quoth the chafer; the architect of that pretty building, could be no other than some chafer of an extraordinary genius. This colloquy put me on a resolution never to dispute.

I

GOVERNMENTS,

WHICH IS THE BEST?

Never yet knew any man who had not governed some state or other. I do not speak of their High Mightinesses the ministers, who govern in reality, some two or three years, others six months, and others as many weeks; I mean all other men, who over a bottle, or in their closet, display their system of government, and reform navy, army, law, finances, and church.

Abbé Bourzeis took upon himself to govern France about the year 1645 under the name of Cardinal Richelieu, and composed that Political Will, in which he is for having the nobility enrolled in the cavalry for three years; the land tax to be paid to the chambers of accounts and the parliament, and taking away from the king the produce of the salt-tax: in order to take the field with 50,000 men, he makes it a point of œconomy to raise 100,000. He affirms, that "Provence alone has many more fine sea-ports "than Spain and Italy put together."