342 √62 1802 ADVERTISEMENT. THE HE great noise which the following work has made on account of the author's freedom in regard to matters of religion, may probably occasion some people to be offended with the republication of it. But an exception of this kind must surely be the effect of prejudice, and is impossible to be defended upon the principles of reason and philosophy. True religion is not afraid of bearing the strictest examination; the attacks of infidels, instead of weakening her authority, rather contribute to her triumphs. She is ever ready to hear what her adversaries have to oppose; and calmly endeavours to refute their errors. This is a maxim agreeable to sound sense, and the contrary doctrine is calculated only for the meridian of the inquisition. M347938 It must be acknowledged, however, that in writings of this sort, some regard ought to be shewn to the illiterate and the vulgar; neither is it fit that their minds should be unhinged in their assent to the true religion. This indulgence to the public is shewn in the following translation; care has therefore been taken to make proper strictures on such passages as are most exceptionable, and even to refute at large some articles which may be suspected to have a dangerous tendency. These are blemishes, which, as a judicious critic observes, are capable of disfiguring, but not of intirely destroying the merit of this work. Though our author is no divine, he is a poet, an historian, a philosopher, and in many re-spects a most agreeable writer. In such a multiplicity of articles he has an opportunity of displaying not only his wit and humour, but likewise a great fund of erudition. Where he does not intermeddle with religion, he is very enter entertaining, and oftentimes instructive. Even when writing on religious matters, he is not always deserving of censure; for instance, his article of toleration contains excellent doctrine, and shews him to be endowed with good nature and humanity. This appears even in the singularity of many of his notions, which were owing to the favourable opinion he entertains of mankind. He thinks that we are not naturally prone to vice; that virtue consists only in doing good to our neighbour; that neither the Greeks nor Romans were idolaters; opinions, which, however erroneous, are an indication of his benevolent disposition. A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. ABRAHAM. ABRAHAM is a name famous in Asia Minor and Arabia, like Thaut among the Egyptians, the first Zoroaster in Persia, Hercules in Greece, Orpheus in Thracia, Odin among the Northern nations, and many others, known rather by their celebrity than by any authentic history. Here I speak only of prophane history; for as to that of the Jews, our teachers and our enemies, whom we believe and detest at the same time, the history of this people having manifestly been written by the Holy Ghost, we have for it all the sentiments we ought. We here address ourselves only to the Arabs, who boast of being descended from Abraham by Ishmael, and believe that this patriarch built Mecca, and that he died in this city. The truth is, that Ishmael's progeny has been favoured by God infinitely more than that of Jacob. Both races indeed have produced robbers, but the Arabian robbers have prodigiously surpassed the Jewish. B Jacob's |