vours of devotion, or too intenfe an application of the mind to its mistaken duties, it deferves our compaffion in a more particuJar manner. We may however learn this lesson from it, that fince devotion itself (which one would be apt to think could not be too warm) may diforder the mind, unless its heats are tempered with caution and prudence, we fhould be particularly careful to keep our reafon as cool as polfible, and to guard our felves in all parts of life against the influence of paffion, imagination, and constitution.

Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reafon, is very apt to degenerate into enthusiasm. When the mind finds herfelf very much inflamed with her devotions, fhe is too much inclined to think they are not of her own kindling, but blown up by fomething divine within her. If fhe indulges this thought too far, and humours the growing paffion, fhe at last flings her self into imaginary raptures and ecftafies; and when once fhe fancies herself under the influence of a divine impulfe, it is no wonder if fhe flights human ordinances, and refules to comply with any established form of religion, as thinking herfelf directed by a much fuperior guide.

As enthufiafm is a kind of excess in devo

tion, fuperftition is the excess not only of devotion, but of religion in general; according to an old heathen faying, quoted by Aulus Gellius, Religentem effe oportet, religiofum nefas; A man fhould be religious not fuperftitious: For as the author tells us, Nigidius obferved upon this paffage, that the Latin words which terminate in ofus generally imply vitious characters, and the having of any quality to an excess.

An enthusiast in religion is like an obstinate clown, a fuperftitious man like an infipid courtier. Enthufiafm has fomething in it of madness, fuperftition of folly. Moft of the fects that fall fhort of the church of England have in them ftrong tinctures of enthusiasm, as the Roman Catholick religion is one huge over-grown body of childish and idle fuperftitions.

The Roman Catholick church feems indeed irrecoverably loft in this particular. If an abfurd drefs or behaviour be introduced in the World, it will foon be found out and discarded: On the contrary, a habit or ceremony, tho' never fo ridiculous which has taken fanctuary in the church, fticks in it for ever. A Gothic bishop, perhaps, thought it proper to repeat fuch a form in fuch particular fhoes or flippers; another fancied it would be very decent if

fuch a part of publick devotions were performed with a mitre on his head, and a crofier in his hand: To this a brother Vandal, as wife as the others, adds an antick drefs, which he conceived would allude very aptly to fuch and fuch myfteries, till by degrees the whole office has degenerated into an empty fhew.

Their fucceffors fee the vanity and inconvenience of thefe ceremonies; but instead of reforming, perhaps add others, which they think more fignificant, and which take poffeffion in the fame manner, and are never to be driven out after they have been once admitted. I have feen the pope officiate at St. Peters, where for two hours together, he was bufied in putting on or off his different accoutrements, according to the different parts he was to act in them.

Nothing is fo glorious in the eyes of mankind, and ornamental to humane nature, fetting afide the infinite advantages which arife from it, as a ftrong fteady mafculine piety; but enthufiafm and fuperftition are the weakneffes of human reafon, that expofe us to the fcorn and derifion of infidels, and fink us even below the beasts that perifh.

Idolatry may be looked upon as another error arifing from miftaken devotion; but because

because reflections on that fubject would be of no use to an Englilb reader I fhall not enlarge upon it.

SPECTATOR, N° 519.

A Differtation on the Animal Creations

T

Hough there is a great deal of plea fure in contemplating the material world, by which I mean that system of bodies into which nature has fo curioufly wrought the mafs of dead matter, with the feveral relations which thofe bodies bear to one another; there is ftill, methinks, fomething more wonderful and furprizing in contemplations on the world of life, by which I mean all thofe animals with which every part of the universe is furnished. The material world is only the fhell of the universe : The world of life are its inhabitants.

If we confider thofe parts of the material world which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore subject to our obfervations and enquiries, it is amazing to confider the infinity of animals with which it is ftocked. Every part of matter is peopled: Every green leaf fwarms with inhabitants. There is fcarce a fingle humour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our A a glaffes

N° 8. glaffes do not discover myriads of living creatures. The furface of animals is alfo covered with other animals, which are in the fame manner the bafis of other animals, that live upon it; nay, we find in the moft folid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells and cavities that are clouded with fuch imperceptible inhabitants, as are too little for the naked eye to difcover. On the other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we fee the feas, lakes and rivers teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures: We find every mountain and marsh, wilderness and wood, plentifully stocked with birds and beafts, and every part of matter affording proper neceffaries and conveniencies for the livelihood of multitudes which inhabit it.

The author of the Plurality of worlds, draws a very good argument from this confideration, for the peopling of every planet; as indeed it seems very probable from the analogy of reason, that if no part of matter, which we are acquainted with, lies waste and useless, thofe great bodies which are at fuch a diftance from us fhould not be defart and unpeopled, but rather that they fhould be furnished with Beings adapted to their refpective fituations.

Existence is a bleffing to thofe Beings only