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النشر الإلكتروني

THE

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION

I

TO VOLUME THE SECOND.

KNOW not, whether among the multitude of interesting objects which hiftory offers to our reflection, there are any more worthy to engage our thoughts, than te different Religions which have appeared with fplendour in the world.

It is on this stage, 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 sensible how far our natures are capable of being debased by prejudices, or elevated, even above themselves, by found and folid principles. If the

VOL. II.

a

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 essential to our nature. In short 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 superficial. 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 see it enforcing and supporting despotifm; in another restraining it: It has constituted the very foul and spirit of more than one republic. Conquerors have frequently been unable to depress 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 such preffing motives, and speaks so strongly to mens most important and dearest interests, that where it happens not to be analagous to the national character of the people who have adopted

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