growth of evil in this world. He invents a good and an evil principle named Oromazes and Arimanes, who are in continual conflict for preference. At the last day, Oromazes will be reunited to the fupreme God, from whom he iffued. Arimanes will be fubdued, darkness destroyed; and the world, purified by an universal conflagration, will become a luminous and fhining abode, from which evil will be excluded. I return to the Edda, which is ftored with fables of this kind. The higheft notion favages can form of the gods, is that of men endowed with extraordinary power and knowledge. The only puzzling circumftance is, how they differ fo much from other men as to be immortal. The Edda accounts for it by the following fable. "The gods prevented the effect of "old age and decay, by eating certain apples, trufted to the care of Iduna. "Loke, the Momus of the Scandinavians,

craftily convey'd away Iduna, and conἐσ cealed her in a wood, under the cufto"dy of a giant. The gods, beginning

66

66

to wax old and gray, detected the author of the theft; and, by terrible menaces, compelled him to employ his ut"most

"most cunning, for regaining Iduna and "her apples, in which he was fuccefsful." The origin of poetry is thus accounted for in the fame work: "The gods formed Cuafer, who traversed the earth, teaching wisdom to men. He was treacher"oufly flain by two dwarfs, who mixed "honey with his blood, and compofed a

66

liquor that renders all who drink of it

poets. These dwarfs having incurred "the refentment of a certain giant, were "exposed by him upon a rock, furround"ed on all fides with the fea. They gave "for their ranfom the faid liquor, which "the giant delivered to his daughter Gun"loda. The precious potion was eagerly "fought for by the gods; but how were

they to come at it? Odin, in the shape "of a worm, crept through a crevice in66 to the cavern where the liquor was con❝cealed. Then refuming his natural shape, and obtaining Gunloda's confent to take three draughts, he fucked up

the whole; and, transforming himself "into an eagle, flew away to Afgard. The

giant, who was a magician, flew with "all speed after Odin, and came up with "him near the gate of Afgard. The gods VOL. III. I i

"iffued

1

"iffued out of their palaces to assist their "mafter; and prefented to him all the

pitchers they could lay hands on, which ❝he inftantly filled with the precious liquor. But in the hurry of difcharging "his load, Odin poured only part of the

liquor through his beak, the rest being "emitted through a lefs pure vent. The "former is bestow'd by the gods upon

good poets, to infpire them with divine "enthufiafm. The latter, which is in "much greater plenty, is bestow'd liberally on all who apply for it; by which means the world. is peftered with an "endlefs quantity of wretched verfes." Ignorance is equally credulous in all ages. Albert, furnamed the Great, flourished in the thirteenth century, and was a man of real knowledge. During the course of his education he was remarkably dull; and fome years before he died became a sort of changeling. That fingularity produced the following ftory. The holy Virgin, appearing to him, demanded, whether he would excel in philofophy or in theology: upon his chufing the former, fhe promised, that he fhould become an incomparable philofopher; but added, that to punish

him

him for not preferring theology, he should become ftupid again as at first.

Upon a flight view, it may appear unaccountable, that even the groffeft favages fhould take a childish tale for a folid reafon. But nature aids the deception: where things are related in a lively manner, and every circumstance appears as paffing in our fight, we take all for granted as true (a). Can an ignorant ruftic doubt of infpiration, when he fees as it were the poet fipping the pure celeftial liquor? And how can that poet fail to produce bad verfes, who feeds on the excrements that drop from the fundament even of a deity?

In accounting for natural appearances, even good writers have betray'd a weaknefs in reafoning, little inferior to that above mentioned. They do not indeed put off their difciples with a tale; but they put them off with a mere fuppofition, not more real than the tale. Defcartes afcribes the motion of the planets to a vortex of ether whirling round and round. He thought not of enquiring whether there really be fuch a vortex, nor what makes it

(a) Elements of Criticism, vol. 1. p. 105. edit. 5.

move. M. Buffon forms the earth out of a splinter of the fun, ftruck off by a comet, May not one be permitted humbly to enquire at that eminent philofopher, what formed the comet? This paffes for folid reafoning; and yet we laugh at the poor Indian, who fupports the earth from falling by an elephant, and the elephant by a tortoife.

It is still more ridiculous to reafon upon what is acknowledged to be a fiction, as if it were real. Such are the fictions admitted in the Roman law. A Roman taken captive in war, loft his privilege of being a Roman citizen; for freedom was held effential to that privilege. But what if be made his escape after perhaps an hour's detention? The hardship in that cafe ought to have fuggested an alteration of the law, fo far as to fufpend the privilege no longer than the captivity subsisted. But the ancient Romans were not fo ingenious. They remedied the hardship by a fiction, that the man never had been a captive. The Frederician code banishes from the law of Pruffia an endless number of fictions found in the Roman law (a). Yet

(a) Preface, § 28.

afterward,