served. It stands opposed to atheism; which is a belief that there is no such thing as a divine power. Morality differs from it as a prince's general law doth from the attendance required on his person, and especial services relating to that. He who is a neglecter of the prince's law, will hardly be accepted of to attend on his person; but he who onely applies himself to an observance of the law, shall never merit any reward from the prince. Profaneness is the contempt of divine service, and Superstition is a way of service full of pomp and affectation, but altogether without warrant. All religions require reverence internal and external to the Deity, and all religions require sincerity of heart in the divine service. The true religion (besides these) requires chastity and sobriety in the votary, and a desire to do all possible good to mankind, and to every particular person as farr as it may stand with GOD's honour, and publique society." The very sensible moral observations and political reflections of lord North, prefixed to his "Narrative of some Passages in, or relating to, the Long Parliament," may appositely be cited in times like the pre sent. "In matters political it is seldom found, that events depend upon causes necessarily producing them; and when they do, there must be some great imperfection in the original constitution of a state, as writers in politicks affirm, of civil war arising in an oligarchy, by reason of many dependences upon great persons possest of the sovereign power, whose private and differing interests distract the forces of such common causes. wealths. But this cannot be our case, who live in an extraordinary well-tempered monarchy, where the perfect constitution is sufficiently proved by an efflux of very much time, without the appearance of any visible defect. We must therefore search out other It cannot be doubted, that there is a Divine Providence which ordereth and governeth all things: but as this is above us, and altogether out of our sight, so we must rather submit chearfully, than make any inquisition about it. As for second causes, in disturbance of states, none can justifie an armed opposition by subjects against their sovereign; and unless there be some plausible title to the supreme power, there is seldom any that become considerable, but discontents upon conceit of misgovernment: and in this case, the justness of discontent is not so dangerous, as the generality of it; and in that respect, designs grounded upon right reason, and with certainty of publick advantage, if effected, are yet well laid aside, when liable to a general misconstruction, in the way either of danger or oppression. "What shall we think of those, who in this our island, so trouble the waters at home (to fish out a greatness for themselves) as to sever the head from its body, and by unsinewing the government, to batter down all the pillars that support it, and so bring an absolute anarchy and confusion upon the whole nation? Surely the depth of this offence is not to be fathomed; yet thus much is ordinarily said in their defence that they were so far from designing anarchy that they intended reformation, and the setting up of : a much more accomplished government. It is easy to be believed, that confusion was not their ultimate end, and there needeth no other proof of it than the actings of their leviathan Cromwell, who made his own personal greatness the foundation of something in the way of new government. And the intent of reformation or of a new model, can be no justification of any particular rebellion, since the same ends are pretended to by all persons, that at any time raise a power in opposition to the present governors, as those very persons found by experience during their short rule."] ANNE, VISCOUNTESS CONWAY. [THIS learned and philosophical lady was the daughter of sir Heneage Finch, knight, recorder of London, and wife to Edward, viscount Conway. She died at Ragland in Warwickshire, Feb. 23, 1678; and was by the famous Van Helmont preserved in her coffin in spirits of wine, with a glass over her ace, that her lord, who was in Ireland when she died, might see her before her interment 2. She has been pointed out 3 as the author of a singular book, full of obscurities and paradoxes, printed at Amsterdam in 1690, 12m0. with this title: Opuscula philosophica, quibus continentur Principia Philosophiæ, antiquissimæ et recentissimæ, de Deo, Christo, et Creaturâ: id est, de Spiritu et Materiâ in Genere, &c. Opusculum posthumum, ẹ Linguâ Anglicanâ Latinitate donatum, cum Annotationibus ex antiquâ Hebræorum Philosophiâ desumtis." Leibnitz, in a German literary journal, ascribed this production to the countess of Connaway, on the information of Mr. Helmont; and her ladyship is • Gent. Mag. for 1784, part ii. p. 972. thus plausively adumbrated in the editor's address to the reader: "Opusculum hoc in tui gratiam edimus, quod conscriptum fuit ante annos haud ita multos à comitissa quadam Anglicana, femina ultra sexum erudita, Latinæ, Græcæque literaturæ peritissima, inque omni philosophandi genere quam maxime versata. Illa cum primum Cartesii imbuta esset principiis, visisque istorum defectibus, postea ex lectione quorundam genuinæ antiquitatis philosophiæ scriptorum tam multa observavit, ut pauca hæc capitula in suum conscriberet usum, sed plumbagine saltem et charactere minutissimo. Quæ cum post mortem ejus invenirentur, ex parte descripta, (quia quæ restant vix legi potuerant hactenus) et Latinitate donata sunt, ut aliqua hinc toti orbi literato pronasceretur utilitas, eademque jam publici juris fiunt, ut quilibet autorem mirari, veram philosophiam agnoscere erroresque heu ! nimium jam communes fæcilius evitare queat." The close of the concluding section, which is directed against the materialists Descartes, Hobbes, and Spinosa, may perhaps be admissible: "Per hæc omnia facile responderi potest ad omnia argumenta, quibus aliqui probari volunt, corpus omnino incapax esse sensus vel perceptionis: modusque facile ostendi potest, quomodo corpus aliquod gradatim pervenire queat ad istam perfectionem, ut non solum capax sit talis perceptionis et cognitionis, qualem bruta habent, sed qualiscunque perfectionis, qua in ullum hominem vel angelum cadere potest, atque sic non |