One Would Appear Ridiculous Who

All Power, Even The Most Despotic, Rests Ultimately On Opinion.

There Surely Is A Being Who Presides Over The Universe; And Who, With Infinite Wisdom And Power, Has Reduced The Jarring Elementsinto Just Order And Proportion. Let Speculative Reasoners Dispute, How Far This Beneficent Being Extends His Care, And Whether He Prolongs Our Existence Beyond The Grave, In Order To Bestow On Virtue Its Just Reward, And Render It Fully Triumphant.

These Arguments On Each Side (and Many More Might Be Produced) Are So Plausible, That I Am Apt To Suspect, They May, The One As Well As The Other, Be Solid And Satisfactory, And That Reason And Sentiment Concur In Almost All Moral Determinations And Conclusions.

And Though The Philosopher May Live Remote From Business, The Genius Of Philosophy, If Carefully Cultivated By Several, Must Gradually Diffuse Itself Throughout The Whole Society, And Bestow A Similar Correctness On Every Art And Calling.

If We Confine Ourselves To A General And Distant Reflection On The Ills Of Human Life, That Can Have No Effect To Prepare Us For Them. If By Close And Intense Meditation We Render Them Present And Intimate To Us, That Is The True Secret For Poisoning All Our Pleasures, And Rendering Us Perpetually Miserable.