baffle the Deity into nothing; unteach the world religion; raze out impressions renewed and transmitted through so many ages, and persuade the race of men to descend a peg lower, and believe they ought to live, and shall die, like the perishing beast;"-who, in short, with the name of philosophers, taught the most consummate folly; and, pretending to set their disciples right on difficult points of religion, seduced them into fatal errors, and extinguished, for ever, the last waning sparks of piety in their bosoms. 4. To the ancient Greek philosophers are, probably, to be ascribed, the first systematic attempts to explain the phenomena of the universe, irrespective of an Omnipotent Intelligence. They taught a kind of theological philosophy; but many of them were atheistically inclined. Their numerous schools were so many nurseries of scepticism; and the founders and principals of these schools-the oracles of their respective sects-were a kind of Titans, who, having made war upon the fabulous gods of the nations, and dealt out destruction to them, sought to subject to a speculative annihilation, the Creator and Upholder of the world. In public, indeed, they favoured the popular superstitions; but, in private, and with their disciples, they laughed at all religion as egregious folly. Their respective theories were so many metaphysical cobwebs, contradictory and childish. Ignorant of inductive logic, they soared into the regions of fancy. To speculate, dispute, quibble, rather than to discover truth, was too much their object. They suggested difficulties, without obviating them; proposed problems, but furnished no solution; amused, but failed to convey solid instruction. Their writings are, for the most part, destitute of interest, with here and there, indeed, a just sentiment, or a felicitous expression, like a few flowers scattered over a wide and sterile waste, or 1 Howe's Living Temple. |