weak, ignorant, and consequently obstinate men. In its gradual
development it threw off its local character and its particular forms,
and adopted ceremonies more fitted for mankind in general; and in its
ultimate views, it preserves only pure, spiritual, and I may say
philosophical doctrines, the unity of the divine nature and a future
state, embracing a system of rewards and punishments suited to an
accountable and immortal being.

_Phil_.--I have been attentively listening to your discussion. The views
which Ambrosio has taken of Christianity certainly throw a light over it
perfectly new to me; and, I must say in candour, that I am disposed to
adopt his notion of the early state of society rather than that of my
Genius. I have always been accustomed to consider religious feeling as
instinctive; but Ambrosio's arguments have given me something approaching
to a definite faith for an obscure and indefinite notion. I am willing
to allow that man was created, not a savage, as he is represented in my
vision, but perfect in his faculties and with a variety of instinctive
powers and knowledge; that he transmitted these powers and knowledge to
his offspring; but that by an improper use of reason in disobedience to
the divine will, the instinctive faculties of most of his descendants
became deteriorated and at last lost, but that these faculties were
preserved in the race of Abraham and David, and the full power again
bestowed upon or recovered by Christ. I am ready to allow the importance
of religion in cultivating and improving the world; and Ambrosio's view
appears to me capable of being referred to a general law of our nature;
and revelation may be regarded not as a partial interference but as a
constant principle belonging to the mind of man, and the belief in
supernatural forms and agency, the results of prophecies and the
miracles, as one only of the necessary consequences of it. Man, as a
reasoning animal, must always have doubted of his immortality and plan of