us through a dark and doubtful period, in which history has failed to enlighten or instruct mankind. But in the existence of a cause, and origin of all this mighty scene all men agree. In the vast circle of the earth, we shall not find the nation which has lived without some profession of faith, and without some form of worship. In the most obscure traditions of the most ancient time, we find mention of creeds, mysteries, and ceremonies which equally proclaim the forms of faith, and of superstition. All mankind allow, therefore, the existence of divine power, and the animals of the creation, and the works of nature beautifully prove it; the study of natural philosophy also, adds another testimony, (and perhaps the most interesting and useful of all,) to the truth of this universal belief.

To the historian, the study of this science is highly advantageous, it will prevent him from admitting the marvellous, from attributing events to wrong causes; it will teach him to trust the evidence of reason and experience, and hence, to infer juster conclusions. It opens the great field of religious contemplation, by enabling a man better to understand the great God, and to render to him in the heartfelt emotions of gratitude and admiration, the only praise worthy of his acceptance. With an ignorant world, God is deprived of that praise, and the worship which is paid him is tainted with mean notions of his attributes, or meaner and more groundless fears of his power."

*The Physiologist needs no system of religion, no pompous assertions, no inconsistent doctrines, to show why men and animals are subject to pain, to

The opinion that Asia was the country where the human race had its beginning, and whence its increase was spread over all the earth, seems supported by many strong arguments; and by none more so, than by the fact of its religious traditions having gradually, and from a period too remote for any history to mention, prevailed, and been adopted by all other

disease, and to death. He knows that the cause of our being, of our force, both of mental and bodily duration, is derived from the same source, which produces our infirmities, and that to this cause, we are indebted for the longing desire to avoid danger, and to discover every means of prolonging life and health. Of the former, man is more tenacious than other animals, for man is more timid than they are, from the very superiority of his mental faculties; yet the chief part of his fears may, perhaps, be owing to ignorance and obstinacy, and the machinations of his more cunning fellow creatures.

nations. The formation of the world, the fall of man, the war of giants, the deluge, and the saving of one family, are found detailed in the Chaldean and Indian, Phenician, Egyptian, Persian and Jewish annals. The Celts carefully preserved, and the Druids mysteriously explained, all these reports or traditions.

Tracing the people up to tribes, and the tribes to families, we are conducted at last if not by history, at least by tradition to a single pair, from which nations have been successively produced. The question has been asked, what was the first family? where was it settled? It is a question of fact, and should be answered by history; but history is profoundly silent; her first records have been destroyed by time, and the few lines preserved by Moses, serve rather to excite, than to satisfy our curiosity." In

the feeble rays of its early dawn, which are faintly perceived about two hundred years before the commencement of our present chronology, the whole of Asia, and part of Africa are already occupied by a variety of nations. The warlike struggle is already in full activity, and here and there, are polished states, with useful inventions which must have required long time to produce and develope. The rest of the human race consists of wild hordes, occupied merely with pastoral pursuits, hunting, and robbing. Soon after, a weak glimmering . discovers to us Europe in a similar state of population; here and there traces of culture, industry, and commerce. All this, however, is perceived in only a remote obscurity, where a few points of light occasionally shoot across, to show us the germs of future history, which is still