4 cal, which I think sets it in its proper Light.

IT is of dangerous Confequence, fays he, to reprefent to Man how near he is to the level of Beafts, without fhewing him " at the fame time his Greatnefs. It is likewife dangerous to let him fee his Greatness, without his Meannefs. It is • more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant .6 of either, but very beneficial that he ..C fhould be made fenfible of both. What. ever Imperfections we may have in 6 our Nature, it is the Business of Religion and Virtue to rectify them, as far as is confiftent with our present State. In the mean time, it is no small Encouragement to generous Minds to confider that we hall put them all off with our Mortality. That sublime manner of Salutation with which the Jews approached their Kings,

O King, live for ever!

may be addreffed to the lowest and moft defpifed Mortal among us, under all the Infirmities and Diftreffes with which we fee him furrounded. And whoever believes the Immortality of

the

the Soul, will not need a better Argument for the Dignity of his Nature, nor a stronger Incitement to Actions fuitable to it.

"I am naturally led by this Reflection to a Subject I have already touch'ed upon in a former Letter, and can'not without Pleasure call to mind the Thoughts of Cicero to this purpose, in the clofe of his Book concerning Old Age. Every one who is acquaint'ed with his Writings, will remember that the elder Cato is introduced in that Difcourfe as the Speaker, and Scipio and Lelius as his Auditors. This ' venerable Perfon is reprefented looking forward as it were from the Verge ' of extreme Old Age, into a future State, and rifing into a Contemplation on the unperishable part of his Nature, and its Existence after Death. 'I fhall collect part of his Discourse. And as you have formerly offered 'fome Arguments for the Soul's Immortality, agreeable both to Reason ' and the Christian Doctrine, I believe your Readers will not be difpleafed to 'fee how the fame great Truth fhines in the Pomp of Roman Eloquence.

I 2

"THIS,

"THIS, fays Cato, is my firm Perfuafion, that fince the human Soul "exerts it felf with fo great Activity, fince it has fuch a Remembrance of "the Paft, fuch a Concern for the Future, fince it is enriched with fo ma

ແ

ny Arts, Sciences and Discoveries, it "is impoffible but the Being which ❝contains all these must be Immor❝tal.

"THE elder Cyrus, juft before his "Death, is reprefented by XENOPHON "fpeaking after this manner." Think not,

my dearest Children, that when I depart " from you I fhall be no more, but remem •ber that my Soul, even while I lived among you, was invisible to you; yet by my Actions you were fenfible it exifted in this Body. Believe it therefore exifting fill, though it be still unfeen. How quickly would the Honours of Illuftrious • Men perifh after Death, if their Souls performed nothing to preferve their Fame? For my own part, I never could think that the Soul, while in a mortal Body, lives, but when departed out of it, dies; or that its Confciousness is loft when it is difcharged out of an unconscious Habitation. But when it is freed from all corporeal Alliance, then it truly exifts.

• Further,

Further, fince the Human Frame is broken by Death, tell us what becomes of its Parts? It is vifible whither the Materials of other Beings are tranflated, namely, to the Source from whence they had 'their Birth. The Soul alone, neither prefent nor departed, is the Object of our Eyes.

"THUS Cyrus. But to proceed. "No one fhall perfuade me, Scipio, that your worthy Father, or your Grand"fathers Paulus and Africanus, or A

fricanus his Father, or Uncle, or maແ ny other excellent Men whom I need 66 not name, performed fo many Acti65 ons to be remembred by Pofterity, "without being fenfible that Futurity 66 was their Right. And, if I may be "allowed an old Man's Privilege, to CC fpeak of my felf, do you think I "would have endured the Fatigue of "fo many wearifome Days and Nights "both at home and abroad, if I ima"gined that the fame Boundary which "is fet to my Life must terminate my "Glory? Were it not more defirable,

66

to have worn out my Days in Eafe "and Tranquillity, free from Labour "and without Emulation? But I "know not how, my Soul has always I 3 ❝ raised

❝raised it self, and looked forward on "Futurity, in this View and Expecta❝tion, that when it fhall depart out of "Life, it fhall then live for ever; and "if this were not true, that the Mind " is immortal, the Soul of the most "worthy would not, above all o"thers, have the strongest Impulse to "Glory:

"WHAT befides this is the Caufe "that the wifeft Men die with the "greatest Equanimity, the ignorant "with the greatest Concern? Does it સુંદ not feem that thofe Minds which "have the most extenfive Views, fore"fee they are removing to a happier "Condition, which those of a narrow"er Sight do not perceive? I, for my

part, am transported with the Hope "of feeing your Ancestors, whom I "have honoured and loved, and am "earneftly defirous of meeting not on"ly thofe excellent Perfons whom I "have known, but thofe too of whom "I have heard and read, and of whom "I my felf have written; nor would "I be detained from so pleasing a Jour

ney. O happy Day, when I fhall cfcape from this Croud, this Heap of Pollution, and be admitted to that

"Divine