' of the soul considered. 363

sert ( b ); what all sorts of Atheists must ne-cessarily suppose; and what the present Scep-tic

(b) I have before observed that Lucretius ascribes allproductions and effects to chance.

Nam eerie neque cansilio primordia rerumOrdine se quaque, atque sagaci mente locarunt, &c.

Lib. r. ver. 1020.Compare this with what he fays, lib. 2. from ver. 864.to ver. 990. where having spoke of equivocal generati-on and the change of matter in tire bodies of animals,he adds,

Jamne vides igitur, magni primordia rerumRes erre in quail sunt ordine quaque locata.

Et commijla quibus dent motus, accipiantque ?

■ Ver. 882.

Iliad in his igitur fasdus meminijse decebit ;

Non ex omnibus omnino, quescunque creant resSensilia extemplo, & sensus me dicere gigni •

Sed magni res erre, ea primum quantula conjleni,Sensle qua saciunt, & quasmt prœdita forma,Jbletibus, crdinibus, pofituris denique quee smt:Shiarum nil rerum in lignis glebisque videmus.

Et tamen heec cum sunt quasi putrefaSio per imbrexVermiculos pariunt ; quia corpora material-Antiquis ex ordinibus permota nova re,

Conciliantur it a, ut debent animalia gigni.

Ver. 890.

This is a strange piece of reasoning. No man can readu without seeing the absurdity of it. The Sceptic pre-teil ds to be shocked with the credulity and ignorance ofWorld. From this one would imagine that nothing

could