Your
curiosity, you then told me, was so excited, that I must, of
necessity, enter into a more exact detail of their reasonings,
and display those various systems which they advanced with regard
to so delicate a subject as that of natural religion. The
remarkable contrast in their characters still further raised your
expectations; while you opposed the accurate philosophical turn
of C/LEANTHES\ to the careless scepticism of P/HILO\, or compared
either of their dispositions with the rigid inflexible orthodoxy
of D/EMEA\. My youth rendered me a mere auditor of their
disputes; and that curiosity, natural to the early season of
life, has so deeply imprinted in my memory the whole chain and
connection of their arguments, that, I hope, I shall not omit or
confound any considerable part of them in the recital.
* * * *
PART 1
After I joined the company, whom I found sitting in
C/LEANTHES\'s library, D/EMEA\ paid C/LEANTHES\ some compliments
on the great care which he took of my education, and on his
unwearied perseverance and constancy in all his friendships. The
father of P/AMPHILUS\, said he, was your intimate friend: The son
is your pupil; and may indeed be regarded as your adopted son,
were we to judge by the pains which you bestow in conveying to
him every useful branch of literature and science. You are no
more wanting, I am persuaded, in prudence, than in industry.
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