Take care, P/HILO\, replied C/LEANTHES\, take care: push not
matters too far: allow not your zeal against false religion to
undermine your veneration for the true. Forfeit not this
principle, the chief, the only great comfort in life; and our
principal support amidst all the attacks of adverse fortune. The
most agreeable reflection, which it is possible for human
imagination to suggest, is that of genuine Theism, which
represents us as the workmanship of a Being perfectly good, wise,
and powerful; who created us for happiness; and who, having
implanted in us immeasurable desires of good, will prolong our
existence to all eternity, and will transfer us into an infinite
variety of scenes, in order to satisfy those desires, and render
our felicity complete and durable. Next to such a Being himself
(if the comparison be allowed), the happiest lot which we can
imagine, is that of being under his guardianship and protection.
These appearances, said P/HILO\, are most engaging and
alluring; and with regard to the true philosopher, they are more
than appearances. But it happens here, as in the former case,
that, with regard to the greater part of mankind, the appearances
are deceitful, and that the terrors of religion commonly prevail
above its comforts.
It is allowed, that men never have recourse to devotion so
readily as when dejected with grief or depressed with sickness.
Is not this a proof, that the religious spirit is not so nearly
allied to joy as to sorrow?
But men, when afflicted, find consolation in religion,
replied C/LEANTHES\.
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