away with ropes in their hands to a wood that was within fight of the place. I found they were not able to bear themselves in their firft serious thoughts; but knowing thefe would quickly bring them to a better frame of mind, I gave them into the custody of their friends until that happy change was wrought in them. The laft that was brought to me was a young woman, who, at the firft fight of my short face, fell into an immoderate fit of laughter, and was forced to hold her fides all the while her mother was speaking to me. Upon this I interrupted the old lady, and taking her daughter by the hand, Madam, faid I, be pleafed to retire into my clofet, while your mother tells me your cafe. I then put her into the mouth of the cave, when the mother, after having begged pardon for the girl's rudeness, told me, that the often treated her father, and the graveft of her relations in the fame manner; that she would fit giggling and laughing with her companions from one end of a tragedy to the other; nay, that fhe would fometimes burst out in the middle of a fermon, and set the whole congregation a staring at her. The mother was going on, when the young lady came out of the cave to us, with a composed countenance, and a low courtfey. She was a girl of fuch exuberant mirth, that her visit to Trophonius only reduced her to a more than ordinary decency of behaviour, and made a very pretty prude of her. After having performed innumerable cures, I looked about me with great fatisfaction, and faw all my patients walking by themfelves in a very penfive and mufing pofture, fo that the whole place feemed covered with philofophers.. I was at length refolved to go into the cave myself, and fee what it was that had produced fuch wonderful effects upon the company; but, as I was ftooping at the entrance, the door being fomething low, I gave fuch a nod in my chair, that I awaked. After having recovered myself from my firft ftartle, I was very well pleafed at the accident which had befallen me, as as not knowing but a little stay in the place might have spoiled my SPECTATORS. I -Solemque fuum, fua fidera norunt. Stars of their own, and their own funs they know, HAVE always taken a particular pleasure in examining the opinions which men of different religions, different ages, and different countries, have entertained concerning the immortality of the foul, and the state of happinefs which they promife themfelves in another world.. For whatever prejudices and errors human nature lies under, we find that either reafon, or tradition from our firft parents, has difcovered to all people fomething in thefe great points which bears analogy to truth, and to the doctrines opened to us by divine revelation. I was lately difcourfing on this fubject with a learned perfon, who has been very much converfant among the inhabitants of the more weftern parts of Afric. Upon his converfing with feveral in that country, he tells me that their notion of heaven, or of a future ftate of happiness, is this, that every thing we there with for will immediately prefent itself to us. We find, fay they, our fouls are of fuch a nature, that they require variety, and are not capable of being always. delighted with the fame objects. The Supreme Being, therefore, in compliance with this tafle of happinefs which he has planted in the foul of man, wilk raife up from time to time, fay they, every gratifi cation us. cation which it is in the humour to be pleased with. If we wish to be in groves or bowers, among running ftreams or falls of water, we fhall immediately find ourselves in the midst of such a scene as we de-. fire. If we would be entertained with mufic, and the melody of founds, the concert arifes upon our with, and the whole region about us is filled with harmony. In fhort, every defire will be followed by fruition, and whatever a man's inclination directs him to, will be prefent with him. Nor is it material whether the Supreme Power creates in conformity to our wishes, or whether he only produces fuch a change in our imagination, as makes us believe ourfelves converfant among thofe fcenes which delight Our happiness will be the fame, whether it proceeds from external objects, or from the impreffions of the Deity upon our own private fancies. This is the account which I have received from my learned friend. Notwithstanding this system of belief be in general very chimerical and vifionary, there is fomething fublime in its manner of confidering the influence of a Divine Being on a human foul. It has also, like most other opinions of the heathen world upon thefe important points, it has, I fay, its foundation in truth, as it fuppofes the fouls of good men after this life to be in a state of perfect happiness, that in this ftate there will be no barren hopes, nor fruitless wishes, and that we fhall enjoy every thing we can defire. But the particular circumftance which I am moft pleafed with in this fcheme, and which arifes from a just reflection upon human nature, is that variety of pleasures which it fuppofes the fouls of good men will be poffeffed of in another world. This I think highly probable, from the dictates both of reason and revelation. The foul confits of many faculties, as the understanding, and the will, with all the fenfes both outward and inward; or, to speak more philofophically, the foul can exert herself in many different ways of action. She can underfland, will, imagine, fee, and hear, love, and difcourfe, 1 . discourse, and apply herself to many other the like exercises of different kinds and natures; but what is more to be confidered, the foul is capable of receiving a moft exquifite pleasure and fatisfaction from the exercife of any of thefe its powers, when they are gratified with their proper objects; fhe can be entire ly happy by the fatisfaction of the memory, the fight, the hearing, or any other mode of perception. Every faculty is as a diftinct tafte in the mind, and bathe objects accommodated to its proper relifh. Doctor Tillotson fomewhere fays, that he will not prefume to determine in what confifts the happinefs of the bleft, because God Almighty is capable of making the foul happy by ten thousand different ways. fides those feveral avenues to pleasure which the foul is endued with in this life, it is not impoffible, according to the opinion of many eminent divines, but there may be new faculties in the fouls of good! men made perfect, as well as new fenfes in their glorified bodies. This we are fure of, that there will be new objects offered to all thofe faculties which are effential to us. Be We are likewife to take notice, that every parti cular faculty is capable of being employed on a very great variety of objects. The understanding, for example, may be happy in the contemplation of moral, natural, mathematical, and other kinds of truth. The memory likewife may turn itself to an infinite. multitude of objects, especially when the foul. fhall have paffed through the space of many millions of years, and hall reflect with pleasure on the days of eternity. Every other faculty may be confidered. in. the fame extent. We cannot queftion but that the happiness of a foul will be adequate to its nature, and that it is not endued with any faculties which are to lie ufelefs and unemployed. The happiness is to be the happiness of the whole man, and we may easily conceive to ourfelves the happinefs of the foul, whilft any one of its. faculties Q3 faculties is in the fruition of its chief good. The happiness may be of a more exalted nature in proportion as the faculty employed is fo; but as the whole foul acts in the exertion of any of its particular pow ers, the whole foul is happy in the pleasure which arifes from any of its particular acts. For notwithftanding, as has been before hinted, and as it has been taken notice of by one of the greatest modern philofophers, we divide the foul into feveral powers and faculties, there is no fuch divifion in the foul itfelf, fince it is the whole foul that remembers, underftands, wills, or imagines. Our manner of confidering the memory, understanding, will, imagination, and the like faculties, is for the better enabling us to exprefs ourselves in fuch abftracted fubjects of fpeculation, not that there is any fuch divifion in the foul itself. Seeing then that the foul has many different faculties, or, in other words, many different ways of acting; that it can be intensely pleased, or made happy by all thefe different faculties, or ways of acting; that it may be endued with several latent faculties, which it is not at present in a condition to exert; that we cannot believe the foul is endued with any faculty which is of no use to it; that whenever any one of thefe faculties is tranfcendently pleased, the foul is in a state of happiness; and, in the laft place, confidering that the happiness of another world is to be the happiness of the whole man; who can question but that there is an infinite variety in those pleasures we are fpeaking of; and that this fulness of joy will be made up of all those pleasures which the nature of the foul is capable of receiving. We fhall be the more confirmed in this doctrine, if we obferve the nature of variety, with regard to the mind of man. The foul does not care to be always on the fame bent. The faculties relieve one another by turns, and receive an additional pleasure from the novelty of those objects about which they are converfant. Revela |