enable him to enforce
and confirm the principles he had taught him, by new proofs and
illustrations.

ALMORAN, who, since the death of his father, had nothing to apprehend
from the discovery of sentiments which before he had been careful to
conceal; now urged his objections against religion, when OMAR gave him
opportunity, without reserve. 'You tell me,' says he, 'of beings that
are immortal, because they are immaterial; beings which do not consist
of parts, and which, therefore, can admit no solution, the only natural
cause of corruption and decay: but that which is not material, can have
no extension; and what has no extension, possesses no space; and of such
beings, the mind itself, which you pretend to be such a being, has no
conception.'

'If the mind,' says OMAR, 'can perceive that there is in itself any
single, property of such a being, it has irrefragable evidence that it
is such a being; though its mode of existence, as distinct from matter,
cannot now be comprehended.' 'And what property of such a being,' said
ALMORAN, 'does the mind of man perceive in itself?' 'That of _acting_,
said OMAR, 'without _motion_. You have no idea, that a material
substance can act, but in proportion as it moves: yet to _think_, is to
_act_; and with the idea of thinking, the idea of motion is never
connected: on the contrary, we always conceive the mind to be fixed, in
proportion to the degree of ardour and intenseness with which the power
of thinking is exerted. Now, if that which is material cannot act
without motion; and if man is conscious, that to think, is to act and
not to move; it follows, that there is, in man, somewhat that is not
matter; somewhat that has no extension, and that possesses no space;
somewhat which, having no contexture or parts that can be dissolved or
separated, is exempted from all the natural causes of decay.'

OMAR paused; and ALMORAN having stood some moments without reply, he
seized this opportunity to impress him with an awful sense of the power
and presence of the Supreme and Eternal Being, from whom his own
existence was derived: 'Let us remember,' said he, 'that to every act of
this immaterial and immortal part, the Father of spirits, from whom it
proceeds, is present: when I behold the busy multitudes that crowd the
metropolis of Persia, in the persuit of business and projects infinitely
complicated and various; and consider that every idea which passes over
their minds, every conclusion, an