pense between life and death,
health and sickness, plenty and want, which are distributed amongst
the human species by secret and unknown causes, whose operation is oft
unexpected, and always unaccountable. These _unknown causes_, then,
become the constant object of hope and fear; and while the passions are
kept in perpetual alarm by an anxious expectation of the events, the
imagination is equally employed in forming ideas of those powers on
which we have so entire a dependence. Could men anatomize nature,
according to the most probable, at least the most intelligible
philosophy, they would find that these causes are nothing but the
particular fabric and structure of the minute parts of their own bodies
and of external objects; and that by a regular and constant machinery,
all the events are produced, about which they are so much concerned....
There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like
themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with
which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately
conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and,
by a natural propensity, it not corrected by experience and reflection,
ascribe malice or good will to everything that hurts or pleases us.
Hence the frequency and beauty of the _prosopopoia_ in poetry; where
trees, mountains, and streams are personified, and the inanimate parts
of nature acquire sentiment and passion. And though these poetical
figures and expressions gain not on the belief; they may serve, at
least, to prove a certain tendency in the imagination, without which
they could neither be beautiful nor natural. Nor is a river-god or
hamadryad always taken for a mere poetical or imaginary personage, but
may sometimes enter into the real creed of the ignorant vulgar; while
each grove or field is represented as possessed of a particular genius
or invisible power which inhabits and protects, it. Nay, philosophers
cannot entirely exempt themselves flora this natural frailty; but have
oft ascribed to inanimate matter the horror of a _vacuum_, sympathies,
antipathies, and other affections of human nature. The absurdity is
not less, while we cast our eyes upwards; and, transferring, as is too
usual, human passions and infirmities to the Deity, represent him as
jealous and revengeful, capricious and partial, and, in short, a
wicked and foolish man in every respect but his superior power and
authority.--No