Labitur & labetur in omne volubilis avum. Hor.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

THE

HERE are none of your fpeculations which please me more than thofe upon Infinitude and Eternity. You have already confidered that part of Eternity which is past, and I wish you 'would give us your thoughts upon that ⚫ which is to come.

6

Your readers will perhaps receive greater pleasure from this view of Eternity than the former, fince we have every one of us a concern in that which is to come: Whereas a fpeculation on that which is paft is rather curious than • useful.

never

Befides, we can eafily conceive it poffible for fucceffive duration never to have an end; tho' as you have juftly obferved, that Eternity which had a beginning is altogether incomprehenfible; That is, we can conceive an eternal duration which may be, tho' we cannot an eternal duration which bath been; or, if I may use the philofo

phical

phical terms, we may apprehend a po•tential though not an actual Eternity.

This notion of a future Eternity, which is natural to the mind of man, is an unanfwerable argument that he is a Being defigned for it: efpecially if we confider that he is capable of being • virtuous or vicious here; that he hath faculties improveable to all Eternity; and by a proper or wrong employment of them, may be happy or mife'rable throughout that infinite duration. • Our idea indeed of this Eternity is not of an adequate or fixed nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging itfelf toward the object, which is too big for human comprehenfion. As we are now in the beginnings of Exiftence, fo fhall we always appear to ourfelves as if we were for ever entring After a million or two of upon it. ⚫ centuries, fome confiderable things, already paft, may flip out of our memory; which, if it be not ftrengthened in a wonderful manner, may poffibly forget that ever there was a Sun or Pla6 nets. And yet, notwithstanding the long race that we fhall then have run, " we shall still imagine ourselves juft O 5

⚫ftart

ftarting from the goal, and find no proportion between that fpace which we know had a beginning, and what we are fure will never have an end.

Sentio Te fedem Hominum ac Domum contemplari, qua fi tibi parva (ut eft) ita videtur, hæc cælefia femper fpectato; illa humana contemnito.

T

Cicero Somn. Scip.

HE following Effay comes from the ingenious Author of the letter upon Novelty printed in a late Spectator: The notions are drawn from the Platonic way of thinking, but as they contribute to raise the mind, and may infpire noble fentiments of our own future grandeur and happiness, I think it well deferves to be prefented to the public.

F the univerfe be the creature of an In

no immediate regard to himself in producing it. He needed not to make trial of his Omnipotence, to be informed what effects were within its reach: The world as exifting in his eternal idea was then as beautiful as now it is drawn forth into Being; and in the immenfe abyfs of

his Effence are contained far brighter fcenes than will be ever fet forth to view; it being impoffible that the great Author of Nature fhould bound his own power by giving Existence to a fyftem of creatures fo perfect that he cannot improve upon it by any other exertions of his Almighty Will. Between finite and infinite there is an unmeasured interval, not to be filled up in endless ages; for which reafon the most excellent of all God's works must be equally fhort of what his power is able to produce as the most imperfect, and may be exceeded with the fame eafe.

This thought hath made fome imagine, (what, it must be confeft, is not impoffible) that the unfathomed space is ever teeming with new births, the youn"ger ftill inheriting a greater perfection than the elder. But as this doth not fall within my prefent view, I fhall content myfelf with taking notice, that the confideration now mentioned proves undeniably, that the ideal worlds in the Divine. Understanding yield a profpect incomparably more ample, various and delightful than any created world can do: And that therefore as it is not to be fuppofed

that

that God would make a world merely of inanimate matter, however diverfified; or inhabited only by creatures of no higher an order than brutes; so the end for which he designed his reasonable offfpring is the contemplation of his works, the enjoyment of himself, and in both to be happy, having, to this purpose, endowed them with correfpondent faculties and defires. He can have no greater pleasure from a bare review of his works, than from the furvey of his own ideas, but we may be affured that he is well pleafed in the fatisfaction derived to Beings capable of it, and, for whofe entertainment, he hath erected this immense theatre. Is not this more than an intimation of our Immortality? Man, who when confidered as on his probation for a happy Existence hereafter is the most remarkable instance of Divine Wisdom; if we cut him off from all relation to Eternity, is the most wonderful and unaccountable compofition in the whole creation. He hath capacities to lodge a much greater variety of knowledge than he will be ever master of, and an unfatisfied curiofity to tread the fecret paths of nature and providence: But,

with