Should any afk, why fhines not the Moon conftantly during the night, and conftantly during the month? I reply, night is the feafon for repofe: of what benefit then were a perpetual moon? I reply, that the moon is not constant during the month to any one place, because other places want her; and let not us, in this temperate latitude, wish to deprive of their luminary, those obliged to travel and work by moon-light; or render more hideous a polar winter, by withdrawing the company of the lunar orb.

But why should the moon perpetually change? Because without fuch change she could never have fulfilled her appointment, of indicating times and feasons (rural, and civil, perhaps facred) to mankind, which is evidently her very important charge.

"The first men, affected by the confideration of the twofold fervice the moon did them, by enlightening the night, and by regulating all mankind, confecrated the ufe they made of its phafes by a holiday or feaft, which they folemnized at every time of its renewal. The Neomenia ferved in a plain and commodious manner to regulate the public exercise of their devotion. But if they regularly gathered together to make their facrifices, and lovingly to vifit each other at the return of every new moon, that worship and those holidays were no way relative to the moon itself. God was the object of them; and the moon had no other share therein, but that of putting men in mind of celebrating them.

"The ftars had not as yet received the names they now go by. Without taking notice of the feveral conftellations under which the moon is fucceffively placed within the space of its monthly

course,

courfe, men were contented with only determining its progress, by the variety of its appearances; and instead of employing calculations, as has been fince done, to mark out the precise instant of its having overtaken the fun anew, under which it had paffed nine and twenty days before; the astronomy of those times was contented with the bare teftimony of the eyes, and they reckoned the new moon from the day it could be perceived. It was in order to get intelligence of it, without hindrance, that they affembled and met together in high places, or in defarts remote from the habitations of men; that no obftacle or any thing might fcreen the horizon from them. When the crefcent had once been seen, they folemnized the Neomenia, or the facrifice of the new moon, which was fucceeded by a repaft, where all the families cheerfully, and with fimplicity and candour, eat what had been offered to God, and confecrated by prayer. When any notable event occafioned the inftitution of fome annual feast, they very often joined it to the Neomenia, which was the ufual day of affembly. The new moons, which concurred with the renewal of seasons, and to which our four Ember-weeks do ftill correfpond, were the most folemn of all. That cuftom of meeting together in high places or in defarts, that of keeping the new phafes, that of celebrating the Neomenia by a facrifice and by prayers, in particular, the folemnity of the new moon, which concurred with the fowing, or followed the intire gathering of the fruits of the earth; finally, the repaft and the fongs which came after the facrifice, are uses, all of which were, from this common fource of mankind, handed down to all the nations of the universe. All these cuftoms we find again among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, and the Arabians, from whom they, to

gether

gether with Mahometifm, were delivered down to the Perfians and the Turks. The fame ufages were common to the Greeks and the Romans, as alfo to the Gauls, and to nations which had no manner of communication with each other: They were found again amongst the Caribbees, and fome other American nations.

"Scripture abounds with facts, which evidently prove that the cuftom of facrificing on high places was established among the Hebrews as well as the other nations, even before the law, and that it even fubfifted in Israel fince, and in spite of the law.

"If the Hebrews and the Heathens agree together in the practice of their facrifices, purifications and libations, in their inclination to gather together upon high places, and in the regularity of their Neomeniæ, a grain of fincerity will make us fenfible, that the Hebrews are not indebted to the Heathens for these cuftoms, and that the Heathens did not borrow them from the He-brews; but that both the Hebrews and the Heathens had them from the remoteft antiquity, and from the common fource whence they all sprung, I mean from the family of Noah, when the whole was contained in the plains of Chaldea. This point of reunion, equally plain and certain, is the fole unravelling of the difficulties which have divided the learned. The whole of mankind being gathered round Babel, had already the practice of the facrifices made before, and renewed by Noah immediately after the flood. For want of writing, what means could be more natural and more public, to call together to the facrifice a multitude of families dispersed, than the fight of the decline of the moon, and the return of the new? It is even very likely, that the fun, which before the flood marked the courfe and the bounds

of the year, by the diverfity of the stars under which he paffed, did it however, without leaving the Equator, and put no difference between one day and another day, or one season and another. The moon was then the most proper means to mark out the beginning and the progress of months: and Noah, when he fixed the religious meetings at the time of the Neomenia, did but renew what was practised before the flood. So the fathers of all nations having been long enough under the same leader, in the fame place, united by the fame wants, the fame language, and the fame practices; it is the plainest thing in the world to think that the custom of meeting in high places, and at the return of the new moon, the offering of the fruits of the earth, the facrifices, the common repafts and the fongs, are all ufages which have with them paffed through all the earth. This is what they have constantly preserved ever fince their difperfion; and in every other thing, they conftantly proceed with making themselves distinguished from each other. You are fenfible, how

this agreement of all nations in the religious customs, which fuited the first ages, and their infinite variations in all the rest, concur to testify the truth of Mofes's narration, and the perfect knowledge he had of the origin of things."

These are the fentiments of a very agreeable author. Will you not, LADIES and GENTLEMEN, unite with me in regretting that mankind did not preserve pure the memorial of times and seasons, but that unfortunately, and impiously, they looked not beyond the inferior occasion of their affembly, and took this occafion for the object of their worship. I need not here repeat to you, the coftly facrifices, the pompous offerings, the folemn proceffions,

proceffions, in honour of Diana, of Luna, of Hecate, i. e. of the moon, under a thousand different names, and with a thoufand different ceremonies: the queen of heaven had (and still in fome places has) numerous fuperftitious votaries, who, ignorant of philofophical truths, and uninftructed by benevolent revelation, practifed abfurdities, and believed in lies.

There is nothing more important to mankind, than a juft eftimate of occurrences and circumftances, of things and properties. Ungrateful! thofe who continue infenfible to the kindness of Providence, in appointing various planets to various duties; who will not fee their order, their beauty, or their importance; but without thankfulness enjoy their benefits, and without gratitude receive their fervices; who repine at that economy they cannot improve, and deny the excellence of the difpofitions of fupreme Wisdom. Unhappy! on the other hand, thofe who overvalue fecondary causes, who mistake fervants for fuperiors, who cry to the fun, "O Baal, hear us!" to the moon, "We befeech thine influence!" Unhappy! who rely on created objects for protection, and expect fuccours even from a radiant planet! It becomes us to remember, that from fuch fuperftition we are happily liberated; may we never be enthralled by fimilar bondage, or be captivated by the fubjects of viciffitude and mutability!

OBSER