I ought not to dwell long on these reflections; to give a basis to religious opinions, it is not necessary to conceive of creation in its metaphysical essence; it is sufficient, to believe the existence of a Supreme Being, creator and preserver of nature, the model of wisdom and goodness, the protector of rational beings, whose providence governs the world. We lose all our strength when extending too far our meditations, we aspire to know and explain the secrets of infinity; we then only exhibit to the adversaries of religion the faint stretch of our opinions, and the last struggles of a reason weakened by its own efforts; it is much better to use those arguments which sense and feeling are able to defend. We should candidly confess, that our noblest faculties have immutable limits; one degree more would perhaps diffuse a sudden light on the questions, whose examination disconcerts us. There is not perhaps any mind accustomed to meditation, which has not had several times pre-sentiments of this truth; for the first glimmering of a new perception seems to out-run thinking, and such is its proximity that we imagine one step more would enable us to catch it; but our hope is dissipated, we cannot grasp the fleeting shadow, and fall back again into the sad conviction of our impotence. Alas! in that infinite space which our intellectual powers try to run over, there are only immense deserts, where the mind cannot find repose, or the thoughts meet any asylum; these are the regions whose entrance seems to have been desolated, in order that the most unbounded imagination might not obtain any knowledge of them; but will you dare to say, that there stops all intelligence, there finishes the mysteries of nature? would you expect to possess the secrets of time in attributing an eternal existence to all we know? Certainly, we are too insignificant to promulge such decrees, we enjoy too small a portion of eternity to determine what belongs to it.