We consider the general assent of nations and ages, in the opinion of the existence of a God, as a remarkable presumption in favour of that opinion; but such a proof would lose part of its force, if we, in time, regarded as a kind of moral phœnomenon, the relation which all men may have with an idea so sublime, notwithstanding the visible disparity which exists between their different degrees of understanding and knowledge; and this observation should lead to a thought, that in the midst of the clouds, which obscure the idea of a God, sensibility becomes our best guide: it seems the most innate part of ourselves, and in this respect to communicate, in the most intimate manner, with the Author of our Nature. The sight advances before our other senses, the imagination goes beyond it; but as it is obliged to trace its own path, sensibility, which bounds over all, goes still further. The reasoner, in his efforts to attain to profound metaphysical truths, forms a chain whose links rather follow each other, than are joined: the mind of man not being sufficiently subtle, and extended, cannot always unite exactly that infinite multitude of ideas which crowd at the determination of our meditations; sensibility is then the best calculated to conceive the sublime truth, which not being composed of parts, is not susceptible of section, and can only be comprehended in its unity. Thus, whilst the mind often wanders in vain speculations, and loses itself in metaphysical labyrinths, the idea of a Supreme Being is impressed, without effort, in a simple heart, which is still under the influence of nature: thus, the man of feeling, as well as the intelligent man, announces a Supreme Being, whom we cannot discover without loving; and this union of all the faculties of the soul towards the same idea, this emotion, which resembles a kind of instinct, ought to be connected with a first cause; as there is for every thing a first model.