(1 P. 126.) The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal, had, at first, some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with seriousness, as long as I thought it had something miraculous in it, &c. By far the ablest vindication of miracles which I have met with. It is indeed the true ground, the proper purpose and intention of a miracle. (P. 141.) To think that this was all my own, that I was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, &c. By the by, what is the law of England respecting this? Suppose I had discovered, or been wrecked on an uninhabited island, would it be mine or the king's? (P. 223.) I considered--that as I could not foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was his creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit, &c. I could never understand this reasoning, grounded on a complete misapprehension of St. Paul's image of the potter, Rom. ix., or rather I do fully understand the absurdity of it. The susceptibility of pain and pleasure, of good and evil, constitutes a right in every creature endowed therewith in relation to every rational and moral being,--a' fortiori', therefore, to the Supreme Reason, to the absolutely good Being. Remember Davenant's verses;-- Doth it our reason's mutinies appease To say, the potter may his own clay mould To every use, or in what shape he please, At first not counsell'd, nor at last controll'd? Power's hand can neither easy be, nor strict To lifeless clay, which ease nor torment knows, And where it cannot favour or afflict, It neither justice or injustice shows. But souls have life, and life eternal too: Therefore, if doom'd before they can offend, It seems to show what heavenly power can do, But does not in that deed that power commend. (Death of Astragon. st. 88, &c. P. 232-3.) And this I must observe with grief too, that the discomposure of my mind had too great impressions also upon the religious parts of my thoughts,--praying to God being properly an act of the mind, not of the body. As justly conceived as it is beautifully expressed. And a mighty motive for habitual prayer; for this cannot but greatly facilitate the performance of rational prayer even in moments of urgent distress. (P. 244.) That this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practised in America. De Foe was a true philanthropist, who had risen above the antipathies of nationality; but he was evidently partial to the Spanish character, which, however, it is not, I fear, possible to acquit of cruelty. Witness the Netherlands, the Inquisition, the late Guerilla warfare, &c. (P. 249.) That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, &c.