In the Koran, too, God is always looked up to as a king. In the twelfth chapter, a throne is given Him above the waters. He had this Koran written by a secretary, as kings have their orders. He sent this same Koran to Mahomet by the angel Gabriel, as kings communicate their orders through the great officers of the crown. In short, although God is declared in the Koran to be neither begetting nor begotten, there is, nevertheless a morsel of anthropomorphism. In the Greek and Latin Churches, God has always been painted with a great beard. ANTI-LUCRETIUS. The reading of the whole poem of the late Cardinal Polignac has confirmed me in the idea which I formed of it when he read to me the first book. I am moreover astonished, that amidst the dissipations of the world and the troubles in public life, he should have been able to write a long work in verse, in a foreign language; he, who could hardly have made four good lines in his own tongue. It seems to me that he often united the strength of Lucretius and the elegance of Virgil. I admire him, above all, for that facility with which he expresses such difficult things. Perhaps, indeed, his "Anti-Lucretius" is too diffuse, and too little diversified, but he is here to be examined as a philosopher, not as a poet. It appears to me that so fine a mind as his should have done more justice to the morals of Epicurus, who, though he was a very bad natural philosopher, was, nevertheless, a very worthy man and always taught mildness, temperance, moderation, and justice, virtues which his example inculcated still more forcibly. In the "Anti-Lucretius," this great man is thus apostrophized: _Si virtutis eras avidus, rectique bonique_ _Tam sitiens, quid relligio tibi sancta nocebat?_ _Aspera quippe nimis visa est. Asperrima certe_ _Gaudenti vitiis, sed non virtutis amanti._ _Ergo perfugium culpa, solisque benignus_ _Periuris ac fœdifragis, Epicure, parabas._ _So lam hominum faecem poteras, devotaque fureis_ _Corpora, etc._ If virtue, justice, goodness, were thy care, Why didst thou tremble at Religion's call?-- Whose laws are harsh to vicious minds alone-- Not to the spirit that delights in virtue. No, no--the worst of men, the worst of crimes Has thy solicitude--thy dearest aim To find a refuge for the guilty soul, etc.