Author: Richard Blackmore

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-02-04

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9780267773091

Excerpt from The Poetical Works of Sir Richard Blackmore: Containing Creation, a Philosophical Poem, in Seven Books; To Which Is Prefixed the Life of the Author After the unhappy fate of Anaxagoras and the great Socrates, it is no wonder that the philofo phcrs, who fucceeded {hould grow more cautious in propagating their opinions, for fear of provok ing the magillrate, and making thcmfelves oh noxious to the laws'of their country: and, if any had formed irreligious fchemes, it is to be fuppofed, they would talte care to guard, as well as they could, againlt the punilhment to be infiitfled on all who denied the gods, and derided the cila blifhed worlhip. An atheift cannot be fuppofed to be fond of fulfering, when pain and death are what he chiefly abhors: and therefore Epicurus, who, if Cicero and Plutarch knew his opinion, was a downright profeffed atheill, has not in terms denied, but indeed afferted, the being of the gods; and fpealts honourably of them, (6 far as regards the excellence of their nature, and their happinefs. But when he defcribes his gods, and gives them a human face and limbs, and fays they are neither incorporeal nor corporeal, but as it were corporeal; while he excludes them from any 'hand in making, or care in guiding and governing the world, and undertakes to (how that all things were brought about by mere chance, without any help or direction of the gods, who are altogether unconcerned with human affairs, and regardlefs of our aelions; he mutt laugh in himfclf, and be fap pofed to'have'formed this ridiculous idea of a Di vine Being, merely to efcape the charatfiter of an impious philofopher. For though he owns the name if a God, by his dcfcription he entirely defiroys the Divine N attire. 'nor do I think, that Ariflotle can be defended from the charge of atheifm for while he affirms, that the world, as to itsfor mation, as well as its progre'llion and duration, is independent bu the gods, and owes nothing to their power, wifdom, or rovidencr, he utterly fubverts all pretence to religion and divine wor dhip, and comes at laft into the dregs of the Epi mureau fchemc this, I believe, _i have plainly proved in the following poem. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.