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ESSAY XIV.
Of the Dignity of Human Nature.
There are certain Sects, which secretly form themselves in the learned World, as well as in the political; and tho' sometimes they come not to an open Rupture, yet they give a different Turn to the Ways of thinking of those who have taken Party on either Side. The most remarkable of this Kind are the Sects, that are founded on the different Sentiments, with regard to the Dignity of human Nature; which is a Point, that seems to have divided Philosophers and Poets, as well as Divines, from the Beginning of the World to this Day. Some exalt our Species to the Skies, and represent Man as a Kind of human Demi-God, that derives his Origin from Heaven, and retains e-vident
