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than the organ or instrument of the divinity, and became a kind of book in which they thought they could read his will, inclinations and designs. Hence that weakness formerly common to so many nations, and of which the traces still subsist in many places, that makes them regard a thousand indifferent phænomena, such as the quivering of leaves, the crackling and colour of flames, the fall of thunderbolts, the flight or singing of a bird, mens involuntary motions, their dreams and visions, the movements of the pulse, &c. as intimations which God gives to wise men, of his will. Hence came oracles, divinations, auspices, presages, and lots; in a word all that rubbish of dark superstitions, called at one time religion, at another magic, a science absurd to the eyes of reason, but suitable to the impatience and restlessness of our desires, and which only betrays the weakness of human nature, in promising to relieve it. Such notwithstanding was the principal consequence which the ‘Gothic’ nations drew from the doctrine of a Divine Providence. The ancient Danes carried it to as extravagant a pitch as the rest, as will appear from what I shall say of their sacrifices and presages, when I come to treat of their exterior worship. With respect to the moral precepts, we know very well that
