change nothing in the nature of facts; and it is from these facts we must endeavour to form our ideas of the legislator of the Christians.

Jesus having begun his journey in the summer season, felt himself oppressed with thirst near Sichar, in the country of Samaria; an incident which gave rise to a singular adventure. Near this city there was a well, known by the the name of the fountain of Jacob. Fatigued with his journey, Christ sat down on the brink of the well, waiting the return of his disciples, who had gone to the city in quest of provisions. It was about noon, when a female came to draw water from the fountain. Jesus asked her to drink out of the vessel she held; but the Samaritan, who knew from his countenance that he was a Jew, was astonished at his request, as there was no commerce or friendship between the orthodox Jews and the Samaritans. According to the custom of partisans of different sects, they detested each other most cordially. The Messiah, who was not so delicate as the ordinary Jews, undertook the conversion of the female heretic, for whose sex and profession we find in him a weakness through the whole course of his history. “ Ifthou knewest," said he to her, "the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” The Samaritan woman, who did not observe Jesus have any vessel in his hand, asked from whence he could draw the living water of which he spoke? On this the Messiah, assuming a mysterious tone, answered her, "Whoso drinketh of

*

* A mysterious and unintelligible tone is essentially necessary to the ministers of all religions. A clear intelligible religion, without mystery, would appear less divine to the gene

this well shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; it shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."-Our female adventurer, who was a dame of easy virtue, asked some of that marvellous water, calculated to exempt her from coming afterwards to draw any: Jesus, who from the discourse had been able to discover the profession of this woman, ingeniously got off from the business, by telling her to go seek her husband and return; reckoning, perhaps, on being able to steal away when she was gone. But the lady related to him her life; gave some details of her conduct; and thereby enabled him to conjecture enough of it to speak as a conjuror. Accordingly he told her that she had had five husbands; that she had none at that time, and that the man with whom she lived was only a gallant. Immediately, the Samaritan woman took Jesus for a sorcerer or a prophet; he did not deny it; and as he was not afraid of being stoned or punished at the moment, he made bold for the first time to confess that he was the Messiah.

They were at this part of their dialogue, when the

rality of men, and would be less useful to the sacerdotal order, whose interest it is that the people should comprehend nothing of that which they believe to be the most important to them. Here is without doubt the secret of the clergy. The priest must have a metaphysical and incomprehensible Deity, whom he makes speak and act in an unintelligible manner, reserving to himself the right of explaining to mortals his pleasure in his own manner; while the people, who in general wish to have their imagi nations pleased rather than their understandings instructed, give the preference to a God that is most concealed, most mysteri ous, and most unknown. Hence the transition of many nations, who adored the sun, to the worship of an invisible agency,-Mirabaud,

return of Jesus' disciples put an end to the conversation. The latter, whether they knew the profession of the loquacious dame, or were more intolerant than their master, were scandalized and surprized at the tete-atete; yet none of them dared to criticise the conduct of Christ. On the other hand, the Samaritan woman seeing his retinue, believed in reality that he was a prophet or the Messiah; so leaving her pitcher, she went directly to Sichar, "Come and see," said she to the inhabitants, 66 a man who told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ ?"-The astonished inhabitants assembled, went out and met Jesus; and charmed with bearing him preach, without comprehending one word of his discourse, they invited him to come and reside with them. He yielded to their offers for two days only: the provisions purchased were put up in reserve, and the troop lived during that time at the cost of these heretics, delighted no doubt with defraying the expences of the Saviour and his followers.

All the marvellous in this adventure turns on Jesus having divined that the Samaritan lady had had five husbands, and lived at that time in criminal intercourse with a favourite. Yet it is easy to perceive that Christ could learn this anecdote, either in his conversation with the prating dame, or by public rumour, or some other very simple way.

But unbelievers find another reason for criticising this relation of St. John; and, laying aside the marvellous, they attack the truth of the transaction. All history attests, that in the time of Jesus Christ, Samaria was peopled by colonies of different nations, which the Assyrians had transported thither after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. This would seem to exclude the expectation of the Messiah, in which, according to

St. John, the Samaritans lived. Pagans and Idolators could not have very distinct notions of an event particular to Judea. If the Samaritans were the descendants of Jacob, it was not necessary to put into the mouth of the Samaritan woman these words, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say, Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." It was also absurd to make Jesus say, ye shall no more worship the Father, either in this mountain or at Jerusalem; ye worship ye know not what." First, the law of Moses does not forbid the worshipping God in whatever place we may find ourselves. Secondly, the laws or usages of the Jews required, in the time of Christ, that none should offer sacrifice any where except in the temple of the capital; but the places of prayer depended on every man's own will and pleasure. Thirdly, it is absurd to aver, that the descendants of Jacob did not know the God whom they adored to be Jehovah, the God of Moses and the Jews; unless it is pretended, that they did not know whom they worshipped. On this head, indeed, since the mission of Jesus, Christians have undoubtedly nothing to reproach them with. Fourthly, The words of Jesus on this occasion seem to insinuate, that he wanted to abolish the worship of the Father; at least it is certain that Christians share their homage between him and his Son, which, faith a part, appears to annihilate the dogma of the unity of God. Moreover, Jesus did

* The dogma of the trinity is evidently borrowed from the reveries of Plato, or from the allegories under which that romantic philosopher chose to conceal his doctrines. It appears, that the Christian religion is indebted to him for the greater part of its dogmas. Plato admitted three Hy¿ ostases, or modes

not guess rightly in saying, that the Father would be no longer worshipped either at Jerusalem, or on the mountain; for this Father has not ceased one instant to be worshipped there for these eighteen centuries past, by Jews, by Christians, and thereafter by Maho

metans.

If it is maintained that the Samaritan woman was a heathen, it is not very likely that she would have regarded Jesus as the Messiah, whom she neither knew of nor expected. Add also to this, that the Samaritans believed in Jesus on the word of a courtezan; a credulity of which Jews and Christians only could be susceptible. Jesus and his disciples were Jews, and in that character excluded from Samaria. It imports not therefore by whom the country was inhabited.

Two days having elapsed, and the Samaritans of Sichar being, in all appearance, sufficiently instructed, Jesus quitted their city, and accompanied by his disciples, took the road of Upper Galilee. In this jour

of being in the divinity: the first constituted the supreme God; the second, the Logos, word, or divine intelligence, proceeding from the first; the third is the spirit, or soul of the world. The early teachers of the Christian religion appear to have been Platonics; their enthusiasm probably found in Plato a doctrine analogous to their feelings. Had they been grateful, they would have recorded him as a prophet, or at least as one of the fathers of the church. The Jesuitical missionaries found a divinity at Thibet nearly similar to that of the Christians. By the Tartars God is called Kon-cio-cik, the only God, and Kon-cio-sum, the threefold God. They also give him the titles Om, IIa, Hum, intelligence, might, power or word, heart, love. The number three was always revered among the ancients; because Salom, in the oriental languages, signifies three, it is made also to signify health, safely, and salvation.