The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-04-16 00:00:00, page 1

THE
WHEELING REPOSITORY.
(Vol. L) THURSDAY, April 16, 1807. (No. 7.)
VAR1ET Y. i
ANECDOTE OE ANACHARSIS CLOOTS.
! overheard a curious dialogue be
tween Anacharsis Cloots and a plain
sensible looking man, who drank coffee
at the same table with him, one dav af
ter dinner at Robert’s.
’t his man happened to sav, that some
thing, I don’t remember what, was 1 as
certain as that (rod made the world.’
4 Pshaw /’ said Anacharsis, snappish
ly, 4 he did not make the world.’
4 No.'1 cried the man, staring* with
surprise, 4 who made it then?’
4 Why nobody. It never was made,’
answered Cloots*
4 How came it here then ?’ answered
the other.
4 I low came it here / why it has been
here from all eternity.’
4 I never should have guessed it to be
so old,’ r< joined the man; 4 but stiii you
have not inlonned me how it exists.’
4 By chance,’ said Cloots.
4 By clvmce!’ exclaimed the other*
‘Yes, undoubtedly, In mere chance,’
added Cloots—4 You have no notion of
.1 i i i)
me power ot cnancc/
4 The power of chance /’ repeated the
ether—1 chance is blind.’
4 Blindness does not diminish power,’
cried Cloots with an air of triumph t
* lor even according t > yourbible, Samp
son was able to pull down a house, and
smother three thousand Philistines, after
he was stone blind.’
4 Sneering is one tiling, Mr. Cloots,
and reasoning is anothei.’
4 Then let us reason,’ answered Ana
charsis—• I speak of the power of
chance—Were a thousand dice put into
a box and thrown out often enough,
there can he no doubt but that six thou
sand would be thrown out at last ; nav,
if a hundred thousand were rattled, and
thro wn without ceasing, six hundred
thousand would appear in process of
time at one throw. Why, therefore,
may not this world, such as we find it,
have been cast up by td\p merorauling of
atoms/
4 Now I perceive the drift of your
reasoning,’ rejoined the other : 4 but al
though 1 cannot explain what is above
human comprehension-, citizen Cloots,
yet, as there is no necessity in the nature
ot things that this world, and ail the
creatures in it, should have existed at
all, it seem* clear to me that they must
exist by the power of a supreme being;
and I am fully convinced that order,
uniformity, and exquisite adaptness
must bo the work of intelligence and
wisdom, as well as power.’
44 Nec l)eus inter sit nisi digruls vin
dicc, nodus.”
4 What do you think of that maxim of
Horace said Cloots.
4 I think it a very good one, as lie ap
plied it,’rejoined the other : 4but I am
convinced that Horace, though n. hea
then, would not have brought it into
such an argument as the present.’
4 Perhaps not; for as you sayT, he was
an ignorant heathen, and believed in
gods/’ ( ,
4 Had he lived at present he womd j
have confined his faith to one ; for, in- j
dependent of the Christian religion, all j
the improvements that have been made
since bis time lead us to acknowledge a
first intelligent Creator and governor of
me universe.
* i hey lead me to no such things,7
said (.loots. 4 I adhere to chance, and
acknowledge no other God. V. hat say
you to that t'7
4 I say,’ r. plied the other, ‘that were
T to utter such an impious expression, I
should he afraid of going to hell.’
4 I 'u. re again/’ cried Cloots,4 Why
there is no such place.’
4 How can you he sure of that
4 Jh cause the thing is impossible,* an
swered Cloots.
4 Did you not assert, a little while ago,
that this world was made, by chance r”
4 I assert so still/* exclaimed Cloots.
4 Then how’ can you assert that such
a place, as hell is not made by chance
also /’ r ‘joined his opponent.
This unexpected question seemed to
diavOncert tha philosopher, which the
other observing, he added, with a seri
ous air—
1 Citizen Cloots, I would not have
you trust altogether to such reasoning,
which is wicked as well as inconsistent :
and permit me to add apiece of advice,
which it greatly imports you to fol
low :—Renounce impiety, that, in case
there should, by chance or otherwise, be
a hell prepared for blasphemers, you
may not be sent into it.’
Having pronounced this in a solemn
manner, the man rose and walked out
of the room.
[Moore's Mordaum.\
[The following ludicrous description
of Soame Jenyns,the author of the Dis -
sertation on the Internal Evidences of
the Christian Religion, is from the Me
moirs of Richard Cumberland.]
A disagreement about a name or a
date will mar the best story that ever
was put together. Sir Joshua Reynolds
unluckily could not hear an interrupter
of this nort: Johnson would not hear, or
it he heard him would not heed him :
Soame Jearns heard him, heeded him,
set him right, and took up his tale,
where he had left it, without any dimi
nution of its humour, adding only a few
more twibts to his snuff-box, a few more
t ips upon the lid of it, with a preparatory
grunt or two, the invariable forerunners
of the amenity that was at the heels of
them, lie was the man who bore his
part in all societies with the most even
temper and undisturbed hilarity of all
the goodc ompnnions w hom I ever knew.
He came into yonr house at the very
moment you had put upon your card ;
he dressed himself to do your party
honour in all the colours of the jay ; his
lace, indeed, had long since lost its lus
tre, bnt his coat had faith fully retained
its cut, since the days when gentlemen
wore embroidered figured velvets with
short sleeves, boot cuffs, and buckram
skirts; a-> nature had ca-n him in the ev
act mould of an ill-made pair of stiff
‘-lays,he followed her so close in the fash
ion of his coat, that it wiw doubted if lx*
4, ^