The Religion Of Nature Delineated

Editor’s Note

Wollaston usually gave very brief, obscurely-abbreviated sources for the quotations in his footnotes. John Clarke translated these notes, but left their sources obscure. In many cases I have been able to track these down and expand them (thanks in part to Alexander Altmann, who identified many of the Hebrew sources in a 1948 paper for the Jewish Historical Society of England).

Because of this, a note that originally read merely:

“Ubi virtus, si nihil situm est in ipsis nobis? Cic. הוא עמוד התורה והמצוה⁠ ⁠… רשות לכל אדם נתונה אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה Maim. הרשות היא הבחירה Nahh. Ab.”

Now reads, more helpfully:

“Ubi virtus, si nihil situm est in ipsis nobis? ‘Where is virtue then, if there be nothing within our own power?’ (Cicero, Academica). הוא עמוד התורה והמצוה⁠ ⁠… רשות לכל אדם נתונה אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ‘There is a power given to every man, if he be but willing to incline himself to the way that is good⁠ ⁠… This is the support of the law and the commandments.’ (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkot Teshubah, V, 1, 3). הרשות היא הבחירה ‘This power is what we call free will’ (Isaac Abravanel, Nahalot Abot).”

And this cryptic note:

“As that Βλιτρι ap. Diog. L. in v. Zen.”

Becomes the more legible:

“As that word Βλιτρι (Blitri) in Diogenes Laërtius’s Life of Zeno, which word has no meaning at all.”

I do not know Greek, Latin, Hebrew, or Arabic, so it’s very likely that I have let some typos slip into these notes as I have transcribed them. I apologize and invite you to report any errors you find to the Standard Ebooks team so that they may be corrected.

I have also made some changes to the original text in this edition: I have modernized archaic spellings and Americanized some English ones, have expanded some abbreviations, have adjusted punctuation and italicization to better conform to the expectations of modern readers, have added a few additional translations of non-English phrases, and have altered cross-references to use hyperlinks instead of page numbers.