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upon a queftion of fuch vaft importance." "You have but to look in the man's face, Sir," returned the Magiftrate, "to fee whether he is the identical perfon, by whom you have been robbed; and I do not fee, what any philofopher has to fay concerning it." It would ill become me to inftruct your worship upon this point," refumed Mr. Puzzledorf, "but his being identically the fame, is in my opinion, altogether impoffible. Nor is my opinion fingular; happily, it is fupported by the moft refpectable authorities. Locke, indeed, makes identity to confift in confcioufnefs, but confcioufuefs exifts in fucceffion, it cannot be the fame in any two moments. His Hypothetis, therefore, is not tenable; in fact, Watts, Collins, Clarke, Butler, Berkely, Price, Priestley, all have, in fome degree differed from it." "Pray Sir, were thefe gentlemen Juftices of the King's Bench ?" interrupted the Magiftrate; "if they were not, I must take the liberty of telling you, Sir, they were very impertinent to interfere in fuch queftions! I am not to be taught the bufinefs of a Juftice of Peace, by any of them.And again afk you, whether, that man, who calls himfelf Tobias, alias Timothy Trundle, be the very identical, perfon, by whom you were robbed on the

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18th inftant, on his Majefty's highway?" "I must again repeat it," returned the Philofopher," the thing is impoffible; it is proved beyond a doubt, that there is no fuch quality as permanent identity, appertaining to any thing whatever :-and that no one can any more remain one and the fame person for two moments together, than that two fucceffive moments can be one, and the fame moment. if you will give me the honour of ftating my arguments upon the fubject, which I fhall do in a manner truly philofophical, I make no doubt of convincing you, of the truth of my fyftem. It is, indeed, a fyftem fo clear, fo plain, fo unanswerable, that nothing but the most wilful blindness and obftinacy, can refift its truth. "That I deny," faid Mr. Axiom, interrupting his friend. "I agree with you, that confciousness, being frequently interrupted, is not ftrictly continuous, and, therefore, the continuity of confciousness cannot conftitute identity: I alfo allow, that wherever there is a chemical combination, there is a correfponding change of properties, and that the majority of the particles of which the man is compofed, are neceffarily in fucceffion changed. But, I affert, and will undertake to prove, that there exifts certain ftamina which

are never carried off. Where this ftamina is fituated, will, I know, admit of difpute. In the heart, fay fome; in the brain, fay others: for my part, I think it is most probable, that it is placed in that part of the brain which approaches the neareft poffible to the very top of the nofe, which fituation, is, undoubtedly, the most convenient for receiving the notices fent to it from the organs of fight, hearing, smelling, &c. and which may be more inconteftibly proved, from the following arguments: firft"" Fire, and fury!" exclaimed the magiftrate, "this is more than human patience can bear! But do not think, gentlemen, that I am to be made a fool of in this way; I fhall let you know that it is no fuch eafy matter to make a fool of me! And was it not for the fake of my worthy friend, Sir Caprice Ardent, I fhould let you know the confequences of infulting one of his Majefty's juftices of the peace, in the exercise of bis duty. A vile misdemeanour! a high breach of decorum! and not to be fuffered to pafs with impunity. Once for all, I defire you, Sir (to Axiom) to examine the countenance of the culprit, and, without lofs of time, to declarewhether he be actually the perfon guilty of the alledged crime ?"

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"As for crime," replied Mr. Axiom, "I abfolutely deny the existence of crime in any cafe whatever. What is by the vulgar erroneoufly called fo, is, in the enlightened eye of philofophy, nothing more than an error in judgment. And, indeed, according to my friend Doctor Sceptic (Tim Trundle's former mafter) we have no right to predicate this much. -For what is right? what is wrong? what is vice? what is virtue? but terms merely relative, and which are to be applied by the ftandard of a man's own reafon. If, for inftance, the reafon of Mr. Timothy Trundle, leads him to revolt at the unjuft diftribution of property, and to think it virtue, to give his feeble aid towards redreffing that enormous abufe, who fhall dare to call it wrong?" "I can tell you, Sir," cried the Juftice, "that the law-will think it right, that Mr. Timothy Trundle, fhould be hanged for fo doing.-Nor, would it be any lofs to the world, if all the promulgators of such doctrines, the aiders and abettors of fuch acts of atrocity, fhared the fame fate!" "That Sir," returned Axiom, with great calmnefs, "I conceive to be an error of judgment, on the part of your worship."-" You, however, declare, that this is the perfon by whom you were robbed ?" faid the Juftice. "Yes," re

plied Axiom, "I have no fcruples on the fubject of his perfonal identity; identity. being, as I faid before"-" O fay no more upon the fubject, but let the clerk read your affidavit and have done with it," cried the magiftrate. The clerk proceeded, and the folemn appeal to the Deity-an appeal which fo nearly concern. ed the life of a fellow-creature, made by the extraordinary, and, to me, incomprehenfible ceremony of kiffing a little dirty-looking book!

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The prifoner, who had hitherto maintained a ftrict filence, now addreffed hinfelf to Mr. Axiom, to whom, it seems, he was well known, having long been fervant to his particular friend. He began in a fullen tone, as follows:

"I did not think as how it would have been your honour, that would have had the heart to turn fo against me at laft. Many a time and oft, have I heard you, and my mafter, Doctor Sceptic, fay, that all mankind were equal, and that the poor had as good a right to property as the rich. You faid, moreover, that they were all fools, that would not make the moft they could of this world, feeing as how there was no other; for that religion was all a hum, and the Parfon a rogue, who did not himself believe a word of it.-Nay, the very laft day that

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