Our Author, in the third Epiffle, laments the infatuation of mankind, who have rejected the general and obvious criterion of er umor jenje, for the particular dogmas and miterious paradoxes of pretended revelation. He exemplifies the moral effects infatuation, in our fuperficial attachment to religion, our indolent fccunty in time of profperity, and our tranfitory attonifiment and penitence under the immediate weight of misfortuse. And he imputes our cowardice and imbecility to an abfurd faherre of cducation. From the following extract, our readers may judge with what frer gth of fentiment, and fpirit of expreifion, our Author has treated thefe points.
Lorenzo, our misfortune here
The effect of id.enefs and fear.
The flurgard fauns inquiry's tafe,
Because too great the pains to aft;
Stifting th' emotions of his breaft,
Indulge his lazy braics in reft.
A paradox, yet fuch the fact,
"More fear to think than fear to :&;
"Ia thought tho' danger we farmize,
"In act while real danger lies."
In truth, my friend, 'tis fad to find
Hence rife the zeal of half mankind;
Religion, but the compound vice
Of indolence ard cowardice.
Ev'n pious chriftians, much I fear,
Oft practically atheists here.
How deaf and blind to calls of grace
When nature wears a fmiling face:
But when fie frowns? in wild amaze,
Look how th' affrighted cowards gaze.
When clouds drop fatness on the plains.
In mildly foft defcending rains;
In their due feafon harvests fmile,
And plenty crowns the peafant's toil:
As nothing rare, as nothing new,
We take the bleffing as our due.
For O! profperity's a lot
At eafe enjoy'd, with eafe forgot.
In June's warm fan and April's fhower
We trace not an Almighty power:
Ingrates! fo light of Heav'n we make,
Nor think the hand that gives may take.
But ah! when threatning forms arife;
When thunders rattle through the skies;
When the tall mountain bows its head,
And earthquakes vomit up the dead;
Fehold whole nations proftrate fall
Before the mighty God of all.
T'appeafe his anger now their care,
Lo, all is fafting, fighs and pray'r;
Till, the dread form blown haply o'er,
They rife and revel as before,
Forget, or ridicule, the rod;
And laugh to fcorn the fear of God.
Nor only, mov'd when danger's nigh,
Our fears awake the gen'ral cry;
Imaginary fcenes, alike,
The daftard foul with terror ftrike;
While to the coward's opticks feem
Light ftraws, as each a giant's beam,
In honour thus of God above,
So weakly draw the cords of love;
While nature's groans, or fancy's fears,
Drive, headlong, down the vale of tears.
Lorenzo, wouldst thou freely trace
Whence grows a cowardice fo bafe?
At th' early dawn of moral fenfe
Th' infatuation did commence;
And, propagated fince by art,
We all have more or less a part.
Ere hermit bald or pilgrim grey
Had worn the solitary way,
Ere yet the monk had told his beads;
Ere yet credulity or creeds;
To fchool, with fober Reafon fent,
Young Genius to Experience went.
The latter, tho', as yet, 'tis true,
No wiser than the former two,
In charge the tender pupils took,
And with them read in nature's book.
So pedagogues unletter'd ufe
No clafs of blockheads to refuse;
But gravely undertake t' explain
The arts themselves must first attain
Sufficient if the master goes
Before his blund'ring pupil's nofe.
Careful his vacant hours t' employ,
Now Reafon prov'd a hopeful boy.
But Genius, infolent and wild,
By nature an affuming child,
A treach'rous memory his lot,
The little that he learn'd forgot;
Nor gave himself a moment's pain
To con his leffons o'er again:
But, trutting to his forward parts,
Debauch'd with wit the fifter-arts;
Who, yet unfettled, young and frail,
Enamour'd, liften'd to his tale;
B 4
And; fince the caufe of dire difputes,
Turn'd out abandon'd proftitutes:
By priest and prophet, once enjoy'd,
To bafeft purposes employ'd;
For ages palt, their only use
To vitiate reafon or traduce.
For this, Tradition foremost came,
Inftruction was her maiden name,
Now grown a smooth-tongu'd flipp'ry jade,
An arrant mistress of her trade.
She told the stories, o'er and o'er,
That genius told the arts before,
Repeating lies, as liars do,
Till in the end they think them true;
And when detected in her lie,
Myft'ry"—he biter's arch reply.
The Author concludes this epiftle with endeavouring to expofe the fuppofition, that ignorance and implicit fubjection to authority, are neceflary to the well-being of fociety, or the political happiness of mankind, as exemplarily falfe and abfurd. Perhaps, for the fake of cavil, it may be objected to what the Writer has advanced on this head, that he argues against all subjection and legal fubordination whatever: but it is to be obferved, that he fpeaks only of an ignorant and implicit fubjection. It cannot be denied, but that the mind is free to range at will, in points of speculation; and that we have a right to publish such speculations, is equally undeniable. As citizens, we may pay obedience to established laws and regulations, which, as men, we do not approve, and in which we have a right to follicit amendment. If we difcover any error or mistake in the civil conftitution, fhall we appeal to the Prime Minifter? If we find out any fallacy in religion, fhall we carry our difcovery to Lambeth? No! the Public is the proper judge. If what we communicate is falfe, and of dangerous tendency, there are among the Public, men of learning and virtue, ready to refute us, and the laws of our country are open to chalize us: if our propofitions are just and profitable, they ought to be purfued in preference of all fettled eftablishments whatever. No authority less than divine, is too refpectable to be called in queition and law fhould yield to reafon, not reafon bend to law. Falfhood and impofture only can dread the freedom of enquiry, for truth will abide the teft of the fevereft fcrutiny.
In the fourth epiftle, the Author treats of the limits of the human understanding. He affirms, that God is abftracted from, and above our comprehenfion-that our pretenfions to describe or define the Deity, are palpably abfurd and ridiculous: for that, though a created Being may afcribe to its Creator the most respectable of all known perfections, yet as all its ideas of
perfection are relative to itfelf, the attributes human Beings afcribe to God, are neceffarily the fuperior qualities of humanity. Nevertheless he argues ftrongly against the disbelief of the exiftence of a God, and maintains the impoffibility of denying the Being of a First Cause.
Yet while to thee I freely own,
I reverence a God unknown;
Think not, through ignorance or pride,
A God was ever yet deny'd.
No atheist e'er was known on earth,
Till fiery zealots gave him birth,
For controverfy's fake, their trade,
And damn'd the heretic they made.
Doth Clody, impudent and vain,
Deny a God in skeptick ftrain,
And yet in ignorance advance
That nature is the work of chance?
Theologifts, abfurdly wife,
With their anathemas defpife;
For well may Clody these inflame,
Whofe God exifts but in a name;
A technick term, devis'd at fchool,
I pity Clody as a fool.
To Epicurus' ftrains belong
The cenfures of an idle fong.
For fay "united worlds might join
By accident, and not defign;
Atoms might luckily contrive,
And ftrangely find themfelves alive;
Or, by fome other scheme as wild,
The world be fortune's fav'rite child."
Explain the terms-fay what is meant
By atoms, fortune, accident.
What mean'ft thou but th' efficient caufe
Of nature's works and nature's laws?
O, think not, then, th' eternal mind
To term or epithet confin'd;
But take away or change the name;
And Clody's God and mine's the fame.
The argument of the fifth epiftle is Happiness, which the Author declares to be unattainable: and he infifts, that even' knowlege, religion, and virtue, are incapable of conferring it. This bold affertion may be nevertheless true, if by happiness, as he conceives, is meant fome conftant flate of actual bliss. But we do not agree with him, that this is the acceptation of the word among the generality of mankind. Few men are so weak as not to know, that a continued fenfe of blifs is inconfiftent with the human frame. It requires but little philofophy to perceive, that all happiness is merely relative: but fuch as it is,
its highest degree, and moft permanent ftate, is only to be at-
tained by knowlege, religion, and virtue. However, admitting
his definition, we might fubfcribe to the following conclufion,
when, after fhewing the impoffibility of externals to confer hap-
piness, and the incapacity of human Beings to attain it, he says,
Hence not on earth a bleffing fent
Gives univerfally content.
For while fo varied is our taste,
Manna itself were show'r'd to waste.
With reason, therefore, we profefs
God meant not here our happiness:
Elfe in the various bleffings given
Sure various minds might find their heaven
But know, as different we find
Each individual's turn of mind,
As little with ourfelves we fee
Ourfelves, at various times, agree.
So oft our views, our tempers change,
As through life's varied scenes we range.
At times, fo different from himself,
The prodigal will hoard his pelf;
Spend greedily the night at play,
To throw next morn his gains away.
At times ev'n mifers rob their store,
And give their fix-pence to the poor.
At times ev'n trembling cowards fight,
And, defp'rate, put the bold to flight:
While, fick of fighting and of fame,
The brave, like Belgie lions, tame.
How oft, my friend, in private life,
We love the maid we hate a wife.
How oft the scene that gives delight
At morn, offends the eye at night.
'Tis not the want of that or this;
Poffeffion is the bane of blifs :
And hence, of happiness we fee
On earth th' impossibility.
Here, nevertheless, we must take leave to object against our Author's reasoning in the note to the foregoing extract. That there are various conditions of human life, admirably adapted to the feveral difpofitions of individuals, is true; but it does not follow, that the unequal diftribution of the gifts of fortune is
To all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.
To me, I must confefs, the various conditions of human life feem fo admirably adapted to the feveral difpofitions of individuals, that, if our happiness in this life were intended, the unequal diftribution of the gifts of fortune affords the most plaufible means to effect it,
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