they at firft did; and Senfations of more agreeable Sounds arife in the Soul of the Mafter, which are not at all the Effects of thefe Variations; the Inattention is follow'd by difcordant Sounds; the Return of Thought is follow'd by harmonious ones. Did Common Sense ever give more exprefs Signs of true Caufes, and real Ef fects? Upon what other Principle do the Naturalifts build? That these two Machines are like two Clocks, always in Harmony, because they are made by the fame Mafter; but that the Motions of the one have no fort of Influence upon the Motions of the other. What Infatuation is this in the Author! What Servitude in one Part of his Difciples, and what Madness in the other, to adopt every Thing that tends to deliver them from the Yoke of Rules, and the Fear of violating them.

MR Pope enlarges very little upon the Birth of Religion: According to him, it at first confifted in a Worship which Men, in common with the Brutes, paid to God. He is filent upon the happy Progress that it made; for in every thing elfe Animals P 2 did

did not go beyond their firft Instinct, while Men have carried fo far all that an Obfervation upon the Inftinct of Animals furnish'd their Minds with an Idea of.

He thinks fit to be more copious upon the Birth and Progrefs of Superftition. (Verse 242) With this Tyranny arose, with this fortified itself.

She, midft the Lightning's Blaze, and Thunder's Sound,

When rock'd the Mountain, and when groan'd the Ground,

She taught the Weak to bend, the Proud to pray, To Pow'r unfeen, and mightier far than they.

I ALLOW that Men may abufe every thing, and that the Minifters of the Altar have been but too fond of Dominion. But 'tis poffible to abuse those Truths which ought to have a right Use made of them; and fince the Earth is peopled by finful Men, it was agreeable to the Wisdom, and even the Goodness of God, to warn them from time to time by terrible Events, that they had a Master to fear,

fear, if they refused to love and obey him.

MR Pope, in the reft of this Epistle, goes on to the Establishment of Societies and Laws. 'Tis a long time fince People have continued to find Fault, fometimes with the Imperfection of Laws, and sometimes with their Severity, and ftill oftner with the Conduct of those who are trufted with the Execution of them.

If a Father, inhabiting an Island separated from all Communication, should see his Defcendants multiply, till they became a great People in this Ifland, which we will fuppofe to be pretty extenfive and fertile, I conceive that it would be easy for him to make them accept fuch Laws as would lay their Pofterity under an Obligation of living as Brothers: But when the Point is to reduce a great Number of indocile and favage Men under the Government of Laws, the more Wisdom and Zeal their Legislator might have, the lefs ought he to require of them, for fear of being entirely rejected. He might exprefs himself happily enough to make P 3 them

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them understand that it is for their mutual Intereft to unite, and submit themselves to Laws. Every one of them would be fenfibly affected with regard to his own Intereft, but if they fhou'd be requir'd to facrifice this to the Intereft of the Publick, they would not comply with `it. Hence Men of fuperior Understandings have feen the Neceffity of allowing a good deal to particular Interests. Hence it is that there are fome very great, amiable, and venerable Degrees of Virtue, which Laws are quite filent upon: The Rudenefs of the Common People would have made them think thefe Laws too burthenfome.

Tr I fhould grant Mr Pope that the best adminifter'd Government, (v. 306) be it of what Nature it will, is always the best, and from thence fhould fuffer him to conclude, that an Authority entirely defpotic, in the Hands of a King who loved his People as his Children, would make them happier than they would be under a Government in which the fovereign Power would be more moderate and divided, if thole who partook of it abufed their Authority:

thority: Tho', I fay, all this should be granted, this however must be agreed, that the best Government is fuch a one in which those who have the Command of others have it the fhorter Time in their Power to abuse their Authority.

For Modes of Faith let graceless Zealots fight,
His can't be wrong, whofe Life is in the right;
All must be falfe that thwart this one great End,
And all of God, that blefs Mankind, or mend.

THE Point is not to know, under which of two Governments, the one adminifter'd well, and the other ill, the People would be the beft; for this has never been difputed. But the Queftion is, Whether that Government, of the two, ought not to be preferr'd, in which those who have the leading Hands can the least abuse their Authority, and in which it is the most eafy to bring them back to their Duty, whenever they deviate from it.

So, with regard to Religion, it will be afk'd, Whether we do not make ourfelves culpable, when we refufe to fupport. and perfect the Light of Reafon, by that of a Revelation, whenever they we honour'd