THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For AUGUST, 1782.

ART. I. Difquifitions on feveral Subjects. Small 8vo. 3 s. bound.

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Dodfley. 1782.

ENIUS, like every other power in human nature, is capable of a judicious and beneficial, or of an abfurd and pernicious application. While it is employed in investigating ufeful truths, and enlarging the boundaries of real knowledge, it is rendering fuch important fervices to mankind, as to merit the highest applause. But whether it be, that men are not contented with that portion of reputation for originality, which is to be acquired in the plain path of truth and common sense, or that they find it neceffary to employ the fubtleties of fophiftry in, fupport of opinions, which party-attachments have led them to adopt-it frequently happens, that fuperior abilities are induftri-" oufly occupied in erecting fanciful and paradoxical systems, or in eftablishing doctrines inconfiftent with the great rights and

interefts of mankind.

Of this perverfion of genius, the difquifitions now before us afford a striking example. The Writer (who, if we are not mifinformed, has long held a place of diftinction in the literary world) has here made ufe of his able pen, in supporting feveral idle fancies, and we must add, in defending fome dangerous tenets. Our duty to the Public, therefore, requires us to give the moft material of these detached pieces a diftinct confideration.

Thefe Difquifitions are faid to have been written by the Author of An Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, A View of the Inernal Evidence of the Christian Religion, and other works.

VOL. LXVII.

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The topic of the firft differtation is The Chain of Univerfal Being, or the gradual advances in nature from the lower to the higher orders of exiftence. The manner in which this progresfion is performed, our Author thus explains:

The Creator hath not formed this neceffary, and beautiful fubordination, by placing Beings of quite different natures above each other, but by granting fome additional quality to each fuperior order, in conjunction with all thofe poffeffed by their inferiors; fo that, though they rise above each other in excellence, by means of thefe additional qualities, one mode of existence is common to them all, without which they never could have coalefced in one uniform and regular fyftem

Thus, for inftance, in plants we find all the qualities of mere matter, the only order below them, folidity, extenfion, and gravity, with the addition of vegetation; in animals, all the properties of matter together with the vegetation of plants, to which is added, life, and inftinct; and in man, we find all the properties of matter, the vegetation of plants, the life and instinct of animals, to all which is fuperadded reafon.

The manner by which the confummate wifdom of the divine Artificer has formed this gradation, fo extenfive in the whole, and fo imperceptible in the parts, is this:-He conftantly upites the highest degree of the qualities of each inferior order to the lowest degree of the fame qualities, belonging to the order next above it; by which means, like the colours of a skilful painter, they are fo blended together, and fhaded off into each other, that no line of diftinction is any where to be feen. Thus, for inftance, folidity, extenfion, and gravity, the qualities of mere matter, being united with the lowest degree of vegetation, compofe a ftone; from whence this vegetative power afcending through an infinite variety of herbs, flowers, plants, and trees to its greateft perfection in the fenfitive plant, joins there the lowest degree of animal life in the hell fish, which adheres to the rock; and it is difficult to diftinguish which poffeffes the greatest fhare, as the one thews it only by fhrinking from the finger, and the other by opening to receive the water, which furrounds it. In the fame manner this a imal life rifes from this low beginning in the shell- fish, through innumerable fpecies of infects, fifhes, birds, and beafts to the confines of reason, where, in the dog, the monkey, and chimpanzè, it unites fo closely with the lowest degree of that quality in man, that they cannot easily be diftinguished from each other. From this loweft degree in the brutal Hottentot, reason, with the affiftance of learning and fcience, advances, through the various ftages of human understanding, which rife above each other, till in a Bacon, or a Newton, it attains the fummit.'

The explanation is ingenious, and feems to agree with the phenomena of nature. But, in unfolding this progrefs with respect to human beings, the Author afferts that man is taught the belief of a God and a future ftate by inftinct, as well as by reafon an affertion which fuppofes not only that this belief univerfally prevails, but that it muft neceffarily be found in every human being; fince all inftincts are univerfal in the fpe

cies

cies to which they belong. On fubjects of fuch moment, is it not fafer to reft our faith on the plain deductions of reason, than to have recourse to principles, the exiftence of which is uncertain?

In the fecond Difquifition, on Cruelty to inferior Animals, our Author draws the following picture:

No fmall part of mankind derive their chief amusements from the deaths and fufferings of inferior animals; a much greater, confider them only as engines of wood, or iron, useful in their several Occupations. The carman drives his horfe, and the carpenter his nail, by repeated blows; and fo long as thefe produce the defired effect, and they both go, they neither reflect or care whether either of them have any fenfe of feeling. The butcher knocks down the ftately ox with no more compaffion than the blacksmith hammers a horfe-fhoe; and plunges his knife into the throat of the innocent lamb, with as little reluctance as the taylor fticks his needle into the collar of a coat.

• If there are fome few, who, formed in a fofter mould, view with pity the fufferings of thefe defenceless creatures, there is scarce one who entertains the leaft idea, that juftice or gratitude can be due to their merits, or their fervices. The focial and friendly dog is hanged without remorse, if, by barking in defence of his mafter's perfon and property, he happens unknowingly to disturb his reft: the generous horse, who has carried his ungrateful mafter for many years, with eafe and fafety, worn out with age and infirmities contracted in his fervice, is by him condemned to end his miferable days in a duftcart, where the more he exerts his little remains of fpirit, the more he is whipped, to fave his stupid driver the trouble of whipping fome other, lefs obedient to the lamh. Sometimes, having been taught the practice of many unnatural and uselefs feats in a riding-house, he is at laft turned out, and configned to the dominion of a hackneycoachman, by whom he is every day corrected for performing those tricks, which he has learned under fo long and fevere a difcipline. The fluggish bear, in contradiction to his nature, is taught to dance, for the diverfion of a malignant mob, by placing red-hot irons under his feet and the majestic bull is tortured by every mode which malice can invent, for no offence, but that he is gentle, and unwilling to affail his diabolical tormentors. Thefe, with innumerable other acts of cruelty, injustice, and ingratitude, are every day committed, not only with impunity, but without cenfure, and even without obfervation; but we may be affured, that they cannot finally pass away unnoticed, and unretaliated.'

To account for such inftances of cruelty as these, this Writer supposes that man is poffeffed of an innate and primary principle of malignity.

.' We fee children laughing at the miferies which they inflict on every unfortunate animal which comes within their power: all favages are ingenious in contriving, and happy in executing, the most exquifite tortures; and the common people of all countries are delighted with nothing fo much as bull-baitings, prize-fightings, execations, and all spectacles of cruelty and horror. Though civiliza

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tion may in fome degree abate this native ferocity, it can never quite extirpate it; the most polithed are not ashamed to be pleafed with fcenes of little lefs barbarity, and, to the difgrace of human nature, to dignify them with the name of fports. They arm cocks with artificial weapons, which nature had kindly denied to their malevolence, and with fhouts of applaufe and triumph, fee them plunge them into each other's hearts; they view with delight the trembling deer and defenceless hare, flying for hours in the utmost agonies of terror and despair, and at laft, finking under fatigue, devoured by their merciless purfuers: they fee with joy the beautiful pheasant and harmless partridge drop from their flight, weltering in their blood, or perhaps perishing with wounds and hunger, under the cover of fome friendly thicket to which they have in vain retreated for fafety: they triumph over the unfufpecting fifh, whom they have decoyed by an infidious pretence of feeding, and drag him from his native element by a hook fixed to and tearing out his entrails: and, to add to all this, they fpared neither labour nor expence to preferve and propagate thefe innocent animals, for no other end, but to multiply the objects of their perfecution.'

Thefe are facts, it must be acknowledged, which place the human fpecies in a light fufficiently difgraceful and humiliating; but furely it cannot be neceflary, in order to explain these appearances, to admit an idea which implies a cenfure, not of human nature only, but of its Divine Author: for, if there be a propenfity to cruelty univerfally belonging to the species, it is equally difficult to juftify the ways of God, whether we fuppofe this principle originally impreffed upon the human mind, or fuperinduced by the folly of our remote ancestors. It is more confiftent with religious principles, and withal not lefs confonant to fact and experience, to fay, either that the appearances of cruelty are to be traced up to other primary causes, such as the love of active exertion, the defire of fuperiority and the like; or (perhaps more fatisfactorily) that if there be an hoftile principle in human nature, it is nothing more than an instinct belonging to animal life, and common to all carnivorous animals, which in the loweft ftate of barbarifm might be neceffary for the preservation of life, but which, in a state of civilization, ought to be fubdued by the fuperior powers of reafon, and the contrary principle of benevolence.

The object of the third Difquifition is to maintain-feriously, as it fhould feem-the doctrine of The pre-exiftent State of Man. This doctrine, as the Author afferts, is fupported by the opinion of the wifeft fages of antiquity, and confirmed by reafon, by all the appearances of nature, and by the doctrines of revelation, His reafonings in fupport of this doctrine are thefe:

It is impoffible that the conjunction of a male and female can create, or bring into Being an immortal foul: they may prepare a material habitation for it; but there must be an immaterial preexiftent inhabitant ready to take poffeffion. Reafon affures us, that

an

an immortal foul, which will exift eternally after the diffolution of the body, must have eternally exifted before the formation of it; for whatever has no end, can never have had any beginning, but muft exist in fome manner which bears no relation to time, to us totally incomprehenfible: if therefore the foul will continue to exist in a future life, it must have existed in a former. Reason likewife tells us, that an omnipotent and benevolent Creator would never have formed fuch a world as this, and filled it with fuch inhabitants, if the prefent was the only, or even the firft ftate of their existence, a state which, if unconnected with the past and the future, feems calculated for no one purpofe intelligible to our understandings; neither of good or evil, of happiness or mifery, of virtue or vice, of reward or punishment, but a confufed jumble of them all together, proceeding from no visible caufe, and tending to no end. But, as we are certain that infinite power cannot be employed without effect, nor infinite wisdom without defign, we may rationally conclude, that this world could be defigned for nothing more than a prifon, in which we are a while confined to receive punishment for the offences committed in a former, and an opportunity of preparing ourselves for the enjoyment of happiness in a future life.'

The firft of thefe arguments will have no weight with those who admit the doctrine which derives the existence of the mental faculties from material organization: or, on the generally received hypothefis concerning the foul, it may be easily refuted by remarking, that the fame power which could create the immaterial being, or fpirit, in a prior ftate, could create it at the time when it is to take poffeffion of the human body. The argument derived from the prefent condition of man fuppofes fuch a ftate of things in this world, as, if it were real, would entirely deftroy every proof either of a paft or future ftate, by depriving us of every argument in fupport of the wifdom and goodness of God. This favourite argument our Author, however, illuftrates by the following gloomy detail of the miseries of human life:

This world is evidently formed for a place of punishment, as well as probation; a prifon, or house of correction, to which we are commited, fome for a longer, and fome for a fhorter period; fome to the feverest labour, others to more indulgent talks: and if we confider it under this character, we shall perceive it admirably fitted for the end for which it was intended. It is a fpacious, beautiful, and durable structure: it contains many various apartments, a few very comfortable, many tolerable, and fome extremely wretched: it is inclosed with a fence fo impaffable, that none can furmount it but with the lofs of life. Its inhabitants likewife exactly refemble thofe of other prifons: they come in with malignant difpofitions, and unruly paffions, from whence, like other confined criminals, they receive great part of punishment by abufing and injuring each other. As we may fuppofe, that they have not all been equally guilty, so they are not all equally miferable; the majority are permitted to procure a tolerable fubfiftence by their labour, and pafs through their

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