or by Happiness or Mifery hereafter? Do they imagine they fhall increase our Piety, and our Reliance on God, by exploding his Providence, and infifting that he is neither just nor good? Such are the Doctrines which, fometimes concealed, fometimes openly and fully avowed, are found to prevail throughout the Writings of Lord Bolingbroke; and fuch are the Reasonings which this noble Writer and several others have been pleased to dignify with the Name of Philofophy. If these are delivered in a specious Manner, and in a Stile above the common, they cannot want a Number of Admirers of as much Docility as can be wished for in Difciples. To these the Editor of the following little Piece has addreffed it there is no Reafon to conceal the Defign of it any longer.

The Defign was, to fhew that, without the Exertion of any confiderable Forces, the fame Engines which were employed for the Deftruction of Religion, might be employed with equal Succefs for the Subverfion of Government; and that fpecious Arguments might be used against thofe Things which they, who doubt of every thing elfe, will never permit to be queftioned. It is an Obfervation which, I think, Ifocrates makes in one of his Orations

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Orations against the Sophifts, that it is far more easy to maintain a wrong Caufe, and to fupport paradoxical Opinions to the Satisfaction of a common Auditory, than to establish a doubtful Truth by folid and conclufive Arguments. When Men find that fomething can be faid in Favour of what, on the very Propofal, they have thought utterly indefenfible, they grow doubtful of their own Reafon; they are thrown into a fort of pleafing Surprize; they run along with the Speaker, charmed and captivated to find fuch a plentiful Harvest of Reasoning, where all feemed barren and unpromifing. This is the Fairy Land of Philofophy. And it very frequently happens, that thofe pleafing Impreffions on the Imagination fubfift and produce their Effect, even after the Understanding has been fatisfied of their unfubftantial Nature. There is a fort of Glofs upon ingenious Falfehoods, that dazzles the Imagination, but which neither belongs to, nor becomes, the fober Aspect of Truth. I have met with a Quotation in Lord Coke's Reports that pleased me very much, though I do not know from whence he has taken it: "Interdum fucata falfitas" (fays he)" in multis eft probabilior, et fæpe rationi"bus vincit nudam veritatem." In fuch Cafes,

the

the Writer has a certain Fire and Alacrity infpired into him by a Consciousness, that, let it fare how it will with the Subject, his Ingenuity will be fure of Applaufe; and this Alacrity becomes much greater if he acts upon the offenfive, by the Impetuofity that always accompanies an Attack, and the unfortunate Propenfity which Mankind have to the finding and exaggerating Faults. The Editor is fatisfied that a Mind which has no Restraint from a Senfe of its own Weakness, of its fubordinate Rank in the Creation, and of the extreme Danger of letting the Imagination loose upon fome Subjects, may very plaufibly attack every thing the most excellent and venerable; that it would not be difficult to criticife the Creation itself; and that if we were to examine the divine Fabricks by our Ideas of Reason and Fitness, and to use the fame Method of Attack by which fome Men haye affaulted Revealed Religion, we might, with as good Colour, and with the fame Success, make the Wisdom and Power of God in his Creation appear to many no better than Foolshnefs. There is an Air of Plaufibility which accompanies vulgar Reasonings and Notions taken from the beaten Circle of ordinary Experience, that is admirably fuited to the nar

row Capacities of fome, and to the Laziness of others. But this Advantage is in great measure loft, when a painful, comprehensive Survey of a very complicated Matter, and which requires a great Variety of Confiderations, is to be made; when we muft feek in a profound Subject, not only for Arguments, but for new Materials of Argument, their Measures and their Method of Arrangement; when we must go out of the Sphere of our ordinary Ideas, and when we can never walk fure but by being fenfible of our Blindness. And this we must do, or we do nothing, whenever we examine the Refult of a Reason which is not our own. Even in Matters which are, as it were, juft within our Reach, what would become of the World if the Practice of all moral Duties, and the Foundations of Society, refted upon having their Reasons made clear and demonftrative to every Individual?

The Editor knows that the Subject of this Letter is not fo fully handled as obviously it might it was not his Defign to fay all that could poffibly be faid. It had been inexcufable to fill a large Volume with the Abuse of Reason; nor would fuch an Abuse have been

tolerable

tolerable even for a few Pages, if fome Underplot, of more Confequence than the apparent Defign, had not been carried on.

Some Persons have thought that the Advantages of the State of Nature ought to have been more fully difplayed. This had undoubtedly been a very ample Subject for Declamation; but they do not confider the Character of the Piece. The Writers against Religion, whilft they oppofe every System, are wifely careful never to fet up any of their own. If fome Inaccuracies in Calculation, in Reasoning, or in Method be found, perhaps these will not be looked upon as Faults by the Admirers of Lord Bolingbroke; who will, the Editor is afraid, obferve much more of his Lordship's Character in fuch Particulars of the following Letter, than they are like to find of that rapid Torrent of an impetuous and overbearing Eloquence, and the Variety of rich Imagery, for which that Writer is juftly admired.

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