(3) PREFACE. EFORE the philofophical works of Lord BOLINGBROKE BEE had appeared, great things were expected from the leisure of a man, who from the fplendid scene of action, in which his talents had enabled him to make fo confpicuous a figure, had retired to employ thofe talents in the investigation of truth. Philofophy began to congratulate herfelf upon fuch a profelyte from the world of business, and hoped to have extended her power under the auspices of fuch a leader. In the midst of these pleafing expectations, the works themselves at last appeared in full body, and with great pomp. Those who searched in them for new discoveries in the mysteries of nature; thofe who expected fomething which might explain or direct the operations of the mind; those who hoped to fee morality illustrated and enforced; those who looked for new helps to fociety and government; those who defired to fee the characters and paffions of mankind delineated; in short, all who confider fuch things as philofophy, and require fome of them at least, in every philosophical work, all these were certainly disappointed; they found the land-marks of fcience precifely in their former places: and they thought they received but a poor recompence for this disappointment, in seeing every mode of religion attacked in a lively manner, and the foundation of every virtue, and of all government, fapped with great art and much ingenuity. What advantage do we derive from fuch writings? What delight can a man find in employing a capacity which might be ufefully exerted for the noblest purposes, in a fort of fullen labour, in which, if the author could fucceed, he is obliged to own, that nothing could be more fatal to mankind than his fuccefs? I cannot conceive how this fort of writers propose to compafs the defigns they pretend to have in view, by the inftruments which they employ. Do they pretend to exalt the mind of man, by proving him no better than a beaft? Do they think to enforce the practice of virtue, by denying that vice and virtue are distinguished by good or ill fortune here, 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 juft 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 reafonings which this noble writer and feveral others have been pleafed to dignify with the name of philofophy. If thefe are delivered in a fpecious manner, and in a ftile 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 reason to conceal the design 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 fuccefs for the fubverfion of government; and that fpecious arguments might be ufed against those things which they, who doubt of every thing else, will never permit to be queftioned. It is an obfervation which I think Ifocrates makes in one of his orations against the fophifts, that it is far more more eafy to maintain a wrong caufe, and to fupport paradoxical opinions to the fatisfaction 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 indefensible, they grow doubtful of their own reason; they are thrown into a fort of pleafing furprize; they run along with the speaker, charmed and captivated to find fuch a plentiful harvest of reasoning, where all feemed barren and unpromising. This is the fairy land of philosophy. And it very frequently happens, that those pleafing impreffions on the imagination, fubfift and produce their effect, even after the understanding has been fatisfied of their unsubstantial 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: "In"terdum fucata falfitas, (fays he) in multis eft probabilior, et "fæpe rationibus vincit nudam veritatem." In fuch cafes, the writer has a certain fire and alacrity inspired into him by a conscioufnefs, that let it fare how it will with the fubject, his ingenuity will be fure of applause; 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 andexaggerating faults. The editor is fatisfied that a mind: which has no restraint from a fenfe of its own weakness, of its fubordinate rank in the creation, and of the extreme danger of letting the imagination loofe upon fome fubjects, may very plausibly 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 our ideas of reafon and fitness, and to use the fame method of attack by which fome men have affaulted revealed religion, we might with as good colour, and with the fame fuccess, make the wisdom and power of God in his creation appear to many no better than foolishness. There is an air of plaufibility which accompanies vulgar reafonings and notions taken from the beaten circle of ordinary experience, that is admirably fuited to the narrow capacities of fome, and to the lazinefs of others. But this advantage is in great measure loft, when a painful, comprehenfive furvey of a very complicated matter, and which requires a great variety of confiderations, is to be made; when we must seek in a profound fubject, 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, just within our reach, what would become of the world if the practice of all moral duties, and the foundations of fociety, rested 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 design to fay all that could poffibly be faid. It had been inexcufable to fill a large volume with the abuse of reafon; nor would fuch an abuse have been tolerable even for a few pages, if fome under-plot of more confequence than the apparent defign, had not been carried on. Some perfons have thought that the advantages of the state of nature ought to have been more fully difplayed. This had undoubtedly been a very ample fubject for declamation; 9 mation; 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, observe 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 justly admired. A LETTER |