And all the while they would pafs upon the world for men of deep knowledge. But in effect, what is all this negative knowledge better than downright savage ignorance? that there is no providence, no fpirit, no future state, no moral duty: truly a fine fyftem for an honest man to own, or an ingenious man to value himself upon !

Alciphron, who heard this difcourfe, with fome uneafiness, very gravely replied, disputes are not to be decided by the weight of authority, but by the force of reason. You may pafs, indeed, general reflections on our notions, and call them brutal, and barbarous, if you please: But it is fuch brutality, and fuch barbarism, as few could have attained to, if men of the greatest genius had not broke the ice; there being nothing more difficult than to get the better of education, and conquer old prejudices. To remove and caft off a heap of rubbish, that has been gathering upon the foul from our very infancy, requires great courage, and great strength of faculties. Our philofophers, therefore, do well deferve the name of Efprits forts, men of frong heads, Free-thinkers, and fuch like appellations, betokening great force and liberty of mind. It is very poffible, the heroic labours of these men may be reprefented (for what is not capable of mifrepresentation?) as a piratical plundering, and stripping the mind of its wealth and ornaments; when it is in truth the divesting it only of its prejudices, and reducing it to its untainted original state of nature. Oh nature the genuine beauty of pure nature!

EUPH.-You feem very much taken with the beauty of nature. Be pleafed to tell me, Alciphron, what thofe things are, which you efteem natural, or by what mark I may know them.

XIV. ALC.-For a thing to be natural, for inftance, to the mind of man, it must appear originally therein, it must be univerfally in all men, it must be invariably the fame in all nations and ages. Thefe limitations of original,

universal, and invariable, exclude all thofe notions found in the human mind, which are the effect of custom and education. The cafe is the fame with refpect to all other fpecies of beings. A cat, for example, hath a natural inclination to pursue a moufe, because it agrees with the forementioned marks. But if a cat be taught to play tricks, you will not fay those tricks are natural. For the same reason, if, upon a plumbtree, peaches and apricots are ingrafted, no body will say they are the natural growth of the plumbtree.

EUPH.-but to return to Man: It feems you allow those things alone to be natural to him, which fhew themfelves upon his firft entrance into the world; to wit, the fenfes, and fuch paffions and appetites as are difcovered upon the first application of their respective objects.

ALC.-That is my opinion.

EUPH.-Tell me, Alciphron, if from a young appletree, after a certain period of time, there fhould fhoot forth leaves, bloffoms, and apples; would you deny these things to be natural, because they did not discover and display themselves in the tender bud?

ALC.---I would not.

EUPH.--And fuppofe, that in man, after a certain fea-fon, the appetite of luft, or the faculty of reason, shall shoot forth, open, and display themselves, as leaves and bloffoms do in a tree; would you therefore deny them to be natural to him, because they did not appear in his original infancy?

ALC.-I acknowledge I would not.

EUPH. It seems, therefore, that the firft mark of a thing's being natural to the mind, was not warily laid down by you; to wit, that it should appear originally in it. ALC.-It feems fo.

EUPH.-Again, inform me, Alciphron, whether you do not think it natural for an orange-plant to produce oranges ?

ALC.-I do.

EUPH. But plant it in the north-end of Great-Britain, and it shall with care produce, perhaps, a good fallad; in the southern parts of the same island, it may with much pains and culture thrive, and produce indifferent fruit ; but in Portugal, or Naples, it will produce much better, with little or no pains. Is this true, or not?

ALC.-It is true.

EUPH.-The plant being the fame in all places, doth not produce the fame fruit; fun, foil, and cultivation, making a difference. ALC.-I grant it.

EUPH.-And fince the cafe is, you say, the fame with respect to all species, why may we not conclude, by a parity of reason, that things may be natural to human kind, and yet neither found in all men, nor invariably the fame where they are found?

ALC.--Hold, Euphranor, you must explain yourself further. I fhall not be over hafty in my conceffions.

Lys-You are in the right, Alciphron, to ftand upon your guard. I do not like these enfnaring questions.

EUPH.-I defire you to make no conceffions in complaifance to me, but only to tell me your opinion upon each particular, that we may understand one another, know wherein we agree, and proceed jointly in finding out the truth. But (added Euphranor, turning to Crito and me) if the gentlemen are against a free and fair enquiry, I fhall give them no further trouble.

ALC.-Our opinions will ftand the teft. We fear no trial. Proceed as you please.

EUPH.-It seems then that, from what you have granted, it should follow, things may be natural to men, though they do not actually fhew themselves in all men, nor in equal perfection; there being as great difference of culture, and every other advantage, with refpect to human nature, as is to be found with respect to the vegetable nature of plants; to use your own fimilitude. Is it so, or not?

ALC.-It is.

EUPH.-Anfwer me, Alciphron, do not men, in all times and places, when they arrive at a certain age, exprefs their thoughts by speech?

ALC.-They do.

EUPH.-Should it not feem then, that language is na

tural?

ALC.-It fhould.

EUPH.-And yet there is a great variety of languages. ALC.-I acknowledge there is.

EUPH.----From all this, will it not follow, a thing may be natural, and yet admit of variety?

ALC.---I grant it will.

EUPH.Should it not feem, therefore, to follow, that a thing may be natural to mankind, though it have not thofe marks, or conditions, affigned; though it be not original, univerfal, and invariable?

ALC.----It fhould.

EUPH.----And that confequently religious worship, and civil government, may be natural to man, notwithstanding they admit of fundry forms, and different degrees of perfection?

ALC.----It feems fo.

EUPH.----You have granted already, that reason is natural to mankind.

ALC.----I have.

EUPH.-Whatever, therefore, is agreeable to reafon, is agreeable to the nature of man.

ALC.---It is.

EUPH.-Will it not follow, from hence, that truth and virtue are natural to man?

ALC.--Whatever is reasonable, I admit to be natural. EUPH. And as those fruits, which grow from the moft generous and mature ftock, in the choiceft foil, and with the beft culture, are most efteemed; even fo ought we not to think, thofe fublime truths which are the fruits of mature thought, and have been rationally deduced by men

of the best and most improved understandings, to be the choiceft productions of the rational nature of man? And if fo, being in fact reasonable, natural, and true, they ought not to be esteemed unnatural whims, errors of education, and groundless prejudices, because they are raised and forwarded, by manuring and cultivating our tender minds; because they take early root, and sprout forth betimes, by the care and diligence of our inftructors.

ALC.-Agreed, provided ftill they may be rationally deduced. But to take this for granted, of what men vulgarly call the truths of morality and religion, would be begging the question.

EUPH-You are in the right; I do not, therefore, take for granted, that they are rationally deduced: I only suppose that, if they are, they must be allowed natural to man, or in other words, agreeable to, and growing from, the most excellent and peculiar part of human nature.

ALC.--I have nothing to object to this.

EUPH.---What fhall we think then of your former affertions? That nothing is natural to man, but what may be found in all men, in all nations and ages of the world: That to obtain a genuine view of human nature, we must extirpate all the effects of education and instruction, and regard only the senses, appetites, and paffions, which are to be found originally in all mankind: that, therefore, the notion of a God can have no foundation in nature, as not being originally in the mind, nor the fame in all men. Be pleased to reconcile these things with your late conceffions, which the force of truth feems to have extorted from you.

XV. ALC.----Tell me, Euphranor, whether truth be not one and the fame uniform invariable thing: And, if fo, whether the many different and inconfiftent notions, which men entertain of God and duty, be not a plain proof, there is no truth in them.

EUPH.That truth is conftant and uniform I freely.