A

VINDICATION.

O F

NATURAL SOCIETY;

OR,

A View of the MISERIES and EVILS arifing to Mankind from every Species of ARTIFICIAL SOCIETY.

Paffions of Mankind delineated; in fhort, all who confider fuch Things as Philofophy, and require fome of them, at leaft, in every philofophical Work, all these were certainly dif appointed; they found the Land-marks of Science precifely in their former Places: And they thought they received but a poor Recompence for this Disappointment, in feeing 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 usefully exerted for the nobleft Purposes, in a Sort 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 Success.

I cannot conceive how this fort of Writers propofe to compass 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 diftinguished by good or ill Fortune here,

or

or by Happiness or Mifery hereafter? Do they imagine they fhall increase our Piety, and our Reliance on God, by exploding his Providence, and infisting that he is neither juft nor good? Such are the Doctrines which, fometimes con→ cealed, fometimes openly and fully avowed, are found to prevail throughout the Writings of Lord Bolingbroke; and such are the Reasonings which this noble Writer and feveral others have been pleafed to dignify with the Name of Philofophy. If these are delivered in a specious Manner, and in a Stile above the com mon, they cannot want a Number of Admirers of as much Docility as can be wifhed for in Difciples. To thefe 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 those 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 B 3 Orations

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 something 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 Philosophy. 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 pleafed 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