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the Writer has a certain Fire and Alacrity inspired 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 Propensity 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 plausibly attack every thing the most excellent and venerable; that it would not be difficult to criticise 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 have 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 Foolishness. There is an air of Plausibility which accompanies vulgar Reafonings and Notions taken from the beaten circle of ordinary Experience, that is admirably fuited to the nar

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row

row Capacities of fome, and to the Lazinefs of others. But this Advantage is in great measure loft, when a painful, comprehenfive Survey of a very complicated Matter, and which requires a great Variety of Confiderations, is to be made; when we must seek 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 Reafon 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, rested upon having their Reasons made clear and demonstrative 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 filla large Volume with the Abuse of Reason; nor would fuch an Abuse have been

tolerable

tolerable even for a few Pages, if some underplot, 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 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 justly admired.

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LETTER

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LORD *

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HALL I venture to fay, my Lord, that in our

late Conversation, you were inclined to the

Party which you adopted rather by the Feelings of your good Nature, than by the Conviction of your Judgment? We laid open the Foundations of Society; and you feared, that the Curiosity of this Search might endanger the Ruin of the whole Fabrick. You would readily have allowed my Principle, but you dreaded the Confequences; you thought, that having once entered upon these Reafonings, we might be carried infenfibly and irrefiftibly farther than at first we could either have imagined or wifhed. But for my Part, my Lord, I then thought, an am ftill of the fame Opinion, that Error, and not Truth of any kind, is dangerous; that ill Conclufions can only flow from falfe Propofitions; and that, to know whether any Propofition be true

or

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