lieve a Thing when we are told it, which we actually fee before our Eyes every Day without being in the leaft furprised. I fuppofe that there are in GreatBritain upwards of an hundred thousand People em ployed in Lead, Tin, Iron, Copper, and Coal Mines; these unhappy Wretches fcarce ever see the Light of the Sun; they are buried in the Bowels of the Earth; there they work at a fevere and dismal Talk, without the leaft Profpect of being delivered from it; they fubfift upon the coarseft and worst Sort of Fare; they have their Health miferably impaired, and their Lives cut fhort, by being perpetually confined in the close Vapour of these malignant Minerals. An hundred thousand more at least are tortured without Remiffion by the fuffocating Smoak, intense Fires, and conftant Drudgery neceffary in refining and managing the Products of thofe Mines. If any Man informed us that two hundred thousand innocent Perfons were condemned to fo intolerable Slavery, how fhould we pity the unhappy Sufferers: and how great would be our just Indignation against those who inflicted fo cruel and ignominious a Punishment? This is an Inftance, I could not wish a ftronger, of the numberless Things which we pass by in their common Dress, yet which fhock us when they are nakedly reprefented. But this Number, confiderable as it is, and the Slavery, with all its Baseness and Horror, which we have at home, is nothing to what the reft of the World affords of the fame Nature. Millions daily bathed In the poisonous Damps and deftructive Effluvia of Lead, Silver, Copper and Arfenic. To fay nothing of F 2

thofe

those other Employments, thofe Stations of Wretch edness and Contempt in which Civil Society has placed the numerous Enfans perdus of our Army. Would any rational Man fubmit to one of the moft tolerable of these Drudgeries, for all the Artificial Enjoyments which Policy has made to refult from them? By no means. And yet need I fuggeft to your Lordship, that thofe who find the Means, and those who arrive at the End, are not at all the fame Perfons? On confidering the strange and unaccountable Fancies and Contrivances of artificial Reason, I have fomewhere called this Earth the Bedlam of our Syftem. Looking now upon the Effects of fome of thofe Fancies, may we not, with equal Reafon, call it likewise the Newgate, and the Bridewell of the Univerfe. In

deed the Blindness of one Part of Mankind co-operat

ing with the Frenzy and Villany of the other, has been the real Builder of this refpectable Fabric of political Society: And as the Blindnefs of Mankind has caufed their Slavery,in Return their State of Slavery is made a Ptetence for continuing them in a State of Blindness; for the Politician will tell you gravely, that their Life of Servitude difqualifies the greater Part of the Race of Man for a Search of Truth, and fupplies them with no other than mean and infufficient Ideas. This is but too true; and this is one of the Reafons for which I blame fuch Inftitutions."

In a Mifery of this Sort, admitting fome few Lenities, and thofe too but a few, nine Parts in ten of the whole Race of Mankind drudge through Life. It may be urged perhaps, in Palliation of this, that,

at

at leaft, the rich Few find a confiderable and real Benefit from the Wretchednefs of the Many. But is this fo in fact? Let us examine the Point with a little more Attention. For this Purpose the Rich in all Societies may be thrown into two Claffes., The firft is of those who are Powerful as well as Rich, and conduct the Operations of the vast political Machine. The other is of those who employ their Riches wholly in the Acquifition of Pleasure. As to the first Sort, their continual Care, and Anxiety, their toilfome Days, and fleeplefs Nights, are next to proverbial. Thefe Circumftances are fufficient almoft to level their Condition to that of the unhappy Majority; but there are other Circumstances which place them in a far lower Condition. Not only their Understandings labour continually, which is the feverest Labour, but their Hearts are torn by the worst, the most troublesome, and infatiable of all Paffions, by Avarice, by Ambition, by Fear and Jealoufy. No Part of the Mind has Reft. Power gradually extirpates from the Mind every humane and gentle Virtue. Pity, Benevolence, Friendship, are Things almost unknown in high Stations. Vera amicitia rariffime inveniuntur in iis qui in honoribus reque publica verfantur, fays Cicero. And indeed, Courts are the Schools where Cruelty, Pride, Diffimulation and Treachery are ftudied and taught in the most vicious Perfection. This is a Point fo clear and acknowledged, that if it did not make a neceffary Part of my Subject, I should pats it by entirely. And this has hindered me from drawing at full length, and in the most striking Colours, this fhocking

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fhocking Picture of the Degeneracy and Wretched nefs of human Nature, in that Part which is vulgarly thought its happiest and most amiable State. You know from what Originals I could copy fuch Pictures. Happy are they who know enough of them to know the little Value of the Poffeffors of fuch Things, and of all that they poffefs; and happy they who have been fnatched from that Poft of Danger which they occupy, with the Remains of their Virtue; Lofs of Honours, Wealth, Titles, and even the Lofs of one's Country, is nothing in Ballance with so great an Advantage.

Let us now view the other Species of the Rich; thofe who devote their Time and Fortunes to Idlenefs and Pleasure. How much happier are they? The Pleafures, which are agreeable to Nature, are within the reach of all, and therefore can form no Diftinction in favour of the Rich, The Pleasures which Art forces up are feldom fincere, and never fatisfying. What is worse, this constant Application to Pleasure takes away from the Enjoyment, or rather turns it into the Nature of a very burthenfome and laborious Bufinefs. It has Confequences much more fatal. It produces a weak valetudinary State of Body, attended by all those horrid Disorders, and yet more horrid-Methods of Cure, which are the Refult of Luxury on one hand, and the weak and ridiculous Efforts of human Art on the other. The Pleasures of fuch Men are fcarcely felt as Pleafures; at the fame time that they bring on Pains and Disgafes, which are felt but too feverely. The Mind

has

has its Share of the Misfortune; it grows lazy and enervate, unwilling and unable to fearch for Truth, and utterly uncapable of knowing, much lefs of relishing, real Happiness. The Poor, by their exceffive Labour, and the Rich, by their enormous Luxury, are fet upon a Level, and rendered equally ignorant of any Knowledge which might conduce to their Happiness. A difmal View of the Interior of all Civil Society. The lower Part broken and ground down by the most cruel Oppreffion; and the Rich by their artificial Method of Life bringing worse Evils on themselves, than their Tyranny could poffibly inflict on those below them. Very different is the Prospect of the Natural State. Here there are no W antswhich Nature gives, and in this State Men can be fenfible of no other Wants, which are not to be supplied by a very moderate Degree of Labour; therefore there is no Slavery. Neither is there any Luxury, because no fingle Man can fupply the Materials of it. Life is fimple, and therefore it is happy.

I am conscious, my Lord, that your Politician will urge in his Defence, that this unequal State is highly ufeful. That without dooming fome Part of Mankind to extraordinary Toil, the Arts which cultivate Life could not be exercised. But I demand of this Politician, how fuch Arts came to be neceffary! He answers, that Civil Society could not well exist without them. So that thefe Arts are neceffary to Civil Society, and Civil Society neceffary again to theft

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