thefe Arts. Thus running in a Circle, without Modefty, and without End, and making one Error and Extravagance an Excufe for the other. My Sentiments about thefe Arts and their Caufe, I have often difcourfed with my Friends at large. Pope has expreffed them in good Verfe, where he talks with fo much force of Reafon and Elegance of Language in Praise of the State of Nature:

Then was not Pride, nor Arts that Pride to aid,
Man walk'd with Beaft, Joint-tenant of the Shade.

On the whole, my Lord, if Political Society, in whatever Form, has ftill made the Many the Property of the Few; if it has introduced Labours unneceffary, Vices and Difeafes unknown, and Pleafures incompatible with Nature; if in all Countries it abridges the Lives of Millions, and renders thofe of Millions more utterly abject and miferable, fhall we ftill worship fo deftructive an Idol, and daily facrifice to it our Health, our Liberty, and our Peace? Or fhall we pafs by this monftrous Heap of abfurd Notions, and abominable Practices, thinking we have fufficiently discharged our Duty in expofing the trifling Cheats and ridiculous Juggles of a few mad, defigning, or ambitious Priests? Alas! my Lord, we labour under a mortal Confumption, whilft we are fo anxious about the Cure of a fore Finger. For has not this Leviathan of Civil Power overflowed the Earth with a Deluge of Blood, as if he were made to difport and play therein? We have fhewn, that Political Society, on

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a moderate Calculation, has been the Means of murdering, several Times the Number of Inhabitants now upon the Earth, during its fhort Existence, not upwards of four thousand Years in any Accounts to be depended on. But we have faid nothing of the other, and perhaps as bad Confequence of these Wars, which have fpilled fuch Seas of Blood, and reduced fo many Millions to a mercilefs Slavery. But thefe are only the Ceremonies performed in the Porch of the political Temple. Much more horrid ones are seen as you enter it. The feveral Species of Government vie with each other in the Abfurdity of their Conftitutions, and the Oppreffion which they make their Subjects endure. Take them under what Form you pleafe, they are, in effect, but a Defpotism, and they fall, both in Effect and Appearance too, after a very fhort Period, into that cruel and deteftable Species of Tyranny; which I rather call it, because we have been educated under another Form, than that this is of worfe Confequences to Mankind. For the free Governments, for the Point of their Space, and the Moment of their Duration, have felt more Confufion, and committed more flagrant Acts of Tyranny, than the most perfect defpotic Governments which we have ever known. Turn your Eye next to the Labyrinth of the Law, and the Iniquity conceived in its intricate Receffes. Confider the Ravages committed in the Bowels of all Commonwealths by Ambition, by Avarice, Envy, Fraud, open Injuftice, and pretended Friendship; Vices which could draw little. Support from a State of Nature, but which blossom

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and flourish in the Rankness of political Society. Revolve our whole Discourse; add to it all thofe Reflexions which your own good Understanding shall fuggeft, and make a ftrenuous Effort beyond the Reach of vulgar Philofophy, to confefs that the Caufe of Artificial Society is more defenceless even than that of Artificial Religion; that it is as derogatory from the Honour of the Creator, as fubverfive of human Reafon, and productive of infinitely more Mischief to the human Race.

If pretended Revelations haver caufed Wars where they were opposed, and Slavery where they were received, the pretended wife Inventions of Politicians have done the fame. But the Slavery has been much heavier, the Wars far more bloody, and both more univerfal by many Degrees. Shew me any Mifchief produced by the Madness or Wickedness of Theologians, and I will fhew you an hundred, refulting from the Ambition and Villainy of Conque◄ rors and Statesmen. Shew me an Abfurdity in Religion, I will undertake to fhew you an hundred for one in political Laws and Inftitutions. If you fay, that Natural Religion is a fufficient Guide without the foreign Aid of Revelation, on what Principle fhould Political Laws become neceffary? Is not the fame Reafon available in Theology and in Politics? If the Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, is it confiftent with the Divine Wisdom to prescribe Rules to us, and leave the Enforcement of them to the Folly of human Inftitutions? Will you follow Truth but to a certain Point?

We are indebted for all our Miferies to our Diftruft of that Guide, which Providence thought fufficient for our Condition, our own natural Reafon, which, rejecting both in human and divine Things, we have given our Necks to the Yoke of political and theological Slavery. We have renounced the Prerogative of Man, and it is no Wonder that we should be treated like Beafts. But our Mifery is much greater than theirs, as the Crime we commit, in rejecting the lawful Dominion of our Reason, is greater than any which they can commit. If after all, you should confefs all thefe Things, yet plead the Neceffity of political Inftitutions, weak and wicked as they are, I can argue with equal, perhaps fuperior Force, concerning the Neceffity of artificial Religion; and every Step you advance in your Argument, you add a Strength to mine. So that if we are refolved to submit our Reafon and our Liberty to civil Ufurpation, we have nothing to do but to conform as quietly as we can to the vulgar Notions which are connected with this, and take up the Theology of the Vulgar as well as their Politics. But if we think this Neceffity rather imaginary than real, we fhould renounce their Dreams of Society, together with their Visions of Religion, and vindicate ourselves into perfect Liberty.

You are, my Lord, but juft entering into the World; I am going out of it. I have played long enough to be heartily tired of the Drama. Whe

ther

ther I have acted my Part in it well or ill, Pofterity will judge with more Candor than I, or than the prefent Age, with our prefent Paffions, can poffibly pretend to. For my part, I quit it without a Sigh, and fubmit to the Sovereign Order without murmuring. The nearer we approach to the Goal of Life, the better we begin to understand the true Value of our Exiftence, and the real Weight of our Opinions. We fet out much in love with both; but we leave much behind us as we advance. We first throw away the Tales along with the Rattles of our Nurfes; thofe of the Prieft keep their Hold a little longer; thofe of our Governors the longest of all. But the Paffions which prop thefe Opinions are withdrawn one after another; and the cocl Light of Reafon at the Setting of our Life, fhews us what a falfe Splendor played upon thefe Objects during our more fanguine Seafons. Happy, my Lord, if inftructed by my Experience, and even by my Errors, you come early to make fuch an Estimate of Things, as may give Freedom and Eafe to your Life. I am happy that fuch an Eftimate promises me Comfort at my Death.

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