many Occafions, efpecially where the fine Arts are concerned, a downright Visionary. After the general Compliments had paffed between thefe two Friends- How, faid Sophronius fmiling, fhall I answer it to the Dryad of these Groves, for thus breaking in upon the Contemplations of her Votary; when, perhaps, fhe is even now expecting you under fome venerable Oak, or favourite Elm? However romantic you may affect to think me in my Amours, replied Philocles, you do not, in good Earneft, I hope, believe me fo ill a Judge of real Happiness, as to imagine me capable of thinking I could exchange the Pleafures of Friendship for any more valuable Enjoyment. No, Sophronius! as great an Admirer as I am of thefe Beauties of Nature, fhe is no where fo charming to me, as in her moral Operations, and that Harmony fhe produces from focial Concord. Were I to have traced the Genealogy of Friendfhip, returned Sophronius, I fhould hardly have expected to find Nature her Parent. It feems to me much more reasonable to suppose this Union derived from Neceffity and Convenience, or fome other Principle arifing from our Wants and Imperfections, than any implanted Biafs in our Frame, previous to thofe uneafy Feelings. The State of Nature could not have admitted of this refined Commerce; fince every Individual, at that Period, muft have had a separate and oppofite Intereft. It It is for that Reason, among others, answered Philocles, why I think it improbable, that such a State fhould ever have exifted. There is in our Frame fo ftrong a Biafs, fuch an irrefiftible Tendency to unite in the focial Circle, that we must either suppose Mankind formed originally with Affections very different from what appear in them at present, or give up the Notion of this barbarous State, as an abfurd and groundless Suppofition. It is not to be wondered, faid Sophronius, that the first View of this rude State fhould startle a Mind, which has been accustomed to a regular Community, and has formed its Ideas of Truth from familiar Appearances of improved Nature. But it is very easy to mistake Habits for Affections, and afcribe to the direct Impulse of Nature, what is, in reality, owing to the Maturity of Time, and the Difcipline of many Generations. Societies have been long eftablifhed: Ufe has taught us the Advantages, that are derived from them; and therefore we fancy that Men fall naturally and unavoidably into Affociations; when the Truth is, they are only inclined to be fociable from Practice, rather than from any immediate Incitement of Nature, or the Love of their Species. Look back upon the Accounts which Poets, Philofophers, and Hiftorians give of Mankind in the Infancy of the World; and you will have a View very inconfiftent with a Principle of friendly Union and focial Coalition. They defcribe them not only without Arts and Sciences, but without Habitations, VOL. I. X Laws, Dial. I. Laws, or even Language itself, and feeding upon the raw Herbage, like their fellow Brutes, the Tenants of the fame Shade and Pafture. I remember a Paffage in Cicero, where he speaks to this Purpose of the firft Race of Mortals [a]. And Horace [b], as well as Lucretius [c], you know, talk of them exactly in the fame Manner. In fhort, all the Records of Antiquity affirm, that in the first Ages, the Conceptions of Mankind, their Manners and Difpofitions were rude, barbarous, and brutal; that their Attainments went no higher than fatisfying, at any rate, the coarfe Demands of their unreftrained Appetites: And thus being under no Controul in the Gratification of their selfish Paffions, they ran into the moft violent Exceffes, and were perpetually invading and feizing each other's Property. This is the defpicable Figure Mankind make in the feveral ancient Pictures of their original State. I acknowledge, said Philocles, that this was the Doctrine of the Epicureans; but the Principles of a particular Sect cannot be looked upon as the Standard [a] Nam fuit quoddam tempus, cùm in agris homines, beftiarum more vagabantur: nec quidquam ratione animi, fed pleraque viribus corporis adminiftrabant. Non jus æquabile, quicquid utilitatis haberet, acceperat, &c. CICERO de Invent. lib. i. [b] Cum prorepferunt primis animalia terris, Mutum & turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter, HOR. Sat. lib. i. -Nemora atque cavas montes fylvafque colebant, LUCRET. of of Antiquity. It is usual with the learned, when they are endeavouring to establish fome favourite Hypothefis, to pick out a Paffage from a Greek or Roman Author, that happens to co incide with the Notion to be advanced, and then argue from it, as a received Principle among the Ancients. Superficial Reafoners and minute Philofophers may be thus deceived; but Sophronius, I am fure, is not so easily imposed upon. And if he had been in the Humour, he could have drawn up a long Lift of claffical Names, to throw into the Scale against thofe he juft now mentioned. What think you of the Golden Age, when Nay, interpofed Sophronius, if you are for foaring to the airy Regions of Romance, I will not endeavour to attend your Flight. I can follow you well enough, whilft you keep within the humble Paths of fober Reasoning; but the Towerings of an heated Imagination are much too elevated for my Reach. Have Patience, good Sophronius! I was only going to mention what fome of the Ancients have thought concerning the State of Man, when he was yet new to Being, and fresh from the Hands of his Creator. The Description Ovid gives of his Situation, in that firft Period of his Exiftence, feems (fome poetical Embellishments excepted) fuch as, were we to reafon à priori, we fhould conclude he was placed in. The firft Characteristic he gives of it is Innocence [d] Firft rofe a golden Age! the human Mind Seneca likewife gives an Account of the State of Nature, as it ftood in Saturn's Reign, exactly conformable to this Notion of focial Virtue being then exercised in all its Purity and Peace [e]— Nor does it feem in the leaft improbable, that fuch a Happiness might once have been the Lot of Mortals; though their prefent degenerate State is fo different from it, as to need the strongest Restraints, [d] Aurea prima fata eft ætas, que vindice nullo, [e]" Tunc illa virgo, numinis magni dea, "Terras regebat mitis. Humanum genus &c." Then Juftice, Virgin pure, of Sovereign Power, SENECA. Trag. Octav. A&t, ii, to |