' That life and happinefs confift in aclion c And employment.
( But here a bufy form f elicits usf c Aclivey indujlriousy watchful ', anddefpifing * Pains and labor. She wears the fericus * Countenance of virtue, but with features c Of anxiety and difquiet.
6 What is'tfhe mutters P What looks Jhe on with 6 Such admiration and aflonifoment P * Bags! Coffers! Heaps of fhinitig metal! What I € For thefervice of luxury P For her?
* Thefe preparations P Art thou then her friend t * Grave Fancy J Is it for her thou ioil'Jl P * No, but for provifion againjl "want.
* But luxury apart! tell me now, * Hajl thou not already a competence P * *Tis good to be fecure again/} the fear ' Offarving. Is there then no death but this P * No other paffage out of life P Are other doors € Secur'd, if this be bar'd P Say avarice!
€ 'Thou emptiejl of phantoms, is it not vile * Cowardife thou fervfl P What further have I then * To do with thee (thou doubly vile dependent) * When once I have difmifidthy patronefs, ' And defpifed her threats?
€ Thus I contend with fancy and opinion.9 Euphranor, having heard thus far, cried out, What I will you never have done with your poetry? another time may ferve: But why mould we break off our conference to read a play? You are miftaken, it is no play nor poetry, replied Alciphron, but a famous modern critic moralizing in profe. You muft know this great man hath (to ufe his own words) revealed a grand arcanum to the world, having inftru&ed mankind in what he calls Mirrour-writing, felf-difcourfing pratlice, and author-practice, and (hewed, " That by virtue of an intimate recefs, we may difcover a certain duplicity of foul, and divide owxfelf into two parties, or (as he varies the phrafe) practically form the dual number." In confequence whereof E e he hath found out that a man may argue with himfelf: And not only with himfelf, but alfo with notions, fentiments, and vices, which, by a marvellous profopopceia, he converts into fo many ladies: And fo converted, he confutes and confounds them in a divine ftrain. Can any thing be finer, bolder, or more fublime?
Euph. — It is very wonderful. I thought indeed you had been reading a piece of a tragedy. Is this he who defpifeth our univerfities, and fets up for reforming the ftile and tafte of the age?
Alc— - The very fame. This is the admired critic of our times. Nothing can ftand the teft of his correct judgment, which is equally fevere to poets and parfons. " The Britijh mufes, (faith this great man) lifp as in their * cradles: And their Hammering tongues, which nothing " but youth and rawnefs can excufe, have hitherto fpoken « in wretched pun and quibble. Our dramatic Shake/pear, <l our Fletcher, John/on, and our Epique Milton, preferve " this ftile. And, according to him, even our later au-" thors, aiming at a falfe fublime, entertain our raw fancy " and unpra£Ufed ear, which has not yet had leifure to " form itfelf, and become truly mufical."
Euph. — Pray what effe£b may the leffons of this great man, in whofe eyes our learned profeffors are but bearded boys, and our moft celebrated wits but wretched punfters, have had upon the public? Hath he rubbed off the college ruft, cured the rudenefs and rawnefs of our authors, and reduced them to his own attic ftandard? Do they afpire to his true fublime, or imitate his chafte unaffe&ed ftile?
Alc» — Doubtlefs the tafte of the age is muft mended: In proof whereof his writings are univerfally admired. When our author publifhed this treatife, he forefaw the public tafte would improve apace: That arts and letters would grow to great perfection: That there would be a happy birth of genius: Of all which things he fpoke, as he faith himfelf, in a prophetic ftile.
Cri. — And yet, notwithstanding the prophetical predictions of this critic, I do not find that any fcience hath throve among us of late, fo much as the Minute Philofophy. In this kind, it muft be confefTed, we have had many notable productions. But whether they are fuch matter-pieces for good writing, I leave to be determined by their readers.
XXIII. In the mean time I muft beg to be excufed, if I cannot believe your great man on his bare word, when he would have us think, that ignorance and ill tafte are owing to the chriftian religion or the clergy, it being my fincere opinion, that whatever learning or knowledge we have among us, is derived from that order. If thofe, who are fo fagacious at difcovering a mote in other eyes, would but purge their own, I believe they might eafily fee this truth. For what but religion could kindle and preferve a fpirit towards learning, in fuch a northern rough people? Greece produced men of active and fubtile genius. The public conventions and emulations of their cities forwarded that genius: And their natural curiofity was amufed and excited by learned converfations, in their public walks, and gardens, and porticoes. Our genius leads to amufements of a groffer kind: We breathe a grofier and a colder air: And that curiofity which was general in the Athenians^ and the gratifying of which was their chief recreation, is among our people of fafhion treated like affectation, and, as fuch, banifhed from polite afiTemblies and places of refort: And without doubt would, in a little time, be banifned the country; If it were not for the great refervoirs of learning, where thofe formalifts, pedants, and bearded boys, as your profound critic calls them, are maintained by the liberality and piety of our predecefTors. For it is as evident that religion was the caufe of thofe feminaries, as it is that they arc the caufe or fource of all the learning and tafte which is to be found, even in thofe very men who are the declared enemies of our religion and public foundations. Every one, who knows any thing, knows we are indebted for our learning to the Greek and Latin tongues. This thofe fevere cenfors will readily grant. Perhaps they may not be fo ready to grant, what all men mud fee, that we are indebted for thofe tongues to our religion. What elfe could have made foreign and dead languages in fuch requeft among us? What could have kept in being and handed them down to our times, through fo many dark ages, in which the world was wafted and disfigured by wars and violence V What, but a regard to the holy fcriptures, and theological writings of the fathers and doctors of the church? And, in fa£t, do we not find that the learning of thofe times was folely in the hands of ecclefiaftics; that they alone lighted the lamp in fucceflion one from another, and tranfmitted it down to after-ages; and that ancient books were collecled and preferved in their colleges and feminaries, when all love and remembrance of polite arts and ftudies was extinguifhed among the laity, whofe ambition intirely turned to arms?
XXIV. Aix.-^-There is, I mu ft needs fay, one fort of learning undoubtedly of chriftian original, and peculiar to the univerfities; where our youth fpend feveral years in acquiring that myfterious jargon of fcholafticifm, than which there could never have been contrived a more effectual method, to perplex and confound human under-Handing. It is true, gentlemen are untaught by the world what they have been taught at the college: but then their time is doubly loft.
■Cri. — But what if this fcholaftic learning was not of chriftian, but of mahometan original, being derived from [Dial. V.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER..529 the Arabs P And what if this grievance of gentlemen's fpending feveral years in learning and unlearning this jargon, be all grimace, and a fpecimen only of the truth and candour of certain Minute Philofophers, who raife great invectives from flight occafions, and judge too of ten without inquiring. Surely it would be no fuch deplorable lofs of time, if a young gentleman fpent a few months upon that fo much defpifed and decried art of logic, a furfeit of which is by no means the prevailing nufance of this age. It is one thing to wafte one's time in learning and unlearning the barbarous terms, wiredrawn diflinftions, and prolix fophiflry of the fchoolmen; and another to attain fome exactnefs in defigning and arguing: Things perhaps not altogether beneath the dignity even of a Minute Philofopher. There was indeed a time, when logic was confidered as its own object: And that art of reafoning, inftead of being transferred to things, turned altogether upon words and abftra£tions: Which produced a fort of leprofy in all parts of knowledge, corrupting and converting them into hollow verbal difputations in a mod Impure dialed!:. But thofe times are paffed: And that which had been cultivated as the principal learning for fome ages, is now confidered in another light: And by no means makes that figure in the univerfities, or bears that part in the ftudies of young gentlemen educated there, which is pretended by thofe admirable reformers of religion and learning, the Minute Philofophers.
XXV. But who are they that encouraged and produced the restoration of arts and polite learning? "What fhare had the Minute Philofophers in this affair? Matthias CorvinuSy king of Hungary, Alphonfus ■, king of Naples, Cofmus de Medicis, Picus, of Mirandula, and other princes and great men, famous for learning themfelves, and for encouraging it in others, with a munificent liberality, 23o MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. V.]
were neither Turks nor Gentiles, nor Minute Philofophers. Who was it that tranfplanted and revived the Greek language and authors, and with them all polite arts and literature in the weft? Was it not chiefly BeJ/arion, a cardinal, Marcus Mufurus, an archbifhop, Theodore Gaza, a private clergyman? Has there been a greater and more renowned patron, and reftorer of elegant ftudies in every kind, fince the days of Augnjlus C/zfar, than Leot the tenth pope of Rome? Did any writers approach the purity of the ClaJJlcs nearer than the cardinals, Bembus and Sadoletus, or than the bifhops, Jovius and Vida P not to mention an endlefs number of ingenious ecclefiafties, who flourifhed on the other fide of the Alp's, in the golden age (as the Italians call it) of Leo the tenth, and wrote, both in their own language and the Latin, after the bed models of antiquity. It is true, this firft recovery of learning preceded the Reformation, and lighted the way to it: but the religious controverfies, which enfued, did wonderfully propagate and improve it in all parts of Chriftendom. And furely the Church of England is, at leaft, as well calculated for the encouragement of learning, as that of Rome. Experience confirms this obfervation; and I believe the Minute Philofophers will not be fo partial to Rome as to deny it.
Alc— It is impoffible your account of learning beyond the Alps fhould be true. The noble critic in my hands, having complimented the French) to whom he allows fome good authors, afferts of other foreigners, particularly the Italians, " That they may be reckoned no better than the corrupters of true learning and erudition."
Cri. — With fome forts of critics, dogmatical cenfures and conclufions are not always the refult of perfect knowledge, or exacl: inquiry: And if the harrange upon tafte, truth of art, a juft piece, grace of ftile, attic elegance, and fuch topics, they are to be underftood only as thofe [Dm, VJ MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 231 that would fain talk themfelves into reputation for cour-To hear ^Thrafymackiis fpeak of refentment, duels, tad points of honor, one would think him ready to burft with valour.
Lys. — Whatever merit this writer may have as a demolimer, I always thought he had a very little as a builder. It is natural for carelefs writers to run into faults they never think of: But for an exa£t and fevere critic to {hoot his bolt at random, is unpardonable. If he, who profeffes, at every turn, an high efteem for polite writing, fhould yet defpife thofe who molt excel in it, one would be tempted to fufpecl: his tafte. But if the very man, who, of all men, talk moll about art and tafte, and critical fkill, and would be thought to have moll confidered thofe points, mould often deviate from his own rules, into the falfe fublime, or the mauvaife plafanterie; what reafonable man would follow the tafte and judgment of fuch a guide, or be feduced to climb the fteep afcent, or tread in the rugged paths of virtue, on his recommendation?
XXVI. Alc — But to return, methinks Crito makes no compliment to the genius of his country, in fuppoling that EngliJImien might not have wrought out of themfelves, all art and fcience, and good tafte; without being beholden to church, or universities, or ancient languages.
Cri. — What might have been, is only conjecture.— What has been, it is not difficult to know. That there is a vein in Britain> of as rich an ore as ever was in any country, I will not deny; but it lies deep, and will coil pains to come at: and extraordinary pains require an extraordinary motive. As for what lies next the furface, it feems but indifferent, being neither fo good, nor in fuch plenty* as io fome other countries. It was the comparifon of an ingenious Florentine^ that the celebrated poems a32 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. V.]
of Tajfo and Ariofto are like two gardens, the one of cucumbers, the other of melons. In the one you mail find fewbad, but the beft are not a very good fruit; in the other much the greater part are good for nothing, but thofe that are good are excellent. Perhaps the fame comparison may hold good between the Englijh and fome of their neighbors.
Alc. — But fuppofe we fhould grant, that the chriftian religion and its feminaries might have been of ufe, in preferving or retrieving polite arts and letters \ what then? Will you make this an argument of its truth?
Cri. — I will make it an argument of prejudice and ingratitude in thofe Minute Philofophers, who object, darknefs, ignorance, and rudenefs, as an effecl: of that very thing, which, above all others, hath enlightened and civilized, and embellifhed their country: which is as truly indebted to it for arts and fciences (which nothing but religion was ever known to have planted in fuch a latitude) as for that general fenfe of virtue and humanity, and the belief of a Providence and future ftate, which all the argumentation of Minute Philofophers hath not yet been able to abolifh.
XXVII. Alc. — It is ftrange you mould flill perfift to argue, as if all the gentlemen of our feci: were enemies to virtue, and downrigh atheifts: Though I have aflured you of the contrary, and that we have among us feveral, ^ who profefs themfelves in the interefts of virtue and natural religion, and have alfo declared, that I rnyfelf do now argue upon that foot.
Cri. — How can you pretend to be in the interefl of natural religion, and yet be profeifed enemies of the chrifftian, the only eftablifhed religion which includes what ever is excellent in the natural, and which is the only means of making thofe precepts, duties, and notions, fo called, become reverenced throughout the world? Would not he be thought weak or infincere, who fhould go about to perfuade people, that he was much in the interefts of an earthly monarch; that he loved and admired his government; when at the fame time he (hewed himfelf on all occafions, a moft bitter enemy of thofe very perfons, and methods, which, above all others, contributed moft to his fervice, and to make his dignity known and revered, his laws obferved, or his dominion extended?
And is not this what Minute Philofophers do, while they fet up for advocates of God and religion, and yet do all they can to difcredit chriftians and their worfhip? It muft be owned, indeed, that you argue againft chriftianity, as the caufe of evil and wickednefs in the world: But with fuch arguments, and in fuch a manner, as might equally prove the fame thing of civil government, of meat and drink, of every faculty and profefllon, of learning, of eloquence, and even of human reafon itfelf. After all, even thofe of your feci: who allow themfelves to be called deifts, if their notions are thoroughly examined, will, I fear, be found to include little of religion in them. As for the Providence of God, watching over the conduct of human agents, and difpenfing bleflings or chaftifements, the immortality of the foul, a final judgment, and future ftate of rewards and punifhments; how few, if any, of your free-thinkers have made it their endeavor to polTefs men's minds with a ferious fenfe of thofe great points of natural religion! How many, on the contrary, endeavor to render the belief of them doubtful or ridiculous! It muft be owned, there may be found men, that, without any regard to thefe points, make fome pretence to religion: But who can think them in earned? You {hall fometimes fee, the very ringleaders of vice and profanencfs write like men, that would be thought to have virtue and piety at heart. This may perhaps prove them incon- F f fiftent writers, but can never prove them to be innocent. When a man's declared principles and peculiar tenets are utterly fubverfive of thofe things f whatever fuch a one faith of virtue, piety, and religion, will be underftood as mere discretion and compliance with common forms.
Lys. — To fpeak the truth, I, for my part, had never any liking to religion of any kind, either revealed or unrcvealed: And I dare venture to fay the fame for thofe gentlemen of our -feci: that I am acquainted with, having never obferved them guilty of fo much meannefs, as even to mention the name of <God with reverence, or fpeak with the leaft regard of piety, or any fort of worfhip. There may, perhaps, be found one or two formal pretenders to enthufiafm and devotion, in the way of natural religion, who laughed at chriftians for publifhing hymns and meditations, while they plagued the world with as bad of their own: But the fprightly men make a jell of all this. It feems to us mere pedantry. Sometimes, indeed, in good company one may hear a word dropt in commendation of honor and good-nature: But the former of thefe, by Connoiffeursy is always underftood to mean nothing but fafhion: As the latter is nothing but temper and conftitution, which guides a man juft as appe* tite doth a brute.
XXVIII. And after all thefe arguments and notions, which beget one another without end, to take the matter fhort: Neither I nor my friends, for our fouls, could ever comprehend, why man might not do very well, and govern himfelf without any religion at all, as well as a brute, which is thought the fillier creature of the two. Have brutes inftincts, fenfes, appetites, and paffions, to fteer and conducl: them? So have men, and reafon, over and above, to confult upon occafion. From thefe premifes we conclude, the road of human life is fufficiently lighted without religion.
Cri. — Brutes having but fmall power, limited to things prefect or particular, are fufliciently oppofed and kept in order, by the force or faculties of other animals, and the fkiil of man, without confcience or religion: But confcience is a neceffary balance to human reafon, a faculty of fuch mighty extent and power, efpecially toward mifchief. Befides, other animals are, by the law of their nature, determined to one certain end, or kind of benag, without inclination or means either to deviate or go beyond it. But man hath in him a will and higher principle; by virtue whereof he may purfue different or even contrary ends; and either fall fhort of, or exceed the perfection natural to his fpecies in this world; as he is capable, either by giving up the reins to his -fenfual appetites, of degrading himfelf into the condition of brutes, or elfe, by well ordering and improving his mind, of being transformed into, the fimilitude of angels. Man alone, of all animals, hath understanding to know his God. What availeth this knowledge, unlefs it be to enoble man, and raife him to an imitation and participation of the Divinity? Or what could fuch enoblement avail, if to end with this life? Or how can thefe things take effecT:, without religion? But the points of vice and virtue, man and bead, fenfe and intellect, have been already at large canvaffed. What! Lyfic/esy would you have us go back where we were three or four days ago?
Lys. — By no means: I had much rather go forward, and make an end as foon as poflible. But to fave trouble, give me leave to tell you, once for all, that, fay what you can, you (hall never perfuade me, fo many ingenious agreeable men are in the wrong, and a pack of marling four bigots in the right.
XXIX. Cri.— O Lyficles, I neither look for r ligion among bigots, nor reafon among libertines j each kind 23<5 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. V.]
difgrace their feveral pretentions: the one owning, no regard even to the plained and molt important truths, while the others exert an angry zeal for points of lead concern. And furely whatever there is of filly, narrow, and uncharitable in the bigot, the fame is in great meafure to be imputed to the conceited ignorance, and petulant profanenefs of the libertine. And it is not at all unlikely, that as libertines make bigots, fo bigots mould make libertines, the extreme of one party being ever obferved to produce a contrary extreme of another. And although, while thefe adversaries draw the rope of contention, reafon and religion are often called upon: Yet are they perhaps very little confidered or concerned in the conted.
Lyficles, indead of anfwering Crito, turned fhort upon Alciphron. It was always my opinion, faid he, that nothing could be fillier than to think of deftroying chriftianity, by crying up natural religion. Whoever thinks highly of the one, can never, with any confidency, think meanly of the other; it being very evident, that natural religion, without revealed, never was and never can be eftablifhed or received any where, but in the brains of a few idle fpeculative men. I was aware what your conceflions would come to. The belief of God, virtue, a future date, and fuch fine notions are, as every one may fee with half an eye, the very bafis and corner-done of the chridian religion. Lay but this foundation for them to build on, and you (hall foon fee what fuperdru&ures our men of divinity will raife from it. The truth and importance of thofe points once admitted, a man need be no conjurer to prove, upon that principle, the excellency and ufefuinefs of the chridian religion: And then, to be fure, there mud be prieds to teach and propagate this ufeful religion: And if prieds, a regular fabordination, without doubt, in this worthy fociety, and a provifion for their maintenance: Such as may enable them to perform all [Dial. VJ MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. a37 their rites and ceremonies with decency, and keep their facred character above contempt. And the plain confequence of all this is, a confederacy between the prince and the priefthood, to fubdue the people: So we have let in at once upon us, a long train of ecclefiaftical evils, prieftcraft, hierarchy, inquifition. We have loft our liberty and property, and put the nation to vaft expence, only to purchafe bridles and faddles, for their own mouths and their own backs.
XXX. This being fpoke with fome fharpnefs of tone, and an upbraiding air, touched Alciphron to the quick, who replied nothing, but fhewed confufion in his looks. dito fmiling, looked at Euphrawr and me, then calling an eye on the two philofophers, fpoke as follows: If I may be admitted to interpofe good offices, for preventing a rupture between old friends and brethren, in opinion, I would obferve, that in this charge of Lyjtcles, there is fomething right, and fomething wrong. It feems right to affert as he doth, that the real belief of natural religion will lead a man to approve of revealed: But it is as wrong to affert, that inquifitions, tyranny, and ruin, mult follow from thence. Your free-thinkers, without offence be it faid, feem to miftake their talent. They imagine ftrongly, but reafon weakly; mighty at exaggeration, and jejune in argument! Can no method be found, to relieve them from the terror of that fierce and bloody animal, an Englijh parfon? Will it not fuffice to pare his talons without chopping off his fingers? Then they are fuch wonderful patriots for liberty and property! When I hear thefe two words in the mouth of a Minute Philcfopher, I am put in mind of the Tejle di Ferrozt Rome. His holinsfs, it feems, not having power to affign penfions on Spanijh benefices to any but natives of Spain, always keeps at Rome two Spaniards, called Tefte di Ferro, who havs the name of all fuch penfions, but not the profit, Munich goes to Italians. As we may fee every day, both things and notions placed to the account of liberty and property, which in reality neither have, nor are meant to have, any fhare in them. What! Is it impoflible for a man to be a chriftian, but he muft be a flave? Or a clergyman, but he muft have the principles of an inquifitor? I am far from fcreeningand juftifying appetite of domination or tyrannical power in ecclefiaftics. Some, who have been guilty in that refpe£t, have forely paid for it, and it is to be hoped they always will. But having laid the fury and folly of the ambitious prelate, is it not time to look about and fpy whether, on the other hand, fome evil may not poffibly accrue to the ftate, from the overflowing zeal of an independent whig? This I may affirm, without being at any pains to prove it, that the word tyranny this nation ever felt, was from the hands of patriots of that (lamp.
XXXI. Lys. — I do not know. Tyranny is a harm word, and fometimes mifapplied. "When fpirited men of independent maxims create a ferment, or make a a change in the ftate; he that lofeth is apt to confider things in one light, and he that wins in another. In the mean time, this is certainly good policy, that we mould be frugal of our money, and referve it for better ufes, than to expend on the church and religion.
Cri. — Surely the old apologue of the belly and members need not be repeated to fuch knowing men. It mould feem as needlefs to obferve, that all other dates, which ever made any figure in the world for wifdom and politenefs, have thought learning deferved encouragement, as well as the fword: that grants for religious ufes were as fitting as for knights fervice: and foundations for propagating piety, as necefiary to the public welfare and defence, as either civil or military eftablifhments. In former times, when the clergy were a body much more numerous, wealthy, and powerful: when in their ftate of celibacy they gave no pledges to the public: when they enjoyed great exemptions and privileges above their fellow fubjecl:s: when they owned obedience to a foreign potentate, the cafe was evidently and widely different from what it is in our days. And the not difcerning, or not owning this difference, is no proof either of fagacity or honefty in the Minute Philofophers. But I afk, who are at this expenfe, and what is this expenfe fo much complained of?
Lys. — As if you had never heard of church-lands and Cri.— But I would fain know, how they can be charged as an expenfe, either upon the nation, or private men. Where nothing is exported, the nation lofeth nothing: and it is all one to the public, whether money circulates at home through the hands of a vicar or a fquire. Then as for private men, who, for want of thought, are full of complaint about the payment of tithes; can any man juftly complain of it as a tax, that he pays what never belonged to him? The tenent rents his farm with this condition, and pays his landlord proportionably lefs, than if his farm had been exempt from it: So he lofeth nothing; it being all one to him whether he pays his paftor or his landlord. The landlord cannot complain that he has not what he hath no right to, either by grant, purchafe, or inheritance. This is the cafe of tithes: and as for the church-lands, he furely can be no free-thinker, nor any thinker at all, who doth not fee that no man, whether noble, gentle, or plebeian, hath any fort cf right or claim to them, which he may not, with equal juftice, pretend to all the lands in the kingdom.
Lys. — At prefent indeed we have no right, and that is our complaint.
a4a MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. V.]
Cri. — You would have then what you have no right to.
Lys. — Not fo neither: what we would have is, firft a right conveyed by law, and, in the next place, the lands by virtue of fuch right.
Cri. — In order to this, it might be expedient, in the firft place, to get on ac~t parted for excommunicating from all civil rights every man that is a chriftian, a fcholar, and wears a black coat, as guilty of three capital offences againft the public weal of this realm.
Lys. — To deal frankly, I think it would be an excellent good a&.
Cri. — It would provide at once for feveral deferving men, rare artificers in wit, and argument, and ridicule! who have, too many of them, but fmall fortunes, with a great arrear of merit towards their country, which they have fo long enlightened and adorned gratis.
Euph. — Pray tell me, Lyjicks, are not the clergy legally poflefled of their lands and emoluments?
Lys. — Nobody denies it.
Euph. — Have they not been poflefled of them from time immemorial?
Lys. — This too I grant.
Euph. — They claim then by law and ancient prescription., Lys. — They do.
Euph. — Have the oldeft families of the nobility a better title?
Lys. — I believe not. It grieves me to fee many overgrown eftates in the hands of ancient families, on account of no other merit, but what they brought with them into the world.
Euph. — May you not then as well take their lands too, and bellow them on the Minute Philofophers, as perfons of more merit?
Lys. — So much the better. This enlarges our view, and opens a new fcene: It is very delightful, in the contemplation of truth, to behold how one theory grows out of another.
Alc. — Old Patus ufed to fay, that if the clergy were deprived of their hire, we fhould lofe the moll popular argument againft them.
Lys. — But fo long as men live by religion, there will never be wanting teachers and writers in defence of it.
Cri. — And how can you be fure they would be wanting, though they did not live by it, iince it is well known chriftianity had its defenders, even when men died by it?
Lys. — -One thing I know, — there is a rare nurfery of young plants growing up, who have been carefully guarded againft every air of prejudice, and fprinkled with the dew of our choicefi principles: mean while, wifhes are wearifome: and, to our infinite regret, nothing can be done, fo long as there remains any prejudice in favor of old cuftoms, and laws, and national constitutions, which, at bottom,,we very well know, and can demonftrate, to be only words and notions.