are unreafonable. He hath given me reafon to judge withal: and I will judge by that unerring light, lighted from the univerfal lamp of nature.
Cri.— O Alciphron! as I frankly own the common remark to be true, that when a man is againft reafon, it is a fhrewd Cgn, reafon is againft him *, fo I ihould never go about to difluade any one, much lefs one, who fo well knew the value of it, from nfing that noble talent. On the contrary, upon all fubje&s of moment, in my opinion, a man ought to ufe his reafon; but then, whether it may not be reafonable to ufe it with fome deference to fuperior reafon, it will not, perhaps, be amifs to confider. He, who hath an exa£t, view of the meafure, and of the thing to be meafured, if he applies the one to the other, may, I grant, meafure exactly. But he, who undertakes to meafure without knowing either, can be no more exa£l than he is modeft. It may not, neverthelefs, be impoffible to find a man, who, having neither an abftra£t. idea of moral fitnefs, nor an adequate idea of the divine economy, (hall yet pretend to meafure the one by the other.
Alc — It mult furely derogate from the wifdom of God, to fuppofe his conducl: cannot bear being infpe£ted? not even by the twilight of human reafon.
Euph. — You allow, then, God to be wife?
Alc — I do.
Euph. — What! infinitely wife?
Alc. — Even infinitely.
Euph. — His Wifdom, then, far exceeds that of man.
Alc. — Very far.
Euph. — Probably more than the wifdom of man, that of a child.
x\lc. — Without all queftion.
Euph. — What think you, Alciphron> muft not the condue* of a parent fecm very unaccountable to a child, when its inclinations are thwarted, when it is put to learn the letters, when it is obliged to fwallow bitter phyfic, to part with what it likes, and to fuffer, and do, and fee many things done contrary to its own judgment, however reafonable or agreeable to that of others?
Alc. — This I grant.
Euph. — -Will it not, therefore, follow from hence, by a parity of reafon, that the little child, man, when it takes upon it to judge of the fchemes of parental Providence 5 and a thing of yefterday, to criticife the economy of the Ancient of Days; will it not follow, I fay, that fuch a judge, of fuch matters, mull be apt to make very erroneous judgments? efteeming thofe things in themfelves unaccountable, which he cannot account for, and concluding of fome certain points, from an appearance of arbitrary carriage, towards him, which is fuited to his infancy and ignorance, that they are in themfelves capricious or abfurd, and cannot proceed from a wife, juft, and benevolent God. This fingle confideration, if duly attended to, and applied, would, I verily think, put an end to many conceited reafonings againft revealed religion.
Alc — You would have us then conclude, that things, to our wifdom unaccountable, may neverthelefs proceed from an abyfs of wifdom, which our line cannot fathom: And that profpects viewed but in part, and by the broken tinged light of our intellects, though to us they may feem diiproportionate and monftrous, may, neverthelefs, appear quite otherwifeto another eye, and in a different fituation: In a word, that as human wifdom is but childim folly, in refpecl: of the divine, fo the wifdom of God may ibmetimes feem foolifhnefs to man.
XVIII. Euph. — I would not have you make thefe conclusions, unlefs in reafon, you ought to make them: But if they are reafenable, why mould you net make them?
[Dial. VI] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 293 Alc. — Some things may feem reafonable at one time, and not at another: And I take this very apology you make, for credulity and fuperftition, to be one of thofe things. When I view it in its principles, it feems naturally to follow from juft concefiions: But when I confider its confequences, I cannot agree to it. A man had as good abdicate his nature, as difclaim the ufe of reafon. A doctrine is unaccountable, therefore it muft be divine \ Euph. — Credulity and fuperftition are qualities io difagreeableand degrading to human nature, (o furely an effect of weaknefs, and fo frequently a caufe o£-wickednefs, that I mould be very much furprifed to find a jult courfe of reafoning lead to them. I can never think, that reafon is a blind guide to folly, or that there is any connexion between truth and falfhood, no more th.in I can think a thing's being unaccountable a proof that it is divine: Though at the fame time, I cannot help acknowledging, it follows from your own avowed principles, that a thing's being unaccountable, or incomprehenfible to our reafon, is no fure argument to conclude it is not divine; efpecially when there are collateral proofs of its being fo. A child is influenced by the many fenfible effects it hath felt, of paternal love, and care, and fuperior wifdom, to believe and do feveral things with an implicit faith and obedience: And if we, in the fame manner, from the truth and re3fonablenefs which we plainly fee in fo many points within our cognifance, and the advantages which we experience from the feed of the gofpel (own in good ground, were difpofed to an implicit belief of certain other points, relating to fchemes we do not know, or fubjecls to which our talents are perhaps difproportionate, I am tempted to think it might become our duty, without difhonoring our reafon; which is never fo much dishonored, as when it is foiled, and never in more danger of being foiled, than by judging where it hath neither means nor right to judge.
Lys. — I would give a good deal to fee that ingenious gamefter, G/aucus, have the handling of Euphranor one night at our club. I own he is a peg too high for me in fome of his notions: But then he is admirable at vindicating human reafon againft the impofitions of prieftcraft.
XIX. Alc. — He would undertake to make it as clear as day light, that there was nothing worth a draw in chriftianity, but what every one knew, or might know, as well without as with it, before as fince Jefus Chrijl.
Cri. — That great man, it feems, teacheth, that common fenfe alone is the pole-ftar, by which mankind ought to freer; and that what is called revelation muft be ridiculous, becaufe it is unneceffary and ufelefs, the natural talents of every man being fufficient, to make him happy, good, and wife, without any further correfpondence with heaven either for light or aid.
Euph. — I have already acknowledged how fenfible I am, that my fituation in this obfcure corner of the country deprives me of many advantages, to be had from the converfation of ingenious men in town. To make myfelf fome amends, I am obliged to converfe with the dead, and my own thoughts, which laft I know are of little weight againft the authority of Glaucus, or fuch like great men in the Minute Philofophy. But what fhall we fay to Socrates, for he too was of an opinion very different from that afcribed to Glaucus?
Alc. — For the prefent, we need not infift on authorities, ancient or modern, or inquire which was the greater man Socrates or Glaucus. Though, methinks, for fo much as authority can fignify, the prefent times, gray and hoary with age and experience, have a manifeft advantage over thofe that are falfly called ancient. But not to. dwell on authorities, I tell you in plain Englijh, Euphranor, we do not want your revelations: And that for this plain reafon, [Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 295thofe, that are clear, every body knew before, and thofe, that are obfcure, no body is the better for.
Euph. — As it is impoflible, that a man fhould believe the practical principles of the chriftian religion, and not be the better for them: So it is evident, that thofe principles may be much more eafily taught as points of faith, than demonftrated or difcovered as points of fcience. This I call evident, becaufe it is plain fact. Since we daily fee, that many are inftructed in matters of faith; that few are taught by fcientific demonftration; and that there are ftill fewer, who can difcover truth for themfelves. Did Minute Philofophers but reflect, how rarely men are fwayed or governed by mere ratiocination, and how often by faith, in the natural, or civil concerns of the world I How little they know, and how much they believe! How uncommon it is to meet with a man who argues juftly, who is in truth a mailer of reafon, or walks by that rule I How much better (as the world goes) men are qualified to judge of facts than of reafonings, to receive truth upon teftimony than to deduce it from principles! How general a fpirit of truft or reliance runs through the whole fyftem of life and opinion! And, at the fame time, how feldom the dry light of unprejudiced nature is followed or to be found! I fay, did our thinking men but bethink themfelves of thefe things, they would perhaps find it difficult to affign a good reafon, why faith, which hath fo great a fhare in every thing elfe, mould yet have none in religion.
But to come more clofely to your point, whether it was poffible for mankind to have known all parts of the chriftian religion, befides myfteries and pofitive inftitutions, is not the queftion between us; and that they actually did not know them, is too plain to be denied. This, perhaps, was for want of making a due ufe of reafon. But, as to the ufefulnefs of revelation, it feems much the fame thing whether men could not know, or would not be at *96 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
the pains to know the do&rines revealed. And as for thofe doctrines, which were too obfcure to penetrate, or too fublime to reach, by natural reafon; how far mankind may be the better for them is more, I had almoft faid, than even you or Glaucus can tell.
XX. Alc— But whatever may be pretended as to obfcure doctrines and difpenfations, all this hath nothing to do with prophecies; which, being altogether relative to mankind, and the events of this world, to which our faculties are furely well enough proportioned, one might expect fhould be very clear, and fuch as might inform inftead of puzzling us.
Euph. — And yet it muft be allowed, thatasfome prophecies are clear, there are others very obfcure: but, left to myfeif, I doubt I fhould never have inferred from thence that they were not divine. In my own way of thinking, I fhould have been apt to conclude, that the prophecies, we underitand, are a proof for infpiration: But that thofe we do not underftand are no proof againft it. Inafmuch as for the latter our ignorance, or the referve of the Holy Spirit may account: but for the other, nothing, for ought that I fee, can account but infpiration.
Alc. — Now I know feveral fagacious men, who conclude very differently from you, to wit, that the one fort of prophecies are nonfenfe, and the other contrived after the events. Behold the difference between a man of free thought and one of narrow principles!
Euph. — It feems then, they reject the revelations beeaufe they are obfcure, and Daniel's prophecies becaufe they are clear.
Alc. — Either way, a man of fenfe fees caufe to fufpecl: there has been foul play.
Euph. — Your men of fenfe are, it feems, hard to pleafe.
Alc— Our Philofophers are men of piercing eyes.
Euph. — I fuppofe fuch men never make trancient judgments from trancient views, but always eftablifh fixed conclufions upon a thorough infpedfcion of things. For my own part, I dare not engage with a man, who has examined thofe points fo nicely, as it may be prefumed, you have done: But I could name fome eminent writers of our own, now living, whofe books on the fubjecl: of prophecy have given great fatisfa&ion to gentlemen, who pafs for men of fenfe and learning, here in the country.
Alc. — You muft know, Euphranor> I am not at leifure to perufe the learned writings of divines, on a fubjecl: which a man may fee through with half an eye. To me it is fufficient, that the point itfelf is odd and out of the road of nature. For the reft, I leave them to difpute and fettle among themfelves, where to fix the precife time when the fcepter departed from Judah: Or whether in Daniel's prophecy of the Mejfiah we mould compute by the Chaldean or the Julian year. My only conclufion concerning all fuch matters is, that I will never trouble myfelf about them.
Euph. — To an extraordinary genius, who fees things with half an eye, I know not what to fay: But for the reft of mankind, one would think it mould be very ram in them to conclude, without much and exacl; inquiry, on the unfafe fide of a queftion which concerns their chief intereft.
Alc. — Mark it will: A true genius in purfuit of truth, makes fwift anvances on the wings of general maxims, while little minds creep and grovel amidft mean particularities. I lay it down for a certain truth, that by the fallacious arts of logic and criticifm, draining and forcing, palliating, patching and diftinguifhing, a man may juilify or make out any thing: And this remark, with O o 29.8 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
one or two about prejudice, faves me a world of trouble. . Euph. — You, Alciphrotiy who foar fublime on ftrong and free pinions, vouchfafe to lend a helping hand to thofe, whom you behold intangled in the birdlime of prejudice. For my part, I find it very poffible to fuppofe prophecy may be divine, although there mould be fome obfcurity at this diftance, with refpetl: to dates of time, or kinds of years. You yourfelf own revelation poffible: And allowing this, I can very eafily conceive it may be odd, and out of the road of nature. I can, without amazement, meet in holy fcriptures divers prophecies, whereof I do not fee the completion, divers texts I do not underftand, divers myfteries above my comprehension, and ways of God to me unaccountable. Why may not fome prophecies relate to parts of hiftory I am not well enough acquainted with, or to events not yet come to pafs? It feems to me, that prophecies unfathomed by the hearer, or even the fpeaker himfelf, have been afterward verified and underftood in the event: and it is one of my maxims, that, ivhat hath been, may be. Though I rub mine eyes, and do mine utmofl to extricate myfelf from prejudice, yet it (till feems very poffible to me, that, what I do not, a more acute, more attentive, or more learned man may underftand: At leaft thus much is plain: the difficulty of fome points or palTages doth not hinder the clearnefs of others: And thofe parts of fcripture which we cannot interpret, we are not bound to know the fenfe of. What evil or what inconvenience, if we cannot comprehend what we are not obliged to comprehend, or if we cannot account for thofe things, which it doth not belong to us to account for? Scriptures not underftood, at one time, or by one perfon, may be underftood at a nother time, or by other perfons. May we not perceive, by retrofpecT: on what is paft, a certain progrefs from darker to lighter, in the feries of the divine economy towards man? And may not future events clear up fuch points, as at prefent exercife the faith of believers? Now, I cannot help thinking (fuch is the force either of truth or prejudice) that in all this, there is nothing drained or forced, or which is not reafonable and natural to fuppofe.
XXI. Alc — Well Eupbranor, I will lend you a helping hand, fince you defire it, but think fit to alter my method: For you muft know, the main points of chriftian belief have been infufed fo early, and inculcated fo often, by nurfes, pedagogues, and priefts: That, be the proofs ever fo plain, it is a hard matter to convince a mind thus tin&ured and ftained, by arguing againft revealed religion from its internal characters. I (hall therefore fet myfelf to confider things in another light, and examine your religion by certain external characters, or circumftantials, comparing the fyllem of revelation with collateral accounts of ancient heathen writers, and mewing how ill it conlifts with them. Know then, that the chriftian revelation fuppofing the Jenvijb, it follows that if the Jewiflj be deftroyed, the chriftian mud of courfe fall to the ground. Now, to make fhort work, I (hall attack this Jeivifb revelation in its head. Tell me, are we not obliged, if we believe the Mofaic account of things, to hold the world was created not quite fix thoufand years ago?
Euph. — I grant we are.
Alc — What will you fay now, if other ancient records carry up the hiftory of the world many thoufand years beyond this period? What if the Egyptians and Cbinefe have accounts extending to thirty or forty thoufand years? What if the former of thefe nations have obferved twelve hundred eclipfes, during the fpace of forty-eight thoufand years, before t\\Q time of Alexander the Great? What if the Cbinefe have alfo many obfervations antecejoo MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
dent to the Jeivijh account of the creation? What if the Chaldeans had been obferving the ftars for above four hundred thoufand years? And whatfhall we fay, if we have fucceflions of kings and their reigns, marked for feveral thoufand years before the beginning of the world, afligned by Mofes? Shall we rejeel: the accounts and records of all other nations, the mod famous, ancient, and learned in the world, and preferve a blind reverence for the legiflator of the Jews P Euph. — And pray, if they deferve to be rejected, why mould we not reject them? What if thofe monftrous chronologies contain nothing but names without actions and manifeft fables? What if thofe pretended obfervations of Egyptians and Chaldeans^ were unknown or unregarded by ancient aftronomers? What if the Jefuits have fhewn the inconfiftency of the like Chinefe pretenfions with the truth of Ephemerides? What if the mofl ancient Chinefe obfervations allowed to be authentic, are thofe of two fixed ftars, one in the winter folftice, the other in the vernal equinox, in the reign of their king Tao9 which was fince the flood? * Alc — You mud give me leave to obferve the Romijh miffionaries are of fmall credit in this point.
Euph. — But what knowledge have we, or can we have, of thofe Chinefe affairs, but by their means? The fame perfons that tell us of thefe accounts refute them: If we reject their authority in one cafe, what right have we to build upon it in another?
Alc. — When Iconfider, that the Chinefehkvt annals of more than forty thoufand years, and that they are a learned, ingenious, and acute people, very curious and addicted to arts and fciences, I profefs I cannot help paying xome Tegard to their accounts of time.
* Bianchini Hiflor. Univerf. c. 17.
Euph. — Whatever advantage their fituation and political maxims may have given them, it doth not appear, they are fo learned or fo acute in point of fcience as the Europeans, The general character of the Chinefe, if we may believe Trigaltius and other writers, is that they are men of a trifling and credulous curiofity, addicted to fearch after the philofopher's (tone, and a medicine to make men immortal, to aftrology, fortune-teliing, and prefages of all kinds. Their ignorance in nature and mathematics is evident, from the great hand the Jefuits make of that kind of knowledge among them. But what {hall we think of thofe extraordinary annals, if the very Chinefe themfelves give no credit to them for more than three thoufand years before Jefus Chrijl? If they do not pretend to have begun to write hiftory above four thoufand years ago? And if the oldeft books they have now extant in an inteilw igible character, are not above two thoufand years old? One would think a man of your fagacity, fo apt to fufpetr, every tiling out of the common road of nature, mould not, without the cleareft proof, admit thofe annals for authentic, which record fuch ftrange things as the fun's not fetting for ten days, and gold raining three days together. Tell me, Alciphron% can you really believe thefe things, without inquiring by what means the tradition was preferved, through what hands it paffed, or what reception it met with, or who firfl: committed it to writing?
Alc. — To omit the Chinefe and their (lory, it will ferve my purpofe as well to build on the authority of Manetho that learned Egyptian priefl, who had fuch opportunities of fearching into the molt ancient accounts of time, and copying into his dynafties the moll venerable and authentic records infcribed on the pillars of Hermes.
Euph. — Pray, Alciphrony where were thofe chronological pillars to be feen?
Alc. — In the Seriadical land.
Euph. — And where is that country?
Alc. — I do not know.
Euph. — How were thofe records preferved for fo many ages down to the time of this Hermes, who is faid to have been the firft inventor of letters?
Alc. — I do not know.
Euph. — Did any other writers, before or fince Manetho, pretend to have feen, or tranfcribed, or known any thing about thefe pillars?
Alc. — Not that I know.
Euph. — Or about the place where they are faid to have been?
Alc-— If they did, it is more than I know.
Euph. — Do the Greek authors that went into Egypt, and confulted the Egyptian priefts, agree with thefe accounts of Manetho?
Alc. — Suppofe they do not.
Euph. — Doth Diodorus, who lived fince Manetho, follow, cite, or fo much as mention this fame Manetho?
Alc — What will you infer from all this?
Euph. — If I did not know you and your principles, and how vigilantly you guard againft impofture, I fhould infer that you were a very credulous man. For what can we call it but credulity to believe mod incredible things on mod flender authority, fuch as fragments of an obfcure writer, difagreeing with all other hiftorians, fupported by an obfcure authority of Hermes's pillars, for which you muft take his word, and which contain things fo improbable as fucceflions of gods and demi-gods, for many thoufand years, Vulcan alone having reigned nine thoufand? There is little in thefe venerable dynafties of Manetho, befides names and numbers: And yet in that little we meet with very flrange things, that would be thought romantic in another writer: For inftance, the Nile over- [Dial. VI.] r MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 303 flowing with honey, the moon grown bigger, a fpeaking lamb, feventy kings who reigned as many days, one after another, a king a day. * If you are known, Alciphron, to give credit to thefe things, I fear you will lofe the honour of being thought incredulous.
Alc. — And yet thefe ridiculous fragments, as you would reprefent them, have been thought worth the pains and lucubrations of very learned men. How can you account for the work that the great Jofeph Scaliger and Sir John Marjham make about them?
Euph. — I do not pretend to account for it. To fee Scaliger add another Julian period to make room for fuch things as ManethJs dynafties, and Sir John Marjham take fo much learned pains to piece, patch, and mend thofe obfeure fragments, to range them in fynchronifms, and try to adjuft them with facred chronology, or make them, confident with themfelves and other accounts, is to me very ftrange and unaccountable. Why they, or Eufebius, or yourfelf, or any other learned man fhould imagine thofe things deferve any regard, I leave you to explain.
XXII. Alc. — After all, it is not eafy to conceive what mould move, not only Manetho, but alfo other Egyptian priefts, long before his time, to fet up fuch great pretences to antiquity, all which, however differing one from another, agree in this, that they overthrow the Mofaic hiftory. How can this be accounted for, without fome real foundation? What point of pleafure, or profit, or power, could fet men on forging fucceffions of ancient names, and periods of time for ages before the world began?
Euph.-— Pray, Alciphron, is there any thing fo ftrange or fingular in this vain humor of extending the antiquity of nations beyond the truth? Hath it not been obferved in moft parts of the world? Doth it not even in our own times fhew itfclf, efpecially among thofe dependent and * Seal. Can. Ifag, L a, 3o4 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI] fubdued people, who have little elfe to boaft of. To pafs over others of our fellow-fubje&s, who, in proportion as they are below their neighbors in wealth and power, lay claim to a more remote antiquity; are not the pretenfions of Iri/hmen, in this way, known to be very extravagant? If I may truft my memory, (J Flaherty, in his Ogygia, mentions fome tranfa£Hons in Ireland before the flood. The fame humor, and from the ume caufe, appears to have prevailed in Sicily 9 a country, for fome centuries paft, fubjecl: to the dominion of foreigners: during which time, the Sicilians have publifhed divers fabulous accounts, concerning the original and antiquity of their cities, wherein they vie with each other. It is to be proved by ancient inscriptions, whofe exiftence or authority feems on a level with that of HermeSs pillars, that Palermo was founded in the days of the patriarch, Ifaac, by a colony of' Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Syrians, and that a grandfon of Efau had been governor of a tower fubfifting within thefe two hundred years in that city. * The antiquity of MeJJina hath been carried ftill higher, by fome who would have us think it was enlarged b J Nimrod. f The like pretentions are made by Catania, and other towns of that ifland, who have found authors of as good credit as Manetho to fupport them. Now I mould be glad to know why the Egyptians, a fubdued people, may not probably be fappofed to have invented fabulous accounts from the fame motive, and like others valued themfelves on extravagant pretenfions to antiquity, when in all other refpe&s they were fo much inferior to their mafters?
That people had been fucceffively conquered by Ethiopians, AJfyrians, Babylonians, Perfians, and Grecians, before it appears that thofe wonderful dynafties of Manetho and the pillars of Hennes were ever heard of; as they had been * Fazelli Hift. Sicul. decad. i. 1. 8. f Rcina Notbie Iftoriche di Mcffina.
by the two ilrft of thofe nations before the time of Solon, himfelf, the earlieft Greek, that is known to have confulted the priefts of Egypt: Whofe accounts were fo extravagant that even the Greek hiftorians, though unacquainted with Holy Scripture, were far from giving an intire credit to them. Herodotus making a report upon their authority, faith, thofe, to whom fuch things feem credible, may make the beft of them, for himfelf declaring that it was his purpofe to write what he heard.* And both he and Diodorus do, on divers occafions, (hew the fame diffidence in the narratives of thofe Egyptian priefts. And as we obferved of the Egyptians, it is no lefs certain that the Phoenicians, AJJyrians, and Chaldeans were each a conquered and reduced people, before the reft of the world appear to have any thing of their pretenfions to fo remote antiquity.
Cri. — But what occafion is there to be at any pains to account for the humor of fabulous writers? Is it not fufficient to fee that they relate abfurdities; that they are unfupported by any foreign evidence; that they do not appear to have been in credit, even among their own countrymen, and that they are inconfiftent one with another? That men (hould have the vanity to impofe on the world by falfe accounts, is nothing ftrange: it is much more fo, that after what has been done towards undeceiving the world by fo many learned critics, there fhould be men found capable of being abufed by thofe paltry fcraps of Manetho, Berofus, Ctejias, or the like fabulous or counterfeit writers.
Alc. — Give me leave to obferve, thofe learned critics may prove to be ecclefiaftics, perhaps fome of them papifts.
Cri. — What do you think of Sir Ifaac Newton, was he either papift or ecclefiaftic? Perhaps you may not allow him to have been in fagacity or force of mind equal to the * Herodotus in Euterpe.
p p 3o6 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VL] great men of the Minute Philofophy: But it cannot be denied that he had read and thought much upon the fubjecl, and that the refult of his inquiry was a perfect contempt of all thofe celebrated rivals to Mofes.
Alc. — It hath been obferved by ingenious men, that Sir Ifaac Newton, though a layman, was deeply prejudiced, witnefs his great regard to the bible.
Cri. — -And the fame may be faid of Mr. Locke, Mr. Boyle, Lord Bacon, and other famous laymen, who, however knowing in fome points, muft neverthelefs be allowed not to have attained that keen difcernment, which is the peculiar diftinclion of your feci:.