born blind, nay, have the immediate Ufe of our Eyes. With regard to our Understanding, 'tis true, we are born in Ignorance, but we are born likewife with an Ability of extricating ourselves from it. It is in our Power to produce in ourfelves a Knowledge capable of enlightning us; we are born very imperfect, but with the rich and invaluable Present of being able ourselves to work out our own Perfection.

I WILL add too (but by the way) that the Queftion why we are form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind, may be interpreted in an ill Senfe; for 'tis to ourselves that we ought to impute our (a) Errors. A Philo

t

(a) Mr Pope in this Place confiders Man only in his natural State, and does not speak of his maral Defects. Nor does he at all diffent from Solomon, in defcribing Man as weak, and little, and blind for fo he certainly is, when compared with Beings of a fuperior Rank, and yet may be very perfect in his own. For (as Mr Croufaz obferv'd of great and little) Perfection is a relative Term, and varies its Signification according as it is differently apply'd.

Philofopher, who knew more than Mr Pope, than I, and many other Men, after having well confider'd it, ftands faft to this Truth, That God made Man upright, but they have fought out many Inventions, that is to fay, they have reafon'd wrong, they have fought out thofe Reasonings, and been pleafed with them.

FROM all this I conclude, that Mr Pope's Poem ought not to difcourage us. If Mr Pope fhould be afked, how it comes to pass that he, fo weak, fo little, fo blind a Poet, could prefume to bring Homer back again to Life, and make him a Native of England, worthy the Admiration, not only of the Age wherein he lived, but of all Pofterity? All who are acquainted with Mr Pope, and I among them, though I have not that Honour, would be extremely offended at fuch a Question.

MR Pope feems to run the Hazard of an Answer to the Queftions he has raised, and even propofes one with a Confidence which looks very unlike a Genius that believes itself to be little, weak, and blind. C 2

Then,

Then, in the Scale of Life and Senfe, 'tis plain,
There must be fome where fuch a Rank as Man.

v. 48.

THIS Confequence, which he afferts to be fo evident, he draws from Mr Leibnitz's Syftem, which is, that the infinite Wisdom of the Creator must of all possible Systems have preferred the Beft, and that in which every Thing fhould be compleat.

PERHAPS, Sir, you are acquainted with this Syftem only in general, and in a fuperficial Manner. I will, therefore, first give you a true Idea of it as briefly as poffible, and then confider it as delivered by Mr Pope, whom I would not willingly injure, by laying Opinions to his Charge, which perhaps he is very far from entertaining.

MR Leibnitz agrees, that God created the World, and that he is a Being quite diftinct from his Work; in this he differs from Spinofa, who feems to have confounded the Caufe with its Effect.

"GOD, that is to fay, the Eternal Being, is fuch, that it implies a Contra

"diction

"diction for him not to be; Infinite in "Power, infinite in Knowledge, he com

6.6

prehends in himself the Ideas of every "Thing he has Power to give Being to. "An Infinity of Worlds prefents itself to "his Mind, but among the Ideas of these "innumerable Worlds, there appeared "one which, upon the whole, presented a "Work more perfect than all the others; "and God, infinitely wife and infinitely

perfect, was determined, not by con"ftraint, or against his Will, but with a full and perfect Approbation, to prefer to all the reft the Syftem which at pre"fent exifts, and of which we ourselves "make a Part: The all-perfect Nature

of God did not fuffer him to chufe any "other." Thefe are the Notions of those who defend this Syftem; there is fomething fpecious and sublime in it, and very proper to deceive.

LET us examine what is built on these Principles. In order that the Univerfe might be infallibly fuch as God its Creator had conceiv'd it, every Thing which it comprehends must fubfift by Ne

ceffity, and every Thing that is doing in it neceffarily and infallibly come to pafs.

FOR this end the World is an immenfe and univerfal Machine, composed of an infinite number of Machines all depending one upon another; their Springs are framed with fo much Accuracy and Force, that not one of them fails of playing its Part; and all Events which fucceed one another, are the inevitable Confequences. of the firft Impulfe that fet them in Motion.

AMONG thefe Machines, which hold their Existence from the Eternal Creator, we are acquainted with two Sorts; the one merely Corporeal, the other capable of Thoughts, Sentiments, Defires, &c. and to thefe we have given the name of Spirits, or Intellectual Subftances.

MAN is compofed of these two Subftances; but, fay thefe Gentlemen, this Truth has great need of Explanation, and People have been hitherto very grofsly deceived in it.

A BODY is incapable of producing any Thing whatever upon a Soul; it can cause neither