shocking Picture of the Degeneracy and Wretchednefs of human Nature, in that Part which is vulgarly thought its happiest and most amiable State. You know from what Originals I could copy fuch Pictures. Happy are they who know enough of them to know the little Value of the Poffeffors of such Things, and of all that they poffefs; and happy they who have been fnatched from that Poft of Danger which they occupy, with the Remains of their Virtue; Lofs of Honours, Wealth, Titles, and even the Lofs of ones Country, is nothing in Ballance with so great an Advantage.

Let us now view the other Species of the Rich; those who devote their Time and Fortunes to Idlenefs and Pleasure. How much happier are they? The Pleasures, which are agreeable to Nature, are within the Reach of all, and therefore can form no Diftinction in favour of the Rich. The Pleasures which Art forces up are feldom fincere, and never fatisfying. What is worfe, this conftant Application to Pleasure takes away from the Enjoyment, orrather turns it into the Nature of a very burthenfome and laborious Bufinefs. It has Confequences much more fatal. It produces a weak valetudinary State of Body, attended by all thofe horrid Disorders, and yet more horrid Methods of Cure, which are the Result of Luxury on one hand, and the weak and ridiculous Efforts of human Art on the other. The Pleasures of fuch Men are scarcely felt as Pleafures; at the fame time that they bring on Pains and Difeafes, which are felt but too feverely. The Mind

has

has its Share of Misfortune; it grows lazy and enervate, unwilling and unable to fearch for Truth, and utterly uncapable of knowing, much lefs of relishing, real Happiness. The Poor, by their exceffive Labour, and the Rich by their enormous Luxury, are fet upon a Level, and rendered equally ignorant of any Knowledge which might conduce to their Happiness. A difmal View of the Interior of all Civil Society. The lower Part broken and ground down by the most cruel Oppreffion; and the Rich by their artificial Method of Life bringing worse Evils on themselves, than their Tyranny could poffibly inflict on those below them. Very different is the Profpect of the Natural State. Here there are no Wants which Nature gives, and in this State Men can be fenfible of no other Wants, which are not to be supplied by a very moderate Degree of Labour; therefore there is no Slavery. Neither is there any Luxury, because no fingle Man can fupply the Materials of it. Life is fimple, and therefore it is happy.

I am conscious, my Lord, that your Politician will urge in his Defence, that this unequal State is highly ufeful. That, without dooming fome Part of Mankind to extraordinary Toil, the Arts which cultivate Life could not be exercifed. But I demand of this Politician, how fuch Arts came to be neceffary? He answers, that Civil Society could not well exist without them. So that these Arts are neceffary to Civil Society, and Civil Society neceffary again to F 4

thefe

these 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 these 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 Millons, 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 monstrous 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

a mo

a moderate Calculation, has been the Means of murdering feveral Times the Number of Inhabitants now upon the Earth, during its short 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, Consequence of these Wars, which have spilled fuch Seas of Blood, and reduced fo many Millions to a merciless Slavery. But these 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 please, they are, in effect, but a Despotism, 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 Injustice, and pretended Friendship; Vices which could draw little Support from a State of Nature, but which blossom

and

and flourish in the Ranknefs of Political Society. Revolve our whole Difcourfe; add to it all thofe Reflexions which your own good Understanding fhall fuggeft, and make a ftrenuous Effort beyond the Reach of vulgar Philofophy, to confefs that the Cause of Artificial Society is more defenceless even than that of Artificial Religion; that it is ast 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 have 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 Mischief produced by the Madnefs or Wickedness of Theologians, and I will shew you an hundred, refulting from the Ambition and Villany of Conquerors 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 Reason available in Theology and in Politics? If the Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, is it confiftent with the Divine Wifdom to prefcribe Rules to us, and leave the Enforcement of them to the Folly of human Inftitutions? Will you follow Truth but to a certain Point?

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