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'alta orci,' and all the infernal hobgoblins, furies with their snakes and whips, devils with their cloven feet and lighted torches? Was there need of so much philosophy to keep these mighty genii from living under the same terrors? I would ask further, is the middle between atheism and superstition so hard to find? Or may not these men serve as examples to prove what Plutarch affirms, 'that superstition leads to atheism?' For me, who am no philosopher, nor presume to walk out of the high road of plain common sense, but content myself to be governed by the dictates of nature, and am, therefore, in no danger of becoming atheistical, superstitious, or sceptical, I should have no difficulty which to choose, if the option was proposed to me, to exist after death, or to die whole, as it has been called. Be there two worlds, or be there twenty, the same God is the God of all, and wherever we are, we are equally in His power. Far from fearing my Creator, that all-perfect Being whom I adore, I should fear to be no longer His creature.

5. The Superiority and right use of Human Reason.

I SHOULD have been convinced that the faculty of thinking is given to sensitive animals, as we call them, in a lower degree than to man. But I should not have been convinced that they have the power of exercising it in respect of present objects only. The contrary would appear to me, on some occasions, as manifest in them, or in some of them, as it appears on others, and on more, in the man who is born dumb. I should feel the superiority of my species, but I should acknowledge the community of our kind. I should rouse in my mind a grateful sense of these advantages above all others; that I am a creature capable of knowing, of adoring, and worshipping my Creator, capable of discovering

His will in the law of my nature, and capable of promoting my happiness by obeying it. I should acknowledge thankfully that I am able, by the superiority of my intellectual faculties, much better than my fellow-creatures, to avoid some evils and to soften others, which are common to us and to them. I should confess that as I proved myself more rational than they by employing my reason to this purpose, so I should prove myself less rational by repining at my state here, and by complaining that there are any unavoidable evils. I should confess that neither perfect virtue nor perfect happiness are to be found among the sons of men: and that we ought to judge of the continuance of one, as we may judge of our perseverance in the other, according to a maxim in the ethics of Confucius; not by this, that we never fall from either, since in that sense there would be no one good nor no one happy man in the world; but by this, that when we do fall we rise again, and pursue the journey of life in the same road. Let us pursue it contentedly, and learn that as the softest pillow, on which we can lay our heads, has been said by Montagne to be ignorance, we may say more properly that it is resignation. He alone is happy, and he is truly so, who can say, Welcome life, whatever it brings! welcome death, whatever it is! 'Aut transfert, aut finit.'

XXIX.

JOHN ARBUTHNOT.

1675-1734-5.

JOHN ARBUTHNOT, one of the most celebrated wits and physicians in the reign of Queen Anne, was the son of an episcopal clergyman of Scotland, and was born in 1675. He studied at the University of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M.D. The Revolution deprived his father of his preferment, and young Arbuthnot left Scotland to settle as physician at Doncaster. Finding, as he humourously said, that he 'could neither live nor die there,' he removed to London, where he first made himself known by an Examination of Dr. Woodward's Account of the Deluge. This brought him into notice, and introduced him to practice. His elegant and agreeable manners, his wit and pleasantry, and the learning which he combined with these qualities, soon made him the associate of the chief literary men of the day, and the friend of Pope, Swift, Gay, Parnell, and others. He was also the friend both of Harley and of Bolingbroke, and in politics was always faithful to the Tory party. He became physician to Prince George of Denmark, and also to Queen Anne.

His most important work is entitled Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights, and Measures; it has still some authority. He wrote several successful treatises on Hygiene, but his pieces of Wit and Humour-among which is his History of John Bull, a political allegory of great merit-have, together with his Letters, established his place in literature. Many of Arbuthnot's pieces were written in partnership with Swift and Pope and are often ascribed to them; but Mr. Wharton calls him the author of

the History of John Bull, and of the best parts of Martinus Scriblerus, and adds that 'they abound in strokes of the most exquisite humour.' His friends were warmly attached to him, and not more for his intellectual endowments and brilliant wit, than for his manly and honourable nature. Pope says 'that he was fitter to live or die than any man he knew; that his good morals were equal to any man's; but his wit and humour superior to all mankind.' During a great part of his life his health was bad; he died in 1734.

1.

The Usefulness of Mathematical Learning.

MATHEMATICAL knowledge adds a manly vigour to the mind, frees it from prejudice, credulity, and superstition. This it does two ways: first, by accustoming us to examine, and not to take things upon trust; secondly, by giving us a clear and extensive knowledge of the system of the world; which, as it creates in us the most profound reverence of the almighty and wise Creator, so it frees us from the mean and narrow thoughts which ignorance and superstition are apt to beget. How great an enemy mathematics are to superstition appears from this, that in those countries where Romish priests exercise their barbarous tyranny over the minds of men, astronomers, who are fully persuaded of the motion of the earth, dare not speak out: but though the Inquisition may extort a recantation, the Pope and a general Council, too, will not find themselves able to persuade to the contrary opinion. Perhaps this may have given occasion to a calumnious suggestion, as if mathematics were an enemy to religion, which is a scandal thrown both on the one and the other; for truth can never be an

enemy to true religion, which appears always to the best advantage when it is most examined.

-Si propius stes,

Te capiet magis.—

On the contrary, the mathematics are friends to religion; inasmuch as they charm the passions, restrain the impetuosity of imagination, and purge the mind from error and prejudice. Vice is error, confusion, and false reasoning; and all truth is more or less opposite to it. Besides, mathematical studies may serve for a pleasant entertainment for those hours which young men are apt to throw away upon their vices, the delightfulness of them being such as to make solitude not only easy but desirable.

2.

Letter of the Free-thinkers to Martinus Scriblerus.

We must not omit taking notice here, that these 'Inquiries into the Seat of the Soul' gave occasion to his first correspondence with the society of Free-thinkers, who were then in their infancy in England, and so much taken with the promising endowments of Martin, that they ordered their Secretary to write him the following letter:

To the learned Inquisitor into Nature, Martinus Scriblerus:
the society of Free-thinkers greeting.

Grecian Coffee-house, May 7.

It is with unspeakable joy we have heard of your inquisitive genius, and we think it great pity that it should not be better employed, than in looking after that theological nonentity commonly called the soul: since, after all your inquiries, it will appear you have lost your labour in seeking the residence of such a chimera, that never had being but in

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