deep Things of Nature by the Affiftance of Glaffes and other Inftruments; yet we are not hitherto arrived at any fufficient Methods to discover the Shape of those little Particles of Matter which distinguish the various Sapours, Odours and Colours of Bodies; nor to find what fort of Atoms compofe Liquids or Solids, and diftinguish Wood, Minerals, Metals, Glass, Stone, &c. There is a Darkness alfo lies upon the Actions of the intellec tual or angelical World; their Manners of Subfiftence and Agency, the Power of Spirits to move Bodies, and the Union of our Souls with this animal Body of ours are much unknown to us on this Account.

Now in many of these Cases a great part of Mankind is not content to be entirely ignorant; but they rather choose to form rafh and hafty Judgments, to guefs at Things without just Evidence, to believe fomething concerning them before they can know them, and thereby they fall into Error,

This fort of Prejudice, as well as moft others, is cured by Patience and Diligence in Inquiry and Reafoning, and a Sufpenfion of Judgment till we have attain'd fome proper Mediums of Knowledge, and till we fee fufficient Evidence of the Truth.

II. The Appearance of Things in a Difguife is another Spring of Prejudice or rafh Judgment. The outfide of Things which first strikes us is oftentimes different from their inward Nature, and we are tempted to judge fuddenly according to outward Appearances. If a Picture is daub'd with many bright and glaring Colours, the vulgar Eye admires it as an excellent Piece; whereas the fame Perfon judges very contemptuously of

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fome admirable Defign sketch'd out only with a black Pencil on a coarse Paper, tho' by the Hand of Raphael. So the Scholar fpies the Name of a new Book in a publick News-Paper, he is charmed with the Title, he purchases, he reads with huge Expectations, and finds it all Trash and Impertinence: This is a Prejudice Prejudice derived from the Appearance; we are too ready to judge that Volume valuable which had fo good a Frontispiece. The large Heap of Encomiums and swelling Words of Affurance that are bestowed on Quack Medicines in publick Advertisements tempt many a Reader to judge them infallible, and to use the Pills or the Plaifter with vaft Hope and frequent Disappointment.

We are tempted to form our Judgment of Perfons as well as Things by these outward Appearances. Where there is Wealth, Equipage and Splendor we are ready to call that Man happy, but we see not the vexing Difquietudes of his Soul: And when we fpy a Person in ragged Garments, we form a defpicable Opinion of him too fuddenly; we can hardly think him either happy or wife, our Judgment is so strangely biaffed by outward and fenfible Things. It was thro' the Power of this Prejudice that the Jews rejected our bleffed Saviour; they could not fuffer themfelves to believe that the Man who appeared as the Son of a Carpenter was also the Son of God. And becaufe St. Paul was of a little Stature, a mean Prefence, and his Voice contemptible, fome of the Corinthians were tempted to doubt whether he were infpired or no.

This Prejudice is cured by a longer Acquaintance with the World, and a juft Obfervation that Things are fometimes better and fometimes worse than they appear to be. We ought therefore to reftrain cur exceffive Forwardness to form our Opi

nion of Persons or Things before we have Opportunity to search into them more perfectly. Remember that a grey Beard does not make a Philofopher; all is not Gold that glifters; and a rough Diamond may be worth an immenfe Sum.

III. A Mixture of different Qualities in the fame thing is another Temptation to judge amifs. We are ready to be carried away by that Quality which ftrikes the first or the strongest Impreffions upon us, and we judge of the whole Object according to that Quality, regardless of all the reft; or fometimes we colour over all the other Qualities with that one Tincture, whether it be bad or good.

When we have just reason to admire a Man for his Virtues, we are fometimes inclined not only to neglect his Weaknesses, but even to put a good Colour upon them, and to think them amiable. When we read a Book that has many excellent Truths in it and Divine Sentiments, we are tempted to approve not only that whole Book, but even all the Writings of that Author. When a Poet, an Orator or a Painter has performed admirably in feveral illuftrious Places, we fometimes also admire his very Errors, we mistake his Blunders for Beauties, and are fo ignorantly fond as to copy after them.

It is this Prejudice that has rendered fo many great Scholars perfect Bigots, and inclined them to defend Homer or Horace, Livy or Cicero, in all their Mistakes, and vindicate all the Follies of their favourite Author. It is this that tempts fome great Writers to fupport the Sayings of almost all the antient Fathers of the Church, and admire them even in their very Reveries.

On the other Hand, if an Author has profefs'd beretical Sentiments in Religion, we throw our Scorn upon every thing he writes, we defpife even his critical or mathematical Learning, and will hardly allow him common Senfe. If a Poem has fome Blemishes in it, there is a Set of falfe Criticks who decry it univerfally, and will allow no Beauties there.

This fort of Prejudice is relieved by learning to diftinguish Things well, and not to judge in the Lump. There is fcarce any Thing in the World of Nature or Art, in the World of Morality or Religion, that is perfectly uniform. There is a Mixture of Wisdom and folly, Vice and Virtue, Good and Evil, both in Men and Things. We fhould remember that fome Perfons have great Wit and little Judgment; others are judicious, but not witty. Some are good humour'd without Compli ment; others have all the Formalities of Complaifance, but no good Humour. We ought to know that one Man may be vicious and learned, while another has Virtue without Learning: That many a Man thinks admirably well who has a poor utterance; while others have a charming manner of Speech, but their Thoughts are trifling and impertinent. Some are good Neighbours, and courteous and charitable toward Men who have no Piety toward God; others are truly religious, but of morofe natural Tempers. Some excellent Sayings are found in very filly Books, and fome filly Thoughts appear in Books of Value. We fhould neither praife nor difpraife by Wholesale, but feparate the Good from the Evil, and judge of them apart: The Accuracy of a good Judgment conGifts much in making fuch Distinctions,

Yet

Yet let it be noted too, that in common Difcourse we usually denominate Perfons and Things according to the major Part of their Character. He is to be called a wife Man who has but few Follies: He is a good Philofopher who knows much of Nature, and for the moft Part reafons well in Matters of human Science: And that Book Should be esteemed well written, which has much more of good Senfe in it than it has of Impertinence.

IV. Tho' a Thing be uniform in its own Nature, yet the different Lights in which it may be placed, and the different Views in which it appears to us, will be ready to excite in us miftaken Judgments concerning it. Let an erect Cone be placed in a horizontal Plane, at a great Distance from the Eye, and it appears a plain Triangle; but we fhall judge that very Cone to be nothing but a flat Circle, if its Base be obverted towards us. Set a common round Plate a little obliquely before our Eyes afar off, and we fhall think it an oval Figure; but if the very Edge of it be turned towards us, we fhall take it for a trait Line. So when we view the feveral Folds of a changeable Silk, we pronounce this Part red, and that yellow, becaufe of its different Pofition to the Light, tho' the Silk laid smooth in one Light appears all of one Colour.

When we furvey the Miseries of Mankind, and think of the Sorrows of Millions, both on Earth and in Hell, the Divine Government has a terrible Afpect, and we may be tempted to think hardly even of God himfelf: But if we view the Profufion of his Bounty and Grace amongst his Creatures on Earth, or the happy Spirits in Heaven, we fhall have fo exalted an Idea of his Goodness as to forget his Vengeance. Some Men dwell en

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