nothing to the Supreme Being; for any part of its inhabitants with which human knowledge is acquainted, an universe much lefs fpacious or fplendid would have been fufficient; and of happiness it does not appear that any is communicated from the beings of a lower world to thofe of a higher.

The Enquiry after the cause of natural Evil is continued in the third Letter, in which, as in the former, there is mixture of borrowed truth, and native folly, of some notions juft and trite, with others uncommon and ridiculous.

His opinion of the value and importance of happiness is certainly just, and I shall infert it, not that it will give any information to any reader, but it may ferve to fhew how the most common notion may be fwelled in found, and diffused in bulk, till it fhall perhaps aftonish the author himself.

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Happiness is the only thing of real value in ex"iftence; neither riches, nor power, nor wisdom, nor learning, nor ftrength, nor beauty, nor virtue, not religion, nor even life itself, being of any importance, "but as they contribute to its production. All these are in themselves neither good nor evil: happiness " alone is their great end, and they are defirable only as they tend to promote it.”

Success produces confidence. After this difcovery of the value of happiness, he proceeds, without any diftruft of himself, to tell us what has been hid from all former enquirers.

"The true folution of this important queftion, fo "long and fo vainly searched for by the philofophers of all ages and all countries, I take to be at last no 66 more

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more than this, that thefe real evils proceed from "the fame fource as thofe imaginary ones of imper"fection, before treated of, namely, from that sub"ordination, without which no created fyftem can "fubfift; all fubordination implying imperfection, all

imperfection Evil, and all Evil fome kind of incon"veniency or suffering: fo that there must be parti"cular inconveniencies and fufferings annexed to every "particular rank of created beings by the circum"ftances of things, and their modes of existence.

"God indeed might have made us quite other creatures, and placed us in a world quite differently "conftituted; but then we had been no longer men, "and whatever beings had occupied our stations in the "universal system, they must have been liable to the "fame inconveniences."

In all this there is nothing that can filence the enquiries of curiofity, or calm the perturbations of doubt. Whether fubordination implies imperfection may be difputed. The means refpecting themfelyes may be as perfect as the end. The weed as a weed is no lefs perfect than the oak as an oak. That imperfection implies Evil, and Evil fuffering, is by no means evident. Imperfection may imply privative Evil, or the absence of fome good, but this privation produces no fuffering, but by the help of knowledge. An infant at the breaft is yet an imperfect, man, but there is no reafon for belief that he is unhappy by his immaturity, unless fome positive pain be. fuperadded.

When this author prefumes to speak of the univerie, I would advife him a little to diftruft his own

faculties,

faculties, however large and comprehenfive. Many words eafily understood on common occafion, become uncertain and figurative when applied to the works of Omnipotence. Subordination in human affairs is well understood; but when it is attributed to the univerfal fyftem, its meaning grows lefs 'certain, like the petty distinctions of locality, which are of good use upon our own globe, but have no meaning with regard to infinite space, in which nothing is high or low.

That if man, by exaltation to a higher nature, were exempted from the evils which he now fuffers, fome other being muft fuffer them; that if man were not man, fome other being must be man, is at pofition arifing from his established notion of the scale of being. A notion to which Pope has given fome importance by adopting it, and of which I have therefore endeavoured to fhew the uncertainty and inconfiftency. This fcale of being I have demonstrated to be raised by prefumptuous imagination, to rest on nothing at the bottom, to lean on nothing at the top, and to have vacuities from step to step through which any order of being may fink into nihility without any inconvenience, fo far as we can judge, to the next rank above or below it. We are therefore little enlightened by a writer who tells us, that any being in the state of man must fuffer what man fuffers, when the only question that requires to be resolved is, Why any being is in this ftate ?

Of poverty and labour he gives juft and elegant representations, which yet do not remove the difficulty of the first and fundamental question, though fuppofing

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fuppofing the present state of man neceffary, they may fupply fome motives to content.

"Poverty is what all could not poffibly have been exempted from, not only by reafon of the fluctuat"ing nature of human poffeffions, but because the "world could not fubfift without it; for had all been "rich, none could have fubmitted to the commands "of another, or the neceffary drudgeries of life; "thence all governments must have been diffolved, "arts neglected, and lands uncultivated, and so an "univerfal penury have overwhelmed all, instead of "now and then pinching a few. Hence, by the by, appears the great excellence of charity, by which "men are enabled by a particular distribution of the "bleffings and enjoyments of life, on proper occasions,

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to prevent that poverty which by a general one "Omnipotence itself could never have prevented: fo that, by inforcing this duty, God as it were de"mands our affiftance to promote univerfal happinefs, and to fhut out mifery at every door, where it ftrives to intrude itself.

"Labour, indeed, God might eafily have excufed us from, fince at his command the earthr "would readily have poured forth all her treasures " without our inconfiderable affiftance: but if the "fevereft labour cannot fufficiently fubdue the ma

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lignity of human nature, what plots and machi"nations, what wars, rapine, and devaftation, what "profligacy and licentioufnefs, must have been the "confequences of univerfal idlenefs! fo that labour

ought only to be looked upon as a task kindly imposed upon us by our indulgent Creator, ne

«ceffary

ceffary to preferve our health, our fafety, and our "innocence."

I am afraid that the latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning. If God could easily have excused us from labour, I do not comprehend why he could not poffibly have exempted all from poverty. For poverty, in its easier and more tolerable degree, is little more than neceffity of labour; and in its more fevere and deplorable state, little more than inability for labour. To be poor is to work for others, or to want the fuccour of others without work. And the fame exuberant fertility which would make work unneceffary, might make poverty impoffible.

Surely a man who feems not completely master of his own opinion, should have spoken more cautiously of Omnipotence, nor have prefumed to fay what it could perform, or what it could prevent. I am in doubt whether those who stand highest in the fcale of being fpeak thus confidently of the difpenfations of their Maker:

For fools rush in, where angels fear to tread.

Of our inquietudes of mind his account is ftill lefs reasonable." Whilft men are injured, they must be “inflamed with anger; and whilft they fee cruelties, they must be melted with pity; whilst they perceive

danger, they must be fenfible of fear." This is to give a reason for all Evil, by fhewing that one Evil produces another. If there is danger there ought to be fear; but if fear is an Evil, why should there be danger? His vindication of pain is of the fame kind: pain is ufeful to alarm us, that we may fhun greater

evils,