knew nothing of the contents. This then was what I meant. The Essay on Man I could not mean. For in the 55th page of the View, I make the fundamental doctrines of that Poem and of his Lordship's Essays to be directly opposite to one another. The one, a real vindication of Providence against libertines and bigots: the other a pretended vindication of it against an imaginary confederacy between divines and atheists.

Thus I have explained, in the best manner I am able, my reasons for speaking of this great Poet in terms which give offence. But what shall we say, if this air of negligence to his memory was assumed, the better to conceal the author of an anonymous epistle? The motive sure was excusable; though the project was without effect: for this Public have positively decided, that the author must be by the scurrility and abuse.

But, Had you pursued (say they), the advantage you have ingeniously taken from an expression in one of Pope's letters, to have shewn that Pope differed from Bolingbroke where he was in the wrong; that he not only condemned but despised the futility of his reasoning against Revelation; that where he was right Pope improved but never servilely copied his ideas; you would have done honour to your friend and yourself; you would have served the cause of Religion; you would have discredited Lord Bolingbroke the more by the contrast

Now all this, the reader will see in the fourth letter, I had actually done; and (as it was in its place) fully and largely too. In the mean time, every body might see, it was what I was ready, on a fit occasion, to do, by the passage referred to just above from the second; where Pope is honoured, and Lord Bolingbroke the more discredited by the contrast.

But I must not leave this head without taking notice of one expression in the censure. It is said, that the View REPRESENTS L. Bolingbroke as a monster hated both of God and Man. The expression had been juster, had it been-from the View it may be COLLECTED; because, whatever ideas men may form of his Lordship from a perusal of the View, they arise from his Lordship's own words, which are faithfully quoted, What

the

the Author of the View adds, is only a little harmless raillery, which can present the reader with no idea but what (in the opinion of Pope) arises from every fruitless attempt of impiety.

"Heaven still with LAUGHTER the vain toil surveys, "And buries madmen in the heaps they raise."

That the Author of the View assisted in the dressing up so strange a sight, as a monster hated both by God and Man, was very far from his intention. He made a scruple of accompanying his Lordship's quotations with those reflections of serious indignation which such a scene of horrors naturally suggests, lest he should be thought to aim at something more than private animadversion. He therefore generously endeavoured to turn the public attention from the horror, to the ridicule, of the first philosophy, and to get his Lordship well laughed at; as being persuaded, that when the public is brought to that temper, its resentment seldom rises to any considerable height.

Men had better speak out, and say, the Author of the View ought to have represented L. Bolingbroke as neither detestable nor ridiculous. He could have wished, that his sense of honour and duty would have permitted him to have done so. He is neither a fanatic, nor an enthusiast, and perhaps still less of a bigot. Yet there are occasions when the most sober and candid thinker will confess, that the interests of particulars should give way to those of the public. It is true, there are others, when politeness, civil prudence, and the private motives of friendship, ought to determine a man, who is to live in the world, to comply with the state and condition of the times; and even to chuse the worse, instead of the better method of doing good. But his misfortune was, that this did not appear to him to be one of those occasions, in which, when he had explained the doctrines and opinions of an erroneous writer, he could leave them with this reflection: "These are the Writer's notions on the "most important points with regard to human happiness.

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They are indeed very singular and novel. But then "consider; the Writer was a great man, and high in all "the attainments of wisdom; therefore weigh well, and "reverendly before you condemn what I have here

"exposed to your judgment." But had I, with a view to prudence, said this, Would it have secured me from OFFENCE, the very thing that PRUDENCE would most avoid? Would it not rather have furnished out another bandle, a handle for the making me a confederate in his guilt, only a little better disguised? Had this happened, it would not have been the first time I had been so served, when endeavouring to avoid offence.

And yet there was but one of these three ways; either to laugh, to declaim, or to say nothing. I chose the first, as what I fancied least obnoxious; in which, however, I was mistaken; and as most likely to do good; in which, I still hope, I was not mistaken.

The only harm L. Bolingbroke, whose reputation of parts and wisdom had been raised so high, can possibly do, is amongst the PEOPLE. His objections against Religion are altogether of the popular kind, as we feel by the effects they have had, when used by their original authors, long before his Lordship honoured them with a place in his Essays. What then was that man to aim at, who had made it his business (indeed without being set on work) to put a speedy stop to the mischief, and neither to palliate the doctrines, nor to compliment the author of them, but to give a true and succinct representation of his system, in a popular way; to make a right use of that abundance, which the ESSAYS and FRAGMENTS afforded, to shew that his Lordship's principles were as foolish as they were wicked; and that the arguments used in support of them were as weak as they were bold and overbearing that he was a pretender in matters of learning and philosophy; and knew no more of the genius of the Gospel, than of that supposed corruption of it, which he calls artificial theology. This I imagined to be the only way to reach his Lordship's AUTHORITY, on which all depended; and then, the very weakest effort of ridicule would be able to do the rest. These were my motives. for the method I laid down; and whatever impropriety there may be in divulging them in a way that tends to defeat their end, it should, I think, be laid to the account of those who make this explanation necessary.

I have been the longer on this matter as it will serve for an answer to what follows,

Lord

Lord Bolingbroke (says this Public) is so universally and so justly obnoxious to all sorts and ranks of people, that from regard to him, nobody cares how he is treated; but be assured your MANNER has destroyed all the merit of the work.-Though with regard to the manner I have said enough; yet the candid reader, I am sure, will allow me to add a word or two concerning the effect of an unacceptable manner, in a work of public service. It had, till of late, been always deemed desert to do a general good, though in a way not perfectly acceptable. But we are now become so delicate and fastidious, that it is the manner of doing, even in things of highest importance, which carries away all the merit. And yet, this false delicacy on a question of no less moment than Whether we shall have any Religion or none at all, seems as absurd as it would be in a great man to take offence at an officious neighbour for saving his falling palace, by a few homely props near at hand, when he should have considered of a support more conformable to the general taste and style of architecture in his Lordship's superb piece; or to find him disconcerted by that charitable hand, which should venture to pull his grandeur by head and shoulders out of a flaming apart

ment.

But in these suppositions I grant much more than in reason I ought. I suppose the PUBLIC TASTE, which the manner in question has offended, is a reality, founded in nature; whereas 'tis the fantastic creature of fashion, and as shifting and capricious as its parent. TRUTH, which makes the matter of every honest man's inquiry, is eternal; but the manner suited to the public taste, is nothing else than conformity to our present passions, or sentiments; our prejudices, or dispositions. When the truths or the practices of Religion have got possession of a people, then a warmth for its interests, and an abhorrence of its enemies, become the public taste; and men expect to find the zeal of an Apostle in every defender of Religion: but when this awful power has lost its hold, when, at best, it floats but in the brain, and comes not near the heart, then, if you expect to be read with approbation, you must conform your manner to that polite indifference,

indifference, and easy unconcern, with which we see every other trial of skill played before us.

*

But now I am advanced thus far, I will venture a step further. When infidelity first made its appearance amongst us in set discourses addressed to the public, our ecclesiastical watchinen instantly took the alarm; and communicated it to their brethren with a warmth and vigour that gave lustre to their high trust. No writer escaped unnoticed; no argument remained unanswered; and a learned critic received public honours, as the deliverer of his country, in rescuing common sense from the very silliest rhapsody that ever disgraced human reason. But since the danger is become imminent, or, to speak more properly, since the mischief so much dreaded has done its work, and one would naturally expect to see this vigilance increased, and the body up in arms, we find a perfect peace and tranquillity reign amongst them. Which, were it not attended with equal unconcern, one might mistake for a well-grounded confidence in vigorous measures. As if it were our unhappy fate to be still mistaken, as well when we thought the Church in danger, as now when we appear to believe it triumphant!

Indeed (says this Public) it [your manner] has furnished your enemies with a handle to do you infinite mischief. Your COLD friends lament and make the worst sort of excuse, by imputing it to a temper contracted from the long habit of drawing blood in controversy; Your WARM friends are out of countenance, and forced to be silent, or turn the discourse.

Would not any one by this imagine, that the Author of the View, after much pretended opposition to infidelity, was at last detected of being in confederacy with it, and all along artfully advancing its interests; that the mask had unwarily dropt off, and that he stood confessed, what Lord Bolingbroke has been pleased to call him, an advocate for civil and ecclesiastical tyranny? At least, no one would imagine, that this handle afforded to his enemies of doing him mischief, was no other than the treating the Author of the most impious and insulting Discourse of Freethinking.

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