DIV.

Origin of Evil.-My master was yet wholly at a loss to understand what motives could excite this race of lawyers to perplex, disquiet, and weary themselves, and engage in a confederacy of injustice, merely for the sake of injuring their fellow animals; neither could he comprehend what I meant in saying they did it for hire. Whereupon I was at much pains to describe to him the use of money, the materials it was made of, and value of the metals: that when a man had got a great store of this precious substance, he was able to purchase whatever he had a mind to, the finest clothing, the noblest houses, great tracts of land, the most costly meats and drinks, and have his choice of the most beautiful females. Therefore, since money alone was able to perform all these feats, our (people) though they never could have enough of it to spend, or to save, as they found themselves inclined from their natural bent either to profusion or avarice. That the rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor man's labour, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former. That the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by labouring every day for small wages, to make a few live plentifully. I enlarged much on these and many other particulars to the same purpose; but his honour was still to seek, for he went upon a supposition, that all animals had a title to their share in the productions of the earth, and especially those who presided over the rest. Therefore he desired I would let him know what these costly meats were, and how any of us happened to want them. Whereupon I enumerated as many sorts as came into my head, with the various methods of dressing them, which could not be done with

out sending vessels by sea to every part of the world, as well for liquors to drink as for sauces, and innumerable other conveniences. I assured him that this whole globe of earth must be at least three times gone round before one of our better females could get her breakfast, or a cup to put it in. He said that must needs be a miserable country which cannot furnish food for its own inhabitants. But what he chiefly wondered at was, how such vast tracts of ground, as I described, should be wholly without fresh water, and people put to the necessity of sending over the sea for drink. I replied, that England, the dear place of my nativity, was computed to produce three times the quantity of food more than its inhabitants are able to consume, as well as liquors extracted from grain, or pressed out of the fruits of certain trees, which made excellent drink; and the same proportion in every other convenience of life. But in order to feed the luxury and intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we sent away the greatest part of our necessary things to other countries, from whence in return we brought the materials of diseases, folly, and vice, to spend among ourselves. Hence, it follows of necessity, that vast numbers of our people are compelled to seek their livelihood by begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping, flattering, suborning, forswearing, forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting, scribbling, star-gazing, poisoning, whoring, canting, libelling, freethinking, and the like occupations; every one of which terms I was at much pains to make him understand.—Swift—Gulliver's Travels.

DV.

Ancient and Modern Education Contrasted.-In the beginning of the last century, and so onward to the

middle of it, the children were usually obliged to believe what their parents and their masters taught them, whether they were principles of science, or articles of faith and practice: they were tied down almost to every punctilio, as though it were necessary to salvation: they were not suffered to examine or inquire whether their teachers were in the right, and scarce knew upon what grounds they were to assent to the things that were taught them; for it was a maxim of all teachers that the learner must believe.-Discentem oportet credere-Watts' Posthumous

Works.

DVI.

Rich and Poor.-It is impossible that a society can long subsist, and suffer many of its members to live in idleness, and enjoy all the ease and pleasure they can invent, without having at the same time great multitudes of people that, to make good this defect, will condescend to be quite the reverse, and by use and patience inure their bodies to work for others and themselves besides.Mandeville.

DVII.

Free Governments.-Republics furnish the world with a greater number of brave and excellent characters than kingdoms; the reason is, that in republics virtue is honoured and promoted, in monarchies and kingdoms it incurs suspicion.-Machiavel.

DVIII.

Titles and Nobility.—It is surprising what an influence titles shall have upon the mind, even though these titles be of our own making. Like children, we dress up the puppets in finery, and then stand in astonishment at the

plastic wonder. I have been told of a rat-catcher here who strolled for a long time about the villages, without finding any employment; at last, however, he thought proper to take the title of his majesty's rat-catcher in ordinary, and this succeeded beyond his expectations; when it was known that he caught rats at court, all were ready to give him countenance and employment.― Goldsmith— Citizen of the World.

DIX.

Laws.-Ask of politicians the end for which laws were originally designed, and they will answer, that the laws were designed as a protection for the poor and weak, against the oppression of the rich and powerful. But surely no pretence can be so ridiculous; a man might as well tell me he has taken off my load, because he has changed the burden. If the poor man is not able to support his suit according to the vexatious and expensive manner established in civilized countries, has not the rich as great an advantage over him as the strong has over the weak in a state of nature?-Burke.

DX.

Penal Laws.-As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood. It were to be wished, then, that instead of cutting away wretches as useless, before we have tried their utility, [and thus] converting correction into vengeance, it were to be wished that we tried the restrictive arts of government, and made the law the protector, and not the tyrant of the public. We should then find that creatures, whose souls are held as dross, only wanted the hand of a refiner; we

should then find that wretches now stuck up for long tortures, lest luxury should feel a momentary pang, might, if properly treated, serve to sinew the state in times of danger; that, as their faces are like ours, their hearts are so too; that few minds are so base, as that perseverance cannot amend; that a man may see his last crime without dying for it; and that very little blood will serve to ce ment our security.-Goldsmith.

DXI.

False Reasoning.—Of all misfortunes which can happen to man, false reasoning is one of the greatest. I am far from thinking, that men who give way to their propensities, are void of reason; but that their reason, from education, from connexions, from self-interest, from situation, from climate, from the nature of government, and from. various other circumstances, misleads them. Let us examine a little into this. We are too apt to allege that men, hurried away by their passions, lose the power of reasoning, or, in other words, that reason is governed by the passions. No; we may as well say, that reason permits itself to be governed by the hand, when it is writing falsely, or by the tongue, when it is speaking profanely. Erroneous reasoning arises from some of the causes I have mentioned, and is either the best or the worst faculty in As it is certainly the only principle of virtue, so as certainly is it the sole cause of all that is base, horrid, and shameful in human nature. We may say the same of conscience. It can be no criterion of moral rectitude, even when it is right. Conscience is only opinion, and certainty of opinion is no proof of its being right. As our reason is warped according to the principles we have imbibed, to the habits we have been accustomed to, the

man.