A Vindication of Natural Society

1748, and the Perfon to whom it is addreffed need not be pointed out. As it is probable the Noble Writer had no Defign that it fhould ever appear in Publick, this will account for his having kept no Copy of it, and confequently, for it's not appearing amongft the reft of his Works. By what Means it came into the Hands of the Editor, is not at' all material to the Publick, any farther than as fuch an Account might tend to authenticate the Genuinenefs of it, and for this it was thought it might fafely rely on it's own internal Evidence. A LETTER T O SHALL I venture to fay, my Lord, that in our late Converfation, you were inclined to the Party which you adopted rather by the Feelings of your good Nature, than by the Conviction of your Judgment ? We laid open the Foundations of Society ; and you feared, that the Curiofity of this Search might endanger the Ruin of the whole Fabrick. You would readily have allowed my Principle, but you dreaded the Confequences -, you thought, that having once entered upon B thefe thefe Reafonings, we might be carried infenfibly and irrefiftably farther than at firft we could either have imagined or wifhed. But for my part, my Lord, I then thought, and am ftill of the fame Opinion, that Error, and not Truth of any Kind, is dangerous j that ill Conclufions can only flow from falfe Propofitions >y and that, to know whether any Proportion be true or falfe, it is a prepoflerous Method to examine it by it's apparent Confequences. Thefe were the Reafons which induced me to go fo far into that Enquiry; and they are the Reafons which direct me in all my Enquiries.…