no lefs obvious, that the Number of the former bear a great Difproportion to thofe of the latter. The whole Bufinefs of the Poor is to adminifter to the Idlenefs, Folly, and Luxury of the Rich -y and that of the Rich, in return, is to find the beft Methods of confirming the Slavery and increafing the Burthens of the Poor. In a State of Nature, it is an invariable Law, that a Man's Acquifitions are in proportion to his Labours. In a State of Artificial Society, it is a Law as conftant and as invariable,, that thofe who labour moft, enjoy the feweft things; and that thofe who labour not at all, have the greateft Number of Enjoyments, A Conftitution of things this, ftrange and ridiculous beyond Ex- preffion. We fcarce believe a thing when we are told it, which we adlually fee be- fore our Eyes every Day without being in the leaft furprized. I fuppofe that there are in Great Britain upwards of an hun- dred thoufand People employed in Lead, Tin, Iron, Copper, and Coal Mines > thefe unhappy unhappy unhappy Wretches fcarce ever fee the Light of the Sun; they are buried in the Bowels of the Earth; there they work at a fevere and difmal Tafk, without the leaft Profpedt of being delivered from it; they fubfift upon the coarfeft and worft fort of Fare $ they have their Health miferably impaired, and their Lives cut fhort, by being perpetually confined in the clofe Vapour of thefe malignant Minerals An hundred thoufand more at leaft are tortured without Remiffion by the fuffocating Smoak, intenfe Fires, and conftant Drud- gery neceflary in the refining and ma- naging the Products of thofe Mines. If any Man informed us that two hundred innocent Perfons were condemned to fo intolerable Slavery, how fhould we pity the unhappy Sufferers, and how great would be our juft Indignation againft thofe who infli&ed fo cruel and ignomi- nious a Punifliment? This i$ an Inftance, I could not wifh a ftronger, of the num- berlefs Things which we pafs by in their N 2 common common Drefs, yet which fhock us when they are nakedly reprefented. But this Number, considerable as it is, and the Slavery, with all it's Bafenefs and Horror, which we have at Home, is nothing to what the reft of the World affords of the fame Nature. Millions daily bathed in the poifonous Damps and deftru<3ive Effluvia of Lead, Silver, Copper, and Arfenick. To fay nothing of thofe other Employments, thofe Stations of Wretchednefs and Con- tempt in which Civil Society has placed the numerous Enfans perdus of her Army, Would any rational Man fubmit to one of the moft tolerable of thefe Drudgeries for all the artificial Enjoyments which Policy has made to refult from them? By no Means. And yet need I fuggeft to your Lordfhip, that thofe who find the Means, and thofe who arrive at the End, are not at all the fame Perfons. On con- fidering the ftrange and unaccountable Fancies and Contrivances of Artificial Rea- fpns I have fomewhere called this Earth the the the Bedlam of our Syftem. Looking now upon the Effects of fome of thofe Fancies, may we not with equal Reafon call it likewife the Newgate, and the Bridewell of the Univerfe. Indeed the Blindnefs of one Part of Mankind co-operating with the Frenzy and Villainy of the other, has been the real Builder of this refpec- table Fabrick of Political Society: And as their Blindnefs has caufed their Slavery, in Return their State of Slavery is made a aPretence for continuing them in a State of Blindnefs; for the Politician will tell you gravely, that their Life of Servitude difqualifies them for a Search of Truth, and fupplies them with no other than mean and inefficient Ideas. This is but too true; and this is one of the Reafons for which I blame fuch Inftitutions, In a Mifery of this Sort, admit- ing fome few Lenities, and thofe too t>ut a few, nine Parts in ten of the whole Race of Mankind drudge through Life.
Life. It may be urged perhaps, in palliation of this., that, at leaft, the Rich Few find a confiderable and real Benefit from the Wretchednefs of the Many. But is this fo in fadl? Let us examine the Point with a little more Attention. For this purpofe the Rich in all Societies may be thrown into two Claffes. The firft is of thofe who are Powerful as well as Rich, and conducft the Operations of the vaft Political Ma- chine. The other is of thofe who employ their Riches wholly in the Acquifition of Pleafure. As to the firft Sort, their con* tinual Care, Anxiety, their toilfome Days and fleeplefs Nights, are next to Proverbial. Thefe Circumftances are fufficient almoft to level their Condition to that of the un- happy Majority; but there are other Cir- cumftances which place them in a far lower Condition. Not only their Under- ftandings labour continually, which is the fevereft Labour, but their Hearts are torn 1>y the worft, moft troublefome, and in- fatiable of all Paffions, by Avarice, by Ambition^ Ambition^ Ambition, by Fear and Jealoufy. No part of the Mind has Reft. Power gradually extirpates from the Mind every humane and gentle Virtue. Pity, Benevolence, Friendship are Things almoft unknown in high Stations. Vera amicitice rarijjime inveniuntur in its qui in honoribus reipub- licee verfantur, fays Cicero* And indeed, Courts are the Schools where Cruelty, Pride, Diffimulation and Treachery are ftudied and taught in the moft vicious Perfe&ion. This is a Point fo clear and acknowledged, that if it did not make a neceflary Part of my Subjedt, I Should pafs it by entirely. And this has hindered me from drawing at full length, and in the moft ftriking Colours, this Shocking Pidlure of the Degeneracy and Wretched- nefs of human Nature, in that Part which is vulgarly thought it's happieft and moft amiable State. You know from what Originals I could copy fuch Pictures. Happy are they who know enough of them to know their littleValue, and who have have been fnatched from that Poll of Danger with the Remains of their Virtue j Lofs of Honours, Wealth, Titles and even the Lofs of one's Country is nothing in Ballance with fo great an Advantage.
Let us now view the other Species of the Rich, thofe who devote their Time and Fortunes to Idlenefs and Pleafure. How much happier are they? The Plea- fiires which are agreeable to Nature are within the reach of all, and therefore can form no Diftindlion in favour of the Rich. The Pleafures which Art forces up are feldom fincere, and never fatisfying. What is worfe, this conftant Application to Pleafure takes away from the Enjoyment, or rather turns it into the Nature of a very burthenfome and laborious Bufinefs. It has Confequences yet worfe. It pro- duces a weak valetudinary State of.Body, attended byall thofe horrid Diforders, and yet more horrid Methods of Cure, which are the Refult of Luxury on one hand, and the the the weak and ridiculous Efforts of human Art on theother.TheirPleafuresare fcarcely felt as Pleafures; at tne fame time that they bring on P ins and Difeafes, which are felt but too feverely. The Mind has it's Share of the Misfortune; it grows lazy and enervate, unwilling and unable to fearch for Truth, and utterly uncapable of knowing, much lefs of relifhing real Happinefs. The Poor by their exceffive Labour, and the Rich by their enormous Luxury, are fet upon a Level and made equally ignorant of any Knowledge which might conduce to their Happinefs. A difmal View of the Interior of all Civil Society. The lower Part broken and ground down by the moft cruel Oppref- fion; and the Rich by their artificial Method of Life bringing worfe Evils on themfelves, than their Tyranny could poffibly inflidl on thofe below them. Very different is the Profpedi of the Na- tural State, Here there is no * want which Nature gives, and they can be O fenfible fenfible of no other Wants, which is not to be fupplied by a very moderate degree of Labour j therefore there is no Slavery. Neither is there any Luxury, becaufe no fingle Man can fupply the Materials of it. Life is Ample, and therefore it is happy.
I am confcious, my Lord, rthat your Politician will urge in his Defence, that this unequal State is highly ufefiil. That without dooming fome Part of Mankind to extraordinary Toil, the Arts which cul- tivate Life could not be exercifed. But I demand of this Politician, how fuch Arts came to be neceflary? He anfwers, that Civil Society could not well exift without them. So that thefe Arts' are neceflary to Civil Society, and Civil Society neceflary again to thefe Arts. Thus running in a Circle, without Modefty, and with- out End; and making one Error and Extravagance an Excufe for the other. My Sentiments about thefe Arts and their Caufe, I have often difcourfed with my Friends Friends at large. Pope has expreffed them in good Verfe, where he talks with fo much Force of Reafon and Elegance of Language in Praife of the State of Nature.
Then was not Pride, nor Arts that Pride to aid, Man walk'd with Beaft, Joint-tenant of the Shade.
On the whole, my Lord, if Political Society, in whatever Form, has ftill made the Many the Property of the Few; if it has introduced Labours unneceflary, Vices and Difeafes unknown, and Pleafures in- compatible with Nature; if in all Coun- tries it abridges the Lives of Millions, and renders thofe of Millions more utterly ab- je<3: and miferable, fhall we ftill worfhip fo deftrudive an Idol, and daily facrifice to it our Health, our Liberty, and our Peace? Or fhall we pafs by this monftrous Heap of abfurd Notions, and abominable Frattices, thinking we have fufficiently O z difcharged difcharged our Duty in expofing the trifling Cheats, and ridiculous Juggles of a few mad dcfigning, or ambitious Priefts? Alas! my Lord, we labour under a mortal Con- fumption, whilft we are fo anxious about the Cure of a fore Finger. For has not this Leviathan of Civil Power overflowed the Earth with a Deluge of Blood, as if he were made to difport and play therein? We have fhewn, that Political Society, on a moderate Calculation, has been the Means of murdering an hundred and forty times the Number of Inhabitants now upon the Earth, during it's fhort Exiftence, not upwards of four thoufand Years in any Accounts to be depended on. But we have faid nothing of the other, and perhaps as bad Confequence of thefe Wars, which fpilled fuch Seas of Blood, and reduced fo many Millions to a mercilefs Slavery. But thefe are only the Ceremonies performed in the Porch of the Political Temple. Much more horrid ones are feen as you enter it. The feveral Species of Government vie with with with each other in the Abfurdity of their Conftitutions, and the Oppreffion which they make their Subjects endure. Take them under what Form you pleafe, they are in Effect but a Defpotifm, and fall, both in Effect an Appearance too, after a very (hort Period, into that cruel and de- teftable Species of Tyranny 5 which I ra- ther call it, becaufe we have been educated under another Form, than that this is of worfe Confequences to Mankind. For the free Governments, for the Point of their Space, and the Moment of their Duration, have felt more Confufion, and committed more flagrant Acts of Tyranny, than the mod perfect defpotick Governments which we have ever known. Turn your Eye next to the Labyrinth of the Law, and the Iniquity conceived in it's intricate Re- ceflfes. Confider the Ravages committed in the Bowels of all Commonwealths by Ambition, by Avarice, Envy, Fraud, open Injuftice, and pretended Friendship; Vices which could draw little Support from a State State State of Nature, but which bloflbm and flourifh in the Ranknefs of Political Soci- ety. Revolve our whole Difcourfe $ add to it all thofe Reflections which your own good Underftanding (hall fuggeft, and make a ftrenuous Effort beyond the Reach of Vulgar Philofophy, to confefs that the Caufe of Artificial Society is more de- fencelefs even than that of Artificial Reli- gion; that it is as derogatory from the Honour of the Creator, as fubverfive of human Reafon, and productive of infinitely more Mifchief to the human Race.
If pretended Revelations have caufed Wars where they were oppofed, and Slavery where they were received, the pre- tended wife Inventions of Politicians have done the fame. But the Slavery has been much heavier, the Wars far more bloody, and both more univerfal by many Degrees. Shew me any Mifchief produced by the Madnefs or Wickednefs of Theologians, and I will fhew you an hundred, refulting from from from the Ambition and Villainy of Con- querors and Statefmen. Shew me an Ab- furdity in Religion, I will undertake to lhew you an hundred for one in Political Laws and Inftitutions. If you fay, that Natural Religion is a fufficient Guide without the foreign Aid of Revelation, on what Principle fhould Political Laws become neceffary t Is not the fame Reafon available in Theology and in Politicks? If the Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, is it confident with the Divine Wif- dom to prefcribe Rules to us, and leave the Enforcement of them to the Folly of human Inftitutions? Will you follow Truth but to a certain Point? We are indebted for all our Miferies to our Diftruft of that Guide, which Providence thought fuffici- ent for our Condition, our own Na- tural Reafon, which reje&ing both in Human and Divine things, we have given our Necks to the Yoke of Poli- tical and Theological Slavery. We have renounced the Prerogative of Man, and it is is is not wonderful that we fhould be treated like Beafts. But our Mifery is much the greater, as the Crime we commit in re- jecting the lawful Dominion of our Reafon is greater. If after all, you fhould confefs all thefe things, yet plead the Neceffity of Political Inftitutions, weak and wicked as they are, I can argue with equal, perhaps fuperior Force concerning the Neceffity of Artificial Religion 5 and every Step you ad- vance in your Argument, you add a Strength to mine. So that if we are re- folved to fubmit our Reafon and our Liberty to Civil Ufurpation, we have no- thing to do but to conform as quickly as we can to the vulgar Notions which are connected with this, and, take up their Theology as well as their Politicks. But if we think this Neceffity rather imaginary than real, we fhould renounce their Dreams of Society, together with their Vifions of Religion, and vindicate our- felves into perfect Liberty.
You You You are, my Lord, but juft entering into the World; I am going out of it. I have played long enough to be heartily tired of the Drama. Whether I have adted my Part in it well or ill, Pofterity will judge with more Candor than I, or than the prefent Age, with our prefent Paffions, can poffibly pretend to. For my Part, I quit it without a Sigh, and fubmit to the Sovereign Order without murmur- ing. The nearer we approach to the Goal of Life, the better we begin to under- ftand the true Value of our Exiftence, and the real Weight of our Opinions. We fet out much in Love with both; but we leave much behind us as we advance. We iirft throw away the Tales along with the Rattles of our Nurfes. Thofe of the Prieft keep their hold a little longer; thofe of our Governors the longeft of all. But the Paffions which prop thefe Opinions are withdrawn one after another, and the cool Light of Reafon at the Setting of our Life (hews us what a falfe Splendor played upon P thefe thefe Obje&s during our more fanguine Scafons. Happy, my Lord, if inftru&ed by my Experience, and even by my Errors, you come early to make fuch an Eftimate of things, as may give Freedom and Eafe to your Life. I am happy that it promifes me Comfort at my Death.
FINIS.
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