poflibly come from the fame hand, or be of a piece with the natural, throughout which there fhines fo much order, harmony, and proportion.
Alc. — Your difcourfe ferves to confirm me in my opin- ion. You may remember, I declared, that touching this beauty of morality in the high fenfe, a man's firft thoughts arc beft; and that, if we pretend to examine, and infpe£t, and reafon, we are in danger to lofe fight of it.* That, in fact, there is fuch a thing cannot be doubted, when we confider that, in thefe days, fome of our philosophers have a high fenfe of virtue, without the lead notion of religion, * Men's firft thoughts on moral matters are generally better than th«ir fecond: their natural notions better than thofe refined by ftudv Chara&criftics, Vol. 1. p. 13.
s i38 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. III.]
a clear proof of the ufefulnefs and efficacy of our prin- ciples!
XII. Cri. — Not to difpute the virtue of Minute Philo- sophers, we may venture to call its caufe in queftion, and make a doubt, whether it be an inexplicable enthufiaftic notion of moral beauty, or rather, as to me it feems, what was already affigned by Euphranor > complexion, cuftom, and religious education? but, allowing what beauty you pleafe, to virtue in an irreligious fyftem, it cannot be lefs in a religious, unlefs you will fuppofe that her charms dimin- ifti, as her dowry increafeth. The truth is, a believer hath all the motives from the beauty of virtue, in any fenfe whatfoever, that an unbeliever can poffibly have, befides other motives, which an unbeliever hath not. Hence it is plain, that thofe of your fe&, who have moral virtue, owe it not to their peculiar tenets, which ferve only to leflen the motives to virtue. Thofe, therefore, who are good, are lefs good, and thofe who are bad, are more bad, than they would have been, were they believers.
Euph. — To me it feems, thofe heroic infidel inamora- tos of abftra&ed beauty, are much to be pitied, and much to be admired. Lyficlesy hearing this, faid, with fome im- patience, gentlemen, you mail have my whole thoughts upon this point, plain and frank. All that is faid about a moral fenfe, or moral beauty, in any fignification, either of Alciphron or Euphranor^ or any other, I take to be at bot- tom mere bubble and pretence. The kalon and the prepon, the beautiful and the decent, are things outward, relative, and fuperficial, which have no eflfecl; in the dark, but are fpecious topics to difcourfe and expatiate upon, as fome formal pretenders of our feci:, though in other points very orthodox* are ufed to do. But mould one of them get into power, you would find him no fuch fool as Euphranor imagines. He would foon fhew he had found out, that the love of one's country is a prejudice: That mankind are [Dial. HI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. i39 rogues and hypocrites, and that it were folly to facrifice one's felf for the fake of fuch: That all regards center in this life, and that, as this life is to every man his own life, it clearly follows that charity begins at home. Benevo- lence to mankind is perhaps pretended, but benevolence to himfelf is praclifed by the wife. The livelier fort of our philofophers do not fcruple to own thefe maxims; and as for the graver, if they are true to their principles, one may guefs what they muft think at bottom.
Cri.—- Whatever may be the effecl: of pure theory upon certain felecl: fpirits, of a peculiar make, or in fome other parts of the world; I do verily think that, in this country, of ours, reafon, religion, law, are all together little enough to fubdue the outward to the inward man; and that it muft argue a wrong head, and weak judgment, to fuppofe, that, without them, men would be enamoured of the golden mean. To which my countrymen, perhaps, are lefs incli- ned thanf others, there being in the make of an Englifh mind a certain gloom and eagernefs, which carries to the fad extreme; religion to fanaticifm; free-thinking to atheifm; liberty to rebellion: Nor fhould we venture to be govern- ed by tafte, even in matters of lefs confequence. The beautiful in drefs, furniture, and building, is, as Euphranor hath obferved, fomething real and well grounded: And yet our Englijh do not find it out ©f themfelves. What wretched work do they and other northern people make, when they follow their own tafte of beauty, in any of thefe particulars, inftead of acquiring the true, which is to be got from ancient models and the principles of art, as in the cafe of virtue, from great models and meditation, fo far as natural means can go? But in no cafe is it to be hoped, that to kalon will be the leading idea of the many, who have quick fenfes, ftrong paflions, and grofs intellects.
XIII. Alc. — The fewer they are, the more ought we to efteem, and admire fuch philofophers, whofe fouls arc touched, and tranfported, with this fublime idea.
i4o MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial, in.]
Cri.— -But then one might expect, from fuch philofo- phers, fo much good fenfe, and philanthrophy, as to keep their tenets to themfelves, and confider their weak breth- ren, who are more ftrongly afFe£ted by certain fenfes and no- tions of another kind, than that of the beauty of pure dif- interefled virtue. Craiylus, a man prejudiced againft the chriftian religion, of a crazy conftitution, of a rank above mod men's ambition, and a fortune equal to his rank, had little capacity for fenfual vices, or temptation to diihoneft ones. Cratylus having talked himfelf, or imagined that he had talked himfelf, into a ftoical enthufiafm about the beauty of virtue, did, under the pretence of making men heroically virtuous, endeavor to deftroy the means of ma- king them reafonably and humanly fo. A clear inftance, that neither birth, nor books, norconverfation, can introduce a knowledge of the world into a conceited mind, which will ever be its own object, and contemplate mankind in its own mirror! <- Alc. — Cratylus was a lover of liberty, and of his coun- try, and had a mind to make men incorrupt and virtuous, upon the pureft and molt difinterefted principles.
Cri.— It is true, the main fcope of all his writings (as he himfelf tells us) was to aflert the reality of a beauty and charm in moral, as well as in natural fubjec~ts: to demonftrate a tafte, which he thinks more effectual than principle: to recommend morals on the fame foot with manners; and fo to advance philofophy on the very foun- dation of what is called agreeable and polite. As for re- ligious qualms, the belief of a future ftate of rewards and punifhments, and fuch matters, this great man (ticks not to declare, that the liberal, polifhed, and refined part of mankind, muft needs confider them only as children's tales, and amufements of the vulgar. For the fake, therefore, of the better fort, he hath, in great goodnefs and wif- dom, thought of fomething elfe, to wit, a tafte or relifh: this, he azures us, is, at la®, what will influence: fince, [Dial. HI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. i4r according to him, whoever has any impreffion of gentili- ty (as he calls it) or politenefs, is fo acquainted with the decorum and grace of things, as to be really tranfported with the comtemplation thereof.* His conduct feems jufl: as wife, as if a monarch fhould give out, that there was neither jail nor executioner in his kingdom, to enforce the laws, but that it would be beautiful to obferve them, and that, in fo doing, men would tafte the pure delight which refults from order and decorum.
Alc. — After all, is it not true, that certain ancient philofophers, of great note, held the fame opinion with Cratylusy declaring that he did not come up to the charac- ter, or deferve the title of a good man, who pra£tifed virtue for the fake of any thing but its own beauty?
Cri. — I believe, indeed, that fome of the ancients faid fuch things as gave occafion for this opinion. Arif- totle\ diftinguimeth between two characters of a good man, the one he calleth agathos, or fimply good, the other kalos kagathos, from whence the compound term kalokaga- thiciy which cannot, perhaps, be rendered by any one word in our language. But his fenfe is plainly this: agathos he defineth to be, that man to whom the good things of nature are good: For, according to him, thofe things, which are vulgarly efteemed the greateft goods, as riches, honors, power, and bodily perfections, are indeed good by nature; but they happen, neverthelefs, to be hurtful and bad to fome perfons, Upon the account of evil habits: inafmuch as neither a fool, nor an unjufl man, nor an intemperate, can be at all the better for the ufe of them, any more than a fick man for ufmg the nou- rifliment proper for thofe who are in health. But kales hagathos is that man, in whom are to be found all things worthy, and decent, and laudable, purely as fuch, and * See Chara&eriflics, Vol. III. Mifcel- 5. cap. 3. and Mifcel- 3. cap a- f Ethic ad Eudemum, lib, 7. cap. ult.
x42 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. III.]
for their own fake, and who pra&ifeth virtue from no other motive but the fole love of her own innate beauty. That philofopher obferves, likewife, that there is a cer- tain political habit, fuch as the Spartans, and others had, who thought virtue was to be valued and pradUfed on ac- count of the natural advantages that attend it. For which reafon, he adds, they are indeed good men, but they have not the halohagathia, or fupreme confummate virtue. From hence it is plain that, according to Arijlotle, a man may be a good man, without believing virtue its own re- ward, or being only moved to virtue by the fenfe of moral beauty. It is alfo plain, that he diftinguifheth the politi- cal virtue of nations, which the public is every where concerned to maintain, from this fublime and fpeculative kind. It might alfo be obferved, that this exalted idea did confift with fuppofing a Providence, which infpec~ts and rewards the virtues of the beft men. For, faith he in another place, # if the gods have any care of human affairs, as it appears they have, it mould feem reafonable to fuppofe, that they are moil delighted with the mod ex- cellent nature, and mod approaching their own, which is the mind, and that they will reward thofe who chiefly love and cultivate what is moft dear to them. The fame philofopher obferves, f that the bulk of mankind are not naturally difpofed to be awed by (hame, but by fear: nor to abftain from vicious practices, on account of their de- formity, but only of the punifhment which attends them. And again, % he tells us, that youth, being of itfelf averfe from abftinence and fobriety, mould be under the reftraint of laws, regulating their education and employ- ment, and that the fame difcipline mould be continued even after they became men. For which, faith he, we want laws, and, in one word, for the whole ordering of life: inafmuch as the generality of mankind obey rather [Dial. III.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 143 force than reafon, and arc influenced rather by penalties, than the beauty of virtue; Zemiais e to kalo. From all which it is very plain, what Arijlotle would have thought of thofe, who fhould go about to lefTen or deftroy the hopes and fears of mankind, in order to make them virtuous on this fole principle of the beauty of virtue.
XIV. Alc. — But, whatever the Stagirite and his peri- patetics might think, is it not certain the ftoics maintain- ed this doctrine in its higheft fenfe, aflerting the beauty of virtue to be all-fufficient j that virtue was her own re- ward •, that this alone could make a man happy, in fpite of all thofe things which are vulgarly efteemed the greateft. woes and miferies of human life? And all this they held at the fame time that they believed the foul of man to be of a corporeal nature, and in death difTipated like a flame or vapour.
Cri. — It mult be owned, the ftoics fomctimes talk,, as if they believed the mortality of the foul. Seneca, in a letter of his to Luci/ius, {peaks much like a Minute Philofopher, in this particular. But in feveral other places, he declares himfelf of a clear contrary opinion, affirming, that the fouls of men, after death, mount aloft into the heavens, look down upon earth, entertain themfelves with the theory of celeftial bodies, the courfe of nature, and the converfation of wife and excellent men, who having lived in diftant ages and countries upon earth, make one fociety in the other world. It muft alfo be acknowledged, that Marcus A?i- toninus fometimes fpeaks of the foul, as perifhing, or dif- folving into its elementary parts: But it is to be noted, that he diftinguifheth three principles in the compofition of human nature, the foma, pfuche, nous, * body, foul, mind, or, as he otherwife exprefieth himfelf, far kid, pneumatiotiy and egemonihn, flefh fpirit, and governing principle. What he calls the pfuche, or foul, containing i44 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial, m.]
the brutal part of our nature, is indeed reprefented as a compound diflbluble, and actually diflblved by death: But the nous, or to egemonikon, the mind, or ruling princi- ple, he held to be of a pure celeftial nature, theou apospaf- ma% a particle of God, which he fends back intire to the ftars and the Divinity. Befides, among all his magnificent leflbns, and fplendid fentiments, upon the force and beauty of virtue, he is pofitive as to the being of God, and that not merely as a plaftic nature, or foul of the world, but in the ftricl: fenfe of a Providence, in fpe&ing and taking care of human affairs. * The ftoics, therefore, though their (tile was high, and often above truth and nature, yet it cannot be faid, that they fo refolved every motive to a virtuous life into the fole beauty of virtue, as to endeavor to deftroy the belief of the immortality of the foul, and a diftributive Providence. After all, allowing the difinterefted ftoics (therein not un- like our modern quietifts) to have made virtue its own fole reward, in the moll rigid and abfolute fenfe, yet what is this to thofe who are no ftoics? If we adopt the whole principles of that feci:, admitting their notions of good and evil, their celebrated apathy, and, in one word, fetting up for complete ftoics, we may poflibly maintain this doctrine with a better grace: at lead, it will be of a piece, and con- fident with the whole. But he who (hall borrow this fplendid patch from the ftoics, and hope to make a figure by inferting it in a piece of modern compofition, feafoned with the wit and notions of thefe times, will indeed make a figure, but perhaps it may not be, in the eyes of a wife man, the figure he intended.
XV. Though it muft be owned, the prefent age is very indulgent to every thing that aims at profane raillery; which is alone fufficient to recommend any fantaftical com- pofition to the public. You may behold the tinfel of a [Dial. III.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 145 modern author pafs upon this knowing and learned age for good writing •, afTe&ed ftrains for wit; pedantry for politenefs; obfcurities for depths *, ramhjmgs for nights; the moft aukward imitation for original humor; an,d all this upon the fole merit of a little artful profanenefs.
Alc. — Every one is not alike pleated with writings of humor, nor alike capable of them. It is the fine irony of an author of quality, ' That certain reverend authors, 'who can condefcend to lay-wit, are nicely qualified to hit f the air of breeding and gentility, and that they will in * time, no doubt, refine their manner to the edification of * the polite world; who have been fo long feduced, by ' the way of raillery, and wit.' The truth is, the various tafte of readers, requireth various kinds of writers. Our feci hath provided for this, with great judgment. To profelyte the graver fort, we have certain profound men at reafon and argument. For the coffee-houfes, and popu- lace, we have declaimers of a copious vein. Of fuch a writer, it is no reproach to fay, jiuit lutukntus,« he is the fitter for his readers. Then, for men of rank and polite- nefs, we have the fined, and wittieft Railleurs in the world, whofe ridicule, is the lure teft of truth.
. Euph. — Tell me, AiciphroTi, are thofe ingenious Rail* teursy men of knowledge?
Alc. — Very knowing.
Euph. — Do they know, for inflance, the Copernfcan fyftem, or the circulation of the blood?
Alc. — One would think vou judged of our feci, by your country neighbors: There is nobody in town, but knows all thofe points.
Euph. — You believe then, antipodes, mountains in the moon, and the motion of the earth.
Alc— We do.
Euph. — Suppofe, five or fix cent, a man had stained thefe notions. efpr'Us oi Englifj court y how do you think they would have been received?
i46 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. III.]
Alc. — With great ridicule.
Euph. — And now it would be ridiculous to ridicule them.
Alc. — It would.
Euph. — But truth was the fame, then and now.
Alc— It was.
Euph. — It mould feem, therefore, that ridicule is no fuch fovereign touchftone, and teft of truth, as you gentle- men imagine.
Alc. — One thing we know: Our raillery and farcafms gall the black tribe, and that is our comfort.
Cri. — There is another thing, it might be worth your while to know: That men, in a laughing fit, may applaud a ridicule, which mall appear contemptible when they come to themfelves: Witnefs the ridicule of Socrates by the comic poet, the humour and reception it met with, no more proving that, than the fame will your's, to be juft, when calmly conlidered by men of fenfe.
Alc — After all, thus much is certain, our ingenious men make converts by deriding the principles of religion. And, take my word, it is the raoft iiiccefsful and pleafing method of conviction. Thefe authors laugh men out of their religion, as Horace did out of their vices: Admifli circum prxcordia ludunt. But a bigot cannot relifti or find out their wit.
XVI. Cri. Wit without wifdom, if there be fuch a thing, is hardly worth finding. And, as for the wifdom of thefe men, it is of a kind fo peculiar, one may well fufpe£t it. Cicero was a man of fenfe, and no bigot, neverthelefs he makes Scipw own himfelf much more vigilant and vigorous in the race of virtue, from fuppofmg heaven the prize.* And he introduceth Cato declaring, he would never have undergone thofe virtuous toils for the fervice of the public, if he had thought his being was to end with this life.f * Somn. Scipionis. f De Sene&ute.
[Dial. III.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 147 Alc— — I acknowledge Cato, Scipio, and Cicero, were very well for their times: But you mult pardon me, if I do not think they arrived at the high confummate virtue of our modern free-thinkers.
Euph. — It mould feem then, that virtue flourifheth more than ever among us.
Alc. — It mould.
Euph. — And this abundant virtue is owing to the method taken by your profound writers to recommend it.
Alc — This I grant.
Euph. — But you have acknowledged, that the enthufi- aflic lovers of virtue are not the many of your feet, but only a few fele£t fpirits. To which Alclphrcn making no anfwer, Crito addrefled himfelf to Euphranor: To make, faid he, a true eftimate of the worth and growth of modern virtue, you are not to count the virtuous men, but rather to confider the quality of their virtue. Now you rauft know, the virtue of thefe refined theorifts is fomething fo pure and genuine, that a very little goes far, and, is in truth, invaluable. To which that reafonable, interested virtue, of the old EngUJh, or Spartan kind, can bear no proportion.
Euph. — Tell me, Alciphron, are there not difeafes of the foul, as well as of the body?
Alc — Without doubt.
Euph. — And are not thofe difeafes, vicious habits?
Alc — They are.
Euph. — And, as bodily diflempers are cured by phyfic, thofe of the mind are cured by philofophy: are they not?
Alc— -I acknowledge it.
Euph. — It feems, therefore, that philofophy is a medi- cine for the foul of man.
Alc — It is.
Euph. — How fhall we be able to judge of medicines, or know which to prefer? Is it not from the effects wrought by them?
Alc — Doubtlefs.
MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. III.]
Euph.— - Where an epidemical diftemper rages, fuppofe a new phyfician mould condemn the known eftablifhed practice, and recommend another method of cure: would you not, in proportion as the bills of mortality increafed* be tempted to fufpecT this new method, notwithstanding all the plaufible difcourfe of its abettors?
Alc. — This ferves only to amufe and lead us from the 'on.
Cm.— It puts me in mind of my friend, Lnmprccles^ who needed but one argument againft infidels. I obferv- ed, faid he, that, as infidelity grew, there grew corruption of every kind, and new vices. This fimple obfervation, on matter of fa£t, v/as fufficient to make him, notwith- standing the remonftrance of feveral ingenious men, imbue and feafon the minds of his children betimes with the principles of religion. The new theories, which our acute moderns have endeavored to fubftitute in place of religion, have had their fullcourfe in theprefent age, and produced their e£Fec?c on the minds and manners of men. That men are men, is a fure maxim: But it is as fure, that Engujlmien are not the fame men they were: whether better or worfe, more or lefs virtuous, I need not fay. Every one may fee and judge. Though, indeed, after Arijlides had been banifned, and Socrates put to death at Athens^ a man, without being a conjurer, migltt guefs what the beauty of. virtue could do in England. But there is now neither room nor occafion for gueffing. We have our own experience to open our eyes 5 which yet if we continue to keep fhut, till the remains of religious educa- tion are quite worn off from the minds of men; it is to ared we fhall then open them wide, not to avoid, but to behold and lament our ruin.
Alc. — Be the confequences what they will, I can never bring myfelf to be of a mind with thole, who meafure truth by convenience. Truth is the only that I adore.
Wherever truth leads- I fhall follow.
[Dial, in.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 149 Euph. — You have then a paffion for truth?
Alc. — Undoubtedly.
Euph.— For all truths?
Alc. — For all.
Euph. — To know, or to publifh them?
Alc— Both.
Eupk. — What! would you undeceive a child that was taking plryfic? would you officioufly fet an enemy right, that was making a wrong attack? would you help an en- raged man to his fword?
Alc. — In fiich cafes, common fenfe directs one how to behave.
Euph. — Common fenfe, it feems then, muft be confut- ed, whether a truth be falutary, or hurtful, fit to be declar- ed, or concealed.
Alc. — How! you would have me conceal, and ftifie the truth, and keep it to myfeif? Is this what you aim at?
Euph. — I only make a plain inference from what you grant. As for myfeif, I do not believe your opinions true. And, although you dot you mould not, therefore, if you would appear confident with yourfelf, think it ne- ceflary, or wife, to publifn hurtful truths. "What fervice can it do mankind, to 'leflen the motives to virtue, or what damage to increafe them?
Alc. — None in the world. But I muft needs fay, I cannot reconcile the received notions of a God, and Providence, to my underftanding, and my nature abhors the bafcnefs of conniving at a falfhood.
Euph. — Shall we,- therefore, appeal to truth, and exam- ine the reafons, by which you are withheld from believing thefe points?
Alc. — With all my heart, but enough for the prefent. We will make this the fubjecl: of our next, conference.
THE FOURTH DIALOGUE.
I. Prejudices concerning a Deity. II. Rules laid down by Alciphron, to be obferved in proving a God. III. What fort of Proof he expetls. IV. Whence we collecl the Be- ing of other Thinking Individuals. V. The fame Method a fortiori proves the being of a God. VI. AlciphronV fecond Thoughts on this Point. VII. God /peaks to Men. VIII. How Diflance is perceived by Sight. IX. The pro- per Objetls of Sight at no diflance. X. Lights, Shades, and Colours, varioufy combined, form a Language. XI. The Signification of this Language learned by Experience. XII. God explaineth himfelf to the eyes of Men by the ar- bitrary Ufe of fenfble Signs. XIII. The Prejudice and Hue fold AfpeEl of a Minute Philofopher. XIV. Godpre- fent to Mankind, informs, admoni/hes, and direcls them in a fenfble manner. XV. Admirable Nature and Ufe of this vifual Language. XVI. Minute Philofopher s content to admit a God in certain Senfes. XVII. Opinion offome, who hold that Knowledge and Wifdom are not pro- perly in God. XVIII. Dangerous Tendency of this No- tion. XIX. Its Original. XX. The Senfe of Schoolmen upon it. XXI. Scholafic Ufe of the Terms, Analogy and. Analogical, explained: Analogical Perfections of God mif- underfood. XXII. God intelligent, wife and good, in the proper Senfe of the Words. XXIII. ObjeBion from moral Evil confidered. XXIV. Men argue from their own Defects againfl a Deity. XXV. Religious Wafhip reafonable and expedient.
[Dial. IV.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 151 LE ARLY the next morning, as I looked out of my window, I faw Alciphron walking in the garden, with all the figns of a man in deep thought. Upon which I went down to him. Alciphron, faid I, this early and profound meditation puts me in no fmall fright. How fo! Becaufe I mould be forry to be convinced there was no God. The thought of anarchy in nature is to me more (hocking than in civil life: inafmuch as natural con- cerns are more important than civil, and the bafis of all others. I grant, replied Alciphron, that fome inconveni- ence may poflibly follow from difproving a God: but, as to what you fay of fright and mocking, all that is nothing but prejudice, mere prejudice. Men frame an idea, or chimera, in their own minds, and then fall down and worfhip it. Notions govern mankind: but, of all notions, that of God's governing the world, hath taken the deep- eft root, and fpread the farthefl: It is therefore, in phi- lofophy, an heroical atchievment to difpoflefs this imagi- nary monarch of his government, and banifh all thofe fears and fpe&res, which the light ©f reafon alone can difpel; Non radii foils, non lucida tela diet Difcutiunt, fed nature f pedes raticque. *