XL Euph. — But is it not poffible, fome men may fhew as much prejudice and narrownefs in rejecting all fuch accounts, as others might eafinefs and credulity in admitting them? I never durft make my own obfervation or experience the rule and meafure of things fpiritual, fu- pernatural, or relating to another world, becaufe I mould think it a very bad one,, even for the vifible and natural things of this: It would be judging like the Siamefe, who was pofitive it did not freeze in Holland, becaufe he had never known fuch a thing as hard water, or ice, in his own country. I cannot comprehend why any one, who admits the union of the foul and body, fhould pronounce it impoffible for the human nature to be united to the di- vine, in a manner ineffable and incomprehenfible by reafon. Neither can I fee any abfurdity in admitting, that finful man may become regenerate, or a new creature, by the grace of God reclaiming him from a carnal life, to a fpiritual life of virtue and holinefs. And fince the being governed by fenfe and appetite, is contrary to the happinefs and perfection of a rational creature, I do not at all wonder that we are prefcribed felf-denial. As for the refurret~tion of the dead, I do not conceive it fo very contrary to the analogy of nature, when I behold vegetables left to rot in the earth, rife up again with new life and vigor, or a worm to all appearance dead, change its nature, and that, which in ks firft being crawled on the earth, become a new fpecies, and fly abroad with wings. And indeed when I confider, that the foul and body are things fo ve- ry different and heterogeneous, I can fee no reafon to be 27S MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
pofitive, that the one muft neceffarily be extinguished upon the diflblutlon of the other; efpecially fince I find in myfelf a ftrong natural defire of immortality, and I have not obferved that natural appetites are wont to be given in vain, or merely to be fruftrated. Upon the whole, thofe points which you account extravagant and abfurd, I dare not pronounce to be fo till I fee good rea- fon for it.
XII. Cri. — No, Alciphron, your pofitive airs muft not pafs for proofs; nor will it fuffice to fay, things are con- trary to common fenfe, to make us think they are fo: By common fenfe, I fuppofe, mould be meant either the ge- neral fenfe of mankind, or the approved reafon of think- ing men. Now I believe that all thofe articles, you have, with fo much capacity and fire, at once fummed up and exploded, may be fhewn to be not difagreeable, much lefs contrary to common fenfe, in one or other of thefe acceptations. That the Gods might appear and converfe among men, and that the Divinity might inhabit human nature, were points allowed by the heathens; and for this I appeal to their poets and philofophers, whofe tefti- monies are fo numerous and clear, that it would be an affront to repeat them to a man of any education. And though the notion of a devil may not be fo obvious, or fo fully defcribed, yet there appear plain traces of it, ei- ther from reafon or tradition. The later Platonijls, as Porphyry and lamblichus, are very clear in the point, al- lowing that evil demons delude and tempt, hurt and pof- fefs mankind. That the ancient Greeks, Chaldeans, and Egyptians, believed both good and bad angels, may be plainly colle&ed from Plato, Plutarch, and the Chaldean oracles. Origen obferves, that almoft all the Gentiles, who held the being of demons, allowed there were bad ones.* There is even fomething as early as Homer, that * Origen. 1. 7. contra Celfum.
[Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 279 is thought by the learned cardinal, Bejfarionfi to allude to the fall of fatan, in the account of Atey whom the poet reprefents as caft down from heaven by Jove, and then wandering about the earth, doing mifchief to mankind. This fame Ate is faid by Hefiod, to be the daughter of difcord; and by Euripides, in his Hippolytus, is mention- ed as a tempter to evil. And it is very remarkable, that Plutarchy in his book De vitatido are alienoy fpeaks after Empedocles, of certain demons that fell from heaven, and were banifhed by God, Daimones theelatoi kai ouranopeteis. Nor is that lefs remarkable, which is obferved by Fici- nus from Pherecydes Syrus, that there had been a down- fal of demons, who revolted from God: and that Opione* us (the old ferpent) was head of that rebellious crew.**-— Then as to the other articles, let any one confider what the Pythagoreans taught, of the purgation and lufis, or de- liverance of the foul: What moil philofophers, but efpe- cially the fates, of fubduing our paflions: What Plata and Hierocles have faid of forgiving injuries: What the acute and fagacious Arijlotle writes, in his Ethics to iV7- comachus, of the fpiritual and divine life, that life which, according to him, is too excellent to be thought human; infomuch as man, fo far forth as man, cannot attain to it; but only fo far forth as he hath fomething divine in him: And particularly, let him reflect on what Socrates taught, to wit, that virtue is not to be learned from men, that it is the gift of God, and that good men are not good by virtue of human care or diligence, ouh einai authropinen epimeleian e agathoi agathoi gignontai* Let any man, who really think*, but confider what other thinking men have thought, who cannot be fuppofed prejudiced in favor of revealed religion; and he will fee caufe, if not to think ** Vid. Argum. in Phaedrum Platonis.
* Vid, Plat, in Protag, & alibi paflim.
28o MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VL] with reverence of the chriftian doctrines of grace, felf- denial, regeneration, fan£tification, and the reft, even the moft myfterious, at leaft to judge more modeftly and warily, than he who ihall, with a confident air, pro- nounce them abfurd, and repugnant to the reafon of mankind. And in regard to a future ftate, the common fenfe of the Gentile world, modern or ancient, and the opinions of the wifeft men of antiquity, are things fo well known, that I need fay nothing about them. To me it feems, the Minute Philofophers, when they appeal to reafon and common fenfe, mean only the fenfe of their own party: A coin, how current foever among them- felves, that of other men will bring to the touchftone, and pafs for no more than it is worth.
Lys. — Be thofe notions agreeable to what or whofe fenfe they may, they are not agreeable to mi A. And if I am thought ignorant for this, I pjjty thofe who think me fo.
XIII. I enjoy myfelf, and follow my own courfes, without remorfe or fear: Which I mould not do, if my head were filled with enthufiafm; whether gentile or chriftian, philofophical or revealed, it is all one to me. Let others know or believe what they can, and make the beft on't, I, for my part, am happy and fafe in my igno- rance.
Cri. — Perhaps not fo fafe neither.
Lys.— Why, furely you won't pretend that ignorance is criminal?
Cri. — Ignorance alone is not a crime. But that wilful ignorance, affected ignorance, ignorance from lloth, or conceited ignorance, is a fault, might eafily be proved by the teftimony of heathen writers: And it needs no proof to mew that if ignorance be our fault, we cannot be fe- cure in it as an excufe.
[Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 281 Lys. — Honed Crito feems to hint, that a man mould take care to inform himfelf, while alive, left his neglect be punifhed when he is dead. Nothing is fo pufillani- mous and unbecoming a gentleman as fear: Nor could you take a likelier courfe to fix and rivet a man of honor in guilt, than by attempting to frighten him out of it. This is the Hale, abfurd ftratagem of priefts, and that which makes them, and their religion, more odious and contemptible to me, than all the other articles put toge- ther.
Cri. — I would fain know why it may not be reafona- ble for a man of honor, or any man who has done amifs, to fear? Guilt is the natural parent of fear; and nature is not ufed to make men fear, where there is no occafion. That impious and profane men fhould expect divine pun- ifhment, doth not feem fo abfurd to conceive: And that, under this expectation, they mould be uneafy, and even afraid, how confident foever it may or may not be with honor, I am fure confids with reafon.
Lys. — That thing of hell and eternal punifhment is the mod abfurd, as well as the mod difagreeable thought that ever entered into the head of mortal man.
Cri. — But you mud own, that it is not an abfurdity pe- culiar to chridians, fince Socrates, that great free-thinker of Athens, thought it probable there might be fuch a thing as impious men for ever punifhed in hell. * It is recorded of this fame Socrates, that he has been often known to think for four and twenty hours together, fixed in the fame podure, and wraped up in meditation.
Lys. — Our modern free-thinkers are a more lively fort of men. Thofe old philosophers were mod of them whimfical. They had, in my judgment, a narrow, timor- ous way of thinking, which by no means came up to the frank humor of our times.
* Vid. Platon. in GorgJa.
INI m 282 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
Cri. — But I appeal to your own judgment, if a man, who knows not the nature of the foul, can be affured by the light of reafon, whether it is mortal or immortal?
An fimul inter eat nobifcum morte peremptay An tenebras orci vifat vajlafque lacunas?
Lys. — But what if I know the nature of the foul? "What if I have been taught that whole fecret by a modern free-thinker? A man of fcience who difcovered it not by a tirefome introverfion of his faculties, not by amufing himfelf in a labyrinth of notions, or flupidly thinking for whole days and nights together, but by looking into things, and obferving the analogy of nature.
XIV. This great man is a philofopher by fire, who has made many procefies upon vegetables. It is his opinion that men and vegetables are really of the fame fpecies; that animals are moving vegetables, and vegetables fixed animals -, that the mouths of the one, and the roots of the other, ferve to the fame ufe, differing only in pofition; that bloffoms and flowers anfwer to the mod indecent and concealed parts in the human body; that vegetable and animal bodies are both alike organized, and that in both there is life, or a certain motion and circulation of juices, through proper tubes or vefTels. I mall never forget this able man's unfolding the nature of the foul in the follow- ing manner. The foul, faid he, is that fpecific form, or principle, from whence proceed the diftincT: qualities or properties of things. Now, as vegetables are a more Am- ple and le£s perfect compound, and confequently more ea- fily analyfed than. animals, we will begin with the con- templation of the fouls of vegetables. Know then, that the foul of any plant, rofeniary for inftance, is neither more nor lefs than its effential oil. Upon this depends [Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 283 its peculiar fragrance, tafte, and medicinal virtues, or, in other words, its life and operations. Separate or extract this elTential oil by chymic art, and you get the foul of the plant: What remains being a dead carcafs,.without any one property or virtue of the plant, which is preferv- €d entire in the oil, a drachm whereof goes further than feveral pounds of the plant. Now this fame effential oil is itfelf a compofition of fulphur and fait, or of a grofs unctuous fubftance, and a fine fubtile principle or volatile fait imprifoned therein. This volatile fait is properly the eflence of the foul of the plant, containing all its virtue, and the oil is the vehicle of this mo ft fubtile part of the foul, or that which fixes and individuates it. And as, upon feparation of this oil from the plant, the plant died, fo a fecond death, or death of the foul, enfues upon the refolution of this effential oil into its principles; as ap- pears by leaving it expofed for fome time to the open air, fo that the volatile fait, or fpirit, may fly off; after which the oil remains dead and infipid, but without any fenfible diminution of its weight, by the lofs of that volatile ef- fence of the foul, that ethereal aura, that fpark of entity, which returns and mixes with the folar light, the uni- verfal foul of the world, and only fource of life, whether vegetable, animal, or intellectual; which differ only ac- cording to the grofsnefs or finenefs of the vehicles, and the different textures of the natural alembics, or, in other words, the organized bodies, where the abovementioned volatile effence inhabits and is elaborated, where it a£ts and is acted upon. This chymical fyftem lets you at once into the nature of the foul, and accounts for all its phaeno- mena. In that compound which is called man, the foul, or effential oil, is what commonly goes by the name of animal fpirit: For you mufl know, it is a point agreed by chymifls, that fpirits are nothing but the more fubtile oils. Now in proportion, as the effential oil of the ve- 284 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
getable man is more fubtile than that of other vegetables, the volatile fait that impregnates it is more at liberty to a&: Which accounts for thofe fpecific properties and ac- tions of human kind, which diftinguifh them above other creatures. Hence you may learn why, among the wife an- cients, fait was another name for wit, and, in our times, a dull man is faid to be infjpid or infulfe. Aromatic oils, matured by great length of time, turn to falts: This fhews why human kind grow wifer by age. And what I have faid of the twofold death or diflblution, firft, of the com- pound, by feparating the foul from the organical body, and fecondly, of the foul itfelf, by dividing the volatile fait from the oil, illuftrates and explains that notion of cer- tain ancient philofophers: That as the man was a com- pound of foul and body, fo the foul was compounded of the mind, or intelletl:, and its sethereal vehicle: And that the feparation of foul and body, or death of the man, is, after a long tracl: of time, fucceeded by a fecond death of the foul itfelf; to wit, the feparation or deliverance of the intellect from its vehicle, and re-union with the fun.
Euph. — O Lyjicles> your ingenious friend has opened a new fcene, and explained the mod obfcure and difficult points in the clearer! and eafieft manner.
Lys. — I muft own this account of things ftruck my fancy. I am no great lover of creeds or fyftems: But when a notion is reafonable, and grounded on experience, I know how to value it.
Cri. — In good earneft, Lyjicles, do you believe this ac- count to be true?
Lys. — Why then, in good earneft, I do not know whether I do or no. But I can aflure you the ingenious artifl himfelf has not the leaft doubt about it. And to believe an artifl in his art, is a jufl maxim and fhort way to fcience.
[Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 2S5 Cri. — But what relation hath the foul of man to chy- mic art? The fame reafon, that bids me truft a fkilful artifl in his art, inclines me to fufpe£r. him out of his art. Men are too apt to reduce unknown things to the ftandard of what they know, and bring a prejudice or tincture from things they have been converfant in, to judge there- by of things in which they have not been converfant. I have known a fiddler gravely teach, that the foul was har- mony; a geometrician very pofitive, that the foul mud be extended; and a phyfician, who having pickled half a do- zen embryos, and diiTeclied as many rats and frogs, grew conceited, and affirmed there was no foul at all, and that it was a vulgar error.
Lys. — My notions fit eafy. I fhall not engage in pe- dantic difputes about them. They who don't like them may leave them.
Euph. — This, I fuppofe, is faid much like a gentle- man.
XV. But pray, Lyficles> tell me whether the clergy come within that general rule of yours: That an artift may be trufted in his art?
Lys. — By no means.
Euph. — Why fo?
Lys. — Becaufe I take myfeifto know as much of thofe matters as they do.
Euph. — But you allow that, in any other profefllon, one that hath fpent much time and pains, may attain more knowledge, than a man of equal or better parts, who never made it his particular bufinefs.
Lys. — I do.
Euph. — And neverthelefs, in things religious and di- vine, ycu think all men equally knowing.
Lys. — I do not fay all men. But I think all men of fenfe competent judges.
286 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
Euph. — What! are the divine attributes and difpenfa- tions to mankind, the true end and happinefs of rational Creatures, with the means of improving and perfecting their beings, more eafy and obvious points, than thofe which make the fubjecl: of every common profeflion?
Lys.-— Perhaps not: but one thing I know, fome things are fo manifeftly abfurd, that no authority fhall make me give into them. For inflance, if all mankind fhould pretend to perfuade me that the Son of God was born upon earth in a poor family, was fpit upon, buffeted, and crucified, lived like a beggar, and died like a thief, I fhould never believe one fyllable of it. Common fenfe fhews every one, what figure it would be decent for an earthly prince, or ambafiador, to make; and the Son of God, upon an embafly from heaven, mud needs have made an appearance beyond all others of great eclat, and, in all refpects, the very reverfe of that which Jefiis Chrift is reported to have made, even by his own hiftorians.
Euph.< — O Lyficles, though I had ever fo much mind to approve and applaud your ingenious reafoning, yet I dare not affent to this for fear of Crito.
Lys. — Why fo?
Euph.— Becaufe he obferved juft now, that men judge of things they do not know, by prejudices from things they do know. And I fear he would object that you, who have been converfant in the grand monde, having your head filled with a notion of attendants, and equipages, and liveries, the familiar badges of human grandeur, are lefs able to judge of that which is truly divine: and that one who had feen lefs, and thought more, would be apt to imagine a pompous parade of worldly greatnefs, not the moft becoming the author of a fpiritual religion, that was defigned to wean men from the world, and raife thern above it.
[Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 287 Cri. — Do you think, Lv/icles, if a man fhould make his entrance into London, in a rich fuit of clothes, with a hundred gilt coaches, and a thoufand laced footmen, that this would be a more divine appearance, and have more of true grandeur in it, that if he had power with a word to heal all manner of difeafes, to raife the dead to life, and (till the raging of the winds and fea?
Lys. — Without all doubt it muft be very agreeable to common fenfe to fuppofe, that he could reft ore others to life, who could not fave his own. You tell us, indeed, that he rofe again from the dead: but what occafion was there for him to die, the juhVfor the unjuft, the Son of God for wicked men? And why in that individual place? Why at that very time above all others? Why did he not make his appearance earlier, and preach in all parts of the world, that the benefit might have been more ex- tenfive and equal? Account for all thefe points; and re- concile them, if you can, to the common notions and plain fenfe of mankind.
Cri. — And what if thofe, as well as many other points, fhould lie out of the road that we are acquainted with; muft we, therefore, explode them, and make it a rule to condemn every proceeding as fenfelefs, that doth not fquare with the vulgar fenfe of man? That, indeed, which evidently contradicts fenfe and reafon, you have a right to difbelieve. And when you are unjuftly treated, you have the fame right to complain. But I think you mould diftinguifh between matter of debt and matter of favor. Thus much is obferved in all intercourfe between man and man *, wherein acts of mere benevolence are never infilled on, or examined and meafured with the fame accurate line as matters of juftice. Who but a Mi- nute Philofopher would, upon a gratuitous diftribution of favors, inquire, why at this time, and not before? why to thefe perfons, and not to others? Various are the 288 MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
natural abilities and opportunities of human kind. How wide a difference is there in refpecl: of the law of nature, between one of our ftupid ploughmen and a Minute Phi- lofopher! Between a Laplander and an Athenian! That conduct, therefore, which feems to you partial or une- qual, may be found as well in the difpenfation of natural religion as of revealed, and if fo, why it fhould be made an objection againft the one more than the other, I leave you to account. For the reft, if the precepts and certain primary tenets of religion appear, in the eye of reafon, good and ufeful; and if they are alfo found to be fo by their effects, we may, for the fake of them, admit certain other points, or doctrines, recommended with them, to have a good tendency, to be right and true; although we cannot difcern their goodnefs or truth by the mere light of human reafon, which may well be fuppofed an inef- ficient judge of the proceedings, counfels and defigns, of Providence, and this fufficeth to make our conviction rea- fonable.
XVI. It is an allowed point, that no man can judge of this or that part of a machine taken by itfelf, without knowing the whole, the mutual relation or dependence of its parts, and the end for which it was made. And, as this is a point acknowledged in corporeal and natural things, ought we not, by a parity of reafon, to fufpend our judgment concerning the moral fitnefs of a fingle un- accountable part of the divine economy, till we are more fully acquainted with the moral fyftem, or world of fpi- rits, and are let into the defigns of God's providence, and have an extenfive view of his difpenfations pari:, prefent, and future? Alas! Lyficles> what do you know even of yourfelf, whence you come, what you are, or whither you are going? To me it feems, that a Minute Philofo- pher is like a conceited fpe£tator, who never looked be- [Dial. VI.] MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. 289 hind the fcenes, and yet would judge of the machinery; who from a tranfient glimpfe of a part only of lome one fcene, would take upon him to cenfure the plot of a play.
Lys. — As to the plot I won't fay; but in half a fcene a man may judge of an abfurd a£tor. "With what color or pretext can you juftify the vindictive, froward, whim- fical behavior of fome infpired teachers or prophets? Par- ticulars, that ferve neither for profit nor pleafure, I make a fhift to forget: but, in general, the truth of this charge I do very well remember.
Cri. — You need be at no pains to prove a point, I {hall neither juftify nor deny. I would only beg leave to ob- ferve, that it feems a fure fign of fincerity in the facred writers, that they mould be fo far from palliating the de- feels, as to pubiifh even the criminal and abfurd actions of thofe very perfons, whom they relate to have been in- fpired. For the reft, that there have been human paf- fions, infirmities, and defects in perfons infpired by God, I freely own: nay, that very wicked men have been in- fpired, as Balaam, for inftance, and Caiaphas, cannot be denied. But what will you infer from thence? Can you prove it impoflible that a weak or finful man fliould be- come an inftrument to the fpirit of God, for conveying his purpofe to other finners, or that divine light may not, as well as the light of the fun, fhine on afoulveflel with- out polluting its rays?
Lys.— To make fhort work, the right way would be to put out our eyes, and not judge at all.
Cri. — I do not fay fo, but I think it would be right, if fome fanguine perfons, upon certain points, fufpedted their own judgment.
Alc. — But the very things faid to be infpired, taken by themfclves, and in their own nature, are fometimes fo wrong, to fay no worfe, that a man may pronounce them not to be divine at firft fight •, without troubling his head N n 79o MINUTE PHILOSOPHER. [Dial. VI.]
about the fyftem of Providence or connexion of events: As one may fay that grafs is green, without knowing or confidering how it grows, what ufes it is fubfervient to, or how it is connected with the mundane fyftem. Thus, for inftance, the fpoiling of the Egyptians, and the extirpa- tion of the Canaanites, every one, at firft glance, fees to be cruel and unjuft, and may, therefore, without deliberating, pronounce them unworthy of God.
Cri. — But, Alciphron, to judge rightly of t he fe things, may it not be proper to confider, how long the Ifraelites had wrought under thofe fevere tafk-mafters of Egypt, what injuries and hardfhips they had fuftained from them, what crimes and abominations the Canaanites had been guilty of what right God hath to difpofe of the things of this world, to punifh delinquents, and to appoint both the manner and the inftruments of his juftice? Man, who has not fuch a right over his fellow-creatures, who is himfelf a fellow-finner with them, who is liable to error as well as paffion, whofe views are imperfect, who is gov- erned more by prejudice than the truth of things, may not improbably deceive himfelf, when he fets up for a judge of the proceedings of the holy, omnifcient, impaflive Creator and Governor of all things.