never faw the Miseries which they imagine thus eafy to be borne. The Poor indeed are infenfible of many little Vexations which fometimes imbier the Poffeffions and pollute the Enjoyments of the Rich. They are not pained. by cafual Incivility, or mortified by the Mutilation of a Compliment; but this Happiness is like that of a Malefactor, who ceases to feel the Cords that bind him when the Pincers are tearing his Flesh.

1

That Want of Tafte for one Enjoyment is fupplied by the Pleasures of fome other, may be fairly allowed. But the Compensations of Sickness I have never found near to Equivalence, and the Tranfports of Recovery only prove the Intenseness of the Pain.

With Folly no Man is willing to confefs himself very intimately acquainted, and therefore its Pains and Pleasures are kept fecret. But what the Author fays of its Happiness feems applicable only to Fatuity, or grofs Dulnefs; for that Inferiority of Underftanding which makes one Man without any other Reafon the Slave, or Tool, or Property of another, which makes him fometimes ufelefs, and fometimes ridiculous, is often felt with very quick Senfibility. On the Happinefs of Madmen, as the Cafe is not very frequent, it is not neceffary to raise a Difquifition, but I cannot forbear to observe, that I never yet knew Disorders of Mind-encrease Felicity: every Madman is either arrogant and irafcible, or gloomy and fufpicious, or possessed by some Paffion or Notion deftructive to his Quiet. He has always Difcontent in his Look, and Malignity in his Bofom. And, if she had the Power of Choice, he would foon repent who fhould refign his Reafon to fecure his Peace.

Concerning the Portion of Ignorance neceffary to make the Condition of the lower Claffes of Mankind fafe to the Public and tolerable to themselves,

both

both Morals and Policy exact a nicer Enquiry than will be very foon or very easily made. There is undoubtedly a Degree of Knowledge which will direct a Man to refer all to Providence, and to acquiefce in the Condition with which omnifcient Goodness has determined to allot him; to confider this World as a Phantom that must foon glide from before his Eyes, and the Distreffes and Vexations that encom pafs him, as Duft fcattered in his Path, as a Blaft that chills him for a Moment, and paffes off for

ever.

Such Wisdom, arifing from the Comparison of a Part with the Whole of our Exiftence, those that want it most cannot poffibly obtain from Philofophy; nor unless the Method of Education, and the general Tenour of Life are changed, will very eafily receive it from Religion. The Bulk of Mankind is not likely to be very wife or very good: And I know not whether there are not many States of Life, in which all Knowledge, lefs than the highest Wif dom, will produce Difcontent and Danger. I believe it may be sometimes found, that a little Learning is to a poor Man a dangerous Thing. But fuch is the Condition of Humanity, that we eafily fee, or quickly feel the Wrong, but cannot always diftinguish the Right. Whatever Knowledge is fuperfluous, in irremediable Poverty, is hurtful, but the Difficulty is to determine when Poverty is irremediable, and at what point Superfluity begins. Grofs Ignorance every Man has found equally dangerous with perverted Knowledge. Men left wholly to their Appetites and their Inftincts, with little Senfe of moral or religious Obligation, and with very faint Diftinctions of Right and Wrong, can never be fafely employed or confidently trufted: They can be honeft only by Obftinacy, and diligent only by Compulfion or Caprice. Some Inftruction, therefore, is neceffary, and much perhaps may be dangerous.

Though

Though it should be granted that those who are born to Poverty and Drudgery fhould not be deprived by an improper Education of the Opiate of Ignorance ; even this Conceffion will not be of much Use to direct our Practice, unless it be determined who are those that are born to Poverty. To entail irreversible Poverty upon Generation after Generation, only because the Ancestor happened to be poor, is in itself cruel, if not unjuft, and is wholly contrary to the Maxims of a commercial Nation, which always fuppofe and promote a Rotation of Property, and offer every Individual a Chance of mending his Condition by his Diligence. Thofe who communicate Literature to the Son of a poor Man, confider him as one not born to Poverty, but to the Neceffity of deriving a better Fortune from himself. In this Attempt, as in others, many fail, and many fucceed. Thofe that fail will feel their Mifery more acutely; but fince Poverty is now confeffed to be fuch a Calamity as cannot be borne without the Opiate of Infenfibility, I hope the Happiness of thofe, whom Education enables to escape from it, may turn the Balance against that Exacerbation which the others fuffer.

I am always afraid of determining on the Side of Envy or Cruelty. The Privileges of Education may fometimes be improperly bestowed, but I fhall always fear to with-hold them, left I should be yielding to the Suggeftions of Pride, while I perfuade myself that I am following the Maxims of Policy; and under the Appearance of falutary Restraints, fhould be indulging the Luft of Dominion, and that Malevolence which delights in feeing others depreffed.

Pope's Doctrine is at laft exhibited in a Comparifon, which, like other Proofs of the fame Kind, is better adapted to delight the Fancy than convince the Reafon.

• Thus

Thus the Universe refembles a large and wellregulated Family, in which all the Officers and • Servants, and even the domeftic Animals, are sub⚫ fervient to each other in a proper Subordination: Each enjoys the Privileges and Perquifites peculiar to his Place, and at the fame Time contributes by that just Subordination to the Magnificence and Happiness of the Whole.'

The magnificence of a House is of Ufe or Pleafure always to the mafter, and fometimes to the Domeftics. But the Magnificence of the Universe adds nothing to the Supreme Being; for any Part of its Inhabitants with which human Knowledge is acquainted, an Universe much less fpacious or splendid would have been fufficient; and of Happiness it does not appear that any is communicated from the Beings. of a lower World to thofe of a higher.

The Enquiry after the Caufe of natural Evil is continued in the third Letter, in which, as in the former, there is Mixture of borrowed Truth, and native Folly, of fome Notions juft and trite, with others uncommon and ridiculous.

His Opinion of the Value and Importance of Happinefs is certainly juft, and I fhall infert it, not that it will give any Information to any Reader, but it may ferve to fhew how the most common Notion may be fwelled in Sound, and diffused in Bulk, till it fhall perhaps aftonish the Author himself.

Happiness is the only Thing of real Value in • Existence; neither Riches, nor Power, nor Wifdom, nor Learning, nor Strength, nor Beauty, nor Virtue, nor Religion, nor even Life itself, being of any Importance, but as they contribute to its Production. All these are in themfelves neither C good nor evil: Happiness alone is their great End, and they are defireable only as they tend to promote it.'

Succefs

Succefs produces Confidence. After this Difcovery of the Value of Happiness, he proceeds without any Diftruft of himself, to tell us what has been hid from all former Enquirers.

The true Solution of this important Queftion, fo long and fo vainly fearched for by the Philofophers of all Ages and all Countries, I take to be at laft no more than this, that these real Evils proceed from the fame Source as thofe imaginary ones • of Imperfection before treated of, namely, from that Subordination, without which no created System can fubfift; all Subordination implying Imperfection, all Imperfection Evil, and all Evil fome • kind of Inconveniency or Suffering: So that there must be particular Inconveniencies and Sufferings annexed to every particular Rank of created Beings by the Circumftances of Things, and their "Modes of Existence.

God indeed might have made us quite other Creatures, and placed us in a World quite differently conftituted; but then we had been not longer Men, and whatever Beings had occupied our Stations in the univerfal System, they must have been liable to the fame Inconveniences.'

In all this there is nothing that can filence the Enquiries of Curiofity, or calm the Perturbations of Doubt. Whether Subordination implies Imperfections may be difputed. The Means refpecting themfelves, may be as perfect as the End. The Weed as a Weed is no less perfect that the Oak as an Oak, That Imperfection implies Evil, and Evil Suffering, is by no means evident. Imperfection may imply privative Evil, or the Abfence of fome Good, but this Privation produces no Suffering, but by the Help of Knowledge. An Infant at the Breaft is yet an imperfect Man, but there is no Reafon for Belief that he is unhappy by his Immaturity, unless fome positive Pain be fuperadded.

When