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in exaggerating the diseased weakness of the Will into an absolute privation of all Freedom, thereby making moral responsibility, not a mystery above comprehension, but a direct contradiction, of which we do distinctly comprehend the absurdity. Among the many dreadful consequences of this Doctrine (which, as Extremes meet yet preserve their separate identity, is the same notion, intellectually considered, as that of Hobbes, but embraced under the influence of very different feelings) among the consequences of this Doctrine, is that direful one of swallowing up all the Attributes of the supreme Being in the one Attribute of infinite Power, and thence deducing that Things are good and wise because they were created, and not created through Wisdom and Goodness. Thence too the awful Attribute of Justice is explained away into a mere right of absolute Property; the sacred distinction between Things and Persons is erased; and the selection of Persons for Virtue and Vice in this Life, and for eternal Happiness or Misery in the next, is represented as the result of a mere Will, acting in the blindness and solitude of it's own Infinity. The Title of a Work written by the great and pious Boyle is "Of the Awe, which the human Mind owes to the supreme Reason." This, in the language of these gloomy Doctors, must be translated into"the horror, which a Being capable of eternal Pleasure or Pain, is compelled to feel from the idea of an infinite Power, about to inflict the latter on an immense majority of human Souls, without any power on their part either to prevent it or the actions which are (not indeed it's causes but) it's assigned signals, and preceding links of the same iron chain!

Against these Tenets I maintained, that a Will conceived separate from Intelligence is a Non-entity, and a mere Phantasm of Abstraction; and that a Will not free is an absolute contradiction. It might be an Instinct, an Impulse, a plastic Power, and, if accompanied with consciousness, a desire; but a Will it could not be; and this every Human Being knows with equal clearness, though different minds may reflect on it with different degrees of distinctness; for who would not smile at the notion of a Rose willing to put forth it's Buds and expand them into Flowers? That such a phrase would he deemed a poetic Licence proves the difference in the things: for all metaphors are grounded on an apparent likeness of things essentially different. I concluded therefore, and on this Conclusion rested the whole

rationality of the Work which I had undertaken, that the human Will, though diseased, is yet free, and being at the same time an Intelligence, must be capable of being acted upon by different forms of Intelligence; that the opposite assertion contradicts the whole Tenor of the Gospel, which informs us, not simply that Christ brought Immortality into the World, but LIGHT and Immortality; and by a mystery awfully significant, attributes in the divine Economy the origination and peculiar office of Redemption to the WORD, or intelligential Wisdom, which from all Eternity is with God and is God. I utterly disclaimed the idea, that any human Intelligence, with whatever power it might manifest itself, was alone adequate to the office of restoring health to the Will: but at the same time I held it impious and absurd to hold, that the Creator would have given us the faculty of Reason, or that the Redeemer would in so many varied forms of Argument and Persuasion have appealed to it, if it had been either totally useless or wholly impotent, and I saw that these Truths were only to be reconciled by the position, that the imperfect human understanding could be exerted effectually only in subordination to, and a dependent alliance with, the means and aidances supplied by the all-perfect and supreme Reason; but that under these conditions it was not only anadmissible, but a necessary, instrument of ameliorating both ourselves and others. The final deduction was easy. If Man be a free Agent, his Good and Evil must not be judged of according to the nature of his outward Actions, or the mere legality of his Conduct; but by the final Motive and Intention of the Mind. Now the final Motive of an intelligent Will is a Principle: and consequently to refer the opinions of Men to Principles (that is, to absolute and necessary instead of secondary and contingent, grounds) is the best and only secure way of referring the Feelings of Men to their proper objects. In the union of both consists the Perfection of the human Character.

The same subject was illustrated in my second Essay, and reasons assigned from the peculiar circumstances of the Age, and the present state of the Minds of Men, for giving this particular direction to the serious Studies of Men, instead of the more easy and attractive mode of Instruction adapted by my Illustrious Predecessors in periodical Literature. At the same time being conscious, how many Authorities of recent, but for that reason more influencive, reputation, I must of necessity contravene in the support and application of my Principles, both in Criticism and Philosophy, I thought it requisite to state the true nature of PRESUMPTION and ARROGANCE, and thus, if it were possible, preclude the charge in cases where I had not committed the Offence. (In this Essay I had made a confusion between Arrogance and Presumption, which is corrected in the re-printed Copies.) The object of the four next Numbers was to demonstrate the innoxiousness of Truth, if only the conditions were preserved which the Reason and Conscience dictated; To shew at large what those conditions were which ought to regulate the conduct of the Individual, in the communication of Truth; and by what Principles the civil Law ought to be governed

in the Punishment of Libels. Throughout the whole of these Numbers, and more especially in the two latter, I again and again recalled the attention of the Reader, to the paramount importance of PRINCIPLES, alike for their moral and their intellectual, for their private and their national Consequences; the importance, I say, of Principles of Reason, as distinct from, and paramount to, the maxims of Prudence, even for Prudence sake! Some of my Readers will probably have seen this subject supported by other and additional arguments in my seventh Letter, " on the Grounds of Hope for a People warring against Armies," published during the last month, in the Courier.

In the mean time I was aware, that in thus grounding my opinions in Literature, Morals, and Religion, I should frequently use the same or similar Language as had been applied by Rousseau, the French physiocratic Philosophers, and their Followers in England, to the nature and rightful origin of civil Government. The remainder of my Work therefore, hitherto has been devoted to the purpose of averting this mistake, as far as I have not been compelled by the general Taste of my Readers to interrupt the systematic progress of the Plan by Essays of a lighter kind, or which at least required a less effort of Attention. In Truth, since my twelfth Number I have not had courage to renew any Subject which did require Attention. The way to be admired is to tell the Reader what he knew before, but cloathed in a statelier phraseology, and embodied in apt and lively illustrations. To attempt to make a Man wiser is of necessity to remind him of his ignorance: and in the majority of instances, the pain actually felt is so much greater than the pleasure anticipated, that it is natural that men should attempt to shelter themselves from it by contempt or neglect. For a living Writer is yet sub judice: and if we cannot follow his conceptions or enter into his feelings, it is more consoling to our Pride, as well as more agreeable to our indolence, to consider him as lost beneath, than as soaring out of our sight above us. Itaque id agitur, ut ignorantia etiam ab ignominiâ liberetur. Happy is that Man, who can truly say, with Giordano Bruno, and whose circumstances at the same time permit him to act on the sublime feeling

"Procedat nudus, quem non ornant Nubilæ,

Sol! Non conveniunt Quadrupedum Phaleræ
Humano Dorso! Porro Veri species
Quæsita, inventa, et patefacta, me efferat!
Etsi nullus intelligat,

Si cum Natura sapio et sub numine,

Id vere plusquam satis est.”

Should the number of Subscribers remaining on my List be sufficient barely to pay the expences of the Publication, I shall assuredly proceed in the present form, at least till I have concluded all the Subjects which have been left imperfect in the preceding Essays. And this, as far as I can at present calculate, will extend the present Volume to the twenty-eighth or perhaps thirtieth Number. The first place will be given to "Fragments and sketches of the Life of the late Admiral Sir Alexander Ball." I shall next finish the im

portant Subject left incomplete at the 9th No. and demonstrate that Despotism and Barbarism are the natural result of a national attempt to realize anti-feudalism, or the System of philosophical Jacobinism. This position will be illustrated and exemplified at each step by the present state of France, and the Essay will conclude with a detailed analysis of the Character of BUONAPARTE ( promised by the Author so many years ago in the Morning Post, as a Companion to the Character of Mr. Pitt, which I have been requested, by Men of the highest reputation in the philosophical and literary World, to republish in a more permanent form.) In the third place, I shall conduct the subject of Taxation to a conclusion, my Essay on which has been grossly misunderstood. These misconceptions and misrepresentations I shall use my best efforts to remove; and then develope the influences of Taxation and a national Debt, on the Foreign Trade of Great Britain: and lastly (the only mournful part of the Tale) on the Principles and intellectual Habits of the Country. And the Volume, whether it be destined to stand alone or as the first of a Series, will conclude with a philosophical examination of the British Constitution in all it's branches separately and collectively. To the next or 21st Number, I shall annex a Note of explanation, reqested by many intelligent Readers, concerning my use of the Words Reason and Understanding, as far as is requisite for the full comprehension of the political Essays from the 7th to the 11th Nos. But as I am not likely to receive back my List of Subscribers from London within less than ten days, and must till then remain ignorant of the Names of those who may have given orders for the discontinuance of the Friend, I am obliged to suspend the Publication for one Week. I cannot conclude this Address without expressions of gratitude to those who have written me Letters of encouragement and respect; but at the same time entreat, that in their friendly efforts to serve the Work by procuring new names for it, they will apply to such only as, they have cause to believe, will be actually pleased with a work of this kind. Such only can be of real advantage to THE FRIEND: and even if it were otherwise, He ought not to wish it. Yet I have no reason to feel shame in adding, that without efforts of this kind, appropriately directed, and by those who have felt themselves interested, and in some instances perhaps instructed by his Writings, THE FRIEND has little chance of extending his periodical labours beyond the first Volume. An author's success ought always to depend on feelings inspired exclusively by his Writings, and on the sense of their having been useful to the Person who recommends them. On this supposition, and on this only, such recommendation becomes a Duty.

The numbers wanting will be sent to such Subscribers, who have informed the Printer what numbers they have not received, in the course of the next fortnight and either complete Sets or particular Numbers may after that time be procured from Messrs. Longman and Co. London, by the usual orders to the Country Booksellers.

PENRITH: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. BROWN.

No. 21, THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1810.

A PREFATORY OBSERVATION ON MODERN BIOGRAPHY,

The History of Times representeth the magnitude of Actions and the public faces or deportment of Persons, and passeth over in silence the smaller passages and motions of Men and Matters. But such being the workmanship of God, that he doth hang the greatest weight upon the smallest wires, maxima e minimis suspendens it comes therefore to pass, that Histories do rather set forth the pomp of business than the true and inward resorts thereof. But Lives, if they be well written, propounding to themselves a Person to represent in whom actions both greater and smaller, public and private, have a commixture, must of necessity contain a more true, native, and lively representation.-LORD BACON.

MANKIND in general are so little in the habit of looking steadily at their own meaning, or of weighing the words by which they express it, that the Writer, who is careful to do both, will sometimes mislead his Readers through the very excellence which qualifies him to be their Instructor: and this with no other fault on his part, than the modest mistake of supposing in those, to whom he addresses himself, an intellect as watchful as his own. The inattentive Reader adopts as unconditionally true, or perhaps rails at his Author for having stated as such, what upon examination would be found to have been duly limited, and would so have been understood, if opaque spots and false refractions were as rare in the mental as in the bodily eye. The motto, for instance, to this Paper has more than once served as an excuse and authority for huge volumes of biographical minutiæ, which render the real character almost invisible, like clouds of dust on a Portrait, or the counterfeit frankincense which smokeblacks the favorite idol of a catholic Village. Yet Lord Bacon, by the words which I have marked in italics, evidently confines the Biographer to such facts as are either susceptible of some useful general inference, or tend to illustrate those qualities which distinguished the Subject of them from ordinary men; while the passage in general was meant to guard the Historian against considering, as trifles, all that might appear so to those, who recognize no greatness in the mind, and can conceive no dignity in any incident, which does not act on their

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