Day guilty of fuch Crimes, for which his BrotherBrute would deferve to be hanged? Is a Swine, that wallows in the Mire, half fo contemptible an Animal, as the Drunkard and the Sot, who wallow in the Filth, and vomit their own Intemperance? What is the Rage of Tygers, the Fiercenefs of Lions, the Cruelty of Wolves and Bears, the Treachery of Cats and Monkeys, and the Cunning of Foxes, when compared with the Cruelty, the Treachery, the Barbarity, of Mankind? The Wolf and the Tyger, that worry a few innocent Sheep, purely to fatisfy their Hunger, are harmless Animals, when compared with the Rage and Fury of Conquerors, the Barbarity and Cruelty of Tyrants and Oppreffors, who, uninjured, unprovoked, lay whole Kingdoms wafte, turn the most beautiful Cities into ruinous Heaps, fill every Place with the dreadful Effects of lawless Rage, and fweep the Face of the Earth before them, like a devouring Fire, or an Inundation; and all this only to gratify an infatiable Avarice and Ambition, to extend their Conquefts, to raise an empty Name, a Fabric of Vanity, upon the Ruins of Humanity, Virtue, and Honour. Befides, the very fierceft and cruelest Brutes never prey upon one another; whatever Violence they may offer to thofe of a different Species, which they never do, unless compelled by Hunger, or in their own Defence, yet they spare one another; whilft Man, the Lord of the Creation, diftinguished from every Species of Animals below him by the glorious Privilege of a rational and intelligent Nature, is worse than a Brute to his own Species: Not only every Rank and Order of Men are in a State of Enmity to each other, but even those of

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the fame Rank and Order, who are united not only by one common Nature, but by one common Intereft, are as fo many Beafts of Prey to each other. Every Man who is under the Dominion of an imperious Luft, a violent Paffion, or interfering Intereft, is a Brute to those that stand in his Way, obstruct his Views, embarras his Schemes, or any way oppofe the darling Paffion and Defire of his Soul. Look into the feveral Ranks, Orders, Societies, and Affemblies of Mankind, (the Courts of Princes and Affemblies of Ladies only excepted, where nothing but Truth and Virtue, Politenefs and Honour, can find Admittance) and you will find more Treachery and Iniquity, more Fraud and Cunning, than among the Beafts of the Field, or the moft favage Inhabitants of the Defart.-I was once rallying a very pretty Lady, who was fmothering a favourite Lap-dog with a Torrent of Kiffes and tender Speeches: Fie, faid I, Madam, how can you be flow fo many Careffes upon that little Beast, which many an honest Man would be glad to purchase at any rate? Sir, faid fhe, I love my little Dog, because he loves me; and, when I can meet with any one of your Sex that has half fo much Gratitude and Sincerity as my poor Totty, he fhall never find me infenfible or ungrateful. To fay the Truth, Ingratitude and Infincerity seem to be Vices of mere human Growth, seldom or never to be found among the Brute-Creation; on the other hand, many illuftrious and furprising Inftances of Gratitude from Brutes to Men who have been their Defenders, Phyficians, or Benefactors, not only ftand recorded in antient History, but are Matters of daily Obfervation. And

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is not a poor honeft Cur, that loves, and watches, and barks for the Security of his Mafter, a Reproach to an unfaithful Servant, a treacherous Friend, or a deceitful Companion?-Were any confiderate Man to take a cool and impartial Survey of human Nature, could he trace the fubtle Wanderings even of his own Heart, through the many intricate Mazes, the numberlefs By-paths of Fraud and Cunning, Diffimulation and Hyprocrify, by which the Interests and Counfels of this World are usually directed and supported, he would blush to find, that all those unamiable, or, to speak more properly, deteftable, Qualities, which are to be found in the most malignant Parts of the Brute-Creation, are to be found in a more eminent Degree of Malignity in his own corrupt Heart.-But whither am I wandering! Let us return to our Subject.

You, Madam, who judge by Principles of common Senfe, without the Prejudices of Philofophy, I make no doubt are thoroughly fatisfied that Brutes have Souls endued with fuch Powers of Thinking, Reafoning, and Willing, as is neceffary for their State and Condition in the Scale of Beings. But how will you be able to convince your learned Neighbour, with whom you have maintained many a warm Debate, and must expect many more, if you give into my Sentiment, and declare yourself on my Side of the Question? You must expect neither Mercy nor Manners, if dare to contradict or differ in the leaft from his great Oracle Mr. Locke. To fay the Truth, the honeft Man, without Tafte or Genius, fets up for a Philofopher upon the fole Credit of having read his Book, and fubmitting more implicitly to his Authority

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than to his Bible, though he understands them both alike. He will certainly tell you, as he often has me, that neither he nor Mr. Locke denies their having Souls, but improperly fo called; not fpiritual immaterial Subftances, but Matter fo fublimated and refined, of fuch an exquifite Frame and Texture, as to be capable of Thought and spontaneous Motion, and all the other Qualities and Properties, which, in a more exalted and proper Senfe, are truly attributed to incorporeal and fpiritual Beings.

The Poffibility of a material Animal, of self-moving thinking Matter, has, at firft Sight, fuch a glaring Appearance of Contradiction, that it is amazing how any Man of Senfe, but especially of fuperior Parts and diftinguished Abilities, could ever seriously maintain it; and it would puzzle the wifest Man to fhew what real Purposes of Philofophy or Religion can be promoted by it. The most material (pardon me, Madam, I did not intend it for a Pun) I say, the most material Argument that has been brought to fupport it, is the fuppofing and calling the accidental Affections of Matter, fuch as Gravitation, Attraction, Electricity, Fermentation, and Rarefaction, the effential Properties of Matter, with which it has really no natural Connection, or neceffary Relation to it. The Cohesion of the feveral Parts of Matter, i. e. the Power by which they are united and cemented together; the Gravitation, Attraction, or Power by which the feveral Parts of the Syftem gravitate or are attracted to each other, is intirely and eflentially diftinct from the Matter itself.

The Great Sir Ifaac Newton, as quoted by Mr. Locke, p. 149, who adopts his Sentiment in Confirmation

firmation of his own, feems, in his younger Days, to have been in the fame Way of Thinking. I fhall give it you in Mr. Locke's own Words, in his Anfwer to the Bishop of Worcester. You afk (fays he) how can my Idea of Liberty agree with the Idea, that Bodies can operate only by Motion and Impulse? Anfw. By the Omnipotency of God, who can make all Things agree that involve not a Contradiction. He goes on, It is true, I fay, that Bodies operate by Impulfe, and nothing elfe, and fo I thought when I writ it, and yet can conceive no other Way of their Operation; but I am fince convinced, by the judicious Mr. Newton's incomparable Book, that it is too bold a Prefumption to limit God's Power in this Point, by my narrow Conceptions. The Gravitation of Matter towards Matter by Ways inconceivable to me, is not only a Demonftration that God can, if he pleafes, put into Bodies Powers and Ways of Operation, above what can be derived from our Idea of Body, or can be explained by what we know of Matter, but also an unquestionable, and every-where vifible, Inftance that he has done fo. Now, with all due Submiffion to the Judgment of both these excellent Writers, I cannot help thinking this to be a very crude and uncorrect Manner of expreffing a very unphilofophical Thought. That God can, if he pleafes, put into Bodies Powers and Ways of Operation, above what can be derived from our Idea of Body. That God can, either immediately by his own Power, or mediately by the Operation of inferior Intelligences, communicate what Kind or Degree of Motion he pleases, to any Part or Portion of Matter; that he. can exalt, refine, tranfmute, and model it into what Form or Shape he pleases; that he can make even VOL. I.

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