fequently under continual apprehenfions either from the natives, or from the Scots of the continent, took care to contrive thefe fortreffes, fo as that the alarm in cafe of an invafion might run immediately from one divifion of the country to another. On fuch occafions they raifed great pillars of fmoak in the day time, by setting fire to a great quantity of combustible matter, and at night made fignals of diftrefs by burning whole barrels of pitch.

To be Continued.

It is to be regretted that Subjects of the greatest Importance to the Happinefs of Mankind were not oftener defended by fo able a Writer as Voltaire. When he turns Champion, however, in behalf of Virtue and Religion, to neglect an Opportunity of acquainting the World with his Atchievements for that noble Caufe, would be Injuftice to him, and to the Public. Monfieur Maribaud hath lately published a Treatife, intitled, the Syftem of Nature; in which he endeavours to deftroy the Belief of a future State. To this dangerous Book Mr. Voltaire has written a fpirited and masterly Anfwer; the following Extract of which, we doubt not, will be agreeable to our Readers.

I

F I reafon as a natural philofopher, fays the author, every thing appears to me incomprehenfible without a God. The word nature is to me a mere word; but an intelligent agent fully accounts for the little I am capable of knowing. Upon the fuppofition that there is a God, I conceive fomething; without him I conceive nothing; without a God I conceive no idea of order; without a God it appears to me abfolutely impoffible that things fhould be ordered and difpofed as they are.

6

You attribute to matter alone the power of gravitation, the power of

communicating motion, &c. but this is only fuppofition inftead of demonftration. You feem to me to be guilty of what you fo juftly blame in divines, viz. fetting out with begging the question.

You combat the opinion of that great metaphyfician, Dr. Samuel Clark; and think that matter, which is eternal, ftands in no need of a mover. Now to me it appears abfolutely incomprehenfible, that matter, of itself, fhould perform motions eternally regular, and produce generations of animals conftantly refembling each other.

• I allow you have the better of the doctor, when he fays that space is thẹ fenforium of the Deity, that God penetrates matter, &c. The doctor wanted to be too knowing. You may be in the right, likewife, in regard to fome of the divine attributes, which the doctor rather fuppofes than proves; but, when thefe branches are lopped off, the tree ftill remains: There ftill remains a first mover, powerful, intelligent, and who cannot poffibly be malevolent.

You reject the chimerical inate ideas of Des Cartes; I reject them too: You don't even fpare the great Newton: I allow with you, that Newton was not fo good a metaphyfician as he was a geometrician; but, if his definition of God is obfcure, it is not contradictory. There appears to me, however, a manifeft contradition in fuppofing a mafs of matter regularly moved without a mover; beftowing intelligence upon itself in man, and withholding it in a stone; establishing relations and connections through the whole of its works without any end or defign; labouring blindly with the most fublime industry. In a word, you combat what is obfcure in the writings of Newton and Clark, but you dare not attack what is clear.

'As to the common difficultieswhy fuch a quantity of evil, why fo many monfters, &c? Were there a thousand times as many, I can never

give

give up this point, the heavens declare the glory of God.' All the efforts of your genius will never- prove that there is no God: All that you have proved is, that divines have fometimes reafoned wretchedly. You have pointed out great difficulties, but the fyftem of a blind nature is big with abfurdities.

'You are obliged to allow that there are great marks of order through the whole of nature; and you tell us, that this vaft combination was neceffary. I believe, with you, that it was. Contingency appears to me a contradiction, as well as chance. It was neceffary that the univerfe fhould exift, fince it does exift. Ueless and abfurd, in this cafe, are the fame. What are we to conclude from all this? Nothing, in my opinion, but that it was neceffary that the Supreme Being should produce fuch wonderful things, as it was neceffary that he fhould exift. He could not have produced them without intelligence and power; now this is what you call nature, and what I call God. Why will not you allow me to adore this great, intelligent, and powerful Being, who has given me life and reafon? Permit me to add, beware of ingratitude, you, on whom he has bestowed fo much genius; for, furely, you did not bestow it on yourself.

But under this Supreme Being, we are, almost all of us, wretched and unjust.- This is but too true: We fuffer; fuch is the lot of humanity.From the days of Job down to the present time, a very large portion of mankind have curfed their own exiftence: We stand in conftant need, therefore, of confolation and hope, and your philosophy deprives us of both. Philofophy, you tell us, furnishes no proofs of happiness in a future ftate; fuppofing it does not, you have no demonftration of the contrary. There is nothing in the idea of a future ftate that is contrary to reafon, though reason alone does not prove that there is one.

But has not the belief of fuch a state a vaft advantage over the disbelief of it? The one is ufeful to mankind, the other prejudicial; the latter may encourage a Nero, the other may check and reftrain him.

In that ftate of doubt and uncertainty in which we both are, I shall not, in order to extricate you, endeavour to perfuade you to go to Mecca, and kifs the black ftone, turn fanatic in order to obtain the favour of the Supreme Being, &c. &c. I fhall only fay, perfift in cultivating virtue, in being beneficent, in looking upon every fpecies of fuperftition with abhorrence and pity; but join with me in adoring that delign which is apparent in all the works of nature, and, confequently, the author of that defign, the great original and final caufe of all; juin with me in hoping that that principle within us, which reafons concerning the great eternal Being, may be rendered happy by him in a furure state. There is no contradiction in this; you can never prove that it is impoffible, any more than I can prove, mathematically, that there will be such a state. In metaphyfics we only reafon upon probabilities. "Nous nageons tous "dans une mer dont nous n'avons ja"mais vu le rivage. Malheur a ceux

qui fe battent en negeant. Abor"dera qui pourra; mais celui qui me "crie, vous nagez en vain, il n'y a point de port, me decourage, et 66 meote toutes mes forces."

You are afraid, left by adoring God, we fhould foon become fuperftitious and fanatical; but is there no reafon to fear, left, by denying his exiftence, we should become flaves to the moft furious paffions, and commit the moft atrocious crimes? Between these two extremes, is there no juft, no due medium? Where fhall we reft in fafety between these two dangerous rocks? I will tell you; in God, and in wife laws.

If we fuppofe, say you, any connections and relations between man,

and

and the fupreme incomprehenfible Being we must erect alters to him, make him prefents, &c. if we can form no conceptions of fuch a Being, we muft have recourfe to priests, &c. And, pray, where is the mighty harm of affembling, in the time of harvest, to thank God for the bread he bestows upon us! Who talks of making prefents to the Deity? The very idea is ridiculous. But what harm is there in employing a citizen, who shall be called priest, to offer up thanksgivings to God, in the name of his fellow-citizens, provided this priest be neither a Gregory the VIIth, an Alexander the Vlth, a Le Tellier, or a W

Ces cas font rares. L'etat du facerdoce eft un frein qui force a la bienfeance.

A foolish priest excites contempt; a wicked one inspires horror; but a benevolent, gentle, pious, charitable, tolerating prieft, and free from fuperftition, is a character intitled to esteem and respect. But you are afraid of abufes; fo am I. Let us unite in order to prevent them, but let us not condemn a profeffion when it is ufeful to fociety, and when the defign of it is not preverted by fanaticism and wicked fraud.

I have one thing to say to you, and it is of fome importance. I am perfuaded that you are in a great error; but I am perfuaded likewife that your error proceeds from no badnefs of heart. You would have all men virtuous, even without a God. This philofophical difpute will be only between you and a few philofophers in Europe; the rest of the world will hear nothing of it. The vulgar give themselves no trouble about the writ ings of us philofophers. Should any divine be defirous of perfecuting you, he would fhew the malevolence and wickedness of his heart; he would fhew his ignorance and folly too, which would only ferve to confirm you in your opinions, and increase the num ber of Atheifts.

• You are in an error; but the Greeks did not perfecute Epicurus, nor the Romans Lucretius. You are in an error; but we must refpect your genius and your virtue, while we refute your opinions with all our might.

The best homage, in my opinion, that can be paid to God, is to defend his caufe without paffion; and the most unworthy view that can be given of his character, is to reprefent it as furious and vindictive. He is the truth itself; truth void of paffion. He therefore is the difciple of God, who defends the truth with gentleness of fpirit, and with a firm and steady mind.

.

I agree with you that fanáticism is a monfter a thoufand times more dangerous than philofophic atheifm. Spinofa never committed a fingle crime. Chatel and Ravaillac, both fanatics, affaffinated Henry the fourth.

The closet Atheist is almost always a peaceable philofopher; the Fanatic is always turbulent; but a Court Atheift, an Atheift upon the Throne, may prove a scourge to human kind. The misfortune, is that elofet Atheists make Court Atheifts. It is Chiron educating Achilles, and feeding him with li on's marrow. This Achilles fhall one day drag Hector's body round the walls of Troy, and facrifice twelve innocent captives to his vengeance.

God preserve us from an abomins able prieft, who fhall dip his impious hands in the blood of his prince, or, at the age of seventy, shall sign the ridiculous excommunication of a king of France, &c. &c. But God preferve us likewife from an angry and barbarous Tyrant, who, not believing in God, is a god to himself; who renders himself unworthy of his exalted ftation, by trampling upon the facred duties of it; who facrifices his friends, his re lations, and his fubjects to his anger and ambition, without any remorse. Both these tygers, the one fhorn, and the other crowned, are equally formidable; and how are they to be checked or reftrained?

If

* If the idea of a God, to whom our fouls may be re-united, has formed a Titus, a Trajan, an Antoninus, and a Marcus Aurelius, fuch examples are fufficient for my caufe; and the caufe I plead is that of all mankind.'

Modern Matrimonial Grievances. From the Gentleman's Magazine. Mr URBAN,

WILL

you Spare one corner of your Magazine for the relief of a poor female, who could not exist without giving, an immediate vent to the ill treatment and hardships fhe fuffers from that legal tyrant a Hufband.

You must know, Mr Printer, I was married about fix years ago to an haberdasher in the city, and have four children by him. He is in a great run of business, and in a fair way of getting a large fortune. The man, I muft allow, is fond enough of my perfon, and makes, in what is called the main point, a tolerable husband; but then he is fo very folicitous and anxious about faying money, and providing well for his family, that he will not permit me to partake of thofe fashionable pleasures and amusements, which give a zeft to life, and without which a woman of any spirit must be miferable. Would you believe it, Sir, he hath actually forbidden me to go to any balls, routs, &c. and is not pleased at my making a party at cards every evening only in the neighbourhood. This is fuch tyranny, Sir, as no woman can, or ought 10 bear. I need not acquaint you, Mr Urban, that when wives meet with fuch perverfe and obftinate husbands, they are frequently obliged to have recourfe to arts, in order to mollify them, and for which purpose it is common for our fex, in fuch cafes, to fall into fits.

I had fet my heart upon going to a ball the other night, with fome of my acquaintance, and tried every endearing method of obtaining my husband's confent to it, but in vain; thus driven

I kept my bed for a week, without appearing to be much better; and during that time, I perceived in the news paper, which my husband takes in, and bronght me every day to amuse me, an advertisement of a masked ball which was to be held at Margate on the 11th of this month. This ftruck me imme diately, aud I refolved to ask the doctor, if going to Margate, and bathing there, would not do me good, and ftrengthen my nerves. The doctor came into it immediately, and faid, he thought it would be of fervice to me. I then defired him to tell my husband so, and perfuade him to let me go. He did fo; and my husband came presently afterwards to me, and told me what the doctor had advised, and said, as this was the most leifure time of the year, he would order matters fo as to go along with me. This was a blow I did not expect. My husband perceived it by my countenance. hide it no otherwife than by falling into a fit; fince which I have infinuated to him, that I was afraid his going with me might be prejudicial to his bufinefs, and that it would be better to let me go alone. But he persists in his refolution of attending me there, and I must have the mortification of going to Margate, where there is to be a masked ball, to which I know my hufband will not permit me to go. There is no retracting; we are to fet out to-morrow morning; and my dif appointment is fo great, that I fhould burst with vexation, did I not find a vent for it, by giving you an account of my intolerable hardships. Sept. 5,2 1771. S

I could

DOROTHY TAPE

POE:

SIR,

AT

T the entreaty of a friend, there were fent you two effays of mine, the one Ophelia, and the other, an U-, niverfal Prayer, both which appeared

in the second and third numbers of the fecond volume of your Miscellany. I now return you my thanks for having given them admiffion. Inclosed I fend you a third; which if you judge worthy of the public eye, you may fend it abroad; if not, I know your candour will induce you to comply with the following requeft, viz. that you burn it on perufal, forgive the author's intrufion, and fpare taking notice of it on the blue-cover. If the prefent obtains your approbation I fhall tranfmit to you occafionally, feveral others in a little

Whose plaftic fpirit breathes thro' all,、 While varying feafons rife and fall

Obfequious to Thy voice divine, The gales that blooming nature chear, And gifts that crown the mellowing year Are, boundlefs Parent thine.

While skies with all their countless host Evanish in thine eye,

In being's boundlefs ocean loft,

Whence, where, and what am I? Ye doubts, ye impious murmurs, peace; Lodg'd in a parent's fond embrace

The deftin'd Heir of blifs unknown. O mortal born! Thyfelf explore, When funs and fyftems fhine no more, Eternity's Thy own.