NUMB. 95. TUESDAY, February 12, 1751.

To that bleft harbour, which I left before. FRANCIS.

SIR,

TH

To the RAMBLER.

HERE are many difeafes both of the body and mind, which it is far easier to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think me employed in an office not ufelefs either to learning or virtue, if I defcribe the symptoms of an intellectual malady, which, though at firft it feizes only the paffions, will, if not fpeedily remedied, infect the reafon, and, from blafting the bloffoms of knowledge, proceed in time to canker the root.

I was born in the houfe of difcord. My parents were of unsuitable ages, contrary tempers, and different religions, and therefore employed the fpirit and acuteness which nature had very liberally beftowed upon both, in hourly difputes, and inceffant

contri

contrivances to detect each other in the wrong; fo that from the firft exertions of reafon I was bred a difputant, trained up in all the arts of domeftick sophistry, initiated in a thousand low ftratagems, nimble shifts, and fly concealments; verfed in all the turns of altercation, and acquainted with the whole discipline of fending and proving.

It was neceffarily my care to preferve the kindnefs of both the controvertists, and therefore I had very early formed the habit of fufpending my judg ment, of hearing arguments with indifference, inclining as occafion required to either fide, and of holding myself undetermined between them till I knew for what opinion I might conveniently declare.

Thus, Sir, I acquired very early the skill of difputation; and, as we naturally love the arts in which we believe ourselves to excel, I did not let my abilities lie ufelefs, nor fuffer my dexterity to be loft for want of practice. I engaged in perpetual wrangles with my fchool-fellows, and was never to be convinced or repreffed by any other arguments than blows, by which my antagonists commonly determined the controverfy, as I was, like the Roman orator, much more eminent for eloquence than courage.

At the university I found my predominant ambition completely gratified by the ftudy of logick. I impressed upon my memory a thousand axioms, and ten thousand diftinctions, practifed every form of fyllogifm, paffed all my days in the fchools of difputation, and slept every night with Smiglecius on my pillow.

You

་

You will not doubt but fuch a genius was foon raised to eminence by such application: I was celebrated in my third year for the most artful opponent that the univerfity could boaft, and became the terror and envy of all the candidates for philofophical reputation.

My renown, indeed, was not purchased but at the price of all my time and all my studies. I never fpoke but to contradict, nor declaimed but in defence of a position univerfally acknowledged to be falfe, and therefore worthy, in my opinion, to be adorned with all the colours of false representation, and ftrengthened with all the art of fallacious fubtilty.

My father, who had no other wish than to fee his fon richer than himfelf, eafily concluded that I should distinguish myself among the profeffors of the law; and therefore, when I had taken my first degree, difpatched me to the Temple with a paternal admonition, that I should never fuffer myfelf to feel fhame, for nothing but modefty could retard my fortune.

Vitiated, ignorant, and heady as I was, I had not yet lost my reverence for virtue, and therefore could not receive fuch dictates without horror; but however was pleafed with his determination of my courfe of life, becaufe he placed me in the way that leads fooneft from the prefcribed walks of difcipline and education, to the open fields of liberty and choice.

I was now in the place where every one catches the contagion of vanity, and foon began to diftin

guish

guish myself by fophifins and paradoxes. I declared war against all received opinions and established rules, and levelled my batteries particularly against those univerfal principles which had stood unshaken in all the viciffitudes of literature, and are confidered as the inviolable temples of truth, or the impregnable bulwarks of science.

I applied myself chiefly to those parts of learning which have filled the world with doubt and perplexity, and could readily produce all the arguments relating to matter and motion, time and space, identity and infinity.

I was equally able and equally willing to maintain the fyftem of Newton or Defcartes, and favoured occafionally the hypothefis of Ptolemy, or that of Copernicus. I fometimes exalted vegetables to fenfe, and sometimes degraded animals to mechanism.

Nor was I lefs inclined to weaken the credit of hiftory, or perplex the doctrines of polity. I was always of the party which I heard the company condemn.

Among the zealots of liberty I could harangue with great copiousness upon the advantages of abfolute monarchy, the fecrecy of its counfels, and the expedition of its measures; and often celebrated the bleffings produced by the extinction of parties, and preclufion of debates.

Among the affertors of regal authority, I never failed to declaim with republican warmth upon the original charter of univerfal liberty, the corruption of courts, and the folly of voluntary fubmiffion to those whom nature has levelled with ourselves.

I knew the defects of every scheme of government, and the inconveniencies of every law. I fometimes fhewed how much the condition of mankind would be improved, by breaking the world into petty fovereignties, and fometimes difplayed the felicity and peace which univerfal monarchy would diffufe over

the earth.

To every acknowledged fact I found innumerable objections; for it was my rule, to judge of history only by abstracted probability, and therefore I made no fcruple of bidding defiance to teftimony. I have more than once questioned the existence of Alexander the Great; and having demonftrated the folly of erecting edifices like the pyramids of Egypt, I frequently hinted my fufpicion that the world had been long deceived, and that they were to be found only in the narratives of travellers.

It had been happy for me could I have confined my fcepticifin to hiftorical controverfies, and philofophical difquifitions; but having now violated my reafon, and accustomed myfelf to enquire not after proofs, but objections, I had perplexed truth with falfehood till my ideas were confufed, my judgment embarraffed, and my intellects diftorted. The habit of confidering every propofition as alike uncertain, left me no teft by which any tenet could be tried; every opinion prefented both fides with equal evidence, and my fallacies began to operate upon my own mind in more important enquiries. It was at laft the fport of my vanity to weaken the obligations of moral duty, and effice the diftinctions of good and evil, till I had deadened the fenfe of

convic