ESSAY XI. Of a PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE and of a FUTURE STATE. I WAS lately engag'd in converfation with a friend, who loves fceptical paradoxes; where, tho' he advanc'd many principles, of which I can by no means approve, yet as they seem to be curious, and to bear fome relation to the chain of reafoning carry'd on thro' these essays, I fhall here copy them from my memory as accurately as I can, in order to fubmit them to the judgment of the reader. OUR Conversation began with my admiring the fingular good fortune of philofophy, which, as it requires intire liberty, above all other privileges, and flourishes chiefly from the free oppofition of fentiments and argumentation, receiv'd its firft birth in country of freedom and toleration, and I 6 an age and was was never cramp'd, even in its most extravagant principles, by any creeds, confeffions, or penal statutes. For except the banishment of Protagoras, and the death of Socrates, which laft event proceeded partly from other motives, there are scarce any inftances to be met with, in antient history, of this bigotted jealoufy and perfecution, with which the prefent age is fo much infefted. Epicurus liv'd at Athens to an advanc'd age, in peace and tranquility: Epicucans were even admitted to receive the facerdotal character, and to officiate at the altar, in the most fered sites of the established religion: And the public encouragement of pensions and fallaries was afforded erer, by de wiet of all the Roman emperors ‡, e ne profesars of every fett of philofophy. sequice ich kind of treatment was to philosophy, iirt crigin, will eafily be conceiv'd, if we refect, that even at prefent, when it may be fuppes`d more hardy and robuft, it bears with much cificulty the inclemency of the feafons, and thofe harth winds of calumny and perfecution, which blow upon it. How You admire, fays my friend, as the fingular goodfortune of philofophy, what feems to refult from the fe of things, and to be unavoidable in This pertinacious bigotry, nation. of which you complain, as fo fatal to philosophy, isreally her offspring, who, after allying with fuperfti. tion, feparates himself intirely from the intereft of his parent, and becomes her moft inveterate enemy and perfecutor. Speculative dogmas and principles of religion, the prefent occafions of fuch furious difpute, could not poffibly be conceiv'd or admitted in the early ages of the world; when mankind, being wholly illiterate, form'd an idea of religion, more fuitable to their weak apprehenfion, and compos'd their facred tenets chiefly of fuch tales and ftories as were the objects of traditional belief, more than of argument or difputation. After the first alarm, therefore, was over, which arofe from the new paradoxes and principles of the philofophers thefe teachers feem, ever after, during the ages of antiquity, to have liv'd in great harmony with the eftablish'd fuperftitions, and to have made a fair partition of mankind betwixt them; the former claiming all the learned and the wife, and the latter pof.. feffing all the vulgar and illiterate. Ir feems then, fays I, that you leave politics intirely out of the question, and never suppose, that a wife magiftrate can justly be jealous of certain tenets of philosophy, fuch as those of Epicurus, which denying a divine existence, and confequently a providence and a future ftate, feem to loofen, in a great meafure, the the ties of morality, and may be fuppos'd, for that reafon, pernicious to the peace of civil fociety. I KNOW, reply'd he, that in fact these perfecutions never, in any age, proceeded from calm reafon, or any experience of the pernicious confequences of philofophy; but arofe intirely from paffion and prejudice. But what if I should advance farther, and affert, that if Epicurus had been accus'd before the people, by any of the Sycophants or informers of those days, he could easily have defended his caufe, and prov'd his principles of philofophy to be as falutary as thofe of his adverfaries, who endeavour'd, with fuch zeal, to expofe him to the public hatred and jealoufy? 1 I WISH, faid I, you would try your eloquence upon fo extraordinary a topic, and make a speech for Epicurus, which might fatisfy, not the mob of Athens, will allow that antient and polite city to have contain'd any mob, but the more philofophical part of his audience, fuch as might be fuppos'd capable of comprehending his arguments. THE matter would not be difficult, upon fuch conditions, reply'd he: And if you please, I fhall fuppofe my felf Epicurus for a moment, and make you ftand for the Athenian people, and fhall give you fuck an |