with Thorns and Thiftles: They never can get clear of it without leaving behind some Pieces of their tattered Garments, or diffembling most of their real Sentiments, left they should set all the Company, and human Nature itself, against them. For, could there be any among fuch Men, who fincerely perceiving the Charms of a Virtue that is troublesome to them, would be damped by the Horrors of a Vice that flatters their Paffions? They lie most egregiously when they affert the contrary. The Authors of the Fable of the Bees, of Manners, and of Seneca's perfect Happiness, alone fay more than enough to prove my Propofition: Nevertheless, I will not decline entering into the following brief Difcuffion.

CHAP IV.

UOD tibi non vis alteri ne feceris, & quod tibi vis alteri feceris, is the grand Principle on which all civil Societies, all the Laws, Juftice, Equity, and Jurifprudence are founded. We likewife acknowledge a fupreme Authority giving us this Rule, All Things

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whatsoever ye would that Men fhould do to you, do ye even fo to them. No Man was ever yet bold enough to deny this general Principle: The most deteftable Writers in all Ages have acquiefced in it, and do ftill allow it to be the fole Foundation, the indiffoluble Band of Society. The famous Mr. Bayle, in his Comet, lays down this fingle Principle as an undeniable one, and as good as an Axiom, which in Effect it is. But then he applies it in the most extraordinary Manner that could have been imagined, pretending to prove, that Atheists might form a perfect Society. Herein he is blindly followed by all the pretended Freethinkers, who lay the greatest Strefs upon it, in order to impugn the Neceffity of Revealed Religion, and to leffen our natural Abhorrence of irreligious People.

BUT what I find very difficult to conceive, is, that Puffendorff, Cumberland, Gravina, and others, who are reckoned first-rate Civilians, should have fuffered themselves to be impofed on in this important Article, and not have endeavoured to clear it from the Obscurity in which it is involved. Being eager to shake off a certain Yoke, about which they puzzled C

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and perplexed themselves without fufficient Cause, they laid fandy Foundations; and hence it is that their Systems, though formed with admirable Art, and fupported by good Arguments, are lame in the main, and bend like Reeds to every Wind. Thus young Telemachus fometimes thought Mentor was troublefome to him: Nay, he even wished to be rid of his Company, though at laft he was indebted to him for his happy Deliverance from the Slavery of the infidious Calypfo.

COULD any thing be imagined more weak and tottering than the Law of Nations, which thofe Gentlemen have explained, and which they give out, as grounded on the Confent of civilized Nations? Good God! Where and when did this Consent take Place? What Writer has made any Mention of it in antient Hiftory? By what Means did it obtain in fubsequent Ages? Why do they seem to include the Barbarians in it; for even from these they deduce the most ftriking Examples, and the strongest and most evident Documents, in order to recommend and enforce it? Neither has the ingenious Author of The Spirit of Laws dared to step out of this Carreer, though fuch a Law

a Law of Nations is incombinable with his pretended Dependence of the Laws on the Climate and the Nature of the Country. Yet Murder, Adultery, Theft, Fraud, Violence and Irreligion, are not the lefs profcribed in all Places, Climates and Countries, where there is a human Society.

ALL thofe grave Authors have been afraid to confess, that all Mankind, originally, formed but one Family, and defcended from one Couple; for, fay they, this is mentioned only in one fingle Hiftory, which lays Claim to a fupreme and divine Authority. However, that History is the true and only Source, from whence, with the fulleft Evidence, flows the Law of Nations, which every Man is obliged to acknowledge, and fubmit to it the Moment he is fenfible that he lives in Society. Neither Greek nor Barbarian can dispense with it, nor call it in Question, without having Recourse to a Confent which never exifted but in Imagination. But fo effential a Fact being once laid down and acknowledged, we immediately conceive that other Confequences are deducible from it, which clash with that interior Licentioufnefs which the Literati

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Literati of the Age are very loth to forfake.

AND accordingly we have feen of late Years the World over-run with wretched Books and Pamphlets, which, without the leaft Regard for the illuftrious Names of those respectable Authors, vigorously attack them on their own Principles, and with fo great an Appearance of Reason, that abundance of Ideots have fuffered themselves to be feduced, because they acknowledge no other Authority but the human Mind, which is ever liable to go aftray. On the fame Principle we fee the Policy of Cabinets boldly taking the Machiavelian Turn, and never fcrupling to violate and fubvert the most formal Precepts of all thofe Oracles of Jurifprudence. It is faid, that the Oracle at Delphos never gave any Answers but what were fufceptible of ambiguous, and oftentimes contradictory, Senfes, in order to preferve the Credit of Apollo. May not this be the Cafe at present with the Puffendorffs, Cumberlands, Gravinas and Montef quious? At least it is evident, that in many Inftances they did not reafon logically, or were hindered by certain Confiderations from doing