one dare to maintain, that, quod tibi vis alteri feceris, is the Foundation and the Band of Society? Would it not rather be the reverse? All the Faults charged to the Account of Self-Love, among Mankind, and which are looked upon as the Source of all the Miffortunes and Evils in the World, would they not rather fit the Axiom above-mentioned, were it taken quite crude, prout verba fonant? Yet nothing is more true, nothing more folid and evident than this Axiom, provided it be regulated and juftly limited, But whofe Province fhall it be to make the Rules and fet the Limits?

*****

CHA P. VI.

Y what Law fhould a Man be obliged to do

BY

that to others which he would have them do to himself? Who has imposed fuch a Law? Who upholds it, and who is it that avenges the Violation of it? I don't fuppofe it will be faid, that this Law was imposed by the Concurrence and Combination of all the Parts; for then it would immediately be asked, By what

Hand

Hand are all the Parts impelled and difpofed to concur and combine together, in that fingular Manner which conftitutes the Whole? Let the Disposition be made in any other Manner, and then it will not be the fame Machine ; the Action and the Object can no longer fubfift. There is no Mathematician, nor fober Head, but will be forced to confefs, that it is the Defign, the Idea of the Machinist, which imposes an absolute Law on his Work, and on all the Parts of it; provided he has a due Regard to the Matter he chufes for the Conftruction. It would be a great Oversight to make the Wheels of a Clock of Wax or Chalk; they must be of Metal, or at least very hard Wood. In vain Men seek the perpetual Motion: It cannot fubfift, for want of Materials that will not wear out and perish at laft.

ANY Man that did not go upon fuch a Principle, in conftructing a Machine, or reafoning about it, would be fent to Bedlam; though they calmly listen to those who depart from it in fpeaking of the Univerfe and human Society. The Author of Men, when he intended to make them, could alone impose the

Duty,

Duty, that every one should treat others as he would be treated himself; for this was fuitable and neceffary to Mankind, in order to form Society, on which their Well-being chiefly depends. 'Tis by this that the Spring communicates to all the different Parts the Motion and the neceffary Reftraint for the Action of the whole Machine. Each Part, in receiving the Impulse, muft alfo communicate it, and overcome the Degree of Refiftance, natural to Bodies; And this is manifefted by the Friction of the Parts, which thereby reciprocally wear out one another, and weaken themselves by Degrees; fo that becoming quite useless, they must be replaced by others, or else melted down and caft afresh, in order to keep the Machine together,

WHY then, you'll fay, fhould there be such a Friction, whofe Confequences are fo destructive? Why was not fomething else made Choice of, not liable to that Friction? It is because there never was, nor never will be, such a Thing in Nature, as corporeal Matter without Motion or Friction; for as to fpiritual Machines, they are only made in the Imagination, and by fuppofing Bodies to form

them.

them. Motion cannot be communicated but by Contact; and this Contact is made by the Adhesion of the Superficies of the two adjoining Bodies, which not remaining quiefcent, but proceeding directly to Motion, fome happen to be carried away or overcome by others: Wherefore, Friction wears out and confumes alike the Strong and the Weak, more or less, according to the Refistance or Velocity.

BUT you'll perhaps fay, Why should a Body have Particles that may be taken from it by Friction? I anfwer, Were it not for this, nothing could ever have been made of it. Without this Divifibility, could Wheels, Bolts, Barrels, Screws, and fuch like Instruments, be made? Every Thing that is formed, is made only through this pretended Defect in corporeal Matter. And is it not better that a Body should wear out and confume, provided something be made of it, than to make nothing at all of it, and that it should never wear nor decay?

THIS ought to make us thoroughly sensible of the indifpenfable Neceffity of doing to others what we like they fhould do to us, in order to communicate reciprocally the Motion

and

and the Restraint requifite for the Subfiftence of human Society, whatever it may in Appearance coft the Parts; fince it is hereby that they receive as much as they give, and cannot otherwise have any Activity. What End would it answer, to have motionless and immutable Beings? It must be confeffed, that it is better to have Pain and Pleasure fucceffively, than to be, like Marble Blocks, never fufceptible of either.

You would have the Motion communicated without Friction, and so you fall into a Contradiction: It is a wild Imagination, and a With equally impoffible and unreasonable. A Body that should rob all the others of their Particles, without lofing any of its own, is an Abfurdity that deferves no Notice. Would not such a Wish be repugnant to the very Nature of Bodies? Every Thing that is a Body, must have the fame Corporeity and the fame Nature; for, What would that Body be which wanted it? The Extravagance of fuch a Chimera is evident to every Child, and cannot even escape the Penetration of an old Dotard. You need only propofe to him, to be himself the weak Body that always decays, while the

other