SECTION IX.

AGAINST THE MODERN FREETHINKERS.

SIR,

THERE arrived in this neighbourhood two days ago one of your gay gentle'men of the town, who being attended at 'his entry with a fervant of his own, be'fides a countryman he had taken up for 'a guide, excited the curiofity of the

village to learn whence and what he

might be. The countryman (to whom 'they applied as the moft eafy of access) 'knew little more than that the gentleman came from London to travel and fee 'fashions, and was, as he heard fay, a Freethinker what religion that might 'be, he could not tell; and for his own

:

part, if they had not told him the man ' was a Freethinker, he should have gueffed, 6 by his way of talking, he was little bet'ter than a Heathen; excepting only that he had been a good gentleman to him, and made him drunk twice in one

'day,

' day, over and above what they had barC gained for.

'I do not look upon the fimplicity of 'this, and several odd enquiries, with which 'I fhall trouble you, to be wondered at; 'much less can I think that our youths ❝ of fine wit, and enlarged understandings, have any reason to laugh. There is no neceffity that every squire in Great Britain fhould know what the word Freethinker stands for: but it were much to ⚫ be wished, that they, who valued themfelves upon that conceited title, were a ⚫ little better instructed in what it ought to ftand for; and that they would not perfuade themselves a man is really and truly a Freethinker in any tolerable sense, merely by virtue of his being an Atheist, or an Infidel of any other distinction. It 'may be doubted with good reason, whether there ever was in nature a more

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abject, flavish, and bigoted generation • than the tribe of Beaux Efprits, at pre< fent fo prevailing in this island. Their • pretenfion to be Freethinkers is no other than rakes have to be free-livers, and 'favages

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'favages to be free-men; that is, they can 'think whatever they have a mind to, ⚫ and give themselves up to whatever con'ceit the extravagancy of their inclination, or their fancy, fhall fuggeft; they can 'think as wildly as talk and act, and will

not endure that their wit fhould be con'trolled by fuch formal things as decency ' and common sense: deduction, coher'ence, confiftency, and all the rules of 'reason, they accordingly difdain, as too 'precife and mechanical for men of a li'beral education.

'This, as far as I could ever learn from their writings, or my own observation, is a true account of the British Free'thinker. Our vifitant here, who gave ' occafion to this paper, has brought with ' him a new system of common sense, the particulars of which I am not yet ac

quainted with, but will lose no opportu

nity of informing myself whether it con'tain any thing worth Mr. Spectator's no'tice. In the mean time, Sir, I cannot • but think it would be for the good of mankind, if you would take this subject

into your own confideration, and con'vince the hopeful youth of our nation, 'that licentiousness is not freedom; or, if 'fuch a paradox will not be understood, 'that a prejudice towards Atheism is not 'impartiality.'

T.

I am, Sir, your most humble Servant, PHILONOUS.

QUIDQUID EST ILLUD, QUOD SENTIT, QUOD SAPIT, QUOD VULT, QUOD VIGET, CELESTE ET DIVINUM EST, OB EAMQUE REM ÆTERNUM SIT NECESSE EST.

TULL.

I AM diverted from the account I was giving the town of my particular concerns, by cafting my eye upon a treatise, which I could not overlook without an inexcufable negligence, and want of concern for all the civil, as well as religious interests of mankind. This piece has for its title, A Difcourfe of Freethinking, occafioned 'by the Rife and Growth of a Sect called 'Freethinkers.' The author very methodically enters upon his argument, and says, By Freethinking, I mean the use of the understanding, in endeavouring to find

' out the meaning of any propofition 'whatsoever, in confidering the nature ' of the evidence for or againft, and in 'judging of it according to the seeming 'force or weakness of the evidence.' As foon as he has delivered this definition, from which one would expect he did not defign to fhew a particular inclination for or against any thing before he had confidered it, he gives up all title to the character of a Freethinker, with the most apparent prejudice against a body of men, whom of all other a good man would be moft careful not to violate, I mean men in holy orders, Perfons, who have devoted themselves to the fervice of God, are venerable to all who fear him; and it is a certain characteristic of a diffolute and ungoverned mind, to rail and speak difrefpectfully of them in general. It is certain, that in fo great a crowd of men fome will intrude, who are of tempers very unbecoming their function: but because ambition and avarice are fometimes lodged in that bofom, which ought to be the dwelling of fanctity and devo