mentioned; whether they would raise the merits of their own cause, or throw out invectives on the opposite party. The courtier sets before your eyes in large letters his steady attachment to King George, while his opponent displays in the same manner his zeal for Liberty and the Constitution. This must undoubtedly have a wonderful effect on the electors: and I could almost assure any patriot certain success, who should manifest his regard for Old England by printing his addresses in the Old English Character.

But, in the whole republic of letters, there are none, perhaps, who are more obliged to the printer, than the writers of periodical essays. The Spectators, indeed, came into the world without any of the advantages we are possessed of. They were originally published in a very bad print and paper, and were so entirely destitute of all outward ornaments, that like (Terence's virgin)

-Ni vis boni

In ipsâ inesset formâ, hæc formam extinguerent.

• Unless the soul of beauty had breathed through the compositions themselves, these disadvantages would have suppressed the least appearances of it.'

As it requires no genius to supply a defect of this nature, our modern essays as much excel the Spectators in elegance of form, as perhaps they may be thought to fall short of them in every other respect. But they have this additional advantage, that by the fineness of their paper they are rescued from serving many mean and ignoble purposes, to which they might otherwise be applied. They also form themselves more commodiously into volumes, and become genteeler appendages of the tea-table. The candid reader will undoubtedly impute this extraordinary care about externals to the modesty of us present essayists, who are willing to compensate for our po

verty of genius, by bestowing these outward graces and embellishments on our works. For my own part, I never reflect on the first unadorned publication of the Spectator, and at the same time take up one of my own papers, set off with every ornament of the press, but I am afraid that the critics will apply, what a facetious peer is said to have remarked on two different ladies; that the first is a soul without a body, and the last a body without a soul.'

As in this fashionable age there are many of Lord Foppington's opinion, that a book should be recommended by its outside to a man of quality and breeding,' it is incumbent on all authors to let their works appear as well dressed as possible, if they expect them to be admitted into polite company. Yet we should not lay too much stress on the decorations, but rather remember Tully's precept to all who build, 'that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.'-T.

N° 9. THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1754.

-Solvitque animis miracula rerum,
Eripuitque Jovi fulmen, viresque tonanti.--MANIL.
He freed our minds from dread of things above,
And snatch'd the thunder from the hand of Jove.

THE publication of Lord Bolingbroke's posthumous works has given new life and spirit to freethinking. We seem at present to be endeavouring to unlearn our catechism, with all that we have been taught about religion, in order to model our faith to the fashion of his Lordship's system. We have now nothing to do, but to throw away our Bibles, turn the

churches into theatres, and rejoice that an act of parliament, now in force, gives us an opportunity of getting rid of the clergy by transportation. I was in hopes that the extraordinary price of these volumes would have confined their influence to persons of quality. As they are placed above extreme indigence and absolute want of bread, their loose notions would have carried them no farther than cheating at cards, or perhaps plundering their country: but if these opinions spread among the vulgar, we shall be knocked down at noon-day in our streets, and nothing will go forward but robberies and murders.

The instances I have lately seen of freethinking, in the lower part of the world, make me fear, they are going to be as fashionable and as wicked as their betters. I went the other night to the Robin Hood: where it is usual for the advocates against religion to assemble, and openly avow their infidelity. One of the questions for the night was, 'Whether Lord Bolingbroke had not done greater service to mankind by his writings, than the Apostles or Evangelists? As this society is chiefly composed of lawyers' clerks, petty tradesmen, and the lowest mechanics, I was at first surprised to find such amazing erudition among them. Toland, Tindal, Collins, Chubb, and Mandeville, they seemed to have got by heart. A shoemaker harangued his five minutes upon the excellence of the tenets maintained by Lord Bolingbroke; but I soon found that his reading had not been extended beyond the ideas of a patriot king, which he had mistaken for a glorious system of free thinking. I could not help smiling at another of the company, who took pains to shew his disbelief of the Gospel by unsainting the apostles, and calling them by no other title than plain Paul or plain Peter. The proceedings of this society,

have indeed almost induced me to wish, that (like the Roman Catholics) they were not permitted to read the Bible, rather than they should read it only to abuse it.

I have frequently heard many wise tradesmen, settling the most important articles of our faith over a pint of beer. A baker took occasion from Canning's affair to maintain, in opposition to the Scriptures, that man might live by bread alone, at least that woman might; for else,' said he, how could the girl have been supported for a whole month by a few hard crusts? In answer to this, a barbersurgeon set forth the improbability of that story; and thence inferred, that it was impossible for our Saviour to have fasted forty days in the wilderness. I lately heard a midshipman swear that the Bible was all a lie; for he had sailed round the world with Lord Anson, and if there had been any Red Sea, he must have met with it. I know a bricklayer, who, while he was working by line and rule, and carefully laying one brick upon another, would argue with a fellow-labourer, that the world was made by chance; and a cook, who thought more of his trade than his Bible, in a dispute concerning the miracles, made a pleasant mistake about the nature of the first, and gravely asked his antagonist what he thought of the supper at Cana.

men.

This affectation of freethinking, among the lower class of people, is at present happily confined to the On Sundays, while the husbands are toping at the ale-house, the good women their wives think it their duty to go to church, say their prayers, bring home the text, and hear the children their catechism. But our polite ladies are, I fear, in their lives and conversations little better than freethinkers. Going to church, since it is now no longer the fashion to carry on intrigues there, is almost wholly laid aside;

and I verily believe, that nothing but another earthquake can ever fill the churches with people of quality. The fair sex in general are too thoughtless to concern themselves in deep inquiries into matters of religion. It is sufficient, that they are taught to believe themselves angels: it would therefore be an ill compliment, while we talk of the heaven they bestow, to persuade them into the Mahometan nation, that they have no souls: though perhaps our fine gentlemen may imagine that by convincing a lady that she has no soul, she will be less scrupulous about the disposal of her body.

The ridiculous notions maintained by freethinkers in their writings, scarce deserve a serious refutation ; and perhaps the best method of answering them would be to select from their works all the absurd and impracticable notions which they so stiffly maintain in order to evade the belief of the Christiau religion. I shall here throw together a few of their principal tenets, under the contradictory title of

THE UNBELIEVER'S CREED.

I believe that there is no God, but that matter is God, and God is matter; and that it is no matter whether there is any God or no.

I believe that the world was not made; that the world made itself; that it had no beginning; that it will last for ever, world without end.

I believe that man is a beast; that the soul is the body, and the body the soul; and that after death there is neither body nor soul.

I believe that there is no religion; that natural religion is the only religion; and that all religion is unnatural.

I believe not in Moses; I believe in the First Philosophy; I believe not in the Evangelists; I believe in Chubb, Collins, Toland, Tindal, Morgan, Mande