your Fate, and die with Confidence. The Promife is great, but it requires Security, and, for want of fufficient Security, very ftrong Proofs, and fuch as are fuitable to fo great a Concern.

In this Paragraph, from thefe Words,

All Nature is but Art,

to those,

And fpight of Pride, in erring Reafon's Spight, One Truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT,

I must confefs to you, that I read an Argument that haftens to a greater Conclufion, but far from finding any Proofs, I fee nothing like them.

My Inclination carries me, and I think myself obliged, to afcribe to Mr Pope no unreasonable Opinions: But thefe honest Intentions, which I congratulate myself upon, do not, however, prejudicè me fo far, as not to discover in thefe Expreffions the Style of Fatalifm. One Thing puzzles me, and is even beyond my Com. prehenfion, which is, to guess what Mr Pope's Intention was, unless it be the PleaL fure

fure of making Verfes upon a Subject upon which Poetry has never been yet employ'd.

V

A WORK of Spinoza's, intitled, De Emendatione Intelle&us, viz. of the Correction of the Understanding, is looked upon as ridiculous. Spinoza pretended that all our Thoughts are the inevitable Confequences of a Subordination, or of an eternal Concatenation of Caufes; What is it then that he would have us reform? Can we, according to him, new mould ourfelves? And have we the leaft Power over ourselves?

THE fame Queftion may be made to Mr Pope, fuppofing him a Fatalist,

• To

what Purpose do you write? To what Purpose do you repeat to us in pompous Verfes, "Ceafe to be proud, Thinkonly how to fubmit thyself to Fate, Be contented with thy Condition, without defiring to amend it?" Fate will have a full Power over us, without his telling us fo, if his System is true. The Care which he has taken to write will contribute nothing to it, his Book will act only on our Eyes, his Verfes on our

Ears,

Ears, and the Impreffions received in our Eyes and Ears will not penetrate to our Soul, because the Body does not act upon it; and if we come to conceive such Opinions as Mr Pope would have us, this will be by virtue of a Concatenation of Caufes, which will produce them at a seasonable Time, and which will acquire no Strength from all the Leffons that he has fung us.

IT is loft Labour, and an unjuft Reproach, for him to cenfure our Pride; if we have it, we receiv'd it elfewhere; it is our Bufinefs to fubmit, and this Submiffion too is an Effect of fome Cause, unknown, and diftinct from us.

I WILL afk Mr Pope too, Are you well affured of the Truth of your System? If he anfwers, I cannot doubt of it; We will reply to him, That the oppofite System feems evident to us, and that we are obliged to acknowledge ourfelves free and active Intelligences. What Mischief then will he not render himself anfwerable for, if certain Intelligences, free and active, but difpofed to indulge themfelves in Idlenefs and Vice, inftead of refifting thefe L 2 Dif

Difpofitions, and changing them into more reasonable ones, as they might, come to abuse their Liberty, and, in order to live more licentioufly, are determin'd to embrace the Opinion, That they are fubject. ed to a Fate, which it is not poffible to furmount, and which they cannot even endeavour to furmount, without making themfelves guilty of Impiety!

THUS Mr Pope's Work can do no Good For if it be true, an inevitable Fate will do all, without his being in the leaft concern'd; and if it is falfe, it may do a great deal of Mifchief, and lull in Inaction and Security, Intelligences, capable indeed of inftructing themselves by an attentive Examination, but capable too of haftily embracing thofe Opinions which favour the Inclinations they find it troublesome to refift.

RE

REFLECTION'S

ON THE

SECOND EPISTLE

O F

Mr POPE's ESSAY on MAN.

I

Will begin my Reflections on the Second Epiftle with a Remark, that other Readers, as well as myself, have made: It is, that when we look in each of these Epiftles for nothing but In-ftructions, agreeable to its Title, we find ourfelves presently mistaken. Mr Pope

without doubt had confider'd all his Subject before he began his Work. His lively and capacious Imagination paffes. from one Idea to another, and carries it felf beyond what we expect. From hence arifes this Advantage, that we read it a fecond Time, and those who are more defirous to inftruct themselves, and underftand it well, enter on a third Perufal.