Ir often happens that a Person, threatened from his Infancy with Disorders in his Stomach, grows old, and dies at laft of quite a different Illness. It is the fame with feveral other Diftempers. EDUCATION, the Examples with which we are furrounded, and Fortune, that is to say, the Condition of those to whom we owe Life, have more fhare in the rul ing Paffions than the Constitution has. The ruling Paffion conquers Reafon ftill. This is true, if it be extended only to that which often happens; but if he pretends to give this Remark as a univerfal Truth, it is a Miftake. The want of Power in Reason over the ruling Passion is an old Complaint, and has given occafion to many Tales greedily adopted by young People. "I feel in my self a God, fays Medea; it is in vain to refift him:"-True, it is not to be done without ftruggling, but however it may be done. A MAN who was not acquainted with Socrates, and who pretended to a Skill in Phyfiognomy, perceived in him the Marks Marks of certain Inclinations which Socrates was very remote from. The Phyfiognomist was laughed at, and would have loft all his Reputation, if Socrates had not been fincere enough to own that he was born with thofe Difpofitions, but that he had taken great Pains to get rid of them. WHAT cannot be done eafily, may be accomplished by a little Trouble; what cannot be brought about by flight Endeavours, may be procured by a greater Application and Perfeverance; that which is become exceedingly difficult by being deferr'd too long, would have been much lefs fo, if it had been endeavour'd at in good Time: Every one, if he will, may make happy Experiments of this, and by that means find in himfelf the Overthrow of those Systems that tend to Fatality. If there are in every Man certain Inclinations againft which Reafon has no Power, and that he is, by this means, reduced either to filence that Reason, or to the miferable Extremity of conftantly condemning himself, and doing all his Life that which he cannot avoid con condemning. If God has made us fuch, and is the Author of thefe Contrarieties, where are the Wonders of that Providence All good, and wife, Alike in what it gives, and what denies? MR Pope, Ep. I. v. 197*, and the following, still figurative in his Style, and lively in his Poetry, does not enough diftinguish between the Virtues and Vices of Men. There may be fome who may eafily know themselves in his Pictures, if they will; there are fome perhaps who will take Occafion from thence to reform. But, 'tis to be feared that many will make a wrong Ufe, and excufe themselves from growing more strictly virtuous than they are. IF Men were perfectly reasonable, Mankind would be happy, every one would confult another's Good like his own; but there are few who take Reason constantly for their Guide. The Number of thofe who give but a flight Attention to it is verygreat, and there are too many who deviate entirely from it. Nevertheless, God, M Tho' each, by Turns, the other's Right invade, &c. God, who does not think fit to new-mould Mankind, nor revoke the Liberty that he has given to human Nature, fuffers not the Abuses which they make of that Liberty; the Obliquity of their Wit, and the Corruption of their Heart, to overthrow Society, and he find means in his Wif dom to deduce Good from Ill. Men are fenfible of their Wants, each has Need of the Affiftance of others: They are from thence convinced of the Neceffity they are under of doing mutual good Offices; they are pleased with this Intercourse, and, after having begun, out of a Motive of Intereft, that which it would have been more generous to have begun out of fincere Affection, there are fome who con inue it upon more laudable Principles, That which Men would not be deter min'd to by Generofity, they apply themfelves to upon a Motive of Ambition; and Principles, which are very far from being upright, make them frame an Appearance of Virtues, which Society often receives Advantage from, but sometimes fuffers by. Thefe are the Ideas that occur'd to me, and which I have rang'd in the above Order, in reflecting upon the foregoing Verfes. Fools who from hence into the Notion fall, THIS Exclamation ftruck me, I did not expect it. Mr Pope is not used to explain his Principles in a Manner fenfible enough to let us fee the Connexion of one of his Periods with the other. THE Syftem of Fatality gives Room for this Objection: If all happens neceffarily; if our Volitions themselves, and that which appears to us the moft free, is owing to the Concatenations of Caufes, and fecret Impreffions, whofe Effects are inevitable; there paffes nothing in Intelligences, that deferves either to be rewarded or pu nished. WHEN the Author tells me Nero might have reigned like Titus, if he would; I anfwer, Could he Will it? Experience proves that he could not, for that which did happen, muft neceffarily have happen'd. Nay, the Good of the Universe requir'd that Nero fhould live as he did, for otherwife he would not have lived fo; for it did |