been ever the most obscure; and, I am perfuaded, that in all ages of the world more genuine heroism has been overlooked and unknown, than either recorded or obferved. That aliquid divinum, as Tully calls it; that celestial spark which every man, who coolly contemplates his own mind, may discover within him, operates where we leaft look for it, and often raises the nobleft productions of virtue in the fhade and obfcurity of life.

BUT it is time to quit fpeculation for action, and return to the common affairs of the world. I fhall certainly do fo with more advantage, by keeping Philotes ftill in my view; as I fhall enter into the interefts of mankind with more alacrity, by thus confidering the virtues of his honest heart as lefs fingular than I am sometimes inclined to fuppofe. Adieu.

LETTER

Auguft 3, 1735.

LE

ET it not be any difcouragement to you, Philotes, that you have hitherto received but little fatisfaction from those noble speculations wherein you are employed. "Truth (to use the expreffion of the excellent Mr. Wollafton). "is the offspring of "unbroken meditations, and of thoughts "often revised and corrected." It requires indeed great patience and refolution to diffipate that cloud of darkness which surrounds her; or (if you will allow me to go to an old philofopher for my allufion) to draw her up from that profound well in which the lies concealed.

THERE is, however, fuch a general connexion in the operations of nature, that the discovery even of a single truth opens the way to numberless others; and when once the mind has hit upon a right fcent, fhe cannot wholly purfue her inquiries in vain:

Z 4

Canes

+

Canes ut montivaga perfæpe feraï
Naribus inveniunt intectas frunde quietes,
Cum femel inftiterunt veftigia certa viaï :
Sic aliud ex alio per te tute ipfe videre
in rebus poteris, cæcafque latebras
Infinuare omnes, et verum protahere inde.
LUCRET.

İr must be owned nevertheless, that, af ter having exerted all our fagacity and industry, we shall scarce arrive at certainty in many fpeculative truths. Providence does

not feem to have intended that we should ever be in poffeffion of demonflrative knowledge, beyond a very limited compass; tho' at the fame time it cannot be supposed, without the highest injuftice to the benevolent Author of our natures, that he has left any neceffary truths without evident notes of diftinction. But while the powers of the mind are thus limited in their extent, and greatly fallible likewife in their operations, is it not amazing, Philotes, that mankind fhould infult each other for difference in opinion, and treat every notion that opposes their own with obloquy and contempt? Is it not amazing that a creature with talents

lents fo precarious and circumfcribed, should ufurp that confidence which can only belong to much fuperior beings, and claim a deference which is due to perfection alone? Surely the greatest arrogance that ever entered into the human heart, is that which not only pretends to be pofitive itself in points wherein the beft and wifeft have difagreed, but looks down with all the infolent fuperiority of contemptuous pity on thofe, whofe impartial reasonings have led them into oppofite conclufions.

THERE is nothing, perhaps, more evident than that our intellectual faculties are not formed by one general standard; and confequently that diverfity of opinion is of the very effence of our natures. It seems probable that this disparity extends even to our fenfitive powers; and tho' we agree indeed in giving the famé names to certain vifible appearances, as whitenefs, for instance, to fnow; yet it is by no means demonstration, that the particular body which affects us with that fenfation, raises the fame precife idea in any two persons who shall happen to contemplate it together. Thus I have often heard you mention your youngest daughter

as

as being the exact counter-part of her mother now she does not appear to me to resemble her in any fingle feature. To what can this difagreement in our judgments be owing, but to a difference in the structure of our organs of fight? yet as juftly, Philotes, might you disclaim me for your friend, and look upon me with contempt for not discovering a fimilitude which appears fo evident to your eyes; as any man can abuse or despise another for not apprehending the force of that argument, which carries conviction to his own understanding.

HAPPY had it been for the peace of the world, if our maintainers of fyftems either in religion or politics, had conducted their feveral debates with the full impreffion of this truth upon their minds. Genuine philofophy is ever, indeed, the least dogmatical; and I am always inclined to suspect the force of that argument, which is obtruded with arrogance and fufficiency.

I AM Wonderfully pleased with a paffage I met with the other day in the preface to Mr. Boyle's Philofophical effays; and would recommend that cautious fpirit, by which he profeffes to have conducted himself in