before obferved, it is fufficient for the writer's purpofe; and words will ever excite ideas according to the understandings and imaginations of mankind. Upon the whole, though we think the author of this piece mistaken in his fundamental principles, and alfo in his deductions from them, yet we must fay, we have read his book with pleafure: he has certainly employed much thinking; there are many ingenious and elegant remarks, which, though they do not enforce or prove his firft pofition, yet, confidering them detached from his fyftem, they are new and just and we cannot difmifs this article without recommending a perufal of the book to all our readers, as we think they will be recompenfed by a great deal of fentiment, perfpicuous, elegant, and harmonious ftile, in many paffages both in Sublime and Beautiful. 1 R E VIEW OF A FREE E ΙΝΤΟ THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF EVIL. THI HIS is a treatife confifting of Six Letters upon a very difficult and important queftion, which I am afraid this author's endeavours will not free from the perplexity, which has intangled the fpeculatifts of all ages, and which must always continue while we fee but in part. He calls it a Free Enquiry, and indeed his freedom is, I think, greater than his modefty. Though he is far from the contemptible arrogance, or the impious licentioufness of Bolingbroke, yet he decides too eafily upon queftions out of the reach of human determination, with too little confideration of mortal weakness, and with too much vivacity for the necessary caution. In the first letter on Evil in general, he obferves, that, it is the folution of this important question, "whence came Evil, alone, that can afcertain the "moral characteristick of God, without which there "is an end of all diftinction between Good and Evil." Yet he begins this Enquiry by this declaration: "That there is a Supreme Being, in finitely finitely powerful, wife, and benevolent, the great "Creator and Preferver of all things, is a truth fo "clearly demonftrated, that it fhall be here taken "for granted." What is this but to fay, that we have already reason to grant the existence of those attributes of God, which the prefent Enquiry is defigned to prove? The prefent Enquiry is then furely made to no purpose. The attributes to the demonstration of which the folution of this great question is neceffary, have been demonftrated without any folution, or by means of the folution of fome former writer.. He rejects the Manichean fyftem, but imputes to it an abfurdity, from which, amidst all its abfurdities, it feems to be free, and adopts the fyftem of Mr. Pope." That pain is no evil, if afferted with "regard to the individuals who fuffer it, is down"right nonfenfe, but if confidered as it affects the "univerfal system, is an undoubted truth, and "means only that there is no more pain in it than "what is neceffary to the production of happiness. "How many foever of thefe evils then force them"felves into the creation, fo long as the good pre ponderates, it is a work well worthy of infinite "wisdom and benevolence; and, notwithstanding "the imperfections of its parts, the whole is most " undoubtedly perfect." And in the former part of the Letter, he gives the principle of his fyftem in thefe words: " Omnipotence cannot work contra"dictions, it can only effect all poffible things. "But fo little are we acquainted with the whole fyftem of nature, that we know not what are 'poffible, and what are not: but if we may judge << from. "from that conftant mixture of pain with pleasure, "and inconveniency with advantage, which we "muft obferve in every thing around us, we have "reafon to conclude, that to endue created beings "with perfection, that is, to produce Good ex"clufive of Evil, is one of thofe impoffibilities "which even infinite power cannot accomplish." This is elegant and acute, but will by no means calm difcontent, or filence curiofity; for whether Evil can be wholly feparated from Good or not, it is plain that they may be mixed in various degrees, and as far as human eyes can judge, the degree of Evil might have been lefs without any impediment to good. The fecond Letter on the evils of imperfection, is little more than a paraphrafe of Pope's Epistles, or yet lefs than a paraphrafe, a mere tranflation of poetry into profe. This is furely to attack difficulty with very difproportionate abilities, to cut the Gordian knot with very blunt inftruments. When we are told of the infufficiency of former folutions, why is one of the lateft, which no man can have forgotten, given us again? I am told, that this pamphlet is not the effort of hunger: what can it be then but the product of vanity? and yet how can vanity be gratified by plagiarifin, or tranfcription? When this fpeculatift finds himself prompted to another performance, let him confider whether he is about to difburthen his mind, or employ his fingers; and if I might venture to offer him a fubject, I fhould wish that he would folve this question, Why he that has nothing to write, fhould defire to be a writer? Yet is not this Letter without fome fentiments, which, though not new, are of great importance, and may be read with pleasure in the thoufandth repetition. "Whatever we enjoy is purely a free gift from "our Creator; but that we enjoy no more, can ne“ver sure be deemed an injury, or a just reason to question his infinite benevolence. All our happinefs is owing to his goodnefs; but that it is no greater, is owing only to ourfelves; that is, to "our not having any inherent right to any happi"nefs, or eyen to any existence at all. This is no "more to be imputed to God, than the wants of a beggar to the perfon who has relieved him: that "he had fomething, was owing to his benefactor; "but that he had no more, only to his own original "poverty." Thus far he speaks what every man must approve, and what every wife man has faid before him. He then gives us the fyftem of fubordination, not invented, for it was known I think to the Arabian metaphyficians, but adopted by Pope; and from him borrowed by the diligent refearches of this great investigator. "No fyftem can poffibly be formed, even in "imagination, without a fubordination of parts. "Every animal body must have different members, "fubfervient to each other; every picture must be "composed of various colours, and of light and "shade; all harmony must be formed of trebles, "tenors, and baffes; every beautiful and ufeful edi"fice must confift of higher and lower, more and lefs magnificent apartments. This is in the very ef |