well bred, with a tolerable fortune, sings charmingly, and her parents are perhaps of good credit: besides, I flatter myself, that my addresses are very acceptable both to her family and herself. Á. Why, there is a reason: you see you cannot will without a reason, and I declare you have the liberty of marrying; that is, you have the power of signing the contract. B. How! not will without a reason! What then becomes of another proverb? "Sit pro ra"tione voluntas;" my will is my reason. will because I will. I A. My dear friend, under favour, that is an absurdity; there would then be in you an effect without a cause. B. What! when I am playing at even or odd, is there a reason for my choosing even rather than odd ? A. Yes, to be sure. B. And pray let us hear that reason? A. Because the idea of odd presented itself to your mind before the contrary notion. It would be strange, indeed, that in some cases you will because there is a cause of volition; and that in some cases you will without any cause. In your willing to be married, you evidently perceive the determining reason; and in playing at even or odd, you do not perceive it; and yet one there must me. B. But again, am I not then free? A. Your will is not free, but your actions are; you are free to act when you have the power of acting. B. But all the books I have read on the liberty of indifference A. Are A. Are nonsense: there is no such thing as liberty of indifference; (') it is a word void of sense, and coined by those who were not overloaded with it. LIMITS OF THE HUMAN UNDER. STANDING. POOR doctor, these limits are every where. Art thou for knowing how it comes to pass, that thy arm and thy leg obey thy will, and thy liver does not? Wouldest thou investigate how thought is formed in thy minute understanding, and the child in that woman's womb? I give thee what time thou wilt. Tell me also what is matter? Thy equals have written ten thousand-volumes on this article: some qualities of this substance they have found, and children know them as well as thyself; but what is that substance essentially? and what is that to which thou hast given the appellation of spirit, from a Latin word signifying breath, in the want of a better, because thou hast no idea of it? See this grain of corn which I throw into the ground, and tell me how it rises again to shoot. forth (1) Here our author has followed Mr. Locke, who says, "that liberty belongs not to the will; and that it is as insignificant to ask, whether a man's will be "free, as to ask, whether his sleep be swift, or his "virtue square. For liberty being but a power belongs only to agents, and cannot be an attribute of the "will, which is also but a power." See this notion refuted by Dr. Clarke in his Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of a God, 66 forth a stem with an ear? Inform me how the same ground produces an apple on this tree, and a chesnut in that next to it: I could, fill a folio with such questions, to which thy answer ought to be, I know not. And yet thou hast taken thy degrees, and wearest a furred gown and cap, and art called master; and there is another fool, who, priding himself upon a petty employment in some paltry town, conceits that he has likewise purchased the privilege of judging, and condemning what he does not understand. Montaigne's motto was, "What do I know?" (Que sai-je?) and thine is, "What do I not "know?" (Que ne sai-je pas?) LOVE. AMOR omnibus idem, Here we must call in the constitution; the ground is natural, and embroidered by imagination. Shall I give you an idea of love? View the sparrows in thy garden; view thy pidgeons; behold the bull led to thy heifer; look on that spirited horse, which two of thy servants are bringing to thy mare, who quietly waits his coming, and turns aside her tail to admit him; how his eyes glare, how he neighs; observe how he prances; his erect ears, his convulsed mouth, his snorting, his turgid nostrils, his fiery breath issuing from them; the flutterings of his mane; the impetuosity with which he rushes on the object that nature has appointed for him: but forbear all jealousy, and consider the advantages of the human species; in matters of love they make up for those which nature has given given to beasts, strength, beauty, activity, and velocity. There are even creatures strangers to fruition. It is a delight of which shell-fish are deprived; the female ejects millions of eggs on the slime and mud; the male, in passing by fecundates them by his sperm, without troubling himself what female they belong to. Most creatures in copulation receive pleasure only from one sense, and that appetite satisfied, sink into insensibility. Thou alone of all animals art acquainted with the warm endearments of embraces; thy whole body glows with ecstatic sensations; thy lips especially enjoy a most sweet delight, without satiety or weariness, and this delight is peculiar to thy species. Lastly, thou canst at all times give thyself to love; whereas other creatures have only a stated season. Reflect on these pre-eminences, and thou wilt say with the earl of Rochester, "Love would cause the deity to be worshipped in a land of "atheists." As it has been imparted to mankind to improve the several gifts of nature, they have made improvements in love. Cleanliness, or the care of one's person, rendering the skin softer, increases the pleasure of touch; and attention to health adds a more exquisite sensibility to the organs of voluptuousness. All other sentiments combine with that of love, as metals amalgamate with gold: friendship and esteem join to support it; and the talents, both of the body and mind, are additional ties. "Nam facit ipsa suis interdum fæmina factis, Self-love Self-love especially adds force to the several ties. We are enraptured with our choice, and a crowd of illusions decorate that work, of which the foundation is laid in nature. Such is thy pre-eminence above other animals ; but if thou enjoyest so many pleasures withheld from them; how many vexations are thy portion of which beasts have no idea! One dreadful circumstance to thee is, that, in three-fourths of the earth, nature has infected the delights of love and the source of life with a horrible distemper, to which man alone is subject, and, in him affecting only the organs of generation. This contagion is not like many other distempers, the consequence of excesses; neither was it debauchery which brought it into the world. Phryne, Laïs, Flora, and Messalina, knew nothing of it. It received its birth in islands, where mankind lived in innocence; and thence it has spread itself into the old world. If ever nature could be arraigned of neglecting its work, of thwarting its own plan, and counteracting its own views, it is here. Is this the best of the possible worlds? What! has Cæsar, Anthony, Octavius never had this distemper; and was it not possible that it shouldnot prove the death of Francis I.? No, it is said, things were so ordered for the best; I will believe so, but that's very melancholy for those to whom Rabelais dedicated his book. SOCRATIC |