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HERE is nothing more evident, than that human Nature, from its earliest Existence, is endowed with certain Dispositions and Inclinations, which gradually difclose themselves in Proportion as the Machine of the human Body acquires a proper Confiftence. Hence it is, that the Spirit and the

Idea of the Machinist cannot be manifested, but by Degrees, as the Parts of the Machine formed by him grow perfect and fall into the Order and Connection he intended; although the fpiritual Idea and the Defign precede the Conftruction of the Work, which depends thereon, whilft the Execution and the Effect reciprocally depend on the perfect Organization of the Body.

THE Senfations I am speaking of, whether we call them innate Ideas, in the Stile of the Platonifts, or Ideas acquired by Education, according to the Phrafe of the Partifans of Locke, (for it is only a Dispute about Words) are not less fenfible and natural in all rightly organized Men, from the Moment they become capable of reflecting on their natural Bent. All the Arguments made use of by Locke, in his firft Book on the Human Underfanding, are levelled only at a Phantom, which Plato probably never dreamed of, as it is diametrically oppofite to his System of the Pre-existence of human Souls. A philofopher that built on that Foundation, and perhaps on the Pythagorean Metempfychofis, was not out in afferting, that the Knowledge which 'Souls feem to acquire in their mortal

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Bodies, was nothing elfe but a Reminiscence of the Knowledge of former Things which they must needs have previoufly acquired. Mr. Locke ought to have proved that Plato' maintained, that originally, and from the Moment of their beginning to exist, all human Souls were endowed with those Ideas, which we call innate, only with respect to the Application and reiterated Junction which the Author of Nature makes of Souls to Bodies by material Generation.

POSSIBLY he might have argued more confequentially, had he attacked the Pre-existence of Souls and the Metempfychofis, or else the Contradictions of certain Schools, where they connect the innate Ideas with the Doctrine of Ariftotle: It was on these Heads he might have displayed the Strength of his fuperior Genius, which has made fo brilliant a Figure in England, where fome have imagined that his Way of Thinking and his Principles, which have a direct Tendency to Materialism, would serve to overturn and destroy all the fpiritual Ideas the World has entertained in all Ages. However, Mr. Locke fufficiently dif covered that this was not his Intention, though the Effect did not ill tally with it; and he openly,

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openly, and perhaps very fincerely, protested against all the pernicious Confequences that have been arbitrarily deduced from his Principles. His admired Essay on the human UnderStanding is indifputably the weakest of all his Works; its Credit is much declined among the Learned, and feems only to be kept up by the great Reputation Mr. Locke acquired by his other very judicious Works, with which he has honoured and inriched our Age.

THE Pre-existence of Souls, and the Metempfychofis, are Systems that have always found Entertainment among Mankind, and will perpetually haunt us, in spite of all Endeavours to disperse them, unless a fuperior Authority and a celestial Light blot out the very Ideas and Remembrance of them. St. Auguftin, though a good Christian and a good Philofopher, does not seem to have acknowledged that Authority nor that commanding Light in regard to fuch Questions.

He durft not take upon him to decide in these Matters; and every sober Man will always acknowledge, that fuch Questions are out of the Sphere of human Action; and that whether we admit or reject them, it is but beating

beating the Air. Thus much is evident, that neither of them are neceffary towards establishing Piety, Justice and Temperance, the only Virtues that can make us happy. Those Men who contend for nothing but Licentiousness, speed no better with the Pre-existence of Souls and their Metempsychofis, than with the System generally adopted by Schoolmen: And accordingly, of late years, they have fallen into Pneumacy, and with the utmost Obstinacy have intrenched themselves behind the defperate System of Automacy and pure Machinifm.

M. de la Mettrie has given full Swing to his Imagination, in the two Books of which he is unfortunately the Author, in order totally to machinalize the human Mind, on the Traces of the famous Des Cartes, who quite materialized the fenfitive Faculties or Souls of Beafts. His Man a Machine contains Abfurdities and Paralogifms, which he himself would not difown; for notwithstanding all his Prejudices, he does not want Senfe nor Sincerity. His Reflections on Seneca's happy Life, are nothing but the Confequences of his first Book, which at Paris was ordered to be burnt, as well as certain Works of the fame Kind that have appeared of late Years. B 3

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