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But for the violation of truth, I offer no excufe, because I well know, that nothing can excufe it. Nor will I aggravate my crime, by difingenuous palliations. I confefs it, I repent it, and resolve, that my first offence fhall be my laft. More I cannot perform, and more therefore cannot be required. I intreat the pardon of all men, whom I have by any means induced to fupport, to countenance, or patronise my frauds, of which I think myself obliged to declare, that not one of my friends was confcious. I hope to deferve, by better conduct and more useful undertakings, that patronage which I have obtained from the most illuftrious and venerable names by mifrepresentation and delufion, and to appear hereafter in fuch a character, as fhall give you no reafon to regret that your name is frequently mentioned with that of,

Dec. 20, 1750.

Reverend Sir,

Your most humble fervant,

WILLIAM LAUDER.

REVIEW

OF A

FREE ENQUIRY

INTO THE

NATURE AND ORIGIN OF EVIL.

THIS is a treatise 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 speculatifts 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 licentioufnefs of Bolingbroke, yet he decides too easily upon queftions out of the reach of human determination, with too little confideration of mortal weakness, and with too much vivacity for the neceffary

caution.

In the first letter on Evil in general, he observes, that, "it is the folution of this important question, "whence came Evil, alone, that can ascertain 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

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"finitely

"finitely powerful, wife, and benevolent, the great "Creator and Preferver of all things, is a truth fo

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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 present 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.

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He rejects the Manichean fyftem, but imputes to it an abfurdity, from which, amidst all its abfurdities, it seems 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 downright nonsense; but if confidered as it affects the "univerfal fyftem, 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 "wifdom 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 these words: 66 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 must ob"ferve in every thing round us, we have reason to "conclude, that to endue created beings with perfec"tion, that is, to produce Good exclufive of Evil, "is one of thofe impoffibilities which even infinite power cannot accomplish."

66

This is elegant and acute, but will by no means calm discontent, 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 paraphrase of Pope's Epiftles, or yet less 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 insufficiency of former folutions, why is one of the latest, 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 plagiarifm 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 subject, I should wish that he would folve this queftion, Why he that has nothing to write, fhould defire to be a writer?

Yet

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 never "fure be deemed an injury, or a juft reason to quef❝tion his infinite benevolence. All our happiness is "owing to his goodness; but that it is no greater, "is owing only to ourselves; that is, to our not having any inherent right to any happiness, or even to any exiftence at all. This is no more to "be imputed to God, than the wants of a beggar to "the person 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."

26

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Thus far he speaks what every man muft 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 researches of this great invefti. gator.

"No system 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 "compofed of various colours, and of light and "fhade; 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

"effence

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