"vated the horrors of the grave?

"Is it poffible, that this may have happened in many inftances? Is it probable, that this hath happened "in one fingle inftance ?--Ye traytors "to human kind, ye murderers of "the human foul, how can ye an"fwer for it to your own hearts! "Surely, every fpark of your gene"rofity is extinguished for ever, if "this confideration do not awaken in

you the keeneft remorfe, and make 66 you wish in bitternefs of foul-But "I remonftrate in vain. All this must "have often occurred to you, and "been as often rejected, as utterly fri"volous. Could I inforce the pre"fent topic by an appeal to your va"nity, I might poffibly make fome "impreffion. But to plead with you "on the principles of BENEVOLENCE, ' OF GENEROSITY, is to address you

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"in a language ye do not, or will not, "understand; and as to the shame of being convicted of abfurdity, igno"rance, or want of candour, ye have "long ago proved yourselves fuperior "to the fenfe of it.-But let not the "lovers of truth be difcouraged. "Atheism cannot be of long conti"nuance, nor is there much danger "of it's becoming univerfal. The "influence of fome confpicuous cha"racters hath brought it too much into "fashion; which, in a thoughtless "and profligate age, it is no difficult matter to accomplish. But when "men have retrieved the powers of "ferious reflection, they will find it "a frightful phantom; and the mind. "will return gladly and eagerly to "it's old endearments. One thing

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we certainly know; the fashion of fceptical and metaphysical systems

66 paffeth away. Thofe unnatural pro"ductions, the vile effufions of a hard "and ftupid heart, that mistakes it's "own restleffnefs for the activity of <s genius, and it's own captioufnefs "for fagacity of understanding, may, "like other monsters, please awhile

by their fingularity; but the charm "is foon over; and the fucceeding

age will be aftonished to hear, that "their fore-fathers were deluded, "or amufed, with fuch fooleries."

You, Sir, have read the preceding paragraph before; but this Letter may come into the hands of many, who have not. It is the alarum bell to the admirers of Mr. HUME; and fhould be rung in their ears, till fucceeded by the last trumpet.

And now, Sir, will you give me leave to ask you a few questions? Why all this hurry and bustle, this eagerness to gratify the pretended

"impatience of the Public,*" and fatisfy it, that our philofopher lived and died perfectly compofed and eafy? Was there, then, any fufpicion, in SCOTLAND, that he might not, at times, be quite fo compofed and eafy as he fhould have been? Was there any particular BOOK ever written against him, that shook his fyftem to pieces about his ears, and reduced it to a heap of ruins, the fuccefs and eclat of which might be fuppofed to have hurt his mind, and to have affected his health? Was there any AUTHOR, whofe name his friends never dared to mention before him, and warned all strangers that were introduced to him, against doing it, because he never failed, when by any accident it was done, to fly out into

*Preface to LIFE, &C.

C

a transport of paffion and fwearing? * Was it deemed neceffary, or expedient, on this account, that he should represent himself, and that you fhould represent him, to have been perfectly fecure of the growth and increase of his philofophic reputation, as if no book had been written, which had

* "I was a man of mild difpofitions, of "command of temper, little fufceptible of en

mity and of great moderation in all my paf"fions. Even my love of literary fame, my "ruling paffion, never fowered my temper." LIFE, p. 32. Yet even by what is faid of the Reverends and right Reverends - Bishop WARBURTON, Bishop HURD, the Zealots (that is, the Chriftians) and of the refolution once taken to " change his name and to fettle in "France," becaufe his writings did not meet with fufficient encouragement - by these circumftances, I fay, there feems to have been fomething of the irritable in his conftitution. But thefe are trifles. My quarry lies not this way, at present. I fly at nobler game. The atrocious wickednefs of diffufing atheism through the land, is a fubject which concerns every body.