Locke. An enthusiast, who advances doctrines prejudicial to fociety, or opposes any that are ufeful to it, has the ftrength of opinion, and the heat of a disturbed imagina tion, to plead in an alleviation of his fault. But your cool head, and found judgment, can have no fuch excufe. I know very well there are paffages in all your works, and thofe not few, where you talk like a rigid moralift. I have alfo heard that your character was irreproachably good. But when, in the most laboured parts of your writings, you fap the fureft foundations of all moral du- ties; what avails it that in others, or in the conduct of your life, you appeared to refpect tim? How many, who have fironger paffions than you had, and are defirous to get rid of the curb that reftrains them, will lay hold of your fcepticism, to fet themfelves loofe from all obligations of virtue! What a misfortune is it. to have made fuch a ufe of fuch talents! It would have been better for you and for mankind, if you had been one of the dulleft of Dutch theologians, or the moft credulous monk in a Portuguese convent. The riches of the mind, like thofe of fortune, may be employed fo perversely, as to become a nuifance and peft, inftead of an ornament and fupport, to fociety.

Bay. You are very fevere upon me. But do you count it no merit, no fervice to mankind, to deliver them from the frauds and fetters of priestcraft, from the deliriums of fanaticism, and from the terrors and follies of fuperftition? Confider how much mifchief thefe have done to the world! Even in the laft age, what maffacres, what civil wars, what convulfions of government, what confufion in fociety, did they produce! Nay, in that we both lived in, though much more enlightened than the former, did I not fec them occafion a violent perfecution in my own country? and can you blame me for ftriking at the root of these evils?

Locke. The root of thefe evils, you well know, was falfe religion but you ftruck at the true. A Heaven and hell are not more different, than the fyftem of faith I defended, and that which produced the horrors of which you speak. Why would you fo fallaciously confound them together in fome of your writings, that it requires much more judgment, and a more diligent attention, than ordinary

readers have, to feparate them again, and to make the proper diftinctions? This, indeed, is the great art of the molt celebrated free thinkers. They recommend themfelves to warm and ingenuous minds, by lively ftrokes of wit, and by arguments really ftrong, against fuperftition, enthufiafm, and prieftcraft. But, at the fame time, they infidiously throw the colours of these upon the fair face of true religion; and dress her out in their garb, with a malignant intention to render her odious or defpicable, to those who have not penetration enough to difcern the impious fraud. Some of them may have thus deceived themselves, as well as others. Yet it is certain, no book, that ever was written by the most acute of these gentlemen, is fo repugnant to prieftcraft, to fpiritual tyranny, to all abfurd fuperftitions, to all that can tend to disturb or injure fociety, as that gofpel they fo much affect to defpife.

Bay. Mankind are so made, that, when they have been over heated, they cannot be brought to a proper temper. again, till they have been over cooled. My fcepticism might by neceffary, to abate the fever and phrenzy of false religion.

Locke. A wife prefcription, indeed, to bring on a/paraly-tical/ftate of the mire, (for fuch a fcepticifm as yours is a palfy, which deprives the mind of all vigour, and deadens its natural and vital powers,) in order to take off a fever, which temperance, and the milk of the evangelical doctrines, would probably cure!

Bay. I acknowledge that thofe medicines have a great power. But few doctors apply them untainted with themixture of fome harfher drugs, or fome unfafe and ridi culous noftrums of their own.

Locke. What you now fay is too true. God has given us a moft excellent phyfic for the foul, in all its diseases; but bad and interefted phyficians, or ignorant and conceited quacks, administer it fo ill to the rest of mankind, that much of the benefit of it is unhappily loft.

LORD LITTLETONE ·

CHAP. VIII.

PUBLIC SPEECHES.

SECTION 1.

CICERO AGAINST VERRES.

鼽

THE time is come, fathers, when that which has long been withed for, towards allaying the envy your order has been fubject to, and removing the imputations against trials, is effectually put in your power. An opinion has long prevailed, not only here at home, but likewife in foreign countries, both dangerous to you, and pernicious to the ftate, that, in profecutions, men of wealth are always fafe, however clearly convicted. There is now to be brought upon his trial before you, to the confufion, I hope, of the propagators of this flanderous imputation, one whofe life and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial perfons; but who, according to his own reckoning and declared dependence upon his riches, is already/acquitted; I mean Caius Verres. I demand juf tice of you, Fathers, upon the robber of the public treafury, the oppreffor of Afia Minor and Pamphylia, the invader of the rights and privileges of Romans, the fcourge and curfe of Sicily. If that fentence is paffed upon him which his crimes deferve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable and facred in the eyes of the public; but if his great riches fhould bias) you in his favour, I fhall still gain one point, to make it apparent to all the world, that what was wanting in this cafe, was not a criminal nor a prosecutor, but juftice and adequate punishment.

To pafs over the thameful irregularities of his youth, what does his quæftorship, the firft publick employment he held, what does it exhibit, but one continued fcene of villanies? Cneius Carbo plundered of the publick money by his own trcafurer, a conful ftripped and betrayed, an army deferted and reduced to want, a province robbed, the civil and religious rights of a people violat. The employment he held in Afia Minor and Pamphylia, what did it produce but the ruin of thofe countics? in which, houles, cities, and temples were robbed by him. What was his conduct in his prætorfhip here at home at the

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plundered temples, and public works neglected, that he might embezzle the money intended for carrying them on, bear witnefs. How did he difcharge the office of a judge? Let those who fuffered by his injuftice anfwer. But his prætorfhip in Sicily crowns all his works of wickednefs, and finishes a lafting monument to his infamy. The mis. chiefs done by him in that unhappy country, during the three years of his iniquitous administration, are fuch, that many years, under the wifeft and beft of prætors, will not be fufficient to restore things to the condition in which he found them for it is notorious, that, during the time of his tyranny, the Sicilians neither enjoyed the protection of their own original laws; of the regulations made for their benefit by the Roman fenate, upon their coming under the protection of the commonwealth; nor of the natural and unalienable rights of men. His nod has decided all caufes in Sicily for these three years. And his decifions have broken all law, all precedent, all right. The fums he has, by arbitrary taxes and unheard of impofitions, extorted from the industrious poor, are not to be computed. The most faithful allies of the commonwealth have been treated as enemies. Roman citizens have, like flaves, been put to death with tortures. The most atrocious

criminals, for money, have been exempted from the deferved punishments; and men of the most unexceptionable characters, condemned and banished unheard. The arbours, though fufficiently fortified, and the gates of ftrong towns, have been opened to pirates and ravagers. The foldiery and failors, belonging to a province under the protection of the commonwealth, have been ftarved to death. Whole fleets, to the great detriment of the province, fuffered to perifh. The ancient monuments of either Sicilian or Roman greatnefs, the ftatues of heroes and princes have been carried off; and the temples stripped of the images. Having, by his iniquitous fentences, filled the prifons with the most induftrious and deferving of the people, he then proceeded to order numbers of Roman citizens to be ftrangled in the gaols: fo that the exclamation, “ I am a citizen of Rome !" which has often, in the most distant regions, and among the most barbarous people, been a protection, was of no service to them; but, on the contra ry, brought a fpeedier and more fevere punishment upon them.

I afk now Verres, what thou haft to advance against this charge? Wilt thou pretend to deny it? Wilt thou pretend, that any thing falfe, that even any thing aggravated, is alledged against thee? Had any prince, or any state, committed the fame outrage against the privilege of Roman citi zens, fhould we not think we had fufficient ground for demanding fatisfaction? What punishment ought, then, to be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked prætor, who dared, at no greater distance than Sicily, within fight of the Italian coaft, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion, that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cofanus, only for his having afferted his privilege of citizenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the juftice of his country, against a cruel oppreffor, who had unjuftly confined him in prison at Syracufe, whence he had just made his escape? The unhappy man, arrested as he was going to embark for his native country, is brought before the wicked prætor. With eyes darting fury, and a countenance distorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless -victim of his rage to be stripped, and rods to be brought; accufing him, but without the least shadow of evidence, or even of fufpicion, of having come to Sicily as a spy. It was in vain that the unhappy man c ied out, “ I am a Roman citizen: I have ferved under Lucius Pretius, who is now at Panormus, and will atteft my innocence." The bloodthirsty prætor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defence ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, fathers, was an innocent Roman citizen publicly mangled with fcourging; whilft the only words he uttered, amidst his cruel fufferings, were, "Iam a Roman citizen!" With these he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy. But of fo little fervice was this privilege to him, that, while he was thus afferting his citizenship, the or der was given for his execution; for his execution upon the crofs !

O liberty! O found once delightful to every Roman ear! O facred privilege of Roman citizenship once facred! now trampled upon! But what then is it come to this? fhall an inferior magiftrate, a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within fight of Italy, bind, fcourge, torture with fire and red hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the "crofs, a Roman citizen? Shall neither the