others; who, if they were now in the world, tied fast, and separate from their followers, would, in this our undistinguishing age, incur manifest danger of phlebotomy, and whips, and chains, and dark chambers, and straw. For, what man in the natural state or course of thinking, did ever conceive it in his power, to reduce the notions of all mankind, exactly to the same length, and breadth, and height of his own? yet, this is the first humble and civil design of all innovators in the empire of reason. Epicurus modestly hoped, that one time or other, a certain fortuitous concourse of all men's opinions, after perpetual justlings, the sharp with the smooth, the light and the heavy, the round and the square, would, by certain clinamina, unite in the notions of atoms and void, as these did in the originals of all things. Cartesius reckoned to see, before he died, the sentiments of all philosophers, like so many lesser stars in his romantick system, wrapped and drawn within his own vortex. Now, I would gladly be informed, how it is possible to account for such imaginations as these in particular men, without recourse to my phenomenon of vapours, ascending from the lower faculties to overshadow the brain, and there distilling into conceptions, for which the narrowness of our mother-tongue has not yet assigned any other name, beside that of madness or phrenzy. Let us therefore now conjecture how it comes to pass, that none of these great prescribers, do ever fail providing themselves and their notions, with a number of implicit disciples. And, I think, the reason is easy to be assigned: for, there is a peculiar string in the harmony of human understanding, which in several individuals is exactly of the *This is ungrammatical. It should be, 'do ever fail to provide themselves,' &c. or if the participle be used, it should be o ever fail of providing,' &c. S. same tuning. This if you can dexterously screw up to its right key, and then strike gently upon it whenever you have the good fortune to light among those of the same pitch, they will, by a secret necessary sympathy, strike exactly at the same time. And in this one circumstance lies all the skill or luck of the matter; for if you chance to jar the string among those, who are either above or below your own height, instead of subscribing to your doctrine, they will tie you fast, call you mad, and feed you with bread and water. It is therefore a point of the nicest conduct, to distinguish and adapt this noble talent, with respect to the differences of persons and of times. Cicero understood this very well, when writing to a friend in England, with a caution, among other matters, to beware of being cheated by our hackney-coachmen (who, it seems, in those days were as errant rascals as they are now) has these remarkable words: Est quod gaudeas te in ista loca venisse, ubi aliquid sapere viderere. For, to speak a bold truth, it is a fatal miscarriage so ill to order affairs, as to pass for a fool in one company, when in another you might be treated as a philosopher. Which I desire some certain gen *The excellent Translator of Cicero's Familiar Letters obBerves that Swift has applied a passage in them, with more bumour, perhaps, than it was at first conceived. And yet half the application is founded on a false fact. "In the Tale of a Tub," he says "Cicero, writing to his friend Trebatius in England, with a caution, among other matters, to beware of being cheated by our hackney-coachmen (who, it seems, in those days were as arrant rascals as they are now), has these very remarkable words, Est quod gaudeas te in ista loca venisse, ubă aliquid sapere viderere." Ep. Fam. vii. 1o. Would any one think now, that the very next words in Cicero shew, that Trebatius did NOT go into England? And yet it follows, With bow much greater advantage would your noble talents have appeared, HAD YOU GONE inte BRITAIN W, B. tlemen of my acquaintance to lay up in their hearts, as a very seasonable innuendo. This, indeed, was the fatal mistake of that worthy gentleman, my most ingenious friend, Mr. Wotton: a person, in appearance, ordained for great designs, as well as performances; whether you will consider his notions or his looks, surely no man ever advanced into the publick, with fitter qualifications of body and mind, for the propagation of a new religion. O, had those happy talents, misapplied to vain philosophy, been turned into their proper channels of dreams and visions, where distortion of mind and countenance are of such sovereign use; the base detracting world would not then have dared to report, that something is amiss, that his brain has undergone an unlucky shake which even his brother modernists themselves, like ungrates, do whisper so loud, that it reaches up to the very garret I am now writing in! Lastly, whosoever pleases to look into the fountains of enthusiasm, from whence in all ages have eternally proceeded such fattening streams, will find the spring head, to have been as troubled and muddy, as the current of such great emolument is a tineture of this vapour, which the world calls madness, that without its help, the world would not only be deprived of those two great blessings, conquests and systems, but even all mankind, would unhappily be reduced to the same belief in things invisible. Now, the former pestulatum being held, that it is of no import from what originals this vapour proceeds, but either in what angles it strikes and spreads over the understanding, or upon what species of brain it ascends; it will be a very delicate point to cut the feather, and divide the several reasons to a nice and curious reader, how this numerical difference in the brain, can produce effects of so vast a difference from the same vapour*, as to be the sole point of individuation, between Alexander the Great, Jack of Leyden, and monsieur Des Cartes. The present argument is the most abstracted, that ever I engaged in; it strains my faculties to their highest stretch and I desire the reader to attend with the utmost propensity; for I now proceed to unravel this knotty point. : There is in mankind a certaint Having therefore so narrowly passed through this intricate difficulty, the reader will, I am sure, agree with me in the conclusion; that if the moderns mean by madness, only a disturbance or transposition, of the brain, by force of certain vapours issuing up from the lower faculties; then has this madness been the parent of all those mighty revolutions, that have happened in empire, philosophy, and in religion. For, the brain, in its natural position and state of serenity, disposes its owner to pass his life in the common forms, without any thoughts of subduing multitudes to his own power, his reasons, or his visions; and the more he shapes his understanding by the pattern of human learning, the less he is inclined to form parties, after his parti cular notions; because that instructs him in his private infirmities, as well as in the stubborn ignorance of the people. But when a man's fancy *How the same nerves are fashion'd to sustain The greatest pleasure, and the greatest pain.' GARTH. MS. Pate. + Here is another defect in the manuscript; but I think the author did wisely, and that the matter, which thus strained his faculties, was not worth a solution; and it were well if all meta physical cobweb problems were no otherwise answered. H. gets astride on his reason; when imagination is at cuffs with the senses; and common understanding, as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors the first proselyte he makes, is himself; and when that is once compassed, the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others; a strong delusion always operating from without, as vigoroufly as from within. For, cant and vision, are to the ear and the eye, the same that tickling is to the touch. Those entertainments and pleasures we most value in life, are such as dupe and play the wag with the senses. For, if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts, will herd under this short definition; that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived. And first, with relation to the mind or understanding, it is manifest, what mighty advantages fiction has over truth; and the reason is just at our elbow, because imagination can build nobler scenes, and produce more wonderful revolutions, than fortune or nature will be at expense to furnish. Nor is mankind so much to blame, in his choice* thus determining him, if we consider that the debate merely lies between things past, and things conceived and so the question is only this; whether things, that have place in the imagination, may not as properly be said to exist, as those that are seated in the memory; which may be justly held in the affirmative, and very much to the advantage of the former, since this is acknowledged to be the womb of things, and the other allowed to be no more than the grave. Again, if : *Here, as was observed on a similar occasion, 'his' is very improperly put in agreement with mankind; and what follows is ungrammatical. It ought either to be, in his choice's thus determining him; or, in being thus determined in his choice.' S. |