to be the other; for as wisdom, so is virtue, the fruit of a good understanding. Is it not the bold, the discreet, the steady Reasoner, on whom the friends of liberty must depend for the preservation and protection of their liberties? is it not he who must be the advocate of our rights, both civil and sacred? the wise dictator, both in peace and war? the reformer of religion and law? The most effectual pleader for our excellent King, our happy Country, and our worthy Senators? Where the ground of understanding is not cultivated, it can produce no fruit of any value: therein the wild weeds of superstition, the thorns of foolish mortifications, ignominious condescensions, and slavish acquiescence grow.

Our

To excite and entertain the mind is the design of this paper; let our readers examine, ponder, and judge of all things for themselves, all who have arrived to years of consideration and discretion. intention is not to entertain men only, but the fair sex also; both are comprehended in the term mankind; and both equally entitled to regard. To the latter we are disposed to pay all due respect without flattery, which makes them fools; and without deceit, which betrays them into error and misfortune. The fair sex, by learning to think, will be made still fairer; inward beauty will enhance the outward, will shine through it, and make their looks still more lovely. The beauty of a good understanding is more durable than what age withers, and more refulgent than what accident may destroy. It is the glory of the head, as virtue is the excellency of the heart. Wisdom and goodness are the most adorable attributes of divine nature. Our intention is to enquire who is for, and who is against the cause of truth and freedom, who are their fast and who their false friends; to expose those who prostitute either to their lusts, or to sordid interest; and to provoke the reserved and artful to declare themselves openly

whether they set up faith against common sense, philosophy against nature, law against honesty, and polity against reasonable liberty and conscientious toleration; or will allow that they ought to support each other.

We will exert our endeavours that crafty leaders of men's understandings, and their bigotted adherents, may be ashamed to defend vice in those they consecrate saints, and condemn the virtues of those they stigmatize sinners. Our aim is, to pull off the mask of sanctity from wolves in sheep's cloathing; and shew, that a saint without virtue, is a hypocrite; that absurdities are not divine mysteries; and that the professed believer of such, is inebriated with nonsense that intoxicates his understanding. We desire to see and search out what is good; to enquire into wisdom and folly; to represent each in their native garb and colours, judging from the light within; and from the nature of things, as they present themselves, or are represented by designing men to shew the difference between the one and the other; and leave the advocates for error to defend their systems as well as they can. We doubt not but by this employment, pleasing and easy to us, our adversaries will find themselves subjected to a very displeasing and difficult task, notwithstanding their vain boast, that convincing answers to all the objections continually made by carnal reason against their dogmas, have been repeatedly given. They will find all the helps of the fathers and mothers, friends to ecclesiastic deceit, the artful evasions, prevarications, forced interpretations, and ambuscades of expositors, will be too weak to defend ill connected systems; and that the disagreeing materials, with which they build on their sandy foundations, will be disjointed, their building demolished, and the Babel builders confounded by their disagreements, and unintelligible jargon. If they are deficient in reasoning, it will appear by their

raving and railing, the sure refuge for those whom reason forsakes; and the world will have an opportunity to see what spirit they are of. It shall be our care to try all men's deeds and doctrines, which come within our district or observation, by the light of reason; that they may stand with honour, or fall with contempt, as that impartial judge shall give sentence, whose ministers we profess to be. At this court every one who means well, and desires to know what is right, may freely appear, and hold up his head with that becoming boldness which only an honest heart can give.

'What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,

The soul's calm sun-shine, and the heart felt joy
Is virtue's prize

POPE.

The present age, so distinguishable for the spirit of improvement, and a taste for elegance, seems unhappily to have extended the latter too far, when it was introduced into the regions of literature. Elegance of action and spirited language, take place now, of plain meaning and close reasoning. Folly and knavery are too frequently disguised by the flowing harmony of well turned periods: and pretty flowery compositions are often published to the world; in which, after being amused throughout the whole performance, the reader cannot discover one single thought, or carry away one solid position. The wise Athenians were so sensible of the evil of countenancing the arts of rhetoricians, that it was corporally dangerous for the specious orator to attempt amusing the high court of Areopagus with a licentious display of his abilities. From a like sense of the mischievous tendency of luxurious language, we also disclaim all assistance from it: as we desire not to persuade but to convince, not to declaim but to demonstrate.- -Strictly adhering to the Apostle's advice, in our motto, at the beginning of the paper.

No. 2.]

THE

FREE ENQUIRER.

SATURDAY.

[Oct. 24, 1761.

The Free Enquirers are agreeably encouraged in their new undertaking, by the very early offer of assistance from a correspondent, to whom, they think, they cannot better shew their acknowledgments, than by an immediate publication of his first favour, especially as the subject of it so naturally follows their previous address to the public.

TO THE FREE ENQUIRERS. GENTLEMEN,

ALTHOUGH We may, with some appearance of truth, compliment the times we live in, for the great advancement of every class of knowledge, the thinking part of mankind are still but comparatively few. Useful learning will certainly be cultivated to the greatest advantage, where liberty, the natural birthright of mankind, is maintained; yet, even in our free and happy country, a thoughtless dissipation, and an ignorant enthusiasm, still divide the majority of men! the one, owing to an heedless resignation to present pleasure; and the other, to an obstinate meditation on objects of remote expectancy. Viewing matters in this light, I consider the scheme of your projected weekly paper, as having a tendency to correct both these contrary errors; and therefore eagerly wish you all the success which the integrity of your intentions may merit. You may perceive I am not given to complimenting; flattery, at all times absurd, is more particularly foreign to the present occasion; the purpose of my hasty address to you, is briefly this. A sober perusal of your first

number, though it did not produce a nap and a vision, a common case with humble correspondents, yet led me into a train of thinking on the nature and importance of human reason; the result of which is at your service.

6

To engage in a formal apology for the exercise of the human understanding, that only distinguishing characteristic which marks our superiority over the whole animal creation, appears, at first view, to be a ridiculous undertaking; an employment more likely to excite contempt, than to obtain applause, were we not sensible that there are men so strangely, so impiously unthankful, as to spurn this precious pearl from them, and to resign all claim to humanity, except what they owe to their external form.

This known truth, will, however, I hope, plead my excuse, and justify my present intention; which is, to shew that the great Creator has amply furnished man with abilities, both of body and mind, fully suited to the purposes of his formation and existence: that the most laudable method of paying our acknowledgments to him for this kindness, consists in the right application of our faculties; since, in this, we fulfil the intention of the donation, in which we also happen to be a small matter interested; namely our own felicity: and lastly, to shew, that whenever we distrust our own faculties, and seek for preternatural illumination, we are most miserably deluded.

'I flatter myself that I may be credited with sincerity, in my opinion as to this matter; since I am a volunteer in what I esteem a just cause; and since I am not likely to gain any thing by my doctrine, more than the satisfaction arising from a persuasion that I bear testimony to the truth. I aim not to make men believe they are sick, with a view to the recommending any spiritual nostrum of my own, which I might want to retail for pecuniary considerations.

Far from all this; I would convince the