II. of Prufiia, whom they call the Solomon of the North, Ca-

tharine II. Guftavus King of Sweden, the King of Denmark, &c. &c. But in the whole feries of their correfpondence there is not the leaft trace of any encouragement or any hopes from our excellent Sovereign George III. Defpifing the incenfe of fuch wretches, and detefting their fcience, he has truly merited the title of Philofopher, by having done more for the real Illu- mination of the World, by the promotion of true Science, tliati Louis XIV. with his penfioned Academicians, or than all th« prefent Sovereigns of Europe united ; and has uniformly diftin- guilhed himfelf by his regard for true Religion, and every thing that is venerable and facred. This omillion is above all praife*
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been occupied with its nor have I ever heard it ex- prefled by any Brother, except fuch as had been illuminated -, and fuch Brethren always confidered | this as an innovation or improvement on genuine Britilli Free Malbnry. I recoileci;, indeed, that Nicholai, in his account of the German Rofycru- cians, fays, that the object of l^ree Mafonry in England^ fince the time of James II. \i Toleration in Religious Gpnions^ as RoyaUjm had been the obje6b before that time.
The account which the Abbe gives of the Che- Valerie du Soleil is very conformable to one of the three rituals in my polTefiion. His account of the Chevalerie de Rcfe Croix, and fome others, differs confiderably from thofe in my box. I have reafon to think that my materials are tranfcripts from the rituals;"^ &c. which Rofa introduced into the Ger- nian Lodges, becaufe the writer of the greatcil part of them is an inhabitant of that city.
I think that the Abbe Barruel's account of this matter fuggeils a pleafmg reflection. All the Bre- thren on the Continent agree in faying, that Free Mafonry was imported from Great Britain about the beginning of this century, and this in the form of a Myflical Society. It has been affiduoufiy cul- tivated in Britain ever fmce that time, and I believe that the Fraternity is more numerous here, in pro- portion to the population of the country, than in any other kingdom ; yet in Britain the Brethren have never fufpedied that its principles were fedi- tious or atheiftical. While the Free Mafonry of the Continent was tricked up with all the frippery of ftars and ribands, or was perverted to the molt profligate and impious purpofes, and the Lodges became fcminaries of Foppery, of Sedition, and Lmpiety, it has retained in Britain its original form,
fimple
POSTSCRIPT. 385
fimple and unadorned, and the Lodges have re- mained the fcenes of innocent merriment, or meet- ings of Charity and Beneficence. As the good fcnfe and found judgments of Britons Iiave preferved them from the abfurd follies of Tranfmucacion, of Ghoft-raifing, and of Magic, fo their honed hearts and their innate good difpofitions have made them dcteft and reject the mad proje6ls and impious doc- trines of Colmopolites, Epicurifts, and Atheifts.
O fortiinatos nimium, Jiiafi bona nor rat Anglkolas I
I have miOre confidence than ever in the fenti- raent which I exprelled as an encouragement for our moral inii:ru6tors ; and with greater earneR:- nefs do I call on them to refcue from corruption and impending ruin a nation fo highly deferving of their care.
Mr. Barruel, in the eighteenth chapter of his work, has fup-s;e{led fome reflections, which hiehlv merit attention, and greatly tend to efface the mi- prelTion which is naturally made on the minds of the unthinking and precipitant, when they oblerve fuch a lift of authors, whom they have been accuf- tomed to admire, ail leagued againft Religion. 1 think, however, that nothing can more effectually remove it, than what I have already fhown of the vile and difgraceful tricks which thefe fophifts have been guilty of to fupport their caufe. The caufe -of this numerous affociation is diitin£l;Jy feen in their very procedure. The very firil ftep in their pro - grefs is depravation of manners. In this they have laboured with as much earneftnefs as either Sparta- c\is, or Minos, or Bahrdt. It was a treat to me 10 learn that La Clofe's abominable book Les Liaifuns
Dan^ereijcs,
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Dangereufes, was not merely pandering for his pa- tron Orleans, but alfo working for his maftcrs at the Hotel d'Holbach. Nothing gives fuch certain bread to thofe authors, in the beginning of their career, as immoral and impure writings j — and with fuch did even their chief fet out, and fill his pock- ets; witnefs his Pucelle d' Orleans ; and even after they became the Jages of France^ they continued, cither from coarfe taile or from fcrious principle, for the diabolical purpofc of inflaming the palTions of others, to interlard their graveft performances with impure thoughts and fentiments. Nay, the fecret of the Hotel d'Holbach fliews us that, for any thing we know to the contrary, the vileft pro- duclions of their prefs may have been the compofi- tions of the o6togenary Voltaire, of the fly d'Alem- bert, or of the author of the Fere de Famille. What a pity it is that the Decline of the Roman Empire was not all written in England, and that its learned and elegant author, by going into their fociety, has allowed himfelf to be drawn into this muddy and degrading vortex !
I fnould fcarceiy aflc for more to difgufl: me with the philofophy of thefe fages, and to make me dil- truil all their pretenfions to knowledge. The mcannefs of the conduct fuited the original poverty of the whole of them -, but its continuance ftrips them of all claims to the name of philofophers. Their pretended wifdom is only cunning, — and we mud acknowledge that their condud was clever : for this mean of corruption, concealed or embel- lilhed by their talents for frntimental flang, (I can give it no better name,) made their converfation and their writings moll acceptable to their noble patrons. — Now it is that Religion, of necelTity, comes on the iieldi for Religion tells us, that thefe
are
POSTSCRIPT. 387
are mean pleafures for creatures born to our prof- pe6bs ; and Chriftianity tells us, chat they are grofs tranfgreflions o^ the only jujt morality. The progrefs of the pupil will now be rapid ; for he will liften with willing ears to lefTons which flatter his paf- fions. Yet Voltaire thinks it neceflary to enliven the lefTons by a little of the Jalaijon, quelques hons mots a-p'O'pos aupres des femmes^ which he recom- mends to d'Alembert, who, it feems, was deficient in this kind of fmall talk.
Surely all this is very unlike to wifdom ; and when we fee that it is part of a plan, and this an obvious one, it fliould greatly lelfen our wonder at the number of thefe admired infidels. If we would now proceed to examine their pretenfions to fcience, on which they found their claim to the name of philofophers, we muft be careful to take the word in a fenfe that is unequivocal. Its true meaning is by no means what is commonly afTigned to it, a lover of knowledo-c. It is a lover of wifdom ^ and philofophy profcffes to teach us what are the con- ftituents of human felicity, and what are the means of attaining it; what are our duties, and the gene- ral rules for our conduct. The floics were philo-» fophers. The Chriflians arc alfo philofophers. The Epicureans and the Sophifls of France would alfo be called philofophers. I have put in my ob- je6tion to this claim already, and need not repeat my reafons for faying that their do6lrines are not diftates of wifdom. I fhall only add, that their own conduct fhows plainly that their principles had no effect on themlelves, becaufe we fee, from the feries of correfpondence which Mr. Barruel has laid before us, that they do not fcruple to pradlife vil- lanous and hypocritical tricks, which never fail to difgrace a man, and are totally irreconcilable with
our
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our notions of human dignity. Voltaire patiently took a caning from an officer at Frankfort, for ha- ving wittily told lies of his fcholar Frederic, and his wifdom told him that his honour was cleared by offering to meet the Major, each of them provided with an injection f]/ringe. This was thought fub- lime wit at Ferney. I do not fuppofe that the flave Epi6letus, or the foldier Digby, would have ended the affair in this manner. Many of the deeds of wifdom of the club d'Holbach were more degrading than even this ; and I am confident that the whole of this phalanx of fages were confcious that they were treated by their patrons and pupils as Voltaire was treated by the Solomon of the North, and that their notions of the vraie /(^-gejls v/erc alfo the fame with his. He gives this account of it in his letter to his niece : ^' Le Roi iui avoit repondu ; ' j'aurai *' >befoin de Voltaire un an tout au plus — On prefTe *^ Torange, et on jette I'ecorce.* Je me fuis fait ^^ repeter ces douces paroles" — (How poor Vol- taire would grin !) — ^^ Je vois bien qu'on a preiTe " I'orange — il faut penfer a fauver Tecorce.'*
But, as things fland at prefent, philofopher means a man of fcience, and in this fenfe of the word our fages claim great refpeft. No claim can be worfe founded. It is amufing to obferve the earnetlnefs with which they recommend the (ludy of natural hiftory. One does not readily fee the conne6i:ion of this with their oftenfible objeft, the happinefs of man. A perufal of Voltaire's letters betrays the fecret. Many years ago he heard that fome obfer- vations on the formation of ftrata, and the folTils found in them, were incompatible with the age which the Mofaic hiftory feems to affign to this globe. He mentions this with great exultation in fome of his early letters ; and, from that time
forward.
POSTSCRIPT. 3S9
forward, never ceafes to enjoin his colleagues to prefs the fludy of natural hiilory and cofmogony, and carefully to bring forward every fa6l: v/hich was hoftile to the Mofaic accounts. It became a ferious part of the exercifes of their wealthy pupils, and their perplexing difcoveries were niofr oilentatioufly difpiayed. M. de Luc, a very eminent naturaiiit, has Ihewn, in a letter to the Chevalier Dr. Zim- iTiermann, (pubiifhed, I think, about the year 1790,) how very icanty the knowledge of rhefe obfervers has been, and hov/ precipitate have been their con- clufions. For my own part, I think the affair is of little confequence. Mofes writes the hiftory, not of this globe, but of the race of Adam.
The fcience of thefe philofophers is not remark- able in other branches, if we except M. d'Alem- bert's mathematics"'. Yet the irnpofing confidence of Voltaire was fuch, that he pailes for a perfon fully informed, and he pronounces on every fubjed: v/ich fo much authority, with fuch a force of expref- fion, and generally with fo much wit or pleafanrry, that his hearers and readers are fafcinated, and foon convinced of what they v^ifh to be true.
It is not by the ' wifdom nor by tht profound knowledge which thefe waiters difplay, that they
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* Never Vv^as there any thing more contemptible than the phylical and mechanical pofitions in Diderot's great work, th» Syjleme de la NaturCy (Barruel ailirrns, ihat he was the author, and got 100 piftoles for the copy, from the perfon who related the ftory to him,) that long ago found that Diderot had alTifled Robinet to make a book out of his Mafonic Oration, which I mentioned in page 41. Robinet tru lied to Diderot's knowledges in natural philofophy. But the Junto were afhamed of the book De la Nature, Diderot feems to have, afcer this, read T>r. Hartley's book, and has greatly refined on the crude fyilem of Robinet. But after all, the Syfteme de la Nattire is contemptible, if it be confidered as pretending to what is received as fcience by a mechanical phiiofopher.
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have acquired celebrity, a fame which has been fo pernicious. It is by fine writing, by works ad- drelFed to the imagination and to the affeclions, by excellent dramas, by affedting moral efiays, full of exprefiions of the greatell refpc6l for virtue, the mofl tender benevolence, and the higheft fenti- ments of honour and dignity. — By thefe means they fafcinate all readers ; they gain the efteem of the worthv, who imasrine them fincere, and their pernicious dodrines are thus fpread abroad, and fceal into the minds of the diiToluce, the licentious, and the unwary.
But I am writing to Britons, who are confider- cd by our neighbours on the Continent as a nation of philofophers — to the country lO en of Bacon, of Locke, of Newton — v/ho arc not to be wheedled like children, but muft be reafoned with as men. — Voltaire, who decides vvithout hefitation on the cha- ra6!:er of the moftdiftant nations in the moft remote antiquity, did not know us : he came among us, in the beginning of his career, with the higheft expe61ations of our fupport, and hoped to make his fortune by his Pucelle d'Orleans. It was rejected with difdain — but we publifned his Henriade for hj.'Ti : and, notwithftanding his repeated difappoint- iti^Dts of the fame kind, he durft not ofi'end his countrymen by flandering us, but joined in the pro- found refpcci: paid by all to Britifh fcience. — Our writers, whether on natural or moral fcience, are ftill regarded as ftandard clafTics, and are ftudied with care. Lord Verulam is acknowledged by eve- ry man of fcience to have given the tirfl; juft de- fcription of true philofophy, pointed out its objects, and afcertained its mode of procedure — And New- ton is equally allowed to have evinced the propriety of the Baconian precepus by his unequalled fuccefs,
fud
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Jud Mathefi facem freferente. — The moft celebrated philofophers on the Continent are thofe who have completed by demonftration the wonderful guefles of his penetrating genius. Bailli, or Condorcet, (I forget which,) ftruck with the inconceivable reaches of Newton's thoughts, breaks out, in the words of Lucretius,
Tefeqmr^ 0 magn£ gentls deciis^ inque tuls nunc Fix a -pedum pom prejjis vefiigia figms, Tu pater et rerum invent or ^ tu p atria nobis Suppeditas precepta^ tuifque ex inclute chartls^ Floriferis ut apes in fait i bus omnia libant^ Omnia nos iiidem depafcimur aurea di6ia\ Aurea^ perpetud femper digniffima vita.
After fuch avowals of our capacity to inflru6t ourfelves, fliall we ftiil fly to thofe difturbers of the world for our lefTons ? No — Let us rally round our own flandards — let us take the path pointed out by Bacon — let us follow the fteps of Newton — and, to conclude, let us ferioufly confider a moft excellent advice by the higheft authority :
" Beware of falfe prophets, who come to you " in fheep's cloathing, but inwardly they are r:^ " vening wolves — by their fruits ye sua ;. " KNOW THEM — Do mtn gather grapes of thoidS, '' or figs of thifiles?"
THE END.
To the Binder.
* 2 B, and * 2 C, are to be placed before 2 B, thcfe pages being repeated.
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