תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Woman in the World What would you have given to have been in his Cafe? Hey Doctor! As the Doctor was about to speak, he proceeds, And then as to the Story of the Serpent- Upon this, four or five Rifors, who fat near him ready charged, upon a proper Signal, burst out all together into a loud Laughter; upon which, the Doctor foftly stole his Beaver off the Pin, and brushed off, leaving us in Poffeffion of the Field, and all the Marks of Victory, of which, fecuring the Laugh on our Side is not the least. I speak my own Experience; I know not a more ufeful Exercife than that of a Querist, if artfully and boldly executed, especially in Conversation; it being an undoubted Maxim, That one Fool may ask more Questions than ten wife Men can anfwer. The Gentlemen of this Degree are permitted and advised to read the inimitable Writings of Mr. Hobbes, Blunt, Toland, Tindal, Collins, Gordon, and that Prince of Paralogicians, the Moral Philofopher; without troubling themselves with the numberless Answers that have been given them, which would end in nothing but lofing Time, and puzzling the Caufe. As for the ancient Patrons and Defenders of our Society, such as Porphyry, Celfus, Julian, &c. let them fleep in Peace. As they wrote in a Language little known, and lefs understood, by the polite Moderns, it would be the Work of an Age to make any confiderable Advantage by their Writings, against a Party, who are apparently too vain of their Skill in antient Languages, to overlook any Slips or Mistakes of our Friends, without a fevere and indecent Correction; witness the Behaviour of that four old Critic, Philelutherus Lipfienfis, who expofed a few innocent Miftakes of one of our best Writers, with as much In

folence

folence and Pedantry, as if he had been disciplining a School-boy, for which we shall never forget nor forgive him. The Badge of this Order fhall be a Tippet of red Silk, with a yellow Border fixed upon their left Shoulder.

If any Gentleman of this Clafs or Degree fhall have given fufficient Proofs of his Zeal and Abilities to promote the Service of the Society in a higher Order, he shall be admitted to the Degree of Paralogicians, which is the highest Honour we can poffibly bestow upon our most deserving Members. They are to be the Philofophers and Difputers of our Body, but in quite a new Method, being furnished with a Set of Principles, Axioms, Modes, and Figures, the very reverse of the vulgar and popular Logic. To speak a plain and undeniable Truth, the Enemies of our Caufe, the Friends of Prieftcraft and Superftition, as they have been long in Poffeffion of their Claim to Truth and Orthodoxy, and have found the Sweets of Power and Dominion over the Understandings and Confciences of Mankind, fo they have taken care to be well paid into the Bargain, by getting all the Affairs and Interests of the Public to center at laft, in what they call Religion; this has neceffarily produced a great Variety of Offices, Pofts, and Employments, with large Endowments, fine Salaries, and unknown Perquifites, which they have cunningly divided among their own Party; whom they affirm to be the only Perfons duly qualified to execute the several Offices, and enjoy the Endowments. As for the due Execution of the Office, we have little to fay; but if it can be made appear to the Public, that thefe Offices are not only an ufelefs Invention, but are dangerous and burdenfome to the

Common

Commonwealth, they ought certainly, in Equity and good Policy, to be intirely fuppreffed, and the Revenues and Salaries annexed to them, fhould be bestowed on those who have had the Sagacity to detect the Cheat, and the Courage to oppose and suppress it. And as they were always apprehenfive of the certain Confequences of a free and rational Examination of their Scheme, fo they have endeavoured to fupport and maintain it, by all the mean ungenerous Arts, that Policy, Intereft, Power, the Favour of the Magiftrate, and a bad Caufe, could fuggeft; they have fettered and confined our Understandings by abfurd Impofitions of Creeds, Syftems, Canons, Articles and Confeffions of Faith, double guarded by legal Penalties and civil Incapaci ties; and, as if all this was not fufficient (for the Patrons of a bad Cause never think themselves fecure) they have employed, from time to time, the best Heads of the Party to compose a Syftem of Principles, Rules, and Method of Argumentation, all of their own Side of the Question; and have cunningly agreed to make it a neceffary Preparative for all their Disciples, in order to come at the Knowledge of Truth, by which means, the young People are. early prepoffeffed with the Prejudices of the Party, and an invincible Bias towards the fashionable, plaufible, and gainful Side. And this I take to be as unreasonable an Impofition upon our Understandings as Creeds themfelves, because it cramps and fetters us in the Exercise of our Faculties, though it does not forbid us the Ufe of them. Every body has Reafon, but every body does not understand Logic. The natural unprejudiced Reafon of Mankind is the fame well-meaning honest Faculties in all Sorts of People; it fees, and judges, and talks of all man

ner

ner of Things and Matters by its own plain and infallible Light, and has no more occafion for Rules Moods, and Figures, to fhew when it is in the Right and when in the Wrong, than to tell me when I am hungry or thirsty, or full, at Eafe or in Pain, in Sicknefs or in Health; be fure it was fo among the Primitive Inhabitants of the World, long before these plaguy Syftems, with their Definitions, Axioms, Moods, Figures Syllogifms, and the reft of their Tranguns were invented. I have been often provoked beyond measure, to hear a polite Conversation interrupted by one of these rea foning Puppies, in a Manner that even deserved the Discipline of the Blanket. I was the other Day in a very elegant Conversation, where one of our Society, a young Fellow of lively Parts, and flowing Eloquence,, had been entertaining us upon the Subject of religious Frauds, with a Profusion of Wit and good Sense, but having, in the Warmth of his Imagination, dropped an unguarded Affertion, up starts one of those folemn Coxcombs, who (with the Appearance of a Man of Senfe and good Manners) had lain for fome time upon the Catch, and desires him to explain himself, to defend his Affertion, and produce his Reasons. The young Orator was a little confounded at this pedantic ungentleman-like, Behaviour; and indeed, the whole Company thought themselves bound in honour to refent fuch an outragious Breach of good Manners; and, for my own part, I told him, in the Language of the renowned Sir John Falstaff, That if I were in that Gentleman's Cafe, and Reafons were as plenty as Black-berries, I would give no Man living a Reafon upon Compulsion. Reafons, to be fure, we have in great Plenty, and fuch as we think very good ones; but then, we are the

only proper Judges on what Occafions, and in what Company, to produce them; for fo malicious and partial are our Adverfaries, that they infift upon having our Reasons and Arguments weighed and measured by their Standard, in which they are fure to have the Advantage; and because we do not proceed and conclude, by the Way of Premifes and Conclusions, drawn out in Mood and Figure, which they have maliciously contrived to be always on their Side of the Question, they wantonly infult us, and tell us, that our Reasons are fophifticated, our Arguments are all damaged Goods, and not worth Two-pence a Thousand. This is an amazing Piece of Hardship to us, and Partiality in them; they have engrossed all the Arms and Ammunition in the Country, and then infult us for not being as well provided as they; they challenge us to fight, without allowing us Weapons; and when we are forced to make use of such as we can procure, they tell us, we make use of unlawful and unftatuable Weapons, and therefore have no Title to that Candour and Indulgence, which, by all the Laws of Chivalry, are due to fair and honourable Combatants.All therefore, that is left for us to do in this Exigency, is to employ fome of the ableft and coolest Heads among us, to compile a new Syftem of Logic, in which all the extraordinary Methods of Proof proper for extraordinary Cafes, which they have agreed to explode and condemn as fallacious, may be allowed and confirmed as juft and good by a proper Authority, that we may be at least upon the fame Foot with the rest of his Majefty's loving Subjects. And then, my noble Heart, we bid them Defiance. But, in the Hurry of my Imagination, I had like to have forgot the proper Ha

[ocr errors]
« הקודםהמשך »