have faithfully unveiled the mysteries of ftate-free. masonry, have ever been held in general deteftation, for even knowing fo perfectly a theory fo deteftable. The cafe of Machiavel feems at first fight fomething hard in that refpect. He is obliged to bear the iniquities of those whose maxims and rules of government he published. His fpeculation is more abhorred than their practice.

But if there were no other arguments against artificial fociety than this I am going to mention, methinks it ought to fall by this one only. All writers on the fcience of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequently infringe the rules of justice to fupport themselves; that truth must give way to dif fimulation; honefty to convenience; and humanity itself to the reigning intereft. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the reason of state. It is a reafon which I own I cannot penetrate. What fort of a protection is this of the general right, that is maintained by infringing the rights of particulars? What fort of justice is this, which is inforced by breaches of its own laws? Thefe paradoxes I leave to be folved by the able heads of legiflators and politicians. For my part, I fay what a plain man would fay on fuch an occafion. I can never believe, that any inftitution agreeable to nature, and proper for mankind, could find it neceffary, or even expedient in any cafe whatfo

ever to do, what the best and worthieft instincts of mankind warn us to avoid. But no wonder, that what is fet up in oppofition to the state of nature, fhould preferve itself by trampling upon the law of nature.

To prove that these forts of policed focieties are a violation offered to nature, and a constraint upon the human mind, it needs only to look upon the fanguinary measures, and inftruments of violence which are every where used to support them. Let us take a review of the dungeons, whips, chains, racks, gibbets, with which every fociety is abundantly ftored, by which hundreds of victims are annually offered up to fupport a dozen or two in pride and madness, and millions in an abject fervitude and dependence. There was a time, when I looked with a reverential awe on these myfteries of policy; but age, experience, and philofophy have rent the veil; and I view this fanctum fanctorum, at leaft, without any enthusiastick admiration. I acknowledge indeed, the neceffity of fuch a proceeding in fuch inftitutions; but I muft have a very mean opinion of inftitutions where fuch proceedings are neceffary.

It is a misfortune, that in no part of the globe natural liberty and natural religion are to be found pure, and free from the mixture of political adulterations. Yet we have implanted in us by Providence ideas, axioms, rules, of what is pious, just,

fair, honeft, which no political craft, nor learned fophiftry, can entirely expel from our breafts. By these we judge, and we cannot otherwise judge of the feveral artificial modes of religion and fociety, and determine of them as they approach to, or recede from this ftandard.

The fimpleft form of government is defpotifm, where all the inferiour orbs of power are moved merely by the will of the Supreme, and all that are fubjected to them, directed in the fame manner, merely by the occafional will of the magiftrate. This form, as it is the most fimple, fo it is infinitely the moft general. Scarce any part of the world is exempted from its power. And in thofe few places where men enjoy what they call liberty, it is continually in a tottering fituation, and makes greater and greater ftrides to that gulph of def potism which at last swallows up every species of government. The manner of ruling being directed merely by the will of the weakeft, and generally the worst man in the fociety, becomes the most foolish and capricious thing, at the fame time that it is the most terrible and deftructive, that well can be conceived. In a defpotifm the principal perfon finds, that let the want, mifery, and indigence of his fubjects be what they will, he can yet poffefs abundantly of every thing to gratify his moft infatiable wishes. He does more. He finds that these gratifications increase in pro

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portion to the wretchedness and slavery of his fubjects. Thus encouraged both by paffion and intereft to trample on the publick welfare, and by his station placed above both fhame and fear, 'he proceeds to the most horrid and shocking outrages upon mankind. Their perfons become victims of his fufpicions. The flightest displeasure is death; and a difagreeable afpect is often as great a crime as high treason. In the court of Nero, a perfon of learning, of unqueftioned merit, and of unfuf pected loyalty, was put to death for no other rea fon than that he had a pedantick countenance which displeased the emperour. This very monfter of mankind appeared in the beginning of his reign to be a person of virtue. Many of the greateft tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the faireft manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding. And to prevent the leaft hope of amendment, a king is ever fur. rounded by a crowd of infamous flatterers, who find their account in keeping him from the least light of reafon, till all ideas of rectitude and jus tice are utterly erased from his mind. When Alexander had in his fury inhumanly butchered one of his beft friends and braveft captains; on the return of reafon he began to conceive an horrour suitable to the guilt of fuch a murder. In this juncture, his council came to his affiftance.

But what did his council? They found him out a philofopher who gave him comfort. And in what manner did this philofopher comfort him for the lofs of fuch a man, and heal his confcience, flagrant with the fmart of fuch a crime? You have the matter at length in Plutarch. He told him; "that let a fovereign do what he will, all his actions are just and lawful, because they are his." The palaces of all princes abound with fuch courtly philofophers. The confequence was fuch as might be expected. He grew every day a monfter more abandoned to unnatural luft, to debauchery, to drunkenness, and to murder. And yet this was originally a great man, of uncommon capacity, and a strong propensity to virtue. But unbound. ed power proceeds ftep by step, until it has eradi cated every laudable principle. It has been remarked, that there is no prince fo bad, whofe favourites and minifters are not worse. There is hardly any prince without a favourite, by whom he is governed in as arbitrary a manner as he governs the wretches fubjected to him. Here the tyranny is doubled. There are two courts, and two interefts; both very different from the interefts of the people. The favourite knows that the regard of a tyrant is as unconftant and capricious as that of a woman; and concluding his time to be fhort, he makes hafte to fill up the measure of his iniquity, in rapine, in luxury, and

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