of that Security and Leifure, obtained by living under a mild and free Government; to whom for this am I more indebted, than to your Lordship, whether I confider you as a Legislator, or as a Magiftrate, the first both in dignity and reputation? Permit me therefore thus publickly to affure your Lordfhip, that with the greatest gratitude and respect I am, My Lord,

Your Lordship's moft obliged,

and most obedient humble Servant,

Clofe of Salisbury,

'o'a. 1, 1751.

4

James Harris.

PREFACE.

T

HE chief End, propofed by the Author of this Treatife in making it public, has been to excite his Readers to curiofity and inquiry; not to teach them himself by prolix and formal Lectures, (from the efficacy of which he has little expectation) but to induce them, if poffible, to become Teachers to themfelves, by an impartial use of their own understandings. He thinks nothing more abfurd than the common notion of inftruction, as if Science were to be poured into the Mind, like water into a ciftern, that paffively waits to receive all that comes. The growth of Knowledge he rather thinks to resemble the growth of Fruit; however external caufes may in fome degree co-operate, it is the internal vigour, and virtue of the tree, that must ripen the juices to their just maturity.

This then, namely, the exciting men to inquire for themselves into fubjects

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worthy

worthy of their contemplation, this the Author declares to have been his firft and principal motive for appearing in print. Next to that, as he has always been a lover of Letters, he would willingly approve his ftudies to the liberal and ingenuous. He has particularly named these, in diftinction to others; because, as his ftudies were never profecuted with the leaft regard to lucre, fo they are no way calculated for any lucrative End. The liberal therefore and ingenuous (whom he has mentioned already) are thofe, to whofe perufal he offers what he has written. Should they judge favourably of his attempt, he may not perhaps hesitate to confefs,

Hoc juvat et melli eft—

For tho' he hopes, he cannot be charged with the foolish love of vain Praife, he has no defire to be thought indifferent, or infenfible to honeft Fame.

From the influence of these sentiments, he has endeavoured to treat his fubject with as much order, correctnefs, and perfpicuity as in his power; and if he has failed, he can fafely fay (according to the vulgar

vulgar phrase) that the failure has been his misfortune, and not his fault. He fcorns those trite and contemptible methods of anticipating pardon for a bad performance, that "it was the hafty "fruits of a few idle hours; written 66 merely for private amusement; never "revifed, published against consent, at "the importunity of friends, copies (God "knows how) having by stealth gotten "abroad," with other ftale jargon of equal falfhood and inanity. May we not afk fuch Prefacers, If what they alledge be true, what has the world to do with them and their crudities?

As to the Book itself, it can say this in its behalf, that it does not merely confine itself to what its title promises, but expatiates freely into whatever is collateral; aiming on every occafion to rise in its inquiries, and to pafs, as far as poffible, from small matters to the greatest Nor is it formed merely upon fentiments that are now in fashion, or supported only by fuch authorities as are modern. Many Authors are quoted, that now adays are but little ftudied; and fome perhaps,

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perhaps, whofe very names are hardly known:

The Fate indeed of antient Authors (as we have happened to mention them) is not unworthy of our notice. A few of them furvive in the Libraries of the learned, where fome venerable Folio, that still goes by their name, just fuffices to give them a kind of nominal existence. The reft have long fallen into a deeper obfcurity, their very names, when mentioned, affecting us as little, as the

names, when we read them, of those fubordinate Heroes,

Alcandrumque, Haliúmque, Noemonaque, Prytanimque.

Now if an Author, not content with the more eminent of antient Writers, should venture to bring his reader into fuch company as these last, among people (in the fashionable phrafe) that no body knows; what ufage, what quarter can he have reason to expect?-Should the Author of these speculations have done this (and it is to be feared he has) what method had he beft take in a circumftance fo critical?-Let us fuppofe him to apo

logize