nate mankind. when I enter upon the awful task, I shield myself under the duty of patriotifm, against the disheartening efforts of oppofition, and the galling taunts of arrogance and prefumption. I am fully aware of the hackneyed af- Modern writers fectation, with which many modern writers affect to illumi affume the exclufive privilege of illuminating mankind; as if our predeceffors had worked through their lives, like moles, in the dark, and had never risen into the light, but by the chance of their own blind direction, or to injure the ground, through which they had emerged from their dark receffes. Impreffed, I prefume, with this idea, did the late Dr. Price thus addrefs himself to his audience, in a difcourfe, which has been fince printed §: "Why are the nations of the world fo "patient under defpotifm? Why do they "crouch to tyrants, or fubmit to be treated, 66 as if they were a herd of cattle? Is it not "because they are kept in darkness, and "want knowledge?-Enlighten them, and "you will elevate them; fhew them they " are men, and they will act like men; give "them just ideas of civil government, and "let them know that it is an expedient for P. 12. Dr. Price's Difcourfe on the Love of our Country, 4 gaining . The true prin- ourfelves. .. gaining protection against injury, and defending their rights, and it will be impofli"ble for them to fubmit to governments, "which, like most of those now in the world, are ufurpations on the rights of men, and "little better than contrivances for enabling "the few to oppreís the many." The first principle of the true equalization of mankind is to affume no right to ourwhat we claim felves, which we deny to others. As, therefore, I am unwilling to fubmit my own affent to any principles, or doctrines grounded upon them, without previous investigation and discuffion; fo do I prefume and admit the fame right in others, in the most unexceptionable latitude. To them I allow the most unbiaffed freedom of judgment, because the fame I claim to myfelf. And as I experience no fmall degree of indignation, when the dif ference of my opinion from that of others is attributed to ignorance; fo do I feel an equal degree of indelicacy, in afcribing the difagreement of that of others from my own to ignorance of the question in agitation be Truth to be fought impartially from all partics. tween us. In forming my mind upon the great and important fubject of the Rights of Man, I have endeavoured to draw knowledge and information from every fource, from which I thought I thought it likely to fpring. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri, I as readily admit of a true propofition laid down by a Tory, as by a Whig, by a Puritan as by a Church-man, by a Leveller as by a Royalift. If my labours, and researches do in the fmallest degree contribute to settle the minds of my countrymen upon the subject, that reward will fatisfy my proudest expectations. "Whenever "the interests of truth and liberty are at"tacked, it is to be wifhed, that fome would "ftand up in the defence, whether they ac quit themselves better, than their prede ceffors in the fame good old cause or not, "New books, in defence of any principles "whatever, will be read by many persons, "who will not look into old books for the 66 proper answers to them." We are affured, from the unerring authority of the holy Bible, that the days of man have been much curtailed, fince he was first formed by his Creator; and we may rationally infer, that the natural strength, vigour, and power of that body, which was to laft many hundred years, were greater, than what are merely requifite to fupport it through a tenth part of that period; but I can no where + Preface to Dr. Prieftley's Effay on the First Prin-ciples of Government. trace are now neither more nor lefs perfect, than were. Antiquity not conclufive evi The intellectual trace even a fuggeftion, that the minds and powers of man intellects of our antediluvian ancestors were more vigorous or perfect, than those of their they formerly pofterity; though from the excefs of their longevity they must have had the advantage of experimental information: yet Solomon, who was endowed with more wifdom, than any of his predeceffors, exifted long after this abbreviation of the natural days of man. I am free to own, it has ever appeared to me as unwarrantable to maintain, that the true principles of civil and religious liberty have only been difclofed to the present generation, as to attribute an exclufive preference to all the doctrines of our predeceffors, upon the mere fcore of antiquity. Every fucceeding age muft neceffarily have the advantages of obfervation and experience; but beyond these I can difcover no traits, that mark the fuperiority of the prefent age above any that have preceded it t. The more closely we dence of truth, "For as our modern wits behold, mounted a pick-back on the old, &c. Hudib. 1ft pt. 2d canto. v. 71, 72. A "banter on those modern writers, who, as Sir W. Temple "obferves, (Effay on antient and modern Learning), that as to knowledge, the moderns must have more, than the "antients, because they have the advantage both of "theirs and their own; which is commonly illustrated by a dwarf's ftanding upon a giant's fhoulders, or "fecing more or farther than he." Grey's Hud. v. 1. p. 104. attend attend to the various excellencies of individuals within our own acquaintance, the more fully we fhall be convinced, that the innate powers of men have not varied for thefe two thousand years; but that they have ever acquired a degree of excellence proportioned to the variety of the circumftances, that called them into action. Thus are obviously traced the various caufes, which through the fucceffion of ages, have given birth to, encouraged, and perfected the different arts and fciences. I cannot help differing, upon this point, from Dr. Priestley †, who says, "That the human fpecies itfelf is capable of a "fimilar and unbounded improvement; whereby mankind in a latter age are greatly fuperior to mankind, in a former $C age, the individuals being taken at the "fame time of life. Of this progress of the fpecies, brute animals are more incapable, "than they are of that relating to indivi "duals. No horfe of this age feems to "have any advantage over other horfes of former ages; and if there can be any improvement in the fpecies, it is owing to our manner of breeding and training them: "but a man at this time, who has been tolerably well educated, in an improved Effay on the First Principles of Government, p. 2. "Chriftian Our prefent exiftence gives us no fuch advanpredeceffors as Dr. Priestley teaches. tage over our |