presumed to be the most proper Judges in the Cafe. It was fomething like this that gave a Handle to a merry old Senator in the Dyet of Poland, to make an unlucky Reply in a Debate upon a Question in which he was deeply interefted, and had engaged a great Majority to carry it. A grave Gentleman in the Oppofition, who could read in his Bible, quoted a Paffage out of the Book of Leviticus to fupport an Argument he had been advancing against the Question; to which the facetious Droll replied, There feems indeed, Sir, to be fomething of Weight in the Passage you have quoted from Leviticus, but it will do your Caufe very little Service, for we have the whole Book of Numbers against you. Pardon this Digreffion.-But the Use I would make of it is this: If Arithmetic be capable of fuch prodigious Improvements, and so apparently calculated for the public Good, what should hinder us from attempting fomething like it, by way of Improvement, in the Exercife of our Reafon; especially confidering that our Adverfaries have given us a fair Opportunity of taking an Advantage of their Negligence. They have been all along fo confident of the Goodness of their Caufe, and fo fecure of their own fuperior Strength and Cunning, that they have wantonly neglected to fecure themselves, by ufing their Intereft to procure a legal and parliamentary Establishment, which, like the Act of Uniformity, might oblige all his Majesty's loving Subjects to conform to their Rules and Methods of Reafoning, and prohibit them, under fevere Penalties, from making use of any other. This would effectually have precluded any Attempts of this Kind that I am propofing; but fince they have neglected to to do this, I think we ought to exert all our Interest and Cunning to turn it to our own Advantage. I am not fanguine enough to imagine we have Interest enough, at present, to procure fuch an Establishment for any Syftem of our own, in Oppofition to the prevailing Prepoffeffion; fuch a Scheme, if at all feasible, must be a very remote Poffibility, and the Object of a very diftant Hope. Our Superiors, at prefent, are apparently prejudiced in Favour of antient and immemoriał Custom, and long Prescription, and jealous of making or encouraging Innovations; but as they have been always ready to lend an indulgent Ear to the dutiful Remonftrances and Petitions of their Inferiors, and to give them fuch Relief and Indulgence as their Circumftances may require, it will not be improper to lay before the Public at least a just and impartial Account of the Difficulties and Hardships under which we labour, and from which we hope to be relieved. In general, they are so unreasonable, as to object against almost all our Methods of Reasoning, as uncanonical and unstatutable, and quarrel with us for taking with us fome few little Liberties, which would apparently give us fome Advantage; and, to fhew us the Perverseness of their Spirit, will neither use them themselves, nor fuffer us to use them. I fhall only instance in two or three Cafes, whereby you may judge of the rest. 1. It very often happens, in the Courfe of a Debate, when the Advantage is apparently on our Side, they turn fhort upon us, and tell us, We beg the Question; marry, and a good Shift too, I think, if we can carry an important Question purely by begging. Sure I am, that if this Method could be brought to any Perfection, it would be a more faving Article to the Public than the the Sinking Fund, and therefore we may reasonably hope, that our Superiors, who will find their Account in it as well as we, will find out proper Ways and Means to allow, confirm, and fecure us in this Method of Reasoning, as it is apparently more useful in many difficult Cafes, than all their Rules of Logic put together. 2. At other Times, when they find themselves forely pinched, and almoft giddy by running round with us, as it were in a Ring, they grow fretful, and cry out against Circular Proof. This Objection is peevifh and abfurd. Do not these Gentlemen know that a Circle is the most perfect of all Figures? and by Confequence, that a circular Operation must be fo too? Is not the Frame of Nature fupported by the Circulation of the feveral Parts of the Syftem? Is not the Life of all Animals and Vegetables preferved by the Circulation of their Blood and Juices? Has not the Credit and Intereft of the Nation been often preserved by the Circulation of Bank and Exchequer Bills? Has not the Credit of the feveral Stocks and Funds been known to rife and fall by the Circulation even of a Lye? to the great Advantage of feveral eminent and well-difpofed Perfons, who would have ftartled at the Sound of a trifling, infignificant, malicious Lye, when there was nothing to be got by it, Nay, further, is not a Circulation of Intereft the great Support of Government? Could any Miniftry fubfift, without it? Nay, I will venture to affirm, that, without fuch a Circulation, many a good Question in Politics would have been loft; and why it fhould be thought unlawful and unreafonable for us to take the Benefit of it in Matters Matters of Philosophy and Religion, is to me quite unconceivable. 3. But the merrieft Impofition of all, is that of confining us to the Use of three Terms, and telling us that it is against all the Laws of Logic to add a fourth. A very pretty Contrivance truly! They know that four is a Majority to three, and therefore modeftly injoin us not to take the Benefit of Numbers, by which they very well know the weightiest Questions are carried in the moft auguft Affemblies in the World. These are some of the many Hardfhips under which we labour, and from which we hope, in due Time, to be relieved, by the Wisdom and Authority of fome future Parliament: But, till this can be effectually done, we have a modeft Proposal to make to the Public, in which we hope for the Attention and Indulgence of proper Judges. The prefent Age is juftly famous, and will be fo to late Pofterity, for the public Spirit it has fhewn in encouraging and rewarding great and ufeful Designs and Undertakings, worthy the Regard of a wife and powerful Nation. What a glorious Reward has been fettled by the Authority of Parliament for the Discovery of the Longitude? How many Patents have been procured! How many Subscriptions fet on foot for the Inventers and Improvers of any ufeful Branch of Science, Trade, and Manufacture! But nothing has yet been done of a public Nature for the Encouragement of new Improvements in the Way of Reasoning, Arguing, or Difputing, which are very much wanted on our Side of the Queftion. Now there are TWO great Articles which our Adversaries have wantonly rejected as useless and impracticable, have over and over again abfolutely disclaimed any Pretence, Kind, or Degree of Right, Title, Property, or Use in them; and therefore they may, by a competent Authority, be fairly affigned, made over, confirmed to us and our Heirs or Affigns for ever, and a Patent be drawn to intitle us to all the Profits, Advantages, and Emoluments that shall at any time arife or proceed from a proper Ufe and Improvement of the faid TWO Articles, in the Manner of The Mine Adventurers, The Wreck-Fishery, or The Discoverers of new Countries. And these are, I. The Proof of Negatives. II. The Reconciling Contradictions. These two Points have been long confidered not only as Defiderata, but as Defperata, by the generality of the Learned; and therefore every Attempt to clear, recover, and explain these very difficult Branches of Knowledge, and make them useful to the Interefts of Society, ought to intitle the Adventurers to the equitable Favour and Indulgence of the Public.-As to the first then, I would humbly propose, that the fole Power of proving Negatives may be intirely vested in US, i. e. in a felect Number of Gentlemen, in truft for the whole Body, when we shall be hereafter formed into a regular Society, in as full and abfolute a Manner as the Probat of Wills is in the Ecclefiaftical Courts. I expect to be afked, But how fhall this be done? -Done! Never fear: The fame Authority that gives us a Right to the End, gives us alfo a Right to the Means: He that gives us an abfolute and unlimited Power, leaves us the fole Judges of the Ways and Means by which it is to be executed. You cannot be |