ftructing rather than of pleasing: And as they are not a fatire upon mankind, like Rochefoucault's maxims, nor written upon a fceptical plan, like Montagne's effays, they are not fo much read as thefe two ingenious authors.

His hiftory of Henry the feventh was look'd upon as a mafter-piece, but how is it poffible that fome perfons can presume to compare fo little a work with the hiftory of our illuftrious Thuanus ?

SPEAKING about the famons impoftor Perkin, fon to a converted * few, who affum'd boldly the name and title of Richard the fourth, king of England, at the inftigation of the duchefs of Burgundy; and who difputed the crown with Henry the feventh, the lord Bacon writes as follows:

"At this time the king began again to "be haunted with fprites, by the magick " and curious arts of the lady Margaret; "who raised up the ghost of Richard duke "of York, fecond fon to king Edward the "fourth, to walk and vex the king." +

"After fuch time as the (Margaret of "Burgundy) thought he (Perkin Warbeck) was perfect in his leffon, fhe began "to caft with herself from what coaft this Blazing-Star fhould first appear, and

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• John Ofbeck.

+ The history of the reign of king Henry the seventh, page 112. London, printed in 1641. Folio.

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"at what time it must be upon the hori "zon of Ireland; for there had the like meteor ftrong influence before"*.

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METHINKS Our fagacious Thuanus does not give into fuch fuftian, which formerly was look'd upon as fublime, but in this age is juftly call'd nonsense.

* Idem, p. 116.

LE T

LETTER XIII.

ON

Mr. LOCK E.

PER

ERHAPS no man ever had a more judicious, or more methodical genius, or was a more acute logician, than Mr. Locke; and yet he was not deeply skill'd in the mathematicks. This great man could never fubject himself to the tedious fatigue of calculations, nor to the dry pursuit of mathematical truths, which do not at first prefent any fenfible objects to the mind; and no one has given better proofs than he, that 'tis poffible for a man to have a geometrical head, without the affiftance of geometry. Before his time, feveral great philofophers had declar'd, in the moft pofitive terms, what the foul of man is; but as these abfolutely knew nothing about it, they might very well be allow'd to differ entirely in opinion from one another.

IN Greece, the infant feat of arts, and of errors, and where the grandeur as well as folly of the human mind went fuch prodigious lengths, the people us'd to reafon

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about the foul in the very fame manner as we do.

THE divine Anaxagoras, in whofe honour an altar was erected, for his having taught mankind that the Sun was greater than Peloponnefus, that fnow was black, and that the Heavens were of ftone; affirm'd that the foul was an aerial fpirit, but at the fame time immortal. Diogenes, (not he who was a cynical philofopher after having coin'd base money) declar'd that the foul was a portion of the fubftance of God; an idea which we must confefs was very fublime. Epicurus maintain'd that it was compos'd of parts in the fame manner as the body.

ARISTOTLE, who has been explain'd a thoufand ways, because he is unintelligible, was of opinion, according to fome of his difciples, that the understanding in all men is one and the fame fubftance.

THE divine Plato, mafter of the divine Ariftotle, and the divine Socrates, master of the divine Plato, us'd to fay, that the foul was corporeal and eternal. No doubt but the Demon of Socrates had inftructed him in the nature of it. Some people, indeed, pretend, that a man, who boasted his being attended by a familiar genius, muft infallibly be either a knave or a madman, but this kind of people are feldom satisfied with any thing but reafon.

WITH regard to the fathers of the church, several in the primitive ages believ'd that the foul was human, and the angels and God corporeal. Men naturally improve upon every fyftem. St. Bernard, as father Mabillon confeffes, taught that the foul after death does not fee God in the celeftial regions, but converfes with Chrift's human nature only. However, he was not believ'd this time on his bare word; the adventure of the crufade having a little funk the credit of his oracles. Afterwards a thousand schoolmen arofe, fuch as the irrefragable doctor, the fubtil doctor †, the angelic doctor ‡, the feraphic doctor [], and the cherubic doctor, who were all fure that they had a very clear and distinct idea of the foul, and yet wrote in fuch a manner, that one would conclude they were refolv'd no one fhould understand a word in their writings. Des Cartes, born not to discover the errors of antiquity, but to fubftitute his own in the room of them; and hurried away by that. fyftematic fpirit which throws a cloud over the minds of the greatest men, thought he had demonftrated that the foul is the fame thing as thought, in the fame manner as matter, in his opinion, is the fame as extenfion. He afferted, that