believe he might be melancholy enough when he writ this Introduction:
The despair at his age of seeing a faction restored, to which he hath
sacrificed so great a part of his life: The little success he can hope
for in case he should resume those High-Church Principles, in defence of
which he first employed his pen: No visible expectation of removing to
Farnham or Lambeth: And lastly, the misfortune of being hated by every
one, who either wears the habit, or values the profession of a
clergyman: No wonder such a spirit, in such a situation, is provoked
beyond the regards of truth, decency, religion, or self-conviction. To
do him justice, he seems to have nothing else left, but to cry out,
halters, gibbets, faggots, inquisition, Popery, slavery, and the
Pretender. But in the meantime, he little considers what a world of
mischief he does to his cause. It is very convenient, for the present
designs of that faction, to spread the opinion of our immediate danger
from Popery and the Pretender. His directors therefore ought, in my
humble opinion, to have employed his Lordship in publishing a book,
wherein he should have asserted, by the most solemn asseverations, that
all things were safe and well; for the world has contracted so strong a
habit of believing him backwards, that I am confident, nine parts in ten
of those who have read or heard of his Introduction, have slept in
greater security ever since. It is like the melancholy tone of a
watchman at midnight, who thumps with his pole, as if some thief were
breaking in, but you know by the noise, that the door is fast.
However, he "thanks God there are many among us who stand in the
breach:" I believe they may; 'tis a breach of their own making, and they
design to come forward, and storm and plunder, if they be not driven
back. "They make themselves a wall for their church and country." A
south wall, I suppose, for all the best fruit of the church and country
to be nailed on. Let us examine this metaphor: The wall of our church
and country is built of those who love the constitution in both: Our
domestic enemies undermine some parts of the wall, and place themselves
in the breach; and then they cry, "We are the wall!" We do not like such
patchwork, they build with untempered mortar; nor can they ever cement
with us, till they get better materials and better workmen: God keep us
from having our breaches made up with such rubbish! "They stand upon the
watch-tower;" they are indeed pragmatical enough to do so; but who
assigned them that post, to give us false intelligence, to alarm us with
false dangers, and send us to defend one gate, while their accomplices
are breaking in at another? "They cry to God, day and night to avert the
judgment of Popery which seems to hasten towards us." Then I affirm,
they are hypocrites by day, and filthy dreamers by night. When they cry
unto him, he will not hear them: For they cry against the plainest
dictates of their own conscience, reason, and belief.
But lastly, "They lie in the dust, mourning before him." Hang me if I
believe that, unless it be figuratively spoken. But suppose it to be
true; why do "they lie in the dust?" Because they love to raise it: For
what do "they mourn?" Why, for power, wealth, and places. There let the
enemies of the Queen, and monarchy, and the church, lie, and mourn, and
lick the dust, like serpents, till they are truly sensible of their
ingratitude, falsehood, disobedience, slander, blasphemy, sedition, and
every evil work!
I cannot find in my heart to conclude without offering his Lordship a
little humble advice upon some certain points.
First, I would advise him, if it be not too late in his life, to
endeavour a little at mending his style, which is mighty defective in
the circumstances of grammar, propriety, politeness, and smoothness;[62]
I fancied at first, it might be owing to the prevalence of his passion,
as people sputter out nonsense for haste when they are in a rage. And
indeed I believe this piece before me has received some additional
imperfections from that occasion. But whoever has heard his sermons, or
read his other tracts, will find him very unhappy in his choice and
disposition of his words, and, for want of variety, repeating them,
especially the particles, in a manner very grating to an English ear.
But I confine myself to this Introduction, as his last work, where
endeavouring at rhetorical flowers, he gives us only bunches of
thistles; of which I could present the reader with a plentiful crop; but
I refer him to every page and line of the pamphlet itself.
[Footnote 62: In Swift's notes on Burnet's "History of his Own Times,"
he points out many instances of the deficiency here stated. [S.]]
Secondly, I would most humbly advise his Lordship to examine a little
into the nature of truth, and sometimes to hear what she says. I shall
produce two instances among a hundred. When he asserts that we are "now
in more danger of Popery than toward the end of King Charles II.'s
reign," and gives the broadest hints, that the Queen, the ministry, the
parliament, and the clergy, are just going to introduce it; I desire to
know, whether he really thinks truth is of his side, or whether he be
not sure she is against him? If the latter, then truth and he will be
found in two different stories; and which are we to believe? Again, when
he gravely advises the clergy and laity of the Tory side, not to "light
the fires in Smithfield," and goes on in twenty places already quoted,
as if the bargain was made for Popery and slavery to enter: I ask again,
whether he has rightly considered the nature of truth? I desire to put a
parallel case. Suppose his Lordship should take it into his fancy to
write and publish a letter to any gentleman of no infamous character for
his religion or morals; and there advise him with great earnestness, not
to rob or fire churches, ravish his daughter, or murder his father; show
him the sin and the danger of these enormities, that if he flattered
himself, he could escape in disguise, or bribe his jury, he was
grievously mistaken: That he must in all probability forfeit his goods
and chattels, die an ignominious death, and be cursed by posterity;
Would not such a gentleman justly think himself highly injured, though
his Lordship did not affirm that the said gentleman had his picklocks or
combustibles ready, that he had attempted his daughter, and drawn his
sword against his father in order to stab him? Whereas, in the other
case, this writer affirms over and over, that all attempts for
introducing Popery and slavery are already made, the whole business
concerted, and that little less than a miracle can prevent our ruin.
Thirdly, I could heartily wish his Lordship would not undertake to
charge the opinions of one or two, and those probably nonjurors, upon
the whole body of the nation that differs from him. Mr. Lesley writ a
"Proposal for a Union with the Gallican Church;" somebody else has
"carried the necessity of priesthood in the point of baptism farther
than popery;" a third has "asserted the independency of the church on
the state, and in many things arraigned the supremacy of the crown."
Then he speaks in a dubious insinuating way, as if some other popish
tenets had been already advanced: And at last concludes in this affected
strain of despondency, "What will all these things end in? and on what
design are they driven? Alas, it is too visible!" 'Tis as clear as the
sun, that these authors are encouraged by the ministry with a design to
bring in Popery; and in Popery all these things will end.
I never was so uncharitable as to believe, that the whole party of which
his Lordship professeth himself a member, had a real formed design of
establishing atheism among us. The reason why the Whigs have taken the
atheists, or freethinkers, into their body, is because they wholly agree
in their political schemes, and differ very little in church power and
discipline. However, I could turn the argument against his Lordship with
very great advantage, by quoting passages from fifty pamphlets wholly
made up of Whiggism and atheism, and then conclude; "What will all these
things end in? And on what design are they driven? Alas, it is too
visible!"
Lastly, I would beg his Lordship not to be so exceedingly outrageous
upon the memory of the dead; because it is highly probable, that, in a
very short time he will be one of the number. He has in plain words
given Mr. Wharton the character of a "most malicious, revengeful,
treacherous, lying, mercenary villain." To which I shall only say, that
the direct reverse of this amiable description is what appears from the
works of that most learned divine, and from the accounts given me by
those who knew him much better than the Bishop seems to have done. I
meddle not with the moral part of his treatment. God Almighty forgive
his Lordship this manner of revenging himself; and then there will be
but little consequence from an accusation which the dead cannot feel,
and which none of the living will believe.
***** ***** ***** *****
MR. COLLINS'S DISCOURSE OF
FREETHINKING;
PUT INTO PLAIN ENGLISH,
BY WAY OF ABSTRACT,
FOR THE USE OF THE POOR.
BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR.
FIRST PRINTED IN 1713
NOTE.
Of the deistical writers of the early eighteenth century, Anthony
Collins (1676-1729) is, perhaps, the most celebrated. He was born near
Hounslow and educated at Eton and Cambridge. His writings were mainly
attacks on Christianity, and, in addition to the "Discourse on
Freethinking," he published: "Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of
the Christian Religion;" "Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered;"
"Priestcraft in Perfection;" "Historical and Critical Essay on the
Thirty-Nine Articles;" and "A Philosophical Enquiry concerning Human
Liberty." Most of these writings engaged him in many and violent
controversies with some of the ablest divines of his time. Among these,
beside Swift, may be named, Whiston, Hare, Hoadly, Bentley, and Samuel
Clarke. Steele, also, had his fling at Collins, and thought that "if
ever man deserved to be denied the common benefits of air and water, it
is the author of 'A Discourse upon Freethinking'" ("Guardian," No. 3).
But then Steele's opinion on such a matter was of no great moment. What
was of more, was the fact that the school to which Collins belonged
found a decided opponent in Locke, from the writings of whom the members
of the school professed to draw their strongest arguments. For a
philosophical appreciation of Toland, Collins, and the rest, see Mr.
Leslie Stephen's "English Thought in the Eighteenth Century" (chaps.
iii. and iv. of vol. i. 1881).
Swift took an entirely different attitude towards Collins from that
assumed by the professional controversialists. He refused to take him
seriously, and no doubt he felt that ridicule would as effectually serve
his purpose as another method. Moreover, he sought to use the
opportunity for scoring a point against the Whigs, by insisting on the
political side of the matter, and, in the person of an assumed defender
of Collins, betrayed undoubted Whig leanings. Swift, at this time, was
deep in work, pamphleteering for Harley and St. John. He had already
written "The Conduct of the Allies," and "Some Remarks on the Barrier
Treaty," and was soon to write "The Public Spirit of the Whigs." The
assumed and sarcastic defence of Collins must be taken as a Swiftian
dodge to bring odium and suspicion on the opponents of the Tory
ministry, by showing that the propounders of the hateful and ridiculous
atheism were themselves Whigs.
Sir Henry Craik, in a note to his reprint of this tract ("Selections
from Swift," Oxford, 1893, vol. ii. p. 42), agrees with Scott as to the
motive which urged Swift in writing it. "In this later tract," he says,
"Swift makes no attempt to cloak his enmity; and he boldly assumes the
character of a Whig as the propounder of those atheistical absurdities,
which he wished, as a useful political move, but without any scrupulous
regard to fairness, to represent as part and parcel of the tenets of
that party." "What gave colour," says Scott, "though only a colour, to
his charge was, that Toland, Tindal, Collins, and most of those who
carried to licence their abhorrence of Church-government, were naturally
enough enrolled among that party in politics who professed most
attachment to freedom of sentiment." It must not, however, be forgotten,
that Swift's attachment to his Church, as it influenced him against the
Whigs, would naturally influence him against the deistical writers also,
and that he must be credited, to that extent, with honesty of purpose.
That these writers were Whigs was, if one may so put it, an accident, of
which it would have been more than a human act for Swift not to take
advantage, for party purposes.
Curiously enough, none of Swift's more modern biographers have thought
this imitation of Collins's "Discourse" worthy of a mention; yet it is,
in its way, as fine a performance as his castigation of Bishop Burnet
and his "Introduction." The fooling is admirably carried on, and the
intention, as explained in the introduction, is excellently well
realized. It frightened Collins into Holland. To appreciate the
cleverness with which it has been done, one should read Swift's
"Abstract" side by side with Collins's "Discourse."
The pamphlet was advertised for sale in "The Examiner" for Tuesday,
January 26th, 1712-13. In His "Letters to Stella" (January 16th and
21st, 1712-13), Swift makes the following references to it: "I came home
at seven, and began a little whim which just came into my head, and will
make a three-penny pamphlet. It shall be finished in a week; and, if it
succeeds, you shall know what it is; otherwise not. ... I was to-day
with my printer, to give him a little pamphlet I have written; but not
politics. It will be out by Monday."
The present text is based on that of the first edition, collated with
those given by Nichols, Hawkesworth and Scott. None of the
"Miscellanies" prints this tract, nor is it given in Faulkner's edition
of 1735-38 (6 vols.). It is fully annotated and edited by Nichols in the
first volume of his "Supplement to Swift's Works" (1779).
[T. S.]
Mr. COLLIN'S
DISCOURSE
OF
FREE-THINKING,
PUT INTO PLAIN ENGLISH,
BY WAY OF ABSTRACT,
FOR THE
USE OF THE POOR.
BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR.
1713.
INTRODUCTION.
Our party having failed, by all their political arguments, to
re-establish their power; the wise leaders have determined, that the
last and principal remedy should be made use of, for opening the eyes of
this blinded nation; and that a short, but perfect, system of their
divinity, should be published, to which we are all of us ready to
subscribe, and which we lay down as a model, bearing a close analogy to
our schemes in religion. Crafty, designing men, that they might keep the
world in awe, have, in their several forms of government, placed a
_Supreme Power_ on earth, to keep human-kind in fear of being hanged;
and a supreme power in heaven, for fear of being damned. In order to
cure men's apprehensions of the former, several of our learned members
have writ many profound treatises on Anarchy; but a brief complete body
of Atheology seemed yet wanting, till this irrefragable Discourse
appeared. However, it so happens, that our ablest brethren, in their
elaborate disquisitions upon this subject, have written with so much
caution, that ignorant unbelievers have edified very little by them. I
grant that those daring spirits, who first adventured to write against
the direct rules of the gospel, the current of antiquity, the religion
of the magistrate, and the laws of the land, had some measures to keep;
and particularly when they railed at religion, were in the right to use
little artful disguises, by which a jury could only find them guilty of
abusing heathenism or popery. But the mystery is now revealed, that
there is no such thing as mystery or revelation; and though our friends
are out of place and power, yet we may have so much confidence in the
present ministry, to be secure, that those who suffer so many free
speeches against their sovereign and themselves, to pass unpunished,
will never resent our expressing the freest thoughts against their
religion; but think with Tiberius, that if there be a God, he is able
enough to revenge any injuries done to himself, without expecting the
civil power to interpose.[1]
[Footnote 1: Swift was evidently very fond of this reference, since he
uses it several times in his writings. [T. S.]]
_By these reflections I was brought to think, that the most ingenious
author of the Discourse upon Freethinking, in a letter to Somebody,
Esq.; although he hath used less reserve than any of his predecessors,
might yet have been more free and open. I considered, that several
well-witters to infidelity, might be discouraged by a show of logic, and
a multiplicity of quotations, scattered through his book, which to
understandings of that size, might carry an appearance of something like
book-learning, and consequently fright them from reading for their
improvement; I could see no reason why these great discoveries should be
hid from our youth of quality, who frequent Whites and Tom's; why they
should not be adapted to the capacities of the Kit-Cat and Hanover
Clubs,[2] who might then be able to read lectures on them to their
several toasts: and it will be allowed on all hands, that nothing can
sooner help to restore our abdicated cause, than a firm universal belief
of the principles laid down by this sublime author._
[Footnote 2: These were chocolate houses of the time, supported mainly
by the aristocracy and the gamblers. White's is still in existence, and
has had the honour of having had a special history written about it.
Tom's was in Russell Street, and so-called after its landlord, Tom West.
The Kit-Cat Club was the resort of the Whig wits of the day, and the
Hanover Club of those who favoured the Hanover succession. [T. S.]]
For I am sensible that nothing would more contribute to "the continuance
of the war" and the restoration of the late ministry, than to have the
doctrines delivered in this treatise well infused into the people. I
have therefore compiled them into the following Abstract, wherein I have
adhered to the very words of our author, only adding some few
explanations of my own, where the terms happen to be too learned, and
consequently a little beyond the comprehension of those for whom the
work was principally intended, I mean the nobility and gentry of our
party. After which I hope it will be impossible for the malice of a
Jacobite, highflying, priestridden faction, to misrepresent us. The few
additions I have made are for no other use than to help the transition,
which could not otherwise be kept in an abstract; but I have not
presumed to advance anything of my own; which besides would be needless
to an author who hath so fully handled and demonstrated every
particular. I shall only add, that though this writer, when he speaks of
priests, desires chiefly to be understood to mean the English clergy,
yet he includes all priests whatsoever, except the ancient and modern
heathens, the Turks, Quakers, and Socinians.
THE LETTER.
SIR,
I send you this apology for Freethinking,[3] without the least hopes of
doing good, but purely to comply with your request; for those truths
which nobody can deny, will do no good to those who deny them. The
clergy, who are so impudent to teach the people the doctrines of faith,
are all either cunning knaves or mad fools; for none but artificial,
designing men, and crack-brained enthusiasts, presume to be guides to
others in matters of speculation, which all the doctrines of
Christianity are; and whoever has a mind to learn the Christian
religion, naturally chooses such knaves and fools to teach them. Now the
Bible, which contains the precepts of the priests' religion, is the most
difficult book in the world to be understood; it requires a thorough
knowledge in natural, civil, ecclesiastical history, law, husbandry,
sailing, physic, pharmacy, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, and
everything else that can be named: And everybody who believes it ought
to understand it, and must do so by force of his own freethinking,
without any guide or instructor.
[Footnote 3: The chief strain of Collins's "Discourse" is an eulogium
upon the necessity and advantage of Freethinking; in which it is more
than insinuated that the advocates of revealed religion are enemies to
the progress of enlightened inquiry. This insidious position is
ridiculed in the following parody. [S.]]
How can a man think at all, if he does not think freely? A man who does
not eat and drink freely, does not eat and drink at all. Why may not I
be denied the liberty of freeseeing, as well as freethinking? Yet nobody
pretends that the first is unlawful, for a cat may look on a king;
though you be near-sighted, or have weak or sore eyes, or are blind, you
may be a free-seer; you ought to see for yourself, and not trust to a
guide to choose the colour of your stockings, or save you from falling
into a ditch.
In like manner, there ought to be no restraint at all on thinking freely
upon any proposition, however impious or absurd. There is not the least
hurt in the wickedest thoughts, provided they be free; nor in telling
those thoughts to everybody, and endeavouring to convince the world of
them; for all this is included in the doctrine of freethinking, as I
shall plainly show you in what follows; and therefore you are all along
to understand the word freethinking in this sense.
If you are apt to be afraid of the devil, think freely of him, and you
destroy him and his kingdom. Freethinking has done him more mischief
than all the clergy in the world ever could do; they believe in the
devil, they have an interest in him, and therefore are the great
supports of his kingdom. The devil was in the States-General before they
began to be freethinkers. For England and Holland[4] were formerly the
Christian territories of the devil; I told you how he left Holland; and
freethinking and the revolution banished him from England; I defy all
the clergy to shew me when they ever had such success against him. My
meaning is, that to think freely of the devil, is to think there is no
devil at all; and he that thinks so, the devil's in him if he be afraid
of the devil.
[Footnote 4: Collins is supposed to have imbibed his freethinking
philosophy during his repeated visits to Holland. [S.]]
But, within these two or three years, the devil has come into England
again, and Dr. Sacheverell[5] has given him commission to appear in the
shape of a cat, and carry old women about upon broomsticks: And the
devil has now so many "ministers ordained to his service," that they
have rendered freethinking odious, and nothing but the second coming of
Christ can restore it.
[Footnote 5: See note on p. 147.]
The priests tell me, I am to believe the Bible, but freethinking tells
me otherwise in many particulars: The Bible says, the Jews were a nation
favoured by God; but I who am a freethinker say, that cannot be, because
the Jews lived in a corner of the earth, and freethinking makes it
clear, that those who live in corners cannot be favourites of God. The
New Testament all along asserts the truth of Christianity, but
freethinking denies it; because Christianity was communicated but to a
few; and whatever is communicated but to a few, cannot be true; for that
is like whispering, and the proverb says, that there is no whispering
without lying.
Here is a society in London for propagating freethinking throughout the
world, encouraged and supported by the Queen and many others. You say,
perhaps, it is for propagating the Gospel. Do you think the missionaries
we send will tell the heathens that they must not think freely? No,
surely; why then, it is manifest, those missionaries must be
freethinkers, and make the heathens so too. But why should not the king
of Siam, whose religion is heathenism and idolatry, send over a parcel
of his priests to convert us to his church, as well as we send
missionaries there? Both projects are exactly of a piece, and equally
reasonable; and if those heathen priests were here, it would be our duty
to hearken to them, and think freely whether they may not be in the
right rather than we. I heartily wish a detachment of such divines as Dr
Atterbury, Dr. Smallridge,[6] Dr. Swift, Dr. Sacheverell, and some others,
were sent every year to the farthest part of the heathen world, and that
we had a cargo of their priests in return, who would spread freethinking
among us; then the war would go on, the late ministry be restored, and
faction cease, which our priests inflame by haranguing upon texts, and
falsely call that preaching the Gospel.
[Footnote 6: Dr. Smallridge, it will be remembered, was the gentleman
who indignantly denied the authorship of "A Tale of a Tub" (see vol. i.
of this edition). He became Bishop of Bristol in 1714, and died in 1719.
His style was well thought of at the time. [T.S.]]