he mischief which it might have prevented. But who can
suppose an extraordinary interposition of Providence to supply
particular defects in the constitution of Nature, who sees those defects
supplied but in part? It is true, that when the Endeavour was upon the
rock off the coast of New Holland, the wind ceased, and that otherwise
she must have been beaten to pieces; but either the subsiding of the
wind was a mere natural event, If it was a natural event, Providence is
out of the question, at least we can with no more propriety say that
providentially the wind ceased, than that providentially the sun rose in
the morning. If it was not a mere natural event, but produced by an
extraordinary interposition, correcting a defect in the constitution of
nature, tending to mischief, it will lie upon those who maintain the
position, to shew, why an extraordinary interposition did not take place
rather to prevent the ship's striking, than to prevent her being beaten
to pieces after she had struck. A very slight impulse upon the ship's
course would have caused her to steer clear of the rock; and if all
things were not equally easy to Omnipotence, we should say that this
might have been done with less difficulty than a calm could be produced
by suspending the general laws of Nature, which had brought on the gale.

"I have, however, paid my homage to the Supreme Being, consonant to my
own ideas of his agency and perfections; and those who are of opinion
that my notions are erroneous, must allow, that he who does what he
thinks to be right, and abstains from what he thinks to be wrong,
acquits himself equally of moral obligation, whether his opinions are
false or true."

Such are the concluding observations in Dr Hawkesworth's General
Introduction to this work. That they have a most specious and rational
aspect, cannot be denied, with the exception of scarcely any thing more
than the last paragraph, in which it is implied, most erroneously, that
the conviction of being right is a sufficient evidence that one is
so,--a sentiment not more certainly the result of ignorance of human
nature in its present condition, than it is the potential source of
almost every immorality and mischief that have degraded or destroyed our
species. But conceding entirely the principles contended for by Dr H.,
it may be demonstrated, that a directly contrary conclusion is their
proper legitimate issue, and that too, independent of any consideration
of other