e as harmless
as a dissertation on Tar-Water? and what destructive
consequences can attend a treatise on Fainting-Fits and
counterfeited Death, more than a treatise on broken heads or
bloody noses? They are all physical subjects, and fall
within the province of a medical writer, which it is to be
supposed the author of the proposals is, otherwise he cannot
be equal to the task he has undertaken. But our admirable
and sagacious inspector thus addresses the public, _'Tis
palpable, 'tis evident_, says he, _that this man means to
tell you, the Saviour of the world did not die upon the
cross; that he did not rise from the dead; that he did not
work miracles._ I shall only observe, that the words Jesus,
Christianity, or even Religion, are not so much as once
mentioned in these proposals, and probably may not be found
in the work itself, when it appears. Hence we may reasonably
infer, that the world is indebted for these discoveries to
the wonderful acuteness of the Inspectorial nostrils, which
can smell out irreligion and infidelity, where no such
things are intended, or even dreamt of. If such, indeed, are
the intentions of this proposer, he is, doubtless, greatly
obliged to his good friend, the Inspector, or rather the
would-be inquisitor, for discovering to the public what it
seems he himself either would not, or durst not, so much as
hint at. But 'tis malice, 'tis fiction all, and 'tis most
probable, the author himself never had any such things in
his thoughts.

But to be serious, for the subject requires it; too much
detestation, too much abhorrence, can never be shewn for the
principles and practices of this journalist, and they can
never be sufficiently exposed and exploded. If he is not
sincere, if he makes religion only a stalking horse, to
gratify his passions, his pride, his vanity, his ambition,
or his interest, there never was a character more infamous,
more detestable. If he is sincere, his principles are
equally destructive, equally pernicious, to all the most
valuable interests of civil government and social life.
I would incline to the more favourable interpretation; but,
without any breach of charity, it may be said, that his
dirty interest is one of his great motives for such a
conduct. In a late famous letter of his, where, in so many
words, he affirms, that _no other, unless he be conjured
from the dead, is qualified to be Keeper of Sir Hans
Sloane's Museum, except himself_, he thus addresses the