meet
with very few Readers, among those that have read, and are not lash'd
in the _Characteristicks_, who will think, that My Lord _Shaftsbury_
deserves one Tenth Part of the Indignity and Contempt, which you treat
_Cratylus_ with.

Men may differ in Opinion, and both mean well. You, Sir, think it for
the Good of Society, that human Nature should be extoll'd as much as
possible: I think, the real Meanness and Deformity of it to be more
instructive. Your Design is, to make Men copy after the beautiful
Original, and endeavour to live up to the Dignity of it: Mine is, to
enforce the Necessity of Education, and mortify Pride. I was very much
delighted with what you say in your First Dialogue of Apple-trees and
Oranges; the different Productions of the first, and the Culture of the
other. The Allegory is very ingenious, and the Application just; but I
don't think, that the Conclusion, which must be drawn from it, will be
of great Use to you. Page 51. _Euphranor_ asks _Alciphron, Why may we
not conclude by a Parity of Reason, that Things may be natural to Human
Kind, and yet neither found in all Men, nor invariably the same, where
they are found?_ I answer, They may. But if all the Knowledge and
Accomplishments, which Men can attain to, are to be look'd upon as
natural, and peculiar to the whole Species, it must be the same with
Vice and Wickedness, as it is with Virtue and the Liberal Arts; and,
what I never could have imagin'd before, it must be as natural for a
Man to murder his Father, as it is to reverence him; and for a Woman to
poison her Husband, as it is to love him.

If you would but look into the Reasons, Sir, I have given for
distinguishing between what is natural, and what is acquired, you would
not find any ill Intention in that Practice. Many Things are true,
which the Vulgar think Paradoxes. Believe me, Sir, to understand the
Nature of Civil Society, requires Study and Experience. Evil is, if not
the Basis of it, at least a necessary Ingredient in the Compound; and
the temporal Happiness of Some is inseparable from the Misery of
others. They are silly People who imagine, that the Good of the Whole
is consistent with the Good of every Individual; and the best of us are
insincere. Every body exclaims against Luxury; yet there is no Order of
Men which is not guilty of it; and if the Lawgivers are not always
endeavouring to keep up all Trades and Manufactures, that supply us
with the Means and Implements of Luxu