o' I hope to be pardoned for
following so great a Man in his own Method of arguing. He perhaps
may continue of the same Mind, and there may be no Hopes of
Convincement, till Brutes are taught to speak. By this new Way of
Reasoning, the Ground we tread upon, and every Thing around us,
hitherto thought Inanimate, may be full of Cogitation. If affording
the common Marks of Sensation, be no Proof, that Brutes have it in a
common Degree, Wanting the common Marks of Intelligence, can be no
Proof that a Stock or a Stone has it not. If I mistake not, Bishop
_Berkley_ has furnished the World with something equally instructive
and philosophical, in relation to the Existence of Matter; which, he
endeavours to prove _not_ to be a _real_, but an _ideal_ and
_imaginary Being_. I shall leave others to guess, in what Condition
those must be, who think and reason after this extraordinary Manner.
But the Doctor has yet another Argument in reserve, to vindicate
God's Justice--_Tho' Brutes suffer, yet they may_ it seems _have
upon the whole more Pleasure than Pain_. But do not some Brutes
partake very deeply of the former, in this Life; will the Doctor
therefore suppose a Future State for them, by way of Compensation?
But this Argument ruins the whole Affair, and may be turned against
the Doctor himself, in the Case of Infants, who may be made ample
Amends in a future State, for the Evils sustained here, which Evils
may have other Causes besides _Original Sin;_ for here again, as in
the Case of a Propensity to Evil, Pain in Infants, if inflicted
because of _Adam's Sin_, must in _all_ be _uniform_ and _alike_. But
the Fact being quite otherwise, some of this Pain and Evil must be
resolved into _other Causes;_ and if _some_, why not _all?_ I grant
indeed, that _Adam_ himself might have so far corrupted his Nature,
as to render him more liable to Pain, than in a State of true
Innocence he might have been, and that therefore he might be
instrumental to propagate the Seeds of several Diseases, to his
Posterity: But had he never done this, his Successors might have
done it; and _every Age_ has, perhaps, by Intemperance and
Lasciviousness, been adding to the common Stock of human Diseases
and Calamities: Propensities to Vice might also be propagated in the
same Way, and that, and nothing besides, can (I think) account so
well for their great and infinite Variety. The Doctor, with the rest
of his Brethren, are perpetually urging those common-place