MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 369
which, according to vulgar appre- hcnfions, fwept away his head ; the follower of Berkley, who, while he fits writing at his table, declares that he has neither table, paper, nor fingers ; have all the honour at leaft of being deceived by falla- cies not eafily dete£tL-d, and may plead that they did not forfake truth, but for appearances which they were not able to diltinguilh from it.
But the man who engages in a party has feldom to do with any thing remote or abftrufe. The pre- fent Itate of things is before his eyes ; and if he cannot be fatis- fied without retrofpedlion, yet he feldom extends his views beyond the hiftorical events of the laft century. All the knowledge that he can want is within his attain- ment, and moft of the arguments which he can hear are within his capacity.
Yet ib it is, that an Idler meets, every hour of his life, with men who have different opinions upon, every thing pall, preient, and fu- ture; who deny the moft notorious fadls, contradift the moft cogent truths, and perfift in aflerting to- day what they aflerted yefterday, in defiance of evidence, and con- tempt of confutation.
Two of my companions, who are grown old in idlenefs, are Tom Tempejl and Jack Sneaker. Both of them men who confider themfelves as negleded by their parties, and therefore intitied to credit, as hav. ing no motive to favour ingrati- tude. They are both men of inte- grity where no faftious intereft is to be promoted, and both lovers of truth, when they are not heated with political debate.
B b Tom
how abfurd it is to fuppofe, that others can be as much interefted in her own children as herfelf. I would teach her, that, what I com- plain of as matter of inconvenience may, one day, prove to her a fe- vere trial ; and that, early licen- tioufnefs will, at laft, mock that parental affetlion, from whofe miftaken indulgence it arofe,
1 am yours, kc.
X. Y. Z.
The IDLER.
CRedulity, or confidence of opi- nion too great for the evidence from which opinion is derived, we find to be a general weaknefs im- puted by every feft and party to all others, and, indeed, by every man to every other man.
Of all kinds of credulity the moft obiHnate and wonderful is that of political zealots ; of men, who, being numbered, they know not how nor why, in any of the parties that divide a ftate, refign the ufe of their own eyes and ears, and re- solve to believe nothing that does not favour thofe whom they profefs to follow.
The bigot of philofophy is fe- duced by authorities which he has not always opportunities to exa- mine, is intangled in fyftems by which truth and falftiood are inex- tricably complicated, or undertakes to talk on fubjeds, which nature did not form him able to compre- hend.
The Cartefian, who denies that his horfe feels the fpur, or that the hare is afraid when the hounds ap- proach her ; the difciple of Male- branche, who maintains that the man was not hurt by the bullet.
Vol. I.
