priefts and nobles are unfounded. Have crimes been lefs frequent in republics than in monarchies? Let Rome, Athens, Carthage, Venice and modern France, anfwer the question.

YOUR affertion, that where there is no law, there is no crime, is falfe. Do not murders, maimings, and rapes, occur more frequently in the ftate of fociety, which is called the state of nature, than in any other? And do they cease to be crimes, because not forbidden by positive laws ?

I AM aftonished, that a Philofopher fhould be willing, at a fingle ftroke, to deftroy nearly all the virtue, and the happinefs of life. For why fhould one man be permitted the use of an hundred women, when one will anfwer all the purposes of his exiftence? Abolish the inftitution of marriage, and where would be that focial virtue, that mild, but conftant philanthrophy, which fprings from the moft delightful of all connections, the union of congenial fouls?

"Where heart meets heart, reciprocally foft,
Each others pillow to repofe divine."

WHAT Would remain in its stead, but brutal luft, emaciating the body, and corrupting the mind?

IN the fharp conteft for the finest women, for women would then become an article of luxury, what contentions, what public murders, what private affafinations would enfue! How wretched muft the women themselves be, thrown from paramour to paramour, without a dwelling, and without a protector! How would their hearts fink in that most trying hour, when about to give life to a rational being, their own hangs suspended on a thread!

BUT how, Mr. Philofopher, can you fay, that you are not obliged to afford protection and fupport to the being whom you have begotten? The mountain, it is true, produces the cedar, and the stream turns the wheel, according to the established laws of vegetation and motion; for in them refides no volition. But you are

a rational being, and in yielding to the impulfe of nature, are able to foresee the confequence of your agency. Who fhall maintain the helpless little ftranger, if you do not? Caft upon the wide world, and unrecognized by him, who gave it being, the infant must perish, unless sustained by the hand of maternal care, or by the voluntary attentions of ftrangers.

THE Philofopher paufed, and ftroking his beard, as if preparing for another dif play of his powers, proceeded to condemn civilized life, and to eulogize the ftate of nature. But the fequel of our converfation must be deferred, till the next epiftle of thy friend.

Letter Fourteenth.

DEARLY BELOVED EL HASSAN,

THE Philofopher proceeded."The restraints of marriage are intolerable. The focial affections, of which you speak, are narrow and felfish. How much more worthy of a philofopher is that expanded philanthropy, which embraces, within the wide circle of its love, the Greenlander, half buried in his fnows, and the naked favage, panting at the line? Low, debafed fouls, corrupted by civilization, may feek for objects of charity in the highways and cottages; but let me tell you, fuch beings can never become Philofophers. Philofopical philanthropy extends its affections even to other planets, and to other fyftems; and confiders the whole univerfe, as one great republic."

HERE the Philofopher, affuming a loftier ftep, looked me full in the face, while his countenance expreffed fupreme satis faction.

will

WHAT good, Mr. Philofopher, (faid I) your philanthropy do to the inhabitants of diftant fyftems, which the most rapid comet can hardly reach in his amazing revolution of a thousand years? What inhabitant of Herfchel, a planet, which our fineft telescopes can hardly render vifible, will ever know of the existence of the Philadelphia Philofopher? What Greenlander, or native of Borneo, will ever hear one of your philanthropic fighs, or liften, as I do, to the eloquence of your tongue? Indesd, fir, we must seek objects of charity within our reach. We must relieve the unfortunate mendicant in the ftreets, and cheer the wretched inhabitants of the hut of poverty. Let Kamchatka and Caffraria relieve the diftreffes of their own inhabitants; and let us cherish the country, which gave us birth, and do good to the little circle around us.

"YOUR mind(replied the Philofopher,) is not fufficiently enlightened to feel the fublimity of my doctrines. I therefore pardon your prejudices, while I ftrive to remove them. It is this diftempered state