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Show t8 No innate praf1ical Principler. Book I. be convinced of their Obligation. Others alfo may come to be of the fame Mind, from their Education, Company, and Cufloms of thetr Count~y; which Perjivajion !Jowewr got, 1vill forue to Jet Co11{oence 011 work,_,wlHch is nothing elfc, but our own Opinion of our o_wn Acbons .. And. '' Confcience be a Proof of innate Pnnctples, contranes may be tnnatc Pnnctples: Since fome Men, with the fame bent of Confc!encc, profccutc what others avoid. §. 9. But I cannot fee how any Men, !houl? e~er tran./i,refs thofe Moral Rub witb con(idewct a11d Serenity, were they mnate, and llamped upon their Minds. View b~t an Army at the facking of a Town, and fee wlm Obfervations or Senfe of Moral Pnnctples, or what touch of Confct· cnce, for all ~he Outrages they do. Robberies, Murden, Rapes, are the Sports of Men fer at Liberty from Pundhment a_nd Cenfure. Have there hot been whole Nations, and thofe of the mofl ctvthzed People, amongfl whom, the expofing their Children, and leavmg them tn the Ftelds, tope· ri!h by Want,or wild Beafls, has been the Prachcc, as ltttle condemned or fcrupled, as the begetting them 1 Do they_ not lltll, m. fome Countries, put them into the fame Graves wtth thetr Mothers, 1f rhey dtc tn Child-birth; Or difpatch them, tf a pretended Aflrologer declares them to have unhappy Stars? And are there n_ot Places, where at a certatn Age, they kill, or expofe thetr ~arents wtthout any remorfe at all ? In a P•rt of Afia, the Sick, when thetr Cafe comes to be thought defperate, are carried out and laid on the Earth, before they are dead, and left there, ' C•) Grubera·expofed'to Wind and Weather,toperi!h without Affiflanceor ~tty._(«) In pudThm"o',is familiar amongfl: the Mengrellans, a People profeffing Chnlltamty, to f;)t,:i;~;. bury their Children alive without fcrilple. (!>) There are Places whe~e 4pud Thm· they eat their own Cluldren. (y) The Canbes were wont to geld thetr not, p.Ji. Children on purpofe to fat and eat them. ( J') And Gamlaffo de Ia Pe!f,_a \3'/t,~~~;::/:. tells us of a People in Peru, which were wont to £,t and eat their C_lul• S·• 9· dren they got on their female Captives, wluch they kept as Concubtnes (IJ P. M>ct. for that Purpofe. (•) The Virtues, whereby the JONoupinambas belteved ~;;;d,,rn-they merited Paradife, were, Revenge, and eattng abundance of thctr Ew, I.'- c."· n,emies. (~) They have not fo much as a Name for G~, Lery pag. ~16. ({) L<cy,c- t6No A,cknowledgment of any God, no Reltgton, no l'.odhtp; pag. ~Jr. The Saints, who are canoniz'd amongfl the Turks, lead Lt~es, whtch one cannotwith Modefly relate. A remarkable Palfage to thJS Purpofe, out of the Voyage of Baumg,arten, which is a Book, not every Day to be met with I !hall fet down at lar~e, in the Language tt IS publtfl1ed 10. Jh (fc, prope Belbes in .A'gypto) 'llidimm fanllum unum Saracmicum int" a· renarum cumulos,ita ut ex utero matris prodiit n11dum fedentem. .frlol efl, ut didicimw Mahometiflis,ut .as, qui amentes f!J fine ratio.e funt,pro fanill4 colantf!f'Venerentur.lnfoper~eos qui cumdiuvitam ege~int inquinati.flimam, 'lJoluntariam demum ptenitentiam C5 pttupertatem, fanChtate 11enerandos de· putanr. Ejufmodi 'l!erO gtnus hominum /ibertattm fuandam ejfr11!ntm ha6ent, domos quaJ 'l!olunt intrandi, edendi, bihndi,f!J fUOd majUJ tf/,concumbendJ; ex quo concubitu,Ji pro/a focuta Juerit,fanE/a jimiliter habetur. His ergo J.:ominihw,dum vivunt,magnos exhibent bonores ; mortuis ve1Q vel temJI4 vel momtmtnta extru11.nt ampliffrma,eofiJ;co~ttingere ac jepelire maxima! fortH· H/1! ducunt loco.Audivimu.r bll!c diila f!f dicenda per illterprttem a Mum/1 m/}ro. Info per Janflum il!um,quem eo loci vidimus, publicituJ apprimC com· mendari, eum elfe Hominem {anEium,di:vimtm ac in(egritate prtEcipsmm;eo quod, nu jfCminarum unquarp ef{et nee puerorum, jed tantummodo afellarum concubitor atque mularum. Peregr. Baumgarten, l. ~.c. I. p. 73· Where then are thofe innate Principles, of Juflice, Piety, Gratitude, EqUity, Chafltty ~ Chap. III. · No innate pratlical Principles. Chaflity? Or, where is that univcrfal Confent, that alfurcs us there arc fuch inbred Rules? Murders in Duels, when Fa01ion Ius ma~e them honourable, are comr~l itte.d with?ut remorfc of Co~1fciencc : 1\iay, in many Places, Innocence 10 thJS Cafe ts the grcatcll Ignominy. And if we will look abroad, to take a view of Men,_ as they ar<; we lhalllind, that they have a. remorfe,m one Place, for domg or om1ttmg that:whidl others in another Place, think they merit by. ' §. ro. He that will carefully perufe the Hi !lory of Mankind, and look abroad into the feveral Tnbes of Men, and with indiflerency furvcy their Acbons, Will be able to fattslielumfelf, That there ts fcorcc that Princtple of Morality to be na,;ned, or Rule of Pertue to be thought on (rhofe only excepted, that are abfolutely necclfary to hold So.ctety tcgether, which commonly too are neglected betwtxt dtfltnct Soctettes) which is not,fomewhere or other, }lighted and condemned by the general Fafl1:on of ,0/;o/e Societies ofMen, governed by practicalOpinions,and Rules of Jiving quire oppofite to others. . §. r I. Here, perhaps, 'twill be objetl:ed,that it is no Argument, that the Rule IS not i·nown, 6ecaufe.•t IS 6roken .. I grant the ObjcCl:ion good, where· Men, though they tranlgrefs, yet dtfown nor the Law· where fear of Shame, Cenfure,or Punifl1ment, carries the Mark of fome'awe it has upon them. But tt ts tmpoffible to concetve, that a wbole Nation of Men !hou_ld allpullick/y rejefl and renounce, what every one of them, certainly and mfalltbly, knew to be a Law : For fo they mufl, who have it naturally imprinted on their Minds. 'Tis pollible, Men may fometimes own R•les of Morality, which,in their private Thoughts, they do not believe to be true, only to keep themfclves in Reputatior;, and Elleem am<>n&fl: thofe, who are perf waded ofthetr Ob!Jgatton. But tts not to be imagin d, That a whole Soctety of Men, !hould, pubhckly and profe!fedly,difown, and call of!' a Rule, whtch they could not,tn their own Minds but be in· fallibly certain, was a Law; nor be ignorant, That all Men, ;hey fl1ould have to do with, knew it to be fuch: And therefore mull every one of them apprehend from others, all the Contempt and Abhorrence due to one, who profelfes himfelf void of Humanity; and one, who confounding the known and natural meafures of Right and Wrong, cannot but be Iook'd on, as the profelfed Enemy of their Peace and Happinefs. What· eve_r practical Principle is innate, cannot but be known to every one, to be JUfl and good. It ~s therefore httle lefs 'than a contradiction, to fup' pofe, That whole Nattons of Men fl10uld both in their Profeffions and ~racticc unanimoufly and univerfally ~ive the Lye to, what, by the :nofl ITIVIOCtblc Evtdence, every one of theJn knew to be true, right, and good. Tlus JS enough to fattslie us, That no practtcal Rule, which is any where univerf.•lly, and with publick Approbation, or Allowance, tranfgrelled, can be fuppofed tnnate. But I have fomething far ther to add in Anfwer to this Objection. ' §. n. The breaking of a Rule, fay you, is no Argument, that it is unknown. I grant tt: But the generally allowed 6reac/; of it any where I fay, iJ a Pr~oj, tb~t it is not inwate: For Exaf!Iplc,let us take any of th~fe Rules ; whtch bemg the mofl obvwus dcducbons of Humane Reafon and conformable to the natural Inclination of the greatcll part of Men, fe;.,efl: People have had the Impudence to deny, or lnconfideration to doubt of. If any can be thought to be naturally tmprintcd, none, I think, can have a fatrer Pretence to be mnatc, than thts; ParentJ preforveand c!Jerifo your Chi/tire,. When therefore you fay, That this is an innate Rule, What do you moan ? Either, that it is an innate Principle; which upon all Oc- D 2 cafions, |