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LORD SHAFTESBURY.

OR, fhall we say, that this impiety of the time was only employed to correct its fuperftition? And that the philofophic fpirits of that age trafficked in thefe wares, as thinking them a proper antidote to fuch as another set of miffionaries largely dealt in; I mean, the agnus Dei's, boly beads, and confecrated medals?.

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TAKE it which way you will, the conclufion, I believe, will fcarcely be much in favour of our Italian Travellers.--As to the worthies of CHARLES's court, your Lordship, without doubt, is difpofed to divert yourself with them. For, if they brought any thing with them from France, befides the dress of its follies and vices (excepting always the facred babble of their language), it is a fecret which it has not been my fortune to be apprized of.

LORD

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

AND fo, because Travelling may, by áccident, be attended with some ill effects, you roundly determine against the thing itself, as if the national improvement in arts and civility, which unqueftionably arofe from it, were to go for nothing!

MR. LOCKE.

I WOULD have it go for no more than it is honeftly worth; which furely is fomething less than the price paid for it, our principals and our morals. And I doubt the truth is, that this degeneracy in both was the ufual acquifition of our travelled youth, and the improvement, your Lordship fpeaks of, only the accidental benefit.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

WITHOUT doubt, there is no extending our acquaintance with the world, but we run the risk of catching its vices, as

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man

well as virtues. Yet, pufh this conclufion as far as it will go, and you fhut up kind in abfolute and incurable barbarism. Such is the unhappy condition of human nature, that in ftriving to cultivate its powers, you furnish the opportunities, at least, of its corruption. Yet to leave it in that fordid state, for fear of those abuses, is methinks but acting with the weak apprehenfion of fond mothers; who deny their children the liberty of ftirring from the fire-fide, for fear of the dirt or damp air, which, in their fieldexercifes may chance to incommode them.

MR. LOCKE.

THE allufion would be apt, if the health of the mind, as of the body, depended on the ufe of fuch liberty; or if it were true, that one could as little help breathing the air of vice, as that of the heavens. But, though I have heard much of the dangers, to which virtue is expofed in this bad world, I have never understood

understood that Vice is its proper ele

ment.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

YET methinks, Sir, it will be hard to keep clear of it in any part of the world, that I am acquainted with: unless perhaps you take this happy lfland of ours to be as free from Vice, as a Neighbouring one, they fay, is from Venom.

MR. LOCKE.

THERE are, however, degrees in Vice, as well as varieties of it; and I cannot think it neceffary for us to be greater proficients than we are, or to import new species of it; by rambling into countries where it may chance to rage with greater virulence, or where fuch modes of it, at least, prevail, as are luckily unknown to us. And fuch, I doubt, were the fruits of our Italian and French travels.

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BUT allowing that Vice were of every clime, the fame every where, and equally malignant, I should still imagine our youth to be fafer from the infection at home, under the eye and wing of their own parents or families, than wandering at large in foreign countries, with as little care of others, as prudence of their own, to guard them from this danger.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

YES, if they were turned loose into this wicked world, and left to their own devices. But, what if fome fage Philofopher

MR. LOCKE.

SOME God, you would fay, in the shape of a Tutor; for a mere mortal Guide of that stamp is not eafily met with. Or, if He were, his wisdom, I doubt, would hardly give him the authority, he stands in need of, for the difcharge of his function. But I take your Lordship's

raillery,

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