Indeed in these degenerate times the truly honest Patriot who resolves to act faithfully, & to continue to his country’s interest is likely to have a very hard fighting task: But tho’ Vertue hath seldom been triumphant, the Strugle is glorious & a few honest Champions against Slavery & arbitrary power have always been of great use at least to moderate matters & keep the measures of Wicked men a little more tolerable than otherwise they might have been.
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But if our few faithfull honest men are shut out from all capacity of Exerting themselves in a legal way what shal become of us.
But I must contain myself.
The learned youth of the University of Glascow (with some of whom I have the honour to be acquainted) have indeed given proofs of a free & generous spirit which deserve to be commended. And I am sure they have a very gratefull sense of the Encouragment you have been pleased to give them.22 Would to heaven (My Lord) I could say our college were as yet in any respect upon a better footing than her sisters. Sure I am I should reckon my Self a happy man if I can contribute any thing in my capacity to promote the interests of liberty truth & the love of mankind. ’Tis indeed on the Education of the youth that the Foundation stones of Publick Liberty must be layed. But oh (my Lord) when shal a Formal dogmatical spirit which hath brought true Philosophy & usefull Scholarship into such contempt be seperated from the gown; And our Academies become realy good & Wholesome Nurseries to the Publicke. O when shall all that Idle Pedantick Stuff which is now alass the most innocent cargoe our youth can carry with them from our Universities be banished; And that Philosophy which once governed States & Societies & produced Heroes & Patriots take place in its room. And for this effect when shal the Sprightly arts & Sciences, which are so Essential in the formation of a gentiel & liberal Caracter be again reunited with Philosophy from which by a fatal Error they have been so long severed! But what do I talk of? All this surely is meer Romance & Enthusiasm. For how can it be so while our Colleges are under the Inspection of proud domineering pedantic Priests whose interest it is to train up the youth in a profound veneration to their Senseless metaphysical Creeds & Catechisms, which for this purpose they are daily inured to defend against all Doubters & Enquirers with the greatest bitte<r>ness & contempt, in a stiff formal bewildering manner admirably fitted indeed to Enslave young understandings betimes and to beget an early antipathy against all Free thought. My lord I have read with great pleasure several late
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performances of a truly noble & generous Spirit, particularly the Independent Whig & the letters subscribed Cato, & with my soul wish weel to the worthy undertakers.23 No doubt they are known to your Lordship & they are certainly men of a fine turn, throughly good & honest Lovers of mankind. I admire that noble warmth of honest Enthusiasm which give such uncommon life & vivacity to these Excellent papers: And yet more that comprehensive knowledge of mankind by which it is influenced & supported. For indeed it is in the histories of mankind that the value of liberty is best learned, as weel as the ways by which it has been lost & preserved: And this brings it to my mind to ask your Lordship if there is any translation in any of the more known languages of the Laws of Denmark, for I have a great inclination to see these laws which are so weel spoken of in that most judicious account of Denmark published in 1692.24 How weel pleased should I be that there were such accounts of all the other States in Europe that by that means I might supply the want of travel with the hopes of which I fear I must not flatter myself.
My Lord I cannot read what you say of your age & constitution without the most passionate Emotions. May heaven be so kind to mankind as to prolong your days. But to your self I must believe your age is noway uneasy. For Cato like you have the vertuous labours of a weel spent life & Philosophy the never failing refuge of a learned Honest man, to solace you in these days which appear only Evil to a youthfull taste. And that Philosophy which hath made you so compleatly good & Vertuous must undoubtedly have Enabled you long agoe to Despise Death that Head Gobling & all its terrors. Your body (my Lord) may be frail & decaying apace But your virtue is still lively & vigorous & this methinks presages it shal never die, but when
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its present crazy habitation fails Exchange it for another more suited to its perfection & Excellence. The Great motive, your lordship knows, which perswaded the wisest antients to the belief of a future state unrevealed to them was purely the love of virtue in the persons of these great men the Founders and Preservers of Society. And indeed even amidst all the Light the Christian revelation affords concerning futurity there is something in this argument peculiarly satisfying to good & virtous minds. For surely if Wisdom & Goodness be chief & predominant in nature whatever difficulties & hardships may be necessary to form as weel as prove a true & genuine virtue; yet after Virtue has strugled thro’ much opposition & by suffering arrived to perfection, it cannot continue any longer to be suppressed & born down; But must at last triumph over all opposition and be placed in such circumstances as it may Exert all its benignity & goodness & act like it self. But it is now high time to beg pardon for detaining your Lordship so long and giving too loose reins to an Impulse for which I have nothing to say but that it is truly honest. And indeed it had got vent much sooner had I not been obliged to a continual wandering since I received yours. I am my Lord with the sinc<e>rest respect your most obliged humble servant.
Geo: Turnbull.
4. To VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH
Address: To The Right Honourable The Lord Molesworth at Breckdenston
near Dublin
MS: NLI, Microfilm n. 4082, p. 375325
Edinburgh, 14 May 1723
My Lord
I am unwilling to trouble your Lordship too often; But now I Long exceedingly to know how you are & in what state of health.
I thank your Lordship mos<t> heartily for your most acceptable & obliging complement & there is nothing indeed of that kind I would be prouder
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of than to have your works in my Library Ex dono the worthy Author. If you please therefore to transmit the peices you mention to Glascow directed to the care of Mr James Arbuckle Student of Divinity he will forward them to me.26
I have seen Mr Collins’ treatise on Free-thinking some years agoe & another peice of the same Author’s (as it is commonly said) upon liberty & necessity; & I should be glad to know if he is still alive & what is become of him.27 Toland who was said to have been of his Club I know is gone.28 I beg Leave to tell your lordship that I wrote a small treatise about four years agoe upon the Religion of the State which had it not been for the timidity of Printers had seen the light long since.29 The design of it was to shew that a fair & impartial excercise of reason was the best & worthiest part an understanding creature could act in matters of thought or faith & that no rational society could have any common interest in matters of that sort but the common defence of this common & noblest priviledge of rational beings. I Endeavour to shew that the interest of true religion only requires that the Publick Magistrates & Guardians should protect all the members of the societies under their care & tutorship equally in the easy & quiet use of the thinking & reasoning Liberty: And that all other publick medling in religion must be prejudicial to religion trade learning politeness & in fine to all the common right & interests of mankind whether Civil or Spirituall. But now My Lord tho I be as sincere & hearty a lover of free-thinking as ever, I begin to doubt a litle whether upon an impartiall balance of all the
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