37° 
feven féllow-creatures; and, after that, let 
them pleafe themfelves with eating pota- 
roe bread and rice pudding ! 
“ But what can we do without a car- 
riage ?” they may fay: “ we are aged, in- 
firm, fickly, and accuftomed to indul- 
gence,” It is eafy to reply, you may do 
as well as the clafs a little below you, who 
keep their health, and enjoy life, with no 
other conveyance than their legs on com- 
mon cccafions, and a public carriage on 
particular emergencies. You may at leaft 
as ufefully take the air, by walking ‘in 
your garden or the neighbouring fields, as 
fhut up in arolling room; you may viii, 
as far as vifiting is good, in the fame man- 
ner; and if, on a wet Sunday, you are 
fometimes obliged to read a fermon, and 
the leffons of the day, at home, inftead of 
being acceffory to the colds and coughs of 
tender horfes and coachmen, probably 
your duty will be as effectually performed. 
** But why addrefs yourfelf to us alone ? 
why not expoftulate with the nobility and 
gentry, who keep their half dozen car- 
riages, and a ftable fuli of hunters, and 
their racers at Newmarket befides—or your 
young bucks that drive four in hand, in 
phaetons and curricles ?”’ Becaufe 1 be- 
lieve you have fome regard to the welfare 
of your inferiors—zhey have none. 
If thefe good people fhould have any 
uneafy apprehenfions concerning the fall- 
ing-off of the revenue, from their cealing to 
contribute to the horfe and carriage tax, let 
them make themfelves perfeétiy tranquil 
in the affurance that our heaven-born imi- 
nifter will find out ways and means {uffi- 
cient of getting at his fhare of their pro- 
perty, anc will gain ample retribution for 
the decreafe of an old tax, by the fubfti- 
tution of a new one. It is clear, too, 
that the faving of rool. or rsol. per ann. 
will enable them with eafe to double or 
triple their quota to the public by parrio- 
tic donations, or other {pecies of expen- 
diture. One of the latter, I fhall take 
the liberty of pomting out. Let them lay 
in annually an additional pipe of port, to 
give away as a medicine to their poor 
neighbours in thofe dreadful fevers which © 
hardihip and low diet render fo frequenr. 
‘Of this excellent cordial, now totally out 
of the reach of the poor, the additional 
tax is faid at prefent to arnount to as much 
as the whole coft before Mr. Pitt’s admi- 
tration. 
Your's, &c. 
MISIPPUS. 
Tune 4. 
The Enquirer. No. V. 
a 
[June 
THE ENQUIRER, No. V. 
QUESTION 5. What has been the probable 
Origin of Id-latry ? 
‘ ache ® w Ke ¥ ve PT ey, 
Tavle uéy yoo wvra vonrat Qeas 8x teu, 
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THESE 
THINGS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MIS- 
TAKEN FOR GODS. 
Plut. de Yfid, 
WHILE curiofity contents herfelf with 
“" gazing in aftonifhment at wonderful 
phenomena in the natural and moral 
world, philofophy is induftrioufly em- 
ployed in tracing them to their origin; 
and is never fatisfied till fhe can affigma 
probabie caufe of their exiftence. “ Among 
the appearances which the hiftory of man- 
kind affords to attra¢t admiration, and to 
excite enquiry, few will be fourd more 
furprifing than the praétice, which has, at — 
different periods, prevailed in every part of 
the world, of offering religious worthip 
before certain natural bodies, animal or 
vegetable, or before images formed of 
wood, ftone, or metaliic fubftances, by 
human art. This ts a practice of which 
we find innumerable traces in the moft 
remote periods of hiltorical record; which, 
amidft all the changes that time has pro; 
duced in opinions and cuftoms, has never 
been loft ; and which, after all that reli- 
gion and philofophy have done to enlighten 
the word, is fill prevalent in many 
countries. 
In former times, while the wife Roman 
was ridiculing the fuperfitious Eeyptian, 
for worthipping gods produced in his gar- 
den*, he was himfeif paymg adoration 
before a piece of inanimate fculpture. - In 
the prefent day, while the African negro 
is bowing before his feticbe, and the 
Afiatic Indian before his marble block, or 
grotefque image, the catholic Chriftian is 
kneeling at the foot of his faint, or his 
crucifix. - What does this practice im- 
port; and whence has it arifen ? Tr is 
direcult to believe that the term zdolatry 4 
has, in its firiét fenfe, ever been applica- 
ble to any people: it is not conceivable, 
that men fhould ever have been fo ftvpic 
as to worthip a ftatue, end think it a man; 
or a block of wood or ftone, and think it 
a-vod. When the honours of detfication 
were beftowed on Auguftus, the rites of” 
his temple were not performed to the 
ftatue, but to the waxes of the emperor. 
When worlhip was performed in the tem= ~ 
* O fanétas: gentes, quibus hac nafcuntut 
in hortts Numina! Juv. 
> From ccos, an Image, AgTouewy to adore. 
ple ; 
