But I demand of this politician, how such arts came to be necessary?
He answers, that civil society could not well exist without them.

So that these arts are necessary to civil society, and civil society necessary again to these arts.

Thus are we running in a circle, without modesty, and without end, and making one error and extravagance an excuse for the other.

My sentiments about these arts and their cause, I have often discoursed with my friends at large.

Pope has expressed them in good verse, where he talks with so much force of reason and elegance of language, in praise of the state of nature: "Then was not pride, nor arts that pride to aid, Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade." On the whole, my lord, if political society, in whatever form, has still made the many the property of the few; if it has introduced labors unnecessary, vices and diseases unknown, and pleasures incompatible with nature; if in all countries it abridges the lives of millions, and renders those of millions more utterly abject and miserable, shall we still worship so destructive an idol, and daily sacrifice to it our health, our liberty, and our peace?
Or shall we pass by this monstrous heap of absurd notions, and abominable practices, thinking we have sufficiently discharged our duty in exposing the trifling, cheats, and ridiculous juggles of a few mad, designing, or ambitious priests?
Alas! my lord, we labor under a mortal consumption, whilst we are so anxious about the cure of a sore finger.