1746; I have also superintended the Edition of the annual Prize-Pieces.

On the first Proposal for the Foundation of a Charity School in 1746, I collected and arranged the Reafons for it, in a Quarto Half-fheet, intitled, Projet d'un Etablissement en Faveur des Pauvres, which, in the Beginning of 1747, was followed by a Memoire pour l’Etabliffement d'une Ecole de Charité. Accordingly the School was founded, and I know not any Work which gave me a more lively Pleafure than the Sermon which I preached at its Dedication, on the 12th of September, 1747 ; lince which

Time, beginning at the Year 1748, I have annually published a Relation de ľEcole de Charité,

I now, unexpectedly, found myself engaged in a kind of Controversy with the late Cardinal Querini, equally respectable for his Morals and Literature. As he had published a Letter to me, I thought myself indispensably obliged to answer it: There have been likewise some other Pieces relating to this Dispute, all which I have collected in the Vindicia Reformatorum, printed 1750, in Octavo.

I shall not swell this Account with any farther Enumeration of my Works, which are not unknown in most Parts of Europe where Literature flourishes. The Premisses

are

are sufficient to shelter me from the Charge of Supineness; but, amidst the Duties of my honourable Post, an extensive Correspondence, and other Affairs, with which a pretty numerous Acquaintance is neceffarily clogged; far am Ifrom wearying myself with Labour, I rather allow myself a competent Relaxation in the innocent Complacencies of Life; constantly endeavouring to finish my Career with that Joy of Heart, which arises from an intire Confidence in the adorable Perfections of the supreme Dispenser of Events, in whose Presence is Fulness of Joy, and at whose Right-hand are Pleasures for evermore.

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2. per i

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CON

CO N T E N T S.

SSAT on Sleep

Page 1 E Esay on Dreams

49 The Value and Neglect of the Laws of Converfation

77 On the Scale of Beings

95 On the Order of Nature

114 On the Analogy between the Nourishment

of the Soul and that of the Body 129 On the Principles of Happiness and Unbapiness in Marriage

147 On Moral Liberty

184 Dissertation, from the Principles of the

Law of Nature, on lending Money at
Interest

231 The Obligation of procuring ourseltes the

Conveniencies of Life, considered as a
Moral Duty

255 The Logic of Probabilities

272

C

ESSAYS

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I . . . . . . . . . . . .

E S S A Y

Ο Ν

S

L E E P.

UR Life is by Nature divided into two Portions, nearly equal,

Vigilancy and Sleep. The Occupations of the Day lead us to the Repose of the Night, and Repose inables us to go through the Functions of a new Day; and, in the Generality of Mankind, this regular Alternation of Action and Rest continues till we fall into a final Sleep, yet not without the Hopes of awakning to a Vigilancy which shall know neither End nor Interruption.

That Part of Life which passes in an apparent State of Death, is, I confess, by no Means so interesting as that which is filled with the several Transactions and Events of our Life, which sees the Birth and Difclosure of our Projects, the Conduct, Success, or Disappointment of our Undertakings; and which is the perpetual Scene of

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our