Education for Life. George Turnbull
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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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interests & advantages of Society some Established worship & mode of religion & publick order of Priests or Teachers would not be found absolutely necessary if not for the upholding of society, at least for the right management of it.30 The decision of this question depends upon a thorough knowledge of mankind & a judicious observation of the ways by which they have been governed in different ages & circumstances. And I should be glad to have your Lordship’s sentiments upon that head weel knowing your own deep insight into human affairs & that your notions of government & politicks are founded upon solid history & observation. In the mean time I can’t but think it very plain from history that some orders of Priesthood have been very pernicious to Society & that most that ever were might have been under regulations much more advantageous to true religion & Virtue & all the learned & polite arts.
What you tell me my lord of the breaking up of my last surprised me not a litle; But it was a sincere esteem of your Lordship’s uncommon love to truth liberty & virtue that alone induced me to hasten so forwardly in to your friendship & this I am proud to own in the face of all the flatterers of Arbitrary power that I have more real pleasure in the virt<u>ous correspondence in which you are pleased to allow me than in all the gawdry pomp & honours of their most caressed minions I am my Lord with the sincerest respect your
Lordships most obliged
humble servant
Geo: Turnbull
PS. I do not know my lord if I should venture upon so short & distant an acquaintance with your lordship to desire of you to recommend me, if it fall in your way, to go abroad governour to a young gentleman, for that to be sure is what one of your wisdom & honesty will not do rashly; But so impatient is my desire of an opportunity of that sort for my own improvement; & so satisfied am I at the same time that my natural turn fits me for a trust of that kind more than any other that I shal presume to tell your lordship that it would be the greatest favour you could do me & that I am far from proposing your lordship should do any thing of that kind without using any methods you think proper for knowing more of my sufficiency for that business.
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5. To CHARLES MACKIE31
Address: To Mr Charles Macky Professor of History in the university
of Edinburgh
MS: EUL, La. II. 91; unpubl.
London, 3 September 1725
Dear Sir
We are just going to Leave this place; & having as yet received no account of Mr Duncan’s32 inclinations I cannot write any formal commission of Substitution & Factorship33 But shal do it as soon as I know the person you agree with. And I do by this give you full & ample power to transact & bargain with him or any other person in my name to be my Substitute and Factor at Aberdeen to teach my class for me & uplift all the Emoluments & Salaries due to me at the term of Martimass next & thereafter till the bargain & transaction you shal make in my name be duly revocked and do by this missive to you oblidge my self to hold firm & stable any bargain or transaction you shal make with any person in my name and for the above mentioned effect as if done my self personaly; as also to give a formal commission of Factory and substitution to the person you shal agree with upon stampt paper as law requires as soon as you notify the particulars of the said bargain & transaction to me. And for you<r> trouble in this & many other favours shal always be Dear Sir your most oblidged
humble servant
George Turnbull
PS. I am realy anxious to have the affair of the Substitution fairly setled. I shal write to you as soon as we setle at Groninghen. mean time if there is occasion