You will not then eſteem my time or your own miſpent, in placing this idea of Mr. Turgot in all its lights; in conſidering the conſequences of it; and in collecting a variety of authorities againſt it.
LETTER III.
ST. MARINO.
My dear Sir,
"A SOCIETY of gods would govern themſelves democratically," ſays the eloquent philoſopher of Geneva; who however would have agreed, that his "gods" muſt not have been the claſſical deities: ſince he knew from the higheſt authority, the poets, who had their information from thoſe divinities the Muſes, that all the terrors of the nod, the arm, and the thunderbolts of Jupiter, with all the energy of his undiſputed monarchy, were inſufficient to hold them in order. As it is impoſſible to know what would have been his definition of the gods, we may quietly purſue our enquiry, whether it is practicable to govern men in this way. It would be very ſurpriſing, if, among all the nations that have exiſted, not one has diſcovered a ſecret of ſo much importance. It is not neceſſary for us to prove that no ſuch government has exiſted; it is incumbent on him who ſhall embrace the opinion of Mr. Turgot, to name the age, the country, and the people, in which ſuch an experiment has been tried. It might be eaſier to determine the queſtion concerning the practicabi-
