It is a prevailing Opinion in _Europe_, that future Happiness or Misery does not depend upon good Works, or the Exercise of Virtue and Religion, but upon the Place of a Man’s Nativity. For all agree, that if they had been born in another Place, or of other Parents, they should have been of a different Religion. Hence they in Reality condemn People not so much on Account of their Religion, as the Place, or other Circumstances of their Birth. But how this Opinion is reconcileable with the divine Justice or Goodness, I cannot comprehend. Amongst the Men of Letters, those are most esteem’d, whose Business it is to invert the natural Order of Words, and render that obscure and perplex’d, which before was plain and easy. These are call’d Poets, and this Art of disjointing Words goes by the Name of Poetry. But Poetry does not consist in this Perversity of Stile only; because to deserve that Name, a Composition must likewise be extremely full of Lies. An ancient Poet, _Homer_ by Name, is held in high Esteem, and almost Adoration, because he excell’d in both these Arts. Many have imitated him, but nobody ever yet came up to him, either in confounding the Order of Words, or perverting the Truth. The _Literati_ of _Europe_ are very fond of buying Books, but in this Point they do not so much regard the Matter they contain, as they do the Form and Neatness of them. The Booksellers, who are well aware of this, and know that their learned Customers had rather feast their Eyes than their Minds, are perpetually reprinting their Books in a different Size and Letter, and with new Decorations; by which Means they make an infinite Advantage. For in this Country the liberal Arts are made a Trade of, and some Authors are reckon’d as sharp and cunning as any Trader at all. The Universities in _Europe_ are Shops, where Degrees, Promotions, Dignities, and various Kinds of Titles, and other learned Wares, are set to Sale at reasonable Rates: All which are not to be acquir’d in our Subterranean World without indefatigable Pains and Study for Years together. Those who have reach’d the Summit of all Erudition, or (in the _European_ Phrase) have got to the Top of a certain Mountain, call’d _Parnassus_, inhabited by nine Virgins, are styl’d Doctors. The next to these are Masters of Arts, who come at their Titles at somewhat a less Expence, and are therefore thought to be less learned. The Good-will which these Superterranean Schools bear to Mankind is evident, from their thus rendring the Way to Learning smooth and easy. The Northern Seminaries were a little more rigid in this Respect, since the highest Honours are not there conferr’d without a previous Examination.