And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and. cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee. that one of thy members should perish, and not. Matthew 5.30

My Lords and Gentlemen

Before commencing my Treatise I will relate to you a matter which is causing me much puzzlement.

Last Tuesday evening I enjoyed a fine dinner with Mr Tonson et al.. After we had taken our pipes, Mr Tonson shewed the company a painting of himself daubed by none other than Sir Godfrey Kneller. I considered that Sir Godfrey had indeed captured the dignified bearing of my old friend.No sooner had I expressed this true and honest opinion than Mr H____ , the well known proselytizer for the Theory of Sleeplessness, made a most disagreeable sound and announced that the portrayal of Mr Tonson was too masculine, his complexion too pale and his manner too stale. He exclaimed that the imago should be ripped from Mr Tonson’s wall because it discomfited him. “If your right hand offend you, cut it off and cast it from you”, he said, reciting from Scripture. The good fellowship of the evening thus dampened we each went our separate ways.

As I walked back to London, I asked myself whether those who practise such Iconoclasm in the name of Sleeplessness have themselves fallen into imagining the supernaturall to inhabit graven Images, and in so doing expend their energies on an unholy Vanity. Surely, if it is a sin to worship a graven image, it is equally a sin to believe that such a simulacrum embodies the D___? Does not the urge to topple statuary stem from the self same poison of enthusiasm and superstition as the urge to worship false idols? It is a manifest Folly for a man to consider that a Statue well-fixed to the Ground can cause Mischief.

I will return to this question in my Treatise.

I remain your humble and obedient servant,

The Somnambulist