Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times

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ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER,

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THIRD EARL OF SHAFTESBURY

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Characteristics of Men,

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Manners, Opinions, Times

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EDITED BY

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LAWRENCE E. KLEIN

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University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE

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UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

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The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, UK

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40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011?4211, USA

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10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia

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? Cambridge University Press 1999

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This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant

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collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the

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written permission of Cambridge University Press.

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First published 1999

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Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

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Typeset in 10/12pt Ehrhardt [WV]

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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I S B N 0 521 57022 0 hardback

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I S B N 0 521 57892 2 paperback

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Contents

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Acknowledgments

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Introduction

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Chronology

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Further reading

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Note on the text

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xxxii xxxiii xxxvi

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Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times

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Preface

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A letter concerning enthusiasm to my Lord *****

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Sensus communis, an essay on the freedom of wit and humour in a

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letter to a friend Soliloquy, or advice to an author

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An inquiry concerning virtue or merit

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The moralists, a philosophical rhapsody, being a recital of certain

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conversations on natural and moral subjects

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Miscellaneous reflections on the preceding treatises and

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other critical subjects

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Miscellany I

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Miscellany II

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Miscellany III

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Miscellany IV

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Miscellany V

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Index

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A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm to My Lord *****A

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What prevents the man of mirth

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from telling the truth?1

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September 1707

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My Lord,

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Now you are returned to . . . . ., and, before the season comes which must

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engage you in the weightier matters of state, if you care to be entertained a

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while with a sort of idle thoughts, such as pretend only to amusement and have

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no relation to business or affairs, you may cast your eye slightly on what you

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have before you. And if there be anything inviting, you may read it over at

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your leisure.

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It has been an established custom for poets, at the entrance of their work,

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to address themselves to some Muse, and this practice of the ancients has gained

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so much repute that even in our days we find it almost constantly imitated. I

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cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so currently with

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other judgments, must at some time or other have stuck a little with your

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Lordship, who is used to examine things by a better standard than that of fash-

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ion or the common taste. You must certainly have observed our poets under a

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A `Enthusiasm' derives from the Greek for `possession by a god'. In the seventeenth century, the

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term referred, negatively, to the claim to be immediately inspired by God although it could

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also refer to other delusional claims and to intense religious emotionality. Shaftesbury used the term in these senses but also, in the course of the essay, gave the term a positive meaning, the

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`sublime in human passions' (p. 27): see Introduction, p. XXX. The addressee was John Baron

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Somers, Whig statesman, intellectual and patron, for whom see Introduction, p. XIX. On the

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circumstances of publication, see Introduction, p. XXX. The original 1708 edition, printed by John Morphew, contained the following `to the reader': `This letter must have been written,

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as plainly appears, about the middle or latter end of last summer and, in all probability, was

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designed to be kept private. But though it came afterwards to be seen abroad in several hands,

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the printer could not obtain his copy till very lately, or you had had it more in season' (p. 3).

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1 Horace, Satires 1.1.24?5.

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A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm

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remarkable constraint, when obliged to assume this character, and you have

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wondered perhaps why that air of enthusiasm, which sits so gracefully with an

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ancient, should be so spiritless and awkward in a modern. But, as to this doubt,

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your Lordship would have soon resolved yourself, and it could only serve to

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bring across you a reflection you have often made on many occasions besides,

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that truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must

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be governed by it and can only please by its resemblance.2 The appearance of

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reality is necessary to make any passion agreeably represented. And to be able

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to move others, we must first be moved ourselves, or at least seem to be so,

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who is known never to have worshipped Apollo or owned any such deity as

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the Muses, should persuade us to enter into his pretended devotion and move

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us by his feigned zeal in a religion out of date?B But as for the ancients, it is

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known they derived both their religion and polity from the Muses' art. How

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natural therefore must it have appeared in any, but especially a poet of those

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times, to address himself in raptures of devotion to those acknowledged

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patronesses of wit and science? Here the poet might with probability feign an

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ecstasy, though he really felt none, and, supposing it to have been mere affec-

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tation, it would look however like something natural and could not fail of pleas-

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ing.

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But perhaps, my Lord, there was a further mystery in the case. Men, your

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Lordship knows, are wonderfully happy in a faculty of deceiving themselves

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whenever they set heartily about it. And a very small foundation of any pas-

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sion will serve us not only to act it well, but even to work ourselves into it

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beyond our own reach. Thus, by a little affectation in love-matters and with

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the help of a romance or novel, a boy of fifteen or a grave man of fifty may be

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sure to grow a very natural coxcomb and feel the belle passionC in good earnest.

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A man of tolerable good nature who happens to be a little piqued may, by

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improving his resentment, become a very fury for revenge. Even a good

30 Christian, who would needs be over-good and thinks he can never believe

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enough, may, by a small inclination well improved, extend his faith so largely

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as to comprehend in it not only all scriptural and traditional miracles, but a

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solid system of old wives' stories. Were it needful, I could put your Lordship

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in mind of an eminent, learned, and truly Christian prelate you once knew,

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B In Greek mythology, the Muses were nine divine sisters, the children of Zeus (the Roman Jupiter or Jove) and Mnemosyne or Memory, who inspired the varieties of the arts and learn-

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ing. Apollo, another child of Zeus, was, independently of the Muses, associated with the sup-

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port of music and poetry; some ancient writers identified him, however, as leader of the Muses.

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C The tender passion or love.

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2 See pp. 65-6, 448-9.

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