COOPER, Anthony Ashley, earl of Shaftesbury, was son of Anthony earl of Shaftesbury, and grandson of Anthony
Anthony first earl of Shaftesbury, lord high chancellor of England. He was born in 1671, at Exeter-house in London, where his grandfather lived, who from the time of his birth conceived so great an affection for him, that he undertook the care of his education; and he made so good a progress in learning, that he could read with ease both the Latin and Greek languages when only 11 years old. In 1683, his father carried him to the school at Winchester, where he was often insulted on his grandfather's account, whose memory was odious to the zealots for despotic power: he therefore prevailed with his father to consent to his desire of going abroad. After three years stay abroad, he returned to England in 1689, and was offered a seat in parliament in some of those boroughs where his family had an interest. But this offer he did not now accept, that he might not be interrupted in the course of his studies, which he prosecuted five years more with great vigour and success; till, on Sir John Trenchard's death, he was elected burgess for Pool. Soon after his coming into parliament, he had an opportunity given him of expressing that spirit of liberty by which he uniformly directed his conduct on all occasions. It was the bringing in and promoting "the act for regulating trials in cases of high treason." But the fatigues of attending the house of commons in a few years so impaired his health, that he was obliged to decline coming again into parliament after the dissolution in 1698. He then went to Holland, where the conversation of Mr Bayle, Mr le Clerc, and several other learned and ingenious men, induced him to reside a twelvemonth. During this time, there was printed at London, in 8vo. an imperfect edition of Lord Ashley's Inquiry concerning Virtue. It had been surreptitiously taken from a rough draught, sketched when he was no more than 20 years of age. His lordship, who was greatly chagrined at this event, immediately bought up the impression before many books were sold, and set about completing the treatise, as it afterwards appeared in the second volume of the Characteristics. Soon after Lord Ashley's return to England, he became, by the decease of his father, earl of Shaftesbury. But his own private affairs hindered him from attending the house of lords till the second year of his peerage, when he was very earnest to support King William's measures, who was at that time projecting the grand alliance. So much was he in favour with King William, that he had the offer of secretary of state; but his declining constitution would not allow him to accept it. Though he was disabled from engaging in business, the king consulted him on matters of very high importance; and it is pretty well known that he had the greatest share in composing that celebrated last speech of King William, December 31. 1701. On Queen Anne's accession to the throne, he returned to his retired manner of life, being no longer advised with concerning the public; and was then removed from the vice-admiralty of Dorset, which had been in the family for three generations. In 1703, he made a second journey to Holland, and returned to England the year following. The French prophets, soon after this, having by their enthusiastic extravagancies made a great noise throughout the nation, and, among different opinions, some advising a prosecution, the lord Shaftesbury apprehended that such measures
tended rather to inflame than to cure the disease. This was the origin of his Letter concerning Enthusiasm, which he sent to Lord Somers, then president of the council; and which being approved of by that nobleman and other gentlemen to whom it was shown, was published in 1708, though without the name of the author, or that of the person to whom it was addressed. His Moralist, a philosophical Rhapsody, being a recital of certain conversations on natural and moral subjects, appeared in January 1709; and in the May following his Sensus Communis, an essay upon the freedom of Wit and Humour, in a Letter to a Friend. It was in the same year that he entered into the marriage state with Mrs Jane Ewer, the youngest daughter of Thomas Ewer, Esq. of Lee in Hertfordshire. By this lady, to whom his lordship was related, he had an only son, Anthony the late earl of Shaftesbury. In 1710, his Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author, was published at London in 8vo. While he was thus employing himself in literary composition, his health declined so fast, that it was recommended to him to seek assistance from a warmer climate. Accordingly, in July 1711, he set out for Naples, and pursuing his journey by way of France, was obliged to pass through the duke of Berwick's army, which at that time lay encamped near the borders of Piedmont. Here he was entertained by that famous general in the most friendly manner, and every assistance was given him to conduct him in safety to the duke of Savoy's dominions. Our noble author's removal to Italy was of no service to the re-establishment of his health; for after having resided at Naples about a year and a half, he departed this life on the 4th of February, O. S. 1712-13, in the 42d year of his age. The only pieces which he finished after he came to this city, were the Judgment of Hercules, and the Letter concerning Design, which last was added to that impression of the Characteristics which appeared in 1732. It was in 1711 that the first edition was published of all the Characteristics together, and in the order in which they now stand. But this publication not being entirely to his lordship's satisfaction, he chiefly employed the latter part of his life in preparing his writings for a more elegant edition; which was given to the world in 1713, soon after his decease. The several prints that were then first interspersed through the volumes were all invented by himself, and designed under his immediate inspection; and for this purpose he was at the pains of drawing up a most accurate set of instructions, the manuscript of which is still preserved in the family. That no mistakes might be committed, the earl did not leave to any other hands so much as the drudgery of correcting the press. In the three volumes of the Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times, he completed the whole of his works which he intended for the public eye. Not long before his death he had formed a scheme of writing a discourse on painting, sculpture, and the other arts of design, which, if he had lived to have finished it, might have proved a very pleasing and useful work, as he had a fine taste in subjects of that kind: but his premature decease prevented his making any great progress in the undertaking. The earl of Shaftesbury had an esteem for the works of the best English divines; one remarkable instance of which was displayed in his writing a Preface to a volume of Dr Whichcot's
Whichcot's Sermons, published in 1698. Copies of these sermons had been taken in short-hand, as they were delivered from the pulpit; and the earl had so high an opinion of them, that he not only introduced them to the world by his preface, but had them printed under his own particular inspection. In his Letters to a Young Man at the University, he speaks of Bishop Burnet and Dr Hoadly in terms of great applause, and has done justice to the merits of Tillotson, Barrow, Chillingworth, and Hammond, as the chief pillars of the church against fanaticism. But whatever regard his lordship might have for some of our divines, it was to the writings of antiquity that his admiration was principally directed. These were the constant objects of his study, and from them he formed his system of philosophy, which was of the civil, social, and theistic kind.
Of Lord Shaftesbury's character, as a writer, different accounts have been given. As one of his greatest admirers, may be mentioned Lord Monboddo; who, speaking of his Rhapsodist in particular, does not hesitate to pronounce it not only the best dialogue in English, out of all degree of comparison, but the sublimest philosophy; and, if we will join with it the Inquiry, the complete system both of morality and theology, that we have in our language, and, at the same time, of the greatest beauty and elegance for the style and composition.
Even several of the authors who have distinguished themselves by their direct opposition to many of the sentiments which occur in the Characteristics, have nevertheless mixed no small degree of applause with their censures. "I have again perused, with fresh pleasure and fresh concern (says Mr Balguy, in his Letter to a Deist), the volumes of Characteristics—I heartily with the noble author had been as unprejudiced in writing as I was in reading. If he had, I am persuaded his readers would have found double pleasure and double instruction. It seems to me, that his lordship had little or no temptation to pursue any singularities of opinion by way of distinction. His fine genius would sufficiently have distinguished him from vulgar authors in the high road of truth and sense; on which account his deviations seem the more to be lamented. The purity and politeness of his style, and the delicacy of his sentiments, are and must be acknowledged by all readers of taste and sincerity. But nevertheless, as his beauties are not easy to be overlooked, so neither are his blemishes. His works appear to be stained with so many gross errors, and his fine thoughts are so often mingled with absurdities, that however we may be charmed with the one, we are forced to condemn the other." Mr Balguy hath farther observed, with regard to the Inquiry concerning Virtue, which is the immediate object of his animadversion, that though he cannot agree in every particular contained in it, he finds little more to do than to tell how much he admires; and that he thinks it indeed, in the main, a performance so just and exact as to deserve higher praises than he is able to give it.
Dr Brown, in his essay on the Characteristics, observes, that the earl of Shaftesbury hath in that performance mingled beauties and blots, faults and excellencies, with a liberal and unsparing hand. At the same time, the doctor applauds that generous spirit of
freedom which shines throughout the whole. Another direct antagonist of the earl of Shaftesbury, Dr Le Land, has observed, that no impartial man will deny him the praise of a fine genius. "The quality of the writer (continues the doctor), his lively and beautiful imagination, the delicacy of taste he hath shown in many instances, and the graces and embellishments of his style, though perhaps sometimes too affected, have procured him many admirers. To which may be added his refined sentiments on the beauty and excellency of virtue, and that he hath often spoken honourably of a just and good Providence, which ministers and governs the whole in the best manner; and hath strongly asserted, in opposition to Mr Hobbes, the natural difference between good and evil; and that man was originally formed for society, and the exercise of mutual kindness and benevolence; and not only so, but for religion and piety too. These things have very much prejudiced many persons in his favour, and prepared them for receiving, almost implicitly, whatever he hath advanced." Dr Johnson, as we are informed by Sir John Hawkins, bore no good-will to Lord Shaftesbury; neither did he seem at all to relish the cant of the Shaftesburian school, nor inclined to admit the pretensions of those who professed it, to tastes and perceptions which are not common to all men; a taste in morals, in poetry and prose writing, in painting, in sculpture, in music, in architecture, and in government! A taste that censured every production, and induced them to reprobate every effort of genius that fell short of their own capricious standard.
The grand point in which our noble author has rendered himself justly obnoxious to the friends of religion, is his having interpersed through the Characteristics a number of insinuations that appear to be unfavourable to the cause of revelation. There have not however been wanting many among his admirers, who have thought that he ought not to be reckoned among the deistical writers. The author of animadversions upon Dr Brown's three Essays on the Characteristics, observes, that it is "imprudent, to say no worse, in some sincere advocates for Christianity, to reject the friendly advice and assistance of so masterly a writer as the lord Shaftesbury, and to give him up to the Deists as a patron of infidelity." But it is matter of fact, and not considerations of prudence or imprudence, that must determine the question. In support of his lordship's having been a believer in our holy religion, may be alleged, his Preface to Whichcot's Sermons, and his Letters to a Student at the university: in both which works he constantly expresses himself in such language as seems to indicate that he was really a Christian. And with regard to the letters, it may be remarked, that they were written in 1707, 1708, and 1709, not many years before his lordship's death. Nevertheless, there are in the Characteristics so many sceptical passages, that he must be considered as having been a doubter at least, if not an absolute disbeliever, with respect to revelation. But if he must be ranked among the Deists, we agree with the observation of one of his biographers, that he is a very different Deist from numbers who have appeared in that character; his general principles being much less exceptionable.
The style of Lord Shaftesbury's compositions is also a point upon which various and contradictory sentiments
Cooper. ments have been entertained. But for the fullest and most judicious criticism that has appeared upon that subject, we may refer the reader to Dr Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, vol. i. p. 192, 193, 207, 208, 234, 263, and 396—398.