COOPER, Anthony Ashley, third Earl of Shaftesbury, and grandson of the preceding, was born in 1671, at Exeter House, London, where his grandfather then resided. In 1683 he was sent to Winchester school; but the memory of his grandfather subjected him to frequent insults, and he
Cooper. prevailed on his father to travel with him abroad. In 1689 he returned to England; and after an interval of five years spent in study, he was elected member of parliament for Poole. In the House of Commons he distinguished himself principally by the share which he had in promoting "the act for regulating trials in cases of high treason;" but his health was so much impaired by his attendance, that in 1698 he was induced to resign his seat and retire to Holland, where he enjoyed the friendship of Bayle, Le Clerc, and other learned men. During his absence there appeared at London an imperfect edition of his Inquiry concerning Virtue, surreptitiously taken from a rough sketch made when he was twenty years of age. He succeeded in buying up the impression before many copies were sold, but this circumstance induced him to complete the treatise, which afterwards appeared in the second volume of the Characteristics. Soon after his return to England, he became Earl of Shaftesbury, on the decease of his father. In the House of Lords he exerted himself in supporting the measures of King William, and would probably have been made secretary of state, but for the declining state of his health. He was, however, often consulted by the king on matters of the highest importance; and amongst other things he had the principal share in composing the celebrated last speech of King William, delivered Dec. 31, 1701. On the accession of Queen Anne he retired to private life; and in 1703 paid a second visit to Holland. It was during this tour that, in reference to the extravagancies of the French prophets, he wrote the Letter concerning Enthusiasm, which was published in 1708. His Moralists, a philosophical rhapsody, 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. In 1710 was published his Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author. While thus employed in literary composition, the declining state of his health rendered it necessary for him to try the benefit of a warmer climate. Accordingly, in 1711, he proceeded to Naples, where, after a brief interval of comparative convalescence, in which he was able to resume his literary pursuits, he died Feb. 15, 1715.
The first complete edition of the Characteristics was published in 1711; but after his death there appeared a more elegant edition, containing his final corrections, and embellished with prints designed by himself. In the three volumes of the Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times, he included the whole of his works which he intended for the public eye. Not long before his death he commenced to write a discourse on painting, sculpture, and the other arts of design, but his premature death prevented him from making much progress in the undertaking. He had a high esteem for the works of the great English divines, and wrote a preface to a volume of Dr Whitchoo's Sermons published in 1698. For an account of his ethical system and a critique on his works, see Sir James Mackintosh's Preliminary Dissertation to this work.