credit. The moral theory of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, and that of his grandson Dr. Dwight, which they have incorporated in their respective systems of theology, are exactly the same in principle, and in many places in their writings, expressed in the same language as that of Shaftesbury's. Dr. Edwards says that a man of real virtue " is a being having a heart united and benevolently disposed to being in general;" a position which, if it have any meaning in it at all, must be considered tantamount to Shaftesbury's principle, that benevolence -pure benevolence, stripped of every particle of selfishness-must be the foundation of Christian morality. Dr. Dwight mentions the same doctrine; he says, "benevolence is virtue, selfishness is sin; benevolence aims to promote happiness in all beings capable of happiness; selfishness is the promotion of the private separate happiness of one; subordinating to it that of all others, and opposing that of all others, whenever it is considered as inconsistent with that of one's self. Benevolence, therefore, directs the whole active power or energy of the mind in which it exists, to the production of the most extensive happiness. This is what I intend by the utility of virtue, and that in which, as it appears to my own view, all its excellence is

found."* Every reader will perceive the striking coincidence between the moral views of these distinguished theologians, and those of Shaftesbury.

The style of the "Characteristics" has been the subject of much criticism amongst the learned. By one set of critics it has been much applauded, and by another set, has been as severely censured. Dr. Campbell, in his " Philosophy of Rhetoric," accuses his lordship of affectation in his writing. I think his moral essays are distinguished by perspicuity and a lively elegance. In his other works he is by no means so clear and easy in his style.

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CHAPTER XII.

FABLE OF THE BEES.

DR. MANDEVILLE.

Bernard de MANDEVILLE was born about 1670, in Holland, where he studied physic, and obtained the degree of Doctor in that faculty. He afterwards came over into England, and published several works, which, though not destitute of ingenuity and talent, were not considered likely to promote either private or public virtue and happiness. In 1709 he published his " Virgin Unmasked, or a Dialogue between an old maiden Aunt and her Niece, upon Love, Marriage," &c.—a book of a very questionable tendency. In 1711 came out his "Treatise of the Hypochondriac and Hysteric Passions, vulgarly called the Hypo in Men, and the Vapours in Women." This work is comprised in three dialogues, and it is said to be of a very amus

ing character, and to contain many excellent remarks on the art of physic and on the modern practice of physicians and apothecaries, amongst whom, it is conjectured, he was held in no great degree of estimation. In 1714 he published a poem, "The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves turned honest," on which he afterwards remarks; which constitute the work on which the following critical remarks are made. This publication of Mandeville's was presented the same year by the grand jury of Middlesex, and severely animadverted upon in a "Letter to the Right Honourable Lord C." printed in the London Journal of the 27th July 1723. The author wrote a vindication of his book from these imputations, which were on every side thrown upon it, which was published in the same journal in the month of August following. His book, however, was attacked in various publications; but to the great mass of these criticisms he made no formal answer until 1728, when he published in another volume a second part of the "Fable of the Bees," in order to illustrate more clearly and fully the scheme of the first. In 1720 he published a work called "Free Thoughts on Religion ;" and in a few years after, another, under the title of "An Inquiry into the Origin of Honour, and Usefulness of Christ

ianity in War," a work which is pronounced to abound with whimsical and paradoxical opinions.

Dr. Mandeville died on January 21, 1733, in the sixty-third year of his age.-Some of his biographers affirm that he was patronized by the first Earl of Macclesfield, at whose table he was a frequent guest, where he had an unlimited licence to indulge his wit as well as his appetite. He lived for a considerable period of his life in obscure lodgings in London, and never had an extensive practice as a medical man. Besides the writings already mentioned, which came spontaneously from his pen, we are told by Sir John Hawkins that he sometimes employed his talents for hire, and, in particular, wrote letters in the "London Journal" in favour of spirituous liquors, for which he was paid by the distillers. Sir John adds, that "he was said to be coarse and overbearing in his manners, where he durst be so, yet a great flatterer of some vulgar Dutch merchants who allowed him a pension."

The "Fable of the Bees," as has already been noticed, was violently attacked by several writers; but, besides these, Dr. Fiddes wrote a work against Mandeville, entitled, "General Treatise of Morality, formed upon the Principles of Natural Religion," printed in 1724;-Mr. John Dennis sent