legitimate foundation of all our duties and of our highest happiness.1

These new views were carried still farther by a memorable character-Antony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury; the friend of Locke, but whose penetration detected the consequences which might be deduced from a system of exclusive Empiricism (see § 346). He made virtue to consist in the harmony of our social and selfish propensities, and in the internal satisfaction which is the result of disinterested actions, accompanied necessarily by the happiness of the individual. Like Plato, he was inclined to identify the

Beautiful and the Good.

The ingenious W. Wollaston maintained that Truth is the Supreme Good, and the source of all pure Morality; laying it down as the foundation of his argument that every action is a good one that expresses in act a true proposition.

349. The consequences of the Empiricism of Locke had become so decidedly favourable to the cause of Atheism, Scepticism, Materialism, and Irreligion, that they induced

5

RICHARD CUMBERLAND, De Legibus Naturæ Disquisitio Philosophica, in qua, etc., Elementa Philosophiæ Hobbesianæ cum Moralis tum Civilis considerantur et refutantur, Lond. 1672, 4to. Translated into English by Dr. JNo. TOWERS, 4to. Dublin, 1750. Trad. Franç. avec des Remarques de BARBEYRAC, Amsterd. 1744, 4to.

2 Born at London 1671; died at Naples 1713.

3 SHAFTESBURY, Characteristics of Man, Lond. 1733, 3 vols. 12mo. An Inquiry concerning Virtue and Merit, 1699. And, The Moralists. The same, published by BASKERVILLE, Birmingham, 1773, 3 vols. 8vo.

See Memoirs towards a Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, drawn from the Papers of Mr. Locke, and collected by LE CLERC, in the second volume of the Miscell. Works of Locke.

4 Born 1659; died 1724.

W. WOLLASTON, The Religion of Nature Delineated, Lond. 1724— 1726-1738.

Examination of the notion of Moral Good and Evil advanced in a late book entitled The Religion of Nature Delineated, by JOHN CLARKE, Lond. 1725, 8vo.

J. M. DRECHSLER, On Wollaston's Moral Philosophy, Erlang. 1801, and 1803, 8vo. second edition.

5 We may here refer to many writings which arose out of a dispute on the Immateriality of the Soul, between WILLIAM COWARD, a physician, who denied it in several works (from 1702 to 1707), and his opponents J. TURNER, J. BROUGHTON, etc. To these may be added the controversy excited by H. DODWELL, who had maintained that it was mortal.

the celebrated Dr. Sam. Clarke, after Locke and Newton, the most distinguished of the English philosophers, to enter the lists as a redoubtable adversary of the new opinions." Admitting the existence of a necessary connection between natural and revealed religion based on Reason, Clarke endeavoured to renew the proof of the existence of God, by maintaining the necessity that an independent and unchangeable Being should have existed from all eternity. He described the Deity as the subject or substratum of infinite space and time, and asserted that space and time were His accidents: alleging some insufficient reasons for moral free-will; and sinking virtue into a compliance with propriety. On the other hand, the Scepticism of Bayle in

Born at Norwich 1675;-the pupil of Newton-died 1729.

2 In opposition to the opinion of Dodwell, already referred to, he endeavoured to deduce the doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul from our ideas of Immaterial existence: A Letter to Mr. Dodwell, wherein all the arguments in his Epistolary Discourse against the Immortality of the Soul are particularly answered, etc. Lond. 1706, 8vo. The noted Freethinker, ANT. COLLINS (a disciple of LOCKE, born at Heston 1676; died 1729), pointed out the defects of this answer in his Letter of the learned Mr. H. Dodwell, containing some Remarks on a pretended demonstration of the Immateriality and natural Immortality of the Soul, in Mr. Clarke's Answer to his late Epistolary Discourse, Lond. 1708, 8vo., which gave occasion to several writings exchanged between Collins and Clarke. See the collection mentioned in bibliogr. § 356, and, Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty, Lond. 1715; with Supplements, 1717, 8vo. etc.

Clarke's Natural Theology is contained in his various Sermons, under this general title: A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, Lond. 1705 et 1706, 2 vols. 8vo. And, Verity and Certitude of Natural and Revealed Religion, Lond. 1705. The collection to which we have referred contains also the compositions of Clarke relative to his dispute with Leibnitz on the subject of Space and Time, etc. (See also the Collection of POLZ, mentioned in § 38, II. c.)

The Works of Sam. Clarke, Lond. 1738-42, 4 vols. folio. HOADLEY has written his life.

3 SAM. CLARKE, Discourse concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion, Lond. 1708. In answer to this appeared: The foundation of Morality in Theory and Practice, considered in an Examination of Dr. Sam. Clarke's opinion concerning the original of Moral Obligation; as also of the notion o Virtue advanced in a late book entitled: An Inquiry into the original of our ideas of Beauty and Virtue, by JOHN CLARKE, York (without date).

duced the archbishop of Dublin, William King,' to publish a system of Divine Justice, prior to that of Leibnitz; which was republished under another and more extended form by John Clarke (the brother of Samuel), who did not hesitate to make Self-love the principle of Virtue. The naturalists John Ray and William Derham took part in these disputes by publications half physical and half theological. Colliers and Berkeley followed a course completely different. The last, in particular, a profound and enlightened thinker, animated by an honest love for humanity, and venerable for his personal character, was moved by the evil consequences which the prevailing theory of Empiricism had produced. He was led to imagine that the fruitful source of all such aberrations was the unfounded belief in the reality and existence of the external world; and adopted a system of abso

'De Origine Mali, auctore GULIELMO KING, etc. Lond. 1702, 8vo. Subsequently translated into English. Leibnitz, in his System of Divine Justice, frequently has an eye to this work, which Bayle has combatted in his Réponse aux Questions d'un Provincial.

2 An Inquiry into the Cause and Origin of Evil, etc., Lond. 1720— 21, 2 vols. 8vo. 3 John Ray, or Wray; born 1628; died 1705.

4 Died 1735. WILL. DERHAM's Physico-Theology, etc. Lond. 1713, 8vo. AstroTheology, etc. ibid. 1714. In German, by T. A. FABRICIUS, Hamb. 1765--8. Three Physico-Theological Discourses, Lond. 1721, 8vo.; and, The Wisdom of God in the Works of Creation, sixth edition, Lond. 1714.

5 Clavis Universalis, or a New Inquiry after Truth, being a Demonstration of the Non-existence or Impossibility, by COLLIER, Lond. 1713, 8vo. Reprinted, Edinb. 1836; and by Dr. PARR, in a volume of Metaphysical Tracts, pub. 1828.

6 Born at Kilkrin, in Ireland, 1684; bishop of Cloyne 1734; died 1753. Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge, Lond. 1710, 8vo.; 2nd ed. 1725. Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, ibid. 1713, 8vo. Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher, ibid. 1732, 8vo.; 1734, 2 vols. 8vo. Theory of Vision, ibid. 1709, 8vo. The Works, ibid. 1784, 2 vols. 4to.

Attached to his works is a life of the author, by ARBUTHNOT; probably the same which appeared separately under the title of An Account of the Life of G. Berkeley, Lond. 1776, 8vo.

A work has been published by + J. C. ESCHENBACH, Rost. 1756, 8vo., which contains a statement of the opinions of all the philosophers (particularly of Collier and Berkeley) who have denied the existence of their own bodies and of the external world; with notes in refutation of the text.

lute Idealism as the only corrective and as the only true system. Berkeley has evinced no little sagacity in the arguments he adduces to show the difficulties attendant on outward experience, and the obscurity of our notions of Substance, Accident, and Extension; maintaining that our senses convey to us none but sensational properties, and do not afford us any proof of the existence or substantiality of objects of sense; and that consequently the existence of an external world independent of our representations is a chimæra. Consequently none but Spirits exist: man can perceive nothing but his feelings and representations; but as he certainly is not the cause to himself of these, it is no less certain from their multiplicity and variety, as well as their harmony and consistency, that they are communicated by a Spirit, (as none but spirits exist), and by a Spirit of infinite perfections-God. Though dependent on God for knowledge, man is nevertheless endowed with absolute freewill, and the cause to himself of his own errors and crimes. Collier's work never attained the celebrity enjoyed by the elegant dialogues of the Bishop of Cloyne, but both, with a laudable wish to preserve from decay the elements of natural Ethics, alike attempted to demonstrate the necessity of Idealism, on principles first advanced by Malebranche; and trusted that they had destroyed to the root Scepticism and Atheism. Their doctrines, however, had little influence over the fortunes of the English school of philosophy

Berkeley's remarks on the theory of Vision are also of interest.

350. The system of Benevolence we have referred to (§ 348), was more fully developed by a new philosopher. Francis Hutcheson, who has been looked upon as the founder of the Scottish School, placed in a still stronger light than his predecessors the contradiction existing between

1 Born in Ireland 1694; became a professor at Glasgow 1729; died 1747.

FRANCIS HUTCHESON, Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, Lond. 1720. Essay on the Nature and Guiding of Passions and Affections, with illustrations on the Moral Sense, ibid. 1728. System of Moral Philosophy, in three books, etc., to which is prefixed some account of the life, writings, and character of the author, by WILL. LEECHMANN, ibid. 1755, 2 vols. 4to.

Self-love and Virtue. He allows the appellation of Good to those actions alone which are disinterested and flow from the principle of Benevolence. The last has no reference to expediency nor personal advantages, nor even to the more refined enjoyments of moral sympathy, the obligations of Reason and Truth, or of the Divine Will. It is a distinct and peculiar principle; a moral sentiment or instinct of great dignity and authority; and the end of which is to regulate the passions, and decide, in favour of Virtue, the conflict between the interested and disinterested affections. On this foundation Hutcheson erected all the superstructure of the Moral Duties.

His inquiries are valuable also as tending to illustrate the principles of the Fine Arts.

IV. French Moral Philosophers.

351. In France Moral Philosophy took nearly the same experimental direction. The Jesuits having endeavoured to render popular the species of morality which favoured their ends by founding it on looser principles of obligation,' the fathers of the Oratoire or Port Royal, Arnauld, Pascal, Nicole, Malebranche (§§ 337, 341, 342), opposed to theirs a rigid system of Ethics, but which, being occasionally mystical and enthusiastic, was not likely to be permanently established. François Duc de la Rochefoucauld on the other hand painted human nature as he had found it; representing it as directed solely by Self-love; and supply. ing a convenient sort of Morality for the use of the most corrupted portion of the upper classes. Bernard de Mandeville went so far as to assert that Virtue is nothing more than the artificial effect of Policy and Ostentation, and that private vices are public benefits: a detestable doctrine,

1 See La Morale des Jésuites, etc. Mons, 1669, 8vo.

2 Born 1612; died 1680.

Réflexions, ou Sentences et Maximes Morales de M. de La Rochefoucauld, Paris, 1690, 12mo.; Amsterd. 1705, 12mo. Avec des Remarques par AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE, Paris, 1714. Maximes et Euvres complètes, Paris, 1797, 2 vols. 8vo.

3 He was born at Dort, 1670, of a French family, and lived in London, where he practised as a physician. Died 1733.