CHAPTER XIII.

FIRST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION.

1. Thomas Burnet. -2. William Whiston.-3. Richard Bentley.-4. George Berkeley.-5. David Hartley.-6. Bernard de Mandeville.-7. Henry St. John.8. Isaac Watts.-9. Joseph Butler.-10. John Wesley; Charles Wesley.-11. William Warburton. - 12. Francis Atterbury; Samuel Clarke; Benjamin Hoadly.

1. Thomas Burnet was born about 1635, was educated at Cambridge, and became, in 1685, Master of the Charterhouse. Four years before, he had published his "Telluris Theoria Sacra," in which he discussed the natural history of our planet, in its origin, its changes, and its consummation, and the four books contain―(1) The Theory of the Deluge by Dissolution of the Outer Crust of the Earth, its Subsidence in the Great Abyss, and the Forming of the Earth as it now Exists; (2) Of the First Created Earth and Paradise; (3) Of the Conflagration of the World; and (4) Of the New Heavens and the New Earth, and the Consummation of all Things. This new attempt made by a doctor of divinity to blend large scientific generalization with study of Scripture, more imaginative than scientific, stirred many fancies, and was much read and discussed. But, under William III., Thomas Burnet's speculations in his " Archæologiæ Philosophica Libri Duo" drew on him strong theological censure; and he was called an infidel by many because he read the Fall of Adam as an allegory. This not only destroyed his chance of high promotion in the church, but caused him to be removed from the office of Clerk of the Closet to the king, and he died at a good old age, in 1715, still Master of the Charterhouse.

2. William Whiston, who was born in 1667, was chaplain to a bishop when, in 1696, he published "A New Theory of the Earth, from its Original to the Consummation of all Things." This fed the new appetite for cosmical theories with fresh speculation. In Burnet's system, fire, in Whiston's, water, played chief part as the great agent of change. In 1698 Whiston became Vicar of Lowestoft, and in 1700 he lectured at Cambridge, as deputy to Newton, whom he succeeded in the Lucasian professorship. In Queen Anne's reign his search for a primitive Christianity affected his theology, and brought on him loss of his means of life in the church and university. He taught science; lived,

as a poor man, a long and blameless life, until his death, in 1752; and in his writings blended love of nature with the love of God.

3. Richard Bentley, born in 1662, the son of a small farmer in Yorkshire, received his education at Cambridge, and became the greatest scholar in England. In his "Epistola ad Clarum Virum Joannem Millium," he first publicly displayed the powers of his mind and the extent of his learning; and his reputation was raised to the highest point by his "Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris," published in 1699. In 1700, he was made Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; in 1717, he was made Regius Professor of Divinity. His great learning was further exhibited in his editions of Homer, Phædrus, Terence, and "Paradise Lost." He died in 1742.

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4. George Berkeley was born in the county of Kilkenny, in 1685. He was educated at the Kilkenny Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin, of which he became a fellow in 1707. In 1709 appeared Berkeley's "New Theory of Vision;" in 1710, his "Principles of Human Knowledge;" in 1713, his Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous ;" and in 1732, his "Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher." He opposed the materialist tendencies of the time with a metaphysical theory that represented an extreme re-action from them. The existence of matter could no more, he said, be proved, than the existence of the spirit could be disproved. We know only that we receive certain impressions on the mind. Berkeley was made Bishop of Cloyne in 1735, and died in 1753.

5. David Hartley (b. 1705, d. 1757) was a physician, educated at Cambridge, who, in 1749, published “Observations on Man; his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations," arguing that vibrations of the nerves produce all intellectual energy, by causing the association of ideas.

6. Bernard de Mandeville represented the rising tendency to speculate on the corruptions of society. Great principles still underlying public contests were now buried under party feuds and personal ambitions. Men were growing up with little in the public life about them to inspire a noble faith, or stir them to the depths. Polite life in the time of George I. had become artificial; with small faith in human nature, negligent of truth. The fashionable world had the king's mistress

for a leader; and the prevailing influence of French fashion, which had been low at its best, was degraded since the death of Louis XIV., in 1715. The court of France was sinking into infamy. Polite society in France was the more tainted, and the nation suffered many tyrannies. Mandeville, born at Dort, in Holland, about 1670, graduated as a physician, and practised in England. After a coarse, outspoken book, in 1709, he published, in 1711, "A Treatise on the Hypochondriac and Hysteric Diseases," in three dialogues, with amusing strictures upon medical follies; and in 1714 appeared a short poem of five hundred lines, called "The Grumbling Hive; or, Knaves Turned Honest." There was a volume, in 1720, of "Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church, and National Happiness," and "The Grumbling Hive" re-appeared, in 1723, with a full prose commentary, as "The Fable of the Bees." This book outraged conventional opinion, by working out an argument that civilization is based on the vices of society. The bees lived in their hives as men, "Millions endeavoring to supply Each other's lust and vanity;" lawyers, physicians, priests, thriving upon the feuds, follies, and vices of mankind. Luxury employed its million, pride its million, envy stirred men to work. Fickleness of idle fashion was the wheel that kept trade moving. But the hive grumbled at the vice within it, and the knaves turned honest. In half an hour meat fell a penny a pound; masks fell from all faces. The bar was silent, because there were no more frauds; judges, jailers, and Jack Ketch retired, with all their pomp. The number of the doctors was reduced to those who knew that they had earned their skill. Clergy who knew themselves to be unfit for their duty resigned their All lived within their incomes, and paid ready money. Glory by war and foreign conquest was laughed at by these honest bees, who "fight but for their country's sake, When right or liberty's at stake." Then followed fall of prices, extinction of trades founded upon luxury, and of the commerce that supplied it. These glories of civilization are gone, still Peace and Plenty reign, and every thing is cheap, though plain. At last the dwellers in the honest hive appeared so much reduced as to become a mark for foreign insult, and they

cures.

were attacked. Because there was no hireling in their army, but all were bravely fighting for their own, their courage and integrity were crowned with victory. But they suffered much loss in the conflict. "Hardened with toils and exercise, They counted ease itself a vice; Which so improved their temperance, That, to avoid extravagance, They flew into a hollow tree, Blest with content and honesty." This satire, with the remarkably plain speaking in the appended notes and dissertations - one "A Search into the Nature of Society"-startled many people ; and in 1723 the book was presented by the Grand Jury of Westminster as one "having a direct tendency to the subversion of all religion and civil government, our duty to the Almighty, our love to our country, and regard to our oaths." Bernard de Mandeville, who certainly meant none of these things, but whose book was as a first faint swell before the rising of another mighty wave of thought, published a second volume of it in 1729. He was partly supported by some Dutch merchants, and had for his patron the first Earl of Macclesfield. In 1732 he published "An Inquiry into the Origin of Honor, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War;" and he died in 1733.

7. Henry St. John (afterwards Lord Bolingbroke) was born in 1678; and entering Parliament in 1701, became one of the best speakers there, and a very powerful politician. After the death of Queen Anne, he was dismissed from the office of Secretary of State, which he had held several years. In 1715 he was impeached for high treason by Robert Walpole, attainted, and had his name erased from the roll of peers. He became for a time Secretary of State to the Pretender, who gave him

paper earldom, dealt treacherously with him, entered upon The Scottish rebellion against his counsels, and dismissed him summarily after his return. Bolingbroke had seen enough of Jacobitism at headquarters, knew that its last chance of success was lost, and gave it up. He lived for the next seven years in exile at La Source, near Orléans. His wife died in 1718, and in May, 1720, he privately married the widow of the Marquis de Villette. At La Source, in harmony with the new tone of French thought, Bolingbroke began his philosophical writings, and was visited by young Voltaire. His

French wife managed his return to England in 1723, through the Duchess of Kendal, with a bribe of eleven thousand pounds. In 1725 he obtained a grant of restored property, but not the reversal of attainder, which would restore him to the House of Lords and political life. He bought an estate at Dawley, near Uxbridge, within easy ride of Twickenham. There he affected philosophical contempt of ambition, and played at farming. He was much visited by Pope; and by Swift also when, in 1726, Swift came to England. But Bolingbroke had ambition, and took his place as the most vigorous writer against Sir Robert Walpole, by his letters in "The Craftsman," after 1726; and a series of letters, called "The Occasional Writer," begun in January, 1727. Some of these were afterwards republished as "A Dissertation on Parties," in nineteen letters; and as "Remarks on the History of England," signed "Humphrey Oldcastle," and ironically dedicated to Walpole. Bolingbroke's writing gave "The Craftsman" a sale far exceeding even that of "The Spectator." After this, in 1735, he retired again to France, until the death of his father called him home in 1742. He himself died in 1751. The religion expressed in Bolingbroke's essays on Human Knowledge, and in "The Philosophical Writings," published by David Mallet, in 1753-54, was contained in his parting words to Lord Chesterfield, after he had given orders that none of the clergy should visit him in his last moments: "God, who placed me here, will do what he pleases with me hereafter; and he knows best what to do. May he bless you."

8. Isaac Watts, born at Southampton in 1674, son of a Nonconformist schoolmaster, became first a tutor, then pastor of a congregation in Mark-Lane; and after the failure of his health in 1712, retained his pastoral charge, preaching when he could, and lived as guest with his friends, Sir Thomas and Lady Abney, at Theobalds, until 1748, the year of his death. In 1728 he had been made D.D. by the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. He published "Hora Lyrica" in 1706, "Hymns" in 1707, "Psalms and Hymns" in 1719, "Divine and Moral Songs for Children" in 1720; and, among various other works, a volume of "Logic," in 1725. There was a supplement on "Improvement of the Mind," in 1741.