Herder’s tone defends Shaftesbury in the statement that one should love virtue for her own sake, on the ground that many religious enthusiasts, including Fénélon, have maintained the same thing. Nor is he either atheist or pantheist in his Song of Praise to Nature. He further mentions the following works in German translations: The Moralists; Investigations Concerning Virtue, Berlin, 1745; Shaftesbury’s Philosophical Works, translated by Voss, Leipzig, 1776.
XI, 123: Herder finds Shaftesbury’s Ten Letters to a Student of Theology excellent in the following points: (1) What he says of real philosophy, of empty speculation, of academic polyhistorie, of intellectual ambition and the real freedom of thought, of the writings of the Greek, and of the beautiful and pure toward which one must aim in studies of all kinds; (2) what he says of the spirit of endurance and Christian simplicity.
XI, 220: Herder admires die Grazien des Platonish-Shaftesbury dialogue.
XVI, 407: Herder expresses himself by quoting in translation a stanza from Shaftesbury’s Moralists.
XVI, 158, 159: Article on Shaftesbury; holds him in high esteem, calls him Virtuoso der Humanität. Herder declares that Shaftesbury has influenced the best minds of the eighteenth century.
XXIII, 143 ff.: Herder shows an intimate acquaintance with the life and works of Shaftesbury as well as the sources of his philosophy. He reminds that Shaftesbury influenced both Diderot and Leibniz. Herder reveals his own inclination to take nature and the feelings as standards: (1) By criticizing Shaftesbury for overlooking an important principle in Greek philosophy in one of his discussions; namely, the principle der Natur zu folgen. (2) By saying an honorable feeling for truth and justice is a law of our nature.
XXX, 321: Herder calls Shaftesbury the high priest of the temple of Grazie.
Shaftesbury’s Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Time will be used as a reference book.