[90] Voltaire commented pointedly on Pope’s omission to make any reference to Shaftesbury, while vending his doctrine. (Lettres Philosophiques, xxii.) As a matter of fact Pope does in the Dunciad (iv, 488) refer maliciously to the Theocles of Shaftesbury’s Moralists as maintaining a Lucretian theism or virtual atheism. The explanation is that Shaftesbury had sharply criticized the political course of Bolingbroke, who in turn ignored him as a thinker. See the present writer’s introd. to Shaftesbury’s Characteristics, ed. 1900 (rep. in Pioneer Humanists); and cp. W. R. Scott, Francis Hutcheson, 1900, p. 101. [↑]
[91] Texte, Rousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature, Eng. tr. pp. 117–18. [↑]
[92] Chesterfield in his Characters (app. to the Letters) testifies that Pope “was a deist believing in a future state; this he has often owned himself to me.” (Bradshaw’s ed. of Letters, iii, 1410.) Chesterfield makes a similar statement concerning Queen Caroline:—“After puzzling herself in all the whimsies and fantastical speculations of different sects, she fixed herself ultimately in Deism, believing in a future state.” (Id. p. 1406.) [↑]
[93] Dict. Philos. art. Athée, § 2. [↑]
[94] Wise, in his adaptation of Cudworth, A Confutation of the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism (1706), writes (i, 5) that “the philosophical atheists are but few in number,” and their objections so weak “as that they deserve not a hearing but rather neglect”; but confusedly goes on to admit that “one or two broachers of ’em maybe thought able to infect a whole nation, as ... sad experience tells us.” [↑]
[95] Complaint to this effect was made by orthodox writers. The Scotch Professor Halyburton, for instance, complains that in many sermons in his day “Heathen Morality has been substituted in the room of Gospel Holiness. And Ethicks by some have been preached instead of the Gospels of Christ.” Natural Religion Insufficient (Edinburgh), 1714, p. 25. Cp. pp. 23, 26–27, 59, etc. Bishop Burnet, in the Conclusion to his History of his Own Time, declares, “I must own that the main body of our clergy has always seemed dead and lifeless to me,” and ascribes much more zeal to Catholics and dissenters. (Ed. 1838, pp. 907–910.) [↑]
[96] The Moralists deals rather with strict skepticism than with substantive atheism. [↑]
[97] The Grand Essay: or, a Vindication of Reason and Religion against Impostures of Philosophy. The book was, on March 18, 1704, condemned by the House of Commons to be burned in Palace Yard, along with its author’s Second Thoughts Concerning the Human Soul (1702). A second ed. of the latter appeared soon after. [↑]
[99] Mr. Herbert Paul, in his essay on Swift (Men and Letters, 1901, p. 267), lumps as deists the four writers named by Swift in his Argument. Not having read them, he thinks fit to asperse all four as bad writers. Asgill, as was noted by Coleridge (Table Talk, July 30, 1831; April 30, 1832), was one of the best writers of his time. He was, in fact, a master of the staccato style, practised by Mr. Paul with less success. [↑]