ANCIENT AND MODERN
CELEBRATED FREETHINKERS.
REPRINTED FROM AN ENGLISH WORK, ENTITLED
"HALF-HOURS WITH THE FREETHINKERS."
By "Iconoclast.", A. Collins, and J. Watts
("Iconoclast", pseud. of Charles Bradlaugh.)
Edited by "Iconoclast,"
Boston
Published By J. P. Mendum
1877.
CONTENTS:
EDITORS' PREFACE.
THOMAS HOBBES.
LORD BOLINGBROKE.
CONDORCET.
SPINOZA.
ANTHONY COLLINS.
DES CARTES.
M. DE VOLTAIRE.
JOHN TOLAND.
COMPTE DE VOLNEY.
CHARLES BLOUNT.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
CLAUD ARIAN HELVETIUS.
FRANCES W. D'ARUSMONT.
EPICURUS
ZENO, THE STOIC
MATTHEW TINDAL.
DAVID HUME
DR. THOMAS BURNET
THOMAS PAINE.
BAPTISTE DE MIRABAUD
BARON D'HOLBACH.
ROBERT TAYLOR.
JOSEPH BARKER.
EDITORS' PREFACE.
In these pages, appearing under the title of "Half-Hours with the
Freethinkers," are collected in a readable form an abstract of the lives
and doctrines of some of those who have stood foremost in the ranks of
Free-thought in all countries and in all ages; and we trust that our
efforts to place in the hands of the poorest of our party a knowledge
of works and workers--some of which and whom would otherwise be out of
their reach--will be received by all in a favorable light. We shall,
in the course of our publication, have to deal with many writers whose
opinions widely differ from our own, and it shall be our care to deal
with them _justly_ and in all cases to allow them to utter in their own
words their essential thinkings.
We lay no claim to originality in the mode of treatment--we will
endeavor to cull the choicest flowers from the garden, and if others
can make a brighter or better bouquet, we shall be glad to have their
assistance. We have only one object in view, and that is, the presenting
of free and manly thoughts to our readers, hoping to induce like
thinking in them, and trust-ing that noble work may follow noble
thoughts. The Freethinkers we intend treating of have also been Free
Workers, endeavoring to raise men's minds from superstition and bigotry,
and place before them a knowledge of the real.
We have been the more inclined to issue the "Half-Hours with the
Freethinkers" in consequence, not only of the difficulty which many have
in obtaining the works of the Old Freethinkers, but also as an effective
answer to some remarks which have lately appeared in certain religious
publications, implying a dearth of thought and thinkers beyond the pale
of the Church. We wish all men to know that great minds and good men
_have_ sought truth apart from faith for many ages, and that it is
because few were prepared to receive them, and many united to _crush_
them, their works are so difficult of access to the general mass at the
present day.
THOMAS HOBBES.
This distinguished Freethinker was born on the 5th of April, 1588, at
Malmesbury; hence his cognomen of "the philosopher of Malmesbury." In
connection with his birth, we are told that his mother, being a loyal
Protestant, was so terrified at the rumored approach of the Spanish
Armada, that the birth of her son was hastened in consequence. The
subsequent timidity of Hobbes is therefore easily accounted for. The
foundation of his education was laid in the grammar school of his native
town, where most probably his father (being a clergyman) would officiate
as tutor. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Oxford. Five years of
assiduous study made him proficient as a tutor; this, combined with his
amiability and profound views of society, gained him the respect of the
Earl of Devonshire, and he was appointed tutor to the Earl's son, Lord
Cavendish. From 1610 to 1628, he was constantly in the society of this
nobleman, in the capacity of secretary. In the interval of this time he
travelled in France, Germany, and Italy; cultivating in each capital
the society of the leading statesmen and philosophers. Lord Herbert, of
Cherbury, the first great English Deist, and Ben Jonson, the dramatist,
were each his boon companions. In the year 1628, Hobbes again made the
tour of the Continent for three years with another pupil, and became
acquainted at Pisa with Galileo. In 1631 he was entrusted with the
education of another youth of the Devonshire family, and for near five
years remained at Paris with his pupil.
Hobbes returned to England in 1636. The troublous politics of this age,
with its strong party prejudices, made England the reverse of a pleasant
retirement, for either Hobbes or his patrons; so, perceiving the
outbreak of the Revolution, he emigrated to Paris. There in the
enjoyment of the company of Gassendi and Descartes, with the _elite_ of
Parisian genius, he was for awhile contented and happy. Here he engaged
in a series of mathematical quarrels, which were prolonged throughout
the whole of his life, on the quadrature of the circle. Seven years
after, he was appointed mathematical tutor to the Prince of Wales,
afterwards Charles II. In 1642, Hobbes published the first of his
principal works, "De Cive, or Philosophical Rudiments Concerning
Government and Society." It was written to curb the spirit of anarchy,
then so rampant in England, by exposing the inevitable results which
must of necessity spring from the want of a coherent government amongst
a people disunited and uneducated. The principles inculcated in this
work were reproduced in the year 1651, in the "Leviathan, or the Matter,
Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil;" this,
along with a "Treatise on Human Nature," and a small work on "The
Body Politic," form the groundwork of the "selfish schools" of moral
philosophy. As soon as they were published, they were attacked by the
clergy of every country in Europe. They were interdicted by the Pontiffs
of the Roman and Greek Church, along with the Protestants scattered over
Europe, and the Episcopal authorities of England. Indeed, to such an
extent did this persecution rise, that even the royalist exiles
received warning that there was no chance for their ostracism being
removed, unless "the unclean thing (Hobbes) was put away from their
midst." The young prince, intimidated by those ebullitions of vengeance
against his tutor? was obliged to withdraw his protection from him, and
the old man, then near seventy years of age, was compelled to escape
from Paris by night, pursued by his enemies, who, according to Lord
Clarendon, tracked his footsteps from France. Fortunately for Hobbes, he
took refuge with his old protectors, the Devonshire family, who were too
powerful to be wantonly insulted. While residing at Chatsworth, he would
no doubt acutely feel the loss of Descartes, the Cardinal de Richelieu,
and Gassendi; in the place of those men he entered into a warm
friendship with Cowley, the poet, Selden, Harvey, the discoverer of
the circulation of the blood, Charles Blount, and the witty Sir Thomas
Brown.
In 1654, he published a "Letter upon Liberty and Necessity;" this
brief tractate is unsurpassed in Free-thought literature for its clear,
concise, subtle, and demonstrative proofs of the self-determining power
of the will, and the truth of philosophical necessity. All subsequent
writers on this question have largely availed themselves of Hobbes's
arguments, particularly the pamphleteers of Socialism. It is a fact no
less true than strange, that Communism is derived from the system of
Hobbes, which has always been classed along with that of Machiavelli, as
an apology for despotism. The grand peculiarity of Hobbes is his method.
Instead of taking speculation and reasoning upon theories, he carried
out the inductive system of Bacon in its entirety, reasoning from
separate generic facts, instead of analogically. By this means he
narrowed the compass of knowledge, and made everything demonstrative
that was capable of proof. Belief was consequently placed upon its
proper basis, and a rigid analysis separated the boundaries of Knowing
and Being. Hobbes looked at the great end of existence and embodied it
in a double axiom. 1st. The desire for self-preservation. 2nd. To render
ourselves happy. From those duplex principles which are inherent in
all animals, a modern politician has perpetrated a platitude which
represents in a sentence the end and aim of all legislation, "the
greatest happiness for the greatest number." This is the _ultimatum_
of Hobbes's philosophy. Its method of accomplishment was by treating
society as one large family, with the educated and skilled as governors,
having under their care the training of the nation. All acting from
one impulse (self-preservation,) and by the conjoint experience of all,
deriving the greatest amount of happiness from this activity. Hobbes
opposed the Revolution, because it degenerated into a faction; and
supported Charles Stuart because there were more elements of cohesion
within his own party, than amongst his enemies. It was here where the
cry of despotism arose; the "Round-heads" seeing they could not detach
the ablest men from the King's party, denounced their literary opponents
as "lovers of Belial, and of tyranny." This was their most effective
answer to the "Leviathan." In after years, when the Episcopal party no
longer stood in need of the services of Hobbes, they heaped upon him the
stigma of heresy, until his _ci-devant_ friends and enemies were united
in the condemnation of the man they most feared. Mr. Owen, in his schema
of Socialism, took his leading idea on non-responsibility from Hobbes's
explanation of necessity, and the freedom of the will. The old divines
had inculcated a doctrine to the effect that the "will" was a separate
entity of the human mind, which swayed the whole disposition, and was of
itself essentially corrupt. Ample testimony from the Bible substantiated
this position. But in the method of Hobbes, he lays down the facts that
we can have no knowledge without experience, and no experience without
sensation. The mind therefore is composed of classified sensations,
united together by the law of an association of ideas. This law was
first discovered by Hobbes, who makes the human will to consist in
the strongest motive which sways the balance on any side. This is the
simplest explanation which can be given on a subject more mystified than
any other in theology.
A long controversy betwixt Bishop Bramhall, of Londonderry, followed the
publication of Hobbes's views on Liberty and Necessity. Charles II. on
his restoration, bestowed an annual pension of £100 on Hobbes, but this
did not prevent the parliament, in 1666, censuring the "De Cive" and
"Leviathan," besides his other works. Hobbes also translated the Greek
historian, Thucydides, Homer's Odyssey, and the Illiad. The last years
of his life were spent in composing "Behemoth; or, a History of the
Civil Wars from 1640 to 1660," which was finished in the year he died,
but not published until after his death. At the close of the year 1679,
he was taken seriously ill. At the urgent request of some Christians,
they were permitted to intrude their opinions upon his dying bed,
telling him gravely that his illness would end in death, and unless he
repented, he would go straight to hell. Hobbes calmly replied, "I shall
be glad then to find a hole to creep out of the world." For seventy
years he had been a persecuted man, but during that time his enemies
had paid him that tribute of respect which genius always extorts from
society. He was a man who was hated and dreaded. He had reached the age
of ninety-two when he died. His words were pregnant with meaning; and
he never used an unnecessary sentence. A collection of moral apothegms
might be gathered from his table-talk. When asked why he did not read
every new book which appeared, he said, "If I had read as much as other
men, I should have been as ignorant." His habits were simple; he
rose early in the morning, took a long walk through the grounds of
Chatsworth, and cultivated healthful recreation. The after part of the
day was devoted to study and composition. Like Sir Walter Raleigh, he
was a devoted admirer of the "fragrant herb." Charles II.'s constant
witticism, styled Hobbes as "a bear against whom the Church played their
young dogs, in order to exercise them."
If there had been a few more similar "bears," the priestly "dogs" would
long since have been exterminated, for none of them escaped unhurt from
their encounters with the "grizzly" of Malmesbury, except it was in the
mathematical disputes with Dr. Wallis.
He was naturally of a timid disposition: this was the result of the
accident which caused his premature birth, and being besides of a
reserved character, he was ill-fitted to meet the physical rebuffs of
the world. It is said that he was so afraid of his personal safety, that
he objected to be left alone in an empty house; this charge is to some
extent true, but we must look to the mitigating circumstances of the
case. He was a feeble man, turned the age of three-score and ten, with
all the clergy of England hounding on their dupes to murder an old
philosopher because he had exposed their dogmas. It was but a few years
before, that Protestants and Papists had complimented each other's
religion by burning those who were the weakest, and long after Hobbes's
death, Protestants murdered, ruined, disgraced, and placed in the
pillory Dissenters and Catholics alike, and Thomas Hobbes had positive
proof that it was the intention of the Church of England to _burn
him alive_, on the stake, a martyr for his opinions. This, then, is a
sufficient justification for Hobbes feeling afraid, and instead of
it being thrown as a taunt at this illustrious Freethinker, it is a
standing stigma on those who would re-enact the tragedy of persecution,
if public opinion would allow it.
Sir James Mackintosh says: * "The style of Hobbes is the very perfection
of didactic language. Short, clear, precise, pithy, his language never
has more than one meaning, which never requires a second thought to
find. By the help of his exact method, it takes so firm a hold on the
mind, that it will not allow attention to slacken. His little tract on
human nature has scarcely an ambiguous or a needless word. He has so
great a power of always choosing the most significant term, that he
never is reduced to the poor expedient of using many in its stead. He
had so thoroughly studied the genius of the language, and knew so well
how to steer between pedantry and vulgarity, that two centuries have not
superannuated probably more than a dozen of his words."
* Second Dissertation: Encyclopaedia Brit., p. 318.
Lord Clarendon describes the personal character of Hobbes as "one for
whom he always had a great esteem as a man, who besides his eminent
parts of learning and knowledge, hath been always looked upon as a man
of probity, and a life free from scandal."
We now proceed to make a selection of quotations from the works of this
writer, commencing with those on the "Necessity of the Will," in reply
to Bishop Bramhall.
"The question is not whether a man be a free agent--that is to say,
whether he can write, or forbear, speak, or be silent, according to his
will; but whether the will to write, and the will to forbear, come upon
him according to his will, or according to anything else in his own
power. I acknowledge this liberty, that I can _do_, if I _will_, but to
say, I can _will_ if I _will_, I take to be an absurd speech." Further
replying to Bramhall's argument, that we do not learn the "idea of the
freedom of the will" from our tutors, but we know it intuitively, Hobbes
says, "It is true very few have learned from tutors that a man is not
free to will; nor do they find it much in books. That they and in books
that which the poets chaunt in the theatres, and the shepherds on the
mountains, that which the pastors teach in the churches, and the doctors
in the universities; and that which the common people in the markets,
and all the people do assent unto, is the same that I assent unto;
namely, that a man hath freedom to do if he will; but whether he hath
freedom to will, is a question which it seems neither the Bishop nor
they ever thought of.... A wooden top that is lashed by the boys, and
runs about, sometimes to one wall, sometimes to another, sometimes
spinning, sometimes hitting men on the shins, if it were sensible of its
own motion, would think it proceeded from its own will, unless it felt
what lashed it. And is a man any wiser when he runs to one place for a
benifice, to another for a bargain, and troubles the world with writing
errors, and requiring answers, because he thinks he does it without
other cause than his own will, and seeth not what are the lashings which
cause that will?"
Hobbes casually mentions the subject of "praise or dispraise," in
reference to the will; those who are old enough will remember this was
one of the most frequent subjects of discussion amongst the earlier
Socialists. "These depend not at all in the necessity of the action
praised or dispraised. For what is it else to praise, but to say _a
thing is good?_ Good, I say, for me, or for somebody else, or for the
State and Commonwealth. And what is it to say an action is good, but to
say it is as I would wish, or as another would have it, or according
to the will of the State--that is to say, according to the law! Does
my lord think that no action could please me, or the commonwealth, that
should proceed from necessity! Things may be therefore necessary, and
yet praiseworthy, as also necessary, and yet dispraised, and neither of
them both in vain; because praise and dispraise, and likewise reward and
punishment, do, by example, make and conform the will to good or evil.
It was a very great praise, in my opinion, that Vellerius Paterculus
gives Cato, where he says that he was good by nature, '_et quia aliter
esse non potuit_.''--'And because he could not do otherwise.'" This able
treatise was reprinted, and extensively read about twenty years ago;
but, like many other of our standard works, it is at present out of
print.
The "Leviathan" is still readable, a bold masculine book. It treats
everything in a cool, analytic style. The knife of the Socialist is
sheathed in vain; no rhapsody can overturn its impassioned teachings.
Rhetoric is not needed to embellish the truths he has to portray, for
the wild flowers of genius but too frequently hide the yawning chasms
in the garden of Logic. It is not to be expected that this book will be
read now with the interest with which it was perused two centuries ago;
then every statement was impugned, every argument denied, and the very
tone of the book called forth an interference from parliament to stop
the progress of its heresies. Now the case is widely different, and the
general tenor of the treatise is the rule in which are illustrated alike
the works of the philosophers and the dreams of the sophists (priests.)
We give part of the introduction. "Nature (the art whereby God hath made
and governs the world) is, by the art of man, as in many other things,
so in this also, imitated, that it can make an artificial animal. For
seeing life is but a motion of limbs, the beginning whereof is in some
principal part within; why may we not say that all automata (engines
that move themselves by springs and wheels, as doth a watch) have an
artificial life? For what is the heart but a spring; and the nerves but
so many strings; and the joints but so many wheels, giving motion to the
whole body, such as was intended by the Artificer? Art goes yet further,
imitating that rational and most excellent work of nature, man. For by
art is created that great leviathan, called a Commonwealth, or State,
which is but an artificial man though of greater stature and strength
than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended,
and the sovereignty of which is an artificial soul, as giving life and
motion to the whole body. To describe the nature of this artificial man,
I will consider,
"1st. The _matter_ thereof, and the _artificer_, both which is man.
"2nd. _How_, and by what _covenants_ it is made, what are the _rights_
and _just_ power or authority of a sovereign; and what it is that
_preserveth_ and dissolveth it.
"3rd. What is a Christian Commonwealth.
"Lastly, what is the kingdom of darkness.
"The first chapter treats of 'Senses.' Concerning the thoughts of man, I
will consider them first singly, and afterwards in train, or dependence
upon one another. Singly, they are every one a representation, or
appearance, of some quality or accident of a body without us, which is
commonly called an object. Which object worketh on the eyes, ears, and
other parts of a man's body, and by diversity of working, produceth
diversity of appearances. The original of them all is that which we call
sense, for there is no conception in a man's mind, which hath not at
first totally or by parts been begotten upon the organs of sense; the
rest are derived from that original."
Speaking of "Imagination," Hobbes says, "That when a thing lies still,
unless somewhat else stir it, it will lie still forever, is a truth no
one doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally
be in motion, unless somewhat else stay it, though the reason be the
same--namely, that nothing can change itself--is not so easily assented
to. For men measure not only other men, but all other things, by
themselves; and because they find themselves subject after motion to
pain and lassitude, think everything else grows weary of motion, and
seeks repose of its own accord--little considering whether it be not
some other motion, wherein that desire of rest they find in themselves
consisteth.... When a body is once in motion, it moveth (unless
something else hinder it) eternally, and whatsoever hindereth it, cannot
in an instant, but in time, and by degrees, quite extinguish it; and
as we see in the water, though the wind cease, the waves give not over
rolling for a long time after; so also it happeneth in that motion which
is made in the internal parts of man, then, when he sees, dreams, etc.
For after the object is removed, or the eye shut, we still retain an
image of the thing seen, though more obscure than when we see it....
The decay of sense in men waking, is not the decay of the motion made
in sense, but an obscuring of it, in such manner as the light of the sun
obscureth the light of the stars; which stars do no less exercise their
virtue, by which they are visible in the day, than in the night. But
because amongst many strokes which our eyes, ears and other organs
receive from external bodies, the predominant only is sensible;
therefore the light of the sun being only predominant, we are not
affected with the actions of the stars.... This decaying sense, when
we would express the thing itself (I mean fancy itself), we call
imagination, as I said before, but when we would express the Decay, and
signify the sense is fading, old and past, it is called Memory: so
that imagination and memory are but one thing, which, for divers
considerations, hath divers names." *
Such is the commencement of this celebrated book, it is based upon
materialism; every argument must stand this test upon Hobbes's
principles, and characteristically are they elaborated. Hobbes ("De
Cive") says of the immortality of the soul, "It is a belief grounded
upon other men's sayings, that they knew it supernaturally; or that
they knew those who knew them, that knew others, that knew it
supernaturally." A sparkling sneer, and perhaps the truest answer to
so universal an error. Dugald Stewart, in his analysis of the works of
Hobbes, says, ** The fundamental doctrines inculcated in the political
works of Hobbes, are contained in the following propositions:--All men
are by nature equal, and, prior to government, they had all an equal
right to enjoy the good things of this world. Man, too, is by nature, a
solitary and purely selfish animal; the social union being entirely an
interested league, suggested by prudential views of personal advantage.
The necessary consequence is, that a state of nature must be a state of
perpetual warfare, in which no individual has any other means of safety
than his own strength or ingenuity; and in which there is no room
for regular industry, because no secure enjoyment of its fruits. In
confirmation of this view of the origin of society, Hobbes appeals to
facts falling daily within the cycle of our experience. "Does not a
man, (he asks) when taking a journey, arm himself, and seek to go well
accompanied? When going to sleep, does he not lock his doors? Nay, even
in his own house, does he not lock his chests? Does he not there accuse
mankind by his action, as I do by my words?" For the sake of peace and
security, it is necessary that each individual should surrender a part
of his natural right, and be contented with such a share of liberty
as he is willing to allow to others; or, to use Hobbes's own language,
"every man must divest himself of the right he has to all things by
nature; the right of all men to all things, being in effect no better
than if no man had a right to anything." In consequence of this
transference of natural rights to an individual, or to a body of
individuals, the multitude become one person, under the name of a State,
or Republic, by which person the common will and power are exercised for
the common defence. The ruling power cannot be withdrawn from those to
whom it has been committed; nor can they be punished for misgovern-ment.
The interpretation of the laws is to be sought, not from the comments
of philosophers, but from the authority of the ruler; otherwise society
would every moment be in danger of resolving itself into the discordant
elements of which it was at first composed.--The will of the magistrate,
therefore, is to be regarded as the ultimate standard of right and
wrong, and his voice to be listened to by every citizen as the voice of
conscience."
* Leviathan. Ed. 1651.
** Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Science, p. 41.
Such are the words of one of Hobbes's most powerful opponents. Dr.
Warburton says, "The philosopher of Malmesbury was the terror of the
last age, as Tin-dal and Collins are of this. The press sweats with
controversy; and every young churchman militant would try his arms in
thundering on Hobbes's steel cap." This is a modest acknowledgment of
the power of Hobbes, from the most turbulent divine of the eighteenth
century.
Victor Comyin gives the following as his view of the philosophy of
Hobbes:--"There is no other certain evidence than that of the senses.
The evidence of the senses attests only the existence of bodies; then
there is no existence save that of bodies, and philosophy is only the
science of bodies.
"There are two sorts of bodies: 1st, Natural bodies, which are the
theatre of a multitude of regular phenomena, because they take place
by virtue of fixed laws, as the bodies with which physics are occupied;
2nd, Moral and political bodies, societies which constantly change and
are subject to variable laws.
"Hobbes's system of physics is that of Democritus, the atomistic and
corpuscular of the Ionic school.
"His metaphysics are its corollary; all the phenomena which pass in
the consciousness have their source in the organization, of which the
consciousness in itself is simply a result. All the ideas come from the
senses. To think, is to calculate; and intelligence is nothing else than
an arithmetic. As we do not calculate with out signs, we do not think
without words; the truth of the thought is in the relation of the words
among themselves, and metaphysics are reduced to a perfect language.
Hobbes is completely a nominalist. With Hobbes there are no other than
contingent ideas; the finite alone can be conceived; the infinite is
only a negation of the finite; beyond that it is a mere word invented to
honor a being whom faith alone can reach. The idea of good and evil
has no other foundation than agreeable or disagreeable sensations; to
agreeable or disagreeable sensation it is impossible to apply any.
other law than escape from the one and search after the other; hence
the morality of Hobbes, which is the foundation of his politics. Man
is capable of enjoying and of suffering; his only law is to suffer as
little, and enjoy as much, as possible. Since such is his only law, he
has all the rights that this law confers upon him; he may do anything
for his preservation and his happiness; he has the right to sacrifice
everything to himself. Behold? then, men upon this earth, where the
objects of desire are not superabundant, all possessing equal rights
to whatever may be agreeable or useful to them, by virtue of the same
capacity for enjoyment and suffering. This is a state of nature, which
is nothing less than a state of war, the anarchy of the passions, a
combat in which every man is arrayed against his neighbor. But this
state being opposed to the happiness of the majority of individuals who
share it, utility, the offspring of egotism itself, demands its
exchange for another, to wit, the social state. The social state is the
institution of a public power, stronger than all individuals, capable
of making peace succeed war, and imposing on all the accomplishment of
whatever it shall have judged to be useful, that is, just."
Before we dismiss the father of Freethought from our notice, there
remains a tribute of respect to be paid to one whom it is our duty
to associate with the author of the "Leviathan," and who has but
just passed away--one man amongst the British aristocracy with the
disposition of a tribune of the people, coupled with thoughts at once
elevated and free, and a position which rendered him of essential
service to struggling opinion. This man saw the greatness, the profound
depth, the attic style, and the immense importance of the works of
Hobbes, along with their systematic depreciation by those whose duty it
should be to explain them, especially at a time when those works were
not reprinted, and the public were obliged to glean their character
from the refutations (so called) by mangled quotations, and a distorted
meaning. Impelled by this thought, and anxious to protect the memory of
a philosopher, his devoted disciple, at a cost of £10,000, translated
the Latin, and edited the English works of Hobbes, in a manner worthy
alike of the genius of the author, and the discernment of his editor.
For this kindness, a seat in Parliament was lost by the organization of
the clergy in Cornwall. The name of this man was Sir William Molesworth.
Let Freethinkers cherish the memory of their benefactor.
We now take our leave of Thomas Hobbes. He had not the chivalry of
Herbert; the vivacity of Raleigh; the cumulative power of Bacon; or the
winning policy of Locke. If his physical deformities prevented him from
being as daring as Vane, he was as bold in thought and expression as
either Descartes, or his young friend Blount. He gave birth to the
brilliant constellation of genius in the time of Queen Anne. He did
not live to see his system extensively promulgated; but his principles
moulded the character of the men who formed the revolution of 1688,
equally as much as Hume established the Scotch and German schools of
philosophy; and Voltaire laid the train by which the French Revolution
was proclaimed. Peace to his memory! It was a stormy struggle during his
life; its frowns cannot hurt him now. Could we believe in the idea of
a future life, we should invoke his blessings on our cause. That cause
which for near two hundred years has successfully struggled into birth,
to youth, and maturity. Striking down in its onward course superstitions
which hath grown with centuries, and where it does not exterminate them,
it supplies a purer atmosphere, and extracts the upas-sting which has
laid low so many, and which must yet be finally exterminated. The day is
rapidly dawning when our only deities will be the works of genius, and
our only prayer the remembrance of our most illustrious chiefs.
A.C.
LORD BOLINGBROKE.
Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, was born in his family seat at
Battersea, on the 1st of October 1672, and died there on November 15th,
1751, in his 79th year. He was educated by a clergyman in an unnatural
manner, and speedily developed himself accordingly. When he left Oxford,
he was one of the handsomest men of the day--his majestic figure,
refined address, dazzling wit, and classic eloquence, made him
irresistibly the "first gentleman in Europe." Until his twenty-fourth
year, he was renowned more for the graces of his person, and the
fascination of his wild exploits, rather than possessing a due regard
to his rank and abilities. His conduct, however, was completely changed
when he became a Member of Parliament. The hopes of his friends were
resuscitated when they discovered the aptitude for business--the ready
eloquence, and the sound reasoning of the once wild St. John. He soon
became the hardest worker and the leader of the House of Commons. The
expectations of the nation rose high when night after night he spoke
with the vivacity of a poet, and the profundity of a veteran statesman
on public affairs. In 1704, he received the seals as Secretary-of-War,
and was mainly instrumental in gaining Marlborough's victories, by the
activity with which he supplied the English General with munitions of
war. On the ascendency of the Whigs, St. John resigned his office, and
retired into privacy for two years, when the Whig administration was
destroyed, and St. John re-appeared as Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
His greatest work now was the negotiation of the treaty of Utrecht. This
treaty was signed by St. John (then Lord Bolingbroke,) he being sent to
Paris as the British Plenipotentiary, and was hailed by the Parisians
as a guardian angel. To such an extent was this feeling manifested, that
when he visited the theatres every one _rose_ to welcome him. So long as
Queen Anne lived, Bolingbroke's influence was paramount, but associated
with him was the Earl of Oxford, in opposition to the Whig party, and
serious differences had arisen between the rivals. Oxford-was dismissed
four days before the Queen's death, and Bolingbroke officiated in his
place, until Oxford's vacancy was filled, which all expected would be
given to himself. A stormy debate in the Privy Council so agitated the
Queen, that it shortened her life, and the Council recommended the Earl
of Shrewsbury as Premier, and with him the Whigs.
With the accession of George, came the impeachment of Bolingbroke by the
victorious Whigs. Knowing that it was their intention to sacrifice
him to party revenge, and that his accusers would likewise act as his
judges, he wisely withdrew himself to France. The Pretender held a
mimic court at Avignon, and a debating society at Lorraine, entitled
a Parliament. He offered Bolingbroke the office of Secretary of State,
which was accepted by him; and it was only at this time that the
emanations of the exiled Stuart's cabinet possessed either a solidity
of aim, or a definite purpose. If Louis XIV. had lived longer, he might
have assisted the Pretender, but with his death expired the hopes of
that ill-fated dynasty. Bolingbroke strove to husband the means which
the Chevalier's friends had collected, but the advice of the Duke of
Ormond was listened to in preference to Bolingbroke's. The results which
Bolingbroke foretold--proceeding rashly and failing ignominiously--both
occurred. The insurrection broke out, and failed--no other end could
have been anticipated. Intrigues were fast coiling themselves around the
secretary; he was openly blamed for the reverses in Scotland--but he was
alike careless of their wrath or its issue. One morning Ormond waited
upon him with two slips of paper from the Pretender, informing him
that his services were no longer required. After his dismissal he was
impeached by the lackeys of the Pretender under seven heads, which were
widely distributed throughout Europe. There is this anomaly in the life
of Bolingbroke, witnessed in no other Englishman: In one year he was the
most powerful man in England--Secretary of State--an exile--and then
in the same year he occupied a similar office to one who aimed at the
English throne, and was impeached by both parties.
For several years he occupied himself in France with philosophical
pursuits--until the year 1723--when he received a pardon, which allowed
him to return to England, but still his sequestered estates were not
returned, and this apology for a pardon was negotiated by a bribe of
£11,000 to the German Duchess of Kendal--one of the king's mistresses.
Alexander Pope was Bolingbroke's constant correspondent. Pope had
won the applause of England by his poems, and was then considered the
arbiter of genius. Voltaire occupied a similar position in France.
Since Pope first laid the copy of his greatest epic at the feet of
Bolingbroke, and begged of him to correct its errors, he had gradually
won himself that renown which prosperity has endorsed. But what a unity
in divergence did those philosophers present! The calm moralism of Pope,
his sweet and polished rhyme, contrasted with the fiery wit and hissing
sarcasm of the Frenchman, more trenchant than Pope's, yet wanting
his sparkling epigrams. The keen discernment of both these men saw in
Bolingbroke a master, and they ranked by his side as twin apostles of
a new and living faith. It was the penetration of true greatness which
discerned in the English peer that sublimity of intellect they possessed
themselves, without the egotism of an imbecile rival. Bolingbroke had
cherished the ethics of one, and restrained the rancor of the other--and
both men yielded to him whose system they worshipped; and this trinity
of Deists affords the noblest example which can be evoked to prove
the Harmony of Reason amidst the most varied accomplishments. Although
Pope's name occurs but seldom in the history of Freethought--while that
of Bolingbroke is emblazoned in all its glory, and Voltaire is enshrined
as its only Deity--yet we must not forget that what is now known as
the only collection of St. John's works (the edition in five volumes
by Mallet,) were written for the instruction of Pope--sent to him in
letters--discussed and agreed to by him--so that the great essayist is
as much implicated in them as the author of the Dictionary. It is
said, "In his society these two illustrious men felt and acknowledged a
superior genius; and if he had no claim to excellence in poetry--the
art in which they were so pre-eminent--he surpassed them both in the
philosophy they so much admired."
For ten years after this period, he devoted himself to various political
writings, which were widely circulated; but we must waive the pleasure
at present of analyzing those, and confine our attention to the alliance
between Pope and Bolingbroke, in the new school of philosophy.
Bolingbroke's principal friends were Pope, Swift, Mallet, Wyndam, and
Atterbury. The first three were most in his confidence in regard
to religion: and although Pope was educated a Roman Catholic, and
occasionally conformed to that hierarchy (and like Voltaire, for peace,
died in it,) yet the philosophical letters which passed between Pope and
St. John, fully established him as a consistent Deist--an honor to which
Swift also attained, although being a dignitary of the Church: but
if doubts arise on the subject, they can easily be dispelled. General
Grimouard, in his "Essai sur Bolingbroke," says that "he was intimate
with the widow of Mallet, the poet, who was a lady of much talent and
learning, and had lived upon terms of friendship with Bolingbroke,
Swift, Pope, and many other distinguished characters of the day, who
frequently met at her house." The General adds, that the lady has been
frequently heard to declare, that these men were all equally deistical
in their sentiments (_que c'était une société de purs déistes_;) that
Swift from his clerical character was a little more reserved than the
others, but he was evidently of the same sentiments at bottom.
There is a remarkable passage in one of Pope's letters to Swift, which
seems rather corroborative of the General's. He is inviting Swift to
come and visit him. "The day is come," he says, "which I have often
wished, but never thought to see, when every mortal I esteem is of the
same sentiments in politics and religion." Dr. Warton remarks upon this
paragraph "At this time therefore (1733) he (Pope and Bolingbroke were
of the same sentiment in religion as well as politics);" * and Pope
writing to Swift is proof sufficient that Bolingbroke, Swift, and
himself, were united in opinions. Wherever Swift's name is known, it is
associated with his spleen on account of his not being elevated to the
Episcopal Bench, when he was promised a vacancy, which was reserved for
him; but Queen Anne absolutely refused to confer such a dignity upon the
author of "Gulliver's Travels"--that profound satire upon society and
religion; and this occurring at a time when his energetic services
were so much needed in defence of the government he so assisted by
pamphleteering, satire, and wholesale lampoons. Mr. Cooke says, "The
Earl of Nottingham, in the debate upon the Dissenters' Bill, chiefly
founded his objection to the provision that the Bishops should have the
only power of licensing tutors, upon the likelihood there was that a
man who was in a fair way for becoming a Bishop, was hardly suspected
of being a Christian." This pointed allusion to Swift passed without
comment or reply in a public assembly, composed in a great measure of
his private friends and associates. This seems to intimate that the
opinion of his contemporaries was not very strong in favor of Swift's
religious principles. This may suffice to prove the unanimity of
sentiment existing among this brilliant coterie--one a political
Churchman--another the greatest poet of his age--the third, the most
accomplished statesman of his country. Although they were united in
religious conviction, it would have been certain ruin to any of the
confederates if the extent of their thoughts had reached the public ear.
The Dean wrote for the present--the poet for his age--and the peer for
the immediate benefit of his friends and a record for the future. But
they were all agreed that some code of ethics should be promulgated,
which should embody the positive speculations of Bolingbroke, with the
easy grace of Pope--the elaborate research of the philosopher with
the rhetoric of the poet. Swift coalesced in this idea, but was, to a
certain extent, ignorant of its subsequent history. It was not thought
prudent to trust Mallet and others with the secret. For this purpose the
"Essay of Man" was designed on the principles elaborated by Bolingbroke
in his private letters to Pope. It was Bolingbroke who drew up the
scheme, mapped out the arguments, and sketched the similes--it was Pope
who embellished its beauties, and turned it into rhyme. Doctor Warton,
the editor of Pope, also proves this:--"Lord Bathurst told the Doctor
that he had read the whole of the 'Essay on Man' in _the handwriting of
Bolingbroke_, and drawn up in a series of propositions which Pope was
to amplify, versify, and to illustrate." If further proofs are required,
that Bolingbroke was not only a co-partner but coadjutor with Pope, it
is found in the opening of the poem, where the poet uses the plural in
speaking of Bolingbroke--
"Awake, my St. John, leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Laugh when we must, be candid when you can,
And vindicate the ways of God to man."
* Cook's Life of Bolingbroke, 2nd vol., p. 97..
This is sufficient to prove the partnership in the poem, and from the
generally acknowledged fact of his connection, we have no hesitation in
declaring that this poem is the grand epic of Deism, and is as much the
offspring of Bolingbroke, as his own ideas when enunciated by others.
There is not a single argument in the Essay but what is much more
elaborated in the works of Bolingbroke, while every positive argument
is reduced to a few poetic maxims in the Essay. We may as well look here
for Bolingbroke's creed, rather than amongst his prose works. There
is, however, this difference, that in the Essay there is laid down an
ethical scheme of positivism--_i.e._, of everything in morals which
can be duly tested and nothing more: while in the prose writings of
Bolingbroke, the negative side of theology is discussed with an amount
of erudition which has never been surpassed by any of the great leaders
of Freethought. The first proposition of the Essay is based on a
postulate, upon which the whole reasoning is built. Overthrow this
substratum, and the philosophy of the Essay is overturned--admit it, and
its truth is evident; it is--
"What can we reason but from what we know?"