Lord Shaftesbury's _Letters to a young Man at the University_, on which
Mr. SINGER has addressed to you an interesting communication (Vol. ii.,
p. 33.), were reprinted in 1746 in a collection of his letters,
"_Letters of the Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the Characteristicks,
collected into one volume_: printed MDCCXLVI." 18mo. This volume
contains also Lord Shaftesbury's letters to Lord Molesworth, originally
published by Toland, with an introduction which is not reprinted; a
"Letter sent from Italy, with the notion of the Judgment of Hercules,
&c., to my Lord ----"; and three letters reprinted from Lord
Shaftesbury's life in the _General Dicionary_, which was prepared by Dr.
Kippis, under the superintendence of Lord Shaftesbury's son, the fourth
earl.
In my copy of the original edition of the _Letters to a young Man at the
University_, two letters have been transcribed by an unknown previous
possessor. One is to Bishop Burnet, recommending young Ainsworth when
about to be ordained deacon:--
"To the Bishop of Sarum.
"Reigate, May 23. 1710.
"My Lord,--The young man who delivers this to your Lordship, is
one who for several years has been preparing himself for the
ministry, and in order to it has, I think, completed his time at
the university. The occasion of his applying this way was purely
from his own inclination. I took him a child from his poor
parents, out of a numerous and necessitous family, into my own,
employing him in nothing servile; and finding his ingenuity, put
him abroad to the best schools to qualify him for preferment in
a peculiar way. But the serious temper of the lad disposing him,
as I found, to the ministry preferably to other advantages, I
could not be his hindrance; though till very lately I gave him
no prospect of any encouragement through my interest. But having
been at last convinced, by his sober and religious courage, his
studious inclination and meek behaviour, that 'twas real
principle and not a vanity or conceit that led him into these
thoughts, I am resolved, in case your lordship thinks him worthy
of the ministry, to procure him a benefice as soon as anything
happens in my power, and in the mean time design to keep him as
my chaplain in my family.
"I am, my Lord, &c.,
"SHAFTESBURY."
The second letter inserted in my copy is to Ainsworth himself, dated
Reigate, 11th May, 1711, and written when he was about to apply for
priest's orders. But the bulk of this letter is printed, with a
different beginning and ending, in the tenth printed letter, under date
July 10th, 1710, and is there made to apply to Ainsworth's having just
received deacon's orders. The beginning, and ending of the letter, as in
MS., are--
"I am glad the time is come that you are to receive full orders,
and that you hope it from the hands of our {98} great, worthy,
and excellent Bishop, the Lord of Salisbury. This is one of the
circumstances" [then the letter proceeds exactly as in the
printed Letter X., and the MS. letter concludes:] "God send you
all true Christianity, with that temper, life, and manners which
become it.
"I am, your hearty friend,
"SHAFTESBURY."
I quote the printed beginning of Letter X., on account of the eulogy on
Bishop Burnet:--
"I believed, indeed, it was your expecting me every day at ----
that prevented your writing since you received orders from the
good Bishop, my Lord of Salisbury; who, as he has done more than
any man living for the good and honour of the Church of England
and the Reformed Religion, so he now suffers more than any man
from the tongues and slander of those ungrateful Churchmen, who
may well call themselves by that single term of distinction,
having no claim to that of Christianity or Protestant, since
they have thrown off all the temper of the former and all
concern or interest with the latter. I hope whatever advice the
great and good Bishop gave you, will sink deeply into your
mind."
Mr. Singer has extracted from the eighth printed letter one or two
sentences on Locke's denial of innate ideas. A discussion of Locke's
views on this subject, or of Lord Shaftesbury's contrary doctrine of a
"moral sense," is not suited to your columns; and I only wish to say
that I think Mr. Singer has not made it sufficiently clear that Lord
Shaftesbury's remarks apply only to the speculative consequences,
according to his own view, of a denial of innate ideas; and that Lord
Shaftesbury, in another passage of the same Letters, renders the
following tribute of praise to the _Essay on the Human Understanding_:--
"I am not sorry that I lent you Mr. Locke's _Essay on the Human
Understanding_, which may as well qualify for business and the
world as for the sciences and a University. No one has done more
towards the recalling of philosophy from barbarity into use and
practice of the world, and into the company of the better and
politer sort, who might well be ashamed of it in its other
dress. No one has opened a better or clearer way to reasoning;
and, above all, I wonder to hear him censured so much by any
Church of England men, for advancing reason and bringing the use
of it so much into religion, when it is by this only that we
fight against the enthusiasts and repel the great enemies of our
Church."
A life of the author of the _Characteristics_ is hardly less a
desideratum than that of his grandfather, the Lord Chancellor, and would
make an interesting work, written in connection with the politics as
well as literature of the reigns of William and Anne; for the third Lord
Shaftesbury, though prevented by ill-health from undertaking office or
regularly attending parliament, took always a lively interest in
politics. An interesting collection of the third earl's letters has been
published by Mr. Foster (_Letters of Locke, Algernon Sidney, and the
Earl of Shaftesbury_), and a few letters from him to Locke are in Lord
King's _Life of Locke_. I subjoin a "note" of a few original letters of
the third Lord Shaftesbury in the British Museum; some of your readers
who frequent the British Museum may perhaps be induced to copy them for
your columns.
Letters to Des Maizeaux (one interesting, offering him pecuniary
assistance) in _Ags. Cat._ MSS. 4288.
Letters to Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax[1], (one introducing
Toland). Add. MSS. 7121.
Letter to Toland (printed, I think, in one of the _Memoirs of Toland_).
_Ags. Cat._ 4295. 10.
Letter to T. Stringer in 1625. Ib. 4107. 115.
In Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_, neither the _Letters to a young Man
at the University_, published in 1716, nor the collection of letters of
1746, are mentioned; and confusion is made between the author of the
_Characteristics_ and his grandfather the Chancellor. Several political
tracts, published during the latter part of Charles II.'s reign, which
have been ascribed to the first Earl of Shaftesbury, but of which,
though they were probably written under his supervision, it is extremely
doubtful that he was the actual author, are lumped together with the
_Characteristics_ as the works of one and the same Earl of Shaftesbury.
Some years ago a discovery was made in Holland of MSS. of Le Clerc, and
some notice of the MSS., and extracts from them, are to be found in the
following work:--
"De Joanne Clerico et Philippo A. Limborch Dissertationes Duæ.
Adhibitis Epistolis aliisque Scriptis ineditis scripsit atque
eruditorum virorum epistolis nunc primum editis auxit Abr. Des
Amorie Van Der Hoeven, &c. Amstelodami: apud Fredericum Muller,
1843."
Two letters of Locke are among the MSS. Now it is mentioned by Mr.
Martyn, the biographer of the first Earl of Shaftesbury, in a MS. letter
in the British Museum, that some of this earl's papers were sent by the
family to Le Clerc, and were supposed not to have been returned. I
mention this, as I perceive you have readers and correspondents in
Holland, in the hope that I may possibly learn whether any papers
relating to the first Earl of Shaftesbury have been found among the
lately discovered Le Clerc MSS.; and it is not unlikely that the same
MSS. might contain letters of the third earl, the author of the
_Characteristics_, who was a friend and correspondent of Le Clerc.