185 



TUCKER, ABRAHAM. 



TUCKER, JOSIAH, D.D. 



186 



his materials, he twice transcribed the whole copy in his own hand." 

 And he endeavoured to improve himself in composition by a study of 

 the principal Greek and Latin authors, and by translating the most 

 admired passages of Cicero, Demosthenes, and others. The first spe- 

 cimen of his work was published in 1763 under the title ' Free Will :' 

 tins was a selection from the four octavo volumes of the ' Light of 

 Nature Pursued,' which he gave to the world in 1765. In the mean- 

 time, a criticism in the ' Monthly Review ' on the ' Free Will ' led him 

 to publish a reply, under the title ' Man in Quest of Himself ; by 

 Cuthbert Comment." He "published the 'Light of Nature Pursued' 

 under the fictitious name of Edward Search. The remaining volumes 

 of the work, the composition of which, together with magisterial 

 duties and the superintendence of his estate, occupied the remainder 

 of his life, were edited after his death by his daughter. 



Sir Henry Mildinay gives the following interesting account of Mr. 

 Tucker's habits : " He always rose early in the morning to pursue 

 his literary labours. During the winter mouths he commonly burnt a 

 lamp in his chamber for the purpose of lighting his own fire. After 

 breakfast he returned again to his studies for two or three hours, 

 and passed the remainder of the morning iu walking, or in some rural 

 exercise. As he was remarkably abstemious, he lost but little time at 

 the table, but usually spent the early part of the evening in summer 

 in walking over his estate, collecting information on all agricultural 

 subjects from his tenants, and committing the result of their practical 

 experience to paper. In winter he completed the regular measure of 

 his exercise by traversing his own apartment, and, after accomplishing 

 the distance he had allotted to himself, he employed the remainder of 

 the afternoon in reading to his daughters." In 1771 blindness over- 

 took him, a fever having completed what incessant application had 

 prepared the way for. "His favourite object however was not aban- 

 doned in consequence of this calamity, his mechanical ingenuity 

 enabling him to direct the construction of a machine, which guided 

 his hand and helped him to write so legibly that his productions were 

 easily transcribed by an amanuensis." He also received invaluable aid 

 from, his elder daughter, whom Sir Henry Mildmay not unjustly com- 

 pares to Milton's daughter. " She transcribed the whole of his 

 voluminous work for the -press; and so entirely did she devote her 

 time, like Milton's daughter, to those pursuits which would make her 

 most useful to her father, that she applied herself to the study of the 

 Greek language, iu which she made such proficiency as to be enabled 

 to preserve to her father, during the remainder of his life, an inter- 

 course with his favourite authors, of which his misfortune must 

 otherwise have deprived him." Tucker died in 1771. 



Tucker's work is one which for various reasons, its length as well 

 as the nature of the subject, is read by few ; but many will know the 

 praise bestowed on it by Paley in the preface to his ' Moral and 

 Political Philosophy :' " There is however one work to which I owe 

 so much that it would ba ungrateful not to confess the obligation : I 

 mean the writings of the late Abraham Tucker, Esq., part of which 

 were published by himself, and the remainder since his death, under 

 the title of ' The Light of Nature Pursued, by Edward Search, Esq.' I 

 have found in this writer more original thinking and observation 

 upon the several subjects that he has taken in hand than in any other, 

 not to say than in all others put together. His talent also for illus- 

 tration is unrivalled. But his thoughts are diffused through a long, 

 various, and irregular work. I shall account it no mean praise if I 

 have been sometimes able to dispose into method, to collect into 

 heads and articles, or to exhibit in more compact and tangible masses, 

 what, in that otherwise excellent performance, is spread over too 

 much surface." 



The ' Light of Nature Pursued ' is a desultory work, and not a 

 systematic treatise, on mind and morals, and is of a practical rather 

 than a theoretical chai'acter. The principles of mental and moral 

 science are but cursorily treated, and with the view of being applied to 

 the business and practical exigencies of man's life. Tucker adopts 

 Hartley's theory of association, with its objectionable material ele- 

 ments ; but instead of 'association' he always uses the term 'trans- 

 lation,' a term which has nothing to recommend it in preference to 

 that which he discards. The striking qualities of Tucker's work are 

 ingenuity and fertility of illustration, a rich quiet vein of humour, 

 which has procured for him the title of ' the metaphysical Montaigne,' 

 and a lofty moral aim, which renders the work as useful to the 

 student as its humour and variety of illustration render it generally 

 entertaining. 



Tucker was a favourite author with Sir James Mackintosh, who has 

 evidently bestowed great pains upon his sketch of him. " He had 

 many of the qualities which might be expected in an affluent country 

 gentleman, living in a privacy undisturbed by political zeal, and with 

 a leisure unbroken by the calls of a profession, at a time when 

 England had not entirely renounced her old taste for metaphysical 

 speculation. He was naturally endowed, not indeed with more than 

 ordinary acuteness or sensibility, nor with a high degree of reach and 

 range of mind, but with a singular capacity for careful observation and 

 original reflection, and with a fancy perhaps unmatched in producing 

 various and happy illustration. The most observable of. his moral 

 qualities appear to have been prudence and cheerfulness, good-nature 

 and easy temper. The influence of his situation and character is 

 visible in hia writings. Indulging his own tastes and fancies, like most 



English squires of his time, he became, like many of them, a sort of 

 humourist. Hence much of his originality and independence; hence 

 the boldness with which he openly employs illustrations from homely 

 subjects. He wrote to please himself more than the public. He had 

 too little regard for readers, either to sacrifice his sincerity to them, 

 or to curb his own prolixity, repetition, and egotism, from the fear of 

 fatiguing them He was by early education a believer in Christi- 

 anity, if not by natural character religious. His calm good sense and 

 accommodating temper led him rather to explain established doctrines 

 in a manner agreeable to his philosophy than to assail them. Hence 

 he was represented as a time-server by freethinkers, and as a heretic 



by the orthodox Had he recast without changing his thoughts, 



had he detached those ethical observations, for which he had so 

 peculiar a vocation, from the disputes of his country and his day, 

 he might have thrown many of his chapters into their proper form of 

 essays, which might have been compared, though not likened, to those 

 of Hume." (' Dissertation on the progress of Ethical Philosophy,' 

 Whewell's edition, p. 268.) 



The best edition of the ' Light of Nature Pursued' is that of Sir 

 Henry Mildmay, in 7 vols. 8vo. There is a reprint of this edition in 

 2 vols. 8vo, 1837. An abridgment of the work has been published by 

 Mr. Hazlitt, which is now out of print, but which is highly commended 

 by competent judges. The tract in reply to the 'Monthly Review,' of 

 which the full title is ' Man in Quest of Himself, or a Defence of the 

 Individuality of the Human Mind or Self,' is printed in Parr's ' Meta- 

 physical Tracts,' published by Lumley, 1837. 



TUCKER, JOSIAH, D.D., a learned divine and distinguished 

 political writer of the last century, was born at Laugharne in Car- 

 marthenshire in 1711. Some time afterwards his father went to 

 reside on a small estate near Aberystwith in Cardiganshire, which had 

 become his property, and which he cultivated himself, haviug been 

 brought up as a farmer. Although his means were very small, he 

 contrived to send his son to Ruthin School in Denbighshire, where he 

 pursued his studies with such success as to be enabled to obtain an 

 exhibition at St. John's College, Oxford. In those days it was a matter 

 of some difficulty to perform the journey between Wales and Oxford, 

 and it is said that young Tucker was obliged to go backwards and 

 forwards on foot, with a stick over his shoulder and a bundle at the 

 end of it. On one occasion his father mounted him upon his own 

 horse, but the young man did not wish to sacrifice the convenience of 

 his father to his own pride, and in future journeys he resumed his 

 stick and his bundle. Shortly after leaving the university he entered 

 into holy orders, and served the curacy of All Saints, Bristol. He 

 next became curate of St. Stephen's Church, Bristol, and was ap- 

 pointed a minor canon in the cathedral of that city. Here he had the 

 good fortune to engage the friendship and esteem of Dr. Butler, the 

 bishop of his diocese, who appointed him as his domestic chaplain, 

 and afterwards obtained for him a prebendal stall in the cathedral of 

 Bristol. To the active friendship of his excellent patron he was also 

 indebted for the rectory of St. Stephen's, to which he succeeded in 

 1749. To complete at once the history of his ecclesiastical prefer- 

 ments, we will add that in 1758 he became dean of Gloucester, and 

 about the same time took his degree of D.D. 



To his residence in the great commercial city of Bristol may, in 

 great measure be ascribed the prevailing character of his political 

 writings, the best of which are those which relate to the interests of 

 trade and commerce. Passing over for the present such of his pub- 

 lications upon other subjects as may intervene in point of time, we 

 shall be the better able to give a connected view of his principal 

 writings upon trade. In 1748 he published his first commercial 

 work, entitled ' A Brief Essay on the Advantages and Disadvantages 

 which respectively attend France and Great Britain with regard to 

 Trade, with some Proposals for removing the Principal Disadvantages 

 of Great Britain, iii a new method.' In this essay he condemned the 

 French system of taxation, especially the taille, the duties upon salt, 

 and those laid upon provisions entering their great cities. He ob- 

 jected also to their mode of farming the revenue, to their ' maitrises ' 

 or guilds, and to their monopolies and exclusive charters. Nor did 

 the taxes of this country escape his censure. " The taxes upon the 

 necessaries of life are in fact so many taxes upon trade and industry ; 

 and such must be accounted the duties upon soap, coal, candles, salt, 

 and leather. Likewise the duties upon the importation of foreign raw 

 materials, to be employed in our own manufactures, are so many 

 fetters and chains to prevent the progress of labour and the circula- 

 tion of '.wealth." He denounced " our monopolies, public companies, 

 and corporate charters," as being " the bane and destruction of a free 

 trade." Amongst the most important of his proposals for improving 

 the trade of Great Britain may be mentioned a union with Ireland in 

 all respects, as to parliament, trade, and 'taxes; an extension of our 

 inland navigation ; and the adoption of a system of warehousing goods 

 on importation, at the option of the merchant. At that time we had 

 very few canals ; a prejudice existed against them ; and more than 

 twenty years after the publication of this essay we find a canal bill 

 opposed in parliament as tending to injure the coasting- trade, and as 

 being " greatly prejudicial to that most important object, the nursery 

 and increase of seamen." (Cavendish's ' Debates,' 15th Feb., 1769, vol. L, 

 p. 337-9.) A system of warehousing, it is well known, had been pro- 

 posed by Sir Robert Walpole in 1733, and abandoned on account of 



