coo 



198 



COP 



Cooper, gaged heartily, and in which (notwithstanding all his 

 • ""Y"""*' apologists say,) he would have persevered, if he had 

 not found the king was cheating him." (%) 



COOPER, Anthony Ashley, grandson of the pre- 

 ceding, and third Earl of Shaftesbury, was born in 

 I67I. Literature was the object of his pursuit, as po- 

 litical aggrandisement had been that of his grandfather. 

 The latter, desirous to familiarise his descendant with 

 the learned languages from his earliest years, placed 

 him under the charge of a schoolmaster's daughter, ac- 

 customed to speak Greek and Latin with fluency. He 

 was thus enabled to read passages of authors in either 

 language at the early age of eleven. At fifteen he be- 

 gan his travels, and passed three years on the Conti- 

 nent. Returning to England, he had the good sense to 

 decline accepting a seat in the House of Commons du- 

 ring five years, and made a scrupulous appropriation of 

 his time to study. It is related that, soon after taking 

 his seat, he rose to speak on a bill, brought in for the 

 regulation of trials for high treason. It had been pro- 

 posed to refuse counsel to prisoners in this predicament ; 

 a measure which Lord Ashley regarded as tyrannical, 

 and was determined to oppose. He had carefully pre- 

 pared his speech ; but on standing up to deliver it, he 

 was so awed by the presence of the assembly, as to feel 

 himself unable to proceed. The house, however, en- 

 couraging him, he recollected himself so far as to give 

 a very happy turn to his confusion. " If I, who rise 

 only to give my opinion on the bill now depending, am 

 so confounded, what must the condition of that man be, 

 who, without any assistance, is pleading for his life ?" 

 The effect on the house of this well-timed appeal was 

 very favourable, and Lord Ashley continued a zealous 

 supporter of the cause of liberty. But his feeble health 

 was unequal to the fatigue of regular attendance in par- 

 liament, and his inclination led him to prefer literary 

 retirement. His father dying in 1 699, the young lord 

 gave his interest to the ministry, who were then enga- 

 ged in supporting King William's plans for a new alli- 

 ance against Louis XIV. It is said that King William 

 declared, that Lord Shaftesbury's interest had turned 

 the balance in favour of ministers, in the election of the 

 new parliament ; and it is added, that he made him an 

 offer of the secretaryship of state. 



On the demise of King William, the government pas- 

 sing into the hands of other ministers, Lord Shaftes- 

 bury forsook the court, and returned to his literary oc- 

 cupations. Holland being at that time the residence 

 of Bayle, Le Clerc, and other free enquirers, his Lord- 

 ship diversified his retirement by an occasional visit to 

 that quarter. Some years afterwards, in 1708 and 1709, 

 he began to publish. His first works were, a Letter on 

 Enthusiasm ; the Moralist ; a Philosophical Rhapsody ; 

 and Sensus Communis, an essay on the freedom of 

 wit and humour. At this time also he became a mar- 

 ried man, less it appears from the influence of love or 

 ambition, than to comply with the solicitation of those, 

 who, to use his own words, " thought the family worth 

 preserving." In 1710, appeared his well-known Soli- 

 loquy, or Advice to an Author, a work evidently supe- 

 rior to his preceding publications But his health was 

 now in such a state of decline, as to require a change of 

 climate. Notwithstanding the war, he obtained leave 

 to travel through France, and proceeded to Naples, 

 where, after residing a year and a half, he died in 1713, 

 at the early age of forty-two. The last part of his ca- 

 reer was employed in finishing a corrected edition of 

 his great work, the Characteristics. It came out soon 

 after his death, and the prints first published with the 



work were invented by him, and designed under his 

 personal inspection. Publications of parts of his cor- 

 respondence took place in succeeding years; first in 

 17 1 6, under the title of, Letters from a noble Lord to a 

 young man at the University; and in 1731, under the 

 title of, Letters from the late Earl of Shaftesbury to 

 Lord Molesworth. 



The advantage of an early familiarity with the an- 

 cient languages, was strongly exemplified in the course 

 of his Lordship's studies. Though well acquainted 

 with the eminent writers in his own language, his fa- 

 vourite occupation was the perusal of the authors of 

 Greece and Rome. The moral works of Xenophon, 

 Horace, and Epictetus, were so acceptable to him, that 

 he made a rule to carry copies of them in his various 

 excursions. These copies are still extant in the family 

 library, and the number of his marginal notes bearg 

 ample testimony to his zeal and industry. Happy had 

 it been if his Lordship had been content to build his 

 fame on the extent of his classical attainments and know- 

 ledge of morals, without coveting distinction, by pro- 

 fessing scepticism in regard to the Christian religion. 

 We regret this the more, as Lord Shaftesbury's charac- 

 ter, like Mr Hume's, was marked by many valuable 

 qualities. " He was," says Warburton, " temperate, 

 honest, and a lover of his country." His pretensions 

 to great literary distinction, however, are more doubt- 

 ful than his title to the praise of honour and patriotism. 

 The high polish of his style, and the sentimental vei» 

 of his philosophy, procured him, for many years, a great 

 reputation ; but acute scholars, such as Dr Jortin and 

 Mr Gray, did not hesitate to express a very different 

 opinion. A later author, however, Lord Monboddo, 

 extols Lord Shaftesbury to the skies, equally on the 

 ground of composition and of philosophy. To enter 

 into an elaborate disquisition of this subject would much 

 exceed our limits ; and we are spared the trouble, by 

 being enabled to appeal to an opinion from a high quar- 

 ter, which has probably engaged, long ago, the atten- 

 tion of most of our readers ; we mean, Dr Blair's judg- 

 ment of Shaftesbury, in the Lectures on Rhetoric and 

 Belles Lettres. That eminent critic bestows much praise 

 on the skilful and elegant construction of his Lord- 

 ship's language, while he passes a merited censure on 

 that stiffness and fastidiousness, which prevented him 

 from expressing any thing with simplicity, and which 

 led him into perpetual circumlocutions. His Lordship 

 left one son, who became the fourth Earl of Shaftes- 

 bury. (%) 



COPAIFERA, a genus of plants of the class Decan- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, p. 219. 



COPAL. See Chemistry, p. 123, and Varnish. 



COPENHAGEN, originally Kiobmandshavn, "the 

 merchant's harbour," the capital of Denmark, is situ- 

 ated on a small promontory on the eastern coast of the 

 isle of Zealand, in North Lat. 55° 41' 4", and East 

 Long. 12° 34' 15". It is fortified towards the land with 

 regular ramparts and bastions, and environed with a wet 

 ditch, which is both broad and deep. On the sea side 

 its principal defence is the Crown battery, which is about 

 half an English mile from the shore. It is built in the 

 form of a square ; the water flows into the middle of 

 it ; and, since the battle of Copenhagen, it has been 

 greatly strengthened and enlarged. The citadel, which 

 stands at the north-east extremity of the town, is but 

 small, containing two battalions, and its only gate is 

 fortified with five bastions. 



Copenhagen, though of no great extent, is one of the 

 handsomest cities in the north of Europe. It is between 



Copenha- 

 gen. 



