Alderman—Bibliographical Evidence of Shaftesbury. 63 
thesis in Sensus Communis: An Essay on the Freedom of Wit 
and Humor, (May, 1709). 
The Moralists, a Philosophical Rhapsody (1709) is in imitation 
of the Dialogues of Plato. Bishop Hiird speaks of it as one of the 
three dialogues in the English language fit to be mentioned and 
this is no small praise, for some had preceded it and many others 
were to follow before Hurd passed his judgment. As Theocles, 
Shaftesbury unfolds his optimistic theories and theology, and sings 
his Nature hymns. 
His next treatise, Soliloquy: or Advice to an Author (1710), is 
a mine of comment and reflection on various topics.^- Of it he 
says in his Miscellaneous Reflections that ^^His pretense has been 
to advise Authors and Polish Styles; but his aim has been to cor¬ 
rect Manners, and regulate Lives/ 
Miscellaneous Reflections (1711) was first published in the. First 
Edition of the Characteristics. Later it was described as first 
printed in 1714^’, an error due, perhaps, to Printed in the year 
M.DCC.XIV” which appears on the title page to the treatise in 
the collected works of that date. These Reflections, varied and 
illuminating, were intended to bolster and supplement the other 
treatises. ^ 
In Naples, whither he had gone for his health in 1711, he wrote 
A Notion of the Historical Draught or Tablature of the Judgment 
of Hercules and the Letter Concerning Design. The former was 
first printed in Prance, in the Journal des Sgavans for November, 
1712, and appeared in English, separately, in 1713, and in the 
Characteristics of 1714; the latter, although it occurs in a large 
paper copy of the Second Edition in the British Museum, seems 
not to have been included generally until 1732. 
That Shaftesbury was an assiduous writer of letters can be seen 
both from the total number that he wrote and the painstaking with 
which each was written. Several Letters written by a Noble Lord 
to a Young Man at the University, addressed to Michael Ainsworth, 
appeared first in 1716 and again in 1732. In 1721, Toland, for¬ 
getful of his first surreptitious venture of 1699 that had been so 
generously followed by an annual stipend from Lord Ashley, again 
Worlss, London, 1811, VoL III, pp. 24—25. He says, “The Dialogues I mean are. 
The Moralists by Lord Shaftesbury; Mr. Addison’s Treatise on Medals; and the Minute 
Philosopher of Bishop Berkeley.” Also quoted by Warton, Essay on Pope, London, 1806, 
Vol. II, p. 198. 
^ For an excellent summary of it see Fowler, p, 54. 
^ Cited by Fowler, p, 54. 
