Alderman—Bibliographical Evidence of Shaftesbury, 69 
ceiving, almost implicitly, whatever he hath advanced. De¬ 
spite the dangers that Leland thought himself called upon to battle 
against, Shaftesbury remained popular, and the most sumptuous 
edition of his works was soon to appear—the famous Baskerville 
edition of 1773. Again the complaints and warnings of the ortho¬ 
dox were voiced, this time by John Ogilvie in An Inqury into the 
Causes of the Infidelity and Skepticism of the Times (1783), in 
which Shaftesbury came in for his share of the blame. But the 
most significant reply was another edition of his treatises and let¬ 
ters seven years later. 
Any writer, philosophical or other, who has it within him to 
create such a controversial furor as Shaftesbury precipitated, and 
who can, despite opposition, maintain his popularity and retain 
his defenders, is a man of no mean vigor. Thomas Gray in a letter 
to Richard Stonehewer, (August 18, 1758), accounting for his 
vogue as a philosopher, said: ‘ ‘ First, he was a Lord; 2dly, he was 
as vain as any of his readers; 3dly, men are very prone to believe 
what they do not understand; 4thly, they will believe anything at 
all, provided they are under no obligation to believe it; 5thly, they 
love to take a new road, even when that road leads nowhere; 6thly, 
he was a fine writer, and seemed always to mean more than he 
said. ’ But these reasons are puerile when we trace the constant 
republication of his works, and recall the challenge that he gave to 
the best intellects of the century. Men are not likely to continue 
to read the subtle speculations of a dead Earl simply because they 
cannot understand them, or for the sheer pleasure of being led 
they know not whither. A leader, no matter how suave or vain, 
will hardly make intellectual friends or enemies if there is no 
“obligation to believe’^ that which he says in all seriousness. 
But Shaftesbury weighed heavily upon the conscience of the age. 
As John Armstrong remarked,^® 
“Ashley has turn’d more solid heads than one.” 
No, Gray was all too nonchalant and facetious in accounting for 
the vogue of Shaftesbury. 
Montesquieu in his Pensees Diverses ranks him with Plato, Male- 
branche, and Montaigne as one of the four great poets.^^ Voltaire 
«I, p. 49. 
Gray, Gosse edition, p. 375. 
Taste, 1755, found in Chalmers XVI, p. 538. 
** (Euv. Comp., Paris, 1838, p. 626. 
