c o o 
fplnt a considerable time in Italy, VvheVe he acquired a 
great knowledge in the polite arts. This knowledge is 
very vifible through all his writings ; that of the art of 
painting is more particularly fo, from the treatife he 
compofed upon “The judgment of Hercules.” He 
made it his endeavour, while he was abroad, to improve 
himfelf as.much as poflible in every accomplifhment; 
for which reafon he did not greatly afreiSt the company 
of other Englirtt gentlemen upon their.travels ; and he 
was remarkable for fpeaking French fo readily, and with 
fo good an accent, that in France lie was often taken for a 
native. Upon his return to England in 1689, he was of¬ 
fered a feat in parliament from home of thofe boroughs 
where his family had an intereft ; but he declined it, 
and purlued that ftrift courfe of ftudy, which he had 
propofed to himfelf, near five years. Then he was 
elefted a burgefs for Poole : and, foon after his coming 
into parliament, had an opportunity of firewing that 
fpirit of liberty, which he maintained to die end of his 
life, and by which he uniformly directed his conduit on 
all occaftons. It was he who brought in and promoted 
the aSt for granting counfel to prifoners in cafes of. high 
treafon. This he looked upon as-important, and had 
prepared a fpeech in its behalf: but when he ftood up 
to fpeak in the houfe of commons, he was fo intimidated, 
that he loft all memory, and was quite unable to pro¬ 
ceed. . This, however, was fuppof'ed by fome to have 
been a mere feint; but be that as it may, the effeit, at 
the moment, made a (hiking inrprelTion on the members. 
After giving him a little time to recover his confufion, 
they called loudly for him to go on, when he proceeded 
to this efteit: “If I, fir,” addrefling himfelf to the 
fpeaker, “ who rife only to give my fandtion to the bill 
now depending, am fo confounded, that I am unable to 
exprefs the leaft of what I propofed to fay ; what mulf 
the condition of that man be, who, without any aflilf- 
ance, is pleading for his life ?” The bufinefs of at¬ 
tending clofely the houfe of commons, in a few years fo 
impaired his health, that he was obliged to decline 
coming again into parliament, after its diffolution in 1698. 
Being thus at liberty, he went to Holland, where he 
fpent his time in the conveifation of Bayle, Le Clerc, 
and other ingenious men then refiding in that country. 
During his abfence, an imperfedt edition of his “ Inquiry 
into Virtue,” was publifhed at London; furreptitioufly 
taken from a rough draught, fketched when he was but 
twenty years of age. The perfon who ferved him thus 
unhandfomely, was Toland ; on whom he is f'aid to have 
conferred many favours. This treatife was afterwards 
completed by him, and publifhed in the fecond volume 
of the Charadteriftics. Soon after he returned to Eng¬ 
land, he became earl of Shaftefbury; but did not attend 
the houfe of lords, till his friend lord Somers fent a 
meflenger to acquaint him with the bufinefs of the par¬ 
tition treaty, February 1701. On the accefiion of queen 
Anne, he retired to his ufual courfe of ftudying; and, 
in the beginning of 1703, made a fecond journey to 
Holland, and returned to England in the end of the year 
following. The French prophets foon after having by 
their enthufiaftic extravagance made a great difturbance 
throughout the nation, there were different opinions as 
to the methods of fupprefling them, and fome advifed a 
profecution. But lord Shaftefbury, who abhorred any 
ftep which looked like perfecution, apprehended that 
fuch meafures tended rather to inflame than to cure the 
difeafe: -and this occafioned his “ Letter concerning 
Enthufiafm,” which he publifhed in 1708, and fent it to 
lord Somers, to whom he addrefled it, though without 
•the mention either of his own of lord Somers’s name. 
January 1709, he publifhed his “ Moralifts, a philofo- 
phical rhapfody and, in May following, his “ Senfus 
Communis; or, an Eifay upon the Freedom of Wit and 
Humour.” The fame year he married Mrs. Jane Ewer, 
youngeft daughter of Thomas Ewer, efquire, of Lee, 
in Ikr.fordfhire; to whom he was related, and by whom 
P E R. l?i 
he had an only fbn, Anthony, the fourth ear.l of Shaftef¬ 
bury. In 1710, his “ Soliloquy, or advice to an author,” 
was printed. In 17 it, finding his health flill declining, 
lie was advifed to leave England, and feek afliftance 
from a warmer climate. He fet out therefore for Italy 
in July 1711, but lived only little more than a year after 
his arrival, dying at Naples, February 4, 17:3. 
The only pieces which he finifhed, after he came to 
Naples, were “The judgment.of Hercules,” and the, 
“Letter concerning Defign ;” which laft was publifhed 
in the edition of the Charadteriftics, 1732. The reft of 
his time he employed in preparing his writings for a 
more elegant edition. The feveral copper-plates then 
firft interfperfed through the work, were all invented by 
himfelf, and defigned under his immediate infpedlion : 
and he was at the pains of drawing up a moft accurate 
fet of inftructions for this' purpofe, which are ft ill extant 
in manufeript. In tine three volumes of the Charafter- 
iftics, he completed the whole of his writings which he 
intended fhould be made public. The firft edition was 
publifhed in 1711 ; but the more Complete and elegant 
edition, which has been the ftandard of all editions fince, 
was not publifhed till 1713, immediately after ins death. 
But though lord Shaftefbury himfelf intended nothing 
more for the public, yet, in 1716, fome of ins letters 
were printed under the title of, “ Several Letters written 
by a noble Lord to a young Man at th©Univerftty 
and, in 1721, Toiand publifhed “Letters from the late 
Earl of Shaftefbury to Robert Molefworth, Efquire.” 
Lord Shaftefbury is find to have had an efleem only for 
fuch of our divines, as explained Chriftiar.ity moft con¬ 
formably to his own principles ; and it was under his 
particular inf'peftior., and with a preface-of his own writ¬ 
ing, that a volume of Whichcot’s fermons was publifhed 
in 1698, from copies, taken, as it is faid, in fliort hand, 
as they were delivered from the pulpit. But his prin¬ 
cipal ftudy was the writings of antiquity ; and thofe 
which he moft admired, were the moral works of Xeno¬ 
phon, Horace, the Enchiridion of Epiftetus, witli Ar¬ 
rian’s Commentaries, and Marcus Antoninus. From 
thefe he formed to himfelf the plan of his phiiofophy ; 
and the idea which he framed to himfelf of phiiofophy 
in general, may bebeft comprehended from the following 
words of his, where, addreffing himfelf to a correfpon- 
dent, he fays : “ Nor were, there indeed any more than 
two real diftinft philofophies : the one derived from 
Socrates, and palling into the old academic, the peripa¬ 
tetic, and ftoic ; the other derived in reality from De¬ 
mocritus, and paffing into the cyrenaic, and epicurean. 
For as for that mere fceptic, or new academic, it had no 
certain precepts, and fo was an exercife of fephiftry, ra¬ 
ther than a phiiofophy. The firft therefore of thefe 
two philofophies recommended adtion, concernment • in 
civil affairs, religion, &c. the fecond derided all this, 
and advifed inadlion and retreat. And good reafon : for 
the firft maintained, that fociety, right, and wrong, were 
founded in nature, and that nature had a meaning, and 
Was herfelf; that is to lay, in her wits, well-governed, 
and adminiltered by one fimple and perfect intelligence. 
The fecond again derided this, and made providence 
and dame nature not fo fenfible as a doting old woman. 
So the Epicurean in Cicero treats providence, A>ius fa~ 
tidica Jloicoruvi w^oi/oicc. The firft therefore of thefe 
philofophies is to be called the civil, focial, and theiftic : 
the fecond the contrary.” Every page of lord Shaftef¬ 
bury ’s writings fliews him to have been a zealous af- 
ferter of tire civil, focial, and theiftical, fyftem ; and 
hence the whole of his phiiofophy feeras to have been 
the inculcating of thefe two principles, viz. that there 
is a providence, which adminifters and confults for-the 
whole, to the abfolute exclusion of general evil ami 
diforder ; and that man is made by that providence a 
political or focial animal, whofe conftitution can only 
find its true and natural end in the purfuit and exercife 
of the moral and focial virtues. Numerous have beeis 
