are reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library. Loeb Classical Library® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 40, translated by H. Rackham, pp. 133–35, 199–205, 201, 205–7, 293, 339–41, 417 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914).
Cicero, De natura deorum and Academica, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 268, translated by H. Rackham, pp. 139–43, 151, 155–57, 159, 205–9, 257–59, 263–65, 283, 365 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1933).
Cicero, De officiis, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 31, translated by Walter Mitter, pp. 13–19, 65 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1913).
Cicero, De oratore, De fato, Paradoxa Stoicorum, and De partitione oratoria; Loeb Classical Library, vols. 348–49, translated by E. W. Sutton and H. Rackham (2 vols.), pp. 17–19, 141–45, 225 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1942).
Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, and Phaedrus; Loeb Classical Library, vol. 36, translated by Harold North Fowler, pp. 113, 335–39 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914).
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1. To JOHN TOLAND1
Address: To Mr John Toland To the care of Mr Roberts2 in Warwick lane London3
MS: BL Add. MS 4465, fols. 17–18; unpubl.
Edinburgh, 13 November 1718
Sir
I have read some of your performances, & I have all the reason in the world to think, that I may tell my Sentiments to you freely, & that if you differ from me, you will, for the sake of truth, give your self the trouble to shew me why you do so: and therefore I have fairly ventured to begin a corespondence with you, and I would perswade my self, that when we have exchanged some few letters, you will not incline to drop it.
Sir I am a Freethinker, and I glory in the character. Some people are pleased to say that I am no good Christian; and in good faith if these two characters are in the least incompatible, I shal very frankly yeild it to them that I am not. But if to prove all things & to hold fast that only which is good, be true Christianity; I am as orthodox as any man can pretend to be. I neither regard custom, nor fashion, authority nor power; truth & reason are the only things that determine me. And I can never believe that to be a fool, is the way to get into the favour of infinite wisdom; or that one must be stript of his reason, to be made meet for the society of pure & perfect spirits. Sir I don’t know how it comes about, that it hath always been cast in the Atheist’s teeth, that he hates the restraints of virtue, & would gladly take up with any hypotheses, to get rid of the fears of another world. Perhaps
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it may be so with some. For my part, I have no prejudice against the being of a God; nor do I think, the practice of virtue, can be any hardship upon those, that have a true taste of life; but the only difficulty, that I can see, about the immortality of the soul, arises from the principles of the Theists themselves. An eternal Series may go on to eternity; but if you stop at the one end, you must stop at the other too. To suppose a God at the top of an Infinite scheme, that sees all his designs at once, is in reality to suppose a thing finite & infinite at the same time. For that which is seen must be finite; so that if God sees all his works, his works must have an end. Infinite knowledge, or an Infinite scheme perceived, is the most glaring contradiction imaginable. A succession of things may be vastly long, but end it must if it be perceived.
And in truth, Sir, the notion of God seeing all his works at one wiew, affords us no very extroardinary Idea of the divine blessedness. To be always fixed to the same Ideas, is a happiness, that I don’t envy even the Godhead it self. Let the wiews of the Deity be as large & wide as you will: I like much better to skip merrily from one thing to another at my pleasure. To have always just & true notions, is very desirable, but to be eternally humming over the same story, or to have always the same objects before one’s eyes, is the dullest entertainment under the heavens.
I have a great deal more to say to you, Good Sir, about the principles of religion, if you incline to keep up the corespondence, but this is enough at once. I long very much to know what you mean by your immortal government.4
I am Sir
with the greatest respect
and sincerest friendship
your most humble servant
Philocles5
PS. Please to direct for me. To Mr Ebednezar Shovel at Edinburgh6
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2. To [VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH]7
MS: NLI, Microfilm n. 4082, p. 37538
Tinninghame East Lothian, 3 August 1722
My Lord
I have long admired your steady & firm adherence to Liberty & the interests of your country, & in my heart blessed you and all your Generous Designs. But when the E. of Shaftsbury’s Letters to you, that have been lately published,9 came to my hands, Pardon me, My Lord, if it was then my Esteem rose highest, and my breast began to glow with the Warmest affection towards your merit. Good and Honest surely must he be who was the Friend and Trustee of the truly Good and Upright Shaftsbury.10 And worthy indeed hath your Lordship’s conduct always been of so noble a Friendship.
I have, My Lord, studied with great care the works of that Excellent man, & must own I never received so much real benefit from any Uninspired writings; so incomparably perfect is the composure of all his peices, & so divine the Energy with which these form the genuine principles of Virtue & goodness, and a true relish of beauty & Truth of every sort in the mind of a well disposed Reader. And I have now conceived so just a veneration for his memory, that there is nothing can give me more pleasure than to hear of him & his Friends, and particularly of his worthy Lady and promising Son.11 I have often, My Lord, regretted that none of his Friends have
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given the world an account of his Life. Sure I am it would not be an Idle tale; but a profitable history. The progress of his studies & improvements, and the Steps by which his Lordship, inter scabiem tantam et contagia Lucri,12 arrived to such a surprising height of Virtue & so polite a taste in all usefull science, must undoubtedly be very curious & worthy of observation, and the account of ’em very Entertaining & instructive.
May I presume, My Lord, to Enquire of your Lordship how a copy of the Letter he wrote to an English Lord with his peice upon the judgement of Hercules which I am informed was only printed with thirty copies of his works, may be procured?13 Or if there is any thing else of his that I can have access to see. I have no news to write from this place that can be so agreable to your Lordship as that even in this narrow bigotted country there are severall of my acquaintance who are sincere Lovers of Truth & Liberty. I am heartily Sorry, My Lord, that there should be any dispute about your election & am heartily concerned with several others here about the final event.14 My Lord I am setled a Professor of Philosophy in the new College of Aberdeen;15 & hope now to have Leisure to apply my self to the Study of the Antients, the Study to which my humor & Genius leads me; And in my publick Profession shal always make it my business to promote the interests of Liberty & Vertue & to reform the taste of the Young Generation. But oh! My Lord, Education in this country is upon a miserable footing; And why should I say in this country, for is it not almost Every
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where? And must it not be so while Philosophy is a Traffick, and Science is retailed for a peice