Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author [collected in Characteristics]

London

John Morphew

1710, 1714

"We might here, therefore, as in a Looking-Glass, discover our-selves, and see our minutest Features nicely delineated, and suted to our own Apprehension and Cognizance. No one who was ever so little a while an Inspector, but must come acquainted with his own Heart."

The Philosophical Hero of these Poems, whose Name they carry'd both in their Body and Front, and whose Genius and Manner they were made to represent, was in himself a perfect Character; yet, in some respects, so veil'd, and in a Cloud, that to the unattentive Surveyor he seem'd often to be very different from what he really was: and this chiefly by reason of a certain exquisite and refin'd Raillery which belong'd to his Manner, and by virtue of which he cou'd treat the highest Subjects, and those of the commonest Capacity both together, and render 'em explanatory of each other. So that in this Genius of writing, there appear'd both the heroick and the simple, the tragick and the comick Vein. However, it was so order'd, that notwithstanding the oddness or mysteriousness of the principal Character, the Under-parts or second Characters shew'd Human Nature more distinctly, and to the Life. We might here, therefore, as in a Looking-Glass, discover our-selves, and see our minutest Features nicely delineated, and suted to our own Apprehension and Cognizance. No one who was ever so little a while an Inspector, but must come acquainted with his own Heart. And, what was of singular note in these magical Glasses; it wou'd happen, that by constant and long Inspection, the Partys accustom'd to the Practice, wou'd acquire a peculiar speculative Habit; so as virtually to carry about with 'em a sort of Pocket-Mirrour, always ready, and in use. In this, there were Two Faces which wou'd naturally present themselves to our View: One of them, like the commanding Genius, the Leader and Chief above-mention'd; the other like that rude undisciplin'd and headstrong Creature, whom we our-selves in our natural Capacity most exactly resembled. Whatever we were employ'd in, whatever we set about; if once we had acquir'd the habit of this Mirrour; we shou'd, by virtue of the double Reflection, distinguish our-selves into two different Partys. And in this Dramatick Method, the Work of Self-Inspection wou'd proceed with admirable Success.
(pp. 194-6; pp. 87-8 in Klein)

Optics::Mirror::Looking-Glass

Reading

A complicated publication history. At least 10 entries in ESTC (1710, 1711, 1714, 1733, 1744, 1751, 1757, 1758, 1773, 1790).

See Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author (London: John Morphew, 1710). <Link to ESTC><Link to Google Books>

See also "Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author" in Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. In Three Volumes. (London: John Darby, 1711). <Link to ESTC>

Some text drawn from ECCO and Google Books; also from Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, ed. Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge: CUP, 2001). Klein's text is based on the British Library's copy of the second edition of 1714. [Texts to be collated.]

11/06/2003