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

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

London

John Morphew

1710, 1714

""For according as these Passions veer, my Interest veers, my Steerage varies; and I make alternately, now this, now that, to be my Course and Harbour."

The same must happen in respect of Anger, Ambition, Love, Desire, and the other Passions from whence I frame the different Notion I have of Interest. For according as these Passions veer, my Interest veers, my Steerage varies; and I make alternately, now this, now that, to be my Course and Harbour. The Man in Anger, has a different Happiness from the Man in Love. And the Man lately become covetous, has a different Notion of Satisfaction from what he had before, when he was liberal. Even the Man in Humour, has another Thought of Interest and Advantage than the Man out of Humour, or in the least disturb'd. The Examination, therefore, of my Humours, and the Inquiry after my Passions, must necessarily draw along with it the Search and Scrutiny of my Opinions, and the sincere Consideration of my Scope and End. And thus the Study of Human Affection cannot but lead me towards the Knowledg of Human Nature, and of My-Self.
(pp. 296-7; pp. 132-3 in Klein)

Vehicles::Ship Motion::Veering

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.]

07/10/2013