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

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

London

John Morphew

1710, 1714

"This indeed is but too certain; That as long as we enjoy a Mind; as long as we have Appetites and Sense, the Fancys of all kinds will be hard at work; and whether we are in company, or alone, they must range still, and be active. They must have their Field. The Question is, Whether they shall have it wholly to themselves; or whether they shall have some Controuler or Manager."

This indeed is but too certain; That as long as we enjoy a Mind; as long as we have Appetites and Sense, the Fancys of all kinds will be hard at work; and whether we are in company, or alone, they must range still, and be active. They must have their Field. The Question is, Whether they shall have it wholly to themselves; or whether they shall have some Controuler or Manager. If none; 'Tis this, I fear, that leads to Madness. 'Tis this, and nothing else, that can be call'd Madness or Loss of Reason. For if Fancy be left Judg of any thing, she must be Judg of all. Every thing is right, if any thing be so, because I fancy it. "The House turns round. The Prospect turns. No, but my Head turns indeed: I have a Giddiness: that's all. Fancy wou'd persuade me thus and thus: but I know better." 'Tis by means therefore of a Controuler and Corrector of Fancy, that I am sav'd from being mad. Otherwise, 'tis the House turns, when I am giddy. 'Tis things that charge (for so I must suppose) when my Passion merely, or Temper changes. "But I was out of Order. I dreamt. Who tells me this? Who but the Correctrice, by whose means I am in my Wits, and without whom I am no longer my-self?"
(pp. 322-3; p. 144 in Klein)

Population Geography::Field Population::Controller Population::Manager Government::Rule and Subjection

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.]

Self Command

07/10/2013