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

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

London

John Morphew

1710, 1714

"Either I work upon my Fancys, or They on Me. If I give Quarter, They won't. There can be no Truce, no Suspension of Arms between us. The one or the other must be superiour, and have the Command. For if the Fancys are left to themselves, the Government must, of course, be theirs. And then, what difference between such a State and Madness?"

Every Man indeed who is not absolutely beside himself, must of necessity hold his Fancys under some kind of Discipline and Management. The stricter this Discipline is, the more the Man is rational and in his Wits. The looser it is, the more fantastical he must be, and the nearer to the Madman's State. This is a Business which can never stand still. I must always be Winner or Loser at the Game. Either I work upon my Fancys, or They on Me. If I give Quarter, They won't. There can be no Truce, no Suspension of Arms between us. The one or the other must be superiour, and have the Command. For if the Fancys are left to themselves, the Government must, of course, be theirs. And then, what difference between such a State and Madness?
(p. 323; p. 144 in Klein)

War::Truce Government::Command Population

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