Table Of ContentSelectedWritings
in
BRITISH INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
Classics ofBritish HistoricalLiterature
John Clive, Editor
LESLIE STEPHEN
SelectedWritings
in
BRITISH INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
EditedandwithanIntroduction by
NOEL ANNAN
TheUniversityofChicago Press
CHICAGO AND LONDON
—
NOELANNAN, Vice-ChancelloroftheUniversity
ofLondon, istheauthorofLeslieStephen:His
ThoughtandCharacterinRelationtoHisTimes.
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637
The©UniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London
1979 by the University ofChicago
Allrightsreserved. Published 1979
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
84 83 82 81 80 79 5 4 3 2 1
LibraryofCongressCatalogingin PublicationData
Stephen, Leslie, Sir, 1832-1904.
Selectedwritings inBritish intellectualhistory.
(ClassicsofBritishhistoricalliterature)
Bibliography: p.
Includesindex.
— —
1. England Intellectuallife 18thcentury
Collectedworks. I. Annan,NoelGilroyAnnan,
Baron, 1916- II. Title.
DA485.S74 1979 941 78-13218
ISBN 0-226-77255-1
Contents
denestaitorsPreface Vll
Editor'sIntroduction xi
BibliographicalNote xxix
1. EnglishThoughtintheEighteenthCentury
ThePhilosophicalBasis: Introductory 1
Butler's'Analogy' 20
DavidHume 50
WilliamWarburton 83
2. English Literature and Society in the
EighteenthCentury 110
3. ThoughtsonCriticism, byaCritic 153
4. HoursinaLibrary
Doctorjohnson'sWritings 172
Wordsworth'sEthics 197
5. AnAgnostic'sApology: PoisonousOpinions 228
Notes 291
—
Series Editor's Preface
This series ofreprints has one major purpose: to put into the
hands ofstudentsand other interested readers outstanding
—
and sometimes neglected works dealing with British his-
tory which have either gone out of print or are obtainable
only at a forbiddingly high price.
The phrase Classics ofBritish Historical Literature requires
some explanation, inview ofthe fact that the two companion
series published by the University of Chicago Press are en-
titled Classic European Historians and Classic American His-
torians. Why, then, introduce the word literature into the
title of this series?
One reason is obvious. History, if it is to live beyond its
own generation, must be memorably written. The greatest
—
British historians Clarendon, Gibbon, Hume, Carlyle, Ma-
—
caulay survive today, not merely because they contributed
to the cumulative historical knowledge about their subjects,
but because they were masters of style and literary artists as
well. And even historians ofthe second rank, if they deserve
tosurvive, are able to do so only because they can still be read
with pleasure. To emphasize this truth at the present time,
when much eminently solid and worthy academic history
suffers from being almost totally unreadable, seems worth
doing.
The other reason for including the word literature in the
title ofthe series has to dowith its scope. To read history is to
VII
SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE
learn about the past. But if. in trying to learn about the
British past, one were to restrict oneself to the reading of
formal works ofhistory, one would miss a great deal. Often a
historical novel, a sociological inquiry, oran account ofevents
and institutions couched in semifictional form teaches us just
as much about the past as does the "history" that calls itself
by that name. And. frequently, these "informal" historical
works turn out to be less well known than their merit de-
serves. By calling this series Classics of British Historical Lit-
erature it will be possible to include such books without
doing violence to the usual nomenclature.
Intellectual history has come upon bad days in our time.
Philosophers are mainly interested in language and logic;
historians devote themselves chiefly to social history: and
excellence in the realm of the history of ideas has become a
rare thing. It is particularly useful and instructive, then, to
observe in Leslie Stephen a masterofthe an both ofdepicting
and dissecting the thought oi the past. Stephen was by no
means unaware, as the selections here reprinted from his
pioneering English Literature andSociety in the Eighteenth
Century show, oi the way in which thought and ideas are
ineluctably related to theirsocial setting. Yet. as Noel Annan
(whose masterly biography oi Stephen remains the starting
point for any consideration oi him) points out in his Intro-
duction, the great strength of Stephen's approach was his
conviction, faithfully carried out in practice, that the intellec-
tual historian's first duty was to examine and. if necessary, to
question the method of argument, the consistency, and the
coherence ofthose thinkers ofthe past who were his subjects.
Many oftoday's intellectual historians find themselves either
incapable ofdoing this or. ifcapable, reluctant to undertake
it. The example of Stephen shows what can and ought to be
done.
One point might be added to Annan's excellent introduc-
tion, and that concerns Stephen*s capacities as a stylist. He
invariably writes with elegance, and often with humor. One
need only read him on Butler ("hell is probable enough to be
worth avoiding"'), onJohnson's Rambler ("is there not some
danger that the mind will be benumbed with perpetual
. . .
viii
SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE
torpidity by the influence of this soporific sapience?"), and
on the regretfor youth's lostpleasures, which ''resembles too
often the maudlin meditation of a fast young man over his
morning's soda-water," to be persuaded ofhis grace and wit
as a writer. In this sphere, too, today's intellectual historians
might well choose Stephen as a model. Others can just enjoy
reading him.
JohnClive
IX
