them a mischief.'[153] The general
tendency, however, of his writings is pretty clear, and is in harmony
with the Deistical theory that God's revelation of Himself in Nature is
certain, clear, and sufficient for all practical purposes, while any
other revelation is uncertain, obscure, and unnecessary. But he holds
that it would be unmannerly and disadvantageous to the interests of the
community to act upon this doctrine in practical life. 'Better take
things as they are. Laugh in your sleeve, if you will, at the follies
which priestcraft has imposed upon mankind; but do not show your bad
taste and bad humour by striving to battle against the stream of popular
opinion. When you are at Rome, do as Rome does. The question "What is
truth?" is a highly inconvenient one. If you must ask it, ask it to
yourself.'

It must be confessed that such low views of religion and morality are
strangely at variance with the exalted notions of the disinterestedness
of virtue which form the staple of one of Shaftesbury's most important
treatises. To reconcile the discrepancy seems impossible. Only let us
take care that while we emphatically repudiate the immoral compromise
between truth and expediency which Shaftesbury recommends, we do not
lose sight of the real service which he has rendered to religion as well
as philosophy by showing the excellency of virtue in itself without
regard to the rewards and punishments which are attached to its pursuit
or neglect.

The year before 'The Characteristics' appeared as a single work (1713),
a small treatise was published anonymously which was at first assigned
to the author of 'Christianity not Mysterious,' and which almost
rivalled that notorious work in the attention which it excited, out of
all proportion to its intrinsic merits. It was entitled 'A Discourse of
Freethinking, occasioned by the Rise and Growth of a Sect called
Freethinkers,' and was presently owned as the work of Anthony Collins,
an author who had previously entered into the lists of controversy in
connection with the disputes of Sacheverell, Dodwell, and Clarke. 'The
Discourse of Freethinking' was in itself a slight performance. Its
general scope was to show that every man has a right to think freely on
all religious as well as other subjects, and that the exercise of this
right is the sole remedy for the evil of superstition. The necessity of
freethinking is shown by the endless variety of opinions which priests
hold about all