3 August 1722
My Lord
I have long admired your steady & firm adherence to Liberty & the interests of your country, & in my heart blessed you and all your Generous Designs. But when the E. of Shaftsbury’s Letters to you, that have been lately published,9 came to my hands, Pardon me, My Lord, if it was then my Esteem rose highest, and my breast began to glow with the Warmest affection towards your merit. Good and Honest surely must he be who was the Friend and Trustee of the truly Good and Upright Shaftsbury.10 And worthy indeed hath your Lordship’s conduct always been of so noble a Friendship.
I have, My Lord, studied with great care the works of that Excellent man, & must own I never received so much real benefit from any Uninspired writings; so incomparably perfect is the composure of all his peices, & so divine the Energy with which these form the genuine principles of Virtue & goodness, and a true relish of beauty & Truth of every sort in the mind of a well disposed Reader. And I have now conceived so just a veneration for his memory, that there is nothing can give me more pleasure than to hear of him & his Friends, and particularly of his worthy Lady and promising Son.11 I have often, My Lord, regretted that none of his Friends have
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given the world an account of his Life. Sure I am it would not be an Idle tale; but a profitable history. The progress of his studies & improvements, and the Steps by which his Lordship, inter scabiem tantam et contagia Lucri,12 arrived to such a surprising height of Virtue & so polite a taste in all usefull science, must undoubtedly be very curious & worthy of observation, and the account of ’em very Entertaining & instructive.
May I presume, My Lord, to Enquire of your Lordship how a copy of the Letter he wrote to an English Lord with his peice upon the judgement of Hercules which I am informed was only printed with thirty copies of his works, may be procured?13 Or if there is any thing else of his that I can have access to see. I have no news to write from this place that can be so agreable to your Lordship as that even in this narrow bigotted country there are severall of my acquaintance who are sincere Lovers of Truth & Liberty. I am heartily Sorry, My Lord, that there should be any dispute about your election & am heartily concerned with several others here about the final event.14 My Lord I am setled a Professor of Philosophy in the new College of Aberdeen;15 & hope now to have Leisure to apply my self to the Study of the Antients, the Study to which my humor & Genius leads me; And in my publick Profession shal always make it my business to promote the interests of Liberty & Vertue & to reform the taste of the Young Generation. But oh! My Lord, Education in this country is upon a miserable footing; And why should I say in this country, for is it not almost Every
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where? And must it not be so while Philosophy is a Traffick, and Science is retailed for a peice of bread?
If your Lordship should do me the honour of a Letter I must put you to the trouble of enclosing it under a cover to Mr George Young Chirurgeon at Doctor Pitcairn’s head Edinburgh;16 for I shal for some time be very litle in one place; and he is a very honest worthy Friend of mine, to whom I committ my affairs at Edinburgh in my absence.
I am with the sincerest respect
My Lord
your Lordships
most humble and
devoted servant
Geo: Turnbull
P.S. When I was just going to put up this Epistle a Friend of mine came upon me, who would needs have me to present his humble respects to your Lordship & most hearty wishes for your prosperity & the success of all your noble designs.17 He is a Gentleman of a very fine taste a truly Worthy Honest Fellow. ’Tis to him I in a great measure owe my acquaintance with the E. of Shaftsbury’s works; and there is none perhaps who has studied these Excellent writings more, or understands them better. He was Educated by his Presbyterian Friends for the Sacred Function & ’Een commenced Preacher before he came to his present free State of mind & just notion of Religion & Vertue. But is now a very sincere promoter of Liberty & true Vertue by his sermons & otherwise. And indeed he is very well fitted to do service here in the honest cause being wise as well.
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3. To VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH
Address: To The Right Honourable my Lord Molesworth. To the care of
Mr Valentine18 Bookseller at the Queen’s head in Fleet Street London
MS: NLI, Microfilm n. 4082, p. 375319
Settled now at Aberdeen, 5 November 1722
My Lord
Upon the reading your most good & condescending Letter (which I received much sooner than I was flattering my self as earnestly as I longed for it) methought I felt all that was Good & Honest in me redoubled. Every line is so full of the true Philosopher the worthy Honest man. The applause of the truly Good & Upright is indeed a strong & powerfull incentive to those who are but just Entred upon the paths of virtue: And it was truly generous in your Lordship weel knowing the charm to Encourage so Liberaly my honest inclinations. You my Lord who have always been acting the noblest part any Mortal can be Engaged in upon this earthly Stage, when you are wrestling for liberty & your country, does not the presence & applause of your friends & weel-wishers to your cause add something to your Zeal & Courage? Or is that divine pitch of honest boldnes & that overpowring force of Publick affection which you discover in your publick actings no more than what you can easily command at any time or in any cool & solitary hour. This indeed were more great & Godlike. But the most Elevated Virtue among mankind, I think, reaches not so high. For my own part (My Lord) I act in a much Lower orbit, and my Strugles are not to be compared with these your Lordship hath undergone in pursuing your far greater & nobler undertaking. But I should never be able to maintain my Virtue in the warmth & Vigour that is necessary to bear one up under the Difficulties that Lie Even in my way; Did I not frequently Endeavour by Strength of Fancy to supply the want of a real presence & applause. And thus (My Lord) have I at Last presumed to address my self to your Lordship, with whose imagined presence, I have long been very familiar, that by (A
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Macte Virtute)20 A real approbation & good wish from one so far advanced in the ways of honour & Merit, (a condescension I weel knew your uncommon Generosity would readily comply withall as soon as the weightier matters you are Ever employed about should permit you) I might obtain the most Effectual motive I could in my imagination devise to animate & Enliven my faint & Languid Vertue and to give new life & vigour to all my honest purposes & resolutions.
That your Lordship after the toil of many years Employed in fighting with vice & Tyranny, now when your constitution is become crazy & inhabile & your days are fast hastening to the natural period instead of Ease & retirement can yet think with pleasure of Strugling for the Public weal & the same Glorious cause of Liberty, is indeed a proof of the Strongest & most Indefatigable Virtue & the Sincerest affection to your country. But oh my Lord how it moves me to the heart! And how afflicting should it indeed be to all the Friends of Liberty, that means have been found by mercenary avaricious men, Enemies surely to the common interest & all that is Good & Honest to debar such an old Experienced approven Patriot from all access to serve his country in a legal way; Spirit worn out in his country’s service & yet willing to Sacrifice the remnants of old age & a crazy body to her interests, the Cato of our time
