GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. Memoirs of Arthur Collier. By Robert Benson, A. M. 8vo. 1837. WHATEVER the public may think about the matter, they are very much indebted to Mr. Benson for a curious, interesting, and well-written life of a person, whose name has been at last rescued from a most undeserved oblivion. In this age, as it is called, of intelligence and illumination, probably there are not a dozen persons who ever heard of the name, nor more than half that number who have ever read the writings of the subject of this memoir: and Mr. Collier's fate may be a very authentic warning to any gentleman entering into the world, who may think to make his fortune, establish his fame, or support his family by metaphysics. So entirely had the memory of this acute and able reasoner perished, and become lost to all general curiosity, that although the lives of the Wiltshire authors, in consequence of Sir Richard Hoare's splendid and excellent history of the county, were objects of curiosity, yet when the history of Langford, Mr. A. Collier's parish, was published, neither his name nor his work was mentioned. Mr. Benson thinks that Dr. Reid first called the attention of the public to Collier, the author of the Clavis Universalis.' He was the subject of a correspondence between Sir James Mackintosh, then at Bombay, and Dr. S. Parr the omnivorous. Dugald Stewart also made inquiries concerning him ;* but the results were so unsatisfactory, that in his Dissertation on the progress of Metaphysical Philosophy, Stewart says, after noticing the neglect of Norris,-" Another very acute metaphysician of the same church, Arthur Collier, has met with still greater injustice. His name is not to be found in any of our biographical dictionaries."† After this declaration of regret of so profound and eminent a philosopher, we are sure that we need not make any apology to our readers, or rather, we feel confident of receiving their gratitude,if we offer our willing assistance to Mr. Benson in removing the weeds that have too long been suffered to grow over the neglected grave of this memorable person, and restore the half-obliterated letters of his forgotten name. Mr. A. Collier was rector of Langford Magna in Wiltshire, where he died in 1732, and the rectory, once his possession, devolved by sale during his life, on Corpus Christi College, Oxford. While his mind was engaged in the abstruse speculations of his Clavis Universalis'-the less dignified but more necessary Clavis particularis' of his house accounts fell into a maze of entanglement, and while the superior regions of this acute personage were employed in this celestial speculation, the lower extremities became somewhat embarrassed in grosser and more earthly materials. In short, Mr. Collier died like a true metaphysician, with nothing but a sheet or two of well-written speculations in his desk; and as his purpose was to prove the non-existence of matter,-he encumbered himself with as little of it as he well could help, evidently showing in practice the firm * See Parr's Works, (Johnstone's edit.), vol. i. 710; vol. vii. 522. reality of his belief in his own theory. These papers, his intellectual wealth, are supposed to have passed into the possession of the husband of one of his sisters; and at length, after some family transmissions, and for some time being in custody of that venerable person, Mr. Benson's great aunt, Mrs. Jenevera Sympson, and having escaped the dangers of her parsnip wine and black currant jelly, were bequeathed absolutely to his father. As metaphysical studies are considered to be the most lofty and speculative on which the human understanding can be employed; so, with appropriate justice, it appears that for many years the papers of Mr. Collier were deposited in a lumber room at the top of the house, and were only discovered in consequence of some repairs of the roof. These MSS. Mr. Benson found to be the long-sought literary remains of Arthur Collier and his brother William; they were about enough to fill a moderately sized trunk, but horresco referens! the papers were so commodiously situated for domestic services, that for many years, unknown to Mrs. Jenevera Sympson, one of the faithless handmaids of the establishment had with them lighted the bedroom fires. The Commentary on the Septuagint Version of the Bible,' says Mr. Benson, appears to have been her favourite, for only a few sheets of that have been spared; copies of his correspondence formed part of the deposit, and about two hundred and fifty sermons of the two brothers. "The sermons of both, are perhaps too argumentative, (says Mr. Benson) for ordinary congregations, at least judging by the present day, when, so far from argument, even common sense is scarcely required of a preacher !!" Of the 'Clavis Universalis' only seven copies are known to exist; the public libraries of Cambridge and Oxford do not contain one. A reprint in 1836, issued from the Edinburgh press, with an introductory notice and an Appendix of letters. The copies amounted only to forty, and were intended simply for presents. As, however, this work is included in the Collection of Metaphysical Tracts, by Dr. Parr, it is now accessible to all philosophical readers. The family to which A. Collier belonged, first settled in Wiltshire at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and came from Bristol. Joseph Collier was rector of Langford Magna in 1608, and as he owned the advowson, the benefice descended in the family, and was enjoyed by his descendants for many generations. Henry, who succeeded him, suffered severely for his attachment to the Established Church, and early in the civil wars, was forced to fly from his parish, leaving his wife and children to the tender mercies of their godly enemies. Walker, in his most valuable and interesting work on the Sufferings of the Clergy,* has described their destitute condition, which lasted for fifteen years, till the restoration of the king. 'When Mrs. Collier and her children were harshly expelled from their home, as before stated, a small drinking glass, now in the writer's possession, was one of the few articles that she managed to bring away,' and this domestic relic, says a memorandum written by a near relative, she attached to her hat as she rode with her husband in triumph to repossess the rectory. Good soul! no wonder she loved her glass, for her husband's lucubrations were of a very dry kind indeed. The loyal writer died in 1672, and was succeeded by his son Arthur, of whom nothing is recorded; he also left a son, synonymous with himself, and this *See Part 2d. p. 227. person was the subject, or as Mr. Benson has it, the object of the present memoirs. There is nothing like correct genealogy, as is well known to Sir Harris Nicolas and the intelligent gentlemen of the Heralds' College; 80 we shall mention that Arthur Collier, the author of 'Clavis Universalis,' was the third, but eldest surviving son of the preceding Arthur Collier, by Anne his wife, the daughter of Thomas and Joan Currey, of Misterton, in Somersetshire. He was born at the rectory at a quarter before five in the morning of October the 12th, 1680, from which, doubtless, had we the knowledge of Dr. Dee or Mr. Lilly, something predictive of his future fortunes might be inferred. He was educated at a grammar school at Salisbury, from whence he went to Pembroke College, Oxford, which he afterwards left for Baliol. In 1704, he was inducted to the family living of Langford, which he held till his death in 1732; performing the humble duties of a parish priest, composing numerous sermons a little too learned for country congregations, and pursuing his metaphysical inquiries.-" At the age of twenty-three," says Mr. Benson, "he came to the conclusion, which will probably startle most of my readers, that there is no such thing as an external world;"—and, consequently, that his church, his charming wife, the placens uxor,' his family, and his one horse chaise, (including the squire of the parish himself), were only images, or rather pleasing mental impressions; this, as we before remarked, caused the good man to be rather more inattentive to his weekly bills than he would have been, could he have looked on the butcher and baker substantially as they outwardly appeared, as something more than the shadowy IDOLA of the brain, and their unsatisfied claims as anything but certain startling phenomena, that it behoved him to contemplate in the calm silence of the senses and passions. Let us, however, give rather a fuller account of this matter from Mr. Benson's own statement. "We must not omit to observe that within a few miles only of Collier's home, a neighbouring clergyman resided, whose society probably contributed not a little to form Collier's mind, and at least to nurture, if not to excite in him, a propensity to abstract inquiry. This was Norris the Platonist, rector of Bemerton. Collier speaks of Norris in one of his letters as his late ingenious neighbour,' but we can produce no direct evidence of their intimacy. When, however, we consider that they were both clergymen of the same Church, living within a few miles of each other, on the banks of the same stream; at a time too, when the want of trade rendered persons in the country so dependant on their neighbours; and in particular, their kindred tastes and studies-it is difficult to conceive them personally unknown to each other. Undeservedly as Norris's writings have been neglected, it would be irrelevant to notice them generally in this place, but there is one work of his, often mentioned by Collier in terms of great applause, namely - -An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World;'-which bears considerably on the present question. The first volume of this book appeared in the year 1701, and the second in 1704, only about seven years before Norris died. By the ideal or intelligible world, he meant, as indeed Plato did before him, the mental original of which the natural world is the image-as the plan of a house exists in the mind of the architect, before it is realised by the builder. For this ideal or intelligible world, Norris concluded that there were more and better arguments than for the material world. With Malebranche, he thought that to argue-I have a sensation within me, This might, or might not have been; for though Sir William Temple and Evelyn lived in the same county, two or three hours drive from each other, both passionately fond of the beauties of nature, and particularly of horticulture, both of the same political feelings-there is no reason to believe that they were at all acquainted, therefore there is a world of bodies existing without me,' was inconsequential; at the same time he too feared that revealed religion would be endangered, if the testimony of sense were altogether unfaithful, appealed to us as it is by St. John in the very opening verse of his first epistle general. Again: That God would not give us senses to abuse and deceive us in the due and natural use of them, he deemed sufficient to satisfy all sober and reasonable understandings of the real existence of bodies; and in this he agreed with Clerke. These philosophical paradoxes seem to have deeply engaged the attention of Collier. So far, however, from rejecting the testimony of the senses, he invariably appealed to their authority. He thought that the existence of the visible or seen world was capable of the most strict demonstration; indeed, that nothing but our own existence could be supposed to be more simply evident. But then he argued, that because a thing was seen, it did not follow that it was external to the soul or visive faculty which perceived it. He denied that being, and being external, was the same thing; or, in other words, that a visible object which was not external, was therefore nothing at all; which he conceived to be the tendency of the foregoing arguments. Again: he guarded himself against being supposed to contend that all sensible objects were no more than imaginary, meaning by the word something opposed to real; and he concluded generally, that while the visible world existed, it did not exist absolutely, but only dependently, as in its proper subject, on mind, or soul. As early as the year 1703, Collier adopted, it seems, these sentiments; and as he adhered to and maintained them with great pertinacity during the remainder of his life, we shall here dispose of this branch of the subject, although by so doing we depart from the chronological order of his writings. Among his MSS. under the date of January 1708, there remains the outline of an Essay in three chapters, on the question of the visible world being without us or not. In 1712 he penned two essays, still in MS. one on Substance and Accident; and the other termed Clavis Philosophica;' and at length, in 1713, there issued from the press his Clavis Universalis,' or a new Inquiry after Truth; being a demonstration of the non-existence or impossibility of an external world.' On this work Arthur Collier's reputation as a philosopher depends. It has been commended by Reid, Stuart, and by other high authorities; and has long been known in Germany by Professor Eschenbach's translation, which appeared as long ago as the year 1756. Here it is that he unfolds the system of philosophy (of which we have given the preceding sketch); answering the objections, whether metaphysical or theological, which may be used by his opponents, at least ingeniously, if not satisfactorily." เ It so happened that Bishop Berkeley published his Principles of Human Knowledge' three years, and his Theory of Vision' four years before the Clavis Universalis appeared; yet there is no reason to believe that Collier was at all indebted to Berkeley-indeed, there is his own authority for the fact, that he had no communication with him. To be sure, the fate of the respective treatises was very dissimilar: the 'Clavis Universalis ' had nothing attractive in its title, or in the abstruse and logical deductions of which it is formed: Berkeley's became at once a popular work, as Mr. Benson justly remarks, from the grace and harmony of the style, the beauty of the illustrations, and the closeness and fine connections of the argument. However, Berkeley himself was indebted for his elevation to episcopal rank, as well as for his introduction to the best and highest society of the 'great and good,' as much to his sterling virtues, and the sweetness and amiableness of his disposition and manners, as to his metaphysical arguments. He who could measure his praise as well as his censure, and "While Malebranche could not as a philosopher satisfy himself of the existence of matter, as a theologian he conceived the Scriptures were conclusive on the subject inasmuch as they taught that God created a heaven and an earth-that the Word was made flesh, &c.-which established, as he conceived, the existence of a created world; and hence, he adds, faith verifies the existence of bodies, and all those appearances are actually substantiated by it, &c.-v. Life, p. 15. made them both of worth by the justness of their application, owned that there was given 'To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven. Collier corresponded with Mr. Law, the author of Mnemonics and other works, on the subject of his Theory; and his Letters will be found in Mr. Benson's book. He also sent his work to the famous Dr. Samuel Clarke, a man of more varied as well as profound knowledge, perhaps, than any person of his age, and who could turn from the highest and most abstruse arguments on the existence of the Deity, to the finest grammatical speculations on the tenses of the Greek verb. There was indeed nothing wanting to make him a first-rate scholar, but that felicity of conjecture which his contemporary Bentley so eminently possessed, and in that only he was wanting. When the book was first presented to Clarke, he said"Poor gentleman!-I pity him :-he would be a philosopher: but he has chosen a strange task; for he can neither prove his point himself, nor can the contrary be proved against him." Collier's letter, a very interesting one, unfolding the nature of his speculation, to which he presumed Clarke had paid little attention, is given; but the answer of Clarke, which would have been still more curious, has not been found, though Mr. Benson has searched his MS. papers with great attention.* Collier also wrote an Answer to some Objections, which Waterland had perhaps rather loosely thrown out in a volume of his Sermons. In his theological opinions, Mr. Benson considers, that he leaned towards Arianism. In a letter to Mr. Law, he writes,-" Whereas the orthodox contend for the divinity and eternity of the Son of God, from certain texts of Scripture, which speak of his pre-existent state to his Incarnation; and the Arians, from these same texts, can conclude nothing but his pre-existent creationship-they may both shake hands in some truth and some error, if it be true on one hand, that he was the first creature, and on the other, that he was the God eternal." It is well known that among the writers engaged in the Arian controversy,-a controversy to which we are indebted for the invaluable treatises of Waterland,-the supremacy of the Father was asserted by a writer of monosyllabic celebrity, Mr. Chubb. Now Mr. Chubb conceived himself fitted to throw light on this abstruse subject; for he was by trade a tallow-chandler; yet he had one slight drawback to his success as a writer-Chubb had never learned to spell and Collier, convinced that Chubb would be better employed in dipping into his own material than into this theological dispute, took the trouble to make a large collection of Chubb's letters on business, in which there was a noble contempt of the common laws of orthography, and of— "All word-catchers who live on syllables." The curious part of the matter was, that it was more than hinted that Chubb's book was corrected, if not revised, by Dr. John Hoadly, who was then Rector of St. Edmund's, Salisbury, the very parish where Chubb resided (p. 74.):-that same Dr. Hoadly whom, Horace Walpole told Pinkerton, stood to him in place of all the Ancient Fathers of the Church. On the subject of the Incarnation, Collier appears to have held some Mr. Benson observes, that it is curious that the MSS. of Dr. S. Clarke should happen to be in a house only a few hundred yards from the resting-place of those of Collier. They are the property of Mr. Jacob of the Close at Salisbury, who is a descendant of Dean Clarke. The MSS. refer exclusively to the Homer and to the Sermons. |