Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/278

  ‘The Christian's Victory, a sermon.’  ‘The true Intellectual System of the Universe, wherein all the reason and philosophy of Atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated,’ 1678, fol. It is said to have been so incorrectly printed that ‘no three lines of Greek can be found without an error.’ An edition in 2 vols. 4to, 1743, contains the life by T. Birch. It was reprinted in 1820 in 4 vols. 8vo. A later edition, with a translation by John Harrison of Mosheim's notes, appeared in 1845. Mosheim's Latin translation with notes and dissertations appeared at Jena 1733, and at Leyden 1773. An abridgment by the Rev. Thomas Wise was published in 1706.  ‘A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality,’ with a preface by Edward [Chandler], bishop of Durham, 1731. This treatise, published from a manuscript belonging to Cudworth's grandson, Francis Cudworth Masham, master in chancery, is an argument for the independence of the intellect upon sense, partly developed from Plato's ‘Theætetus.’

A good account of Cudworth's great book is in Hallam's ‘Literature of Europe’ (iii. 304–7). Cudworth is probably the most learned, able, and sensible of his school. The book is in form as much historical as argumentative. The fourth chapter, which is more than half the book, is intended to show that a primitive monotheistic creed was implied in the ancient paganism. The rest of the book is devoted to a consideration of the various forms of atheism held by the ancient philosophers, with an elaborate reply to their arguments. Cudworth was undoubtedly aiming at Hobbes, the great contemporary advocate of materialist philosophy, but his discussion generally takes the shape of an attack upon Democritus, Strabo, and Lucretius, and a defence of Plato and Aristotle. Though abandoning the old scholasticism, he scarcely appreciates the modern theories of Bacon, Descartes, and Spinoza (see a curious reference to Spinoza's ‘Tractatus’ in Works, 1820, iii. 354), and thus appears rather antiquated for his time. His profound learning in the ancient philosophy did not lead him, like his friend Henry More, into the mysticism of the later platonists. His candid statement of the atheist's argument probably suggested an often quoted remark of Dryden (dedication of the Æneid) that Cudworth ‘raised such strong objections against the being of a God and Providence, that many think he hath not answered them.’ Many readers probably stopped short of the fifth chapter, which contains Cudworth's answer in detail. Shaftesbury (Moralists, ii. § 3) suggests that the imputation was the natural consequence of Cudworth's fairness. His most original theory as to a ‘plastic nature’ provoked a famous controversy. The doctrine, which has some resemblance to modern philosophies of the ‘Unconscious’ (see chap. iii. § 16), was intended to meet the dilemma of mere chance on one hand, or a constant divine interference on the other. Le Clerc having given some specimens of the book in the ‘Bibliothèque Choisie,’ Bayle, in his ‘Continuation des Pensées diverses sur les Comètes,’ maintained that Cudworth's hypothesis weakened the argument against atheism by admitting of an originating action in nature. Le Clerc replied in the ‘Bibliothéque Choisie,’ and Bayle in the ‘Ouvrages des Sçavants’ (see, Œuvres Diverses, iii. 216, 285, 886, iv. 181, 853, 861, &c.). Bayle is generally thought to have had the best of the discussion. In 1848 M. Paul Janet, the well-known philosophical writer, published ‘De Plasticâ Naturæ Vitâ, &c.,’ an essay upon Cudworth's theory, which had been proposed as a subject by the faculty of Paris. The best recent account of Cudworth is in Dr. Martineau's ‘Types of Ethical Theory,’ 1885 (ii. 396–424).

Cudworth left many other manuscripts, of which a full account is given in Birch's ‘Life.’ They were ultimately sold (, Lit. Anecd. ix. 276), and are now in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 4978–87). Five volumes are upon freewill and ethics; two others contain his discussion of the prophecies of Daniel. This is highly praised by Henry More (Grand Mystery of Godliness, pref. p. xvi). Others contain miscellaneous notes. The first of these (No. 4978) was published in 1838, with a preface by the Rev. John Allen, as ‘Ethical Works of Ralph Cudworth, Part I.,’ a ‘Treatise on Freewill.’ No more appeared. Cudworth contributed poems to the ‘Carmen Notabilitium,’ 1636; ‘Oliva Pacis,’ 1654; ‘Academiæ Cantabrigiensis Σῶστρα,’ 1660.



CUFF or CUFFE, HENRY (1563–1601), author and politician, born in 1563 at Hinton