Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/28

Mandeville common view that wealth was a 'public benefit,' he easily showed that all civilisation implied the development of vicious propensities. He argued again with the Hobbists that the origin of virtue was to be found in selfish and savage instincts, and vigorously attacked Shaftesbury's contrary theory of a 'moral sense.' But he tacitly accepted Shaftesbury's inference that virtue so understood was a mere sham. He thus argued, in appearance at least, for the essential vileness of human nature ; though his arguments may be regarded as partly ironical, or as a satire against the hypocrisies of an artificial society. In any case his appeal to facts, against the plausibilities of the opposite school, shows that he had many keen though imperfect previsions of later scientific views, both upon ethical and economical questions. Dr. Johnson was much impressed by the 'Fable,' which, he said, did not puzzle him, but 'opened his views into real life very much' (, Boswell, iii. 291-3 ; see criticisms in, Fragment on Mackintosh, 1870, pp. 57-63 ; , Moral Science, pp. 593-8 ; , English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, ii. 33-40).

Besides the 'Fable' and the Latin exercises above mentioned, Mandeville's works are: 1. 'Esop Dressed, or a Collection of Fables writ in Familiar Verse,' 1704. 2. 'Typhon in Verse,' 1704. 3. 'The Planter's Charity, a poem,' 1704. 4. 'The Virgin Unmasked, or Female Dialogues betwixt an elderly maiden Lady and her Niece,' 1709, 1724, 1731 (a coarse story, with reflections upon marriage, &c.) 5. 'Treatise of Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions, vulgarly called Hypo in Men and Vapours in Women ,' 1711, 1715, 1730 (admired by Johnson according to Hawkins). 6. 'Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church, and National Happiness,' 1720. 7. 'A Conference about Whoring,' 1725. 8. 'An Enquiry into the Causes of the frequent Executions at Tyburn,' 1725 (a curious account of the abuses then prevalent). 9. 'An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour and the Usefulness of Christianity in War,' 1732. To Mandeville have also been attributed : 'A Modest Defence of Publick Stews,' 1740 ; 'The World Unmasked, or the Philosopher the greatest Cheat,' 1736 (certainly not his) ; and ' Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica,' 1744 (but previously published by 'John Keogh' in 1739).  MANDEVILLE, GEOFFREY (d. 1144), rebel, was the son of William de Mandeville, constable of the Tower, and the grandson of Geoffrey de Mandeville, a companion of the Conqueror, who obtained a considerable fief in England, largely composed of the forfeited estates of Esgar (or Asgar) the staller. Geoffrey first appears in the Pipe Roll of 1130, when he had recently succeeded his father. With the exception of his presence at King Stephen's Easter court in 1136, we hear nothing of him till 1140, when he accompanied Stephen against Ely (Cott. MS. Titus A. vi. f. 34), and subsequently (according to ) took advantage of his position as constable of the Tower to detain Constance of France in that fortress, after her betrothal to Eustace, the son of Stephen, who bitterly resented the outrage. He must, however, have succeeded in obtaining from the king before the latter's capture at Lincoln (2 Feb. 1141) the charter creating him Earl of Essex, which is still preserved among the Cottonian Charters (vii. 4), and which is probably the earliest creation-charter now extant.

From this point his power and his importance rapidly increased, chiefly owing to his control of the Tower. He also exercised great influence in Essex, where lay his chief estates and his strongholds of Pleshy and Saffron Walden. On the arrival of the Empress Maud in London (June 1141), he was won over to her side by an important charter confirming him in the earldom of Essex, creating him hereditary sheriff, justice, and escheator of Essex, and granting him estates, knights' fees, and privileges. He deserted her cause, however, on her expulsion from London, seized her adherent the bishop, and was won over by Stephen's queen to assist her in the siege of Winchester. Shortly after the liberation of the king Geoffrey obtained from him, as the price of his support, a charter (Christmas 1141) pardoning his treason, and trebling the grants made to him by the empress. He now became sheriff and justice of Hertfordshire and of London and Middlesex, as well as of Essex, thus monopolising all administration and judicial power within these three counties. Early in the following year he was despatched by Stephen against Ely to disperse the bishop's knights, a task which he accomplished with vigour. His influence was now so great that the author of the 'Gesta Stephani' describes him as surpassing all the nobles of the land in wealth and importance, acting everywhere as king, and more eagerly listened to and obeyed than the king himself. Another contemporary writer speaks of him as the foremost man in 