200 w. R. SCOTT : they have lying on their hands ". x When the whole series, amounting to 102 letters, was published in volume form in 1729, Arbuckle, in his dedication to the second Lord Moles- worth (the first, who was the friend of Shaftesbury and founder of the " school," having died in 1725), mentions that many of his own contributions were composed under " Lord Molesworth's roof," 2 and this suggests the guess that the members of the Blanchardstown coterie were in the habit of writing papers and submitting them to the judgment of the others. The greater part of the Essays, which appeared in the Dublin Journal from 3rd April, 1725, to 25th March, 1727, are philosophical, and should be compared rather to Coleridge's Friend than to Addison's Spectator. Many of them were written by Arbuckle, six by Hutcheson, two by Samuel Boyse the theologian, and one is given up to posthumous verses by Parnell. The remainder, with one exception, are by writers unknown to Arbuckle, and most of these are deficient both in style and matter, yet these are the only papers that profess to deal with those topics of general interest that yielded such admirable results under the treat- ment of Addison and Steele. Those that emanate directly from the Molesworth coterie possess some interest as showing the same Shaftesbury influence, Hutcheson beginning to advance a little beyond what he had learned from Moles- worth ; he is academic, thorough, and, it must be admitted, a little wearisome ; Arbuckle, on the other hand, if less original, expounds Shaftesbury with something of the bright- ness and verve that is such a prominent feature of the Characteristics. He writes freely, pleasantly, with point and force, and never scruples to drive home his most abstract theories by plain homely examples. The death of Molesworth on 22nd May, 1725, removed one incentive to philosophical inquiries amongst some of his young friends, and Arbuckle's work in this direction ends with his publication of his articles in volume form in 1729. The next year he lost Hutcheson, who was elected Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow ; and, having met Swift, his literary energies took an altogether new direction. Swift had an utter contempt for philosophy, especially modern philosophy, and, finding that Arbuckle was possessed of a certain dry humour of his own, he promptly nicknamed him 1 Hibernicus's Letters : A Collection of Letters and Essays lately Pub- lished in the Dublin Journal. London, 1729, i., p. 4. 2 Hibernicus's Letters, i., p. 5.
