Education for Life. George Turnbull

      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 & nation.²¹ Indeed in these degenerate times the truly honest Patriot who resolves to act faithfully, & to continue to his country’s interest is likely to have a very hard fighting task: But tho’ Vertue hath seldom been triumphant, the Strugle is glorious & a few honest Champions against Slavery & arbitrary power have always been of great use at least to moderate matters & keep the measures of Wicked men a little more tolerable than otherwise they might have been.

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      But if our few faithfull honest men are shut out from all capacity of Exerting themselves in a legal way what shal become of us.

      But I must contain myself.

      The learned youth of the University of Glascow (with some of whom I have the honour to be acquainted) have indeed given proofs of a free & generous spirit which deserve to be commended. And I am sure they have a very gratefull sense of the Encouragment you have been pleased to give them.²² Would to heaven (My Lord) I could say our college were as yet in any respect upon a better footing than her sisters. Sure I am I should reckon my Self a happy man if I can contribute any thing in my capacity to promote the interests of liberty truth & the love of mankind. ’Tis indeed on the Education of the youth that the Foundation stones of Publick Liberty must be layed. But oh (my Lord) when shal a Formal dogmatical spirit which hath brought true Philosophy & usefull Scholarship into such contempt be seperated from the gown; And our Academies become realy good & Wholesome Nurseries to the Publicke. O when shall all that Idle Pedantick Stuff which is now alass the most innocent cargoe our youth can carry with them from our Universities be banished; And that Philosophy which once governed States & Societies & produced Heroes & Patriots take place in its room. And for this effect when shal the Sprightly arts & Sciences, which are so Essential in the formation of a gentiel & liberal Caracter be again reunited with Philosophy from which by a fatal Error they have been so long severed! But what do I talk of? All this surely is meer Romance & Enthusiasm. For how can it be so while our Colleges are under the Inspection of proud domineering pedantic Priests whose interest it is to train up the youth in a profound veneration to their Senseless metaphysical Creeds & Catechisms, which for this purpose they are daily inured to defend against all Doubters & Enquirers with the greatest bitte<r>ness & contempt, in a stiff formal bewildering manner admirably fitted indeed to Enslave young understandings betimes and to beget an early antipathy against all Free thought. My lord I have read with great pleasure several late

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      performances of a truly noble & generous Spirit, particularly the Independent Whig & the letters subscribed Cato, & with my soul wish weel to the worthy undertakers.²³ No doubt they are known to your Lordship & they are certainly men of a fine turn, throughly good & honest Lovers of mankind. I admire that noble warmth of honest Enthusiasm which give such uncommon life & vivacity to these Excellent papers: And yet more that comprehensive knowledge of mankind by which it is influenced & supported. For indeed it is in the histories of mankind that the value of liberty is best learned, as weel as the ways by which it has been lost & preserved: And this brings it to my mind to ask your Lordship if there is any translation in any of the more known languages of the Laws of Denmark, for I have a great inclination to see these laws which are so weel spoken of in that most judicious account of Denmark published in 1692.²⁴ How weel pleased should I be that there were such accounts of all the other States in Europe that by that means I might supply the