The literature of the post-1700 period – to mark a distinction from the Restoration period of 1660–1700 – embodies many of the intellectual concerns of the Enlightenment. Reason, rationality, empiricism and scientism informed the thinking of many of the literary figures of the time.

PROSE

Non-fiction

Features of 18th Century Non-fiction

• Influenced by Montaigne and Francis Bacon

• Dealt mostly with morals and manners

• Often served the purpose of social commentary

• Used everyday life as theme

• Aim was to amuse while also providing information and advice.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713), was tutored by John Locke. In 1711, he published his earlier writings under the title Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Shaftesbury argued that humans possess an innate moral sense that enables us to recognize virtue. He argued further that the ability to recognize virtue was linked to our ability to appreciate something beautiful. That is, moral sense and aesthetic appreciation, virtue and good taste were linked in Shaftesbury's opinion: “Thus are the arts and virtues mutually friends and thus the science of virtuosos and that of virtue itself become, in a manner, one and the same.” Vice thus becomes a matter of bad taste. “To love the public, to study universal good, and to promote the interest of the whole world, as far as lies within our power, is surely the height of goodness,” writes Shaftesbury in Characteristics.