18th Century Literature

In many ways the Enlightenment never ended. The secular commitment to rationalism (the idea that human reason is the primary, or the only, path to truth) has persisted, and while it may have manifested itself in seemingly irrational ways, even relativists and postmodernists are rationalists. Relativism, in fact, is one of the best-known offspring of Enlightenment rationalism; moral and religious authority began to devolve from any Divine source and centered on the now-deified human reason, meaning that right and wrong became human constructs, not absolute truths revealed from on high.

We've been wallowing in the muck of meaninglessness ever since. A lot of historians claim the Enlightenment began in the 17th century, but its roots were much deeper—during the Renaissance thinkers began formulating the ideas that would become rationalism, and even further back the Greek philosophers used observation and conjecture (not divine authority) as their basis for acquiring knowledge. It can't be disputed, however, that the 18th century was the flourishing period of Enlightenment thought.

This is the time period in which the modern world began to take shape. It's hard to say who it all started with (Descartes is usually a front-runner for that distinction), but Rousseau became the poster-child of the movement with his theories of man as a "noble savage," best left in his natural condition and ultimately corrupted by civilization, and the corollary (and, as any child can see, completely incompatible) idea that it is the State and Education which can save mankind from his culture-induced wickedness and ignorance.

Lack of knowledge, therefore, was seen as the source of mankind's ills. It was not intelligence that would solve the problem, however, but mere acquisition of information. So a bunch of Frenchmen, intoxicated by this concept, set about compiling a compendium of all knowledge lodged in the collective human consciousness. They called it the Encyclopedia, though they could just as accurately have called it the Internet. Yes, you read that correctly: the intention of the Encyclopedists was to put all of human knowledge in one place.

Who would be influenced by these guys? you may well ask. Pretty much everybody. Human Reason was lifted above Divine Revelation, and the age of godlessness was inaugurated. Literature of the period took a serious turn for the irreverent and/or highly abstruse, though Practicality was everywhere touted as the primary aim of true intellectuals. Satire became a preferred model for intelligent fiction, with men like Voltaire, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett leading the way.

On the political front, fairly well-known works began to surface, among them Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Constitution of the United States of America, and Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. The world has never recovered. The proposition that man is capable of governing himself at first produced a highly-functional republic in the newly-formed United States, while simultaneously laying the foundation for the current attitude which privileges "democracy" above all else and relegates republicanism to a less-evolved status in our nation's growth.

It wasn't all bad. Brilliance often accompanies shoddy thinking (or antichristian thinking, as the case may be), and while many of the Enlightenment authors were way off-base from a Christian perspective, their books and poems and essays make great reading. Voltaire wrought a lot of damage on the West's intellectual tradition, but it's pretty hard to argue that Candide is the work of anyone less than a genius. Ben Franklin, Jonathan Swift, Lawrence Sterne, Alexander Pope—mostly off-base, but some of the best writers the world has ever known.

We encourage the study of 18th century literature be approached with caution. The old Christian humanism of the Renaissance was replaced with a new creature called secular humanism, and the effects were chaotic and largely destructive. Still, this is literature that can't be ignored, especially not by any Christian who really wants to understand exactly what's going on in the world these days. It's also pretty fun, and while the Enlightenment philosophy poses clear dangers, it also motivated many writers to show what fine form man is capable of.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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American Poetry
by David S. Shields
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$20.00 (1 in stock)
Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates
Signet Classics
by Patrick Henry & John DeWitt
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American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult
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Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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Beginnings of Modern Science
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Ben Franklin: America's Original Entrepreneur
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Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings
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Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763
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Candide
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Candide, Zadig and Selected Stories
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Common Sense
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by Thomas Paine
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Confessions
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Constitution of the United States of America
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Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History
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Essay on Man and Other Poems
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Federalist Papers
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Federalist Papers
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American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult
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Freedom of the Will
by Jonathan Edwards
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Goethe's Faust
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Great American Short Stories
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Warren Chappell
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Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Readers #15
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
History of Rasselas
by Samuel Johnson
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History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
by Samuel Johnson
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Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
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Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions
by Jonathan Edwards
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Letters of John Newton
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Life and Diary of David Brainerd
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Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
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Lord Chesterfield's Letters
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Major Works of William Wordsworth
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Method of Grace
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Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works
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Signet Classics
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Practical View of Christianity
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Real Christianity
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Reflections on the Revolution in France
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Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe, with an introduction by Virginia Woolf
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Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
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Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
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Robinson Crusoe
Windermere Readers #14
by Daniel Defoe, frontispiece by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
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Robinson Crusoe
Focus on the Family's Classic Collection
by Daniel Defoe, Introduction and Afterword by Joe L. Wheeler
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Everyman's Library Children's Classics
by Daniel Defoe
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Second Treatise of Civil Government
by John Locke
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by John Locke
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She Stoops to Conquer
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by Oliver Goldsmith
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She Stoops to Conquer
Merrill's English Texts
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from Charles E. Merrill Company
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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
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Social Contract
Penguin Classics
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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Swift
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Thelma English American Literature Book List
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Penguin Classics
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Way of the World
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Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith
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Wealth of Nations
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Wealth of Nations
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by Adam Smith
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Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack
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by Benjamin Franklin
from Dover Publications
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Works of Rousseau
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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$5.00 (1 in stock)