The struggle between orthodox Anglicans and the deists, freethinkers, and 'atheists' who opposed their exclusive claims to religious power and political authority reveals cultural practices and ideological assumptions central to an understanding of eighteenth-century thought. In this 1995 collection of essays, leading scholars look beyond the clash of philosophical propositions to examine the role of deists and freethinkers as the producers and the subjects of literary, philosophical and religious controversy. They explore the curious symbiosis between the defense of orthodoxy and the elaboration of new forms of heterodox argument; they examine the practical implications of the debate in specific areas such as the libel laws and the growing influence of Lockean philosophy; and they show how the assault on orthodoxy influenced the development of historiography, public policy, and even the rise of the novel.

Arguing for the importance of wit beyond its use as a literary device, Roger D. Lund outlines the process by which writers in Restoration and eighteenth-century England struggled to define an appropriate role for wit in the public sphere. He traces its unpredictable effects in works of philosophy, religious pamphlets, and legal writing and examines what happens when literary wit is deliberately used to undermine the judgment of individuals and to destabilize established institutions of church and state. Beginning with a discussion of wit's association with deception, Lund suggests that suspicion of wit and the imagination emerges in attacks on the Restoration stage, in the persecution of The Craftsman, and in criticism directed at Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan and works by writers like the Earl of Shaftesbury, Thomas Woolston, and Thomas Paine. Anxieties about wit, Lund shows, were in part responsible for attempts to suppress new communal venues such as coffee houses and clubs and for the Church's condemnation of the seditious pamphlets made possible by the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695. Finally, the establishment's conviction that wit, ridicule, satire, and innuendo are subversive rhetorical forms is glaringly at play in attempts to use libel trials to translate the fear of wit as a metaphorical transgression of public decorum into an actual violation of the civil code.

Arguing for the importance of wit beyond its use as a literary device, Roger D. Lund outlines the process by which writers in Restoration and eighteenth-century England struggled to define an appropriate role for wit in the public sphere. He traces its unpredictable effects in works of philosophy, religious pamphlets, and legal writing and examines what happens when literary wit is deliberately used to undermine the judgment of individuals and to destabilize established institutions of church and state. Beginning with a discussion of wit's association with deception, Lund suggests that suspicion of wit and the imagination emerges in attacks on the Restoration stage, in the persecution of The Craftsman, and in criticism directed at Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan and works by writers like the Earl of Shaftesbury, Thomas Woolston, and Thomas Paine. Anxieties about wit, Lund shows, were in part responsible for attempts to suppress new communal venues such as coffee houses and clubs and for the Church's condemnation of the seditious pamphlets made possible by the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695. Finally, the establishment's conviction that wit, ridicule, satire, and innuendo are subversive rhetorical forms is glaringly at play in attempts to use libel trials to translate the fear of wit as a metaphorical transgression of public decorum into an actual violation of the civil code.

Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" is one of the major texts of the eighteenth century, and its satire of contemporary events and debates raises questions of genre, philosophy and politics.
Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Swift's novel offers:
- extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and interpretations of the text, from publication to the present
- annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself
- cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
- suggestions for further reading.
Part of the "Routledge Guides to Literature "series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of "Gulliver's Travels "and seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Swift's text.

Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" is one of the major texts of the eighteenth century, and its satire of contemporary events and debates raises questions of genre, philosophy and politics.
Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Swift's novel offers:
- extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and interpretations of the text, from publication to the present
- annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself
- cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
- suggestions for further reading.
Part of the "Routledge Guides to Literature "series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of "Gulliver's Travels "and seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Swift's text.

The struggle between orthodox Anglicans and the deists, freethinkers, and 'atheists' who opposed their exclusive claims to religious power and political authority reveals cultural practices and ideological assumptions central to an understanding of eighteenth-century thought. In this 1995 collection of essays, leading scholars look beyond the clash of philosophical propositions to examine the role of deists and freethinkers as the producers and the subjects of literary, philosophical and religious controversy. They explore the curious symbiosis between the defense of orthodoxy and the elaboration of new forms of heterodox argument; they examine the practical implications of the debate in specific areas such as the libel laws and the growing influence of Lockean philosophy; and they show how the assault on orthodoxy influenced the development of historiography, public policy, and even the rise of the novel.

Nowhere is distance so near-at-hand as in Enlightenment culture. Whether in the telescopic surveys of early astronomers, the panoramas of painters, the diaries of travelers, the prospects of landscape architects, or the tales of novelists, distance is never far in the background of the works and deeds of long-eighteenth-century artists, authors, and adventurers. Hemispheres and Stratospheres draws that background into the foreground. Recognizing distance as a central concern of the Enlightenment, this volume offers eight essays on distance in art and literature; on cultural transmission and exchange over distance; and on distance as a topic in science, a theme in literature, and a central issue in modern research methods. Through studies of landscape gardens, architecture, imaginary voyages, transcontinental philosophical exchange, and cosmological poetry, Hemispheres and Stratospheres unfurls the early history of a distance culture that influences our own era of global information exchange, long-haul flights, colossal skyscrapers, and space tourism.

Nowhere is distance so near-at-hand as in Enlightenment culture. Whether in the telescopic surveys of early astronomers, the panoramas of painters, the diaries of travelers, the prospects of landscape architects, or the tales of novelists, distance is never far in the background of the works and deeds of long-eighteenth-century artists, authors, and adventurers. Hemispheres and Stratospheres draws that background into the foreground. Recognizing distance as a central concern of the Enlightenment, this volume offers eight essays on distance in art and literature; on cultural transmission and exchange over distance; and on distance as a topic in science, a theme in literature, and a central issue in modern research methods. Through studies of landscape gardens, architecture, imaginary voyages, transcontinental philosophical exchange, and cosmological poetry, Hemispheres and Stratospheres unfurls the early history of a distance culture that influences our own era of global information exchange, long-haul flights, colossal skyscrapers, and space tourism.