e the two beliefs reconcilable? That means, is history
continuous? But it also means that the problems of abstract theology
were passing out of sight, and that speculation was turning to the
historical and scientific problems. Hartley was expounding the
association principle which became the main doctrine of the empirical
school, and Hume was teaching ethics upon the same basis, and turning
from speculation to political history. The main reason of this
intellectual indifference was the social condition under which the
philosophical theory found no strong current of political discontent
with which to form an alliance. The middle classes, which are now
growing in strength and influence, had been indifferent to the
discussions going on above their heads. The more enlightened clergy had,
of course, been engaged in the direct controversy, and had adopted a
kind of mild common-sense rationalism which implied complete
indifference to the dogmatic disputes of the preceding century. The
Methodist movement produced a little revival of the Calvinist and
Arminian controversy. But the beliefs of the great mass of the
population were not materially affected: they held by sheer force of
inertia to the old traditions, and still took themselves to be good
orthodox Protestants, though they had been unconsciously more affected
by the permeation of rationalism than they realised.

So much must be said, because the literary work was being more and more
distinctly addressed to the middle class. The literary profession is now
taking more of the modern form. Grub Street is rapidly becoming
respectable, and its denizens--as Beauclerk said of Johnson when he got
his pension--will be able to 'purge and live cleanly like gentlemen.'
Johnson's incomparable letter (1755) rejecting Chesterfield's attempt to
impose his patronage, is the familiar indication of the change. Johnson
had been labouring in the employment of the booksellers, and always,
unlike some more querulous authors, declares that they were fair and
liberal patrons--though it is true that he had to knock down one of them
with a folio. Other writers of less fame can turn an honest penny by
providing popular literature of the heavier kind. There is a demand for
'useful information.' There was John Campbell, for example, the 'richest
author,' said Johnson, who ever grazed 'the common of literature,' who
contributed to the _Modern Universal History_, the _Biographica
Britannica_, and wrote