The Ends of Life: Roads to Fulfilment in Early Modern England

Sir Keith Thomas is the author of the seminal Religion and the Decline of Magic, which he published nearly 40 years ago. His period has always been early modern England, and here he examines ideas about how we should live, dating from the early 16th to the late 18th centuries. He begins with an 1818 advertisement by Coleridge for a course of lectures on the history of philosophy, to be held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand: 'what, and for what am I made? What can I, and what ought I to do, to make myself? And in what relations do I stand to the world and to my fellow men?' Although this is the stuff of philosophy, most people are too engaged in everyday living to ask themselves such questions. Thomas chooses six concerns which people of that epoch regarded as central to a life well lived: military prowess, work, wealth, reputation, personal relationships, and the afterlife. With the help of an amazing array of primary sources, he paints a picture of the ways in which these values shaped lives, with a particular emphasis on how the views and practices of ordinary people relate to the writings of contemporary philosophers and theologians. Reading the book from the vantage point of the early 21st century enables the reader to reflect on continuities and differences in outlook.