ABSTRACT
Mandeville in effect points out that it is only the function of Christianity to excite men to "virtue" and thus make them subservient which sets it above other (for example, classical) religions. 1O Both Shaftesbury and Mandeville were widely recognized as deists: in their different ways both replaced the deity with art (or custom or belief or some other emulative form). The equivalent of God versus Nature in the discourse of religion is, of course, in aesthetic discourse Art versus Nature, and Hogarth privileges Nature in both discourses.
