ABSTRACT
Intheviewofoneleadingscholar,Jacobitismisthesalientfactorofearly eighteenth-centuryliteraryandpoliticalculture.AccordingtoHoward Erskine-Hillrecentscholarshipineighteenth-centurystudieshasdiscreditedthenotionthattheGloriousRevolutionwasawatershedeventleading tothesecularisationofsocietyandparliamentarydemocracy.TheGlorious RevolutionwasnotaprecedentthatmadepossibletheAmericanand Frenchrevolutions.'Lockeiancontractualism'didnotrepresentapolitical consensus;neitherdidcivichumanism.Thelatterwasanimportantif subordinateaspectofcultural,intellectualandpoliticallifeintheAugustan period.'Patriarchalismandprovidentialismwerenotlessstrongthan before,theymayhavebeenstronger'.1
