tion and the hostilities between France and England had brought about a strong reaction against everything that savored of Jacobinism. The Tory party, led by Pitt and inspired by Burke, proceeded from one act of oppression to another. It was emphatically the age of public prosecutions. Priestley, as a known sympathizer with revolutionary principles, both in religion and in politics, was peculiarly obnoxious. He was not prosecuted, it is true, but he was abused and anathematized with an energy that was so disproportionate to his amiable, peaceable character as to appear to us ridiculous.

The absurdity becomes still more evident when we consider how comparatively unimportant his theological and political writings are, and how exclusively his merits lay in another direction. Priestley was a Unitarian, a Socinian, a Materialist, perhaps, but no worse and no abler than many of his predecessors or contemporaries. Had he been nothing more than a writer on speculative philosophy, he would have fallen into obscurity long ago. But he was one of the greatest discoverers in the annals of British science, and, next to Lavoisier, was the founder of modern chemistry; and he should be judged as such, not as a mere writer. In private life he was amiable and upright. In public controversy he was apt to lose his judgment and his selfcontrol.

Works.-Priestley's works are extremely numerous. Of those on theology or philosophy the best known are the Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, giving a complete system of Socinianism, a Free Discussion of the Principles of Materialism and Free Necessity, History of Early Opinions concerning Christ, Letters to Burke, occasioned by his Reflections on the French Revolution, etc. As a man of science, Priestley is known as the discoverer of oxygen, sulphurous acid, muriatic acid, carbonic acid, and many other substances, and of the processes of respiration in animals and, in a measure at least, in plants. He laid the foundation for the chemistry of the gases, and invented new processes for the formation of artificial waters. Indeed he appears to have been one of those genial characters to whom nature is fond of whispering her secrets. He did not think out so much as work out his discoveries.

Horsley.

SAMUEL HORSLEY, LL. D., 1733-1806, is known by his controversy with Priestley on the Unitarian question, and by a learned work on Isaiah.

Horsley was born in London and educated at Cambridge. He became a Bishop in the Church of England, also a member of the Royal Society, and is well known for his attainments in mathematics and physics. In 1782-4, Horsley was engaged in a violent controversy with Dr. Priestley about the views which the latter had put forth concerning the belief of the primitive Christians as to the nature of Christ. In this encounter, Dr. Priestley, it is generally admitted, was worsted. In 1779 Horsley published an edition of Newton's complete works, which was pronounced by Playfair to be a complete failure. His literary reputation rests in the main on his critical disquisition upon the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah, and upon his collected Sermons. "Much original, deep, devout, and evangelical matter, with much that is bold, hazardous, speculative, and rash. Bishop Horsley's powers of mind were of a high order; and his sermons and other works will render assistance to the student chiefly in the way of criticism."- Bickersteth.

...

RICHARD PRICE, D. D., 1723-1791, one of the most thoughtful writers of the last century, was born in Wales, and educated at Coward's Dissenting Academy, in London. He was a metaphysician of marked ability, a semi-Arian in his theological opinions, an ardent friend of liberty, and an advocate of republican institutions.

In consequence of his liberal political opinions, was invited by the Continental Congress to emigrate to America, but he declined. In his metaphysical writings, he controverted the doctrine of a Moral Sense as irreconcilable with the unalterable character of moral ideas, and maintained that those ideas are eternal and original principles of the intellect itself, independent of the Divine Will. As a writer on political economy, he is chiefly known as the author of several pamphlets which suggested to Pitt the foundation of his great Funding Scheme for the National Debt. The following are the titles of some of his works: A Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals; Dissertations on moral and religious subjects; Observations on Reversionary Payments, Annuities, etc.; An Appeal to the Public on the National Debt; State of the Public Debts and Finances; Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America, etc.

Paley.

William Paley, D. D., 1743-1805, attained great and permanent celebrity by his writings on Moral Philosophy and kindred subjects.

Paley held a variety of church preferments, but is generally quoted as Archdeacon Paley. He was educated at Cambridge, and was Senior Wrangler in his class.

Paley's works are not so numerous as those of some divines of equal celebrity, but are of extraordinary excellence. They are Moral and Political Philosophy, Natural Theology, Evidences of Christianity, and Hore Paulinæ. All these have been used as text-books in colleges and other institutions of learning, both in England and America, to an extent not equalled by any other set of books on the same subjects, and part of them are still used extensively, notwithstanding the many and able treatises on these subjects which have appeared since the days of Paley.

Paley's theory of morals, basing duty upon expediency, is regarded as unsound, and many of the practical duties which he deduced from it are considered lax. Yet such is the clearness of his reasoning, and so valuable is his work in the other portions of it, that many instructors even now prefer Paley's book on Moral Philosophy to any other, making in the classroom the corrections which may be needed. The latter part of his work, however, treating of Political Philosophy, is a meagre and unsatisfactory outline, and has never been much used.

His Natural Theology, proving the existence and perfections of God from the evidences of design in his works, has never been superseded, and it probably never will be. The work on the Evidences, though excellent, has not been considered quite equal to his other works. The Hora Paulinæ, however, is unsurpassed as a specimen of ingenious reasoning from circumstantial evidence, and it will probably hold its own to the end of time.

Dr. Paley wrote some other things, and published many sermons, but the four works named are all that are worth remembering. Of all who have written on these subjects, he stands unequalled for the clearness with which he expresses his ideas, and it is to his unrivalled power in this respect, rather than to any originality or depth as a thinker, that he owes his great and long-continued popularity.

Reid.

Thomas Reid, D. D., 1710-1796, was an eminent Scotch metaphysician.

Reid was born at Strachan, and educated at Marischal College. He was elected, in 1763, Professor of Moral Philosophy in King's College, Aberdeen, and then Professor in the University of Glasgow. The latter position he held until his resignation, in 1781.

His System.-Dr. Reid founded a new school of metaphysics. Its object was to combat the errors of Hume and Berkeley and other advocates of the Ideal Theory. The corner-stone of his philosophy was his doctrine of Immediate Perception. Previous philosophers had said that the senses give us ideas, and the mind perceives these ideas. Reid contended that the mind perceives the objects themselves directly. Another prominent point in his system was his doctrine of Common Sense. Previous philosophers had maintained that all knowledge is built up from experience originating in sensation. Reid asserted that certain elementary truths or principles are perceived by the mind intuitively, without reference to sensation or to the external world; that these truths, both intellectual and moral, are perceived alike by all men, and show thereby the existence in all of a faculty which he calls the Common Sense. Reid's immediate disciple and the chief advocate of his philosophy was Dugaid Stewart. The system, as a whole, has not held its ground. But some of his leading ideas, particularly those in regard to Immediate Perception and Common Sense or direct intuitions of intellectual and moral truths, are a part of the commonly received doctrines of the present day.

Works. .—Reid's chief works are An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense; and Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. Besides these, he published An Examínation of Dr. Priestley's Opinion Concerning Matter and Mind; Physiological Reflections on Muscular Motion; Observations on the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, etc.

JAMES BALFOUR, 1703-1795, a jurist and a philosophical writer, and Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, in 1754, was the author of Delineations of Morality; Philosophical Essays; and Philosophical Dissertations. The last named were directed against Hume, but were written with so much candor that Hume wrote to the author a letter expressive of his esteem and requesting his friendship.

Adam Ferguson.

ADAM FERGUSON, LL D., 1724-1816, is favorably known both as a philosophical writer and an historian.

Ferguson was a Scotchman, and a graduate of the University of St. Andrew's. He served for a time as chaplain in the army. He was chosen Professor of Natural Phi

losophy in the University of Edinburgh in 1759, and Professor of Moral Philosophy in 1764. A few years later, he travelled on the continent with the Earl of Chesterfield, and in 1778 he was Secretary to the Commissioners appointed to treat with the American Congress. He resigned his professorship in 1785. The closing years of his life were spent in retirement at St. Andrew's. He died in his 93d year. His works are in high estimation: Institutes of Moral Philosophy; An Essay on the History of Civil Society; A Reply to Dr. Price on Civil and Religious Liberty; The History of the Roman Republic, 5 vols., 8vo. The work last named should be read as an introduction to Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Gibbon takes up the story where Ferguson leaves off.

Blair.

HUGH BLAIR, D. D., 1718-1800, had a high reputation in his day as a writer of Sermons, and as the author of a course of Lectures on Rhetoric.

Blair was one of the school of writers that prevailed in Edinburgh near the close of the last century, who were remarkable for correctness rather than for force and originality. His Sermons, the publication of which began in 1777, had a greater popularity than any ever before known for works of that description. Dr. Johnson was unbounded in his admiration of them. "Johnson: I love Blair's Sermons. Though the dog is a Scotchman, and a Presbyterian, and everything that he should not be, I was the first to praise him. Such was my candor (smiling). Mrs. Boscawen: Such his great merit, to get the better of all your prejudices. Johnson: Why, madam, let us compound the matter: let us ascribe it to my candor and his merit." The Sermons circulated rapidly and widely, wherever the English language was spoken, and they were translated into almost all the languages of Europe. The King granted to him an annual pension of £200 for life. After a time, however, a reaction took place; the Sermons began to be criticized as wanting in spiritual unction, and as artificial and stiff in composition. They wanted, it was said, that directness of purpose and expression, the earnestness and reality, which are essential to such writings. They have now fallen almost into oblivion; and when mentioned at all, receive an estimate as much below, as the estimate of seventy years ago was above, their real worth.

Besides the Sermons, Blair published Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres. This work also was popular from the first, but its immediate popularity was not so great as that of the Sermons; the Rhetoric, however, has survived the Sermons; it has been more used as a text-book on that subject, both in England and the United States, than any other book, and it is still widely used in both countries. Dr. Blair took an active part also in the controversy in regard to the Poems of Ossian.

GEORGE CAMPBELL, D. D., 1719–1796, Principal of Marischal College, was the author of a valuable work, The Philosophy of Rhetoric.

Campbell wrote several other important works: A Dissertation on Miracles, in reply to Hume; The Four Gospels, translated from the Greek, with Notes; Lectures on Systematic Theology and Pulpit Eloquence; Lectures on Ecclesiastical History; Lectures on the Pastoral Character. His collected Works have been published in 6 vols., 8vo. They are all valuable, but those on Miracles and on Rhetoric are the best, and are still in demand.

ALEXANDER GERARD, D. D., 1728–1795, was a divine of the Scottish Church, a Professor of Philosophy in Marischal College, and of Divinity in King's College, Aberdeen. His works are: Essay on Taste; Essay on Genius; Pastoral Care; Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion; Sermons and Dissertations.

JAMES BURNET, Lord Monboddo, 1714-1799, a learned Scotchman, wrote an elaborate work on The Origin and Progress of Language.

Monboddo's work, which was in 6 vols., Svo, displayed a vast amount of learning, but subjected the author to ridicule, on account partly of his undue exaltation of the ancients, particularly of the Greeks, and partly because in it he advocated the superiority of the savage state over the civilized, and maintained the opinion that man was descended from the monkey. He published also another work, Ancient Metaphysics or the Science of Universals, 6 vols., 4to, evincing a like extravagant admiration for everything Grecian, and a scorn for all that was modern.

Horne Tooke.

JOHN HORNE TOOKE, 1736-1812, wrote a work, The Diversions of Purley, which has exerted an extensive and lasting influence on English philology.

Career. Tooke was the son of John Horne, a poulterer. He adopted the name of Tooke out of compliment to his benefactor, William Tooke of Purley. He was born at Westminster, and educated at Westminster, Eton, and Cambridge. He took orders in the church, but afterwards abandoned clerical life and studied law. He became a radical politician of the Wilkes's school, and having charged the King's troops with murdering the Americans at Lexington, he was prosecuted by the Government for libel, and condemned to fine and imprisonment. He was subsequently, for other practices, arraigned for high treason, but was acquitted. The closing years of his life were spent in retirement.

Works. Tooke's political writings, which were numerous, were mostly in the form of pamphlets. Besides these, he published a work on philology, of great and lasting importance, not so much for what it contains, as for the new method which it inaugurated for treating such subjects. It was called The Diversions of Purley, and was published in 2 vols., 4to. In it he undertakes to give a critical analysis of language, and particularly of words as the elements of language, and to establish the principles of lexicography and of verbal criticism. Tooke's learning was not sufficient for such an undertaking. But he had great acuteness; he made some most happy guesses as to the origin and force of particular words; and he effectually demolished most of the traditional rubbish which had gathered around the subject. His work, though now in the main obsolete, did a great and timely service to English philology.

WILLIAM TOOKE, 1744-1820, was a printer by trade originally, but studied and took orders in the Church of England, and became chaplain in Russia. He continued to reside in that country for a number of years, where he collected the materials for his subsequent historical and biographical works. His principal writings are: A Life of Catharine II., A View of the Russian Empire under Catharine II., and A History of Russia from 862 to 1762. These works are more valuable for the information which they contain than for the graces of style, or for any evidences of a philosophic spirit.