Ml 



PLOTIXUa 



PLUNKETT, WILLIAM CONYNGHAM. 



degrees in law, nd then removed to University College. In 1677 bo 

 published ' Natural History of Oxfordshire,' intending to publish 

 similar work* ou other counties, a work which gained for him con- 

 aiderable reputation. In 1682 he was elected one of the secretaries 

 of the IJuyal Society, and in the lucoeeding year wo* appointed by 

 Ashmole the keeper of the museum which he had founded at Oxford. 

 About this time also be was chosen professor of chemistry in that 

 university. In 1685 be published a tract on the origin of springs, and 

 in 1686 a ' Natural HUtory of Staffordshire,' on tha plan of his work 

 on Oxfordshire. 



So far hia life is that of a naturalist and man of science ; but having 

 attracted the attention of the Duke of Norfolk by an encomiastic speech 

 which he pronounced when the duke was admitted to the degree of 

 D. C. L. in the University, he was appointed hia secretary, and in 1 888 was 

 made by King James II. historiographer- royal, a privilege being granted 

 to him of access, without the payment of fees, to all the depositories of 

 the public records. In 1691 he was made Mowbray Herald Extra- 

 ordinary, and registrar of the Court of Honour. What he might have 

 done in the department of history and antiquities wo cannot deter- 

 mine, as be lived not long after he thus deviated from bis original 

 path, ilying at bis hereditary estate at Sutton-Barue, in 1C96, at the 

 tie of fifty-five. He was a credulous and uncritical writer, and has 

 left no permanent reputation. 



PLOTl'N US, the most celebrated writer and teacher of the Neo- 

 Platouio school at Alexandria, was born at Lycopolis in Egypt, A.D. 

 204. At the age of twenty-eight ho betook himself to the study of 

 philosophy, and attended the lectures of most of the teachers who then 

 flourished at Alexandria. He attached himself more particularly to 

 Ammonius, the founder of the eclectic school, and studied for eleven 

 years under that master. The expedition which the emperor Gordiau 

 undertook against the Partliiaus in 243 furnished on opportunity, 

 which I'lotinus had long coveted, of forming a personal acquaintance 

 with the sagea of the East, whose doctrines were so much commended 

 by the philosophers of the Alexandrian school, and were supposed by 

 them to have formed the basis of many of the speculations of their 

 great master Plato. Accordingly, 1'lotiuus joined the army of Gordiau, 

 which he accompanied as far as the Euphrates, and when the emperor 

 was murdered there, be fled first to Antioch and then to Home. 

 During the first ten years of his residence at Rome, I'lotinus con- 

 tented himself with giving oral instruction to his pupils, but at last, 

 in his fiftieth year, he was induced by the importunities of Porphyry, 

 the most famous of his disciples, to commit to writing the substance 

 of bis lectures. He remained at Home till his death in 274, and during 

 all that time ho was busily engaged as a teacher of the eclectic or 

 Neo- Platonic doctrines. He was a great favourite with the emperor 

 Gallienui, who was on the point of allowing him to rebuild a ruined city 

 in Campania, in order that he might try the experiment of establishing 

 a Utopia there after the model of Plato's republic. He died in Cam- 

 pania, not ou the scene of his projected city of philosophers, but at 

 the bouse of a friend, who maintained and attended him during his 

 sufferings under an accumulation of diseases. 



The works of I'lotinus consist of fifty-four books, which were 

 divided into six ' Enneads,' or seta of nine books, by his pupil Por- 

 phyry, who endeavoured to reduce them to intelligible order, and to 

 correct the obscurities and other faults of style under which they 

 laboured. He is perhaps one of the most mystical and confused 

 authors in any language, and we shall not wonder at this if we recol- 

 lect some of the facts which Porphyry has told us about his method 

 of composing. We have already mentioned that he did not begin to 

 write till be was fifty yean old, and theu he seems to have set down 

 his thoughts quite at random and as they occurred to him. His 

 hand-writing was very bad, and bis spelling very indifferent ; his eye- 

 sight was so weak that he could hardly read his own writing, and he 

 could never be brought to revise his works. When we add to this 

 that bis subjects were the most abstract that could be devised' On 

 entity and unite; ' ' On the essence of the soul j ' ' On the unity of the 

 good ; ' ' Whether there be many souls or only one soul ? ' and so 

 forth it will perhaps be considered that he is not a very inviting 

 author. Nevertheless he has found many admirers, and has, either 

 directly or through his follower Proclus, exercised a most important 

 influence on the opinions of more recent philosophers, especially 

 mnag ourselves. Cud worth, Henry More, N orris, Gale, and others, 

 were student* rather of I'lotinus and Proclus than of Plato himself; 

 and the gnosticism of sonic sects of Christians, with the pantheism of 

 Spinoza and others, may be fairly traced to this obscure writer and hia 

 school We know nothing further of I'lotinus than what is contained 

 in bis Life by bis pupil Porphyry. 



A superb edition of the works of Plotinus, in 3 vols. 4to, baa been 

 published at the Oxford University Proas, with this title : ' Plotiui 

 Opera Omni*, Edidit Fridericus Creuzer. Oxon. E typographeo 

 Aoademioo, 1836.' There is an English translation of 'Select Works 

 of I'lotinus,' by Taylor. 



PLOWDEN, EDMUND, serjeant-at-law, wna an eminent lawyer, 

 who flourished in the reign of Mary and the early part of that of 

 Elizabeth. He was the representative of an ancient family, Plowdeu 

 of Plowden in Shropshire, and was born about 1617. After having in 

 early life studied medicine and surgery, first at Cambridge, and after- 

 wards at Oxford, he is said by Anthony A Wood to have changed the 



course of his studies to the common law when ho was thirty-five 

 years of age. But this statement is totally at variance with Plowdeu's 

 own account of himself, for he says, in the preface to his ' Commen- 

 taries,' that he entered on the study of the law in the twentieth year 

 of his age, and in the thirtieth of the reign of Kiug Henry VIII. Ho 

 was twice a reader of the Middle Temple, and about the close of thu 

 reign of Mary was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law ; but he was 

 omitted in the call of Serjeants in the 2 Elizabeth, possibly because, 

 as in suggested in a note to Wood's account of him, ho was an " unal- 

 terable papist." He died in 15S4, and was buried in the T 

 church, where a monument to his memory still remains. His devotion 

 to legal studies was so great, that there is a professional tradition that 

 "in three years, he went not once out of the Temple." (Wood's 

 ' Atheuaj,' voL I, p. 504, note.) 



The high reputation of Plowden in the legal profession rests entirely 

 upon the character of bis ' Reports ' or ' Commentaries.' This work 

 consists of a collection of the reports of important cases, executed with 

 great fidelity and care, and extending from the reign of Edward VI. 

 to the middle of the reign of Elizabeth. The first complete edition of 

 Plowdeu's 'Commentaries' is in black-letter and Norman French, 

 folio, 1684; the second edition, likewise in folio, is translated into 

 English, folio, 1761. There is also an octavo reprint of the ' Commen- 

 taries,' London, 2 vols., 1816. 



PLUNKETT, WILLIAM CONYNGHAM, WEST LORD PLUKKETT, 

 of Newtuwn, county Cork, was the second sou of the Rev. Thomas 

 Pluukett, a Presbytcriau minister at Enniskillen, in which town his 

 son William was born in July 1764. Having some scruples as to the 

 received doctrine of the Trinity, the elder Plunkett removed to Dublin, 

 where he became minister of the Strand-street chapel. His eldest sou 

 practised for many years as a physician in that metropolis, and 

 bequeathed to hia brother a large library and a considerable fortune. 

 William was still a boy when his father died, leaving the care of his 

 family to the piety and zeal of his congregation. His dying request 

 was not in vain, and the sous received by their assistance a good educa- 

 tion. William was sent to Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained 

 a .scholarship and a degree, and where he was the friend and contem- 

 porary of the late Dr. Magee, archbishop of Dublin. Mr. Pluukett 

 was called to the bar in 1787. He had already gained some reputation 

 by bis speeches delivered in the debating club of the university, theu 

 known aa the Historical Society ; and the late Earl of Charlemont 

 soon afterwards introduced him into the Irish Parliament, as member 

 for the borough from which he derived his title. 



Mr. Plunkett commenced his public career by bold and sarcastic 

 oratory, reserving himself almost entirely for great occasions. Hence 

 hia name is but little associated with the every day business of legis- 

 lation ; the fame which he acquired in the Iriah House of Commons is 

 principally connected with the zeal with which he opposed the legis- 

 lative Union in 1800. The vehement oratory wilh which he denounced 

 the ministry on this occasion, proved the means of increasing his 

 professional engagements in the Iriah courts of law. Hia income 

 now rose rapidly, and with its proceeds he repaid, with liberal interest, 

 the contributions of his father's congregation which had been the 

 means of enabling him to get a start in life. About the same time he 

 married Catharine, only daughter of John M'Caualaud, Esq., who bad 

 represented the county of Donegal in four successive parliaments. 

 When the rebellion of 17US broke out, Mr. Pluukett gave the aid of 

 his professional talents to its victims, and indeed was at one time so 

 intimate with Robert Euimett and his associates, that he was more 

 than once publicly accused of being concerned in their unhappy pro- 

 ceedings. The accusation however was shown to be unfounded. 



In 1803 he was appointed solicitor-general for Ireland, from which 

 post he wa< promoted in 1805 to that of attorney-general. In the 

 following year the Whigs, with Lord Greuville at their bead, came 

 into office, and he determined to throw in his lot with them. Accord- 

 ingly he retained the attorney-generalship under their administration, 

 whose well known views offered an opportunity for the Catholic 

 Association to press upon their notice the importance of granting 

 Houian Catholic emancipation. Of this subject, Mr. Plunkett was 

 always an able and energetic advocate. The death of Mr. Kox having 

 broken up the Urenville administration in 1807, Mr. Pluukett retired, 

 end applied himself to the pursuit of chancery practice with such 

 success, that for several years be was engaged as leading counsel in 

 almost every important Irish chancery suit, and rapidly accumulated 

 a largo fortune. 



Mr. Plunkett first entered the British House of Commons in 1807 

 as member for Midhurst. In 1812 he was elected to represent the 

 University of Dublin, which at that time returned only a single 

 member; and he was re-elected in 1818. Of his first speech in the 

 House of Commons, which at onoe secured for him a high reputation, 

 Mr. Canning affirmed, that it brought back the days of Burke and 

 Pitt, of Kox and Sheridan. In 1822 a number of ministerial changes 

 took place on the death of the Marquis of Londonderry, and among 

 others Mr. Plunkett was ru-appointed attorney-general for Ireland, the 

 late Marquis of Wollesley being lord-lieutenant, and in that capacity 

 he was engaged to prosecute on behalf of the crown a large number of 

 the Dublin Orangemen, and of the insurgents in the south of Ireland. 

 Early in 1827 Mr. Canning proposed to appoint Mr. Pluukett master 

 of the rolls in England, but the intention was ultimately abandoned. 



