705 



WILKINS, WILLIAM. 



WILKINS, WILLIAM. 



706 



prejudice which he had entertained against him was unjust. Wilkins 

 died November 19, 1672, of a suppression of urine, which was mis- 

 taken for stone, and mistreated. He was at the time of his death at 

 Tillotson's house in Chancery lane, London, and he was buried in the 

 church of St. Lawrence, Jewry. Tillotson was appointed executor to 

 hie will, which gave 400?. to the Royal Society and 200. to Wadham 

 College. In Bliss's edition of the ' Athense Oxonienses" are notices of 

 a few other ecclesiastical preferments of Wilkins, not mentioned 

 above. 



Wilkius's opinions on ecclesiastical subjects exposed him to much 

 animadversion ; but even those who were opposed to him in opinion 

 bear testimony to his superior talents. Wood, whose panegyric has 

 been quoted, observes that he could not say " that there was anything 

 deficient in him but a constant mind and settled principles ; " and 

 other writers allude to his character in similar terms. His avowed 

 moderation and toleration to dissenters, and his readiness to swear 

 allegiance to the ruling power, whatever that might be, are the points 

 most dwelt upon by those who take an unfavourable view of his cha- 

 racter ; but his benevolence does not appear to be impugned, and he 

 is said to have possessed a courage which enabled him to stand against 

 the current reproaches which less kindly-disposed clergymen were 

 ready to heap on him. 



Some of Wilkins's works are exceedingly curious, although, as might 

 .be expected from the state of science in his day, they contain much 

 that is chimerical and absurd. The principal are the following : 

 1, ' Discovery of a New World ; or a discourse tending to prove that 

 it is probable that there may be another habitable world in the Moon ; 

 with a discourse concerning the possibility of a passage thither.' This 

 work, which appeared in 1638, and was several times repriuted, excited 

 much ridicule ; the last of the fourteen propositions which the author 

 endeavours to establish that it is possible for some of our posterity 

 to find out a conveyance to the other world which he supposes to exist 

 in the moon, and if there be inhabitants there, to have commerce with 

 them, is perhaps the only one that would now be generally regarded 

 as absurd. Wilkins however endeavours to prove that the construction 

 of a flying-machine of sufficient capacity for such a voyage is by no 

 means the chimerical absurdity which most, even in the present day, 

 would consider it. 2, ' Discourse concerning a new Planet, tending to 

 prove that it is probable our Earth is one of the Planets,' published in 

 1640. These two works appeared anonymously, but were well kiiown 

 to be by Wilkins. 3, ' Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger ; 

 showing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his 

 Thoughts to a Friend at any distance.' This curious volume contains 

 notices of a great number of schemes for telegraphic communication, 

 writing by cipher or in sympathetic inks, and other means of secret 

 or rapid communication. One chapter, the eighteenth, is devoted to 

 suggestions for " a language that may consist only of tunes and 

 musical notes, without any articulate sound." 4, ' Mathematical 

 Magic, or the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geo- 

 metry,' a singular work, the object of which is tolerably defined by its 

 title, published in 1648. 5, In 1668 appeared in one folio volume, 

 printed by order of the Royal Society, an ' Essay towards a Real 

 Character and a Philosophical Language,' a work founded upon or 

 suggested by a treatise published a few years previously by George 

 Dalgaruo. To this is appended an ' Alphabetical Dictionary, wherein 

 all English words, according to their various significations, are 

 either referrad to their places in the Philosophical Tables (in the 

 Essay) or explained by such words as are in those tables.' The first 

 four of the preceding works were reprinted in 1708, and again in 

 1802, in a collected form, together with an abstract of the 'Essay 

 towards a Real Character.' Wilkins also published several theological 

 works, of which ' Ecclesiastes, or a Discourse of the Gift of Preaching 

 as it falls under the Rules of Art,' passed through several editions, the 

 first having appeared in 1646. His ' Discourse concerning the Beauty 

 of Providence, in all the Rugged Passages of it,' first published in 

 1649, and 'Discourse concerning the Gift of Prayer,' published in 1651, 

 were also repeatedly reprinted. Wilkins left his papers to the care of 

 his friend Tillotson, allowing him to use his own discretion as to pub- 

 lishing any of them; and iu 1675 appeared a treatise 'Of the Prin- 

 ciples and Duties of Natural Religion,' which he had left in an 

 unfinished state. In 1682 Tillotson published a volume containing 

 fifteen of Wilkins's sermons, and some others were published separately 

 during his life and also after his decease. 



WILKINS, WILLIAM, was born August 31, 1778, in the parish 

 of St. Giles, Norwich. His father was a builder and architect of 

 some eminence also named William, who practised at Norwich, but 

 later in life removed to Cambridge : he was the author of an ' Essay 

 on Norwich Castle,' in vol. xii. of the ' Archseologia.' Young Wilkins 

 received his early education at the Free Grammar School, Norwich ; 

 matriculated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1796 ; 

 and graduated as sixth wrangler in 1800. Having in the following 

 year obtained a travelling bachelorship, he visited Italy and Greece ; 

 and almost immediately after his return, published his 'Antiquities 

 of Magna Grsecia,' imperial folio, 1807, a work rather unsatisfactorily 

 executed and not containing much of particular interest to professional 

 students, owing to which it was coldly received by architects. It was 

 however well calculated to recommend the author to scholars and 

 obtain for him the patronage of the university, nor did it fail to do 

 EIOG. DIV. VOL. VI. 



so. In the same year (1807) he was employed as architect of Downing 

 College, and the buildings were forthwith begun. They were left at 

 his death very far from being completed. Wilkins in these buildings 

 threw away a rare opportunity. Biassed by his previous' studies, and 

 ambitious of giving his own university a classical piece of architecture, 

 he postponed all other considerations to that alone. Enamoured of 

 the study of the Grecian style, he seems neither to have thought how 

 far that style could be adapted to the occasion, nor how far the occa- 

 sion required what the style would not admit of. Instead of even 

 endeavouring to adapt it, he merely applied it, just as he found it, to 

 ranges of low buildings which derive their expression merely from 

 their columns, for in other respects they are merely so many neat 

 houses. Neither does the building make amends in other respects for 

 its unsatisfactoiiness as a piece of architecture, the accommodation it 

 affords being very defective, although the cost was enormous. 



In the case of the East India College at Haileybury, Herts, which 

 he built a few years afterwards, when he held the appointment of 

 architect to the East India Company, there were at least no local 

 associations to deter him from having recourse again to ' pure Greek ' 

 architecture; but it is somewhat strange that, instead of endeavouring 

 to improve upon his specimen at Cambridge, he should have done 

 little more than repeat the same design, and with little more success. 

 He afterwards succeeded somewhat better when he had to adopt gothic 

 for the additions and alterations which he executed at the three 

 colleges of Trinity (1823), Corpus (1823), and King's (1828) at Cam- 

 bridge ; at least they were at the time regarded as rather creditable 

 than otherwise, though they would now be considered to evince a 

 somewhat extraordinary ignorance of the true character of gothic 

 architecture. 



In the fagade of the University College, Gower-street, originally 

 called the University of London, he introduced a dome in combina- 

 tion with a Grecian portico ; and elevated the latter upon a substruc- 

 ture the height of the basement floor, forming a picturesque arrange- 

 ment of flights of steps. Of all his works perhaps this is the one 

 which obtained for him most praise from both professional men and 

 critics ; but unfortunately the wings have not yet been erected, and 

 those parts of the exterior to which they would have been conuected 

 still remain in their first unfinished state : as to the interior, it was 

 anything but convenient and has been considerably altered. The 

 reputation acquired by this edifice, the only one he had then produced 

 in the metropolis, except the University Club-house, Pall Mall East, 

 suffered greatly by the nearly universal outcry raised against his 

 National Gallery. No doubt he had many difficulties and adverse 

 circumstances to contend with in that work : cramped by want of 

 space, and thwarted in various ways, he had no little vexation to 

 encounter, and had also to sustain a unanimous opposition against him 

 on the part of the public press. Still it is difficult to conceive how 

 he could have fallen so far short of his preceding work. Here the 

 dome is a most unfortunate feature offensive in outline and mean in 

 character. The portico itself is very far from satisfactory ; but here 

 the architect was restricted by being obliged to make use of the 

 columns from the portico of Carlton House, to which however he did 

 not restore their originally rich entablature ; the interior is in almost 

 every respect bad. 



While the National Gallery was incurring such ample adverse cri- 

 ticism, the architect entered into the competition for the new houses 

 of parliament, in 1836 ; but his design did not obtain one of the pre- 

 miums. The remarks however attached to it by its author in the 

 descriptive catalogue of the designs were in a tone that called atten- 

 tion to it there, and he immediately folio wed them up by 'An Apology 

 for the Designs of the New Houses of Parliament, marked ''Phil- 

 Archimedes ; " ' wherein he animadverted very freely, and with no 

 little bitterness of tone, both on the successful design and the conduct 

 of the commissioners. To annoyances and vexations of this kind 

 succeeded an event which raised him to a more conspicuous eminence 

 in his profession ; for on the death of Sir John Soane, in 1837, he was 

 elected to succeed him as professor of architecture at the Royal 

 Academy, of which he had been made a member in 1834. Yet while 

 his acquirements were of a kind to do honour to the academic chair, 

 it is scarcely probable that he would have proved a very competent 

 instructor. His ' Prolusiones Architectonicse,' the first part of which 

 (the only one published) appeared just at that tune, 1837, did not 

 augur well for his future lectures, being minutely archaeological, and 

 withal fanciful. He did not however live to deliver any lectures at 

 the academy, for before the term (two years) allowed to a new pro- 

 fessor to prepare himself for them had expired, he himself was no more. 

 His constitution had latterly been greatly impaired by gout, and he 

 had been visibly sinking for some time. He died at Cambridge, 

 August 31st, 1839, on his sixty-first birthday, and was interred iu the 

 chapel of Corpus Christi, a part of the new buildings at that college 

 erected by him, and which he considered his best work. 



Among other structures by him are : the Nelson Pillar in Sackviile 

 Street, Dublin, 1808; the Nelson Pillar at Yarmouth, 1817; and St. 

 George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, which is remarkable for the 

 tetrastyle portico of square columns in the east front. He also erected 

 several private mansions. Besides the literary works already men- 

 tioned, he published ' Atheniensia, or Remarks on the Buildings and 

 Antiquities of Athens,' in 1816; and 'The Civil Architecture of 



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