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THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



to Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. Burnet was the religious 

 adviser of the Princess Mary in Holland, and came with her to 

 England on the accession of herself and her husband to the 

 throne ; and was soon after raised to the episcopal bench. As a 

 theologian he is best known by his " Exposition of the Thirty- 

 nine Articles." But his most important contributions to litera- 

 ture are his two historical works the " History of the Reforma- 

 tion " and " History of his own Times," both of them works of 

 great value, though their historical importance is greater than 

 their literary merit. 



One of the most eminent and probably the ablest theologian 

 of the school which became predominant at the Revolution was 

 Isaac Barrow, though he himself died too soon to witness that 

 great event. Barrow was born in London in 1630, his father 

 being a linendraper in that city. He received his earlier educa- 

 tion at the Charterhouse, and afterwards was entered first at 

 Peterhouse and subsequently at Trinity College, Cambridge. 

 Cambridge was thenceforth his home for many years ; during 

 which time his fame as a profound scholar and linguist, as well 

 as a man of great scientific genius, especially in the department of 

 mathematics, became widely known. He filled the post of pro- 

 fessor of mathematics, and as such was the teacher of the great 

 Newton, who succeeded him in his professorship. He was sub- 

 sequently chosen as Master of Trinity College. During the 

 latter years of his life he to a great extent forsook his purely 

 scientific pursuits, and devoted his great powers to the duties of 

 a preacher and religious teacher ; and among English divines 

 few have been his equals in genius. His learning was great, but 

 is never obtruded upon the reader. His reasoning powers were 

 of the highest order, and in his sermons sound reasoning and 

 judgment always hold their legitimate supremacy; they are 

 never subordinated either to feeling or to fancy. His style is 

 characterised by a force and clearness, a manly dignity, and 

 a severe purity of taste which, combined with his powers of 

 thought, place him in the highest rank of orators. His sermons 

 will always rank with the writings of Hooker and Jeremy 

 Taylor, the great classics of the English Church. Barrow died, 

 at a comparatively early age, in 1677. 



Archbishop Tillotson enjoyed, during his life, a fame and 

 estimation as a preacher surpassed by few, and was among the 

 most influential churchmen of his day ; nor has the popularity 

 of his writings altogether passed away. He was a man of great 

 liberality and tolerance, and was raised to the archbishopric of 

 Canterbury by William III. 



Of a very different school was Robert South. He was the 

 son of a London merchant, and was born near London in 1633. 

 Having received the rudiments of learning at Westminster 

 School, he went to Oxford, and maintained his connection with 

 that university for many years. He adopted the views of the 

 courtly and anti-popular party, and took an active part in the 

 conflicts of the time. After the Restoration he became chaplain 

 to Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and partly through his influence 

 received several successive preferments in the church from the 

 Government of Charles II. The latter years of South 's life 

 were spent in retirement, and he died in 1716. His fame as a 

 preacher was very great, and his sermons are still read with 

 great pleasure for the force and beauty of his style. But as 

 sermons his productions are to a modern taste deformed by 

 what in his own day seems to have been regarded as a beauty, 

 a vein of sarcastic wit, sometimes almost overstepping the 

 limits of buffoonery. 



The most eminent in literature of the churchmen of the next 

 generation was Bishop Berkeley, a man equally distinguished 

 for his genius in science and philosophy, and for the purity and 

 nobility of his life and character. It was not without reason 

 that Pope attributed 



" To Berkeley every virtue under heaven." 



George Berkeley was born in Ireland, in the county of Kilkenny, 

 in 1684. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, of which 

 college he in due time became a Fellow. He then commenced 

 those philosophical writings which have secured his lasting 

 fame ; and upon his removing to London a few years later, he 

 was eagerly welcomed by all those most eminent in the world of 

 thought and literature. The lofty earnestness of his character 

 impressed the most frivolous, while its beauty and gentleness 

 conciliated the most hostile. But Berkeley was not one of 

 those who sought to use their popularity to secure any personal 



advantage. Having been promoted to the deanery of Derry, a 

 lucrative as well as dignified post, he resigned this office with all 

 its advantages, and abandoned that position in society which he 

 was so well qualified to adorn, in obedience to the guidance of 

 conscience, and went out to the West Indies, to place himself 

 at the head of a sort of missionary college, intended to facilitate 

 the Christianisation of the natives of North America. But 

 the miserable pittance which had been promised to Berkeley 

 for the maintenance of his college and the support of himself 

 by the Home Government, not being paid him, the enterprise 

 failed, and he was forced to return home. He afterwards 

 became Bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland. He died in 1753. 

 Although it would be a grave omission in these sketches of 

 literature if we were to omit so great a writer as Berkeley, it 

 would not less be a departure from our plan if we were to 

 attempt any analysis of his philosophical system, or any 

 criticism of his writings. Those writings cover a very wide 

 field, from the broadest speculations as to the nature and origin 

 of our ideas, and their connection with an external universe on 

 the one side, to the most exact and detailed investigation of the 

 phenomena of physical science on the other. By the admission 

 of opponents, no less than of those whose views are most in 

 harmony with his own, few thinkers have surpassed Berkeley 

 in boldness, acuteness, and originality, or have left a deeper 

 impression upon the course of European thought. 



Few careers have been more extraordinary in their vicissitudes 

 than that of Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke. Born in 1678, 

 the son of a baronet of ancient family and competent fortune, 

 though he early gave proof of the possession of brilliant 

 ability, he was in youth little distinguished except for his 

 extravagance and dissipation. But having entered Parliament 

 and devoted his great energies to politics, he was soon without 

 a rival in eloquence and all the brilliant qualities which con- 

 tribute to parliamentary success. He was a leader in that 

 remarkable literary circle of which Pope and Swift were mem- 

 bers. He had early allied himself with Harley, afterwards 

 Earl of Oxford, and they soon became the leaders of the extreme 

 Tory party. In the administration of Oxford, St. John, who 

 had been raised to the peerage as Lord Bolingbroke, held the 

 office of Secretary of State, and as such bore the chief share 

 in bringing about the peace of Utrecht. On the death of 

 Queen Anne and the accession of George I., Bolingbroke was 

 disgraced and impeached, and fled from the storm. That he 

 had been guilty of maintaining a treasonable correspondence 

 with the exiled Stuart family, there can be little doubt, 

 and the unpopularity of the peace which he had been instru- 

 mental in bringing about exposed him to the indignation of the 

 country. He was condemned in his absence, and passed many 

 years abroad, for some time being actually in the employment of 

 the Pretender, though he soon quarrelled with him, and was 

 ever after loud in his condemnation of Jacobites. After some 

 years his attainder was reversed, and he was enabled to return 

 to England. He strove hard to regain the political influence 

 which he had once enjoyed, but in vain ; and the closing years 

 of his life were spent in retirement. He died in 1751. 



Bolingbroke's works are numerous. Many of them were 

 addressed to merely passing questions, and are now of little 

 interest. A very large proportion consists of attacks more or 

 less direct upon Sir Robert Walpole, Bolingbroke's great rival 

 and enemy. Others again, and these were published after the 

 death of the author, are attacks upon religion ; for in matters 

 of religion Bolingbroke was an avowed unbeliever. The most 

 permanently interesting of his works are those which deal with 

 historical questions and with political principles, such as his 

 " Letters on the Study and Use of History," and his " Idea of a 

 Patriot King." The last-mentioned is now, probably, more read 

 than any other of Bolingbroke's writings ; and it well deserves 

 its popularity. This essay shows no profound knowledge of 

 history, nor any very deep thought or subtle analysis ; its views 

 are for the most part tolerably obvious, and much of the essay 

 is evidently of the nature of a party attack, rather than an 

 impartial political treatise. But it contains, on the whole, a 

 very noble picture of what a perfect king should be to his 

 country ; and it is an excellent example of Bolingbroke's sus- 

 tained and impressive eloquence, his wealth of illustration, and 

 beauty and harmony of language. It shows him as one of the 

 greatest masters of English stylo ; and for this reason no man 

 of taste can read the essay without thorough enjoyment. 



