WOLLASTON WOLSEY. 



91 



Gottingen and Leipsic for six years, and, in 1770, 

 formed the plan of a school, in which the pupils 

 should be educated conformably to nature. This 

 plan brought him into connexion with Basedow, 

 with whom he wrote, from 1770 to 1773, an ele- 

 mentary work for the purposes of education. 

 "VVolke subsequently took part in Basedow's Phi- 

 lanthropin (see Schools), at Dessau, where he con- 

 tinued until 1801. He then went to Petersburg, 

 and afterwards to Leipsic; lived from 1805 to 1814 

 in Dresden, and the rest of his life in Berlin, where 

 the society for the cultivation of the German 

 language was established mainly by his endeavours, 

 in 1814. Of his numerous writings, many relate 

 to education, and contain, among other subjects, 

 directions for an education conformable to nature ; 

 others relate to the purification of the German 

 language. He also published, in 1804, a collection 

 of poems in the Lower Saxon dialect, in order to 

 show its harmonious character. But his chief 

 work is Introduction to the general Language of 

 Germany, to facilitate the Knowledge and Correc- 

 tion of at least 50,000 incorrectly formed German 

 Words, and to save the Learner from a great Loss 

 of Time and Money (1812). By ascertaining the 

 roots of German words, he strove to determine 

 their correct form, and to remove unnecessary let- 

 ters, as well as those words which have been adopt- 

 ed from foreign languages into the German. This 

 work is the fruit of long study, and contains much 

 that is valuable, though the public may differ from 

 him on many points. It is a book of much interest 

 to the etymologist. His books for children, writ- 

 ten in his new-fashioned language, could not well 

 become use f ul. He died in Berlin, in 1825. 



WOLLASTON, WILLIAM, an eminent writer 

 on ethics and theology, was born at Cotton Clan- 

 ford, in Staffordshire, in 1659. He studied at 

 Sidney college, Cambridge, and entered into holy 

 orders. In 1688, the death of a relation put him 

 in possession of considerable landed property, when 

 he removed to London, and resided in Charter- 

 house square. His marriage, shortly after, with a 

 lady of considerable fortune, having rendered him 

 independent, he devoted his time to literary re- 

 searches. His work, entitled the Religion of 

 Nature delineated, procured the writer a distin- 

 guished station among the philosophers of the last 

 century. His death took place in 1724. 



WOLLASTON, WILLIAM HYDE. M. D. and 

 F. R. S., a distinguished chemist, was born in 1766; 

 died Dec. 22, 1828. Having received his acade- 

 mical education at Cambridge, he proceeded M. D. 

 in 1793, and attempted to practise as a physician at 

 Bury St Edmunds, but with so little success, that 

 he left the place in disgust, and removed to Lon- 

 don. Soon after his arrival in that city, he became 

 candidate for a place of physician to St George's 

 hospital ; but, failing in his attempt, be declared 

 his determination never again to write a prescrip- 

 tion, and turned his whole attention to the cultiva- 

 tion of natural science. Though almost every 

 branch of science, at different times, occupied his at- 

 tention, chemistry was that to which he seems to 

 have been most ardently devoted ; and it was by 

 his investigations in that department of philosophy 

 that he attained the most distinguished reputation. 

 He was accustomed to pursue his chemical examina- 

 tions on the smallest specimens of the substance 

 which he was analysing; and he invented an in- 

 genious method of determining the properties and 

 constituents of very minute quantities of matter. 



He was endowed with bodily senses of extraordi- 

 nary acuteness and accuracy, as well as with great 

 general vigour of understanding, and had acquired 

 a powerful command over his attention, and habi- 

 tuated himself to the most rigid correctness of 

 thought and language. Among his inventions are 

 his sliding rule, or scale of chemical equivalents 

 (see Equivalents, Chemical); the goniometer, or 

 instrument for measuring the angles of crystals ; 

 the camera lucida, &c. ; and we are indebted to him 

 for the discovery of two new metals, palladium and 

 rhodium (see the articles), and of the malleability 

 of platina. Doctor Wollaston was the author of a 

 great number of communications to the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society, of which he was a mem- 

 ber, and of several articles in doctor Thomson's 

 Annals of Philosophy, and other periodical works. 



WOLLASTONITE. See Tabular Spar. 



WOLLNER, JOHN CHRISTIAN VON ; notorious 

 in the ignominious government of Frederic William 

 II. of Prussia, the successor to Frederic the Great. 

 He was the son of a clergyman, was born in 1727, 

 studied theology in Halle, became minister in a 

 village near Berlin, in 1759; was appointed coun- 

 sellor of finance to prince Henry of Prussia, as he 

 had shown some knowledge of political economy, 

 made a noble in 1786 by the above-mentioned king, 

 and, after receiving several appointments, became 

 minister of state in 1788. In this situation, he ex- 

 ercised the greatest influence over the weak-minded 

 monarch, by winking at his debaucheries, and re- 

 sorting to low arts, such as frightening him with 

 oretended apparitions. He caused the king to issue 

 the notorious " religious edict," which established 

 intolerance and mysticism, so contrary to the spirit 

 of the time, and particularly of the monarchy. The 

 present king Frederic William III. repealed this 

 edict as soon as he ascended the throne, and dis- 

 missed this narrow-minded minister, who died in 

 1800, on one of his estates in Brandenburg. Woll- 

 ner was a member of several secret societies, in- 

 cluding the Rosicrusians. 



WOLODOMIR. See Wladimir. 



WOLSEY, THOMAS, cardinal, an eminent min- 

 ister of state under Henry VIII., is said to have 

 been the son of a butcher at Ipswich, where he was 

 born in 1471. After receiving a grammatical edu- 

 cation, he was sent to Magdalen college, Oxford, of 

 which he was elected fellow. Being appointed 

 master of a grammar-school dependent on the col- 

 lege, he had three sons of the marquis of Dorset 

 under his care a circumstance which induced that 

 nobleman to present him with the living of Lim- 

 mington, in Somersetshire, and, while here, he was 

 put in the stocks in consequence of a drunken fro- 

 lic. Although his conduct was by no means regu- 

 lar, his manners and appearance recommended him 

 to Dean, archbishop of Canterbury, who made him 

 his domestic chaplain. On the death of that pre- 

 late, he served Sir John Nanfan, governor of Ca- 

 lais, in the same capacity, by which patron he was 

 recommended to Henry VII., who made him one 

 of his own chaplains; and, in consequence of his 

 able and expeditious conveyance of a despatch to 

 the emperor at Bruges, he was rewarded with the 

 deanery of Lincoln. On the death of Henry VII., 

 he was introduced by Fox, bishop of Winchester, 

 to Henry VIII., whose favour he courted so suc- 

 cessfully, that he shortly obtained the first place in 

 the royal favour, and became uncontrolled minister. 

 His progress in advancement was very rapid. In 

 1510, he was introduced into the privy- council, 



