W I L 



keeper of the Lambeth library, of which he made a cata- 

 logue, and for his three years' labour in this way he was re- 

 corapenfed with feveral preferments, fuch as the reftories of 

 Hadley and Monk's Ely, the archdeaconry of Suffolk, and 

 a canonry of Canterbury. Among his principal publica- 

 tions we may reckon " Novum Teftamentum Copticum," 

 Oxon, 1716, 4to.; an edition of " Leges Saxonica; eccle- 

 fiafticx et civiles," with many valuable additions, 1721, fol.; 

 " Joannis Seldeni Opera omnia," 1726, 3 vols, fol.; " Pen- 

 Uteuchus Copticus," 1731, 4to.; " Conciha Magns Bri- 

 tannise," 4 vols. fol. 1736 ; and a learned preface to bifhop 

 Tanner's " Britannico-Hibernica." He married the eldett. 

 daughter of Thomas, lord Fairfax, fettled in Scotland, and 

 died in 1745, in his 60th year. Nichols's Lit. Anecd. 

 Gen. Biog. 



WiLKiNS, John, D.D., an Englifh prelate, was born 

 near Daventry, in Northamptonfhire, in 1624, and finifhed 

 his education at Magdalen-hall, Oxford, where he gra- 

 duated M.A. He afterwards took orders, and became 

 chaplain, firft. to lord Say, and then to Charles, count pala- 

 tine of the Rhine. At the commencement of the civil war 

 he joined the parUament, took the folemn league and cove- 

 nant, and became warden of Wadham college. In 1649 he 

 graduated D.D., and in 1656 married the filler of Oliver 

 Cromwell. In 1659 he was nominated head of Trinity 

 college, Cambridge ; but being ejefted on the reftoration of 

 king Charles II., he became preacher to the fociety of 

 Gray's-Inn, London, andreftorof St. Lawrence, Jewry ; 

 about which time he was introduced into the Royal Society 

 as fellow and one of the council, and advanced to the fee of 

 Cheller. He was diftinguifhed by his moderation, and was 

 reproached on this account by his enemies, who reprefented 

 him as wavering in his religious principles. Several bifhops 

 cenfured him with uncandid feverity, among whom were 

 archbifhop Sheldon, bifhop Fell, and archbifhop Dolben, 

 making no allowance for the favourable difpofition which he 

 was led to manifeft towards ihe diffenters by his education 

 under Mr. John Dod, his grandfather, a truly pious and 

 learned man, who difapproved many things in the church of 

 England long before the grand feparation which took place 

 on account of Laud's impofitions and feverities. After the 

 Reftoration he was a moderate conformift, and difpofed to 

 be indulgent in many things, for the fake of preventing re- 

 ligious diflenfions. On this account he incurred hatred and 

 obloquy. He at length fell a viftim to the ftone, occafioned 

 by his fedentary habits, and clofe application to ftudy ; and 

 died, with a tranquillity and firmnefs becoming a wife man 

 and a Chriftian, at the houfe of his friend Dr. Tillotfon, in 

 Chancery-lane, London, in November, 1672. Bifhop Wil- 

 kins was not only an able divine, but a good mathematician 

 and aftronomer ; and well /killed in mechanics and experi- 

 mental philofophy. As a writer he was judicious and 

 plain ; and he lludied more to be ufeful than to pleafe. 

 Generous in his difpofition, he neither fought honour nor 

 riches. The revenues which he received from the church he 

 fpent in its fervice ; and whilft he was fecure from want, he 

 did not wilh to be richer. His character is thus delineated by 

 Dr. Burnet : " He was a man of as great a mind, as true 

 a judgment, as eminent virtues, and of as good a foul, as any 

 he ever knew ; and though he married Cromwell's fifter, yet 

 he made no other ufe of that alliance but to do good ofBces, 

 and to cover the univerfity of Oxford from the fonrnefs of 

 Owen and Goodwin. At Cambridge he joined with thofe 

 who ftudied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off 

 from being in parties, or from narrow notions, from fu- 

 pcrflitious conceits, and fiercenefs about opinions. He was 

 alfo a great obfcrver and promoter of experimental philofo- 



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phy, which was then a new thing, and much looked after. 

 He was naturally ambitious, but was the wifell clergyman 

 I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and delighted iu 

 doing good." He alfo poffeffed, according to this hiflorian, 

 " a courage which could fland againft a current, and againfl 

 all the reproaches with which ill-natured clergymen ftudied 

 to reproach him." His principal works are the following : 

 viz. " The Difcovery of a New World ; or, a Difcourfe 

 tending to prove that it is probable there may be another 

 habitable World in the Moon," London, 1638, 4to., writ- 

 ten when he was only twenty-four years of age ; " Difcourfe 

 concerning the Poffibility of a Paffage to the World in the 

 Moon ;" " Difcourfe concerning a new Planet, tending to 

 prove that it is probable our Earth is one of the Planets," 

 ibid. 1640, 8vo. ; " Mercury; or, the Secret Meffenger 5 

 (hewing how a man may with privacy and fpeed communi- 

 cate his thoughts to a friend at any diftance," ibid. 1641, 

 8vo.; " Mathematical Magic ; or, the Wonders that may 

 be performed by Mechanical Geometry," in two books, 

 ibid. 1648 and 1680, 8vo. Thefe latter five, compofing his 

 mathematical works, were printed at London in one volume, 

 Svo. 1708. " Effay towards a real Charafter and a philofo- 

 phical Language," ibid. 1668, fol.; " Of the Principles and 

 Duties of Natural Religion," two books, ibid. 1675, ^^"^ 

 pubhfhed by Dr. Tillotfon. Alfo, " Sermons preached ou ; 

 feveral Occafions," and fome others. Life prefixed to his ' 

 Philofophical and Mathematical Works. 



WILKINSON, in Geography, a county of Georgia, 

 with 2 154 inhabitants, including 318 flaves. — Alfo, a county 

 of the Mifliffippi, with 5068 inhabitants, including 2630 

 flaves. 



WILKOMIERS, a town of Lithuania, in the palati- 

 nate of Wilna, on the Swicnta, near its union with tlie 

 Wilna ; 44 miles N.N.W. of Wilna. I 



WILKS, a county of North Carohna, with 9054 inha- | 

 bitants. 



WILKUSCHKE, a town of PrufGa ; 5 miles N.N.E. 

 of Ragnitz. 



WILL, Voluntas, is ufually defined a faculty of the 

 mind, by which it embraces or rejefts any thing reprefented 

 to it, as good or evil, by the judgment. 



Others will have it to be the mind itfelf, confidered as em- ; 

 bracing or refufing ; adding, that as the underftanding is 

 nothing elfe but the foul, confidered as perceiving ; fo 1 

 the wiU is nothing elfe but the foul, confidered as <willingyi 

 &c. 



Mr. Locke more inteUigibly defines the will, a faculty 

 which the foul has of beginning or forbearing, continuing 

 or ending, feveral aftions of the mind, and motions of the 

 body, barely by a thought or preference of the mind, or- 

 dering, or as it were commanding, the doing, or not doing, 

 fuch and fuch a particular aftion. This power which the 

 mind has, to order the confideration of any idea, or the for- 

 bearing to confider it ; or to prefer the motion of any part 

 of the body to its reft, and vice vcr/a, is what we call the 

 will. See Power. 



The aftual exercife of that power, is what we call volition, 

 or willing ; and the doing or forbearing of any aftion 

 confequent on fuch order of the mind, is called voluntary. 

 So far, according to this writer, as a man has a power to 

 think or not to think, to move or not to move, according to 

 the preference or direftion of his own mind, fofar lie is free : 

 and hence liberty, he fays, is not an idea belonging to vob- 

 tion or preferring, but to the perfon having the power of 

 doing, or forbearing to do, as the mind fhall choofe or direft. 

 On the other hand, wherever any performance or forbearance 

 is not equally in a man's power ; wherever doing or not doing 



will 



