H O Q 
in folio. In 16H8, Mr. Hooke was engaged in a warm and 
long conteft with Hevelius, concerning the difference in 
accuracy between obferving with aftronomical inftruments 
with plain and telefcopic fights; which he managed i'o ill 
as to be univerfally condemned, though it has fince been 
agreed that he had the belt fide of the quellion. In 1671, 
he attacked Newton’s Theory of Light and Colours ; in 
which controverfy he is faid to have come off with a bet¬ 
ter reputation than in that with the Dantzic philofopher. 
In 1674., he publifhed An Attempt to prove the Motion 
of the Earth from Obferyations, 4to. His defign in this 
work was left imperfect; but the foundation which he 
laid encouraged Mr. Samuel Molyneux and Mr. Bradley 
afterwards to build upon it, and to determine the point by 
purfuing Mr. Hooke’s plan, which was preferred as the 
belt for that purpofe. In the fame year, he publifhed his 
Animadverfions on the firft part of the Machina Goelejlts of 
Hevelius, which conflituted a-part of the controverfy al¬ 
ready noticed. In 1675,. he publifhed, A Defcriptiou of 
Heliofcopes, and fome other Inftruments, made by R. H. 
with a Poftfcript, complaining of fome injuftice done him 
by Mr. Oldenburg, the publiflier of the Philofophical 
Tranfaflions, with refpefl to his claim to the invention 
of pendulum-w'atches. This charge involved him in a 
difpute with that gentleman, which was terminated by a 
declaration of the Royal Society in their fecretary’s favour. 
During this difpute he publifhed, in 1667, his Lampas, or 
mechanical Improvements of Lamps and Water-poifes, 
4to. Upon the death of Oldenburg, Mr. Hooke was ap¬ 
pointed to fupply his place in the office of fecretary to the 
Royal Society; but this appointment appears to have been 
only temporary, fince Dr. Nehemiah Grew was chofen 
fecretary in the following month, and was entrufted with 
the care of publiffiing the Tranfaflions. In 1678, Mr. 
Hooke publifhed his LeBures de Potentia Reflitutiva ; or of 
Springs, explaining the Powers of fpringing Bodies, to 
which are added fome Colleflions, 4to. And alfo his 
Leflures and Colleflions, entitled, Cometa & Microfcopium, 
4-to. In 1681, he read his leflures on Light and Luminous 
Bodies, which are printed in his Poflhumous Works; and 
he likewife publifhed his Philofophical Colleflions, 4to. 
From this time he became more referved ; and though he 
read his Cutlerian leflures, and often difclofed a variety 
of new inventions to the Royal Society, yet he feldom 
left any account of them to be entered in their regiflers. 
Upon the publication of Newton’s Principia, in 1686, 
Mr. Hooke laid claim to that great man’s difcovery con¬ 
cerning the force and aflion of gravity; which was warmly 
refented by that philofopher; who, in letters that parted 
between him and Dr.. Halley, refuted thefe pretenfions in 
the mod fatisfaflory manner. In 1691, he was employed 
in the great and benevolent bufinefs of forming a plan for 
the holpital near Hoxton, which was founded by aider- 
man Alice, who appointed archbifhop Tillotfon one of his 
executors; and in the fame year Mr. Hooke was created 
M. D. by a warrant from that prelate. In 1696, his health 
began vifibly to decline, and contiued fo to do in fpite of 
every medical aid; infomuch that he was obliged to defifl 
from lefluring in the fummerof 1698, and was under the 
neceffity of refigning to Dr. Halley the tafk of drawing up 
an account of the laft of his inventions, that of the ma¬ 
rine barometer; which was read before the Royal Society 
in February 1700. At length, quite emaciated, he died 
at his apartments in Grefham college, in 1702, in the 
fixty-eighth year of his age. 
Dr. Hooke, in his perlon, was of a mean appearance, 
being fhort of ftature, very crooked, pale, lean, and of a 
meagre afpecl, with lank brown hair, which he wore 
hanging over his face till within three years of his death ; 
but he was indefatigable in the purfuit of his various 
ftudies, and always contented himfelf with little deep, 
and that taken very irregularly. He was well acquainted 
Tvith the ancient languages, and all branches of the ma¬ 
thematics ; but his mechanical genius, and great fagacity 
in penetrating into the fecrets of nature, were his diftin- 
H O O *71 
guiffiing talents. His works, befides the articles already 
enumerated, confift of, 1. LeBiones Cutleriana, or the Cut¬ 
lerian Leftures. 2. A folio volume of PolthumoUs pieces, 
publifhed by Richard Waller, efq. in 1705. 3. Philofo¬ 
phical Experiments and Obfervations, &c. printed by Dr. 
Derham, in a mifcellaneous collection, 1726, Svo. and a 
vaft number of papers inferted in the Philofophical Trans¬ 
actions. 
HOOK/ED, adj. [from hook.'] Bent; curvated.— Gryps 
fignifies eagle or vulture ; from whence the epithet grypus, 
for a hooked or aquiline nofe. Brown. 
Now thou threaten’d, with unjuft decree, 
To feize the prize which I fo dearly bought: 
Mean match to thine ; for ftill above the reft, 
Thy hook'd rapacious hands ufurp the belt. Dryden. 
HOOK/EDNESS, f. [from hooked.'] State of being bent 
like a hook. ■ 
HOOK'ER (Richard), a learned divine of the church 
of England,^ born at Heavy-Tree, near Exeter, in 1553, 
of parents in humble life. Having the good fortune to 
be introduced while a youth to the notice of Dr. Jewel, 
biffiop of Salifbury, that good prelate fent him to the uni- 
verfity of Oxford. In this feminary he applied to his 
ftudies with the greateft ardour and diligence, and dif 
tinguiffied himfelf by his proficiency in learning, as well 
as by his prudence, humility, and piety. When he had 
been at the univerfity about four years, he received the 
melancholy tidings of the death of his worthy patron. 
Providence, however, raifed him up two other patrons, in 
Dr. Cole, then prefident of his college, and Dr. Edwin 
Sandys, biffiop of London, and afterwards archbifhop of 
York ; by whofe intereft he was elefled fcholar of his 
college in 1573. In 1577 he was admitted to the de- 
ree of M. A. and in the fame year was elefled fellow of 
is college. In 1579, on account of his fkill in the ori¬ 
ental languages, he was appointed deputy-profefl'or of 
the Hebrew tongue in the univerfity; and in 1581, he 
entered into holy orders, and foon afterwards was ap¬ 
pointed to preach at St. Paul’s-crofs, in London. During 
his accommodation at a public houfe, he was induced to 
marry the landlord’s daughter; by which he loft his fel- 
lowfhip, and was obliged to quit the univerfity, before he 
had obtained any preferment. He continued without a 
benefice till the winter of 1584, when he was prefented 
to the reClory of Drayton-Beauchamp, in Buckingham - 
fhire. Not long after he was fettled in this fituation, hk 
patron biffiop Sandys procured for him the appointment 
of mafter of the Temple. But, though this was a valuable 
preferment, it was not accepted by Mr. Hooker without 
much reluflance. A rural retirement was better fuited 
to his natural difpofition, in which, as he himfelf ex- 
prefled it, he might “ fee God’s bleffings fpring out of 
the earth, and be free from noife, and eat that bread which 
he might more properly call his own, in privacy and qui- 
etnefs.” However, the biffiop’s arguments prevailed, 
and, in 1585, he entered on the duties of his office. Af¬ 
ter fome years, Mr. Hooker was defirous of exchanging 
his preferment for a more retired and tranquil fcene ; 
and more "particularly fo, as he had begun his famous 
work Of the Laws of Ecclefiaftical Polity, which he found 
himfelf incapable of proceeding with to his latisfaclion at 
the Temple. Upon making known his wiffies to archbi¬ 
fhop Whitgift, and apprifing him of the undertaking on 
which he was employed, Mr. Hooker was prefented* in 
1591, to the reCloryof Bofcomb, in Wiltfhire; and in the 
fame year he was appointed a prebend, and fubdean, in 
the cathedral church of Salifbury. At Bofcomb he finifh- 
ed four books of his celebrated work, which were pub- 
liffied in 1594. In 1595 he quitted Bofcomb, and was 
prefented by queen Elizabeth to the reCtory of Biihop’s* 
Bourne, in Kent, where he refided during the remainder 
of his life, dilcharging the duties of his function in the 
moft exemplary manner. In this place he dompol'ed the 
fifth book of his work, which was publifhed by itfeif in 
*597 3 
