Hart, Oliver, a Baptist minister, was born in War- minster, I'a., July 5, 1723, joined the Baptist Church in 1741, was licensed to preach in 174G, and was ordained in 1749. In that year he became pastor of the Baptist church in Charleston, S. C, and remained in that olhce thirty years, with eminent success both as ])reaclier and pastor. In the Revolution he espoused tlie Whig cause ■with great ardor, and had to flee i'rom Cliarleston in 1780 to avoid falling into the hands of the British. He set- tled as pastor of the Baptist Church at Hopewell, N. J., where he died Dec. 31, 1795. He published a Discourae on the Dcalh of W. Tennent : — Dancing Exploded: — The Chrktiitn Temple: — A Gospel Church portrayed. — Bene- dict, Hist, of the Baptists, vol. ii ; Sprague, A nnals, vi, 47.
Hartley, David, an English practitioner of medi- cine, and a philosopher of considerable, but transitory reputation. The Scotch school of metaphysics borrow- ed much from his conclusions; and the long-prevalent theory of Beauty, which was elaborated in Alison's Principles of Taste, derived from them its cardinal doc- trines. Dr. Hartley occupies a notable position in the history of speciUation on other grounds. He presented a curious example of the partial conciliation of Des Cartes, Newton, and Locke ; he inaugurated the impidse which transmuted the system of the last of these great men into the materialism of the French Enci/clajxedia ; he preceded Bonnet, of Geneva, in applying physiolog- ical observation to psychological discussion, and thus became the precursor of Cabanis and Broussais, of Mole- schott and Huxley. He was contemporary with Col- lier, and Berkeley, and Hume, and Eeid. While the two first were undermining the philosophy of Locke by questioning the credibility'of the senses, and Hume was achieving a similar result by impugning the evidences of consciousness, to be imperfectly refuted by Keid's exaggeration of the reliability of external perception. Hartley was still fiu-ther invalidating the authority of Locke by proposing a purely mechanical explanation of the processes of thought. He is thus even more note- worthy for his relations to the revolutions of opinion in the 18th century than for the positive additions he is supposed to have made to the science of the human mind. He was one of the dominant spirits of that agi- tation of the intellectual waters which heralded and produced the poUtical convulsions of the last century. At the same time, he is the link between widely sepa- rated dogmas: furnishing a bond bet\\'een Des Cartes and Stewart ; connecting Locke with Condillac and French sensationalism ; reviving neglected positions of
Aristotle, and prefiguring many of the latest manifesta- tions of scientific materialism.
Life. — The biograpliy of Dr. Hartley is singularly devoid of salient incidents and of general uiterest. He belonged to that mmierous class of very worthy men who run their eminently useful career without exjieri- encing or occasioning violent excitement of any kind. But for his phik)sophical productions, his epitaph might have been \'ir('ns inorieitsqiiefefellit. He was the son of a respectable clergj-man, and was bom Aug. 30, 1705, at Armley, Yorkshire, of which parish his fatlier was vicar. He completed his education at Jesus College, Cambridge, and was designed for the paternal vocation. But he M'as induced to divert his attention to medicme, in consequence ofscruples about subscribing the XXXIX Articles, for religious opinion within the bosom of the Anglican Church was much divided at the time by tlie recent issues of the " Bangoriau Controversy." His experience was frequently repeated in other cases in the ensuing years. He retained, however, the fervent but simple, piety appropriate to his meditated profession, and never withdrew his interest from the subjects which attract the intelhgent theologian. He informs us that tlie seeds of his own doctrine began to genninate when he was twenty-five years of age, though their elabora- tion was not completed till he was more than forty. His views were given to the world in 1749, in a work entitled Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duties, his Expectations. He survived its publication about eight years, and died at Bath Aug. 28, 1757, when within a fortnight of completing his fifty-third year. His life had been expended in the diligent and kindly piu'siut of his calling at Newark, Bury St. Echnimd's, London, and Bath.
Mackintosh and Coleridge, -while presenting diverse ■sdews of Hartley's doctrine, are lavish of. encomiums upon his virtues and purity of character. A very brief and very dry biography was composed by his son, with filial regard and quaint delineation. A few fragments from this recondite production wiU present the philoso- pher "in the habit and manner as he lived." "His person was of middle size, and well proportioned. His complexion fair, his features regular and handsome. His countenance open, ingenuou;?. and animated. He was peculiarly neat in person and attire. He lived in personal intimacy with the learned men of his age," among whom are enumerated Law, bishop of Carlisle ; Butler, bishop of Durham; Warburton, bishop of (ilouces- ter ; Hoadley, successively bishop of Bangor, Hereford, and Winchester ; Pope and Young ; Dr. Jortin and Dr. BjTom; Hawkins, Browne, and Hooke, the forgotten historian of Rome. The list is sufficiently heterogene- ous. " His mind was formed to benevolence and uni- versal philanthropy. His genius was penetrating and active, his industry indefatigable, his philosophical ob- servations and attentions unremitting. His natural temper was gay, cheerful, and sociable. He was ad- dicted to no vice in any part of his Ufe, neither to pride, nor to sensuality, nor intemperance, nor ostentation, nor envy, nor to any sordid self-interest ; but his heart was replete \vith every contrary virtue."