A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

John McClintock & James Strong • SECTION 816

Section 816

← McClintock & Strong Cyclopaedia — Volume 6

I edness of the divine life." It is truly said by TuUoch ' that, "while More was no hero, eitlier in thought or in } deed — his speculations were too transcendental and his life too retired for this — he yet comes before us a singu- larly beautiful, benign, and noble character — one of those higher spirits who help us to feel the divine pre&- ' ence on earth, and to believe in its reality." His works were published in 1G79, in 3 vols, folio; his philosoiihi- cal writings in 1G62, folio (4th ed. 1712) ; his tlieiilogical works in lG7o, folio. An analytical catalogue of all his works may be found in Cattermole's Literature of the Church of Knrjlund, and also in Tulloch's Rat. Theology, from which we extract this view of More as a writer: "More, still more than Cudworth, repeats himself, add- ing prefaces and appendices to what he has already written, and returning again and again upon the same track of thought. The germ, in fact, of most of his speculations may be traced in his early Philosophical Poems, His genius in one sense was singularly fecund. Work after work sprang with easy luxuriance from his pen. But his writings do not exhibit any clear growth ■ or sj-stem of ideas, unfolding themselves gradually, and ' maturing to a more comprehensive rationality. This lack of method is more or less characteristic of the school. Not only so, in his later productions there is rather a decay than an increase and enrichment of the rational element. To enter into any exposition of his cabalistical studies, of his discovery of Cartesianism in the first chapters of Genesis, and his favorite notion of all true philosophers descending from jMoses through Pythagoras and Plato; and, still more, to touch his pro- phetical theories — the divine science which he finds in the dream of Ezekiel or the visions of the Apocalypse — would be liibor thrown away, unless to illustrate the I weakness of human genius, or the singular absurdities j which beset the progress of knowledge, even in its most ' favorable stages. The supposition that all higher wis- dom and speculation were derived originally from Mo- ses and the Hebrew Scriptures, and that it was confir- matory both of the truth of Scripture and the results of philosophy to make out this traditionary connection, was widely prevalent in the 17th centurj-. It was warmly supported and elaborately argued by some of the most acute and learned intellects. Uoth Cudworth and More profoundly believed in this connection. But this was only one of many instances of their lack of critical and historical judgment. Historical criticism, in the modern sense, was not even then dreamed of; and it is needless to consider forgotten delusions which have perished, rather with the common growth of reason than by the force of any s])ecial genius or discovery" (ii, 351- 353). See his Prcrfalio Generalissima prefixed to his Opera Omnia (1G79) ; ^^■a^d, Life of Henry More (Lond. 1710, 8vo) ; Burnet, Ilist. of his own Times; Tulloch, Rational Theol. and Christian Philos. in Em/lavd in the nth Centui-y (Lond. 1872, 2 vols. 8vo), ii, 303-409 ; JIul- linger, Cambridge Characteristics in the Yith Ctntui-y (Lond. 18G7, 8vo), ch. iv : Tennemaim. //t.-7. /'////. p. 302, 321 ; Morell, Hist. Mod. Philos. p. 208, 21 1 sq. ; Stough- ton, Eccles. Hist, ii, 385, 454, 482-485 ; Hallam, Introd. to Lit. (see Index in vol. ii, Harper's edition) ; Knficld, Hist. Phil. bk. viii, ch. iii, sec. 3; Theodore Parker, in Christian Eraminer, vol. xxvi, art. 1 : xxvii, 48 sq. ; Ret- rospective Per. vol. V ( 1 822). ( J. H . W.)

More, sir Thomas, the noted chancellor of king Henry Ylll of ICngland. celebrated for the part he played in tlu' poljiiial and ecclesiastical history of his country and for tlie philosophical views he espoused, I was the son of Sir .lohn More, one of the justices of the I Court of King's Hench. Thomas was born in London in ; 1480 (some say 1479, others again 1484 ), and was edu- i cated at St. .Anthony's School in Threaihieedle Street until about his fifteenth year, when he was jilaced, ac- cording to the custom of the times, in the house of car- dinal Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, where lie be- came known loColet, dean of St. Paul's, who used to say " there was but one wit in England, and that was young

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