on for him,
made him a man of mark and influence in his day. Read by the learned,
courted by statesmen, he taught gentlemen liberality, and governments
toleration. The influence of Hume, silent and inappreciable to the
multitude, has been of the utmost importance to the nation. His works
have been studied by philosophers, politicians, and prelates. The
writings of no Freethinker, except Voltaire, have maintained their
ground with continually increasing reputation. Oddly enough, none
of Hume's works were popular when they first appeared. In fact, his
"Treatise on Human Nature" he had to reprint in the form of Essays, five
years after its first publication. It then, for the first time, began to
be bought; but not to any great extent. Five years later, he again
made it re-appear, under the form of an "Inquiry Concerning the Human
Understanding." It was not until this third publication that he "began
to perceive symptoms of its coming into notice." The world has since
made up for its negligence, by perpetual comment and solid appreciation.
A king among thinkers, the clergy have in the provinces of politics and
philosophical speculation to acknowledge allegiance to him, however they
may rebel against his theological heresies.

J. W.

DR. THOMAS BURNET

It was only a very narrow accident which prevented Dr. Burnet, an
ultra Freethinker in the Church of England, from becoming Archbishop of
Canterbury at the death of Tillotson. A combination of clergymen were
prepared to immolate themselves providing Burnet could be overthrown.
They succeeded. Thomas Burnet kept the Charter House, in London, and
his conscience--happier, perhaps, in this than if he had enjoyed the
ecclesiastical preferment which King William seemed so anxious to give
him. Amongst the clergy, Dr. Burnet was, with the single exception of
Dean Swift, the greatest Freethinker of whom we can boast, who held an
influential position in the Church. This position is sometimes claimed
for Bishop Berkeley, a man of vast talents, a sincere Christian,
although an innovator in philosophy.

Thomas Burnet was born in the year 1635. At the age of forty-five,
he published the work, in Latin, with which his name is generally
associated, "The Sacred Theory of the Earth: containing an account of
the Original of the Earth, and of all the general changes which it
has already undergone, or is to undergo, till the consummation of all
Things." This book gives us an idea, forme