Glanvil Joseph

Glanvil Joseph, an eminent English divine and philosopher, was born at Plymouth in 1636. He graduated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1655, and in 1656 he removed to Lincoln College, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1658. Although a friend of Baxter, at the Restoration he conformed to the Church; he also became a convert to the principles of the Baconian philosophy; and when he had just entered his twenty-fifth year he wrote a treatise in defense of them, under the title of The Vanity of Dogmatizing, or Confidence in Opinions, with An Apology for Philosophy (1661, l2mo). About this time he entered into orders, and was presented to the rectory of Wimbish and to the vicarage of Frome-Selwood. In 1662 he published Lux Orientalis, or an Inquiry into the Opinion of the Eastern Sages concerning the Pre- existence of Souos (12mo). In 1665 he published Scepsis Scientifica, or Confessed Ignorance the Way to Science, a modified edition of The Vanity of Dogmatizing (4to). It was dedicated to the Royal Society, of which he was now chosen a member. Tennemann remarks that in this treatise Glanvil enlarged with ability on the causes of doubt, and applied them to the different departments of science, more particularly the discoveries in physics effected in his own time. His remarks on Causality, in which he coincides with those of Algazel, and appears to have foraestalled Hume, deserve especial attention. "We do not," says he, "detect the existence of any cause immediately by sensational or intuitional perception, but only by mediate representations, and therefore by inference, which may be erroneous." The credit which he had acquired by his writings encouraged him in 1666 to deliver his sentiments upon the subject of witchcraft, the existence of which he endeavored to defend in Some Philosophical Considerations touching the Being of Witches and Witchcraft (Lond. 1666, 4to), an enlarged edition of which was published by Henry More under the title Sadducismus Triumphans (Lond. 1682, 8vo). He wrote also Essays on Subjects in Philosophy and Religion (Lond. 1676, 4to): — Essay concerning Preaching (London, 1678, 12mo), and other smaller works. About this time be was presented to the rectory of the Abbey Church at Bath. He died of fever November 4, 1680. After his death a volume of his Discourses, Sermons, and Remains appeared, edited by Dr. Horfieck, who wrote a eulogy upon him. — Hook, Eccl. Biog. 5:325; Tennemann, Manual Hist. Philos. § 343 Bayle, General Dict. 5:435; Lecky, History of Rationalism, 1:121 sq.