Literary Notes.

Modern Logicians.

REV. EDWARD TATHAM, D.D.,

Author of "The Chart and Scale of Truth."

THE Rev. John Bampton, M.A. (1689-1751), Canon of Salisbury, founder of the "Lectures which bear his name, has made the world his debtor for a large amount of intellectual effort, of a learned and valuable sort, directed towards the furtherance of a philosophical theology. He gave his lands and estates in trust to the University of Oxford-at Trinity College in which he was himself educated-for the endowment for ever of "eight divinity lecture-sermons, to be delivered annually in Great St. Mary's Church, between the commencement of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term." The several purposes, one or other of which is to be kept specially in view by the Bampton lecturers, are stated in his will as follows:-"To confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics; upon the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures; upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers as to the faith and practice of the primitive church; upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost; upon the Articles of the Christian faith, as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds." To secure ability and originality, he stipulated that each lecturer should be at least a Master of Arts of Oxford or Cambridge, and that the same person should "never preach the divinity lecture-sermons twice." The appointment of the lecturer is vested in the Heads of Colleges only; and thirty copies at least are to be printed at the expense of the lands and estates, and disposed of in such a way-described in the will-as to secure their preservation for reference, &c.; and the fulfilment of this condition is guarded by the provision that "the preacher shall not be paid, nor entitled to the revenue, before they are printed." A few of the courses of Bampton Lectures have only been so printed as to fulfil the condition of the founder's will, and are hence scarce and rare; but the greater number have been made available to many readers by a wider publication.

The Bampton Lectures were commenced in 1780, at which time the clear annual income of the founder's estate amounted to £120; and they have been continued yearly-with but four exceptions, we think-up till the present time. From the first appointment, held by James Bandinell, D.D., of Jesus College, who lectured on "The Doctrines of Christianity," the list of preachers has been 1866.

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enriched with the names of some of the ripest thinkers among modern theologians; e. g., G. S. Faber, Reginald Heber, Richard Whately. Henry H. Milman, R. D. Hampden, Edward Hawkins, Samuel Wilberforce, E. M. Goulburn, H. L. Mansel, W. Thomson, J. A. Hessey, &c. Not the least remarkable of these interesting and valuable manuals of Christian evidence and controversial divinity was that delivered by Dr. Edward Tatham in 1790, on "The Logic of Theology," a series of discourses in which he initiated, as Professor Spalding thought, "a system of logic that cannot be too diligently studied by the inquirer who would travel by the straight road to the temple of science." This treatise, when published, was presented to Dr. Thomas Reid, and elicited from him the following favourable opinion:-" You call it very justly a new logic, and I think it is a sound logic; tracing distinctly the different regions of human knowledge, and pointing out the first principles, the kind of evidence and method of reasoning, proper to each.' Of a book which could afford "pleasure and instruction" to the illustrious philosopher of common sense, and which originated at Oxford a school of philosophical theologians which has successively endeavoured to consociate the higher science of the day with the doctrines of the divine Teacher, we think our readers would like to know something; and of the man whose vigour of thought was such as to enable him to open up a new pathway in Christian philosophy, in which Faber, Whately, Hampden, and Mansel have not scorned to walk after him, some account can scarcely fail to be interesting. The materials, indeed, are scanty; for it is a sad fact that the great thinkers of our race attract little notice, and the memorials of their lives, in doing and suffering, have often passed away before society has so far advanced as to be interested in their thoughts, and curiously regarding what manner of men they were from their youth up.

The present writer carried home with him once, in consequence of a casual hint thrown out by the professor of logic in his university, a copy of "The Chart and Scale of Truth," which had been only thrice removed from the library shelves in thirty years. He was much struck even then, on a hasty perusal, with the originality, profundity, and sagacity of the book, and called the attention of several of his fellow-students to the superiority of that work to some others of much higher note and wider popularity. Few, however, cared to read an author not recognized in the schools or serviceable at examinations, and the work retained its place on the library shelf long afterwards undisturbed. But the memory of the book was with us frequently, and we looked in the biographical dictionaries and cyclopædias for his name, that we might learn somewhat of his life, character, reputation, and worth; but our search was vain. Edward Tatham seemed to be an almost overlooked thinker. In the shop of the late William Pickering, Piccadilly, London, we mentioned our curiosity and annoyance, and that intelligent publisher brought under our notice a new and enlarged

edition of the work, which he had published about a dozen years before, of which the sale had been slow, and of which he had yet a few copies on hand. We made ourselves possessors of a copy, and have since found that the work bears out our early estimate of its value and interest. We are desirous of rescuing his name from the apparent and altogether undeserved oblivion into which it has fallen, and of writing in our list of "Modern Logicians" Edward Tatham, D.D., as one who has done good service to thought, and is worthy of the gratitude, respect, and admiration of thoughtful men. Those who read will, of course, judge whether we have rightly estimated the man and his book, if we succeed in our endeavour to compose an outline of his life, and produce an abstract of his "Lectures read before the University of Oxford." Edward Tatham, son of James Tatham, a gentleman of some property in land and tenements, was born in the parish of Sedberg, in the west division of the wapentake of Staincliff and Ewcross, in Yorkshire, 1st Oct., 1749. The small market town which forms the capital of the parish is situated in a sheltered and fertile vale, among the rugged mountains of the Pennine hill-range in the north-west corner of the county. In this village Roger Lupton, D.D., Provost of Eton, in the reign of Edward VI. founded and endowed a free grammar school, governed "by twelve men of the more discreet and honest inhabitants of the said town," with the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, as visitors having the power of appointing the master. This school is "free, without restriction, for all boys properly qualified to enter upon an education in grammatical learning.' To this school, when "properly qualified," Edward Tatham was sent; and he had the good fortune there to be placed under the training of the Rev. Dr. Bateman, a very learned and highly respectable schoolmaster, who was notable for the excellence and fulness of his Latin and Greek phrase-books, for the uncommon care he took to explain difficult and illustrate beautiful passages in classical authors, and for the constant industry with which he added to his own stores of information, and imparted instruction to his pupils. A grateful sense of Dr. Bateman's merits was entertained by many of his pupils-among others, by John Haygarth, M.D., author of several able professional treatises, Dr. King, Bishop of Rochester, and Edward Tathamupwards of half a century after their school days were over, and this induced them to project the publication of their old master's carefully compiled phrase-books, as a monument "highly honourable to the memory of so excellent a schoolmaster."

After a complete and thorough classical training under this erudite and amiable preceptor, Edward Tatham proceeded, in 1769, to Queen's College, Oxford, then under the headship of Thomas Fothergill, who conjoined with the provostship of Queen's the office of Prebendary of Durham Cathedral. Fothergill and his younger brother-celebrated as a physician-had been educated at Sedberg school, a circumstance which probably-combined with

his superior classical attainments-influenced Edward Tatham to go to Queen's College, Oxford, rather than to St. John's, Cambridge, at which latter there were eight scholarships and two fellowships open to "students who should come instructed from the school of Sedberg."

About this time Oxford was undergoing one of its revivals of logic-revivals with which the names of Sanderson, Fell, Wallis, and Aldrich had been associated, and which Dr. Edward Bentham was then endeavouring to renew. When Dr. Bentham was an academical tutor, he published (1755) "Reflections upon Logic," and he had written for private use among his pupils, " An Introduction to Logic." This he had issued shortly after his appointment (1763) as Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, with a preface addressed "to the conductors of juvenile studies in that university." Edward Tatham's excellent knowledge of Greek would naturally incline him to such studies as the Hellenic thinkers had most fully elaborated. His acquaintance with the works of Aristotle was very intimate and ready, and it is quite evident that he had read with great care many of the best treatises on philosophy, not only of ancient but of scholastic times, while his knowledge of the works of Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Newton, and other modern philosophers, was not only profound but discriminating. The influences of his times suited his tastes, and he pursued his logical studies with zeal and ardour. In 1774 he graduated, and took deacon's orders in 1776. After passing an interval of probation of two years he accepted of priest's orders in 1778, and in the same year published his earliest literary production, viz., "An Essay on Journal Poetry,"—a critique on the verses which appeared in the magazine literature of his age-a literature which, from the commencement of Cave's Gentleman's Magazine, 1731, has commended itself to the general public, and which, of course, afforded a good field for the exercise of keen critical disquisition.

Shortly after taking priest's orders Tatham, though still resident at Queen's College, Oxford, undertook the curacy of the parish of Banbury, about twenty-three miles distant. A fire which occurred at Queen's in 1779, and committed considerable ravages on the buildings, also consumed a goodly number of Edward Tatham's books and many of his manuscripts. Luckily, however, he had then in the printer's hands the materials for a volume of sermons, which were issued, in 1780, with an affectionate dedication to his father. They were entitled, "Twelve Discourses, introductory to the Study of Divinity," and were spoken of as thoughtful and meritorious productions at the time of their publication, although their fame has not survived the ordeal of age-except among professional theologians. In 1781 he was elected Fellow of Lincoln College, and almost immediately thereafter became acting tutora position for which he had diligently prepared himself. As a tutor he acquired great popularity; and gradually became marked out as one of the most erudite and original men of the time.