CLARITY, n. s. Fr. clarté; Lat. claritas. Brightness; splendor. A light by abundant clarity invisible; an understanding which itself can only comprehend. Sir Walter Raleigh. Man was not only deceivable in his integrity, but the angels of light in all their clarity. Browne's Vulgar Errours. CLARK (John), a useful critic and commentator of the last century, was the master of a grammar-school at Hull in Yorkshire, where he died May 1734. His publications are: An Essay on the Education of Youth in GrammarSchools; An Essay on Study, to which is suboined an arranged catalogue of books; the Foundation of Morality considered; On Moral Religion; An Examination of Middleton's Answer to Christianity as old as the Creation; An Introduction to making Latin; and editions of several Latin authors with Translations. CLARKE (Samuel), D. D. a preacher and writer of considerable note in the reign of Charles II. was, during the inter-regnum, and at the time of the ejection, minister of St. Bennet Fink, in London. In November, 1660, he, in the name of the presbyterian ministers, presented an address of thanks to the king for his declaration of liberty of conscience. He was one of the commissioners of the Savoy, and behaved on that occasion with great prudence and moderation. He attended the church as a hearer and communicant; and was much esteemed by all that knew him for his probity and industry. The most valuable of his numerous works are said to be his Lives of the Puritan Divines and other persons of note, twenty-two of which are printed in his Martyrology; the rest are in his Lives of sundry Eminent Persons in this latter Age, folio, and in his Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, in folio and 4to. He died in 1680. CLARKE (Samuel), D.D., a very celebrated English divine, was the son of Edward Clarke, Esq., alderman and M.P. of Norwich. He was born at Norwich, October 11th, 1675, and in structed in classical learning at the free school of that town. In 1691 he removed to Caius College, Cambridge, where his abilities soon began to display themselves. Though the Cartesian was at that time the established philosophy of the University, Clarke quickly made himself master of the new system of Newton; and, in order to his first degree of arts, performed a public exercise in the schools upon a question taken from it. He contributed much to the establishment of the Newtonian philosophy by an excellent translation of Rohault's Physics, with notes, which he finished before he was twenty-two years of age. This work was first printed in 1697, 8vo. There were four successive editions of it, in every one of which improvements were made, especially in the last, in 1718, which was translated by Dr. John Clarke, dean of Sarum, the author's brother, and published in two volumes 8vo. He afterwards turned his thoughts to divinity, and studied the Old Testament in Hebrew, the New in Greek, and the primitive Christian writers. Having taken orders, he became chaplain to bishop Moore, who was ever after his friend and patron. In 1699 he published Three Practical Essays on Baptism, Confirmation, and Repentance, and Some Reflections on that part of a Book called Amyntor, or a Defence of Milton's Life, which relates to the Writings of the Primitive Fathers, and the Canon of the New Testament. In 1701 he published A Paraphrase upon the Gospel of St. Matthew; which was followed, in 1702, by the Paraphrases upon the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke, and soon after by a third volume, upon St. John. They were afterwards printed together in two volumes 8vo.; and have since passed through several editions. Bishop Moore now appointed him to the rectory of Drayton, near Norwich, and procured for him a parish in that city. In 1704 he was appointed to preach Boyle's lecture, and the subject he chose was, The Being and Attributes of God. In this he gave such high satisfaction, that he was appointed to the same lecture the next year; when he chose for his subject, The Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion. These sermons were first printed in two distinct volumes, the former in 1705, the latter in 1706. They have since been united in one volume, under the general title of A Discourse concerning the Being and Attributes of God, the Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation, in answer to Hobbes, Spinoza, the author of the Oracles of Reason, and other Deniers of Natural and Revealed Religion. Clarke having endeavoured, in the first part of this work, to show that the being of a God may be demonstrated by arguments, à priori, incurred the censure of Pope in the Dunciad. But the merit of this work is un doubtedly great. The defence, in particular, of the sacred original and authority of Christianity, is admirably conducted. In 1706 he published A Letter to Mr. Dodwell; wherein all the arguments in his epistolary discourse against the immortality of the soul are particularly answered. Clarke's letter to Dodwell was soon followed by four defences of it in four several letters to him, containing Remarks on a pretended Demonstra tion of the Immateriality and Natural Immortality of the Soul, &c. They were afterwards all printed together, and the Answer to Toland's Amyntor added to them. In the midst of all these labors he found time to show his regard to mathematical and physical science; and his capacity for these studies was not a little improved by the friendship of Sir Isaac Newton, at whose request he translated his Optics into Latin, in 1706. Sir Isaac was so highly pleased with this version, that he presented him with the sum of £500. This year also, bishop Moore, who had long formed a design of fixing him more conspicuously, procured for him the rectory of St. Bennet's, London; and soon after carried him to court, and recommended him to the favor of queen Anne. She appointed him one of her chaplains in ordinary, and presented him to the rectory of St. James's, Westminster, in 1709. Upon his advancement to this station he took the degree of D.D. when the public exercise which he performed for it at Cambridge was much admired. The questions he maintained were: 1. Nullum fidei Christianæ dogma, in sacris Scripturis traditum, est rectæ rationi dissentaneum, i. e. No article of the Christian faith, delivered in the Holy Scriptures, is disagreeable to right reason. 2. Sine actionum humanarum libertate nulla potest esse religio; that is, Without the liberty of human actions there can be no religion. The same year he revised and corrected Whiston's translation of the Apostolical Constitutions into English. In 1712 he published a beautiful edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, adorned with elegant sculptures. It was printed in folio; and afterwards, in 1720, 8vo. It was dedicated to the duke of Marlborough. In the annotations he selected the best and most judicious in former editions, interspersed with corrections of his own. The same year, 1712, Dr. Clarke published his celebrated book entitled, The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, &c. divided into three parts. The first is a collection and explication, on the Arian hypothesis, of all the texts in the New Testament, relating to the doctrine of the Trinity; in the second the doctrine is set forth at large, and explained in particular and distinct propositions; and in the third, the principal passages of the liturgy of the church of England, relating to the doctrine of the Trinity, are considered. This work naturally made its author obnoxious to the ecclesiastical powers, and his book was complained of by the Lower House of Convocation. The doctor drew up a preface, and afterwards gave in several explanations, which seemed to satisfy the Upper House; at least the affair was not brought to any issue, the members appearing desirous to prevent dissentions. But shortly afterwards his alteration of the doxology in the singing psalms at St. James's excited still more animadversion. The bishop of London prohibited the use of the altered version in his diocese. In 1715 and 1710 he had a dispute with the celebrated Leibnitz, relating to the principles of natural philosophy and religion; and a collection of the papers which passed between mem was published in 1717. About this time, he was presented by lord Lechmere, the chan cellor of the duchy of Lancaster, to the mastership of Wigston's hospital in Leicester. In 1724 he published seventeen much admired sermons. In 1727, upon the death of Sir Isaac Newton, be was offered by the court the place of master of the mint, worth from £1200 to £1500 a year. But this, being a secular preferment, he absolutely refused. In 1728 was published, a Letter from Dr. Clarke to Mr. Benjamin Hoadly, F.R.S. occasioned by the controversy, relating to the proportion of Velocity and Force in Bodies in motion; and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 401. In 1729 appeared the first twelve books of Homer's Iliad, in 4to. The Latin version is almost entirely new; and annotations are added to it. The year of this publication was the last of this great man's life. Though not robust, he had always enjoyed a firm state of health, without any indisposition that confined him, except the small pox in his youth; till, on Sunday, May 11th, 1729, going out in the morning to preach before the judges at Serjeant's Inn, he was seized with a pain in his side, which quickly became so violent, that he was obliged to be carried home. He went to bed, and thought himself so much better in the afternoon, that be would not suffer himself to be blooded. But the pain returning violently about two the next morning, he lingered until Saturday, the seventeenth, when he died, in his fifty-fourth year. Soon after were published, from his original MSS. by his brother, Dr. John Clarke, An Exposition of the Church Catechism, and ten volumes of sermons, in 8vo. Few discourses are more jadicious or equally instructive. Three years after the doctor's death also appeared in 4to. the Last Twelve Books of the Iliad. Dr. Clarke married Catharine, the daughter of the Rev. Alt. Lockwood, rector of Little Missingham, in Norfolk, with whom he lived happy till his death; and by whom he had seven children. His widow received a pension of £100 per annum from queen Caroline. As a critic, particularly upon Homer, as a classical scholar, and an acute reasoner, Dr. Clarke's name will be long revered: in private life he is said to have been a most upright, kind, and amiable man; but his leading theological sentiments were clearly not those of the church in which he remained. CLARKE (William), an English divine, was born at Haghmon-abbey, in Shropshire, 1696; and after a grammar education at Shrewsbury School, was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, of which he was elected fellow, January 17th, 1716; B. A. 1731, and M. A. 1735. He was presented by archbishop Wake, in 1724, to the rectory of Buxted, in Sussex, at the recommendation of Dr. Wotton, whose daughter he married. In 1738 he was made prebendary and residentiary of the cathedral church of Chichester. Some years before this he had given a specimen of his literary abilities, in a preface to Dr. Wotton's Leges Walliæ Ecclesiasticae et Civiles Hoeli Boni, et Aliorum Walliæ Principum; or Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of Howel Dha, and other princes of Wales. But Mr. Clarke's chief work was The Connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins; deducing the Antiquities, Customs, and Manners of each People to Modern Times; particularly the Origin of Did he, who thus inscribed the wall, CLARKE (Henry), LL.D., a professor of mathematics, was born at Salford, near Manchester, and educated as a land surveyor. On the formation of the Manchester Philosophical Society, his Lecture in Natural and Experimental Philosophy first brought him before the public. He removed in 1802 to the Military College at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, as mathematical professor ere, and published various treatises, viz. An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning; a Dissertation on Perspective, 8vo.; another On Circulating Numbers, 8vo.; and a third On Stenography; Tabula Linguarum, or Grammars of most of the Modern European Languages; The Seaman's Desiderata, or Rules for Finding the Longitude at Sea; an Introduction to Geography, 12mo.; Virgil Revindicated, in answer to bishop Horsley, 4to.; Rules for Clearing the Lunar Distances from a Star or the Sun; and a translation from the Latin, entitled, The Summatim of Series, 4to. He died at Islington, April 30th, 1818. CLARKE (Edward Daniel,) LL. D., a celebrated divine, and traveller of modern times, and professor of mineralogy in the university of Cambridge, was the second son of the Rev. Edward Clarke, and born in 1767. He was entered at Jesus College, Cambridge, of which society he became a fellow in 1794, and took the degree of A. M. He accompanied lord Berwick soon afterwards to Italy, and in 1799 set out with his friend Mr. Cripps on a tour through Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Russia, Tartary, Circassia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Greece, and Turkey; returning in 1802 through Germany and France, and enriched the public libraries and institutions of his alma mater by a variety of contributions, among which was a MS. of Plato's works, and a noble statue of the Eleusinian Ceres. The British Museum was indebted to him also for the acquisition of the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, which he discovered in the possession of the French troops in Egypt, and procured to be surrendered to our army. He commenced at Cambridge, in 1806, a course of lectures on mineralogy, and in 1808 obtained the endowment and a professorship for the encouragement of that science. Soon after his return he was presented to the rectory of Harlton in Cambridgeshire, and discharged with great assiduity his duties as a parish priest. He became even eminent as a preacher and public speaker; and was conspicuous as a warm advocate of the establishment of a Bible Society at Cambridge. His works are: Testimony of Different Authors respecting the Colossal Statue of Ceres, placed in the Vestibule of the Public Library at Cambridge, with an Account of its removal from Eleusis, 8vo. 1801-3; The Tomb of Alexander, a Dissertation on the Sarcophagus brought from Alexandria, and now in the British Museum, 4to, 1805; A Methodical Distribution of the Mineral Kingdom, folio, 1807; A Letter to the Gentlemen of the British Museum, 4to, 1807; A Description of the Greek Marbles brought from the Shores of the Euxine, Archipelago, and Mediterranean, and deposited in the Vestibule of the University Library, Cambridge, 8vo. 1809; Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa; part I. containing Russia, Tartary, and Turkey, 4to, 1810; Part II. containing Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, section 1, 4to, 1812, section 2, 1814; and a Letter to Herbert Marsh, D. D. in Reply to Observations in his Pamphlet on the British and Foreign Bible Society, 8vo. 1811. Dr. Clarke died March 9th, 1821, in Pall Mall, and was buried on the 18th with public honors in the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge. CLARKE (Adam), LL. D, F. S. A., and M. R. I. A., an eminent divinity scholar, and also conspicuous for the extent of his attainments in oriental languages and literature. He was born in the town of Moyheg, in the county of Londonderry, in Ireland, in what year is not exactly known; and, at the age of fourteen, was placed by his parents with Mr. Bennet, manufacturer of linen, a trade the most lucrative and respectable in that part of the kingdom. The comprehensive mind of this future great man did not bear either long or patiently the restriction to a single object, however honorable; and, returning home to the care and instruction of a pious and excellent mother, he was shortly after invited to enter as a pupil of Kingswood school, by the amiable founder of Methodism, John Wesley. This was after his own heart; and from this date he appears to have surrendered himself, in the most entire manner, to the cultivation of his mind, for the sole object of pursuing his pious and then arduous ministry. Here, too, he laid the foundation of that great knowledge he subsequently erected in ancient classics and oriental languages, in which he was his own instructor; and it was during his continuance at Kingswood that he first became possessed of a Hebrew grammar, which he purchased from the savings of a very slender allowance. His literary ambition, and the manly spirit with which he pursued the acquisition of knowledge, are strongly marked in the motto he selected for his guidance while he was yet a youth; it was-"Through desire, a man |