Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/78

 on Mistakes concerning religion, enthusiasm, &c.,' prefixed to his collected sermons, 1754, and dedicated to Lady Huntingdon, and appears further developed in a millenarian treatise, 'Paradise Restored' (1764), including a 'defence of the mystic writers against Warburton,' which Wesley pronounced to be 'ingenious' but not satisfactory. With Swedenborg his acquaintance began about 1769. In that year Swedenborg wrote him a letter, declining an offer of pecuniary aid, and supplying autobiographical particulars. He visited Swedenborg at Cold Bath Fields, in company with [q. v.] In 1770 he published 'A Theosophical Lucubration on the Nature of Influx,' &c, being a translation of Swedenborg's 'De Commercio Animoe et Corporis,' 1769. It was in response to his 'nine questions' that Swedenborg briefly formulated his view of the doctrine of the Trinity. In 1785 appeared his 'Quæstiones Novein de Trinitate &hellip; ad E. Swedenborg propositæ &hellip; turn illius responsa,' &c, 8vo; followed by an English version, 'Nine Queries,' &c, 1786, 8vo (appended to editions of Swedenborg's 'Doctrine &hellip; respecting the Lord'). Hartley paid frequent visits to Swedenborg, but when Swedenborg sent for him in his last illness (March 1772) he 'did not embrace the opportunity,' to his great subsequent regret. He revised and wrote a preface for Cookworthy's translation (1778) of Swedenborg's 'De Coelo &hellip; et de Inferno,' &c, 1758. A letter from him to [q. v.] is inserted in the preface to the translation (1781) of Swedenborg's 'Vera Christiana Religio,' &c, 1771. With the organised society for propagating the doctrines of Swedenborg, started in 1783 by [q. v.], he had no connection. During some part of his life he resided in Hertford, but from the early part of 1772 he lived at East Mailing, Kent, where he died on 10 Dec. 1784, aged 75 (Gent. Mag. 1785, p. 76; and Aurora, 1800, ii. 351; both give the age wrongly). He had considerable learning and wrote well.In addition to the works already mentioned, he published various sermons, and 'God's Controversy with the Nations,' &c, 1750, 8vo.



HARTLIB, SAMUEL (d. 1670?), friend of Milton, was born towards the close of the sixteenth century, probably in Elbing. In a letter which he wrote in 1660 to Dr. John Worthington, the master of Jesus College, Cambridge, he says that his father was a Polish merchant, of a family originally settled in Lithuania, who was a protestant and emigrated to Prussia to escape the persecution of the jesuits. The first and second wives of his father were ‘Polonian gentlewomen,’ but the third, the mother of Samuel, appears to have been the daughter of a wealthy English merchant of Dantzig. His own statements show that he came to this country about 1628, and became nominally a merchant, ‘but in reality a man of various hobbies, and conducting a general news agency.’ Such was his life in 1637, but even then he probably engaged in educational plans also. He introduced the writings of Comenius, and his charity to poor scholars was so profuse that it brought him into actual want. In 1644 Milton addressed to him his treatise on education; the pamphlet is full of praise of Hartlib. In the same year he was summoned as a witness on an unimportant point against Laud (, Works, iv. 314). He published a great number of pamphlets at this time upon education and industrial matters. In 1646 a pension of 100l. a year was conferred upon him by the parliament for his valuable works upon husbandry. Evelyn describes a visit to him in 1655 (Diary, ed. Bray, i. 310), and says: ‘This gentleman was master of innumerable curiosities and very communicative.’ A letter to Boyle (13 May 1658) mentions his ‘very great straits, to say nothing of the continual (almost daily) disbursement for others.’ All the time he was carrying on an extensive correspondence with literary men, both at home and abroad. He was living at one time in Axe Yard, where, no doubt, he became acquainted with Pepys, who several times mentions him, his son, and his daughter Nan. His letters to Boyle indicate that he was in bodily suffering, and Worthington's diary, where he is frequently mentioned, shows that money was forwarded to him from his friends. The parliament paid his pension irregularly.

In the first year of the Restoration, Hartlib wrote to Lord Herbert, son of the Marquis of Worcester, about his ‘most distressed and forsaken condition.’ He petitioned the government for aid, but his relations with the republican party probably prevented his recognition. He appears to have resided at Oxford during the latter part of his life, and to have been intimately acquainted with the small group out of which grew the Royal Society.

In a letter to Worthington dated 14 Feb.