Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/198

 the Conviction of Righteousness, and the Ministry of Reconciliation’ were published in 1859. In 1871 he contributed to the ‘Sussex Archæological Collections’ (vol. xxiv.) an account of St. Mary's Hospital at Chichester. In 1869 the interest which he took in the creeds, shown already in his Hulsean lectures, led him to join with some warmth in the controversy as to the use of the so-called Athanasian creed in divine service. Without in any way impugning its dogmas, he thought a confession of faith so full of technical terms of theology ill fitted for the use of ordinary congregations. On this subject he published a ‘Letter to the Dean of Chichester on the Original Object of the Athanasian Creed,’ 1870, and ‘A Plea for Time in dealing with the Athanasian Creed,’ 1873. These were but preliminaries to a larger and much more important work, ‘The Nicene and Apostles' Creed, their Literary History, together with an Account of the Growth and Reception of the Sermon on the Faith commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius,’ 1875. This was the fruit of great labour and research, involving a long journey on the continent for the purpose of visiting the libraries where the principal ancient manuscripts of the Athanasian ‘Expositio Fidei’ were to be found. In 1875 he also published ‘The Parliamentary History of the Act of Uniformity [of 1662], with Documents not hitherto published;’ in 1880 ‘The Advertisement of 1566, an Historical Enquiry,’ and ‘The Constitution and History of a Cathedral of the Old Foundation, illustrated by Documents in the Muniment-room at Chichester,’ pt. i. (no more published). His last literary production was ‘The Greek Liturgies, chiefly from Original Sources,’ 1884, edited for the syndics of the Cambridge University Press. For this very important work, which, in the opinion of so competent an authority as Professor Harnack, lays a firm foundation for all subsequent critical inquiry into the history of the Greek liturgies, besides the labour which he himself bestowed on collating accessible manuscripts, he procured at his own expense transcripts, facsimiles, or photographs (now deposited in the divinity school at Cambridge) of many manuscripts previously unknown in England. He also wrote elaborate articles on ‘Creeds’ and ‘Liturgies’ in Smith and Cheetham's ‘Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,’ and another article on ‘Creeds considered historically’ in Smith and Wace's ‘Dictionary of Christian Biography.’



SWAINSON, WILLIAM (1789–1855), naturalist, was born on 8 Oct. 1789 at Liverpool, where his father, who died in 1826, was collector of customs. His family had originally been ‘statesmen’ at Hawkhead in Westmoreland; but his grandfather had also been in the Liverpool custom-house. His mother, whose maiden name was Stanway, died soon after his birth. At fourteen he was appointed junior clerk in the Liverpool customs; but, to gratify his longing for travel, his father obtained him a post in the commissariat, and in the spring of 1807 he was sent to Malta, and shortly afterwards to Sicily, where he was mainly stationed during the eight following years. Before going abroad he drew up, at the request of the authorities of the Liverpool museum, the ‘Instructions for Collecting and Preserving Subjects of Natural History’ (privately printed, Liverpool, 1808), which was afterwards expanded in 1822 into his ‘Naturalist's Guide’ (London, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1824). While in Sicily he made large collections of plants, insects, shells, fish, and drawings of natural history objects, visiting the Morea, Naples, Tuscany, and Genoa. On the conclusion of peace in 1815 he brought his collections to England, and retired on half-pay as assistant commissary-general. In the autumn of 1816 he started for Brazil with Henry Koster. A revolution prevented their penetrating far into the interior, and Swainson devoted himself mainly to collecting birds in the neighbourhood of Olinda, the Rio San Francisco, and Rio de Janeiro. Returning to Liverpool in 1818, he published a sketch of his journey in the ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ and devoted himself to working out his zoological materials. At the suggestion of his friend [q. v.] of the British Museum, he learnt lithography, so as to make drawings of animals suitable for colouring, and in 1820 began the publication of ‘Zoological Illustrations,’ in which the plates are by himself (3 vols. 1820–3, with 182 coloured plates; 2nd ser. 3 vols. 1832–3). After five years' residence in London, Swainson went, on his marriage in 1825, to live with his father-in-law at Warwick, and, not receiving as large an access of fortune as he had expected on the death of his own father in 1826, he adopted authorship as a profession. He partly revised the entomology in Loudon's ‘Encyclopædia of Agriculture and Gardening,’ and arranged a companion encyclopædia of zoology. This plan was, however, merged in Lardner's ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia,’ to which Swainson contributed eleven volumes from his own pen, published between 1834 and