ers worked by Mechanical
Powers and Motions,' subdivided, according to that distinction, into two
books, styled Archimedes and Daedalus. The names are quaint, and the
classical illustrations are very numerous. The work is a kind of
handbook for engineers, enlivened by quotations, not always apposite,
from ancient authors, as was the fashion when high literary culture and
science could be more easily combined than in our days of ruthless
specialism. It is dedicated in very courtly language to the Prince
Elector Palatine. Wilkins looks forward to the Prince's restoration to
his dominions--a curious aspiration to be professed by a man who did
not, then at least, put his trust in princes. But he did not foresee
what was to come, both to himself or others.

His two books of a devotional character were, one on 'The Gift of
Prayer,' a formal and elaborate treatise with many divisions and
subdivisions, in spirit earnest and devout. Its companion treatise,
'Ecclesiastes; or the Gift of Preaching,' shows a high conception of the
learning which he thought necessary for one who would preach well;
knowledge of commentators; of preachers, especially of English
sermon-writers; of works on Christian doctrine, on the history of
Christianity; of all subjects which can be included in Theology. The
list of books recommended is enormous, and beyond the reach of any
man--even of Wilkins or Casaubon: it must have been intended to be a
work of reference, a catalogue from which a student might select. It,
like his 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' is illumined by quaint
utterances, humorous, sensible, and devout; qualities more frequently
combined in those days than in our own, when the "dignity of the
pulpit," a lamentable superstition, has weakened its influence, and has
made religion appear to simple people remote from common life.

Wilkins' most original and valuable contribution to Theology is 'The
Principles and Duties of Natural Religion,' written in his later years,
and published after his death by Tillotson. Mr Sanders, the writer of
the too short article on Wilkins in the 'Dictionary of National
Biography,' says that "in this work there are thoughts which anticipate
the argument of Butler's 'Analogy.'" Wilkins, like Butler and Newman,
draws distinctions between different kinds of evidence and different
degrees of consequent assent. He points out that neither Natural
Religion nor Christianity can be proved true by demonstration