Clarke, DR SAMUEL, an eminent philosopher and theologian, was born at Norwich, October 11, 1675, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge. The system of Descartes at that time held almost universal sway; but this failing to satisfy his mind, he, as was to be expected, adopted the views of his friend Newton, and expounded them in the notes to his edition of Rohault's Physics. Along with philosophy he pursued the study of theology and philology. Chaplain from 1698 to Bishop Moore of Norwich, in 1706 he became chaplain to Queen
Anne, and in 1709 rector of St James's, Westminster. By his work on the Trinity (1712), in which he denied that that doctrine was held by the early church, he raised a violent and protracted controversy (in which Waterland was his chief opponent). The upper house of Convocation, desirous of avoiding controversy, rested content with an explanation, anything but satisfactory, and a promise from Clarke to be silent for the future on that subject. His views were of the kind known as Semi-Arian (see ARIUS). For the rest, Clarke was a vigorous antagonist of the Deists of his time; he wrote against materialism, empiricism, and necessitarianism; and against Dodwell maintained the essential immortality of the soul. He taught that the fundamental truths of morals, arising out of the fitness or unfitness of certain relations, were as absolutely certain as the truths of mathematics. Space and time he held to be attributes of an infinite and immaterial being. His most famous work is Discourse concerning the Being and Attributes of God, originally the Boyle Lectures of 1704-5. They were expressly in answer to Hobbes, Spinoza, Blount, and other freethinkers, and contained the famous and elaborate demonstration of the existence of God, often, but inaccurately, called an a priori argument, on which his fame as a theologian largely rests. At the instigation of the Princess of Wales, Clarke entered into a keen correspondence with Leibnitz on space and time, and their relations to God, and on moral freedom. This correspondence was published under the title of Collection of Papers which passed between Dr Clarke and Mr Leibnitz (1717). He was not merely a keen dialectician and a man of great strength of mind, but was possessed of great general ability. He published several collections of much admired sermons and innumerable pamphlets, besides a posthumous Exposition of the Church Catechism and a beautiful edition of Cæsar (1712); that of Homer (1729-32) was completed by his son. He died 17th May 1729. A collected edition of his works appeared in 4 vols. (1738-42), with a Life by Hoaddy. His friend Whiston also wrote a Life (1741).