Professor of the "science of things in general," born at Lancaster, son of a joiner; studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became successively fellow, tutor, professor, and master; was a man of varied attainments, of great intellectual and even physical power, and it was of him Sydney Smith said, "Science was his forte and omniscience his foible"; wrote "Astronomy and General Physics in reference to Natural Theology," the "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," the "History of Moral Philosophy," an essay on the "Plurality of Worlds," etc. (1794-1866).