COLLIBER, SAMUEL (fl. 1718–1737), author, published in 1727 'Columna Rostrata,' a naval history, more especially of the Dutch wars of the previous century, for which it is often referred to as a contemporary authority. This, of course, it is not; but notwithstanding its unsatisfactory brevity, it has an unwonted value from the fact of its author being familiar with Dutch and French, and having examined the works of writers in those languages. A second edition was published in 1742. Colliber wrote also a number of semi-religious, or rather pantheistic tracts, including 'An Impartial Enquiry into the Existence and Nature of God' (1718, 8vo, 230 pp.), which ran through several editions; 'Free Thoughts concerning Souls' (1734, 8vo); and 'The Known God, or the Author of Nature unveiled' (1737, 8vo). They display considerable ingenuity of argument, the style of which, as well as occasional illustrations, shows him to have had some knowledge of mathematics and to have been not unacquainted with Latin and Greek.
Nothing is known of him except what little is gathered from his writings. Though he wrote on religious subjects, he was not a clergyman; and though he wrote on naval subjects he was not a seaman. He may possibly have served for some little time in the navy as a volunteer, or more probably as a schoolmaster.
[Colliber's Works.]
COLLIER, ARTHUR (1680–1732), metaphysician, was born 12 Oct. 1680 at Langford Magna, Wiltshire, a family living which had been held by his great-grandfather. His grandfather, Henry Collier, succeeded and was ejected under the Commonwealth (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 227). Two of Henry Collier's sons were transported to Jamaica for their share in Penruddocke's rising at Salisbury. The rector returned upon the Restoration, and, dying in 1672, was succeeded by his son Arthur. Arthur's third and eldest surviving son, also named Arthur, was entered at Pembroke College, Oxford, in July 1697, and on 22 Oct. 1698 migrated to Balliol, of which his younger brother William became a member at the same time. Their father had died 10 Dec. 1697; the living was held for a time by Francis Eyre, brother of Chief-justice Eyre, until Arthur Collier, having taken priest's orders, was instituted upon his mother s presentation in 1704. He held it until his death.
Arthur and his brother William had been deeply interested in metaphysical studies. William had carefully analysed Descartes, Malebranche, and Norris of Bemerton, whose 'Theory of the Ideal World' (1701-4) is highly praised by Collier. Collier at an early age reached a conclusion in striking coincidence with Berkeley's doctrine. In 1713 he published his 'Clavis Universalis, or a new Inquiry after Truth, being a demonstration of the non-existence or impossibility of an external world.' Collier's statement (Clavis, p. 1) that he had waited for ' ten years ' before publishing, and the existence of a manuscript essay dated January 1708, prove his independence of Berkeley, whose 'Theory of Vision 'appeared in 1709. Collier's treatise is by comparison dry and jejune. It was translated into German by Eschenbach in 1756, privately printed at Edinburgh in 1836, and is reprinted in the ' Metaphysical Tracts ' (1837) prepared for the press by Samuel Parr. Collier, like Berkeley, brought his opinions before Samuel Clarke, and received a 'learned and civil answer' (Benson, p. 40). He remained unknown, however, though he took a keen interest in the controversies of the time and wrote letters to Waterland, Hare, afterwards bishop of Chichester, Courayer, and other eminent men. He was an original and ingenious disputant, sympathising with the high-church party in which he had been educated, but led by his peculiar turn of mind across the limits of orthodoxy. He wrote letters to the Jacobite ' Mist's Journal ' in 1719, attacking Hoadly's theory of the innocence of sincere errors. His theological writings are a curious parallel to Berkeley's ' Siris,' showing the same tendency to a mystical application of his metaphysics, but working out his theories in more technical and scholastic fashion. He was inclined to Arianism, or, as he said, to a doctrine which reconciled the Arians and the orthodox, and fell into the heresy of Apollinaris in regard to the Incarnation. His theories upon these abstruse questions are given in 'A Specimen of True Philosophy . . . not improper to be bound up with the Clavis Universalis' (1730 at p. 114 occurs his only reference to Berkeley reprinted in 'Metaphysical Tracts,' pp. 101-28); and in his very rare 'Logology, a treatise on the Logos or Word of God in seven sermons on St. John's Gospel, chap. i. verses 1, 2, 3, and 14' (1732; an analysis by Parr in 'Metaphysical Tracts,' pp. 129-41). Collier corresponded for a time with William Whiston, and invited him to Salisbury (Benson, pp. 133-7). He was, however, disgusted by the intrusions into theology of his Salisbury neighbour, Thomas Chubb [q.v.], and made a collection of Chubb's letters on business in order to expose his ignorance (Memoirs of Chubb, 1747, p, 20).
Collier's first child was born 13 Oct. 1707.
