tyrant. The intrepid missionary finally returned to England in April, 1845, and was presented to the vicarage of Isle-Brewers, in Somersetshire, where he spent the remainder of his active and useful life. Dr. Wolf died in 1862.—J. T.
WÖLFL, Joseph, a musician, was born at Saltzburg in 1772, and died in London in 1811 or 1812. He received his instruction from Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart. He commenced his artistic career with a tour through the chief cities of Germany, in the course of which he rested some time at Vienna, and produced there his first opera, "Der Höllenberg," in 1795. His renown as a pianist became very great, and when he appeared in London in 1799, he was much distinguished among the excellent players resident there. In 1801 he went to Paris, where he produced his successful opera "L'Amour Romanesque," but soon returned to London, which then became his permanent abode. About 1808, there being some factious opposition to Wölfl, he published his sonata entitled "Ne Plus Ultra," as a defiance to other composers and pianists either to construct greater difficulties for the instrument, or to execute those contained in this work. In reply to the challenge, Dussek's sonata, recently published in Paris under the name of Rétour á Paris, was reprinted here with the title of Pius Ultra, and these rival pieces have ever since each enhanced the interest of the other. Wölfl's death was induced by his habit of intemperance, which, notwithstanding his great occupation as a teacher, so exhausted his means, that his pupils subscribed to defray his funeral expenses. Besides several operas he wrote symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and other pieces of chamber music. His presence here had a most important influence upon the character of English music and its advancement, both in composition and performance, which influence has chiefly worked through the exertions of his pupil, Cipriani Potter, who attributes to him the foundation in himself of those admirable principles upon which his teaching has formed many of the composers and pianists most eminent in the rising English school of music.—G. A. M.
WOLLASTON, William, the author of the "Religion of Nature Delineated," was born at Cotton Clanford in Staffordshire in 1659. He was sprung from a good old family, although the branch of it to which he belonged was in a somewhat impoverished condition. He was educated at Sidney college, Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge he became assistant-master in a school at Birmingham, in addition to which he obtained a small lectureship in a chapel about two miles from that town. His means, however, were very straitened, until he was unexpectedly, in 1688, left an ample estate by his cousin, Mr. Wollaston of Shenton, who was the head of the flourishing branch of his family. This gentleman had been so much impressed with the merits of his kinsman, both from what he knew of him personally and from the reports which had reached him, that he bequeathed to him his entire estate to the exclusion of his more direct heirs. Wollaston now married and settled in London, where eleven children were born to him. His habits were studious, and he lived in strict retirement. His house was in Charter-house Square, and how uneventful his life must have been is attested by the circumstance that he never once slept out of this house during a period of thirty years. He died in 1724. "The Religion of Nature Delineated" is a treatise on natural religion, which passes at once into an inquiry respecting the foundation of morals. The transition is easily traced. All religion has its origin in the fact that there is a difference in human actions: some are good, some bad, some indifferent. Hence the question arises. What is it that makes some actions good, and others bad? Can we detect in the good ones any common quality, which may enable us to separate them from the bad ones as distinguished by the opposite quality? Wollaston answers, Yes; all right conduct is conduct in which truth is observed—all wrong conduct is conduct in which truth is violated. We can declare truths or falsehoods by our actions no less than by our words. Actions speak—they utter truths or falsehoods—no less than the tongue. All virtue is thus reduced by him to a species of truth-telling, just as all vice is reduced to a species of lying. For example, why is temperance right and intemperance wrong? Because it is a true proposition, that a man should at all times preserve, so far as he can, the use of his faculties. The temperate man acts in conformity with this proposition; his conduct asserts its truth; hence he is virtuous. The intemperate man practically denies its truth. He virtually asserts what is false; hence he is vicious. So the man who steals says virtually, This is not yours, but mine; but that is a lie. So the man who ill-uses his parents or children affirms, in so doing, that they are not his parents and children, but strangers and enemies. His crime consists in asserting that things are not what they are. On the other hand, to respect the property of others, and to behave with kindness in our family relations, is to admit things to be what they are—such truthfulness is virtue. Moral obligation is explained on the same principle. As rational beings we are bound to acknowledge, by our conduct, that things are what they are, and not to declare that they are different from what they are. If we are assured, for instance, that a person is in distress, we are bound to do what we can to relieve him, otherwise our behaviour would be equivalent to a declaration that the person was not in distress; but that would be false, and a breach of our obligation to assert on all occasions the truth. Our happiness, too, no less than our virtue, consists in acting in conformity with truth. For it is only by acting in accordance with the nature with which we have been endowed, and in accordance with the laws of the universe, that our true well-being can be secured. In the inordinate pursuit of pleasure, our true happiness suffers, because it is false that our nature was solely designed for the pursuit and attainment of pleasure. We impair our happiness by acting a falsehood, just as we promote it by adhering to what is true. And finally, natural religion, and an obedience to the will of God, are explained by this system as consisting in our practical admission that he has ordained what he has ordained, and that his purposes are what they are; in other words, in our discovery and recognition of the truths which he has established for the guidance of man and of nature, and in our determination to maintain these truths not only in our words, but practically in our whole life and conversation.—J. F. F.
WOLLASTON, William Hyde, an eminent chemist and natural philosopher, was born in 1767. His father. Dr. Wollaston, a clergyman of the Church of England, was fond of scientific pursuits, and earned some reputation as an astronomer. Young Wollaston was educated at Cambridge, where, after attending the hospitals of London, he graduated as M.D. He now settled at St. Edmundsbury, where he practised as a physician for some years. He then became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and began to practise in London. He offered himself as a candidate for the vacant post of physician to St. George's hospital, but another person of very inferior abilities was preferred to him by dint of local interest. Disgusted at this, he renounced the medical profession, and devoted the rest of his life to scientific pursuits. By way of improving his income, which was but scanty, he took up the manufacture of platinum, which was then very little understood. He first succeeded in reducing it into ingots in a state of purity, and fitting it for every kind of use. By this process, which remained in use till quite lately, when it was superseded by the more economical method of Ste Claire Deville, he conferred a great boon, not only upon scientific chemistry, but upon several branches of manufactures. Wollaston's health was always feeble, and it was only by great care and rigid abstemiousness that he could preserve himself in a state fit for intellectual labour. He died in January, 1829, of paralysis brought on by a tumour in the brain. Wollaston's researches were numerous, and not confined to chemistry; electricity, optics, and mineralogy also felt the benefit of his labours. He invented the reflecting goniometer, by means of which the angles of crystals can be measured with great nicety, and thus gave a great impulse to crystallography. Several modifications and improvements on the original principle have since been invented, but Wollaston's instrument still continues in use. His camera lucida is a valuable adjunct to the microscope. His instrument for measuring the refractive power of bodies is simple and useful. His "periscopic glasses" were at one time in great demand. His chemical sliding rule, for finding the amount of one substance required to combine with, neutralize, or decompose a given weight of any other, is a very ingenious invention, and saves the time required for calculation. His modification of the blow-pipe has been highly commended by Berzelius. In the use of the blow-pipe he was equal if not superior to Gahn. The mineralogists of London, when puzzled to know the chemical nature of a rare mineral, invariably applied to Wollaston, who by the aid of the blow-pipe almost as invariably solved the question in a few minutes. There can be no doubt but Wollaston is the person referred to in the following
