lost his fellowship at Cambridge on the ground of non-residence, and had taken up his abode in London, where he partly supported himself upon a small annual allowance from his brother, an alderman of Northampton. In 1726, interposing in the controversy raised by Anthony Collins' work, Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, he appeared in the pretended character of a "Moderator between an Infidel and Apostate," and went the whole length of denying the historical reality of the miracles of Christ; and in the four following years he published a series of tracts upon the same subject in the shape of "Six Discourses on the Miracles of Christ," addressed to as many bishops, in which he surpassed all his former productions by the indecency of his language, and the offensiveness of his attacks upon the most sacred subjects of the christian faith. A prosecution for blasphemy followed, and he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and to pay a fine of £100. Unable to pay the fine, he purchased the liberty of the rules of king's bench at the expiry of his imprisonment, and so remained till his death, which took place at the beginning of 1733. He is usually classed among the deistical writers of the eighteenth century, but he was rather a professed christian agreeing with the deists on some points, than a professed and open unbeliever; for at the very time when he was explaining away the miracles of Christmas mere myths or allegories, he published a piece entitled "The exact fitness of the time in which Christ was manifested in the flesh demonstrated by reason against the objections of the old Gentiles and of Modern Unbelievers," and in 1726 he even published "A Defence of the Thundering Legion against Mr. Moyles' Dissertations." But these apparent defences of christian history and tradition were in many quarters viewed with suspicion, as being really meant to injure and undermine the credit of Christianity. Whether this suspicion was as just as it was natural, it is not worth while to determine; for these and all his other writings are now forgotten.—P. L.
WOOTON or WOOTTON, John, a celebrated animal painter, was born towards the close of the seventeenth century, and is said by Walpole to have been a scholar of Jan Wyck, but that hardly seems compatible with the dates. He painted horses and dogs with a good deal of spirit, but they are not always correct in drawing; and he is sometimes coarse as in his "Whipper-in Thrown-out." He was the fashionable painter of portraits of hunters and race-horses, and received for the time large prices for his pictures. He built a handsome residence in Cavendish Square, and decorated the walls with paintings from his own pencil. His hunting pieces were in great request, and many of them were engraved by Canot and others. He also painted landscapes; and there is a well-known engraving by Baron from a picture by him of William duke of Cumberland at Culloden. Wooton died in January, 1765 —J. T—e.
WOO WANG or WOO WONG, the founder of the Chinese dynasty of Chow, with which the authentic history of China may be said to commence, was born 1169 b.c., and succeeded his father, prince of Chow, 1135 b.c. At the request of a powerful party, weary of the tyranny of the last emperor of the Shang dynasty, he crossed the Hoang-he, 1122 b.c., and received the adhesion of eight hundred princes and grandees of the empire. He then marched his troops against the imperial army, which he totally defeated. The emperor burned himself alive in his palace; his sons were kindly treated, and the able ministers who had been disgraced under the late reign were promoted. Woo Wang reformed the national worship, framed a code of laws, and took other means to civilize his subjects. His great error was the foundation of a number of feudal principalities, by which the imperial authority was undermined. The dynasty, however, lasted eight hundred years. Woo Wang died in 1116 b.c.—F. M. W.
WORDE, Wynkyn de, one of our earliest printers, is supposed to have been a native of Lorraine. He may have been an assistant of Caxton at Bruges or Cologne. He was with Caxton at Westminster until the death of our first printer in 1492, when he began business on his own account, and in Caxton's house. He afterwards removed to Fleet Street, and died probably in 1534. Wynkyn de Worde shone more by the quantity than by the quality of his publications, and less as a scholar than as a typographer. He carried the art of printing to a high degree of perfection. In Dibdin's Ames, vol. ii., there is a list of the works known and suspected to have been printed by him.—F. E.
WORDSWORTH, Christopher, D.D., an eminent theologian of the Church of England, and brother of William Wordsworth the poet, was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1774. He was educated at Hawkshead grammar-school (see Carlisle's Grammar Schools, i. 664), and having entered the university of Cambridge, became B.A., 1796; M.A., 1799; and per Lit. Reg. D.D., 1810. Appointed master of Trinity, 1820; resigned, 1841; died, February 2, 1846. He was some time rector of Lambeth. He was the author of the following works—"Six Letters to Granville Sharpe, Esq., respecting his uses of the Definitive Article in the Greek text of the New Testament," 8vo, 1802; "Ecclesiastical Biography, or the lives of eminent men connected with the history of religion in England, from the Reformation to the Revolution," 6 vols. 8vo, 1809; "Reasons for declining to become a subscriber to the British and Foreign Bible Society," 8vo, 1810; "A Letter to Lord Teignmouth in Vindication of Reasons," &c., 8vo, 1810; a second letter on the same subject, 8vo, 1810; "Sermons on various occasions," 2 vols. 8vo, 1815; "By command of the Archbishop: a Sermon preached in the chapel of Lambeth at the consecration of the Hon. and Right Rev. Henry Ryder, bishop of Gloucester," 4to, 1815. He was also dean and rector of Bocking, and domestic chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, and was a strong opponent of the Bible Society.—T. J.
* WORDSWORTH, Christopher, D.D., son of the preceding, was born in the year 1807, and educated at Winchester school, and at Trinity college, Cambridge. His career was so brilliant, that soon after he had taken his degree of B.A. in 1830, he was elected fellow of that great college. In 1836 he was appointed public orator of the university, and head master of Harrow school. In 1844 he resigned the latter office, and became canon of Westminster. The following are his principal works—"A New Edition of the Greek Testament, with copious Notes;" "Theophilus Anglicanus;" "Athens and Attica;" "Greece, Historical, Pictorial, and Descriptive;" "Theocritus;" "S. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome in the beginning of the Third Century;" "Diary in France;" "Letters to M. Gondon on the destructive character of the Church of Rome;" occasional sermons, preached in Westminster abbey; "Lectures on the Inspiration and Interpretation of the Bible;" "Journal of a Tour in Italy;" "The Holy Year, or Original Hymns for all Sundays and Holydays."—T. J.
WORDSWORTH, William, the most meditative of English poets, was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland, April 7, 1770. His father was John Wordsworth, an attorney, and factor on the estates of Sir James Lowther, afterwards earl of Lonsdale. When eight years of age he lost his mother, whose maiden name was Anne Cookson. His obstinate self-will and force of character, displayed even at this early age, had led her to predict that he would either "be steady in good or headstrong in evil;" and by good luck or wise self-discipline he drew the former lot. His early training was favourable to the development of his poetical powers. Even from his infancy he was allowed to run wild, wandering where he listed, and, as he says in "The Prelude," often making "one long bathing of a summer's day." In his ninth year he was sent to the school of Hawkeshead, a village in the lake country, a beautiful district fitted above all others in England to impress with fair pictures the imagination of a youthful poet. Here his life was as free and his steps as untrammeled as before. School work was not neglected; but the yoke of scholastic discipline seems to have lain very light on the shoulders of these young Hawkesheadians. They indulged ad libitum in the pastimes of boating, fishing, climbing the mountains, and bathing. In "The Prelude" and "The Excursion" he has recorded many of the incidents of these early years, describing his intense sympathy and earnest communings with nature, and enumerating the means and the materials by which "the foundations of his mind were laid."
Wordsworth's father died in 1783. The bulk of his property consisted of arrears due to him from his employer Lord Lonsdale, who refused to pay a single shilling to the orphan children. Nor were these arrears paid until the death of this unjust and niggardly nobleman in 1802, an interval of nineteen years. They were then promptly discharged in full and with interest, by his enlightened and liberal successor, who throughout life was Wordsworth's steady friend and patron. Meanwhile the young Wordsworths were thrown on the kind offices of their uncles. One of these. Dr. Cookson, had been a fellow of St. John's college, Cambridge, and thither Wordsworth was sent in 1787. He came to college tolerably well grounded in Latin and mathematics for a fresh-man—and this start enabled him to lead rather a gay life, in the course of which, however, he never ran into any immorality or excess. If he attended but little to the
