Paley William

Paley, William, was born in 1743. He received his schooling at Giggleswick, and, going to Christ's College, Cambridge, came out senior wrangler. Becoming a fellow and tutor, he lectured for eight years on mental philosophy, thus laying the foundations for his great work. His Principles of Morality and Politics first appeared in 1785, and was at once adopted as the text-book for ethics at Cambridge. The Horae Paulinae followed in 1790. Four years later he produced his View of the Evidences of Christianity. He had now been made a prebendary of St. Paul's and rector of Bishopwearmouth and sub-dean of Lincoln. His last ten years were spent in composing, amidst broken health and zealous parochial labours, the work upon which his fame chiefly rests, his Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity from the Appearances of Nature. He died in 1805.