John Wilkins
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John Wilkins (1 January 1614–19 November 1672) was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, a founder of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is one of the few persons to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a polymath, although not one of the most important scientific innovators of the period. His personal qualities were brought out, and obvious to his contemporaries, in reducing political tension in Interregnum Oxford, in founding the Royal Society on non-partisan lines, and in efforts to reach out to religious nonconformists. He was one of the founders of the new natural theology compatible with the science of the time.
He is particularly known for An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language in which, amongst other things, he proposed a universal language and a decimal system of measure not unlike the modern metric system.
Works
His numerous written works include:
- The Discovery of a World in the Moone (1638)
- A Discourse Concerning a New Planet (1640)
- Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641), the first English-language book on cryptography
- Ecclesiastes (1646)
- Mathematical Magick (1648)
- A Discourse Concerning the Beauty of Providence (1649)
- A discourse concerning the gift of prayer: shewing what it is, wherein it consists and how far it is attainable by industry (1651)
- Vindiciae academiarum (1654), with Seth Ward
- An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (London, 1668), in which he proposes a new universal language for the use of natural philosophers.
- Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion (London, 1675)[1].