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and benignity. With a feeble constitution, _ his voice, though clear, was not strong. He used little gesture, and resorted to none of the arts of the orator. Still, his sermons were so scriptural in matter, so strong and lucid in thought, so marked by deep knowledge of human nature, by simplicity and the absence of all self-consciousness, so glow- ing with the central heat of intense earnestness, that they held the closest attention, and often pro- duced great effects. They are still read with the deepest interest, while those of Whitfield are for- gotten. It is especially on his character as a theo- logian and metaphysician that Mr. Edwards's fame rests. lie was not by any means a merely '* dry and cold thinker," but his highest strength un- doubtedly lay in the region of pure thought. He was emphatically an original thinker. He was not widely learned, and with slender opportunities of acquaintance with the works of contemporary writers, it is clear that he drew his materials almost entirely from his own reflections and re- sources. Though the best impulse to his mind was early given by Locke, he was far from accept- ing that great man as his intellectual master. He explicitly rejected many of Locke's ideas, and in- clined rather to that system which in Europe had found its representatives in Malebranche and Leib- nitz. His attachment to the system known as Calvinism was intense, and in the defence of this system he produced his greatest works. His im- mortal treatise "On the Freedom of the Will" (1754) aimed at a conclusive settlement of the main points in controversy between the Calvinists and Arminians. He here maintains that the law of causality extends to every action. Liberty con- sists in the power of doing what one wills, not in any power of willing without a motive. The will always follows the greatest seeming good, and what shall seem to a man the greatest good de- pends on the state of his soul. Liberty is not in the act but in the man, and, if a depraved nature is to abstain from sin, it can only be effected by a change of heart. Whatever may be thought of the con- clusions of this treatise, there have never been two opinions as to its extraordinary ability. Edwards's definition of virtue, in his treatise on that subject, as " the love of being," has provoked dissent on the part of many who have in general accepted him as a guide. The estimate of Edwards by competent judges puts him in the front rank of great men. Dr. Chalmers says that " on the arena of metaphy- sicians he stood highest of all his contemporaries." Sir James Mackintosh spoke of him as " a most extraordinary man, who, in a metaphysical age or country, would certainly have been deemed as much the boast of America as his great contempo- rary, Franklin." Again he calls him, by way of eminence, " the metaphysician of America," and expresses the opinion that "in power of subtle argument he was perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed, among men." Dugald Stewart de- clared " there is, however, one metaphysician of whom America has to boast, who, in logical acute- ness and subtlety, does not yield to any disputant bred in the universities of Europe. I need not say that I allude to Jonathan Edwards." The influ- ence of Edwards was very great in the spiritual history of England and this country, especially of New England, whose leading minds, in the age fol- lowing him, showed his moulding hand. Bellamy and Hopkins were his pupils ; Dwight was his ex- positor ; Smalley, Emmons, and many others were his followers. Through Hopkins his influence reached Kirkland. and assisted in forming the character of Channing. Edwards sums up the old theology of New England, and is the fountain- head of the new. Besides works mentioned above, Edwards published " Treatise Concerning the Re- ligious Affections " (1746) : " Inquiry into the Qualifications for Free Communion in the Church " (1749): "Original Sin" (1757); "True Nature of Christian Virtue" (1788); "Dissertation concern- ing the End for which God created the World " (1789) ; " Thoughts on the Revival of Religion " ; " History of the Redemption " ; and a " Life of David Brainerd." There have been two editions of his works in England, one in eight volumes, octavo, and one in two compact volumes. The American editions are to be preferred. They include that edit- ed by Samuel Austin (8 vols., Worcester, Mass., 1809) ; that by Sereno^E. Dwight, with a memoir (10 vols.. New York, 1830) ; and a later one in a more convenient form (4 vols., 1852). There are several lives of Jonathan Edwards ; the most interesting is that by Samuel Hopkins, who was his pupil ; the fullest is that by Sereno Edwards Dwight. in the edition of his works mentioned above. There is also a memoir by Dr. Samuel Miller in Sparks's " American Biography," and another in " Lives of Eminent Literary and Scientific INIen of Ameri- ca" (New York, 1850). — Timothy, judge, eldest son of Jonathan, b. in Northampton, Mass., 25 Julv, 1738; d. in Stockbridge, Mass., 27 Oct., 1813. He was graduated at Princeton in 1757, and began business as a merchant in Elizabeth, N. J. He re- moved to Stockbridge about 1770, where he was a leading citizen for forty-three years, and sat as judge of probate for Berkshire county. He had fifteen children. — His son, WiUiaiii, inventor, b. in Elizabethtown, N. J., 11 Nov., 1770; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 1 Dec, 1851, introduced the sys- tem, now employed in nearly all American tan- neries, by which leather is made in about one fourth of the time required by the old European processes. His first tannery was built at North- ampton, Mass., and the first leather made in it was sent to Boston in 1794. Having exhausted the supply of hemlock-bark in the Connecticut valley, he removed, in 1817, to Hunter, Greene co., N. Y., and erected a model tannery on Schoharie creek. It was in the midst of the hemlock forests of the Catskill mountains, on an estate of twelve hundred acres. In 1822 the Messrs. Edwards (he was assisted in business by his son), in connection with Jacob Lorillard, purchased the real estate of the company (an act of incorporation having been granted), which had been unsuccessful, greatly enlarged the business, and made many improve- ments in the machinery. From this establishment about 10,000 sides of sole-leather were sent to the city of New York annually. Mr. Edwards not only invented several machines, but adapted many devices previously used for other purposes to the art of tanning, thus largely substituting water- power for manual labor. His rolling machine was considered especially valuable, is still in use in nearly its original form, and gives to leather the smoothness of surface and solidity of texture pecul- iar to the hammered article. — Jonathan, Jr., theo- logian, second son of Jonathan, Sr., b. in North- ampton, Mass., 26 May, 1745 ; d. in Schenectady, N. Y., 1 Aug., 1801. When he was six years old the family removed to Stockbridge, at that time almost solely inhabited by Indians. Here he became so proficient in the Indian language as to surpass in the thoroughness of his scholarship all other Anglo- Americans of that day. As it was his father's wish that he should become a missionary to the aborigi- nes, he was sent, in 1755, to the Rev. Gideon Haw- ley, who was stationed on the Susquehanna river.