in Coventry, and, in opposition to a church movement conceived on straiter lines, took an active part in promoting an unsectarian school which should be available for dissenters. His first publication was an 'Address to the Working Classes on the Education of the Body' (1837). This was followed by the 'Education of the Feelings' (1838), of which there have been several editions, the last of them taking the form of a school manual ('The Education of the Feelings: a Moral System for secular schools,' 1872). In 1841 he published the 'Philosophy of Necessity, or the Law of Consequences as applicable to Mental, Moral, and Social Science;' this work contained an appendix (afterwards separately published) by the author's sister-in-law, Mary Hennell, giving an historical outline of communities founded on the principle of cooperation. The socialistic theories at this time in the air specially attracted him, and in 1842 he attended Robert Owen's 'Opening of the Millennium' at Queenwood, Hampshire. The failure of this experiment limited his social aspirations to more practicable objects. He helped to establish (1843) the Coventry Labourers' and Artisans' Society, which developed into a co-operative society, of which he was president; he started (1845) a working man's club, which failed owing to the rival attractions of the public-house; and he took an active share in the management of the Coventry Mechanics' Institute and the Coventry Provident Dispensary. In addition to the works already named, he published the 'Philosophy of Necessity,' 2nd. ed. 1861 (in great part re-written); 'On Force and its Mental Correlates,' 1866; 'A Manual of Anthropology, or Science of Man based upon Modern Research (1st ed. 1871, 2nd ed. 1883); 'Psychological and Ethical Definitions on a Physiological Basis,' 1879; and a number of pamphlets on speculative and practical subjects. The possession of a local paper (1846-74) gave him an additional field for his opinions, which at all times, and on all subjects, he stated with a candour that took no account of consequences. Converted to phrenology by George Combe, with whom he formed an intimate association, he never abandoned it. Phrenology and the doctrine of necessity form the groundwork of all his writings. Among his early friends was Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), who while young and uncelebrated was for some time a member of his household. In his autobiography ('Phases of Opinion and Experience during a Long Life,' 1884) he gives an interesting account of her, and George Eliot's 'Life as related in her Letters and Journals' (1885) is largely based on correspondence with 'the Brays' (i.e. Bray, his wife, and his sister-in-law, Miss Sara Hennell). A postscript to the 'Phases of Opinion and Experience,' dictated rather less than three weeks before his death, which took place on 5 Oct. 1884, contains the following: 'My time is come, and in about a month, in all probability, it will be finished. … For fifty years and more I have been an unbiassed and an unprejudiced seeker after truth, and the opinions I have come to, however different from those usually held, I am not now, at the last hour, disposed to change. They have done to live by, they will do to die by.'
[Bray's Phases of Opinion and Experience during a Long Life, 1884; Mathilde Blind's George Eliot (Eminent Women Ser.), 1883; George Eliot's Life, by J. W. Cross, 1885; Life and Letters of Professor W. B. Hodgson, 1884, p. 364.]
BRAY, EDWARD ATKYNS (1778–1857), poet and miscellaneous writer, the only son of Edward Bray, solicitor, and manager of the Devonshire estates of the Duke of Bedford, was born at the Abbey House, Tavistock, 18 Dec. 1778. His mother, Mary, a daughter of Dr. Brandreth of Houghton Regis, and the widow of Arthur Turner, would not allow her son to be sent to a public school, and he was educated by himself, a circumstance which engendered in him habits of isolation and restraint. At an early age he cultivated poetry, two small selections from his effusions circulating among his friends before he was twenty-three. Bray became a student at the Middle Temple in 1801 and was called to the bar in 1806. For some time he went the western circuit, but the profession of the law had from the first ill accorded with his disposition, and after five years of trial he abandoned it for the church. He was ordained by the Bishop of Norwich about 1811, and in the following year, by the favour of the Duke of Bedford, became the vicar of Tavistock and the perpetual curate of Brent Tor. Almost immediately after his ordination he entered himself at Trinity College, Cambridge, and took the degree of B.D. as a ten-year man in 1822. In Tavistock he resided for the rest of his life, and if he differed from his parishioners on politics or preached over their heads, he retained their respect. He married the widow of C. A. Stothard [see Bray, Anna Eliza], and an amusing account of the habits of the worthy vicar and his wife is embodied in the latter's autobiography. Bray died at Tavistock 17 July 1857. During his lifetime he published several selections of sermons:
- 'Sermons from the Works of the most
