A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Cudworth, Ralph

by John William Cousin

Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688).—Divine and philosopher, b. at Aller, Somerset, and ed. at Camb., where, after being a tutor, he became Master of Clare Hall 1645, Prof. of Hebrew (1645-88), and Master of Christ's Coll., 1654. His great work is The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678). A work of vast learning and acuteness, it is directed against the infidelity of the age. C.'s candour in his statement of the opposing position was so remarkable that Dryden remarked "that he raised such strong objections against the being of a God and Providence that many thought he had not answered them." He also left in MS. a Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, pub. in 1731.