A Platonick Song of the Soul

The best known of the Cambridge Platonists, Henry More was born at Grantham, Lincolnshire. His father was a strict Calvinist, but More's education at Eton College led him to abandon the doctrine of predestination. He entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1631, was elected to a fellowship in 1639, and remained there the rest of his life. Devoted to the study of philosophy, he took little part in public affairs or university administration. The focus of his interest was the relation between God and creation, especially the individual soul. He was influenced by the writings of Christian mysticism and by poetry, especially the writings of Spenser (see als Vol. 2). His thinking is more in the spirit of Renaissance Christian Neoplatonism than of either Scholastic Aristotelianism or the modern philosophy that was emerging in the seventeenth century. Upon first acquaintance with the writings of Descartes (see also Vol. 5), More expressed great admiration for his philosophy; as time passed, however, and More began to appreciate the true character of Cartesian natural science, he became increasingly critical of Cartesian materialism and mechanism as a conception of the natural world, which he regarded as atheistic. His thought is believed to have influenced Newton's (see also Vol. 5) conception of space as God's "sensorium" and Newton's view that space, even where empty of matter, may be occupied by spiritual natures. More's chief works are The Immortality of the Soul (1659), the Enchiridion Ethicum (1667), the Divine Dialogues (1668), and the Enchiridion Metaphysicum (1671). Dr. Alexander Jacob is the author of ?Edgar Julius Jung. The Rule of the Inferiour?, a translation of ?Die Herrschaft der Minderwertigen? (1930), with an Introduction and Notes, Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995.