BURNET, THOMAS (1635?-1715)

—Theologian and writer on cosmogony, was b. at Croft near Darling ton, and ed. at Camb., and became Master of Charter house and Clerk of the Closet to William III. His literary fame rests on his Telluris The or i a Sacra, or Sacred Theory of the Earth , pub. about 1692, first in Latin and afterwards in English, a work which, in absence of all scientific knowledge of the earth's structure, was nece arily a mere speculative cosmogony. It is written, however, with much eloquence. Some of the views expre ed in another work, Archæolgiæ Philosophicæ , were, however, so unacceptable to contemporary theologians that he had to resign his post at Court.