MORE, HENRY (1614-1687), English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school, was born at Grantham in 1614. Both his father and his mother, he tells us, were "earnest followers of Calvin," but he himself "could never swallow that hard doctrine." In 1631 he was admitted at Christ's college, Cambridge, about the time Milton was leaving it. He immersed himself "over head and ears in the study of philosophy," and fell for a time into a scep ticism, from which he was delivered by a study of the "Platonic writers." He was fascinated especially by Neoplatonism, and this fascination never left him. The Theologia germanica also exerted a permanent influence over him. He took his bachelor's degree in 1635, his master's degree in 1639, and immediately afterwards was chosen fellow of his college. Fifteen years after the Restoration he accepted a prebend in Gloucester cathedral, but only to resign it in favour of his friend Dr. Edward Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester. He would not accept the mastership of his college, to which, it is understood, he would have been preferred in 1654, when Cudworth was appointed. He drew around him many young men of a refined and thoughtful turn of mind, but among all his pupils the most interesting was Lady Conway, at whose country seat at Ragley, Warwickshire, More continued at intervals to spend "a considerable part of his time." Amidst the woods of this retreat he composed several of his books. The spiritual enthusiasm of Lady Conway was a considerable factor in some of More's speculations, none the less that she at length joined the Quakers. She became the friend not only of More and Penn, but of Baron van Helmont and Valentine Greatrakes, mystical thauma turgists of the 17th century. Ragley became a centre not only
of devotion but of wonder-working spiritualism (cf. the account in the novel John Inglesant ch. xv.). From this, his genius suf fered, and the rationality which distinguishes his earlier is much less conspicuous in his later works. He was a voluminous writer both in verse and in prose. His most notable work, the Divine Dialogues (1688), summarizes his general view of philosophy and religion.
Henry More represents the mystical and theosophic side of the Cambridge movement. The Neoplatonic extravagances which lay hidden in the school from the first came in his writings to a head, and merged in pure phantasy. Mystical elevation was the chief feature of his character, a certain radiancy of thought which carried him beyond the common life without raising him to any artificial light, for his humility and charity were not less con spicuous than his piety. He died on Sept. 1,1687, and was buried in the chapel of the college he loved.
Before his death More issued complete editions of his works, his Opera theologica in 1675, and his Opera philosophica in 1678. The chief authorities for his life are Richard Ward's Life (I 710) ; the prefatio generalissima prefixed to his Opera omnia (1679) ; and also a general account of the manner and scope of his writings in an Apology published in 1664. The collection of his Philosophical Poems (1647), in which he has "compared his chief speculations and experi ences," should also be consulted. An elaborate analysis of his life and works is given in Tulloch's Rational Theology, vol. ii. (1874) ; see also R. Zimmermann, Henry More and die vierte Dimension des Raums (Vienna, 1881). See ETHICS.