TOOKE, Jofot HORNE, a celebrated etymologist and political adventurer, was the son of John Home, a London poulterer, and was b. in that city, June, 1736. He was edu cated first at Westminster and Eton, and afterward at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1758. After spending some time as an usher in a school at Blackheath, he entered the church (to please his father, and strongly against his own wish), and in 1760 became curate at New Brentford. The disgust lie entertained for the sacred profession led him to indulge (by way of revenge) in a license of speech and life, which appears to us to have fatally affected the honesty of his character. It is impossible, for instance, to read a passage like the following (from one of his letters to Wilkes), without feeling a deep distrust of the whole man: "It is true I have suffered the infectious hand of a bishop to be waved over me; whose imposition, like the sop given to Judas, is only a signal for the devil to enter; but I hope I have escaped the con tagion; and if I have not, if you should at any time discover the black spot under the tongue, pray kindly assist me to conquer the prejudices of education and profession." When Wilkes (whose acquaintance he had made during a trip to Paris) stood as a candi date for the county of Middlesex, Tooke zealously aided him, pledging his credit for Wilkes's expenses, and declaring that, " in a cause so just and holy, he would dye his black coat red;" but he afterward quarreled with his dubious associate, and in 1770-71, the two had a rasping epistolary controversy, which appears to have hugely gratified their enemies. He still, however, continued to meddle in political affairs, and even ven tured to encounter (not without success) the formidable Junius. In 1773 he resigned his living at New Breniford, and commenced the study of law, a profession in which he was really fitted by nature to excel. About this time, he rendered some important. private service to a Mr. Tooke of Purley in Surrey, who designed to make him his heir, but altered his mind, and only left him a legacy of £500. Altogether, however, lie is said to have received from this gentleman about £8,000, and, in consequence, adopted the surname of Tooke, by which he is now known. In 1775 lie was fined and imprisoned
in the King's Bench for publishing an advertisement iu which lie accused the king's troops of barbarously murdering the Americans at Lexington. While in prison, he penned his celebrated Letter to Mr. Dunning, in which are to be found the germs of his Diversions of Purley. It excited a good deal of attention at the time, and even Dr. John son, who detested Tooke's political sentiments, expressed his intention—should he pub lish a new edition of his Dictionary-to adopt several of the " dog's" etymologies. On his release from confinement, Tooke made an attempt to gain admission to the bar, but was refused, on the ground of his clerical orders. Soon after, he reverted to political writing, at once the pleasure and the poison of his life, and in a Letter on Parliamentary Reform, advocated universal suffrage. In the struggle between Pitt and Fox, he pam phleteered on the side of the former, but soon got to hate Pitt too, as lie had learned to hate most other public men. In 1786 appeared his famous Epea Pteroenta, or the Aver sions of Purley, a work on the analysis and etymology of English words, which, amid much that is erroneous, both in principle and detail, contains still more that is acute, original, and true. In particular, he has demonstrated, says a Quarterly Reviewer (No. 14), that " all words, even those that are expressions of the nicest operations of our minds, were originally borrowed from the objects of external perception." See PHILOL OGY, But Tooke's passion for politics soon drew him from the calm pursuit of litera ture into the vortex of public life. In 1790 and again in 1796 lie stood as a candidate for Westminster, but was unsuccessful on both occasions. At length, in 1801, the great. enemy of rotten boroughs entered parliament for the most notorious rotten borough in England—Old Sarum; but he made no figure there. He died at Wimbledon, Mar. 19, 1812. Tooke was never married, but had several natural children, to whom lie left his property. The best edition of the Diversions of Purley is that of Taylor (Loud. 1840).