and  Master  of  Clare  Hall,  1644 ;   Regius  Pro-
fessor of   Hebrew,   and  Master  of  Christ's,
1654.     He   had  friendly  dealings   with   the
Commonwealth  officials,  but  maintained  his
position  at  the  Restoration,  and  was  given
a  living  in  Herts.     In  spite  of  this,  and  of
subsequently  being   made  a  prebendary  of
Gloucester,  he  remained  in  Cambridge,  and
died  there.     As  a  young  man  he  attracted
attention  by  two  remarkable  sermons ;    and
in   1647   he  preached  before  the  House  of
Commons,  by  no  means  mincing  his  words,
but  giving  them  some  very  plain,  hard  truths
to   digest.     But   Cudworth's  life-work,  and
that  which  renders  him  the  most  famous  of
all  the  Cambridge  Platonists,  is  his  refutation
of  Hobbes's  Leviathan,  which  he  undertook
in    a   work    entitled    The   True   Intellectual
System  of  the  Universe.    The  lack  of  system
and   discipline   in    the    presentation    of    his
thought   has  prevented  full   justice   always
being  done  to  his  vigorous  and  destructive
criticism  of  the  rival  philosophy,  and  of  the
writer's  immense  and  varied  learning.    '  These
three   things,'    he    says   in   a   characteristic
passage,  '  are  the  fundamentals  and  essentials
of  true  religion — namely,  that  all  things  do
not  float  without  a  head  and  governor,  but
there  is  an  omnipotent  understanding  Being
presiding  over  all ;  that  God  hath  an  essential
goodness  and  justice  ;  and  that  the  differences
of  good  and  evil  moral,  honest  and  dishonest,
are  not  by  mere  will  and  law  only,  but  by
nature ;    and  consequently,  that  the  Deity
cannot  act,  influence,  and  necessitate  men
to  such  things  as  are  in  their  own  nature  evil ;
and  lastly,  that  necessity  is  not  intrinsical
to  the  nature  of  everything,  but  that  men
have  such  a  liberty  or  power  over  their  own
actions  as  may  render  them  accountable  for
the  same,  and  blameworthy  when  they  do
amiss ;    and,  consequently,  that   there  is  a
justice  distributive  of  rewards  and  punish-
ments running  through  the  world.'

John  Smith,  1618-52.  Smith  was  Which-
cote's  pupil  at  Emmanuel;  graduated  B.A.
