Baron Herbert Of Cher-Bury Edward Herbert, an English philosopher, born at Montgomery, Wales, in 1581, died in London, Aug. 20, 1648. He was married at 15, completed his education at Oxford, and in 1000 went to London. In 1G08 he visited France. In 1610 he joined the English auxiliaries in the Netherlands under the command of Maurice of Nassau, prince of Orange, and served in the siege of Julieh. In 1614, under the same commander, he served in a second campaign against the Spaniards. He distinguished himself in these wars by great intrepidity. He then went to Italy, where the duke of Savoy intrusted him with the guidance of 4,000 Languedoc Protestants into Piedmont. In 1618 he was appointed by King James ambassador extraordinary to France, to renew the alliance between France and England. Very sensitive on all points of honor, he was involved in many duels, and especially offended the duke de Luynes, a favorite of the king, at whose instigation he was recalled to England. On the death of De Luynes (1621) he was sent again to France, and while there published his first work, Tractatus de Veritate (Paris, 1624). In 1625 he returned to England, and was created baron of Castle Island in the peerage of Ireland, and from this time devoted himself entirely to the duties of his station and to literature.

In 1631 he was elevated to the English peerage, under the title of Baron Herbert of Cherbury. He was opposed to Bacon and Hobbes, and taught that human knowledge is derived from a rationalis instinctus or instinct of the reason, and that by the action of outward objects upon the mind certain communes notiones or universal principles are educed. He believed that religion rests upon innate ideas, man's own consciousness being the standard by which revealed religion should be tested. In the disturbances in the reign of Charles I. he sided first with the parliament, and afterward with the king. Among his works are the following, all of which appeared after his death : De Religione Gentilium, Errorumque apud eos Causis; Expertitio (Buckinghami Ducis) in Ream Insu-lam; and the "Life and Reign of King Henry VIII."' His autobiography was printed by Horace Walpole in 1764. - See Lord Herbert de Cherbury, by Charles de Remusat (Paris, 1874).