Joseph Glawill, an English divine and philosopher, born in Plymouth in 1G36, died in Bath, Nov. 4, 1680. He was educated at Oxford, became a priest, and was made rector of the abbey church, Bath, in 1666. He became chaplain in ordinary to the king, and in 1678 was appointed a prebendary of Worcester cathedral. He is distinguished as an opponent of Aristotelianism, as a believer in witchcraft, and as the first writer in England who presented philosophical skepticism in a systematic form. His first work, entitled The Vanity of Dogmatizing," was published in London in 1661, and an enlarged edition of it appeared in 1665, under the title of Scepsis Scientifica, or Confessed Ignorance the Way to Science," with a dedication to the newly founded royal society, which body at once elected him a fellow. He made another attack on the ancient philosophy in his "Plus Ultra, or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the Days of Aristotle" (1668), in which he exalted Bacon and Boyle and the inductive method. Notwithstanding his skepticism, he believed in sorcery and witchcraft, and wrote "Philosophical Considerations concerning the Existence of Sorcerers and Sorcery" (1666), the convictions expressed in which are repeated in his Sad-ducismus Triumphans, published posthumously (1681), with an account of his life and writings by Dr. Henry More. Among his other works are Lux Orientalis (1662), in which he treats of the preexistence of souls, following the views of Henry More; "Essays on several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion" (1676);Essay on Preaching" (1678); and sermons edited by Dr. Horneck (1681).