HERBERT, Edward, Lord of Cherbury. - Statesman, poet and philosopher, b. at Eyton (Shropshire) on 3 March 1583 (W. Windelband gives the date 1581), d. in London on 20 Aug. 1648. He studied at the University of Oxford, then moved to London in 1600. From 1608 to 1618 he was on the continent, in Germany, France, and Italy. In 1619 he was ambassador in Paris; in 1624 he was named an Irish peer and in 1629 an English peer.
He wrote poems in Latin and in English (recent ed. by C. G. Moore Smith, Oxford 1923), an Autobiography (ed. S. L. Lee, London 1886, with bibl.), a Life of Henry VIII (1748). His principal work is the De veritate prout distinguitur a revelatione, a versimili, a possibili et a falso (Paris 1624). To the 3rd ed. (London 1645), he added a brief treatise De causis errorum, a dissertation Religio laici and an Appendix ad sacerdotes. He thought that if reflective minds professed a few principles consecrated by reason, fanaticism would be disarmed and the possibility of religious wars removed. In 1663 appeared the De religione gentilium, perhaps the first systematic attempt at a comparative study of religions, falsely considered as mere corruptions of the pure and primitive rational cult.
Truth, according to H., is a certain harmony between objects and the cognitive faculties of the mind, which is always more or less active, things being merely an occasion for the unfolding of this activity.
The spirit carries within itself a quantity of general truths, equal in all men and therefore to be recognized universally. With respect to faith man has a natural instinct, from which develops a series of innate cognitions that form the content of rational religion, such as the existence of God, the duty of worship toward him through virtue and piety, the existence of a divine sanction in this or the other life.
A critique of the innatism of these propositions is offered by Locke in the I. of his Essay.
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Andrea Ferro