BURNET, THOMAS (b. Croft, Yorkshire, England, ca. 1635; d. London, England, 27 September 1715), cosmogony, geology.

    1720), trans. into English as Of the State of the Dead and of Those That Are to Rise (partial ed., London, 1727; complete ed., 1728); De fide et officiis Christianorum (London, 1722), trans. into English as The Faith and Duties of Christians (London, 1728); De future Judaeorum restauratione (London, 1727), an appendix to the 1727 ed. of De statu mortuorum; and A Re-survey of the Mosaic System of the Creation With Rules for the Right Judging and Interpreting of Scripture. In Two Letters to a Friend (London, 1728).

Works published anonymously but credited to Burnet are Remarks Upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding [by J. Locke] in a Letter Addressed to the Author (London, 1697); Second Remarks Upon an Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In a Letter Address'd to the Author: Being a Vindication of the First Remarks Against the Answer of Mr. Locke at the End of His Reply to the Bishop of Worcester (London, 1697); Third Remarks Upon an Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In a Letter Addressed to the Author (London, 1699); and An Appeal to Common Sense: or, a Sober Vindication of Dr. Woodward's State of Physick. By a Divine of the Church of England (London, 1719).

II. SECONDARY LITERATURE.

Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Ithaca, N.Y., 1959), pp. 184-270, concerns Burnet and his work.

There is no bibliography on Burnet, but the following works on The Theory of the Earth may be helpful: John Beaumont, “Considerations on a Book Entitled The Theory of the Earth Published Some Years Since by the Learned Dr. Burnet,” in Philosophical Transactions, 17 (Sept. 1693), 888-892, and A Postscript to a Book Entituled Considerations on Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth (London, 1694); Herbert Crofts, Some Animadversions Upon a Book Intituled the Theory of the Earth (London, 1685); Robert Hooke, “Animadversions on Burnet's Theory, 1689,” MS at the Royal Society, London; John Keill, An Examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth, Together With Some Remarks on Mr. Whiston's New Theory of the Earth (Oxford, 1698), and An Examination of the Reflections on the Theory of the Earth Together With a Defense of the Remarks on Mr. Whiston's New Theory (Oxford, 1699); Melchoir Leydekker, M. Leydeckeri de republica Hebraeorum . . . subjicitur archaelogia sacra, qua historia creationis et diluvii Mosica contra Burneti profanam telluris theoriam asseritur (Amsterdam, 1704); Archibald Lovell, A Summary of Material Heads Which May Be Enlarged and Improved into a Compleat Answer to Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth (London, 1696); Matthew Mackaile, Terrae prodromus theoricus. Containing a Short Account of the New System of Order and Gradation, in the World's Creation. By Way of Animadversions Upon Mr. T. Burnet's Theory of His Imaginary Earth, etc. (Aberdeen, 1691); Robert St. Clair, The Abyssinian Philosopher Confuted; or, Telluris theoria Neither Sacred nor Agreeable to Reason (London, 1697); Christianus Wagner, Animadversions in . . . T. Burnetii Telluris theoriam sacram, etc. (Leipzig, n.d.); and Erasmus Warren, Geologia; or, a Discourse Concerning the Earth Before the Deluge, Wherein the Form and Properties Ascribed to It, in a Book Intituled the Theory of the Earth, Are Excepted Against and It Is Made to Appear That the Dissolution of That Earth Was Not the Cause of the Universal Flood (London, 1690); A Defense of the Discourse Concerning the Earth Before the Flood: Being a Full Reply to a Late Answer to Exceptions Made Against the Theory of the Earth, etc. (London, 1691); and Some Reflections Upon the Short Consideration of the Defense of the Exceptions Against the Theory of the Earth (London, 1692).

SUZANNE KELLY