Plurality of Worlds (anonymously), Elements of Morality (1845), History of Moral Philosophy in England (1852), and Platonic Dialogues.  In addition to these he wrote innumerable articles, reviews, and scientific papers.  It was as a co-ordinator of knowledge and the researches of others that W. excelled; he was little of an original observer or discoverer.  He is described as a large, strong, erect man with a red face and a loud voice, and he was an overwhelming and somewhat arrogant talker.

WHICHCOTE, BENJAMIN (1609-1683).—­Divine, belonged to a good Shropshire family, and was at Camb., where he became Provost of King’s Coll., of which office he was deprived at the Restoration.  He was of liberal views, and is reckoned among the Camb.  Platonists, over whom he exercised great influence.  His works consist of Discourses and Moral and Religious Aphorisms.  In 1668 he was presented to the living of St. Lawrence, Jewry, London, which he held until his death.

WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY (1819-1886).—­Essayist and critic, b. in Massachusetts, was a brilliant and discriminating critic.  His works include Character and Characteristic Men, Literature and Life, Success and its Conditions, Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, Literature and Politics, etc.

WHISTON, WILLIAM (1667-1752).—­Theologian, and man of science, b. at Norton, Leicestershire, and ed. at Camb., where he succeeded Newton as Lucasian Prof. of Mathematics, was a prominent advocate of the Newtonian system, and wrote a Theory of the Earth against the views of Thomas Burnet (q.v.).  He also wrote several theological works, Primitive Christianity Revived and the Primitive New Testament.  The Arian views promulgated in the former led to his expulsion from the Univ.  His best known work was his translation of Josephus.  He was a kindly and honest, but eccentric and impracticable man, and an insatiable controversialist.

WHITE, GILBERT (1720-1793).—­Naturalist, b. at Selborne, Hants, and ed. along with the Wartons (q.v.) at their father’s school at Basingstoke, and thereafter at Oxf., entered the Church, and after holding various curacies settled, in 1755, at Selborne.  He became the friend and correspondent of Pennant the naturalist (q.v.), and other men of science, and pub. in the form of letters the work which has made him immortal, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789).  He was never m., but was in love with the well-known bluestocking Hester Mulso, afterwards Mrs. Chapone, who rejected him.  He had four brothers, all more or less addicted to the study of natural history.