HARRISON, FREDERIC: English Positivist; b.
at London Oct. 18, 1831. He was educated at
Wadham College, Oxford (B.A., 1853; M.A., 1858),
where he was fellow and tutor in 1854-56, and be
came,
honorary fellow in 1899. He was admitted
to practise at Lincoln's Inn, London, as a barrister
at law in 1858. He was a member of the Royal
Commission on Trades-Unions in 1867-69 and secre
tary to the Royal Commission for Digesting the Law
in 1869-70. He was also professor of jurisprudence
in the Inns of Court from 1877 to 1889, and was
examiner in the same subject in the Inns of Court
in 1875, in London University in 1873-76, and in
Oxford University in 1877 and 1881. He was an
alderman of the London County Council from 1889
to 1893. Originally a member of the Church of
England, and with a thorough theological training
at Wadham College, he followed, while at the bar,
the sermons of F. D. Maurice, Stopford Brooke, and
Benjamin Jowett. He gradually came, however,
under the influence of Auguste Comte, and finally
adopted Positivism, the "Religion of Humanity,"
in 1870. Since that time he has come to be the
leading exponent of Positivist doctrines in England,
and from 1879 to 1904 was president of the English
Positivist Committee, as well as a member of the
Occidental Positivist Committee of Paris. In addition
to numerous contributions to various period
icals his works include Meaning of
History (London, 1862); Order and Progress (1875);
The Choice of Books (1886);
Studies in Early Victorian Literature
(2 vols., 1895-97); Byzantine History in the Early
Middle Ages (1900); George Washington and Other. American Addresses
(1901); Theophano (1904); Her
bert Spencer (Oxford 1905); Memoirs tired Thoughts (London, 1906);
Philosophy of Common ,Sense
161
(1907); The Creed of a Layman: Apologia pro fide
mea (1907); My Alpine Jubilee (1908);
and National and Social Problems (1908).
He prepared also the second volume of the English
translation of the
works of Comte (London, 1875), and delivered
numerous addresses before the Positivist Society,
in addition to being Gibbon Centenary Lecturer
at London in 1895, Rede Lecturer at Cambridge in
1900, George Washington Lecturer at Chicago
in 1901, Alfred Millenary Lecturer at Winchester in
the same year, and Herbert Spencer Lecturer at
Oxford in 1905.
HARRISON, ROBERT (or RICHARD; the True and Short Declaration always calls him "Robert," other early authorities name him " Richard "): English separatist; d. at Middelburg, Zealand, about 1585. He studied at St. John's and Corpus Christi Colleges, Cambridge (B.A., 1567; M.A., 1572); was removed from the mastership of the grammar-school at Aylaham, Norfolk, in Jan., 1574, for Puritanical objections to the baptismal service; later became master of a hospital at Norwich. He was an early friend of Robert Browne (q.v.) and his chief helper and disciple. Browne lived in Harrison's house at Norwich, and together they organized the church there in 1580; Harrison went with the congregation to Middelburg the next year, and, after Browne's departure, became its head. He published
A Little Treatise upon the First Verse of the 122nd Psalm, Stirring up unto Careful Desiring and Dutiful Labouring for the True Church Government (1583; reprinted by William Brewster at Leyden, 1618); and Three Forms of Catechisms, Containing the Most Principal Forma of Religion (1583). Harrison pub lished also: 0 f Ghosts and Spirits Walking by Night, and of Strange Noises, Cracks, and Sundry Fore warnings, which commonly happen before the Death of Men, Great Slaughters, and Alterations of King doms: one Book : written by Lewis Lavaterus of Tigurine, and translated into English by R. H. (London, 1572 and 1596); A Book of the Form of Common Prayers, Administration of the Sacraments, etc., Agreeable to God's Word and the Use of the Reformed Churches (1586).Bibliography: Sources are the writings of Robert Browne, particularly A True and Short Declaration. Consult: H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, New York, 1880; W. Walker, Hist. of the Congregational Churches in the U. S., pp. 3b-40, New York, 1894; C. Burrage, The True Story of Robert Browne, pp. 9-28, Oxford, 1908.
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