Nathaniel Hardy
Nathaniel Hardy [1]
an English divine, was born in London in 1618; was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and became rector of St. Dionis Back, London. He was a decided Royalist, and yet remained a popular preacher during the Commonwealth. In 1660 he became archdeacon of Lewes and dean of Rochester. He died in 1670. His publications are, The first Epistle of John unfolded and applied (Lond. 1656, 4to): — Sermons on solemn Occasions (London, 168, 4to): — Sermon on the Fire of London (Lond. 1666 4to). — Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, 1, 1394. Hardy, Robert Spence, an English Methodist missionary, was born at Preston, Lancashire, July 1,1803, and was trained in the house of his grandfather, a printer and bookseller in York. In 1825 he was admitted to the British Conference, and appointed missionary to Ceylon, in which field he labored with great zeal for twenty-three years. In 1862 he was appointed superintendent of the South Ceylon Mission. To the ordinary labors of a missionary Mr. Hardy added an amount of literary activity sufficient to have occupied the whole life of an ordinary man. It is not too much to say that he and his colleague Gogerly (q.v.) have thrown more light upon the Buddhism of Ceylon, and upon Pall literature, than all other English writers. His culture, in the course of his studies, became very wide; he read Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Portuguese and Singhalese; and his acquaintance with the Pali and Sanskrit was not only large, but accurate. Towards the end of his life he returned to England, and served as minister on several important circuits. He died at Headingley, Yorkshire, April 16,1868. At the time of his mortal seizure he was engaged upon a work entitled Christianity and Buddhism compared. His most important publications are Eastern Monachism, an Account of the Origin, Laws, Discipline, Sacred Writings, etc. of the Order of Milendicants founded by Gotama Buddha (London, 1850, 8vo): — A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development, translated from Singhalese MSS. (Lond. 1853, 8vo): — The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists compared with History and Science (1867, cr. 8vo). — Wesleyan Minutes, 1868, p. 25.
