BERNARD, Dr Edward, a learned astronomer, linguist, and critic, was born at Perry St Paul, near Tewkesbury, May 2. 1638, and educated at Merchant-Tailors' school, and St John's College, Oxford. On entering the university, he was already master of all the elegancies of the Greek and Latin tongues, and not unacquainted with the Hebrew. He there applied to the study of history, philology, and philosophy, and mastered the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic languages; after which he studied mathematics under Dr Wallis. Having taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, and afterwards that of bachelor of divinity, he went to Leyden to consult several Oriental manuscripts left to that university by Joseph Scaliger and Levinus Warnerus. On his return to Oxford he collated and examined the most valuable manuscripts in the Bodleian library, and became engaged in a very extensive correspondence with the learned of most countries. In 1669, when the celebrated Christopher Wren, Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, was appointed surveyor-general of His Majesty's works, and obliged to spend much of his time in London, he obtained leave to name Bernard as his deputy at Oxford. In 1676 he went to France as tutor to the dukes of Grafton and Northumberland, sons of Charles II. by the duchess of Cleveland, and then living with their mother at Paris; but the simplicity of his manners not suiting the gaiety of the duchess's family, he returned about a year after to Oxford. He composed tables of the longitudes, latitudes, right ascensions, and declinations of the fixed stars; Observations in Latin on the Obliquity of the Ecliptic; and several other pieces inserted in the Philosophical Transactions. He also wrote, 1. A Treatise on Ancient Weights and Measures; 2. Chronologia Samaritana Synopsis, in two tables; 3. Testimonies of the Ancients concerning the Greek Version of the Old Testament by the Seventy; and several other learned works. This learned and pious man died January 12. 1696, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, leaving behind him a number of manuscripts which are now deposited in the Bodleian library. His biography has been written by Dr Smith.