Joseph D', a celebrated Spanish author, was born at Medina del Campo about the year 1539. In 1571, he went to Peru as a Provincial of the Jesuits, having entered into that society in his fourteenth year. After a residence in America of seventeen years, he returned to his native country, and became in succession visitor for his order of Aragon and Andalusia, superior of Valladolid, and rector of Salamanca; in which city he died in February 1600.

About ten years before his death, he published at Seville, in one volume quarto, his valuable work entitled Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias. The first two books of this history were written during his residence in Peru, and were published separately after his return to Spain, in the Latin language, with this title: De Natura Noei Orbis, libri duo. He afterwards translated them into Spanish, and added to them other five books, the whole composing a connected work, under the first-mentioned title. This work, which has been translated into all the principal languages of Europe, is written on a regular and comprehensive plan. Dr Robertson pronounces Acosta "an accurate and well-informed writer." Among other things, he treats the subject of climate in a more philosophical manner than could have been expected in a writer of that age, and of his order. "He was the first philosopher," says the eminent author just quoted, "who endeavoured to account for the different degrees of heat in the old and new continents, by the agency of the winds which blow in each;"—a theory which was afterwards adopted by Buffon, and supported with his usual powers of copious and eloquent illustration. In the course of these discussions, Acosta frequently comments upon the opinion of Aristotle and other ancient philosophers, that the middle zone of the earth was so much scorched by the rays of the sun as to be destitute of moisture and verdure, and totally uninhabitable. This notion seems to have held its ground in the Schools, even after the discovery of South America had disclosed the magnificent scenery and stupendous rivers of the tropical regions. It appears to have been thought a sort of impiety to question a dogma of such ancient date, and sanctioned by the assent of all the school divines. We learn, from a curious passage in Osborne's Miscellany of Essays, Paradoxes, and Letters, that the exposing of this ancient error in geography was one of the circumstances which brought upon the famous Sir Walter Raleigh the charge of general scepticism and atheism. Acosta mentions, that, when he went to America, his mind was deeply imbued with frightful notions of this supposed burning zone, and that his surprise was great when he beheld it so different from what it had been represented in the "ancient and received philosophy." "What could I do then," says he, "but laugh at Aristotle's meteors and his philosophy?"

Having said thus much in regard to one of the most curious and valuable of the earlier accounts of the new world, it Acosta may be proper to add, that, in speaking of the conduct of his countrymen, and the propagation of their faith, Acosta is in no respect superior to the other prejudiced and fantastic writers of his country and age. Though he acknowledges that the career of Spanish conquest was marked by the most savage cruelty and oppression, he yet represents this people as the chosen instruments of the Deity for spreading the truths of the gospel among the nations of America, and recounts a variety of miracles, as a proof of the constant interposition of Heaven, in favour of these merciless and rapacious invaders.

Besides his History, Acosta wrote the following works: 1. De Promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros. 2. De Christo Revelato. 3. De Temporibus Novissimis, libri vi. 4. Conclavum, tomus iii.

Uriel d., a Portuguese of noble family, a Jew by descent, was born at Oporto towards the close of the sixteenth century. Brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, and naturally of a religious disposition, he was a strict observer of the rites of the church till the course of his inquiries led him, after much painful doubt, to abandon the religion of his youth. Apparently ignorant of any other form of Christianity, he sought refuge in Judaism, and, passing over to Amsterdam, was received into the synagogue, after undergoing the rite of circumcision, and having his name changed from Gabriel to Uriel. He soon discovered, however, that those who sat in Moses' seat were shameful perverters of his law; and his bold protests served only to exasperate the rabbis, who finally punished his contumacy with the greater excommunication. Persecution seemed only to stimulate his temerity, and he soon after published a defence, in which he not merely exposed the departures of the Jewish teachers from the law, but combated the doctrine of a future life, in which he held himself supported by the silence of the Mosaic Books. For this he was imprisoned and fined, besides incurring public odium as a blasphemer and atheist. Nothing deterred, he pursued his speculations, which ended in his repudiating the divine authority of the law of Moses. Wearied, however, by his melancholy isolation, and longing for the benefits of society, he was driven, in the inconsistency of despairing scepticism, to seek a return to the Jewish communion. Having recanted his heresies, he was re-admitted after an excommunication of 15 years. He soon made himself again obnoxious to discipline, and was excommunicated a second time. After seven years of miserable exclusion, he once more sought admission, and after passing through a humiliating penance was again received. These notices of his singular and unhappy life are taken from his Exemplar Humanae Vitae, published and refuted by Limborch. He died by his own hand, after an ineffectual attempt on the life of his most bitter persecutor.