Bernard, an erudite Dutch philosopher, was born at Wastgatilv, in North-Holland, on the 10th of August 1654. His father, who was a Protestant clergyman, originally designed him for his own profession; but as Bernard displayed a stronger predilection for science than for the church, he was allowed to follow his own inclinations. He studied mathematics, medicine, law, and philosophy with zeal and success. His confidence in mathematical science, however, seems to have been greater than his skill; for in 1694 he commenced a series of attacks upon the calculus, which increased his notoriety, but did not add to his fame. His first brochure was entitled, *Considerationes circa Analyseos ad Quantitates Infinitae Parvas Applicatae*, &c., Amst. 1694; a work which he followed up next year by *Analysis Infinitorum seu Curvilinearum Proprietates ex Polygonorum Naturâ Deductae*. Leibnitz replied to his objections in the *Leipzig Transactions*, to which Nieuwentyt produced a rejoinder in 1696. John Bernoulli defended Leibnitz; and Jacob Herman, in a work published at Bâle in 1700, ultimately silenced the Dutchman, to the satisfaction of all intelligent mathematicians. With the exception of *A Treatise upon a New Use of the Tables of Sines and Tangents*, contributed to the *Literary Journal* of the Hague in 1714, we hear no more of Nieuwentyt and mathematics. In philosophy he was a follower of Descartes, and produced some fresh speculations on the subject of natural theology. He attempted to establish the existence of Deity by proofs drawn from the order of nature and from the marks of design exhibited in the universe. His great work on this subject, and the one which forms the mainstay of his reputation, appeared originally in the *Leipzig Transactions*, and was afterwards published in Dutch, under the title of *Regt gebruyk der weereld beschaving*, 4to, Amsterdam, 1716. In the author's own country it went through four editions in as many years. It was translated into English in 1718; into French in 1725; and subsequently into German by two different hands. The English version was executed by John Chamberlayne, under the title of *The Religious Philosopher*, 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1718-19, and 1730. A new interest attaches to this popular work of the solid Dutchman, from the fact only recently made public (see *Atheneum* for 1848, pp. 803, 907, 930), that Paley's well-known *Natural Theology* seems to have been all but copied from it. Not only has the English archdeacon, it is alleged, borrowed the general argument of the Dutch thinker, he has likewise followed his arrangement, appropriated his thoughts, made use of his form, and copied his details, and that without anything like honourable acknowledgment. Nieuwland Paley refers twice in his work to the name of Dr Nieuwentyt, but in such a manner as obviously to decline the general admission of the sources of his information. Paley's celebrated watch which he found "in crossing a heath" in 1802, had been picked up "in the middle of a sandy down" in Holland, just eighty-six years before. An attempt to extenuate the guilt of the reverend culprit may be seen in the Athenæum already referred to. In addition to his other works, Nieuwentyt left a refutation of Spinoza in Dutch, which was published at Amsterdam in 1720. He had considerable fame in his day as a physician; and his good sense, ready eloquence, and amiable character, won him esteem as burgomaster of the town of Purmerend, and gave him great influence in the provincial states. He died on the 30th of May 1718.