Wathen Mark Wilks Call (7 June 1817 – 20 August 1890) was an English freethinker, poet and writer. He was a deacon and priest in the Church of England from 1843 to 1856.Sell, Alan P. F. (1997). Mill and Religion: Contemporary Responses to Three Essays on Religion. Thoemmes Press. p. 38.
Career
Call was educated at St John's College, Cambridge and obtained a BA (1843) and MA (1846). He was an ordained deacon (1843), priest (1844) and curate at Treneglos with Warbstow, Cornwall (1846) and in Marston Bigot, Somerset (1847–1856). Call later had doubts and resigned from the Church of England in 1856.Reilly, Catherine. (2000). Mid-Victorian Poetry, 1860–1879. Mansell. p. 78. Smith, Warren Allen. (2000). Who's Who in Hell: A Handbook and International Directory for Humanists, Freethinkers, Naturalists, Rationalists, and Non-Theists. Barricade Books. p. 175. He became an advocate of positivism and contributed to magazines such as The Fortnightly Review, Household Words and The Westminster Review. He married Rufa Hennell in 1857.Ashton, Rosemary. (2008). 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London. Vintage Books. p. 301. He was a friend of George Eliot and George Henry Lewes.Henry, Nancy. (2002). George Eliot and the British Empire. Cambridge University Press. p. 44.
His book Final Causes: A Refutation was a criticism of the argument from design.Clapperton, Jane Hume. (1892). Reviewed Work: Final Causes: A Refutation by Walthen Mark Wilks Call. International Journal of Ethics 2 (2): 269–270.
He died at Addison Gardens, Kensington.
Publications
Lyra Hellenica (1842) Golden Histories, Etc. (1871) Reverberations Revised, With a Chapter From My Autobiography (1875) Final Causes: A Refutation (1891)
References
Further reading Moncure D. Conway. (1892). Religion and Progress: Interpreted by the Life and Last Work of Wathen Mark Wilks Call. The Monist 2 (2): 183–197.