ALLEN, John (1770-1843), was born near Edinburgh, and educated at the university of that city, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1791. With youthful enthusiasm, Allen joined the Scottish movement of that period for parliamentary reform. He was an acute metaphysician, and the prelections on physiology which he delivered in Edinburgh are distinguished by clearness and precise philosophical views. Leaving Edinburgh, he took up his abode at Holland House as the friend and private secretary of the late Lord Holland. In 1811 he was elected warden of Dulwich College; and in 1820 obtained the comfortable sinecure of master of that institution, where he died in 1843. Alien’s detached publications, though well written, are not very important, if we except his valuable Inquiry into the Growth of the Royal Prerogative (1830), “a learned and luminous work;" but he was an able contributor to the Edinburgh Review, to which he is said to have furnished no less than forty articles, chiefly on physiological, metaphysical, and political subjects; and some of his contributions on French and Spanish history are very interesting. For this last department he was peculiarly fitted by his residence with Lord Holland in France and Spain; he had even collected materials for a history of Spain, but was hindered from fulfilling his purpose by his deep interest in politics. The latter portion of his life was divided between politics and the study of the history of the British constitution. Brougham, in his éloge of Allen (Works, vol. iv., 1872), has highly commended him for extensive learning and philosophical talent.

ALLEN, or Alleyn, Thomas (1542-1632), a famous English mathematician, was born at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, 21st December 1542. He was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1561; and in 1567 took his degree of master of arts. In 1580 he quitted his college and fellowship, and retired to Gloucester Hall, where he studied very closely, and became famous for his knowledge of antiquity, philosophy, and mathematics. Having received an invitation from Henry, Earl of Northumberland, a great friend and patron of men of science, he spent some time at the earl’s house, where he became acquainted with Thomas Harriot, John Dee, and other famous mathematicians. He was also intimate with Cotton, Camden, and their antiquarian associates. Robert, Earl of Leicester, had a particular esteem for Allen, and would have conferred a bishopric upon him, but his love of solitude made him decline the offer. His great skill in mathematics earned him, as was usual in those times, the credit of being a magician; and the author of Leicester's Commonwealth accuses him of employing the art of figuring” to further the Earl of Leicester’s unlawful designs, and of endeavouring by the black art to bring about a match between his patron and Queen Elizabeth. Allen was indefatigable in collecting scattered manuscripts relating to history, antiquity, astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics. A considerable part of his collection was presented to the Bodleian library by Sir Kenelm Digby. He published in Latin the second and third books of Claudius Ptolemy of Pelusium, Concerning the Judgment of the Stars, or, as it is commonly called, of the Quadripartite Construction, with an exposition. He wrote also notes on some of Lilly’s books, and on Bale’s De Scriptoribus Μ. Britanniae.