SKETCH OF ROBERT BOYLE. 551 



gious work. He founded a lectureship on the evidences of Chris- 

 tianity; contributed liberally to projects for the spread of the 

 gospel in India and America; bore the expense of publishing 

 translations of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles into 

 Malay, and of publishing an Irish Bible ; contributed to the pub- 

 lication of the Welsh Bible and a Turkish New Testament ; and 

 aided with money in Pococke's translation of Grotius's De Veri- 

 tate into Arabic. The learned Sanderson having been deposed 

 from his benefice on account of his loyalty to Charles II, he gave 

 him a pension on condition that he would write a work on ques- 

 tions of conscience. When invited to take orders in the Church, 

 he declined to do so, on the ground that that was not his vocation, 

 and that his writings on religious subjects would have greater 

 weight coming from a layman than from a paid minister. 



Boyle left Oxford about 1GC8 and settled in London, fixing his 

 residence in the house of his sister, Lady Ranelagh. His health 

 began to fail seriously about 1690, and he was obliged to withdraw 

 gradually from all his public engagements. He discontinued his 

 contributions to the Royal Society, resigned his office as governor 

 of the corporation for the propagation of the gospel in New 

 England, and announced publicly that he could no longer receive 

 visits. He devoted his time to chemical investigation, the ac- 

 counts of which he left " as a kind of hermetic legacy to the stu- 

 dious disciples of that art." His health continued to grow worse, 

 and his death occurred precisely one week after that of his sister, 

 with whom he had lived for twenty years. By his will he found- 

 ed and endowed the Boyle Lectures for the demonstration of the 

 truth of the Christian religion " against atheists, theists, pagans, 

 Jews, and Mohammedans." 



Boyle was never married. In person he was tall, slender, and 

 of a pale countenance. " While his scientific discoveries procured 

 him wide and lasting renown, his private character and virtues, 

 the charm of his social manners, and his wit and conversation 

 endeared him to a large number of personal friends." 



Boyle's place in science should be estimated by the relation of his 

 work to his time, not to ours. He was a leader, much in advance. 

 Sir John Herschel says that he " seemed animated by an enthu- 

 siasm of ardor, which hurried him from subject to subject, and 

 from experiment to experiment, without a moment's intermission, 

 and with a sort of undistinguishing appetite." Sir Henry W. 

 Ackland suggests that he had so many qualities, and pursued so 

 many lines of thought, that they almost dim one another. From 

 his " quality of prudence, and from his steadfast adherence to the 

 supreme test of experiment, he was led to doubt and to test sev- 

 eral opinions in the science of the day, and to overthrow dogmas 

 which had been unquestioned. This skepticism in scientific mat- 



