294: LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1666-7. 



patent alone, but b y Act of Parliament for ninety-nine 

 years ! Even Dr. Hook could not view the Marquis other 

 wise than by the common standard of public opinion, 

 acknowledging that he only went to see the wondrous 

 engine at Vauxhall to laugh at itT And he could even 

 condescend to report of his fellow inventor s labour, 

 that, u as far as I could see it, it seemed one of the 

 perpetual motion fallacies.&quot; So that its very regularity 

 and remarkable continuity of operation were alone, 

 considered enough to condemn it ! Dr. Eobert Hook 

 was deservedly esteemed as a mathematician, and he 

 was also distinguished for his mechanical ingenuity ; 

 but he was a man of very peculiar habits and singular 

 disposition, being excessively jealous and cynical. This 

 splenetic philosopher appears to have set out for 

 Lambeth in no disposition to form a dispassionate 

 opinion on the work of a rival inventor. A few lines 

 of description, however meagre, would have been 

 invaluable, whereas his cynical remark leads to the 

 unfavourable supposition that his disingenuous state 

 ments had their influence on Boyle and other Fellows 

 of the Eoyal Society, to check any further inquiry 

 respecting the supposed mechanical marvel. 



The Marquis might well allude in his Century to 

 &quot; the melancholy which had lately seized upon him ;&quot; 

 his sole desire being to pay his debts and possess u a 

 competency to live according to his birth and quality 5&quot; 

 yet every way frustrated, month by month, year by 

 year, even after his last ray of hope was realized in the 

 return of the exiled sovereign. He makes slight 

 allusion to enemies, and none to public neglect. The 

 enemies must have existed, Papist as he was, when so 

 late as November 1666, the King had published a 

 declaration to banish all priests and Jesuits, on pain of 

 punishment if found in the kingdom after the middle of 



