4-32 



BARROW BARRY. 



appointed the first Lucasian professor of mathematics 

 at. Cambridge, on which occasion lit- delivered an < \- 

 cellent prefatory lecture on tlie utility of nmtheniati- 

 cil science. Jn l(j(i'.), on a conscientious principle ot 

 duty, he determined to give up mathematics, and ad- 

 here exclusively to divinity. Accordingly, after 

 publishing his celebrated Lcctionet Optica, he re- 

 signed his chair to a successor worthy of him the 

 great Newton. In 1670, he was created D. D. by 

 mandate, and, in 1 672, the king nominated him to 

 the mastership of Trinity college, observing that he 

 had bestowed it on the best scholar in England. He 

 liad, before this, refused a living, given him with a 

 view to secure his services as a tutor to the son of the 

 gentleman who hail it to bestow, because he deemed 

 Mi<-! i a contract simoniacal ; and he now, witli similar 

 conscientiousness, had a clause in his patent of mas- 

 ter, allowing him to marry, erased, because incompa- 

 tible with tin- intentions of the founder. In 1675, he 

 was chosen vice-chancellor of the university of Cam- 

 bridge ; but the credit and utility expected from his 

 labours were frustrated by his untimely death, from 

 a violent fever, in May, 1677, in the 47th year of his 

 age. 



' The works of Dr Barrow, both mathematical and 

 theological, are of the highest class. Of the former, 

 the following are the principal : Euclfdis Elementa, 

 Cantab., 1655, 8vo ; Euclidis Data, Cantab., 1657, 

 8vo ; Lectiottes Optics, Lond., 1669, 4to ; Lectiones 

 Geometric*, Lond., 1670, 4to ; Archimcdis Opera; 

 Apoilonii Conkorum, lib. iv. ; Theodosii Sphericorum, 

 lib. iii., novo methodo Ulustrata et succmcte demon- 

 strata, Lond., 1675, 4to ; Lectio in qua Theoremata 

 Archimedis de Sphera et Cylindro per Methodum in- 

 divisibilium investigata, ^re., Lond., 1678, 12mo ; 

 Mathematics Lectiones, Lond., 1683. The two last 

 works were not published till after his death. All 

 his English works are theological ; they were left in 

 MS., and published by Dr Tulotson, in 3 vols. folio, 

 Lond., 1685. Isaaci Barrow Opuscula, appeared in 

 1697, Lond., folio. As a mathematician, especially 

 in the higher geometry, Barrow was deemed inferior 

 only to Newton : as a divine, he was singularly dis- 

 tinguished for depth and copiousness of thought ; and 

 he so exhausted the subjects which he treated in his 

 sermons, that Charles II. used to call him an unfair 



f readier, for leaving nothing to be said after him. 

 e Clerc speaks of his sermons as exact disserta- 

 tions, rather than addresses to the people ; and al- 

 though unusually long, they so abound in matter, that 

 his language sometimes labours in the expression of it ; 

 whence his style is occasionally involved and paren- 

 thetical. Passages of sublime and simple eloquence, 

 however, frequently occur ; and, although his divi- 

 nity is less read now than formerly, it is not unfre - 

 quently resorted to as a mine of excellent thoughts 

 and arguments. A fine specimen of his characteristic 

 copiousness is quoted, by Addison, from his sermon 

 on Vain and Idle Talking, in which the various 

 forms and guises of wit are enumerated with a felicity 

 of expression which it would be difficult to parallel. 

 Doctor Barrow was himself celebrated for wit, and 

 still more for his personal courage, which was always 

 remarkable. In external appearance, he exhibited 

 more of the scholar than the man of the world ; being 

 short in his person, meager in his countenance, and 

 slovenly in his habits. These, however, were but 

 small defects in a man otherwise so highly gifted, 

 and so modest, conscientious, and amiable. Chari- 

 table even in bounded circumstances, altogether dis- 

 interested in prosperity, and serene and contented 

 in all fortunes, he was at once the divine and philo- 

 sopher, leaving little property other than his books, 

 and the reputation of being one of the greatest orna- 

 ments to his country. 



BARROWS. See Tumuli. 



BARRY, James T., a painter, and writer on his art, 

 was born at Cork, in Ireland, in 1741, and died in 

 1806. His father was employed in the coasting trade 

 between England and Ireland, and had destined him 

 for the same business; but his irresistible inclination 

 for drawing and painting prevailed. By one of his 

 first paintings in oil, representing the Landing of St 

 Patrick in Ireland, he attracted the attention ot the 

 famous Burke, who carried him, in liis xM year, to 

 London, and recommended him to the At/ten inn 

 Stnnrt, so called, by whom he was employed in 

 copying old paintings in oil. The brothers Burke, 

 provided him with the necessary means for visiting 

 Paris and Rome, from whence he went to-Florcix e, 

 Bologna, and Naples. He remained three years in 

 Italy, formed his genius by the study of the great 

 masterpieces, and wrote able criticisms upon llicm. 

 Among his productions, Adam and KM, I'cnns, Ju- 

 piter and Juno upon Mount Ida, and the Death of 

 General fVolfe, are the most celebrated. After his 

 return, he was chosen member of the royal academy, 

 and professor of painting. He worked seven years 

 on the paintings which adorn the great hall of the 

 society for the encouragement of the arts. In 1773, 

 he published his well-known work, Inquiry into the 

 real and imaginary Obstructions to the Increase of 

 the Arts in England. He traces these causes to the 

 Protestant religion, to the political spirit of the Eng- 

 lish, and to their preference of the useful to the 

 beautiful. While we value his criticism on the beau- 

 tiful, and his theory of the ails, we must blame the 

 irregularity of his drawings, and his unsociable man- 

 ners. 



BARRY, John, a distinguished naval officer in the 

 service of the United States, was born in the county 

 of Wexford, Ireland, in 1745. His father, a very 

 respectable farmer, having perceived a strong incli- 

 nation in him for the sea, placed him on board a 

 merchantman, where he continued for several years. 

 He arrived in America, which he adopted as his 

 country, when only fourteen or fifteen years old, 

 having previously acquired a good practical education 

 by industrious effort, in conjunction with a strong 

 and active mind. In America, he was not long with- 

 out occupation, being employed by some of the most 

 respectable merchants of the day, who always spoke 

 of him in terms of high approbation. He continued 

 thus engaged until the rupture between the colonies 

 and the mother country, when he embraced the cause 

 of the former. The reputation which he had acquired 

 for skill and experience procured for him one of die 

 first naval commissions from congress. In February, 

 1776, he was appointed commander of the brig Lex- 

 ington, of sixteen guns, the first continental vessel 

 ofwar which sailed from the port of Philadelphia. 

 After a successful cruise in her, he was transferred, 

 in the latter part of the same year, to the Effingham, 

 one of the three large frigates built in Philadelphia. 

 Being prevented, in the winter of that year, from 

 pursuing his naval operations, by the ice which im- 

 peded the navigation of the Delaware, he would not 

 remain inactive, but volunteered his services in the 

 army, where he served, with great honour to himself, 

 as aide-de-camp to general Cadwalader, in the im- 

 portant occurrences near Trenton. When the Ame- 

 ican vessels of war were lying near Whitehill, whither 

 they had been sent when the city, and the forts or 

 the river, had fallen into the power of the British, 

 commodore Barry conceived the daring plan of an- 

 noying the enemy by means of small boats, properly 

 irmeo, which, being stationed down the river and 

 y, might intercept supplies, and, in case of danger, 

 ake refuge in the creeks. He, accordingly, manned 

 the boats of the frigates, descended the river with 



