1O RISK AND PROGRESS 



first published at Prague, in 1574, and an English translation of 

 them by Sir John Pettus, came out at London, in 1683. The 

 works of Agricola and Krckern are still highly esteemed, though 

 several others have been published, chiefly in Germany, upon the 

 same subject, since their time. Amongst these we may reckon 

 Schindler's Art of Assaying Ores and Metals ; the metallurgic 

 works of Orscliall ; the works of Henckell ; of Schutter ; of Cra. 

 mer; of Lehman; and of Gellert. Germany, indeed, has for a 

 long time been the great school of metallurgy for the rest of Europej 

 and we, in this country, owe the present flourishing condition of 

 our mines, especially of our copper mines, as well as of our brass 

 manufactory, to the wise policy of Queen Elizabeth, in granting 

 great privileges to Daniel Iloughsetter, Christopher Schutz, and 

 other Germans ; whom she had invited into England, in order to 

 instruct her subjects in the art of metallurgy. 



It was not, however, till towards the middle of the last century, 

 that general chemistry began to be cultivated in a liberal and phi- 

 losophical manner. So early as the year 1645, several ingenious , 

 persons in London, in order to divert their thoughts from the hor- 

 rors of the civil war, which had then broken out, had formed 

 themselves into a society, and held weekly meetings, in which they 

 treated of, what was then called, the new, or experimental philo- 

 sophy. These meetings were continued in London, till the esta. 

 blishment of the Royal Society, in 1662 ; and before that time, 

 by the removal of some of the original members to Oxford, similar 

 meetings were held there, and those studies brought into repute in 

 that university. Mr. Boyle, who had entered upon his chemical 

 studies about the year 1647, was a principal person in the Oxford 

 meetings ; he published at that place, his Sceptical Chemist, in 1661, 

 and by his various writings and experiments, greatly contributed 

 to the introducing into England, a taste for rational chemistry. 



Next to Boyle, or perhaps before him as a chemist, stands his 

 cotemporary, the unfortunate Beccher, whose Physica Subter. 

 ranea, justly entitled opus sine pari, was first published in 1669. 

 After having suffered various persecutions in Germany, he came 

 over into England, and died at London, in 1682, at the age of 57. 

 He resided some time before his death in Cornwall, which he calls 

 the mineral school, owning that, from a teacher, he was there be. 

 come a learner. IK- was the author of many improvements in the 

 manner of working mines, and of fluxing metals; in particular, he 



