BOY 



381 



BOY 



Boyle. 



in the elections of the sovereign princes. In early 

 times, too, they were commanders of the army, as 

 well as counsellors of the monarch. Prior to the 

 reign of Peter I., they were the prime ministers of 

 state, and viceroys in the various provinces, acting 

 almost without controul. Without the consent of 

 the Boyar-skoidcor, or court of boyars, no law could 

 be enacted, insomuch that all the decrees of govern- 

 ment were introduced with this preamble, " By com- 

 mand of the Czar, and with consent of the boyars." 

 Peter, however, abrogated this court, in room of 

 which he instituted the directing senate. This se- 

 nate consisted at first of nine boyars, and was raised 

 to the rank of the supreme college of t he empire. 

 With regard to the etymology of the word boyar, 

 writers are not agreed ; but in the dictionaries it is 

 generally interpreted a lord, a person of quality, or a 

 nobleman ; and sometimes it denotes a soldier. Boy- 

 arin, in the Russian language, signifies a gentleman, a 

 person of distinction, or a master of a family ; and the 

 boor usually styles his master boyarin, or contracted, 

 barin, even though he has neither rank nor estate; 

 and his spouse bojarinn. The task -service exacted 

 from the boors by their lord, is called boi/arschtschiiia. 

 See Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, (jt) 



BOYLE, ROBERT, was the seventh son, and four- 

 teenth child (the last but one) of Richard Boyle, 

 Earl of Cork, by his second wile, Catharine, daugh- 

 ter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton. His father, a man of 

 more than ordinary ability and address, commonly 

 called the Great Earl of Cork, was a zealous pro- 

 moter of the Protestant and English interest in Ire- 

 land, where he exerted himself with such success in 

 the improvement of his domains, and in the defence 

 of them at the time of the Catholic rebellion, that 

 the Protector Cromwell is said to have declared, on 

 surveying them, if there had been an Earl of Cork 

 in every province, it would have been impossible for 

 the Irish to have raised a rebellion. Of his numer- 

 ous family, the greater part obtained distinction of 

 rank, and many were eminent in endowments as well 

 as condition. Robert Boyle, however, has secured 

 to himself the principal place in the consideration of 

 posterity. If Bacon pointed out the true way of 

 science, Boyle was the first of our philosophers who 

 struck into it, and pursued it with very considerable 

 success, leaving a track which was to conduct his 

 successors into the high way of discovery. His 

 name is always coupled with panegyric, and that in 

 a strain above what the occasion will appear to war- 

 rant, if we look no farther than into the simple nar- 

 rative of his life ; but upon a careful examination of 

 his works, the eulogium will hardly seem overstrain- 

 ed ; for though he may have gained the summit of 

 fame sooner, and with less difficulty, sustained as he 

 was by rank and fortune, than might have been prac- 

 ticable without such support, yet he is indebted to 

 liis merit and exertion alone, for the place he still 

 holds in the first rank of philosophers. Time, and 

 subsequent discoveries, have confirmed his reputation, 

 and borne the most honourable testimony to his skill 

 and industry in conducting laborious and ingenious 

 experiments ; his fidelity in relating them, and his 

 sagacity and discrimination in reasoning from them. 

 His biographers have recorded little that deserves 



particular notice of his childhood, and the infancy 

 of the philosopher is less likely to afford prognostics 

 of future greatness, than that of the poet. The 

 growth of reason is more tardy than that of imagi- 

 nation, and with less display of blossom. 



Robert Boyle was born at Lismore, in the county 

 of Cork, and province of Munster, in the year 1627. 

 When he was about seven years old, he lost his mo- 

 ther, a loss which he mentions in terms of much re- 

 gret, in his memoirs of the early part of his life. He 

 was reared in the cottage of his nurse, who was in- 

 structed to bring him up in the same habits of exer- 

 cise, and plain diet, as if he were her own child ; 

 but this precaution did not prevent his constitution 

 being always delicate and feeble. He contracted one 

 unfortunate habit under the humble roof of his nurse, 

 which he might have escaped in his paternal man- 

 sion : Having learned to stutter by imitation, he ne- 

 ver had the perfect use of the organs of speech ; for 

 though he avoided stammering, he could never speak 

 without hesitation and pauses. Of the moral ha- 

 bits of his childhood, the most remarkable was a 

 strict regard to truth, which his father said he never 

 knew him to violate. This circumstance renders it 

 probable, that his mind was impressed deeply at a 

 very early age with religious principles ; and the 

 same may be inferred with more certainty from the 

 uniformity of his opinions through life, which do 

 not appear to have departed at all from the establish 

 ed creeds, from the style of his religious productions, 

 and from his zeal in the support and propagation of 

 the Christian religion. In the course of his life, he 

 caused translations of the New Testament to be 

 made and published in the Irish, Welsh, and Malay- 

 an languages, and contributed liberally to the trans- 

 lation of the New Testament into Turkish, by order 

 of the Turkey Company. His donations to the 

 propagation of the gospel in America exceeded SOOl., 

 and by a codicil to his will, he left a revenue of 50/. 

 per annum for lectures, consisting of eight sermons 

 in the year, which were to be preached in illustration 

 of the evidences of Christianity, and in opposition 

 to infidel principles. His zeal, however, though it 

 was sufficiently ardent and active to prompt liberal 

 patronage, was uncontaminated with bigotry and 

 intolerance. Bishop Burnet has remarked, that the 

 expression of his sentiments was never pointed with 

 severity and indignation, unless against the abettors 

 of the persecution of religious opinion. 



His education commenced in his father's house, 

 under the direction of one of the Earl's chaplains, 

 assisted by a French gentleman who lived in the fa- 

 mily. At the age of eight years, he was sent to 

 Eton College, together with his brother Francis, 

 and placed under the care of Mr Harrison. Sir 

 Henry Wooton was at that time Provost of the 

 College. In his eleventh year, his studies were in- 

 terrupted by an attack of ague, when romances, 

 such as Amadis de Gaul, and other works of amuse- 

 ment, were put into his hands, and the pursuit of 

 learning was suspended, till his Latin was almost en- 

 tirely forgotten. Upon his recovery, he was board- 

 ed in the family of the rector of Stallbridge, in Dor- 

 set, not far from his father's seat there, and very soon 

 after he was entrusted to the care of M. Marcombes, 



