a native of France, who had accompam 

 his elder brothers in their travels. In the autumn 

 of that year, IC.IK, he embarked with his brother 

 and tutor for France. Having visited Rouen- 

 and Lyons, in their route, th. y fixed their abode at 

 Geneva, where M. Maicon.bt-s' family redded. At 

 the end of three years, t'vy pr to make the 



tour of Italy. During their stay at Fi 

 celebrated philosopher Galileo died, within a league 

 t place. Tl'e ' of bills of exchange, 



which were expected at Marseilles, he tour- 



ists to return to Geneva, where fix 

 necessity of remaining two years, til 

 tutor, by taking uj- '' ' lis own 



credit, for their use, enabled them to return to their 

 native country. These difficulties appear to have 

 been in part o; by the troubles attending 



the rebellion in Ireland. On their arr.vnl in Efig- 



ther's death. Their connections, however, made it 

 easy for them to obtain protection fur their estates ; 

 and in the following year, Mr Robert Boyle, having 

 obtained permission from Parliament, mad? an hasty 

 visit to France, probably with a view to the discharge 

 of his pecuniary obligations to his late tutor. 



In the beginning of the year 161.5, we first find him, 

 BOW master of his time and actions, and well provided 

 for, living in philosophical retirement ot. his manor at 

 Stallbridge. Natural philosophy and chemistry were 

 here his chief pursuit ; and with what reputation for 

 iiiccess, may be inferred from his being chosen, 

 though so young a man, one of the iirst members of 

 that learned body, then in its infancy, which was as- 

 sembled in weekly meetings, first at Oxford, and af- 

 terwards at London, and was called at that time the 

 Philosophical College, and after the Restoration was 

 incorporated under the title of the Royal Society. 

 Some treatises which were not published till after an 

 interval of many years, were composed by Mr Boyle, 

 at about this period, before he had reached his twentieth 

 year. Of this number are his Seraphic Love, his 

 Essay on Mistaken Modesty, and his Free Discourse 

 against Customary Swearing, productionsof an early 

 , and possessing no extraordinary merit above 

 the age at which they were produced. Subjects 

 connected with theol gy divided his time and labour 

 with philosophical research, during this part of his 

 life ; and though he was probably never a very cri- 

 tical scholar, he now applied himself with consider- 

 able assiduity to the examination of the writings of 

 the Old and New Testament in the original tongues. 

 The first of these studies was an Essay on the Scrip- 

 ture, begun about the year 1652, an extract from 

 which, entitled, Considerations on the Style of the 

 Holy Scriptures, appeared separately. Thirty years 

 after this period, he presented the world with the 

 following treatises, also of a theological complexion : 

 i:i 1681, a Discourse of Things above Reason ; in 

 1683, a Treatise on the high veneration Man's intel- 

 lect owes to God. particularly for his Wisdom and 

 Power ; in 168(>, a Free Inquiry into the Vulgar 

 and received notion of Nature. But whatever inge- 

 nuity may be displayed in some of his serious and 

 miscellaneous productions, the literary reputation of 

 the author is not at present much indebted to them ; 



VOL. IV. PART II. 



B O Y L E. 



the debt is indeed on their side, as they owe to hi* 

 reputation that they are known at all. The last of * 



i essays, and which bears ai might be 

 expected, a deeper stamp of philosophy than sonv; 

 of his earlier pieces, is the Christian Virtuoso : the 

 first part was publish-d by hinnelf ; the second ap- 

 peared in an imperfect state, as he left it atter hit 

 decease. 



Whatever direction the inquiries and studies of Mr 

 Boyle may have taken at different times, it is I 

 aopher alone th ', lie is entitled to the grati- 

 ', hi, ir.it ion of posterity. So early and com- 

 plete was his conviction that sci, nee \v.-u not to be 

 promoted by conjectural hypotheses, nor in any other 

 way than th.it of actual experiment, that he is said, 

 when a young man, to have refused exposing him- 

 self to the seduction of the ingenious theories of 

 D:-jcarte>, am 1 '.o have abstained from reading his 

 works, when they were in the hanr 1 * of almost every 

 student of philosophy in Europe. 



Betwixt the years 1652 and 1654, Mr Boyle'i 

 studies suffered considerable interruption from th" 

 iiccesaity of repeated visits to Ireiand ; in one of 

 which he found means to carry on some anatomical 

 dissections, with the assistance of Doctor, afterwards 

 Sir William Petty. From the latter date^to tin- 

 year 16'68, his principal residence was at O:,ford, in 

 the house of Mr Cross, an apothecary of that city, 

 and founder of an hospital, near Ampthill, in Bed- 

 fordohire. His inquiries were now animated, and 

 assisted by the society of the most eminent philoso- 

 phers of that day in England, who held their meet- 

 ings in Mr Boyle's -v^artments, and there, as has 

 been remarked, laid the foundation of the Royal So- 

 ciety. If the names of Franklin, Priestley, and 

 Black, are respectively associated with the great dis- 

 coveries in electricity, aerology, and chemistry, that 

 of Boyle must be honoured by every lover of pneu- 

 matic philosophy. He was not indeed the inventor 

 of the air-pump ; but, in conjunction with Mr Ro- 

 bert Hook, at that time his chemical assistant, he 

 improved the construction of it, so as to render it a 

 more manageable machine, and capable of more suc- 

 cessful application. This important service was ren- 

 dered to science about the year Hi,".9. Long before 

 this improvement was made, Mr Boyle stood high ai 

 a philosopher in the estimation of lus country men, 

 and had been chosen by Dr Nathaniel Highmore as 

 the man to whom his History of Generation might 

 be most fitly dedicated. But his first philosophical 

 publication was subsequent to the improved con- 

 struction of the air-pump. 



In the year IfiriO, he published his " New Expe- 

 riments Physico-mechanical, touching the spring of 

 the air." This work was translated ir-to Latin, and 

 attacked by Franciscus Linus, and Thomas Hobbes, 

 arid defended by himself in a second edition. From 

 this time, few if any years passed, in which th.- 

 world was not indebted to the labours of Mr Boyle. 

 A catalogue of his works, in the order of publics 

 tion, would afford no common proof of assiduity and 

 success in prosecuting inquiries into nature ; and thi ; 

 evidence, though ample, is defective, as many of hi.> 

 papers were lost; some in the fire of London, some 



stolen, and others injured by corrosive liquor c " 



3c 





from a 



