386 



BOYLE. 



JSoyl?. phial which hi servant unfortunately let fall among 

 "~v ' them. Of the importance of his annual communi- 

 cations, no just estimate can be formed fr.om a cur- 

 ory notice of the subjects : the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions are enriched with many of them, and for the 

 entire catalogue, reference must be made to his work?. 

 Though Mr Boyle engaged in controversy, in vindi- 

 cation of his first discoveries, he appears rather to 

 have shunned than sought occasions of that sort. In 

 the conflict betwixt the members of the Royal So- 

 ciety, and the adherents to the old school of philo- 

 sophy, he took no greater share than was unavoid- 

 ably, from the nature of his pursuits, and the ne- 

 cessity of justifying the results of them when they 

 were given to the public. This \vas a duty which 

 h<- owed to himself and to science ; snd in the dis- 

 charge of it, his candour, love of truth, purity, and 

 simplicity of motive, were so apparent, that none of 

 the acrimony, of which the combatants were suffici- 

 ently liberal, fell upon him personally. In the con- 

 troversy that was occasioned by the pretensions of 

 Mr Valentine Greatraks, he did not think fit to 

 stand forth as a public disputant on either side, 

 though, as appears from his correspondence with 

 Mr Henry Stubbe, his thoughts were much occu- 

 pied about it. Mr Greatraks was the forerunner of 

 those ingenious gentlemen who have more recently 

 persuaded themselves that they had the power of ef- 

 fecting cures without the aid of medicine, by means 

 of certain sympathies, whose action they have named 

 animal magnetism. His integrity was undoubted ; 

 his disinterestedness could not be questioned, as his 

 practice was gratuitous ; and many facts, said to be 

 well-attested, were produced in evidence of his ex- 

 traordinary powers. Mr Boyle was prepared, by his 

 habits of thinking, and his chemical pumiits, not 

 to reject any fact, however new to his own experi- 

 ence, which offered itself to his notice, with suffici- 

 ent credentials of its truth, for no better reason than 

 his own inability to explain the natural process on 

 wlych it depended ; and his sentiments on the pre- 

 sent occasion ought to be considered as the conse- 

 quence, not of the credulity either of ignorance or 

 superstition, but of the habitual modesty of the 

 philosopher. His opinion on the subject of alchemy 

 hould be regarded in the same light. Having stea- 

 dily opposed the theoretic philosophy, it is not sur- 

 prising, that, at the dawn of chemical discovery, he 

 did not thiuk himself wan-anted in pronouncing the 

 transmutation of metals impossible, because inveon- 

 tileable with any of the crude theories of which he 

 had shewn the futility. That ho was far from a con- 

 viction of the impossibility of such a transmutation, 

 may be inferred ironi his havin:; employed his influ- 

 ence in procuring the repeal of the statute of Henry 

 IVth, against the multiplying of gold and silver. 



Mr Boyle continued to reside at Oxford during 

 the Protectorate ; and though after the Restoration 

 he was distinguished by many flattering attentions, 

 both from the king and his ministers, the Lords 

 Southampton and Clarendon, he declined making 

 any use of their patronage with a view to power or 

 emolument ; and though he might confidently have 

 looked forward to the possession o'f the highest ec- 

 clesiastical honours, l.e refused to comply wiih pn.ES- 



6 



ing solicitations to enter into holy orders. His mo- 

 lution on this subject remained f'xed ; though, upon 

 the death of Dr John Meredith, he was nominated 

 by the king Provost of Eton College. He chose 

 rather to decline an appointment for which he 

 thought taking orders a necessary qualification. The 

 piety of his character leaves no doubt that this re- 

 luctance proceeded from his high sense of the im- 

 portance of clerical duties, his devotion to scientific 

 labours, ni:d his opinion of the unlawfulness of be- 

 coming a member of such a profession, without pro- 

 posing to resign himself to its service. 



After a residence of 14 years at Oxford, Mr 

 Boyle removed to London, in the year 1668, and 

 established himself in the house of his sister, Lady 

 Raneiagh, in Pall Mall, with whom he remained till 

 her death, and survived her only one week. Not- 

 withstanding his resolution to accept no situation of 

 high trust, either in church or state, he was induced, 

 in several instances, by his zeal for the promotion of 

 Christian knowledge, to accede to several appoint- 

 ments of less distinction. In 1662, a grant of the for- 

 feited impropriations was obtained in his name, but 

 without his knowledge, which he applied to the ser- 

 vice of learning and religion. He was also appoint- 

 ed Governor of the Corporation for Propagating the 

 Gospel in New England. With a view to further- 

 ing the same design in the East, he was many year* 

 a Director of the East India Company. 



In 1664, he was elected into the Society of Royal 

 Mines ; and, in 1680, he was elected President of 

 the Royal Society, but declined the honour ; and, 

 in a letter to Mr Hooke of Gresham College, as- 

 signed his particular feeling on the subject of oaths 

 as the reason of his refusaL 



Mr Boyle did not possess a firm constitution. I' 

 his eleventh year, his studies were interrupted by 

 ague ; as early as his 21st year, he had a severe fit 

 of the stone, from which disease he suffered much 

 in the course of his life ; and in his 44th year, he 

 was shaken by a paralytic distemper, which was at 

 length subdued by strict regimen. The general state 

 of his health was indeed such, that he found it ne- 

 cessary to adjust his elothing by the varying states 

 of the thermometer. Notwithstanding every pre- 

 caution, at the age of sixty, 1-j became sensible of a 

 rapid decay of strength, and judged it therefore ne- 

 cessary to make a more economical arrangement of 

 time, and to concentrate his labours. With this 

 view, he made known, by public advertisement, his 

 reason for declining the greater number of visits 

 with which he was honoured, and caused a board to 

 be fixed to his door, which expressed the hours on 

 which visits were received. And such was the sim- 

 plicity and modesty of his character, that this sin- 

 gularity drew upon him no imputation of vanity and 

 ostentation. Mr Boyle had the satisfaction of see- 

 ing the liberties of his country placed upon a lasting 

 basis j he survived the ;era of the Revolution about 

 two years. His sister, to whom he was very warm- 

 ly attached, and with whom he principally lived for 

 nearly 47 years, died on the 23d of December, 

 and himself OK the 30th, 1691. His body was in- 

 terred near that of his sister, at the south side of the 

 chauccl of St Mai tin's in the Fields. 



