BOY 



SR7 



BOY 



Of his person, which was tall and slende r, with :t 

 pnle and sickly countenance, two portraits remain, 

 one Ink. 11 in In; iiic'i is eoj-:, .1 in the 



title-p;!!;-' 1 of the qu:>.! .1 of his works; the 



oth'-v ' part < f hi', life. It 



wni in the ci-lh-ction of D. M .".!, and is supposed 

 unc that is now placed in the meeting-room 

 of the icty. 



Mr Boyle, regarded as a philosopher, appear;; en- 

 ) ,i ].l.ice in the vci y fust rank. He shone ;:s 

 the morning stiir of physical science ; and net only 

 wero several important discoveries, the result of his 

 very accurate experiments, but machines of the great- 

 est value, and of constant use in experiments! 

 nophy, were either invented or improved by him. Of 

 this number were the ?.ii-pump, the thermometer, and 

 the hydrometer. 



As a man of letters, his attainments were con- 

 siderable. Dr Buniet, who preached his funeral 

 sermon, declare', that his knov, ' is of prodi- 



gious extent ; that he was master of the learned and 

 of several oriental languages, and deeply versed in 

 mathematical science. It we may judge, however, 

 from his publications at a more advanced period, of 

 some of his juvenile productions, written in a very 

 faulty style, his taste never reached the true point 

 of refinement. If, indeed, as Mr Evelyn pretends, 

 his Seraphic Love was composed when his imagina- 

 tion was kindled svith the love of a mortal, the 

 daughter of the Earl of Monmouth, as he informs 

 us, its production is very well accounted for. His 

 " Occasional Reflections on several Subjects," which 

 were written in his youth, were published when he 

 was near forty, and furnished Swift with an occasion 

 of satire in his Meditations on a Broomstick, in the 

 manner of Mr Boyle. Swift lias been severely cen- 

 sured for this attack by many of Boyle's admirers ; 

 but if the authority of the name of Boyle was great, 

 it was the more necessary that a fake and puerile 

 taste should not find protection in his example. Mr 

 Boyle, whose income was liberal, was a generous and 

 disseminating patron. Dr Robert Sanderson, after- 

 wards Bishop of Lincoln, was among the number of 

 his beneficiaries. In consideration of the losses which 

 he had sustained in the royal cause, Mr Boyle settled 

 upon him an annual stipend of 50/. A condition was 

 annexed, that he should prepare a number of cases 

 of conscience for the public, and ten lectures were in 

 consequence published, which had been delivered in 

 Latin, and were now in their present form dedicated 

 to his patron. The piety of Mr Boyle was fervent 

 and active, and its operation was always liberal and 

 benevolent. It has been remarked, in proof of the 

 utrength of his religious feelings, that a short pause 

 always preceded his expression of the name of God. 

 It may be doubted, however, whether he thought it 

 necessary to make such a punctilious indication of 

 that veneration of his Maker, which was better dis- 

 played in every action of his life ; and it is not un- 

 likely that this report originated in a mistake which 

 is very well accounted for, by the habitual pauses 

 and impediment in his speech : the letter g was pro- 

 bably (Me of difficult enunciation. 



The manners of this great man are described, such 

 as his letters would lead us to suppose, mild, amiable, 



and unassuming, displaying an unwillingness to in- 

 fliet pnin himself, and a ill ; tect the % 



illny. Such 



was l!i d'-lieacy of his constitution, that, notwith- 

 standing every aid of regimen and *.tiii 

 he was often ven indispos-cd, subject to 



great d'-pivssiou of :;;> ; :I'H, ai;d did not survive the 

 G5th year. He lived, however, long ti.otigh t'> 

 leave to posterity a lading monument of his in- 

 dustry, fidelity, and success, in the pursuits of sci- 

 ence ; of his zeal and consistency in the service of 

 religion, and of a character adorned with the best 

 social virtues. Set- Birch's Life r/' Boyle, (London 

 17-l:>) the materials of which w-jve taken principally 

 from Mr Boyle's account of himself, under the 

 name of Philocetus, and Burnet's Funeral Senr.on. 



(,. M.) 



BOYSE, SAMUEL, a man not more distinguished 

 by his poetical genius, than by his vices and misfor- 

 tunes, was born in Dublin iu the year 1708. His fa- 

 ther, Joseph Boyse, was a dissenting clergyman in 

 that city, revered for his piety and learning, and be- 

 loved by all who knew him for the native simplicity 

 and dignity of his manner, and his genuine benevolence 

 of heart. After receiving the first rudiments of his 

 education at a private school in Dublin, young Boyse 

 was sent, at the age of eighteen, to the university of 

 Glasgow, probably with a view of studying for the 

 clerical profession. He had scarcely been a year in 

 Glasgow, however, when his studies were interrupt- 

 ed, and his views in life entirely changed, by an un- 

 fortunate attachment which he formed for the daugh- 

 ter of a tradesman in that city, whom he married be- 

 fore he had attained his twentieth year. This con- 

 nection, instead of reclaiming him to habits of virtue, 

 seems only to have opened new temptations to his 

 natural dissipation and extravagance. He became 

 involved in pecuniary difficulties, which obliged him 

 to quit the university abruptly, and to return to 

 Dublin along with his wife, and a sister whom she 

 carried along with her. His follies had produced no 

 change in the affections of the good old man, who, 

 with an indulgence more amiable than prudent, not on- 

 ly relieved him from his present necessities, but conti- 

 nued to support him and h\> family, without appearing 

 to have urged him to one exertion to procure an in- 

 dependent livelihood. The son was as mean as the 

 father was indulgent. His time, instead of being 

 employed in the pursuit of any useful profession, wa 

 lost in the most frivolous trifling ; and his thought- 

 less extravagance at length reduced his father to such 

 indigence, that, during his last illness, he was sup- 

 ported entirely by presents from his congregation ; 

 and after his death, was buried at their expence. 

 Deprived by his father's death of his usual support, 

 he repaired to Edinburgh, where his poetical genius 

 soon procured him some respectable patrons. Hir 

 first publication was a volume of Poemt on several 

 occasions, which gained him considerable reputation, 

 and recommended him to the favour of the Countess 

 of Eglinton, a lady of extensive accomplishments, and 

 the avowed patroness of men of genius. Upon the 

 death of the Viscountess Stormont, who was likewise 

 a lady of taste in the sciences, and a lever of poetry, 

 he wrote an elegy, which he entitled The Tears of 



