30 CHANGE OP PLANS. 



progress. With the pastoral bard who sang "The Seasons," 

 he pitied their savage isolation. 



"Ill-fated race ! the softening arts of peace, 



Whate'er the humanising muses teach ; 



The godlike wisdom of the tempered breast ; 



Progressive truth, the patient force of thought ; 



Investigation calm whose silent powers 



Command the world ; the light that leads to Heaven ; 



Kind equal rule, the government of laws, 



And all-protecting Freedom which alone 



Sustains the name and dignity of man ; 



These are not theirs." 



They would have found in Robert Boyle a courageous 

 messenger of light, a patient, vigorous and resolute pioneer 

 of civilization. But he was destined for less adventurous, 

 though no less important work. The sudden illness of his 

 wife changed all his plans, and we are perhaps indebted to 

 this domestic trouble for the valuable inventions by which 

 he has benefited this country. 



There were pleasant periods of rest from the lecture room 

 and the platform, when the love of Nature, and the quick 

 perception of the beautiful, seem to have had full sway 

 over the subject of our memoir, for we find him bending 

 with painstaking diligence over the easel, studying art with 

 all the ardour of innate genius. One of the best of his art 

 productions was an allegorical picture representing the 

 marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. 



