CHAPTER III. 



ffatber ant) Son* 



" That Talbot's name might be in thee reviv'd 

 When sapless age and weak unable limbs 

 Shall bring thy father to his drooping chair." Henry VI. 



FORTUNATELY Robert Boyle was sustained in the work of 

 his later life by the valuable assistance of his son. He had 

 trained his boy with the affectionate solicitude of a wise 

 and good father. He had cultivated that close intimacy 

 and mutual confidence by which a father may control and 

 hold the affections of a young man entering the world. He 

 reaped his reward in the faithful and able co-operation 

 which lightened the cares o later years. So closely were 

 parent and child bound together in heart and mind by 

 the frank and frequent interchange of ideas, that there 

 became manifest a most remarkable phenomenon, for which 

 we can find no better name than synchronous thought. At 

 the same instant they would both be engaged with a similar 

 train of ideas. Through all his lectures, experiments, and 

 undertakings, Robert Boyle's son acted in the capacity of 

 private secretary and "business man." A few instances of 



