SYNCHRONISM OF IDEAS. 37 



the remarkable sympathetic unison between them will suffice 

 to show its effects its cause we cannot penetrate. 



"Who shall tempt, with wandering feet, 

 The dark, unfathomed, infinite abyss, 

 And through the palpable obscure find out 

 His uncouth way ? " 



On one occasion Robert Boyle and his son were sitting in 

 the dining room of their coast residence at Kamesburgh, 

 when the father broke the silence by exclaiming that he had 

 hit upon a plan which might be the means of saving many 

 lives in the event of vessels striking on the rocks. His son 

 remarked that it was a curious circumstance, for he was at 

 that moment meditating on something of the same kind. 

 On comparing notes, they found to their amazement that 

 they had both conceived the same idea, and worked it out 

 precisely in the same manner, even to the minutest detail. 

 The subject had not been so much as hinted at during any 

 previous conversation. A yet more remarkable coincidence 

 occurred when Robert Boyle, noticing in the papers the 

 records of numerous robberies of Post Office pillar-boxes, 

 designed an improved pillar letter-box, from which it was 

 impossible for letters to be stolen. He submitted his in- 

 vention to the Duke of Montrose, then Postmaster-General, 

 who at once acknowledged the improvement, but blandly 

 informed him that the thieves were captured. The force of 



