2QO STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 

 promoted at Oxford. He took the place of the 

 ejected John Greaves, who magnanimously used 

 his influence in his successor's favour. Ward was 

 renowned as a preacher ; but his later fame 

 rested chiefly on his contributions to the science 

 of astronomy, and he is remembered in the world 

 of science mainly for his theory of planetary 

 motion. Ward and Wallis but the burden of the 

 attack was borne by the latter laid bare Hobbes's 

 attempted proof of the squaring of the circle ; 

 there was also a little controversy " on the dupli- 

 cation of the cube/' and mixed up with these 

 criticisms in the realm of pure reason were political 

 motives. Hobbes had not begun to study Euclid 

 until he was forty ; and, after Sir Henry Savile 

 had founded his professorships at Oxford, Wood 

 says that not a few of the foolish gentry " kept 

 back their sons " in order not " to have them 

 smutted by the black art " so great was the fear 

 and the ignorance of the powers of mathematics. 

 Ward was a pluralist, as was the manner of the 

 times, and Burnet tells us "he was a profound 

 statesman but a very indifferent clergyman." 

 Yet, what money he got he lavishly spent on 

 ecclesiastical and other purposes. As Bishop of 

 Exeter, he restored, at the cost of 25,000, the 



