330 BOY 
in fbme peculiar temperaments, it would be almoft i-mpof- 
fi.b.le to conceive how any tiling fublime, beautiful, elc- 
ganr, and a Steeling, could ever, in the mod favourable and 
lucid intervals, be produced from Inch inelegant and pro¬ 
fligate manners. 
BOYD (Mark Alexander),, an ingenious Scotchman, 
defeended from an ancient family of that name, and born 
in Galloway, in 1362. His uncle, an archbifhop of Glaf- 
gow, had the care of his education, and put him under 
two grammarians at Glafgovv ; but, being of an high and 
intractable fpirit, he quarrelled and fought with his maf- 
ters, burnt his books in a paflion, and fvvore that he re¬ 
nounced learning for.ever. He went, a youth, to court, 
in hopes of pufhing an intereft there; but, not fucceeding, 
his friends perfuaded him to travel abroad ; arid, by way 
of abating the impctudlity of his fpirit, to engage in the 
wars of the United Provinces. He Jumfelf, however, pre¬ 
ferred tltofe of France ; and went to Paris, with a fmall 
ftock of money, which he quickly loft by gaming. This 
event feems to have brought him to .reflection; and he 
now determined to apply hirnfelf to literature. What he 
propofed to excel in, was the knowledge of the law ; for 
which real'on he attended the leftures of Cujacitts, the 
principal civilian of tire age. He recommended hirnfelf 
greatly to Cujacius, by adopting that civilian’s fade in 
J a tin poetry ; and to this circumftance was owing his ap¬ 
plication to Latin poetry, which he afterwards cultivated 
with fo much fuecefs. After many adventures abroad, lie 
returned to Scotland, where he died of a flow fever, in 
, 1 < 5 or, in his thirty-ninth year. He left feveral manuferipts 
bdiirid him. His Kpiftolae Heroidum, and his Hymni, 
were inferted in the DeliCije Poetarum Scotarum, printed 
at Amfterdam, in two vols. 121110, in 1637; and a great 
characier has been given of them by feveral authors. An 
ingenious biographer aflerts, that Boyd is not mentioned 
by any Englilh author; but he is miftaken: bifliop Tanner 
has made a fliort article of him, and informs us, that, be- 
fides epiflles and hymns, he publhhed two books of epi¬ 
grams. Boyd inferibed his Kpiftolce to James VI. of Scot¬ 
land, or James I. of England, whom he reprefems as fu- 
perior to Pallas in vvifdom, and Mars in arms 
BOY’D (Robert), born at Trochrig, in the fhire of 
Renfrew, 1573, where his family had for fome centuries 
poirelled a landed eftate of coniiderable value. He re¬ 
ceived liis education in the univerfity of Saumur iii France, 
where he made great proficiency in learning, and became 
one of the pallors in a proteftant congregation. The fame 
of his literary merit attracted the notice of James I. who 
lent tor him, and appointed him principal of the univer¬ 
fity, with a view of reconciling the young clergy to the 
epilcopal form of church government. But Boyd was 
(Irongly attached to the puritans, fo that he foon left the 
place”of principal, and accepted of the parifli of Trochrig, 
of which he was patron. He was much efteemed among 
the prefbyterians for the. faithful difeharge of his duty ; 
and his commentary on the epiflle to the Ephefians, writ¬ 
ten in elegant Latin, (hews him to have been well ac¬ 
quainted with the whole body of divinity. He died at 
Trochrig in 1629, aged fifty-fix. 
BO'YER (Abel), a well-known gloflbgrapher and hif- 
toriographer, born at Cadres in France, in 1664. Upon 
the revocation of the edict of Nantz, he went to Geneva, 
and from thence to Franeker, where he finilhed his Audios. 
Afterwards lie came to England, where be fpent the red- 
due of his life, and died at Chelfea, in November, 1729. 
The work he is chiefly known by, is a very excellent 
French and Englifh, and Englilh and French, dictionary ; 
.drawn up originally for the ufe of the duke of Gloucefter. 
It was firft printed at London, in 1699, 4 t0 i d nce which 
there have been feveral improved editions. He wrotealfo 
a French grammar in Englilh ; which dill retains its rank 
in our fchools; for it is remarkable, that he attained the 
knowledge of the Englifli language to as much perfection 
as if it had been the language of his native country. As 
an hiftoriographer, he was the author of The Political 
BOY 
State of Great Britain, and The Hiltory of King William-, 
and Queen Mary. But in this character he is not fo re- 
fpectable as in -the former. 
BO'YER (John Baptift Nicholas), chevalier of the or- 
derof St. Michael, and phyfician inordinary to the French 
king, was born Aug. 5, 1693, at Marie.lies. The plague, 
which committed filch havoc in that city in 1720, gave 
him an opportunity of difplaying his Zeal and talents, be- 
fides procuring him a penlion on the royal treafury. He 
feveral times afterwards left Paris, to go to Spain, to Ger¬ 
many, and into various provinces of France, to employ his 
ability in the treatment of contagious or defperate difeafes, 
in which he. was furprifingly luccefsfuh He gave a new 
edition o-f the Codex Medicamentarius, feu Pharmacopoeia 
Parifienfis, 4to, a very ufeful and well-digeded work. He 
died at Paris, April 2, 1768, at the age of feventy-live. 
BOY'ER, /. a Flenrilli (loop or (mail velfel of burden, 
having a bojtfprit, a caftle at each end, and a tall mad ; 
chiefly adapted for the navigation of rivers and creeks. 
BO\ r 'ES, idolatrous prieds among the favages of Flo¬ 
rida. Every pried attends a particular idol, and the natives 
addrefs themfelves to the pried of that idol to which they 
intend to pay their devotion. The idol is invoked in hymns, 
and his ufual offering is the fmoke of tobacco. Picart. 
BOY'HOOD, /. The date of a boy ; that part of life 
in which we are boys. This is perhaps an arbitrary word. 
BOYMSH, adj. Belonging to a boy : 
I ran it through, e’en from my boyifi days, 
To tlr very moment that he bade me tell it. Shakefpeare, 
Childifli ; trifling.—Y r oung men take up fome Englifli poet 
for their model, and imitate him, without knowing wherein 
he is defective, or where he is boyi/k and trifling. Drydcn. 
BOY r 'ISHLY, adv. Childiflily; triflingly. 
BOY'ISHNESS, f. Chiidiflinefs; trifling mariner. 
BOY r 'ISM,yi Puerility; chiidiflinefs.—He had com¬ 
plained he was farther off, by being fo near, and a thou- 
fand fuch boyifms, which Chaucer rejected as below the 
fubjeCt. Drydcn. 
BOYLE (Richard), diftinguifhed by the title of the 
Great Earl of Cork, was the younged fon of Mr. Roger 
Boyle, of Herefordfliire, by Joan, daughter of Robert Nav* 
lor, of Canterbury, and born in that city in 1566. Tie was 
educated in Bennet-coUege, Cambridge, where he was re¬ 
markable for early riling, indefatigable ftudy, and great 
temperance ; and lie afterwards lie became dudent in the 
Middle Temple. He loft his father when he was but ten 
years old, and his mother loon after ; fo that, being una¬ 
ble to fupport hirnfelf in the profecution of his fttidies, lie 
entered into the fervice of Sir Richard Manwood, chief 
baron of the exchequer, as one of his clerks: but, per¬ 
ceiving that this employment would not raife a fortune, 
he refolved to travel, and landeij at Dublin in June, 1588, 
with fewer pounds in his pocket than he afterwards ac¬ 
quired thoufands a-year. He was then about two-and- 
twenty, had a graceful perfon, and all the accomplilh- 
ments for a young man to fucceed in a country which was 
a feene of lb much aCtion. Accordingly he made hirnfelf 
very ufeful to fome of the principal perfons employed in 
the government, by penning for them memorials, cafes, 
and anfwers ; and thereby acquired a perfect knowledge 
of the date of public affairs. In 1595 he married at Li- 
meric, Joan, the daughter and coheirefs of William An- 
fley, of Pulborough, in Suflex, Efq. who had fallen in 
love with him. This lady died in 1599, in labour of her 
fird child (who was born a dead fon), leaving her hulband 
an edate of 500I. a-year in lands, which was the beginning 
of his fortunes. From this time, in confequence of va¬ 
rious fervices, and the great abilities he difplayed, he gra¬ 
dually rofe to the higheft titles and places of trull. Some 
time after the death of his lady, he engaged a fecond wife, 
in the following very lingular manner; which Dr. Waller 
relates in rlie following words : “ Mr.. Boyle, (afterwards 
carl of Corke,) who was then a widower, came one morn¬ 
ing to wait on Sir Jeodery Fenton, fecretary of datp in 
Ireland; 
