BOYLE. 
334 
the Royal Society, to whom lie gave great and continual 
aftiftance, as abundantly appears by the feveral pieces com¬ 
municated to them from time to time, and printed in their 
Tranfactions. To avoid improper wade of time, he had 
certain hours in the day appointed for receiving fuch per- 
fons as wanted to confult him, either for their own a(Tifi¬ 
ance, or to communicate new difcoveries to him. He be- 
fides kept tip an extenfive correfpondence with the mod: 
learned men in Europe ; fo that it is wonderful how lie 
could bring out fo many new works as he did. His next 
publications w'ere, 12. A Continuation of new Experiments 
touching the Weight and Spring of the Air ; to which is 
added, A Difcourfe of the Atmofphere of confident Bo¬ 
dies, 1669. 13. Trails about the Cofmical Qualities' of 
Things; Cofmical Siifpicions; the Temperature of the 
Subterraneous Regions; the Bottom of the Sea; to which 
is prefixed, an Introduction to the Hiftory of particular 
Qualities, 1669. 14. Confiderations on the Ufefulnefs of 
Experimental and Natural Philofophy, the feepnd part, 
1671. 15. A Collection of Tracts upon feveral ufeful and 
important Points of'PraCtical Philofophy, 1671. 16. An 
'Efiay upon the Origin and Virtues of Gems, 1672. 17. A 
Collection of Trails upon the Relation between Flame and 
Air ; and feveral other ufeful and curious Subjects, 1672. 
Befides turnifhing, in this and the former year, a number 
of diflertations upon a great variety of topics, addrelfed 
to the Royal Society, and inferted in their TranfaCtions. 
18. Eflays on the flrange Subtilty, great Efficacy, and de¬ 
terminate Nature, of Effluvia ; with a Variety of Experi¬ 
ments on other Subjects, 1673. 19. The Excellency of 
Theology compared with Philofophy, 1673. This difcourfe 
■was written in 1665, while Mr. Boyle, to avoid the great 
plague which then raged in London, was forced to go from 
place to place in the country, having little or no opportu¬ 
nity of confulting his books. 20. A Collection of TraCts 
upon the Saltnefs of the Sea, the Moifture of the Air, the 
natural and prete.*natural State of Bodies ; to which is pre¬ 
fixed, a Dialogue concerning Cold, 1674. 21. A Collec¬ 
tion of Tracts containing Sufpicions about hidden Quali¬ 
ties of the Air; with an Appendix touching celeftial Mag¬ 
nets; Animadverfions upon Mr. Hobbes’s Problem about 
a Vacuum; a Difcourfe of the Caufe of Attraction and 
SuCtion, 1674. 22. Confiderations about the Reafonable- 
nefs of Reafon and Religion ; by T. E. (the final letters 
of his names.) To which is annexed, a Difcourfe about 
the Poffibility of the RefurreCtion; by Mr. Boyle, 1675. 
The fame year feveral papers communicated to the Royal 
Society, among which were two upon quicklilver growing 
hot with gold. 23. Experiments and Notes about the me¬ 
chanical Origin or Production of particular Qualities, in fe¬ 
veral Difcourfes on a great Variety of Subjects, and among 
the reft on EleCtricity, 1676. He then communicated to 
Mr. Hook a lhort memorial of fome observations made up¬ 
on an artificial fubffance that (bines without any preceding 
illuflration ; publifhed by Hook in his LcEliones Cutknancz. 
24. Hiftorical. Account of a Degradation of Gold made by 
an Anti-elixir. 25. Aerial NoCtiluca; or fome new Phae- 
romena, and a Procefs of a factitious felf-fhining Subftance, 
1680. This year the Royal Society, as a proof of the juft 
fenfe of his great w orth, and of the conftant and particular 
Services which through a courfe of many years he had done 
them, made choice of him for their prefident; but he, 
being extremely, and as he fays peculiarly, tender in point 
of oaths, declined that honour. 26. Difcourfe of Things 
above Reafon ; inquiring, whether a Philofopher fhonld 
admit any fuch, 1681. 27. New Experiments and Obfer¬ 
vations upon the icy NoCtiluca ;. to which is added a Che¬ 
mical Paradox, grounded upon new Experiments, making 
It probable that Chemical Principles are tranfmutable, fo 
that out of them others may be produced, 1682. 28. A 
Continuation of new Experiments, Phyfico-mechanica), 
touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and their Ef¬ 
fects, 1682. 29. A fliort Letter to Dr. Beale, in relation 
to the making of frefh water out of fait, 1683. 30. Me¬ 
moirs Ur the Natural Hiltory of Human Blood, efpecially 
the Spirit of that Liquor, 1684. 31. Experiments an 3 
Confiderations about the Porofity of Bodies, 1684. 32. 
Short Memoirs for the natural experimental Hiltory of 
Mineral Waters, &c. 1685. 33. An Efiay on the great 
EffeCts of even languid and unheeded Motion, &c. 1685. 
34. Of the Reconcneablenefs of Specific Medicines to the 
Corpufcular Philofophy, &c. 1685. Of the high venera¬ 
tion Man’s Intellect owes to God, peculiarly for his Wif- 
dom and Power, 1685. 36. Free Inquiry into the vulgarly 
received Notion of Nature, 1686. 37. The Martyrdom of 
Theodora and Didymia, 1687 ; a work he had drawn up 
in his youth. 38. A Difquifvtion about the final Caufes of 
natural Things, and about vitiated Light, 1688. 
Mr. Boyle had been many years a director of the Eaft- 
India company, and very ufeful in this capacity to that 
great body, efpecially in procuring their charter; and the 
only return he expefted for his labour was, the engaging 
the company to come to fome refolution in favour of the 
propagation of the gofpel, by means of their flourifhing 
factories in that part of the world. As a proof of his own 
inclination to contribute, as far as in him lay, for that pur- 
pofe, he caufed five hundred copies of the gofpels and aCts 
of the apoftles, in the Malayan tongue, to be printed at 
Oxford, in 1677, 4to, and to be fent abroad, at his own 
expence. It was the fame benevolent principle which 
made him fend, about three years before, feveral copies of 
Grotius de Veritate Chriftianae Religionis, tranflated into 
Arabic by Dr. Edward Pocock, into the Levant, asa means 
of propagating Chriflianity there. He at length began 
to find that his health and ftrength, notwithstanding all 
his care and caution, gradually declined ; which put him 
upon ufing every poflible method of hufbanding his re¬ 
maining time for the benefit of the learned. With this 
view, he went fo far as to fignify to the w'orld, that he 
could no longer receive vifits as ufual, in an advertife- 
ment, which begins in the following manner: “ Mr. Boyle 
finds himfelf obliged to intimate to tliofe of his friends and 
acquaintance, that are wont to do him the honour and fa¬ 
vour of vifiting him, 1. That he has by fome unlucky ac¬ 
cidents, namely, by his Servant’s breaking a bottle of oil 
of vitriol over a cheft which contained his papers, had 
many of his writings corroded here and there, or otherwife 
fo maimed, that without he himfelf fill up the lacunae out 
of his memory or invention, they will not be intelligible. 
2. That his age and ficklinefs have for a good while ad- 
monifhed him to put his fcattered, and partly defaced, 
writings into fome kind of order, that they may not remain 
quite ufelefs. And, 3. That his fkilful and friendly phy- 
fieian, Sir Edmund King, feconded by Mr. Boyle’s belt 
friends, has preffingly advifed him againft Speaking daily 
with fo many perfons as are wont to vifit him, represent¬ 
ing it as what cannot but much wafle his fpirits,” &c. 
He ordered likewife a board to be placed over his door, 
with an infeription fignifying when lie did and did not re¬ 
ceive vifits. In the mean time Mr. Boyle publifhed, 39.. 
Medicina Hydroftatica ; or, Hydroftatics applied to the 
Materia Medica, 1690, 8vo. 40. The Chriftian Virtu.ofo ; 
(hewing that, by being addiited to experimental Philofo¬ 
phy, a Man is rather aflifted than indifpofed to be a good 
Chriftian. 41. Experimenta 8 c Obfervationes Phyficae ; 
wherein are briefly treated of, feveral fubjedts relating to 
natural philofophy in an experimental way; which was the 
laft work that he publifhed. 
About the middle of the fummer, he began to feel 
fuch an alteration in his health, as induced him to think 
of fettling his affairs ; and accordingly, on the 18th of July, 
he figned and Sealed his laft will, to which he afterwards 
added feveral codicils. In October his diftempers increas¬ 
ed ; which might perhaps be owing to the concern he felt 
for the illnefs of his fifter the lady Ranelagh, with whom 
he had lived many years in the greateft harmony, and whofe 
indifpofition brought her to the grave on the 23d of De¬ 
cember following. He did not furvive her above a week ; 
for he died on the 30th of the lame month, in the lixty- 
fifth year of his age. He was buried in St. Martin’s church 
in 
