634 B A f£ 
feller, but, being of a philofophical turn of mind, he quit¬ 
ted that line of bulinefs fcon after tIre expiration of his 
apprenticeship, and took to the employment of teaching 
deaf and dumb perfons to fpeak and v-'rite, &c. in which 
occupation, in the courfe of his life, he acquired a hand- 
feme fortune. For his amufement he cultivated various 
natural and philofophical fciences, particularly botany, 
natural hiftory, and microfcopical fubjedls, in which lie 
efpecially excelled, having, in the year 1744, obtained the 
Royal Society’s gold medal, for his microfcopical expe¬ 
riments on the cryftallizations and configurations of faline 
particles. He had various papers publilhed in the Philo- 
fophical Tran factions of the Royal Society, ol which lie 
was a worthy member, as well as of the focieties of anti¬ 
quaries and of arts. He was author of many pieces, on 
variousTubjedts, the principal of which were, hisTreatife 
on the Water Polype, and two treatifes on the microfcope, 
viz. The Microfcope made eafy, and Employment for the 
Microfcope, which have gone through ieveral editions. 
Mr. Baker married Sophia, youngeft daughter of the ce¬ 
lebrated Daniel Defoe, by whom he had two fens, who 
both died before him. He terminated an honourable and 
lifeful life, at his apartments in the Strand, on the 25th ot 
November, 1774, being then upwards of 70 years ot age. 
Baker (William), a learned printer, (fon ot Mr. Wm. 
Baker, a man of nioft amiable charadter and manners, and 
of great clafiical and mathematical learning, and more than 
forty years matter of an academy at Reading, Berks,) was 
born in the above town in the year 1742. He was from 
bis infancy a boy of a very grave turn ; feldom, if ever, 
joining in the ufual juvenile fports of his fchoolkllows, 
but fpending the hours allotted to amufement, as well as 
the vacations, in his father’s library. His applications were 
fetch, in the mathematics, and afterwards in clafiical pur- 
feiits, as greatly to injure his health, and even to endanger 
his life. The great prog-refs he had made determined his 
father (who was himfelf originally intended for the church) 
to with to get him into holy orders, to which alfo his own 
inclinations led him, efpecially as they were at that time 
flattered by a dignitary of the-church, whole encourage¬ 
ment and interefi: gave him hopes of luccels in the very 
moderate views he had entertained ; but the friendship of 
this great man ended, as too frequently happens, in empty 
promiles and dlfappointments. He was then put appren¬ 
tice to Mr. Kippax, printer, in Cullum-llreet, London ; 
a bulinefs which, as it had fo dole a connexion with lite¬ 
rature, feemed to meet his approbation ; and his even and 
contented difpolition made him eafier titan perhaps many 
young men would have been underthe difa-ppointment he 
had met with. In his new vyay of life, the fame indefa¬ 
tigable induftry was purfued in the attainment of learn¬ 
ing ; liis leifure hours were employed, as formerly, with 
the belt of the ancients ; and this was frequently his em¬ 
ployment while others were alleep. To enable himfelf to 
encreafe the fmall colledtion of books he poflefled, he uled, 
while an apprentice, to work over-hours at his bulinefs, 
for which he was allowed certain perquifites, which he 
■ chiefly applied in the purchafe of the belt editions of the 
dailies ; which collection at his death, although not very 
numerous, was very choice, and was purchafed by Dr. 
Lettfom. Before he had attained his'twenty-firft year, the 
great exertion to which this way of life lubjeCted him 
lrad again fo undermined his health, that a very eminent 
phyfician and friend of his gave very little hopes of his 
selloration. Emaciated and reduced by fpontaneous he¬ 
morrhages, heftic fever, cough, &c. his life was molt fe- 
verely threatened : by the aid of country air, medicine, &c. 
he once more recovered. On the death ot Mr. Kippax, 
lie took up his bulinefs, which he carried on till his death, 
tirft in Cullum-ltreet, and afterwards in Ingram-court, 
in partnerlhip with Mr. Galabin, who was many years in 
the common-council of Lang,bourne-ward, and afterwards 
bridgemafter of the city of London. Among!) his acquaint¬ 
ance may be mentioned fome men of the fii lt eminence in 
letters, viz. Dr. Oliver Goldlmitb ; Dr. Edmund Barker; 
B A K 
the Rev. James Merrick, tranflator of Tryphiodorus and 
author of many other pieces ; Mr. Robert Robinfon ; the 
Rev. Hugh Farmer; the Rev. Cm far De Milfy, one of 
the French chaplains to the king; James EJphinfton, Efq. 
&c. &c. An elegant correfpondence in the I.atin lan¬ 
guage, between him and Mr. Robinfon, and fome letters 
of enquiry into difficulties in the Greek language, which 
Dill exift, are at once fo many proofs of his great erudition 
and the opinion entertained of him by fome of the firl) 
fcholars. Such was bis extreme modefty, that many among 
his oldell and moll familiar acquaintance, whole inclina¬ 
tions had not led them to the fame purfeiits, were per- 
feftly ignorant of his great learning ; and, even in com¬ 
panies where it was the topic of difeuflion, his opinion 
could never be known without an abfolute appeal to his 
judgment, and fetch companies he lias many times quit¬ 
ted a lilent hearer only. This was probably a lofs to the 
public, as it prevented the communication of fome of the 
fruits of his intenfe (Indies; and it is to be lamented, that 
the fame diffidence made him very backward in appear¬ 
ing before the public as a writer : we have but two little 
works known to be his. Many fenart jeux : d’efprit, pub¬ 
lifned in fome fugitive works, are now loll to the world 
in the lofs of their author. The two fmall works above 
alluded to are, “ Peregrinations of the Mind through the 
mofl general and interefting Subjects which are ufually 
agitated in Life, by the Rationalilf,” i2ino, 1770, in elfays, 
after the manner of the Rambler. “ Theles Gt'secm La¬ 
tins feleclte,” 8vo, in 1780, a feleilion from the Greek 
and Latin writers, every one of which from he had taken 
a paflage he had read with critical attention throughout. 
He left behind him fome manufeript remarks, intended 
chiefly to point out the frequent abufe of grammatical 
propriety in the Englilh language in common converfa- 
tion, and even among reputable writers, and among people 
of the firl) rank in education and manners. Fie had alfo a 
good talent for poetry, and wrote feveral detached poems, 
publilhed in.magazines; as well as a very correbl tafte in 
compofitions for the pulpit, and lie actually oompofed few 
veral excellent fermons for fome of iris clerical friends, 
which were accepted and ufed, one particularly, as.the 
fil'd ever preached by an old and intimate afibciate. Of 
the Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, languages, he was 
completely and critically matter; the Hebrew he had fome 
knowledge of; and to his own he had paid much judicious 
attention. But he was truly Gray’s flower, “ born to 
bliifh unfeen.” After great exertion'in walking, about 
Chriftmas, 1784, (of which he was alw ays very fond when 
he could indulge,) again!) approaching night he felt vio¬ 
lent pain in his fide, which however he did not complain 
ot till afiiftance probably came'too late ; and after the molt 
excruciating fuffe-rings, for near -nine months, which he 
bore with uncommon fortitude and patience, exerting his 
fecial difpofition to the la ft, even with facetious* pleafantry 
when free from pain, he finifhed his truly amiable life on 
the 29th of September, 1785, in the forty-fourth year of 
his age. He was kindly attended by men of the find emi¬ 
nence, whole lkill availed nothing, as his difeafe was of 
fetch an unmanageable nature, that all the efforts of the 
greetteft j rofellional lR.ill and judgment were unavailing, 
viz. a prodigious difeafed enlargement of the omentum, 
which weighed upwards of twelve pounds inftead of as 
many ounces. He was interred in the vault of St. Dionis 
Backchurch, the parilh in which he had redded ever lince 
his firlf arrival in London; and an elegant Latin epitaph 
to his memory is placed on the tomb of his family, in the 
church-yard of St. Mary, Reading. 
BAKER’S CENTRAL RULE, for the conftruftion of 
equations, is a method of conftrudting all equations, not 
exceeding the fourth degree, by means of a given parabola 
and a circle, without any previous reduction of them, 
or firft taking away their fecond term. See Central 
Rule. ‘ 
BAKER-LEGGED, ftraddling with the legs bowing 
outward. 
BAKEU', 
