Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/177

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166 BOYLE expended lange sums of money in procuring translations of the Seriptures into various langbages, and in causing them to be distributed; thus setting the example to those immense establishments whieh have of late years spread abroad the Gospel into the remotest parts of the earth. Among maby other instances, may be mentioned his sending to the Levant many copies of "Grotius de Veritate Religionis Christianae;" translated, principally at his ex- pense, into Arabic, by Dr. Pocock; and his having caused five hundred copies of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles to be printed at Oxford in 1677, in the Malayan language, and sent abroad. Pecuniary donations, however, coming from a rich man, are not to be regarded as positive proofs of a charity of disposition; what he gives in this way is to him superfluous; but when we see a man like Boyle, whose delight is in retirement, come forward as a director of the East India Company, continue in that capacity for many years, use great exertions in their service, particu. larly in procuring for them their charter, and all this solely with the intention of prevailing on the company to assist in propagating the Gospel through the medium of their factories, shall we not say, "Such is indeed the charitable man; the man who sacrifices his own comforts to minister to the wants of others." In the midst of all these exertions and studies for the benefit of mankind, he was aflicted with a severe paralytie attack, from which he recovered, though not without much difficulty, by strictly adhering to the regimen pre- scribed for bim by his skilful and friendly physician, Sir Edmund King. In 1669, he published" A Continuatiorn of New Experiments, touching the Spring and Weight of the Air; to which is added, a Discourse of the Atmospheres of consistent Bodies." He also, in the same year, made many additions to several of the tracts he had previously published; many of which were now translated into Latin, for the benefit of such foreigners as might be unable to consult them in their original language. In 1670 there