his powers, casting at the same time an elevated moral beauty over his character."
The health of Boyle was never robust, and the intensity of his study greatly impaired it, and he was forced to adopt at an early age, and throughout life to adhere to, a strict regimen in diet, which alone enabled him to persevere in his arduous labours. Upon his return from Ireland in 1654 he retired to Oxford, carrying out an intention long previously formed of fixing his abode amongst those learned men whom the troubled times had driven to this seat of learning. It was their custom to meet at each other's apartments, for the discussion of philosophical subjects. Amongst them Boyle took a prominent and efficient part; and when Wilkins, a leading member, was made provost of Trinity college, Cambridge, the sittings were held at Mr. Boyle's chambers. He was early impressed with the importance of the views and discoveries of the Florentine academicians, and applied himself to follow out and confirm their investigations. The result was a considerable improvement effected by him in the air-pump, shortly before this invented by Otto de Guericke, a burgomaster of Magdeburg, and publicly exhibited by him to the emperor at the imperial diet at Ratisbon in 1654. Boyle suggested and instituted a variety of experiments upon air, and discovered its elasticity and other important properties. In those he was assisted in the mechanical arrangements by the celebrated Dr. Robert Hooke.
But while ardently prosecuting these investigations in natural philosophy, the conscientious, earnest, and enlightened spirit of Boyle did not neglect the more momentous inquiries into sacred things. For this the docile and cautious habits of his mind well fitted him. He had, while yet a boy, expressed himself determined "to be seriously inquisitive of the very fundamentals of christianity, and to hear what both Jews and Greeks, and the chief sects of christians, could allege for their opinions; that so, though he believed more than he could comprehend, he might not believe more than he could prove, and not owe the steadfastness of his faith to so poor an excuse as ignorance of what might be said against it." He now accordingly applied himself to the acquisition of the oriental tongues, and to a critical study of the sacred writings, and his proficiency was such that he composed an "Essay on the Scriptures," which was published in 1652, and pronounced by the best judges to be a work of great learning and critical merit. So zealous was Boyle in religion that he appropriated the entire revenues of certain lands granted to him by the crown in 1662 to the purposes of the maintenance and extension of christianity; and he accepted the presidentship of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England. The estimation in which he was held at this time for piety, will be understood from the fact that Clarendon, then lord chancellor, urged him to enter into holy orders, which Boyle declined, alleging that his support of divine truth would be more efficacious coming from a layman, who could have no personal interest in its maintenance. The provostship of Eton college was shortly after offered to him by the king; but Boyle had no ambition for rank or station, and he had the moderation and good sense to refuse a gift which would withdraw him from his favourite pursuits. Still devoting himself to science, he published in 1664, in the Transactions of the Royal Society, many important experiments. Not to speak of several on the phenomena of heat and cold, and also on hydrostatics, his essay containing "Considerations and Experiments concerning Colours" is well known as probably not without their share in leading Newton, then about twenty years of age, to his more decisive discoveries in relation to the composition of light. We shall but allude to a circumstance here as showing the public estimation in which Boyle was held as a philosopher. A Waterford gentleman of the name of Greatrakes was said to possess miraculous powers of healing, somewhat similar to those put forward by the animal magnetizers of our own day. Boyle was publicly called upon to investigate the subject, in which he was aided by the Royal Society, and all parties looked to him as the arbiter. The result of his investigation is given in a letter which is remarkable for the wide compass of its learning, as well as for the cautious and sagacious spirit of inquiry which, while seeking for the causes of phenomena, does not reject as untrue all that we cannot understand. In 1667 Boyle took a prominent part in the memorable attack upon the Royal Society. It was in reality the era of a great revolution in the intellectual world—the conflict between the darkness of the scholastic age and the light of the Newtonian day now dawning upon the world. The nominal advocates, but not the true followers of the Aristotelian philosophy, assailed the new school and its supporters with the charge of impiety. The same thing has happened often, and will happen again and again, as in the case of chemistry and astronomy, and more recently of geology. It will happen as often as men, mistaking the language and spirit of holy writ, appeal to it as an accurate philosophical declaration of physical science or natural philosophy, and not, what it in reality is, a medium of conveying, in the ordinary language of mankind, and adapted to the knowledge of the time in which it was written, a popular statement of the phenomena of nature. In this controversy, accordingly, where reason failed, the sacred writings were called in to aid, for the great fact was not yet fully recognized "that the truths of God need no veil of consecrated error, and that his word stands aloof and undefiled by the rashness of theories or the fanaticism of schools." Throughout this controversy the character of Boyle was respected by his antagonists; and to his philosophical labours and pure life the most honourable testimony was borne. A leading writer in the controversy admits "that in his writings are to be found the greatest strength and the sweetest modesty, the noblest discoveries and the most generous self-denial, the profoundest insight into philosophy and nature, and the most devout and affectionate sense of God and religion."
Boyle left Oxford in the year 1668, and settled in London with his sister. Lady Ranelagh, continuing his studies with unabated ardour, and publishing the results from time to time, notwithstanding a severe shock of paralysis which he suffered in 1671. Amongst his papers we must not omit to notice one read before the Royal Society in 1674, "On Quicksilver growing hot with Gold." It would seem that Boyle had not altogether abandoned some of the notions of the alchemists, and the paper drew from Newton a letter cautioning him against any premature disclosure on a fact apparently so favourable to that science. But this life of incessant labour and study began so seriously to affect his health, notwithstanding the great caution and temperance with which he lived, that he was obliged to resign some of his public employments, and to restrict himself exclusively to science. In furtherance of this object, and for the economization of his time, which he ever looked upon as a most precious thing, he publicly declined the numerous visits to which his great celebrity exposed him, and dedicated two mornings and two evenings in each week to the reception of those whom he could not refuse to see. And so this great man persevered till the summer of 1691, when his physical powers began rapidly to fail. In July he executed his will, convinced that the end of life was not far distant. On the 23rd of December, 1691, she who had been the dearest companion of his latter years preceded him to the grave, and on the 30th he followed this beloved sister. They were buried side by side at the upper end of the south side of the chancel of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Westminster, and their funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Burnet.
Boyle was in person tall and slight, his face was pale and thin, but strongly expressive of the character of his mind; penetrating and slightly ascetic in its cast, but calm, mild, and solemn. He was remarkable for the peculiar grace of his manner, and for the interest and variety of his conversation. By the wits he was admired as a wit; but his pure taste and elevated morality rejected the free and licentious tone of the period, and it was chiefly in female society that the whole charms of his rich and graceful mind were suffered to appear. Too gifted and too humble for affectation, and too open-hearted for reserve, on these occasions his conversation was so singularly effective and brilliant, that Cowley, whose infirmity was too much wit, thought him superior to the first pretenders of this witty age. His liberality was large; and to every christian institution he was bountiful. He gave £300 for the propagation of the gospel in America, and £700 for the translation of the bible into Irish; and in his will he left a sum of £50 for ever, to found a lectureship in London for the defence of revealed religion. Boyle's christian spirit was the most beautiful feature of a moral character eminently lovely. To a mind simple, earnest, and conscientious, religion was an intense reality. The name of the Deity brought with it a host of solemn and affecting truths, and, as Burnet testifies, "his veneration for the name of God was so profound that he never pronounced it without a discernible pause;" and the high importance to which this feeling elevated, in his estimation, things that to the thoughtless were but commonplace, exposed him to the raillery and satire of the wits of the day. A thorough indifference to worldly
