unemployed, than to allow them to run riot to the subversion of all grave and serious study. Another suggestion may be made here with reference to the general bearings of any particular department of study. In "the more laborious operations of Algebra," to which he was now devoting himself, our young philosopher found something infinitely more valuable than the solution of abstruse questions in arithmetic. He found the noblest and best boon of our nature-that vigorous mental health, in achieving which, his problems and propositions were but as the medium and the means. "In all labor there is profit,"-not only in the work itself, but in issues so remote and indirect as to be often little dreamt of.

While he remained at Geneva, he made some excursions to visit the adjacent country of Savoy, and even proceeded so far as to Grenoble in Dauphine. He took a view also of those wild mountains where Bruno, the first author of the Carthusian monks lived in solitude, and where the first and chief of the Carthusian abbeys is seated.

The dismal aspect presented by the pseudo-christianity of the place produced a serious effect upon our youthful traveller. For sometime he was in a state of religious perplexity and melancholy; but was graciously directed to the best means of overcoming all doubt, by enquiring into the grounds on which the sublime doctrines of Revelation rested. His decision was at once firm and philosophical-" though he believed more than he could comprehend, he believed no more than he could prove." This climax, our hollow unbelievers of the present day, would no doubt affect to despise; though the position is in reality unassailable. How many undoubted facts are there in the world, the rationale of which not even the most acute philosopher could give? Our belief may rest on evidence perfectly independent of that arising from the why and wherefore of such facts. We see them, we hear them, we bring our own consciousness directly, immediately, thoroughly, into contact with them, and they are as clearly proven to us as if we could trace out every link in the chain of causes by which they are brought about. The fundamental doctrine once established-that God speaks to us in the Bible, we can see no room for unbelief, on any point of Revelation. The safest of all bases is that laid by Paul-" in the Wisdom of God."

In the autumn of 1641 Mr. Boyle quitted Geneva, spending the winter in Florence. Here, though he did not come into actual contact with the great Galileo, he made himself acquainted with his works, and improved himself in the Italian language. No part of his conduct here deserves greater commendation than his rigid virtue; for in this very seat of Satan, and surrounded with every incitement to worldly sin and folly, he maintained a purity and consistency of conduct as rare as it was admirable. From Florence he went to Rome, and returning home to England in 1644, found that his father had died during his absence. By this event he became possessed of his manor of Stalbridge, where he generally resided until May 1650. During his retirement here, he applied himself with incredible industry to studies of various kinds to those of natural philosophy and chemistry in particular. He omitted no opportunity of obtaining the acquaintance of persons distinguished for parts and learning, to whom he was in every respect a ready, useful, generous assistant, and with whom he held a constant correspondence. He was also one of the first members of that small but learned body of men, which, when all academical studies were interrupted by the civil wars, secreted themselves about the year 1645, and held private meetings, first in London, afterwards at Oxford, for the sake of canvassing subjects of natural knowledge, upon that plan of experiment which my lord Bacon had delineated. They styled themselves then "The Philosophical College;" and, after the Restoration, when they were incorporated and distinguished openly, took the name of the "Royal Society."

In 1652 he went over to Ireland, in order to visit and settle his estates in that kingdom; and returned thence in August 1653; but was obliged, shortly afterwards, to proceed hither again. In the summer of 1654, he returned to England, and put in execution a design he had formed some time, of residing at Oxford. It was during his residence here, that he invented that admirable engine, the Air Pump; which was perfected for him by the very ingenious Mr. Robert Hooke, in 1678 or 1679. By this he made several experiments, and was enabled to discover and demonstrate several qualities of the air, so as to lay a foundation for a complete theory. He was not however satisfied

with this, but labored incessantly in collecting and digesting, chiefly from his own experiments, the materials requisite for this purpose. He declared against the philosophy of Aristotle, as having in it more of words than things, promising much and performing little; and giving the inventions of men for indubitable proofs, instead of building upon observation and experiment. He was so zealous for, and so careful about, this true method of learning by experiment, that, though the Cartesian philosophy then made a great noise in the world, yet he would never be persuaded to read the works of Descartes, for fear he should be amused and led away by plausible accounts of things founded on conjecture and merely hypothetical.

Yet this was the man whose faith in Revelation was so firmly grounded, that he regarded those "floating clouds of doubt and disbelief which now and then darkened the serenity of his quiet," as mere salutary "infections," rather troublesome than dangerous. So sound a reasoner, and so severe and critical a philosopher, was not very likely to have taken the gravest truths on trust, while he admitted none of the lesser to his confidence.

On the restoration of Charles II, Mr. Boyle was solicited, by Lord Chancellor Clarendon, to enter into holy orders. The proposition was duly weighed; but rejected on more grounds than one. The most cogent reason given by Mr. Boyle, was "the not feeling within himself any motion or tendency of mind, which he could safely esteem a call from the Holy Ghost, and so not venturing to take holy orders, lest he should be found to have lied unto it." Besides this deference, which would never have troubled a less conscientious man, Mr. Boyle had never " any appetite for fortune or character;" and considered, perhaps very justly, that his religious writings would carry greater weight with the irreligious as coming from a layman, than if written by one of a class who were regarded as writing for hire, and making a trade of their profession.

His first work was printed at Oxford, in 1660, and detailed a series of novel experiments made with the Air Pump, then but recently invented by himself. It was followed in the same year by his well known essay on "Seraphic Love." His next productions, which were on Physiology and Chemistry, aided.

materially in placing those studies on a sounder basis than heretofore.

But his philanthropic mind could not find adequate scope even in studies so honorable and useful. In 1662, he quitted for awhile the amenities and solace of a retired life, to interpose in favor of the Corporation for Propagating the Gospel in New England; and was very instrumental in obtaining a decree in the court of Chancery, for restoring to that corporation an estate, which ́had been injuriously repossessed by one Col. Bedinfield, a papist, who had sold it to them for a valuable consideration,

Mr. Boyle continued his researches on Natural Philosophy, publishing from time to time the results of his experiments and observations. But the ardour of a mind imbued with the principles of the Gospel, would at times develop itself in works of a more religious kind. His "Considerations upon the Style of the Holy Scriptures," and "Occasional Reflections," appeared about this time. These reflections are on a vast variety of subjects, written many years before; some indeed upon trivial occasions, but all with great accuracy of language much wit, more learning, and in a wonderful strain of moral and pious reflection. Yet this exposed him to the only severe censure that ever was passed upon him, and that too from no less a man than the worthless, but unfortunately too celebrated, Dean Swift; who, to ridicule these discourses, wrote "A pious meditation upon a broomstick, in the style of the honorable Mr. Boyle."

In August, 1665, Mr. Boyle, without any solicitation, was nominated to the provostship of Eton College, but absolutely declined the offer, lest it should interrupt his studies, or involve the necessity of his assuming holy orders, at least in name.

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Every species of quackery, it would seem, moves in cycles. Even in our own day, we have seen many kinds start into life, leap at once to maturity, and expire ignobly. It has been so, pre-eminently, with Mesmerism. So long since as the year 1665, one, Mr. Valentine Greatracks, an Irish gentleman, persuaded himself that he had a peculiar gift of curing diseases by stroking; in which, though he certainly succeeded often, yet he sometimes failed; and this occasioned a great controversy, in which most of the parties concerned addressed themselves to Mr. Boyle."

By many this "gift" was thought to be miraculous; and its advocates, in order to satisfy all objectors, tried to make out that it was at once natural and supernatural. Mr. Boyle did not certainly sanction the latter conclusion, and only admitted the first so far as he could see it to be reasonable.

Mr. Boyle was still indefatigable as a philosopher and writer, when a severe attack of paralysis obliged him to desist for a time. On his recovery he resumed his labors with undiminished zeal, and amongst other papers, published" Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, to which is annexed a Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection," in 1675.

For many years he had been a director of the East India Company, and very useful in this capacity to that great body, more especially in procuring their charter; and the only return he expected for his labor, was, the engaging the Company to come to some resolution in favor of the propagation of the gospel, by means of their flourishing factories in that part of the world. As a proof of his own inclination to contribute, as far as in him lay, for that purpose, he caused five hundred copies of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles in the Malayan tongue, to be printed at Oxford in 1677, 4to, and to be sent abroad at his own expence.

About three years before this, it would appear that he had sent several copies of Grotius, translated into Arabic, to the Levant, as a means of promoting Christianity there—evincing in this, as in other catholic labors in which he subsequently engaged, the true missionary spirit.

The works of Mr. Boyle grew at length so numerous that he was urged to publish a complete edition of them. His failing health, however, rendered the full accomplishment of the design impossible, and he was mainly engaged in completing, so far as he was able, his unfinished papers, up to the period of his death, which occurred on the 30th December, 1691.

His funeral sermon, preached by Bishop Burnet, gives a heart-cheering account of his sincere and unaffected piety, and more especially of his zeal for the Christian religion, without having any narrow notions concerning it, or mistaking, as so many do, a bigoted heat in favor of a particular sect, for