ejusdem venustatis imitationem ludicram faciunt et in gratam as one happily observed at being amongst them. I have heard of a young gallant son to a great lord of one of the three British kingdoms, that spent some years in France to learn fashions; at his return he desired to see the king, and his father procured him an interview. When he came within the presence chamber he began to compose his head, and carried it as though he had been ridden with a martingale; next he fell to draw back his legs, and thrust out his shoulders, and that with such a graceless apishness, that the king asked him if he meant to shoulder him out of his chair; and so left him to act out his compliments to the hangings. In their courtship they bestow even their highest titles upon those of the lowest condition. This is the vice also of their common talk. The beggar begetteth monsieurs and madames to his sons and daughters, as familiarly as the king: were there no other reason to persuade me that the Welch or Britons were the descendants of the Gauls, this only were sufficient, that they would all be gentlemen.

His discourse runneth commonly on two wheels, treason and ribaldry; I never heard people talk less reverently of their prince, nor more saucily of his actions; scarce a day passeth away without some seditious pamphlet printed and published, in the disgrace of the king or of some of his courtiers. These

:

man's

are every money, and he that buyeth them is not coy of the contents, be they never so scandalous of all humours the most harsh and odious. Take him from this (which you can hardly do till he hath told all) and then he falleth upon his ribaldry; without these crutches his discourse would never be able to keep pace with his company. Thus shall you have them relate the stories of their own uncleanness, with a face as confident as if they had had no accident to please their hearers more commendable. Thus will they reckon up the several profanations of pleasure, by which they have dismanned themselves; sometimes not sparing to descend unto particulars. A valiant captain never gloried more in the number of the cities he had taken, than they do of the several women they have prostituted.

Egregiam vero laudem, et spolia ampla !

Foolish and most perishing wretches, by whom each several incontinency is twice committed, first in the act, and secondly in the boast.

BOYLE.

ROBERT BOYLE, the seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard earl of Cork, was born at Lismore in the county of Cork, and province of Munster in Ireland, 1626-7. He was taught Latin by one of the earl's chaplains; and French by a Frenchman resident in the house. When eight years of age, he entered at Eton-school, under Mr. Harrison, then master of that seminary; where having remained about four years, he was sent, in 1638, with his brother Francis, lately married, on his travels to the continent, under the superintendance of Mr. Marcombes. They landed at Dieppe in Normandy, and proceeded thence to Rouen, Paris, Lyons, and finally to Geneva, where, his governor having a family, he and

his brother remained to pursue their studies. Here Boyle resumed the mathematics, in which he had been initiated at Eton.

An anecdote, which explains the cause of his first attention to mathematical subjects, ought not to be passed over in silence; as it indicates not merely the early developement of his reasoning powers, but exhibits in a striking manner, a general and important fact in education. Boyle, when at school, and before he was ten years of age, was so seriously attacked with an ague, that it was thought necessary to suspend his studies; or, at least, to allow him to please his own fancy in the choice of books. He chose Romances, which produced such dissipation of thought and unsettledness of mind, that even on the recovery of his health, he found it difficult to fix his attention to any one subject. To cure this mental disease, he resorted to an expedient, which will excite astonishment, if we consider his tender years. He applied forcibly to the extraction of the square and cube roots, and the solution of algebraical equations. This had the desired effect. It morcover gave a permanent direction to his talents, and was the embryo of that great birth of philosophical discoveries he

subsequently brought forth, and by which his name has become immortal.

He quitted Geneva in 1641, and passing through Switzerland and the country of the Grisons, entered Lombardy; and pursuing his rout through Bergamo, Brescia, and Verona, arrived at Venice, where having staid a short time, he returned to the continent and spent the winter at Florence. During his stay in this city, the famous Galileo died at a village in the vicinity. He thence visited Rome, Leghorn, and Genoa; and in 1644, he with his brother returned to England.

Boyle was one of the first members of that society styled by him the invisible, by themselves, the philosophical college, who, after the restoration, were incorporated under the title of the Royal Society. In 1654, he took up his residence at Oxford, on account of the various adaptations of the place to retirement, study, and philosophical intercourse. It occasioned also the removal of the invisible college, from London to that university. During his residence here, he invented the air-pump. He finally settled, however, in London, where he died in 1691.

The writings of Boyle are very voluminous;