tleman, meeting Barrow one day in the court, is said to have laid his hand on his head, and thus to have addressed him: "Thou art a good lad; 'tis a pity thou art a cavalier." Also at another time, when the youth had made a public oration on the anniversary of the 5th of November, and had celebrated former times in such a manner as to reflect on the present, the Master screened him from the resentment of some amongst the fellows, who were provoked even to move for his expulsion, silencing them with a striking testimony to the excellence of his character; and probably not without some misgiving of his own conscience : "Barrow," said he, "is a better man than any of us."

A few years afterwards the Engagement, another oath very obnoxious to the royalists, was instituted by the prevailing party, requiring all persons to profess true allegiance to the government, as then established without King or House of Lords; whilst they who refused it were declared incapable of holding any office in church or state. Barrow was probably induced by considerations like those, which determined Sir Matthew Hale and many other eminent conscientious individuals, to acknowlege an unjust but prevailing power: he accordingly signed the Engagement; but soon afterwards repenting of what he had done, he went back to the commissioners, declared his dissatisfaction, and got his name erased from the list; continuing ever after, amidst all the tergiversations of party-men and the seductions of self-interest, to move in the straitforward course of honor and loyalty. In 1647 he was chosen a scholar of the house.

With respect to the junior members of the college, his contemporaries, he is reported to have been very ready in giving the assistance of his superior talents to those who

needed it; though in 'return for many exercises, both in prose and verse, he never received any recompense, except one pair of gloves. The same disinterestedness seems to have accompanied him through life; for he never but twice obtained any pecuniary emolument from the excellent and laborious sermons, which he was willing to deliver on all occasions.

At a time when the studies of our universities were confined within much narrower limits than at present, when the intellectual powers were cramped, and the progress of knowlege retarded, by the remains of that scholastic philosophy which neglected experiment for hypothesis, and dwelt on distinctions of matter, form, and essence, too nice to be understood, Barrow set a worthy example of breaking through the trammels of prejudice, into the regions of true and legitimate science. Disgusted with what was falsely called the Aristotelian philosophy, he turned his attention to the writings of Lord Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, and other great writers of the preceding age; and though he was afterwards obliged to reject some notions thence obtained,* yet by this course he acquired general habits of sound reasoning, and enlightened views on the subject of education. Nor did he cultivate the abstruse sciences only; for he exercised his powers of imagination by poetry, refined his taste by a diligent reading of the classic authors, improved his judgment and philosophy by the study of history, ethics, and legislation, whilst he laid the foundation of those eminent theological acquirements, which crowned his labors, as they have se

* In his Opuscula is a long Thesis intitled, "Cartesiana Hypothesis de Materia et Motu haud satisfacit præcipuis Naturæ Phænomenis, In Comitiis 1652."

cured his fame. He had, as was said of another extraordinary individual, "that general curiosity, to which no kind of knowlege is indifferent or superfluous:" he was aware how all the objects of human intellect combine together, and what mutual light is shed from truth to truth: he knew that mental, like corporeal vigor, is maintained and increased by exercise; and that a superior mind is aided, not oppressed, by the various stores of literary attainment: above all, he never looked on his studies in the light of a selfish amusement, but pursued them from the highest motives, the advancement of virtue, and the melioration of society.

Such appear to have been the sentiments and pursuits of Barrow in the early stages of his academical life; nor to these did he ever prove false in his future brilliant career. In 1648 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts; but as the names in this and several succeeding years are arranged, in the University Register, according to colleges, without any regard to the order of merit, it is impossible to determine his place on the tripos: had such order been then established, there can be little doubt where the name of Newton's great precursor would have appeared. The following is the recorded account of his introduction to mathematical studies. Reading Scaliger on Eusebius, he soon perceived the dependence of chronology on astronomy: this put him on the study of Ptolemy's Almagest; but finding that book and all astronomical calculations to be founded on geometry, he applied himself to Euclid's Ele- . ments, of which he published a new and improved edition: from thence he proceeded to the demonstration of the other ancient mathematicians, having as an associate in these invigorating studies, the celebrated naturalist John Ray, a

man of the same honest independent spirit as himself,* to whom he was ever afterwards united in the strictest bonds

of friendship.

It would be gratifying to know who were the other intimate companions of his youth; but we are informed by his biographer that he had few, except in his own college: of this we may be certain, that none but the studious and the good were the associates of Isaac Barrow. There can be little doubt but that his friendship with the learned and amiable Tillotson, at this time a student of Clare Hall, was thus early formed, as well as that with Abraham Hill, one of his executors, and his brief biographer; and though the intimacy was of a later date, and Barrow appears in the light of a patron as well as that of a friend, we may perhaps insert in this list the name of him who stands highest in the annals of scientific fame, the immortal Newton. Such was Barrow's regard for that great man, that he not only fostered and encouraged his rising genius, but by his disinterested generosity gave occasion for the display of his matured excellence, when he resigned to him the mathematical chair in 1699. Yet such was his impartiality, that when, as Master of the College, he had to decide on the merits of Newton and Mr. Robert Uvedale, who were candidates for a lay-fellowship, he preferred Mr. Uvedale as senior of the two, when he found them equal in literary attainments.†

* In 1662, Ray, being unwilling to comply with the act of uniformity, resigned his fellowship, though the college strongly urged him to retain it. Barrow was a decided, conscientious, orthodox member of the establishment; but this difference of principles created no other difference between those great and good men. + Hutchins's Dorsetshire, vol. ii. p. 504. 2nd edit.

When the time came that Barrow could be chosen fellow, he obtained that distinction solely by his great merit; since nothing else could have recommended him to his electors, whose political opinions were generally adverse to his own: his case affords but an example of that strict impartiality which seems ever to have distinguished the rulers of this noble college, when left to the free exercise of their elective rights. In 1651 he commenced Master of Arts; and from a Latin speech preserved in his Opuscula, it appears that he executed the office of Moderator that same year. In the speech alluded to, which is a very remarkable specimen of mature judgment, as well as of various and extensive scholarship, in so young a man, he gives many admirable instructions both to young and old; indignantly reprehends the vices and follies of a dissolute age; indicates the best remedies; and recommends the noblest objects of study; but in particular he inveighs with caustic severity against that licentiousness which, in the place of wit, seems to have tainted the speeches of his predecessors in the schools; insomuch that custom demanded of him to undertake, as it were, the combined character of Ulysses and Thersites, of Democritus and Heraclitus; or on the same stage to act the part of Cato and of Roscius. Barrow however, after a severe objurgation of his audience, who stood gaping for their accustomed jests, refuses to become a buffoon for their amusement, or a pandar to their depraved taste;

*The title of this speech is "Oratio Modia: in Auspiciis termini Apr. 30, 1651." In this case he must have been Moderator immediately after he had incepted, and before he was created M. A. or he was created by a special grace, which was not an uncommon thing in those days.