cated to his friend, Mr. Oldenburgh, feveral curious and excellent fhort treatises of his, upon a great variety of fubjects, and others. tranfmitted to him by his learned friends both at home and abroad, which are printed and preferved in the Philofophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

It is very obfervable, that in the warm controverfy raised in relation to that fociety, Mr. Boyle escaped all cenfure, which is more extraordinary, confidering that Mr. Stubbe, who was the great antagonist of the learned hiftorian of that fociety, was one who fet no bounds to his rage, and feemed to make it a point, to raise his refentment in proportion, as there wanted grounds for it. Yet even this choleric and furious writer had fo high an esteem for Mr. Boyle, that at the very time he fell upon the fociety in a manner fo excufable, he failed not to write frequently to our author, in order to convince him, that how angry foever he might be with that body of men, yet he preferved a juft respect for his great learning and abilities, and a true fenfe of the many favours he had conferred upon him.

About this time our author refolved to fettle himself for life in London, and removed for that purpose to the house of his fifter, the lady Ranelagh, in Pall Mall, to the infinite benefit of the learned in general, and particularly to the advantage of the Royal Society, to whom he gave great and continual affistance.

He had likewife his fet hours for receiving fuch as came, either to defire his help, or to communicate to him any new discoveries in fcience. Befides which, he kept a very extenfive correspondence with perfons of the greateft figure, and moft famous for learning in all parts of Europe.

In 1669 he published his Continuation of new Experiments, touching the Spring and Weight of the air; to which is added, A Difcourfe of the Atmospheres of Confiftent Bodies; and the fame year he revised, and made many additions to feveral of his former tracts, fome of which were now tranflated into Latin, in order to gratify the curious abroad, with whom Mr. Boyle flood in as high reputa tion, as with all the lovers of learning at home. In the fucceeding year he published a book that occafioned much speculation, as it feemed to contain a vaft treasure of new knowledge, that had never been communicated to the world before, and this grounded upon actual experiments and arguments juftly drawn from them, inftead of that notional and conjectural philofophy, which, in the beginning of this century, had been so much in fashion. The title of this treatife was, of the Cofmical Qualities of Things.

About this time Dr. Peter de Moulin, the fon of the famous French divine of the fame name, who had travelled with Mr. Boyle's nephews, dedicated to him his Collection of

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Latin Poems, But in the midst of his ftudies, and other ufeful employments, he was attacked by a fevere paralitic diftemper, of which, tho' not without great difficulty, he got the better, by adhering ftrictly to a proper regimen.

In 1671 he published Confiderations on the Ufefulness of Experimental and Natural Phi lofophy, the second Part; as alfo, A Collection of Tracts upon feveral useful and important Points of Practical Philofophy, both which works were received as new and valuable gifts to the learned world. In 1672 came abroad his Effay about the Origin and Virtue of Gems, in which, according to his usual custom, he treated an old and beaten fubject in a very new and useful manner; fo that it may be truly faid, that he not only threw an additional light upon a very dark and difficult fubject, but also pointed out the only certain method of acquiring a perfect knowledge of the nature and virtues (if any fuch there be) of all kinds of precious ftones. He published alfo, the fame year, another Collection of Tracts, touching the Relation between Flame and Air and feveral other ufeful and curious fubjects, befides furnishing in this, and in the former year, a great number of fhort Differtations upon a vast variety of topics, addreffed to the Royal Society, and inferted in their Tranfactions.

In the year 1673 he fent abroad his Effays on the ftrange Subtilty, great Efficacy, and determinate Nature of Effluvia; to which were added, Variety of Experiments on other Subjects. The fame year Anthony Le Grand dedicated to him his Hiftory of Nature, which he published in Latin: and in this dedication the author gives a large account of the great reputation which Mr. Boyle had acquired in foreign parts. In 1674 Mr. Boyle published A Collection of Tracts on the Saltnefs of the Sea, the Moisture of the Air, the natural and preternatural State of Bodies. to which he prefixed, A Dialogue concerning Cold.

In the fame year he fent abroad a piece that had been written near ten years before, intitled, The Excellency of Theology compared with the Natural Philofophy, in an Epiftolary Difcourfe to a Friend. This treatife, in which are contained a multitude of curious and ufeful, as well as just and natural, obfervations, was written in the time of the great plague, when the author was forced to go from place to place in the country, and had little or no opportunity of confulting his books. He also communicated to the world, the fame year, another Collection of Tracts, comprehending fome Sufpicions about hidden Qualities of the Air, Animadverfions upon M. Hobbes's Problem about a Vacuum, A Difcourfe of the Caufe of Attraction by Suction; in which several pieces, as there are ma

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ny new discoveries made, so several old errors, and groundless notions, are refuted and exploded.

In 1675 he printed Some Confiderations about the Reconcilablenefs of Reafon and Religion, by T. E. a Layman; to which was annexed, A Difcourfe about the Poffibility of the Resurrection, by Mr. Boyle. The reader will obferve, that the former, as well as the latter, was of his writing, only he thought fit to mark that with the final letters of his name, and tho' the firft of thefe dif courses promises a fecond part, that however, was not published. Amongst other pieces that he this year communicated to the Royal Society, there were two papers connected into one difcourfe, that deferve particular notice; the former was intitled, An Experimental Difcourfe of Quickfilver growing hot with Cold; the other related to the fame fubject, both of them containing discoveries worthy of fo great a man, and facts that only on his credit could be believed.

In 1676 Mr. Boyle published his Experiments and Notes about the Mechanical Origin of particular Qualities, by feveral difcourfes on a great variety of fubjects, and, amongst the reft, he treats very largely, and, according to his wonted method, very accurately, of Electricity. He had been for many years a Director of the Eaft-India company, and very useful in this capacity to that great boF 6

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