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In the year 1673 he fent abroad his Effays on the frange 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 juft 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 Cause of Attraction by Suction; in which several pieces, as there are ma

ny

ny new discoveries made, fo feveral old errors, and groundless notions, are refuted and exploded.

In 1675 he printed Some Confiderations about the Reconcilableness 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 difcourfes 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 bo

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dy, more especially in procuring their charter and the only return he expected for his labour in this refpect, was, the engaging the Company to come to fome refolution in favour of the propagation of the gospel, by means of their flourishing factories in that part of the world; and, as a proof of his own inclination to contribute, as far as in him lay; for that purpose, he caufed five hundred copies of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, in the Malayan tongue, to be printed at Oxford, and fent abroad at his own expence, as appears from the Dedication prefixed by his friend Dr. Thomas Hyde, to that tranflation, which was published under his direction.

There came abroad, the fame year, `a Mifcellaneous Collection of his Works in Latin, printed at Geneva, but without his knowledge, of which there is a large account given in the Philofophical Tranfactions. In 1678he communicated to Mr. Hooke, afterwards Dr. Hooke, the fhort Memorial of fome Obfervations made upon an artificial Substance that shines without any preceding Illuftration, which that gentleman thought fit to make public. He publifhed, in the fame year, his Hiftorical Account of a Degradation of Gold, made by an Anti-Elixir. This made a very great noife both at home and abroad, and is looked upon as one of the moft remarkable pieces that ever fell from his pen, the facts contained in which would have been esteemed

incredible, if they had fallen from the pen of any other.

In the year 1680 he fent into the world the following tracts, viz. The Aieral Noctiluca, and a Process of a factitious felf-fhining Subftance; befides which, he published alfo fome fmall difcourfes upon different fubjects. It was upon the thirtieth of November, in this year, that the Royal Society, as a proof of their juft fenfe of his great worth, and of the conftant and particular fervices, which, through the courfe of many years, he had rendered to their Society, made choice of him for their Prefident; but he being extremely, and, as himself fays, peculiarly tender in point of oaths, declined the honour done him, by a letter addreffed to Mr. Profeffor Hooke of Gresham-college. He was alfo, within the compass of this year, a confiderable benefactor towards the publishing Dr. Burnet's Hiftory of the Reformation, as he very readily was, on the like occafion, to every performance calculated for the general use and benefit of mankind.

In 1681, he published his Difcourfe of Things above Reason; and the fame year he was engaged in endeavouring to promote the preaching and promulgation of the Gofpel amongst the Indians bordering upon NewEngland. In 1682, came out his New Experiments and Obfervations upon the Icy Noctiluca; to which is added, A Chymical Paradox, making it probable that their Principles

are

are tranfmutable, fo that out of one of them others may be produced. The same year, he communicated to the public, The Second Part of his Continuation of New Experiments touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and a large Appendix, containing several other difcourfes.

He published, in 1683. nothing that I find, except a fhort letter to the reverend Dr. John Beale, in relation to the making fresh water out of falt, published at the requeft of the patentees, who were embarked in Mr. Fitzgerald's project for that purpose, the propofals for which were addreffed to Mr. Boyle; and the author acknowledges therein. the obligations he was under to him for his affiftance.

In the fucceeding year, 1684, he printed two very confiderable works. The firft was, his Memoirs for the Natural History of Human Blood; and his fecond, Experiments and Confiderations about the Porofity of Bodies, divided into two parts; the firft relating to animals, the fecond to folid bodies and his works being now grown to a very confiderable bulk, the celebrated Dr. Ralph Cudworth, whofe praise alone was fufficient to establish any man's title to fame, wrote to him in very preffing terms, to make an entire collection of his feveral treatises, and to publish them in a body, and in the Latin tongue, in his own life-time, as well out of regard to his reputation, as to the general intereft of mankind,

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