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THE LIFE OF

ROBERT BOYLE.

R

OBERT BOYLE was a man fuperior to titles, and almoft to praise; illuftrious by birth, by learning, and by virtue; but most fo as the author and encourager of the New Philofophy; by which he has not only rendered his memory immortal, but has also derived honour to his country; which, perhaps, is the greatest felicity that human abilities can ever attain.

He was the feventh fon, and the fourteenth child, of Richard, earl of Cork. He was born at Lifmore, in the county of Cork, and province of Munfter, in the kingdom of Ireland, on the twenty-fifth of February, 1626-7; and, though he was the only one of his father's fons who attained to manhood without being honoured with a title, and also the only one who did not diftinguish himself in public bufinefs; yet his life deserves to be written with the utmost accuracy; and no pains can be too great to fix all the dates therein as exactly as it is poffible.

His father, who was very justly ftiled the Great, and might, with equal propriety, have been called the Wife, earl of Cork, com

mitted him to the care of a country nurse, with inftructions to bring him up as hardy as if he had been her own fon; which the purfued, and thereby gave him a ftrong and vi gorous conftitution, that he afterwards loft by being treated with too great tenderness,

When he was about three years old, he had. the misfortune to lofe his mother; for which he fhews great regret, in fome memoirs that he has left us of the more early part of his life, efteeming it a fingular unhappiness never to. have seen one of his parents fo as to remember her; and the more fo, from the character he heard of her in her own family, and from all who knew her.

Another accident happened to him while at nurfe, which gave him no fmall trouble as long as he lived, and that was, his learning to flutter, by mocking fome children of his own age, and of which, tho' no en-deavours were fpared, he could never be per fectly cured.

His father fent for him home when he was towards feven years old; and, not long after, in a journey to Dublin, he ran a very great rifk of lofing his life, if one of his father's gentlemen had not taken him out of a coach, that, in paffing a brook, raised by some fudden fhowers, was carried away by the ftream and beat to pieces.

While at home, he was taught to write a very fair hand, and to speak French and Latin, by one of the earl's chaplains, and a Frenchman that he kept in the house,

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In the year 1635, when he was turned of eight years old, his father thought fit to fend him to England, in order to his education at Eaton, under Sir Henry. Wotton, the earl of Cork's old acquaintance and friend. With this view, in company with Mr. Francis Boyle, his elder brother, afterwards lord Shannon, he fet out for Youghall, and from thence, not without great danger of being taken by fome of the Turkish pirates that then infefted the Irish coaft, he croffed the feas to England,. and landed happily at Bristol.

On his arrival at Eaton, he was put under the care of Mr. Harrison,, then master of the fchool; of whofe attention for, and kindness towards, him, he makes very honourable mention in his Memoirs; and obferves, That it was chiefly by the prudent methods he pursued, that he came to have that tafte and relish for learning, for which, even in the earlier part of his life, he grew fo remarkable.. While he remained at Eaton, there were feveral extraordinary accidents that befel him, of which he has given us an account, and which one would scarce think it poffible he should have remembered fo diftinctly, confidering they happened before he was nine years old, if the letters that he wrote about that time were not ftill preserved; which fufficiently demonstrates how capable he was of collecting and preferv ing what ever appeared to him worthy of no tice, even in the time of his childhood, fo

that

that we may well believe what he relates of his own care in this refpect, from the teftimo. nies that still remain of his having a wit fo much fuperior to his years.

He remained at Eaton, in the whole, between three and four years; and then his father carried him to his own feat, at Stalbridge in Dorfetfhire; where he remained, for fome time, under the care of Mr. William Douch, then parfon of the place, and one of the earl of Cork's chaplains.

In the autumn of the year 1638 he attended his father to London, and remained with him, at the Savoy, till his brother, Mr. Francis Boyle, efpoufed Mrs. Elizabeth Killigrew; and then, towards the end of the month of October, within four days after the marriage. was celebrated, the two brothers, Francis and Robert, were fent abroad upon their travels, under the care of Mr. Marcombes, who had formerly been governor to the lords Kinealmeaky and Broghill.

They embarked at Rye, in Suffex, and from thence proceeded to Dieppe, in Normandy; from whence they travelled by land to Rouen, fo to Paris, and from thence to Lyons; from which city they continued their journey to Ge neva, where his governor had a family; and there the two young gentlemen purfued their ftudies quietly and without interruption. Mr.. Boyle, during his ftay here, refumed his acquaintance with the mathematics, or, at leaft,

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