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It yet remains to be added to the character of alderman Boydell, that in his magisterial capacity, though inflexibly just, he was constitutionally merciful; and when masters came before him with complaints of their apprentices, or husbands with complaints of their wives, he always attempted, and very often successfully, to accommodate their differences; and, when he could with propriety, usually recommended the complaining party to amend his own conduct, as an example to those whom he accused. Wishing to disseminate a taste for the fine arts, he has within these few years presented to the corporation of the city of London, several valuable pictures, which now ornament the council chamber at Guildhall. Some of them commemorate the actions of our military distinguished characters, and others are calculated to impress upon the minds of the rising generation, the sentiments of industry, prudence, and virtue. Several of these well-imagined allegorical delineations by Rigaud, Smirke, Westall, &c. he has had engraved, and in the dissemination of either prints or books which had a moral tendency he always appeared to take great pleasure.

, a lexicographer and miscellaneous writer, was born June 13, 1667, at the city of Castres in Upper Languedoc. His great-grandfather and grandfather were masters of the riding-school at Nismes; his father was president of the supreme court at Castres, and his mother was Catherine, daughter of Campdomerius, a celebrated physician, circumstances which have been recorded to prove that he was of a good family. He was certainly of a conscientious one, his relations being exiles for their adherence to the protestant religion. He was first educated by his mother’s brother, Campdomerius, a noted divine and preacher of the reformed church, and then was sent to the protestant school at Puy Laurent, where he applied assiduously, and excelled all his schoolfellows in Greek and Latin. In 1685, when the persecution prevailed against the protestants in France, he followed his uncle to Holland, and pressed by want, was obliged to enter into the military service in 1687; but soon, by the advice of his relations, returned to his studies, and went to the university of Franeker, where he went through a regular course of education, and added to philosophy, divinity, history, &c. the study of the mathematics. In 1689 he came over to England, and the hopes of being able to return to France, which the protestants in general entertained, being disappointed, he was obliged to have recourse to his pen for a livelihood. His first employment appears to have been to transcribe and prepare for the press Camden’s letters from the Cotton ian library, for Dr. Smith, who afterwards published them. In 1692, he became French and Latin tutor to Allen Bathurst, esq. eldest son of sir Benjamin Bathurst, who, being much in favour with the princess Anne of Denmark, afterwards queen of Great Britain, he had hopes of some preferment at court. With this view he paid great attention to his pupil’s education (who was afterwards lord Bathurst), and for his use composed two compendious grammars, the one Latin, the other French; but the latter only was printed, and to this da,y is a standard book. His hopes of preferment, however, Appear to have been fallacious, which his biographer attributes to his siding with a different party from the Bathurst family in the political divisions which prevailed at that time in the nation, Boyer, like the rest of his countrymen who had fled hither for religion, being a zealous whig. After this, having made himself master of the English tongue, he became an author by profession, and engaged sometimes alone, and sometimes in conjunction with the booksellers, in various compilations, and periodical works of the political kind, particularly a newspaper called the “Post-Boy;” the “Political State of Great Britain,” published in volumes from 1710 to 1729 a “History of William III.” 3 vols. 8vo “Annals of the reign of Queen Anne,” 11 vols. 8vo, and a “Life of Queen Anne,” fol. all publications now more useful than when published, as they contain many state papers, memorials, &c. which it would be difficult to find elsewhere; but his name is chiefly preserved by his French Dictionary, 1699, 4to, and a French Grammar, of both which he lived to see several editions, and which still continue to be printed. His political principles involved him with Swift, who often speaks contemptuously of him, and with Pope, who has given him a place in the Dunciad. He died Nov. 16, 1729, at a house he had built in Five Fields, Chelsea, and was buried in Chelsea church-yard.

, of the French academy, was born at Alby in 1618. He came young to Paris, where he cultivated his talent for eloquence; but, having preached with little success, he quitted the pulpit for the stage, which he had been declaiming against, and now devoted himself to it for life, always satisfied with himself, but seldom with the public. Born with an imagination which submitted to no restraint, he made choice of subjects strangely complicated, and equivocal heroes who had no character whatever. Aiming always at the sublime, where the simplicity of nature was required, he fell into a strain of bombast, unintelligible perhaps to himself. He is the author of two-and-twenty dramatic pieces, full of fustian, and conducted without any knowledge of the drama. His Judith had a transient success. The epigram it produced from Racine is generally known. “Je pleure, helas! pour ce pauvre Holopherne, si mechamment mis a mort par Judith.” This piece, applauded during a whole Lent, was hissed off the stage in the Easter holidays. Champmeslee, asking the reason of the fickleness of the pit, was answered, that the hissers had been at Versailles at the sermons of the abbe Boileau, who had ridiculed him. Boyer, at length disheartened by this constant run of ill-success, brought out his tragedy of Agamemnon under a borrowed name, andRacine, his grand tormentor, applauded the piece. Boyer could not refrain from crying out in the pit, “It is however Boyer’s, in spite of Mons. de Racine;” but this transport cost him dear, for his tragedy was hissed at the next performance. He died at Paris, July 22, 1698, aged eighty.

, a learned French physician, was born at Marseilles, August 5, 1693. His father, intending to bring him up to business, gave him a suitable education, and afterwards sent him to Constantinople, to his uncle, who was consul there; but rinding him inclined to literature, and to the study of medicine, he sent him, on his return from the Levant, to the university at Montpellier. In 1717, he took the degree of doctor, and gave for jiis inaugural thesis, “A dissertation on Inoculation of the Small Pox,” which he had seen practised at Constantinople. On the plague breaking out at Marseilles, in 1720, he was sent there with five other physicians; and his conduct on that occasion having been approved, he was rewarded by the king with a pension, and was made physician to a regiment of guards. He was some years after invited to Hunspruche, a town in the bishopric of Treves, where an infectious fever was making great ravages, and, in 1742, to Paris, on a similar occasion. His success at these places occasioned him to be sent for to Beauvais, in. 1750, where by his judicious management he prevented -the spreading of an infections fever, infesting that country. For these services he was honoured' by the king with letters of nobility, and invested with the order of St. Michael. He died at Paris, April 2, 1768. His works are, “Methode indiquee contre la maladie epidemique convient de regner a Beauvais,” Paris, 1750, a quarto pamphlet, of only ten pages. “Methode a suivre dans le traitement de differentes maladies epidemiques qui regnent le plus ordinairernent dans la generality de Paris,” 1761, 12mo. He wrote, in 1745, a “Memoir” on the disease infesting the cattle at that time, which was sent to the royal society in London, and procured him a place in the list of their foreign members. He also gave a nevr edition of the “Codex medicamentarius,” seu “Pharmacopoeia Parisiensis,” 4to, a very useful and well digested work.

, a celebrated statesman, descended from an ancient and honourable family, and distinguished by the title of the great earl of Cork, was the youngest son of Mr. Roger Boyle of Herefordshire, by Joan, daughter of Robert Naylor of Canterbury, and born in the city of Canterbury, Oct. 3, 1566. He was instructed in grammar learning by a clergyman of Kent; and after having been a scholar in Ben'et college, Cambridge, where he was remarkable for early rising, indefatigable study, and great temperance, became student in the Middle Temple. He lost his father when he was but ten years old, and his mother at the expiration of other ten years; and being unable to support himself in the prosecution of his studies, he entered into the service of sir Richard Manwood, chief baron of the exchequer, as one of his clerks: but perceiving few advantages from this employment, he resolved to travel, and landed at Dublin in June 1588, with a very scanty stock, his whole property amounting, as he himself informs us, to 271. 3s. in money, two trinkets which his mother gave him as tokens, and his wearing apparel. He was then about two-and-twenty, had a graceful person, and all the accomplishments for a young man to succeed in a country which was a scene of so much action. Accordingly he made himself very useful to some of the principal persons employed in the government, by penning for them memorials, cases, and answers; and thereby acquired a perfect knowledge of the kingdom and the state of publia affairs, of which he knew well how to avail himself. In 1595 he married at Limeric, Joan, the daughter and coheiress of William Ansley of Pulborough, in Sussex, <esq. who had fallen in love with him. This lady died 1599, in labour of her first child (born dead) leaving her husband an estate of 500l. a year in lands, which was the beginning of his fortune. Some time after, sir Henry Wallop, of Wares, sir Robert Gardiner, chief justice of the king’s bench, sir Robert Dillam, chief justice of the common pleas, and sir Richard Binghim, chief commissioner of Connaught, envious at certain purchases he had made in the province, represented to queen Elizabeth that he was in the pay of the king of Spain (who had at that time some thoughts of invading Ireland), by whom he had been furnished with money to buy several large estates; and that he was strongly suspected to be a Roman catholic in his heart, with many other malicious suggestions equally groundless. Mr. Boyle, having private notice of this, determined to come over to England to justify himself: but, before he could take shipping, the general rebellion in Minister broke out, all his lands were wasted, and he had not one penny of certain revenue left. In this distress he betook himself to his former chamber in the Middle Temple, intending to renew his studies in the law till the rebellion should be suppressed. When the earl of Essex was nominated lord-deputy of Ireland, Mr. Boyle, being recommended to him by Mr. Anthony Bacon, was received by his lordship very graciously; and sir Henry Wallop, treasurer of Ireland, knowing that Mr. Boyle had in his custody several papers which could detect his roguish manner of passing his accounts, resolved utterly to depress him, and for that end renewed his former complaints against him to the queen. By her majesty’s special directions, Mr. Boyle was suddenly taken up, and committed close prisoner to the Gatehouse: all his papers were seized and searched; and although nothing appeared to his prejudice, yet his confinement lasted till two months after his new patron the earl of Essex was gone to Ireland, At length, with much difficulty, he obtained the favour of the queen to be present at his examination; and having fully answered whatever was alledged against him, he gave a short account of his behaviour since he first settled in Ireland, and concluded with laying open to the queen and her council the conduct of his chief enemy sir Henry Wallop. Upon which her majesty exclaimed with, her usual intemperance of speech, “By God’s death, these are but inventions against this young man, and all his sufferings are for being able to do us service, and these complaints urged to forestal him therein. But we find him to be a man fit to be employed by ourselves; and we will employ him in our service: and Wallop and his adherents shall know that it shall not be in the power of any of them, to wrong him. Neither -shall Wallop be our treasurer any longer.” Accordingly, she gave orders not only for Mr. Boyle’s present enlargement, but also for paying all the charges and fees his confinement had brought upon him, and gave him her hand to kiss before the whole assembly. A few days after, the queen constituted him clerk of the council of Munster, and recommended him to sir George Carew, afterwards earl of Totness, then lord president of Munster, who became his constant friend; and very soon, after he was made justice of the peace and of the quorum, throughout all the province. He attended in that capacity the lord president in all his employments, and was sent by his lordship to the queen with the news of the victory gained in December 1601, near Kinsate, over the Irish, and their Spanish auxiliaries, who were totally routed, 1200 being slain in the field, and 800 wounded. “I made,” says he, “a speedy expedition to the court, for I left my lord president at Shannon -castle, near Cork, on the Monday morning about two of the clock; and the next day, being Tuesday, I delivered my packet, and supped with sir Robert Cecil, being then principal secretary of state, at his house in the Strand; who, after supper, held me in discourse till two of the clock in the morning; and by seven that morning called upon me to attend him to the court, where he presented me to her majesty in her bedchamber.” A journey so rapid as this would be thought, even in the present more improved modes of travelling, requires all his lordship’s authority to render it credible.

Upon his return to Ireland, he assisted at the siege of Donboy, near Beer-haven, which was taken by storm, and the garrison put to the sword. After the reduction of the western part of the province, the lord president sent Mr. Boyle again to England, to procure the queen’s leave for his return; and having advised him to purchase sir Walter Raleigh’s lands in Munster, he gave him a letter to sir Robert Cecil, secretary of state, containing a very advantageous account of Mr. Boyle’s abilities, and of the services he had done his country; in consideration of which, he desired the secretary to introduce him to sir Walter, and recommend him as a proper purchaser for his lands in Ireland, if he was disposed to part with them. He wrote at the same time to sir Walter himself, advising 1 him to sell Mr. Boyle all his lands in Ireland, then untenanted, and of no value to him, having, to his lordship’s knowledge, never yielded him any benefit, but, on the contrary, stood him in 200l. yearly for the support of his titles. At a meeting between sir Robert Cecil, sir Walter Raleigh, and Mr. Boyle, the purchase was concluded by the mediation of the former.

In 1602, Mr. Boyle, by advice of his friend sir George Carew, paid his addresses to Mrs. Catherine Fenton, daughter of sir Geoffry Fenton, whom he married on the 25th of July, 1603, her father being at that time principal secretary of state. “I never demanded,” says he, “any marriage portion with her, neither promise of any, it not being in my considerations; yet her father, after my marriage, gave me one thousand pounds in gold with her. But that gift of his daughter to me, I must ever thankfully acknowledge as the crown of all my blessings; for she was a most religious, virtuous, loving, and obedient wife to me all the days of her life, and the mother of all my hopeful children.” He received on his wedding day, July 23, 1603, the honour of knighthood from his friend sir George Carew, now promoted to be lord-deputy of Ireland: March 12, 1606, he was sworn a privy counsellor to king James, for the province of Munster Feb. 15, 1612, he was sworn a privy counsellor of stete of the kingdom of Ireland Sept. 29, 1616, he was created lord Boyle, baron of Youghall: Oct. 16, 1620, viscount of Dungarvon, and earl of Cork. Lord Falkland, the lord-deputy, having represented his services in a just light to king Charles I. his majesty sent his excellency a letter, dated Nov. 30, 1627, directing him to confer the honours of baron and viscount upon the earl’s second surviving son Lewis, though he was then only eight years old, by the title of Baron of Bandonbridge, and viscount Boyle of Kinalmeaky in the county of Cork.

On the departure of lord-deputy Falkland, the earl of Cork, in conjunction with lord Lortus, was appointed one of the lords justices of Ireland, Oct. 26, 1629, and held that office several years. Feb. 16th following, the earl lost his countess, by whom he had fifteen children. Nov. 9 1631, he was constituted lord high treasurer of Ireland, and had interest enough to get that high office made hereditary in his family. Nevertheless, he suffered many mortifications during the administration of sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford, who, before he went to Ireland, had conceived a jealousy of his authority and interest in that kingdom, and now conceived that if he could humble the great earl of Cork, nobody in that country could give him much trouble. On the breaking out of the rebellion in Ireland in 1641, the earl of Cork, as soon as he returned from England (where he was at the time of the earl of Strafford’s trial), immediately raised two troops of horse, which he put under the command of his sons the lord viscount Kinalmeaky and the lord Brogbill, maintaining them and 400 foot for some months at his own charge. In the battle which the English gained at Liscarrol, Sept. 3, Io42, four of his sons were engaged, and the eldest was slain in the field. The earl himself died about a year after, on the 15th of September, in the 78th year of his age; having spent the last, as he did the first year of his life, in the support of the crown of England against Irish rebels, and in the service of his country. Though he was no peer of England, he was, on account of his eminent abilities and knowledge of the world, admitted to sit in the house of lords upon the woolpacks, ut consiliarius. When Cromwell saw the prodigious improvements he had made, which he little expected to find in Ireland, he declared, that if there had been an earl of Cork in every province, it would have been impossible for the Irish to have raised a rebellion.

He affected not places and titles of honour until he was well able to maintain them, for he was in the 37th year of his age when knighted, and in his 50th when made A baron. He made large purchases, but not till he was able to improve them; and he grew rich on estates which had ruined their former possessors. He increased his wealth, not by hoarding, but by spending; for he built and walled several towns at his own cost, but in places so well situated, that they were soon filled with inhabitants, and quickly repaid the money he had laid out, with interest, which he as readily laid out again. Hence, in the space of forty years, he acquired to himself what in some countries would have been esteemed a noble principality; and as they came to years of discretion, he bestowed estates upon his sons, and married his daughters into the best families of that country. He outlived most of those who had known the meanness of his beginning; but he delighted to remember it himself, and even took pains to preserve the memory of it to posterity in the motto which he always used, and which he caused to be placed upon his tomb, viz. “God’s providence is my inheritance.”

It is much to be regretted that so faithful a servant of the public should have lived at variance with the earl of Strafford, himself a man of virtue, talents, and patriotism, and afterwards a sacrifice to the fury of the republican party in England; yet it cannot be denied that the earl of Strafford behaved in a very arrogant and haughty manner to the earl of Cork; and that the conduct of the lord deputy was such, as it could not reasonably be expected any man of spirit would patiently submit to, and especially a man of so much worth and merit as the noble subject of this article. His lordship gave evidence at Strafford’s trial, that when he had commenced a suit at law, in a case in which he apprehended himself to be aggrieved, the earl of Strafford, in the most arbitrary manner, forbad his prosecuting his suit, saying to him, “Call in your writs, or if you will not, I will clap you in the castle; for I tell you, I will not have my orders disputed by law, nor lawyers.” We have, however, already seen that lord Cork had other enemies, who took various opportunities of displaying their jealousy of his power and talents. One singular opportunity was taken on the death of his second lady, which we shall detail, as including some traits of the taste and prejudices of the times. This lady was privately interred on the 27th of February 1629-30, but her funeral was publicly solemnized on the llth of March following; soon after which$ the earl of Cork purchased from the dean and chapter of St. Patrick’s church, the inheritance of the upper part of the chancel where the vault was, in which the bodies of her grandfather by the mother’s side, the lord chancellor Weston, and of her father sir Geoffry Fenton, were laid, over which the earl her husband caused a fine marble tomb to be erected. This presently gave offence to some people, who suggested that it stood where the altar ought to stand, of which they complained to the king, who mentioned it to Dr. Laud, then bishop of London; who after the lord Wentworth was made lord deputy of Ireland, and himself archbishop of Canterbury, moved him that it might be inquired into, as it was, and this affair made afterwards a very great noise. The earl of Cork procured a letter from Dr. Usher, then lord primate of Ireland, and also from Dr. Launcelot Bulkeiey, then archbishop of Dublin, justifying, that the tomb did not stand in the place of the altaf, and that instead of being an inconvenience, it was a great ornament to the church; which letters archbishop Laud transmitted to the lord deputy, and at the same time acquainted^ him that they did not give himself any satisfaction. The postscript to this letter, dated Lambeth, March 11, 1634, is very remarkable, and shews both the rise and the falsehood of the common opinion, that it was the lord deputy, afterwards earl of Strafford, who set this matter on foot out of prejudice to the earl of Cork. “I had almost forgot to tell you, that all this business about demolishing my lord of Cork’s tomb is charged upon you, as if it were done only because he will not marry his son to my lord Clifford’s daughter, and that I do it to join with you; whereas the complaint came against it to me out of Ireland, and was presented by me to the king before I knew that your lordship was named for deputy there. But jealousies know no end.” The archbishop afterwards wrote in very strong terms to the earl of Cork himself, in which he affirms the same thing, and deals very roundly with his lordship upon that and other subjects, advising him to leave the whole to the lord deputy and the archbishops. As to the issue of the affair, it appears clearly from a letter of the lord deputy Wentworth’s, dated August 23, 1634, to the archbishop, in which he delivers himself thus: “I have issued a commission, according to my warrant, for viewing the earl of Cork’s tomb: the two archbishops and himself, with four bishops, and the two deans and chapters, were present when we met, and made them all so ashamed, that the earl desires he may have leave to pull it down without reporting further into England; so as I am content if the miracle be done, though Mohammed do it, and there is an end of the tomb before it come to be entombed indeed. And for me that my lord treasurer do what he please; I shall ever wish his ways may be those of honour to himself, and dispatch to my master’s affairs; but go it as it shall please God with me, believe me, my lord, I will be still tlwrow and thorowout one and the same, and with comfort be it spoken by myself, and your grace’s commendations.” It may be added that though the tomb has been taken away above a century, yet the inscription that was upon it is still extant.

, earl of Orrery, fifth son of Richard earl of Cork, was born April 25, 1621, and created baron Broghill in the kingdom of Ireland when but seven years old. He was educated at the college of Dublin, and about the year 1636, sent with his elder brother lord Kinalmeaky to make the tour of France and Italy. Afterhis return he married lady Margaret Howard, sister to the earl of Suffolk. During the rebellion in Ireland, he commanded a troop of horse in the forces raised by his father, and on many occasions gave proofs of conduct and courage. After the cessation of arms, which was concluded in 1643, he came over to England, and so represented to the king the Irish papists, that his majesty was convinced they never meant to keep the cessation, and therefore sent a commission to lord Inchiquin, president of Munster, to prosecute the rebels. Lord Broghill employed his interest in that county to assist him in this service; and when the government of Ireland was committed to the parliament, he continued to observe the same conduct till the king was put to death. That event shocked him so much, that he immediately quitted the service of the parliament; and, looking upon Ireland and his estate there as utterly lost, embarked for England, and returned to his seat at Marston in Somersetshire, where he lived privately till 1649. In this retirement, reflecting on the distress of his country, and the personal injury he suffered whilst his estate was held by the Irish rebels, he resolved, under pretence of going to the Spa for his health, to cross the seas, and apply to king Charles II. for a commission to raise forces in Ireland, in order to restore his majesty, and recover his own estate. He desired the earl of Warwick, who had an interest in the prevailing party, to procure a licence for him to go to the Spa. He pretended to the earl, that his sole view was the recovery of his health; but, to some of his friends of the royal party, in whom he thought he could confide, he discovered hi* real design; and having raised a considerable sum of money, came to London to prosecute his voyage. The committee of state, who spared no pains to get proper intelligence, being soon informed of his whole design, determined to proceed against him with the utmost severity. Cromwell, at that time general of the parliament’s forces, and a member of the committee, was no stranger to lord Broghill’s merit; and considering that this young nobleman might be of great use to him in reducing Ireland, he earnestly entreated the committee, that he might have leave to talk with him, and endeavour to gain him, before they proceeded to extremities. Having, with great difficulty, obtained this permission, he immediately dispatched a gentleman to lord Broghill, to let him know that he intended to wait upon him. Broghill was surprised at this message, having never had the least acquaintance with Cromwell, and therefore desired the gentleman to let the general know that he would wait upon his excellency. But while he was expecting the return of the messenger, Cromwell entered the room; and, after mutual civilities, told him in few words, that the committee of state were apprised of his design of going over, and applying to Charles Stuart for a commission to raise forces in Ireland; and that they had determined to make an example of him, if he had not diverted them from that resolution. The lord Broghill interrupted him, and assured him that the intelligence which the committee had received was false; that he was neither in a capacity, nor had any inclination, to raise disturbances in Ireland; and concluded with entreating his excellency to have a kinder opinion of him. Cromwell, instead of making any reply, drew some papers out of. his pocket, which were the copies of several letters sent by lord Broghill to those persons in whom he most confided, and put them into his hands. Broghill, finding it was to no purpose to dissemble any longer, asked his excellency’s pardon for what he had said, returned him, Vol. VI. y his humble thanks for his protection against the committee, and entreated his advice how he ought to behave in so delicate a conjuncture. Cromwell told him, that though till this time he had been a stranger to his person, he was not so to his merit and character; that he had heard how gallantly his lordship had already behaved in the Irish wars; and therefore, since he was named lord lieutenant of Ireland, and the reducing that kingdom was now become his province, that he had obtained leave of the committee to offer his lordship the command of a general officer, if he would serve in that war: that he should have no oaths or engagements imposed upon him, nor be obliged to draw his sword against any but the Irish rebels. Lord Broghill was infinitely surprised at so generous and unexpected an offer: he saw himself at liberty, by all the rules of honour, to serve against the Irish, whose rebellion and barbarities were equally detested by the royal party and the parliament: he desired, however, the general to give him some time to consider of what he had proposed to him. Cromwell briskly told him, that he must come to some resolution that very instant; that he himself was returning to the committee, who were still sitting; and if his lordship rejected their offer, they had determined to send him to the Tower. Broghill,' rinding that his life and liberty were in the utmost danger, and charmed with the frankness and generosity of Cromwell’s behaviour, gave him his word and honour, that he would faithfully serve him against the Irish rebels; upon which, Cromwell once more assured him, that the conditions which he had made with him should be punctually observed; and then ordered him to repair immediately to Bristol, to which place forces should be sent him, with a sufficient number of ships to transport him into Ireland.

He soon raised in that kingdom a troop and a regiment of 1500 men, with which he joined Cromwell on his arrival; and, acting in the course of the war conjointly with Cromwell and Ireton, contributed greatly to the reduction of the Irish. Cromwell was so exceedingly struck with his conduct and courage, that after he was declared protector, he sent for lord Broghill, made him one of his privy council, and allowed him as great a share of his conh'dence as any man, except Thurloe. In 1656, the protector, either suspecting Monk’s attachment to his person, or desirous of relieving the people of Scotland, who complained of this man’s severity, proposed to lord Broghill to go to that kingdom with an absolute authority; to which his lordship consented, upon condition that he should have a discretionary power to act as he should see proper; that no credit should be given to any complaints, till he had an opportunity of vindicating himself; and that he should be recalled in a year. Cromwell kept his word to him; for though the complaints against Broghill were more numerous than those against Monk, upon giving, at his return to London when the year was expired, an account of the reasons of his conduct, Cromwell conceived a higher esteem for him than ever.

After the death of Cromwell, Broghill did his utmost to serve his son, to whom his lordship, in conjunction with lord Howard and some others, made an offer, that if he would not be wanting to himself, and give them a sufficient authority to act under him, they would either force his enemies to obey him, or cut them off. Richard, startled at this proposal, answered in a consternation, that he thanked them for their friendship, but that he neither had done, nor would do, any person any harm; and that rather than that a drop of blood should be spilt on his account, he would lay down that greatness which was a burden to him. He was so fixed in his resolution, that whatever the lords could say was not capable of making him alter it; and they found it to no purpose to keep a man in power who would do nothing for himself. Lord Broghill, therefore, finding the family of Cromwell thus laid aside, and not being obliged by any ties to serve those who assumed the government, whose schemes too he judged wild and ill-concerted, from this time shewed himself most active and zealous to restore the king, and for that purpose repaired forthwith to his command in Munster; where, finding himself at the head of a considerable force, he determined to get the army in Ireland to join with him in the design, to gain, if possible, sir Charles Coote, who had great power in the north, and then to send to Monk in Scotland. Whilst meditating this design, a summons came to him from the seven commissioners, sent over by the committee of safety to take care of the affairs of Ireland, requiring him to attend them immediately at the castle of Dublin. His friends advised him to be upon his guard, and not put himself in the power of his enemies; but, as he thought himself not strong enough yet to take such a step, he resolved to obey the summons. Taking, therefore, his own troop with him as a guard, he set out for Dublin. When he came to the city, leaving his troop in the suburbs, he acquainted the commissioners, that, in obedience to their commands, he was come to know their farther pleasure. Next day, on appearing before them, they told him, that the state was apprehensive he would practise against their government, and that therefore they had orders to confine him, unless he would give sufficient security for his peaceable behaviour. He desired to know what security they expected. They told him, that since he had a great interest in Munster, they only desired him to engage, on the forfeiture of his life and estate, that there should be no commotion in that province. He now plainly perceived the snare which was laid for him; and that, if he entered into such an engagement, his enemies themselves might raise some commotions in Munster. He saw himself, however, in their power, and made no manner of doubt but that if he refused to give them the security they demanded, they would immediately put him up in prison. He therefore desired some time to consider of their proposal; but was told, they could give him no time, and expected his immediate answer. Finding himself thus closely pressed, he humbly desired to be satisfied in one point, namely, whether they intended to put the whole power of Munster into his hands? if they did, he said, he was ready to enter into the engagement they demanded; but if they did not, he must appeal to all the world how cruel and unreasonable it was, to expect he should answer for the behaviour of people over whom he had no command. The commissioners found themselves so much embarrassed by this question, that they ordered him to withdraw; and fell into a warm debate in what manner to proceed with him. At last Steel, one of the commissioners, who was also lord chancellor of Ireland, declared himself afraid, that even the honest party in Ireland would think it rery hard to see a man thrown into prison, who had dons such signal services to the Protestants; but that, on the other hand, he could never consent to the increase of lord Broghill’s power, which the state was apprehensive might one day be employed against them. He therefore proposed that things should stand as they did at present; that his lordship should be sent back to his command in Munster in a good humour, and be suffered at least to continue there till they received further instructions from England. This proposal was agreed to by the majority of the board, and lord Broghill being called in, was told in the most obliging manner, that the board was so sensible of the gallant actions he had performed in the Irish wars, and had so high an opinion of his honour, that they would depend upon that alone for his peaceable behaviour.

Upon his return to Munster, he applied himself as closely as ever to form a party for the king’s restoration. After making sure of his own officers, the first person of weight he engaged in the design was colonel Wilson, governor of Limerick, in which place there was a garrison of 2000 men; and having now secured all Munster, he sent a trusty agent to sir Charles Coote, to persuade that gentleman to do in the north of Ireland, what he himself had done in the south. Sir Charles, who had taken disgust at the superiority of lieutenant-general Ludlow, and the parliament’s commissioners, and thought his eminent services not sufficiently rewarded by the presidency of Connaught, came readily into the design. Lord Broghill being empowered by most of the chief officers in Ireland under their hands, dispatched his brother, the lord Shannon, to the king, then in Flanders, with a letter quilted in the neck of his doublet, to acquaint his majesty with the measures he had taken, and inviting him to come into his kingdom of Ireland; assuring him that if he pleased to land at Cork, he should be received with a sufficient force to protect him against all his enemies. At the same time he dispatched a messenger to general Monk, then on his march from Scotland, to let him know what they were doing in Ireland, and to persuade him to do the like. Shannon was scarce embarked for Flanders, when lord Broghill received a letter from sir Charles Coote, to acquaint him that their design of declaring for the king had taken air, and that he had therefore been obliged to declare somewhat sooner than they had agreed upon; and to conjure his lordship to declare himself likewise; which Broghill did immediately. that he might not desert his friend, though he was a little apprehensive that sir Charles’s precipitancy might ruin their design. By this means those who had assumed the government of Ireland, finding themselves in the midst of two powerful parties, made little or no resistance; and lord Broghill and sir Charles Coote secured that kingdom for his majesty.

Upon the king’s restoration, lord Broghill came to England; but, instead of being thanked for his service in Ireland, he was received with the utmost coldness. Upon inquiry, he learnt that sir Charles Coote had assured the king that he was the first man who stirred for him in Ireland; that lord Broghill opposed his majesty’s return, and was not at last brought to consent to it without much difficulty. His lordship, recollecting that he had still by him sir Charles’s letter, in which were these words, “Remember, my lord, that you first put rne on this design; and I beseech you, forsake me not in that which you first put me upon, which was, to declare for king and parliament,” desired his brother Shannon to put it into the hands of the king; who being fully convinced by it how serviceable Broghill had been to him, looked upon him with as gracious an eye as he could himself desire or expect. His lordship was soon after (Sept. 5, 1660 V) made earl of Orrery, sworn of the king’s privy- council, appointed one of the lords justices, and lord president of Munster.

After the king’s return the Irish Roman catholics sent over sir Nicholas Plunket, and some other commissioners, with a petition to his majesty, praying to be restored to their estates. As this would in effect have ruined the Protestants, they therefore chose the earl of Orrery, Montrath, and six more, to oppose theif adversaries before the king and his council. The Irish commissioners were so apprehensive of the earl’s eloquence and address upon this occasion, that they offered him eight thousand pounds in money, and to settle estates of seven thousand pounds a year upon him, if he would not appear against them; which proposal the earl rejected with proper disdain. When the cause came to a hearing, after the Irish commissioners had offered all they thought proper, the earl of Orrery boldly affirmed to the king that his Protestant subjects in Ireland were the first who formed an effectual party for restoring him; that the Irish had broken all the treaties which had been made with them; that they had fought against the authority both of the late and present king; and had offered the kingdom of Ireland to the pope, to the king of Spain, and the king of France. Lastly, to the great surprise, not only of the Irish, but of his own brother-commissioners, he proved his assertions by producing several original papers signed by the Irish supreme council, of which sir Nicholas Plunket himself was one. This last unexpected blow decided the dispute in favour of the Protestants; and obliged his majesty to dismiss the Irish commissioners with some harsher expressions than he commonly made use of.

Soon after this affair, his lordship, with sir Charles Coote, lately made earl of Montrath, and sir Maurice Eustace, were constituted lords justices of Ireland, and commissioned to call and hold a parliament. Some time before the meeting of the parliament, he drew with his own hand the famous act of settlement, by which he fixed the property, and gave titles to their estates to a whole nation. When the duke of Ormond was declared lord lieutenant, the earl of Orrery went into Munster, of which province he was president. By virtue of this office, he heard and determined causes in a court called the residency-court; and acquired so great a reputation in his judicial capacity, that he was offered the seals both by the king and the duke of York after the fall of lord Clarendon; but, being very much afflicted with the gout, he declined a post that required constant attendance. During the first Dutch war, in which France acted as a confederate with Holland, he defeated the scheme formed by the duke de Beaufort, admiral of France, to get possession of the harbour of Kinsale, and took advantage of the fright of the people, and the alarm of the government, to get a fort erected under his own directions, which was named Fort Charles. He promoted a scheme for inquiring into, and improving the king’s revenue in Ireland; but his majesty having applied great sums out of the revenue of that kingdom which did not come plainly into account, the inquiry was never begun. Ormond, listening to some malicious insinuations, began to entertain a jealousy of Orrery, and prevailed with the king to direct him to lay down his residential court; as a compensation for which, his majesty made him a present of 8000l. Sir Thomas Clifford, who had been brought into the ministry in England, apprehensive that he cpuld not carry his ends in Ireland whilst Orrery continued president of Munster, procured articles of impeachment of high treason and misdemeanours to be exhibited against him in the English house of commons; but his lordship being heard in his place, gave an answer so clear, circumstantial, and ingenuous, that the affair was dropt. The king laboured in vain to reconcile him to the French alliance, and the reducing of the Dutch. At the desire of the king and the duke of York, he drew the plan of an act of limitation, by which the successor would have been disabled from encroaching on civil and religious liberty; but the proposing thereof being postponed till after the exclusion-bill was set on foot, the season for making use of it was past. The iing, to hinder his returning to Ireland, and to keep him about his person, offered him the place of lord-treasurer; but the earl of Orrery plainly told his majesty that he was guided by unsteady counsellors, with whom he could not act. He died in October 1679, aged fifty-eight; leaving behind him the character of an able general, statesman, and writer. He had issue by his lady, two sons and five daughters. His writings are these: 1. “The Irish colours displayed; in a reply of an English Protestant to a letter of an Irish Roman catholic,” London, 1662, 4to. 2. “An answer to a scandalous letter lately printed, and subscribed by Peter Walsh, procurator for the secular and regular popish priests of Ireland, entitled A letter desiring a just and merciful regard of the Roman catholics of Ireland, given about the end of October 1660, to the then marquis, now duke of Ormond, and the second time lord lieutenant of that kingdom. By the right honourable the earl of Orrery, &c. being a full discovery of the treachery of the Irish rebels since the beginning of the rebellion there, necessary to be considered by all adventurers, and other persons estated in that kingdom,” Dublin, 1662, 4to. 3. “A poem on his majesty’s happy restoration.” 4. “A poem on the death of the celebrated Mr. Abraham CowJey,” London, 1667, fol. 5. “The history of Henry V. a tragedy,” London, 1668, fol. 6. “Mustapha, the son of Soliman the Magnificent, a tragedy,” London, Ifi67, fol. and 1668. 7. “The Black Prince, a tragedy,” London, 1672, fol. 8. “Triphon, a tragedy,” London, 1672, fol. These four plays were collected and published together in 1690, folio, and make now the entire first volume of the new edition of the earl’s dramatic works. 9. “Parthenissa, a romance in three volumes,” London, 1665, 4to, 1667, fol. 10. “A Dream.” In this piece he introduces the genius of France persuading Charles II. to promote the interest of that kingdom, and act upon French principles. He afterwards introduces the ghost of his father, dissuading him from it, answering all the arguments the genius of France had urged, and proving to him from his own misfortunes and tragical end, that a kind’s

chief treasure, and only real strength, is the affections of his people. 11. “A treatise upon the Art of War.” 12. Poems on the Fasts and Festivals of the Church.“His posthumous works are: 1.” Mr. Anthony, a comedy,“1692. 2.” Guzman, a comedy,“1693. 3.” Herod the great, a tragedy,“1694. 4.” Altemira, a tragedy,“brought upon the stage by Mr. Francis Manning, in 1702, with a prologue by Henry St. John, esq. afterwards lord viscount Boiingbroke, and an epilogue by the hon. Charles Boyle, esq. the late earl of Orrery, who also interspersed several songs in the work itself. 5.” State letters," published in 1742, fol. Mr. Morrice the editor, who was his biographer and chaplain, says that his patron drew up a very curious account of what was done in the court or camp, in which he had any part, or could speak of with certainty. But this has never been published. The duke of Ormond having by his majesty’s command consulted with the earl of Orrery upon the propositions to be laid before the parliament of Ireland in 1677, his lordship delivered to him five sheets of paper containing the most effectual methods of protecting the nation from foreign and domestic enemies, advancing the Protestant interest, increasing the revenue, and securing private property. But these, with other papers, were destroyed when lord Orrery’s house was burnt to the ground in 1690, by a party of king James’s soldiers, with the duke of Berwick at their head; Lionel, then earl of Orrery, and grandson to our author, being a minor, and abroad on his travels.

There is some use in retaining this list of his lordship’s writings, although it must be confessed that he does not appear to much advantage as a writer. The charge made by lord Orford, that the Biographia Britannica is a “defence of every body,” never appeared better founded than in the high character given of lord Orrery’s poetry, a character probably borrowed from such cr.tics as Aubrey and Winstanley. Jt would have been quite sufficient to have vindicated his poems from the general contempt with which they have sometimes been mentioned.

It is more pleasing to recur to his private character, which Dr. Campbell has described with more truth. He was, says this biographer, a kind and good, as well as a very well-bred and courteous husband: and lady Orrery was esteemed one of the handsomest and most prudent women about the court. He was a tender, and even a fond parent; but very attentive to the education and behaviour of his children, by which the benefit they received was not small. As a landlord, he was both attentive to his own interest, and indulgent to his tenants. If a man was oppressed, no one more readily relieved him; if a farmer’s family was numerous, or his circumstances narrow, his assistance was never wanting; but he was in all cases solicitous that the people should thrive, as well as obtain subsistence; and his saying was, “that the greatest charity consisted in keeping people from needing it.” With this view, he procured by the royal favour, grants of fairs and markets for Rathgogran and Ballymaathra, two villages of his, which by this means were so far improved that he afterwards obtained charters, by which they were erected into boroughs, each sending two members to the Irish parliament, and established besides manufactures in them for their better support. But in nothing his goodness and beneficence of heart appeared more than in his treatment of his domestics. He was alike careful of their bodies, estates, and minds; they lived in the utmost plenty, but he suffered no waste; *nd for debauchery, he had the utmost abhorrence. He provided for them according to their several capacities, that, having lived well with him, they might not fall into indigence after they Jeft him. He frequently observed, that the meanest of them had a soul to be saved, as well as himself; and therefore, he not only obliged his chaplain to have a due attention to their spiritual concerns, but frequently inspected the discharge of his duty in this particular. His lordship loved company, and kept always an open table, to which all the gentlemen in the country were welcome; and this was a public benefit, the conversation on such occasions being as delicate as the provisions.

, the most illustrious philosopher of modern times, was the seventh son, and the fourteenth child of Richard earl of Cork, and born at Lismore, in the province of Munster, in Ireland, the 25th of Jan. 1626-7. He was committed to the care of a country nurse, with instructions to bring him up as hardy as if he had been her own son; for his father, he tells us, “had a perfect aversion for the fondness of those parents which made them breed their children so nice and tenderly, that a hot sun or a good shower of rain as much endangers them as if they were made of butter or of sugar.” By this he gained a strong and vigorous constitution, which, however, he afterwards lost, by its being treated too tenderly. He acquaints us with several misfortunes which happened to him in his youth. When he was about three years old, he lost his mother, who was a most accomplished woman, and whom he regrets on that account, because he did not know her. A second misfortune was, that he learned to stutter, by mocking some children of his own age; of which, though no endeavours were spared, he could never perfectly be cured. A third, that in a journey to Dublin, he had like to have been drowned, if one of his father’s gentlemen had not taken him out of a coach, which, in passing a brook raised by some sudden showers, was overturned and carried away with the stream.

While he continued 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. In 1635, his father sent him over to England, in order to be educated at Eton school under sir Henry Wotton, who was the earl of Cork’s old friend and acquaintance. Here he soon discovered a force of understanding which promised great things, and a disposition to cultivate and improve it to the utmost. While he remained at Eton, there were several extraordinary accidents that befel him, of which he has given us an account; and three of which were very near proving fatal to him. The first was, the sudden fall of the chamber where he lodged, when himself was in bed; when, besides the hazard he ran of being crushed to pieces, he had certainly been choked with the dust during the time he lay under the rubbish, if he had not had presence of mind enough to have wrapped his head up in the sheet, which gave him an opportunity of breathing without hazard. A little after this, he had been crushed to pieces by a starting horse that rose up suddenly and threw himself backwards, if he had not happily disengaged his feet from the stirrups, and cast himself from his back before he fell. A third accident proceeded from the carelessness of an apothecary’s servant; who, mistaking the phials, brought him a strong emetic instead of a cooling julep.

He remained at Eton between three and four years; after which, his father carried him to his own seat at Stalbridge, in Dorsetshire, where he remained some time under the care of the rev. William Douch, one of his chaplains, who was the rector of the place. In the autumn of 1638, he attended his father to London, and remained with him at the Savoy, till his brother Mr. Francis Boyle espoused Mrs. Elizabeth Killegrew; and then, towards the end of October, within four days after the marriage, the two brothers, Francis and Robert, were sent abroad upon their travels, under the care of Mr. Marcombes. They embarked at Rye, in Sussex, and from thence proceeded to Dieppe, in Normandy; then they travelled by land to Ilouen, to Paris, and from thence to Lyons; from which city they continued their journey to Geneva, where his governor had a family; and there the two gentlemen pursued their studies quietly, and without interruption. Mr. Boyle, during his stay here, resumed his acquaintance with the mathematics, or at least with the elements of that science, of which he had before gained some knowledge. For he tells us in his own memoirs, that while he was at Eton, and afflicted with an ague, before he was ten years old, by way of diverting his melancholy, they made him read Amadis de Gaul, and other romantic books, which produced such restlessness in him, that he was obliged to apply himself to the extraction of the square and cube roots, and to the more laborious operations of algebra, in order to fix and settle the volatility of his fancy.

While he remained at Geneva, he made some excursions to visit the adjacent country of Savoy, and even proceeded so far as to Grenoble in Dauphine. He took a view also of those wild mountains, where Bruno, the first author of the Carthusian monks, lived in solitude, and where the first and chief of the Carthusian abbies is seated. Mr. Boyle relates, that “the devil, taking advantage of that deep raving melancholy, so sad a place, his own humour, which was naturally grave and serious, and the strange stories and pictures he found there of Bruno, suggested such strange and hideous distracting doubts of some of the fundamentals of Christianity, that though, he says, his looks did little betray his thoughts, nothing but the forbiddenness of self-dispatch hindered his acting it.” He laboured under this perplexity and melancholy many months: but at length getting out of it, he set about inquiring into the grounds and foundation of the Christian religion; “that so,” says he, “though he believed more than he could comprehend, he might not believe more than he could prove; and owe the steadfastness of his faith to so poor a cause, as the ignorance of what might be objected against it.” He became confirmed in the belief of Christianity, and in a conviction of its truth; yet not so, he says, but, that “the fleeting clouds of doubt and disbelief did never after cease now and then to darken the serenity of his quiet; which made him often say, that injections of this nature were such a disease to his faith, as the tooth-ach is to the body; for though it be not mortal, it is very troublesome.”

September 1641, he quitted Geneva, after having spent one-and-twenty months in that city; and, passing through Switzerland, and the country of the Grisons, entered Lombardy. Then, taking his route through Bergamo, Brescia, and Verona, he arrived at Venice; where having made a short stay, he returned to the continent, and spent the winter at Florence. Here he employed his spare hours in reading the modern history in Italian, and the works of the celebrated astronomer Galileo, who died at a village near this city during Mr. Boyle’s residence in it. It was at Florence that he acquired the Italian language; which he understood perfectly, though he never spoke it so fluently as the French. Of this indeed he was such a master, that, as occasion required, he passed for a native of that country in more places than one during his travels.

March 1642, he began his journey from Florence to Rome, which took up but five days. He surveyed the numerous curiosities of that city; among which, he tells us, “he had the fortune to see pope Urban VIII. at chapel, with the cardinals; who, severally appearing mighty princes, in that assembly looked like a company of common friars.” He visited the adjacent villages, which had any thing curious or antique belonging to them; and had probably made a longer stay, had of the heat of the climate disagreed with his brother. He returned to Florence, from thence to Leghorn, and so by sea to Genoa. Then passing through the county of Nice, he crossed the sea at Antibes, where he incurred some danger for refusing to honour the crucifix: from whence he went to Marseilles by land. He was in that city in May 1642, when he received his father’s letters, which informed him of the rebellion broke out in Ireland, and how difficultly he had procured the 250l. then remitted to them, in order to help them home. But they never received this money; and were obliged to go to Geneva with their governor Marcombes, who supplied them with as much at least as carried them thither. They continued there a considerable time, without either advices or supplies from England: upon which Mr. Marcombes was obliged to take up some jewels on his own credit, which were afterwards disposed of with as little loss as possible; and with the money thus raised, they continued their journey for England, whither they arrived in 1644. On his arrival Mr. Boyle found his father dead; and though the earl had made an ample provision for him, as well by leaving him his manor of Stalbridge in England, as other considerable estates in Ireland, yet it was some time before he could receive any money. However, he procured protections for his estates in both kingdoms from the powers then in being; from whom also he obtained leave to go over to France for a short space, probably to settle accounts with his governor Mr. Marcombes: but he could not be long abroad, since we find him at Cambridge the December following.

March 1646, he retired to his manor at Stalbridge, where he resided for the most part till May 1650. A room is still shown here, in which our author studied, and where he is said to have nlade his earliest experiments in natural philosophy and chemistry. He made excursions, sometimes to London, sometimes to Oxford and in February 1647, he went over to Holland but he made no considerable stay any where. During his retirement at Stalbridge, he applied himself with incredible industry to studies of various kinds, to those of natural philosophy and chemistry in particular, and omitted no opportunity of obtaining the acquaintance of persons distinguished for parts and learning, to whom he was in every respect a ready, useful, generous assistant, and with whom he held a constant correspondence. He was also one of the first members of that small, but learned body of men, which, when all aca-' demical studies were interrupted by the civil wars, secreted themselves about 1645; and held private meetings, first in London, afterwards at Oxford, for the sake of canvassing subjects of natural knowledge, upon that plan of experiment which lord Bacon had delineated. They styled themselves then the Philosophical College; and after the restoration, when they were incorporated and distinguished openly, took the name of the Royal Society. His retired course of life, however, could not hinder his reputation from rising to such a height, as made him be taken notice of by some of the most eminent members of the republic of letters’; so that, in 1651, we find Dr. Nathanael Highmore, a very eminent physician, dedicating to him a book, under the title of “The history of Generation:” examining the several opinions of divers authors, especially that of sir Kenelm Digby, in his Discourse upon Bodies.

In 1652, he went over to Ireland, in order to visit and settle his estates in that kingdom; and returned from thence in August 1653. He was soon after obliged to go over to Ireland again; where he had spent his time very unpleasantly, if it had not been for his intimate friend and acquaintance, sir William Petty, in whose conversation he was extremely happy. In the summer of 1654, he returned to England, and put in execution a design he had formed some time, of residing at Oxford; where he continued for the most part till April 1668, and then he settled at London in the house of his sister lady Ranelagh in Pall Mall. At Oxford he chose to live in the house of Mr. Crosse, an apothecary, rather than in a college; for the sake of his health, and because he had more room to make experiments. Oxford was indeed at that time the only place in England where Mr. Boyle could have lived with much satisfaction; for here he found himself surrounded with a number of learned friends, such as Wiikins, Wallis, Ward, Willis, Wren, &c. suited exactly to his taste, and who h;-d resorted thither for the same reasons that he had done; the philosophical society being novr removed from London to Oxford. It was during his residence here that he invented that admirable engine, the air-pump; which was perfected for him by the very ingenious Mr. Robert lioolce, in 1678 or 1679. By this he made several experiments, and was enabled to discover and demonstrate several qualities of the air, so as to lay a founelation for a complete theory. He was not, however, satis, fied with this, but laboured incessantly in collecting and digesting, chiefly from his own experiments, the materials requisite for this purpose. He declared against the philosophy of Aristotle, as having in it more of words than things, promising much and performing little; and as giving the inventions of men for indubitable proofs, instead of building upon observation and experiment. He was so zealous for, and so careful about, this true method of learning by experiment, that, though the Cartesian philosophy then made a great noise in the world, yet he would never be persuaded to read the works of Descartes; for fear he should be amused and led away by plausible accounts of things, founded on fancy, and merely hypothetical.

But philosophy and inquiries into nature, though they engaged his attention deeply, did not occupy it entirely; since we find, that he still continued to pursue critical and theological studies. Inthese he had the assistance of some great men, particularly Dr. Edward Pocock, Mr, Thomas Hyde, and Mr. Samuel Clarke, all of great eminence for their skill in the oriental languages. He had also a strict intimacy with Dr. Thomas Barlow, at that time head-keeper of the Bodleian library, and afterwards bishop of Lincoln, a man of various and extensive learning. In 1659, Dr. Wallis, so distinguished for his mathematical and philosophical learning, dedicated to him his excellent treatise on the Cycloid. This year also Mr. Boyle, being acquainted with the unhappy circumstances of the learned Sanderson, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, who had lost all his preferments for his attachment to the royal party, conferred upon him an honorary stipend of 50l. a year. This stipend was given as an encouragement to that excellent master of reasoning, to apply himself to the writing of cases of conscience and accordingly he printed his lectures “de obligatione conscientise,” which he read at Oxford, 1647, and dedicated them to his friend and patron. The dedication bears date Nov. 22, 1659.

Upon the restoration of Charles II. he was treated with great civility and respect by the king, as well as by the two great ministers, Southampton and Clarendon. He was solicited by the latter to enter into orders, for Mr. Boyle’s distinguished learning and unblemished reputation induced lord Clarendon to think that so very respectable a personage would do great honour to the clergy. Mr. Boyle considered all this with due attention; but reflected, that in his present situation, whatever he wrote upon religion, would have so much the greater weight, as coming from a layman; since he well knew, that the irreligious fortified themselves against all that the clergy could offer, by supposing and saying that it was their trade, and that they were paid for it. He considered likewise that$ in point of fortune and character, he needed no accessions; and indeed he never had any appetite for either. But bishop Burnet, who preached his funeral sermon, and to whom Mr. Boyle communicated memorandums concerning his own life, tells us, that what had the greatest weight in determining his judgment was, “the not feeling within himself any motion or tendency of mirjd which he could safely esteem a call from the Holy Ghost, and so not venturing to take holy orders, lest he should be found to have lied unto it.” He chose therefore to pursue his philosophical studies in such a manner as might be most effectual for the support of religion; and began to communicate to the world the fruits of those studies. The first of them was printed at Oxford, 1660, in 8vo, under the title of 1. “New experiments, physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the Air and its effects, made for the most part in a new pneumatical engine: addressed to his nephew the lord Dungarvan.” This work was attacked by Franciscus Linus and Mr. Hobbes, which occasioned Mr. Boyle to subjoin to a second edition of it, printed at London, 1662, in 4to, “A Defence,” &c. in which he refuted the objections of those philosophers with equal candour, clearness, and civility. A third edition was printed in 1682, 4to. 2. “Seraphic Love; or, some motives and incentives to the Love of God, pathetically discoursed of in a letter to a friend,” 1660, 8vo. This piece, though it did not appear till now, 'was finished as early as the year 1648. It has run through many editions, and been translated into Latin. The fame of Mr. Boyle’s great learning and abilities extended itself even at this time beyond the bounds of our island, so that the grand duke of Tuscany, a prince distinguished for learning, was extremely desirous of a correspondence with him: of which he was advertised in a letter, dated Oct. 10, 1660, from Mr. Southwell, then resident at Florence. 3. “Certain physiological Essays and other Tracts,” 1661, 4to. They were printed again in 1669, 4to, with large additions, especially of “A Discourse about the absolute rest of bodies” and were translated into Latin. 4. “Sceptical Chemist,” 1662, 8vo, a very curious and excellent work reprinted in 1679, 8vo, with the addition of divers experiments and notes about the producibleness of chemical principles.

In 1662, a grant of the forfeited impropriations in the kingdom of Ireland was obtained from the king in Mr. Boyle’s name, though without his knowledge; which nevertheless did not hinder him from interesting himself very warmly for procuring the application of those impropriations to the promoting religion and learning. He interposed likewise in favour of the corporation for propagating the gospel in New England; and was very instrumental in obtaining a decree in the court of chancery, for restoring to that corporation an estate which had been injuriously repossessed by one col. Bedingfield, a papist, who had sold it to them for a valuable consideration. His activity in matters of this nature was so much the more honourable, as his inclination led him generally to be private and retjred. But whenever the cause of virtue, learning, or religion, required it, his interest and endeavours were never wanting; and what is very remarkable, were seldom employed but with success. In 1663, the royal society being incorporated by king Charles II. Mr. Boyle was appointed one of the council; and, as he might be justly reckoned among the founders of that learned body, so he continued one of its most useful and industrious members during the whole course of his life.

In June 1663 he published, 5. “Considerations touching the usefulness of experimental Natural Philosophy,” 4to, reprinted the year following. 6. “Experiments and considerations upon Colours; to which was added a letter, containing observations on a diamond that shines in the dark,” 1663, 8vo, reprinted in the same size in 1670. It was also translated into Latin. This treatise is full of curious and useful remarks on the hitherto unexplained doctrine of light and colours; in which he shews great judgment, accuracy, and penetration, and may be said to have led the way to that mighty genius, the great sir Isaac Newton, who has since set that important point in the clearest and most convincing light. 7. “Considerations upon the style of the Holy Scriptures,” 1663, 8vo. A Latin translation of it was printed at Oxford, where most of his writings were published in 1665. It was an extract from a larger work entitled “An Essay on Scripture;” which was afterwards published by sir Peter Pett, a friend of Mr. Boyle.

In 1664 he was elected into the company of the royal mines; and was all this year taken up in the prosecution of various good designs, which probably was the reason why he did not send abroad any treatises either of religion or philosophy. The year following, however, appeared, 8. “Occasional Reflections upon several subjects; whereto is prefixed a discourse about such kind of thoughts,” 1665, 8vo, reprinted in 1669, 8vo. This piece is addressed to Sophronia, under whose name he concealed that of his beloved sister, the viscountess of Ranelagh. The thoughts themselves are on a vast variety of subjects, written many years before; some indeed upon trivial occasions, but all with great accuracy of language, much wit, more learning, and in a wonderful strain of moral and pious reflection. Yet this exposed him to the only severe censure that ever was passed upon him, and that too from no less a man than the celebrated dean Swift; who, to ridicule these discourses, wrote “A pious meditation upon a Broomstick, in the style of the honourable Mr. Boyle.” A certain writer, by way of making reprisals upon Swift for his treatment of Mr. Boyle, which he affirms to be as cruel and unjust as it is trivial and indecent, has observed, that, from this very treatise, which he has thus turned into ridicule, he borrowed the first hint of his Gulliver’s Travels. He grounds his conjecture upon the following passage, to be found in the Occasional Reflections: “You put me in mind of a fancy of your friend Mr. Boyle, who was saying, that he had thoughts of making a short romantic story, where the scene should be laid in some island of the southern ocean, governed by some such rational laws and customs as those of the Utopia or the New Atalantis. And in this country he would introduce an observing native, that, upon his return home from his travels made in Europe, should give an account of our countries and manners under feigned names; and frequently intimate in his relations, or in his answers to questions that should be made him, the reasons of his wondering to fi-nd our customs so extravagant, and differing from those of his own country. For your friend imagined that, by such a way of exposing many of our practices, we should ourselves be brought unawares to condemn, or perhaps to laugh at them; aikl should at least cease to wonder, to find other nations think them as extravagant as we think the manners of the Dutch and Spaniards, as they are represented in our travellers’ books.” The same year Mr. Boyle published an important work, entitled, 9. “INew experiments and observations upon Cold; or, an experimental history of cold begun: with several pieces thereunto annexed,” 1665, 8vo, reprinted in 1683, 4to.

His excellent character in all respects had procured him so much esteem and affection with the king, as well as with every body else, that his majesty, unsolicited, nominated him to the provostship of Eton college in August 1665. This was thought the fittest employment for him in the kingdom; yet, after mature deliberation, though contrary to the advice of all his friends, he absolutely declined it, for which he had several reasons. He thought the duties of that employment might interfere with his studies: he was unwilling to quit that course of life, which, by experience, he found so suitable to his temper and constitution: and, above all, he was unwilling to enter into orders: which he was persuaded was necessary to qualify himself for it. In this year and the next, he was much interested in an affair that made a very great noise in the world; and the decision of which, from the high reputation he had gained, was in a manner universally expected from him. The case was this: one Mr. Valentine Greatracks, an Irish gentleman, persuaded himself that he had a peculiar gift of curing diseases by stroking; in which though he certainly succeeded often, yet he sometimes failed; and this occasioned a great controversy, in which most of the parties concerned addressed themselves to Mr. Boyle. Among the rest, the famous Mr. Henry Stubbe wrote a treatise upon this subject, entitled “The miraculous Conformist; or, an account of several marvellous cures, performed by the stroking of the hands of Mr. Valentine Greatracks; with a physical discourse thereupon, in a letter to the honourable Robert Boyle, esq.” Mr. Boyle received this book upon the 8th of March 1666; and wrote a letter to Mr. Stubbe the next morning, which shews how extremely tender Mr. Boyle was of religion; and how jealous of admitting and countenancing any principle or opinions that he thought might have a tendency to hurt or discredit it But what is most incumbent on us to observe at present is, that this letter is certainly one of the clearest testimonies of Mr. Boyle’s vast abilities and extensive knowledge, that is any where extant. It is a very long- letter, upwards of twenty pages in 8vo very learned and very judicious wonderfully correct in the diction and style, remarkably clear in the method and form, highly exact in the observations and remarks, and abounding in pertinent and curious facts to illustrate his reasoning. Yet it appears from the letter itself, that it was written within the compass of a single morning <i fact we should have imagined next to impossible, if it had not been attested by one whose veracity was never questioned, that is, by Mr. Boyle himself. In 1666, Dr. Wallis addressed to Mr. Boyle his piece upon the Tides; as did the famous physician, Dr. Sydenham, his method of curing fevers, grounded upon his own observations. Mr. Boyle likewise published that year, 10. “Hydrostatical paradoxes made out by new experiments, for the most part physical and easy,” 8vo, which he printed at the request of the royal society, those experiments having been made at their desire about two years before. 11.“The Origin of Forms and Qualities, according to the Corpuscular philosophy, illustrated by considerations and experiments,” 1666, 4to, and reprinted the year following, in 8vo. This treatise did great honour to Mr. Boyle, whether we consider the quickness of his wit, the depth of his judgment, or his indefatigable pains in searching after truth. We must not forget to observe, that, both in this and the former year, he communicated to his friend Mr. Oldenburg, who w,is secretary to the royal soqiety, several curious and excellent short treatises of his own, upon a great variety of subjects, and others transmitted to him by his learned frienus both at home and abroad, which are printed and preserved in the Philosophical Transactions. Another thing it may not be improper to observe, that, in the warm controversy raised by Mr. Stubbe at this time about the royal society, Mr. Boyle escaped all censure; and though Mr. Stubbe, among others, attacked it in several pamphlets with all the fiiry imaginable, yet he preserved a just icspect for Mr. Boyle’s great learning and abilities, who, on his parr, showed a singular goodness of temper in bearing, as he uid, with so much indecent treatment from a person whom he had highly obliged, because he thought him, with all his faults, capable of being useful to the world. About this time, namely, 1668, Mr. Boyle resolved to settle himself in London for life; and removed, for that purpose, to the house of his sister, the lady Ranelagh, in Pall Mall. This was 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 assistance, as the several pieces communicated to them from time to time, and printed in their Transactions, abundantly testify. Those who applied to him, either to desire his help, - or to communicate to him any new discoveries in science, he had his set hours for receiving; otherwise it is easy to conceive, that he would have had very little of his time to himself. But, besides these, he kept a very extensive correspondence with persons of the greatest figure, and most famous for learning, in all parts of Europe.

In 1669 he published, 12. “A continuation of new experiments touching the spring and weight of the Air;” to which is added a discourse of the atmospheres of consistent bodies; and the same year he revised and made many additions to several of his former tracts, some of which, as we have before observed, were now translated into Latin, in order to gratify the curious abroad. 13. <f Tracts about the cosrnical qualities of things cosmical suspicions the temperature of the subterranean regions the bottom of the sea to which is prefixed an introduction to the history of particular qualities," 1670, 8vo. This book occasioned much speculation, as it seemed to contain a vast treasure of new knowledge which had never been communicated to the world before; and this too, grounded upon actual experiments and arguments justly drawn from them, instead of that notional and conjectural philosophy, which in the beginning of the seventeenth century had been so much in fashion.

In the midst of all these studies and labours for the public, he was attacked by a severe paralytic distemper, of which, though not without great difficulty, he got the better, by strictly adhering to a proper regimen; and returning to his pursuits, in 1671, he published, 14. “Considerations on the usefulness of experimental and natural philosophy, the second part,” 4to. And, 15. “A collection of tracts upon several useful and important points of practical philosophy,” 4to; both which works were received as new and valuable gifts to the learned world. 16. “An essay about the origin and virtue of Gems,” 1672, 8vo. 17. “A collection of tracts upon the relation between flame and air; and several other useful and curious subjeccs;” besides furnishing, in this and in the former year, a great number of short dissertations upon a vast variety of topics, addressed to the royal society, and inserted in their Transactions. 13. “Essays on the strange subtlety, great elficacy, and determinate nature of Effluvia;” to which were added variety of experiments on other subjects, 1673, 8vo. The same year Anthony le Grand, the famous Cartesian philosopher, printed his “Historia Naturae,” &c. at London, and dedicated it to Mr. Boyle. He does justice to Mr. Boyle’s universal reputation for extensive learning and amazing sagacity in every branch of experimental philosophy; and says of him, what Averroes said of Aristotle, that nature had formed him as an exemplar or pattern of the highest perfection to which humanity can attain. 19. “A collection of tracts upon the saltness of the sea, the moisture of the air, the natural and preternatural state of bodies; to which is prefixed a dialogue concerning cold,” 1674, 8vo. 20. “The excellency of theology compared with natural philosophy,” 1673, 8vo. 21. “A collection of tracts, containing suspicions about hidden qualities of the air; with an appendix touching celestial magnets; animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes’s problem about a vacuum; a discourse of the cause of attraction and suction,” 1674, 8vo. 22. “Some considerations about the reconeileableness of reason and religion. By T. E. a layman. To which is annexed, a discourse about the possibility of the Resurrection by Mr. Boyle,” 1675, 8vo; both these pieces were of his writing; only he thought fit to mark the former with the final letters of his name. Among other papers that he communicated this year to the royal society, there were two discourses, connected into one, that deserve particular notice. The former was entitled “An experimental discourse of quicksilver growing hot with gold;” the other related to the same subject; and both of them contained discoveries of the utmost importance. In 1676, he pub. lished, 23. “Experiments and notes about the mechanical origin or production of particular qualities, in several discourses on a great variety of subjects, and, among the rest, of Electricity.”

He had been many years a director of the East India company, and very useful in tins capacity to that great body, especially in procuring their charier; and the only return he expected for his labour was, the engaging the company to come to some resolution in favour of the propagation of the gospel, by means of their flourishing factories in that part of the world, As a proof of his own inclination to contribute, as far as in him lay, for that purpose, he caused five hundred copies of the gospels and acts of the apostles, in the Malayan tongue, to be printed at Oxford in 1677, 4to, and to be sent abroad, at his own expence. This appears from the dedication, prefixed by his friend Dr. Thomas Hyde, to that translation, which was published under his direction. It was the same spirit and principle, which made him send, about three years before, several copies of Grotius “de Veritate Christianas religionis,” translated into Arabic by Dr. Edward Pocock, into the Levant, as a means of propagating Christianity there. There was printed in 1677, at Geneva, a miscellaneous collection of Mr. Boyle’s works in Latin, without his consent, or even knowledge; of which there is a large account given in the Philosophical Transactions. In 1678, he communicated to Mr. Hooke a short memorial of some

observations made upon an artificial substance that shines without any preceding illustration; which that gentleman thought tit to publish in his “Lectiones Cutlerianae.” He published the same year, 24. “Historical account of a degradation of gold made by an anti-elixir; a strange chemical narrative,” 4to, reprinted in the same size 1739. This excited great attention both at home and abroad, and is looked upon as one of the most remarkable pieces that ever fell from his pen; since the facts contained in it would have been esteemed incredible, if they had been related by a man of less integrity and piety than Mr. Boyle.

The regard which the great Newton had for Mr. Boyle, appears from a very curious letter, which the former wrote to him, at the latter end of this year, for the sake of laying before him his sentiments upon that ethereal medium, which he afterwards proposed, in his Optics, as the mechanical cause of gravitation. This letter is to be found in the life of our author by Dr. Birch. In 1680, Mr. Boyle published, 25. “The Aerial Noctiluca; or some new phsenomena, and a process of a factitious self-shining substance,” 8vo. 26. “Discourse of things above reason inquiring whether a philosopher should admit there are any such” 1681, 8vo. 27. “New experiments and observations made Upon the Icy Noctiluca; to which is added a chemical paradox, grounded upon new experiments, making it probable, that chemical principles are transmutable, so that out of one of them others may be produced,” 1682, 8vo. 28. “A continuation of new experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring and weight of the Air, and their effects,”

It was upon the 30th of November 1680, that the royal society, as a proof of the just sense of his great worth, and of the constant and particular services which through a course of many years he had done them, made choice of him for their president; but he being extremely, and, as he says, peculiarly tender in point of oaths, declined the honour done him, by a letter addressed to his much respected friend Mr. Robert Hooke, professor of mathematics at Gresham college. About this time, Dr. Burnet being empioyed in compiling his admirable History of the Reformation, Mr. Boyle contributed very largely to the ex pence of publishing it; as is acknowledged by the doctor in his preface to the second volume. It was probably about the beginning of the year 1681, that he was engaged in promoting the preaching and propagating of the gospel among the“Indians; since the letter, which he wrote upon that subject, was in answer to one from Mr. John Elliot of New England, dated Nov. 4, 1680. This letter of Mr. Boyle is preserved by his historian; and it shews, that he had a great di-Hke to persecution on account of opinions in religion. He published in 1633, nothing but a short letter to Dr. Beal, in relation to the making of fresh water out of salt; but in 1684 he printed two very considerable works; 29.” Memoirs for the natural history of human blood, especially the spirit of that liquor,“8vo. 30.” Experiments and considerations about the porosity of bodies," 8vo.

Mr. Boyle’s writings grew now so very numerous, that Dr. Ralph Cudworth, the celebrated author of “The Intellectual System,” wrote to him in most pressing terms, to make an entire collection of his several treatises, and to publish them together in the Latin tongue; and “then,” says he, “what you shall superadd, will be easily collected and added afterwards. And I pray God continue your life and health, that you may still enrich the world with more. The writers of hypotheses in natural philosophy will be confuting one another a long time before the world will ever agree, if ever it do. But your pieces of natural history are unconfutable, and will afford the best grounds to build hypotheses upon. You have much outdone sir Francis Bacon in your natural experiments; and you have not insinuated anything, as he is thought to have done, tending to irreligion, but the contrary.” This letter is dated October 16, 1634.

In 1685, he obliged the world with, 31. “Short memoirs for the natural experimental history of mineral waters, with directions as to the several methods of trying them, including abundance of new and useful remarks, as well as several curious experiments.” 32. “An essay on the great effects of even, languid, and unheeded motion; whereunto is annexed an experimental discourse of some hitherto little regarded causes of the salubrity and insalubrity of the air, and its effects;” reprinted in 1690, 8vo. None of his treatises, it is said, were ever received with greater or more general applause than this. 33. “Of the reconcileableness of specific medicines to the corpuscular philosophy; to which is annexed, a Discourse about the advantages of the use of simple medicines,” 8vo. Besides these philosophical tracts, he gave the world likewise, same year, an excellent theological one, 34. “Ofthehi^h veneration man’s intellect owes to God, peculiarly for his wijclom and power,” 8vo. This was part of a much larger work, which he mentioned in an advertisement, to prevent any exception from being taken at the abrupt manner of its beginning. At the entrance of the succeeding year, canie abroad his, 35. “Free inquiry into the vulgarly received notion of Nature;” apiece, which was then, and will always be, greatly admired by those who have a true zeal and relish for pure religion and sound philosophy. It was translated into Latin, and reprinted in 12 mo the year after.

In June 1686, his friend Dr. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, transmitted to him from the Hague the manuscript account of his travels, which he had dra.vn up in the form of letters, addressed to Mr. Boyle: who, in his answer to the doctor, dated the 14th of that month, expresses his satisfaction in “finding, that all men do not travel, as most do, to observe buildings and gardens, and modes, and other amusements of a superficial and almost insignificant curiosity; for your judicious remarks and reflections, says he, may not a little improve both a statesman, a critic, and a divine, as well as they will make the writer pass for all three.” In 1687, Mr. Boyle published, 36. “The martyrdom of Theodora and Dydimia,” 8vo; a work he had drawn up in his youth. 37. “A disquisition about the final causes of natural things; wherein it is enquired, whether, and, if at all, with what caution, a naturalist should admit them.” With an appendix, about vitiated light, 1688, 8vo.

In the month of May this year, our author, though very unwillingly, was constrained to make his complaint to the public, of some inconveniences under which he had long laboured; and this he did by “an advertisement about the loss of many of his writings addressed to J. W. to be communicated to those of his friends that are virtuosi; which may serve as a kind of a preface to most of his mutilated and unfinished writings.” He complains in this advertisement of the treatment he met with from the plagiaries, both at home and abroad; and though it might have been difficult in any other man to have done so, without incurring the imputation of self-conceit and vanity, yet Mr. Boyle’s manner is such, as only to raise in us an higher esteem and admiration of him. This advertisement is inserted at length in his life. He now began to find that his health and strength, notwithstanding all his care and caution, gradually declined, as he observes in a letter to M. le Clerc, dated May 30, 1689; which put him upon using every possible method of husbanding his remaining time for the benefit of the learned. In doing this, as a certain writer says, he preferred generals to particulars; and the assistance of the whole republic of letters to that of any branch, by what ties soever he might be connected therewith. It was with this view, that he no longer communicated particular discourses or new discoveries to the royal society; because this could not be done, without withdrawing his thoughts from tasks which he thought of still greater importance. It was the more steadily to attend to these, that he resigned his post of governor of the corporation for propagating the gospel in New England; nay, he went so far as to signifyto the world, that he could no longer receive visits as usual, in an advertisement, which begins in the following manner. “Mr. Boyle finds himself obliged to intimate to those of his friends and acquaintance, that are wont to do him the honour and favour of visiting him, 1. That he has by some unlucky accidents, namely, by his servant’s breaking a bottle of oil of vitriol over a chest which contained his papers, had many of his writings corroded here and there, or otherwise so maimed, that without he himself 'fill up the lacunae out of his memory or invention, they will not be intelligible. 2. That his age and sickliness have for a good while admonished him to put his scattered, and partly defaced, writings into some kind of order, that they may not remain quite useless. And, 3. That his skilful and friendly physician, sir Edmund King, seconded by Mr. Boyle’s best friends, has pressingly advised him against speaking daily with so many persons as are wont to visit him, representing it as what cannot but much waste his spirits,” &c. He ordered likewise a board to be placed over his door, with an inscription signifying when he did and did not receive visits.

Among the other great works, which by this means he gained time to finish, there is reason to believe, that one was a collection of elaborate processes in chemistry; concerning which he wrote a letter to a friend, which is still extant; but the piece itself was never published, though we read in the letter, “that he left it as a kind of hermetic legacy to the studious disciples of that art.” Besides these papers, committed to the care of one whom he esteemed his friend, he left also very many behind him at the time of his death, relating to chemistry; which, as appears by a Jetter directed to one of his executors, he desired might be inspected by three physicians whom he named, and that gome of the most valuable might be preserved. “Indeed,” says the writer of his life, “it is highly reasonable to suppose, that many important discoveries were contained in them; chemistry being his favourite study, and opening to him perpetually such a new scene of wonders, as easily persuaded him of the possibility of transmuting metals into gold. This persuasion of his is evident from several parts of his writings, and was avowed by himself to the great Dr. Halley, the lateroyal astronomer, who related to me his conversation with him upon that subject. And it was probably in consequence of this opinion, that he took so much pains to procure, as he did in August 1689, an act for the repeal of a statute made in the fifth year of king Henry IV. against the multiplying of gold and silver.”

In the mean time Mr. Boyle published some other works before his death; as, 38. “Medicina Hydrostatica or, Hydrostatics applied to the materia medica, shewing how, by the weight that divers bodies used in physic have in water, one may discover whether they be genuine or adulterate. To which is subjoined a previous hydrostatical way of estimating ores,” 1690, 8vo. He informs us, in the postscript of this treatise, that he had prepared materials for a second volume, which he intended to publish; but it never appeared. 39. “The Christian virtuoso; shewing that, by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian.” The first part. To which are subjoined, 1. A discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason. 2. The first chapters of a discourse, intituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, 1690, 8vo. In the advertisement prefixed to this work, he mentions a second part of the Christian virtuoso; which, however, he did not live to finish. But the papers he left behind him for that purpose are printed, imperfect as they are, in the edition of his collected works. The last work, which he published himself, was in the spring of 1691; and is intituled, 40. <l Experimenta & observationes physicje; wherein are briefly treated of, several subjects relating to natural philosophy in an experimental way. To which is added, a small collection of strange reports," 8vo.

About the entrance of the summer, he began to feel such an alteration in his health, as induced him to think of settling his affairs; and accordingly, on the 18th of July, he signed and sealed his last will, to which he afterwards added several codicils. In October his distempers increased; which might perhaps be owing to his tender concern for the tedious illness of his dear sister the lady Ranelagh, with whom he had lived many years in the greatest harmony and friendship, and whose indisposition brought her to the grave on the 23d of December following. He did not survive her above a week; for, on the 30th of December 1691, he departed this life in the 65th year of his age.

He was buried in St. Martin’s church in the Fields, Westminster, on the 7th of January following: and his funeral sermon was preached by his friend Dr. Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury. The bishop made choice upon this occasion of a text very apposite to his subject, namely, “For God giveth to a man, that is good in his sight, wisdom, knowledge, and joy.” Eccles. xi. 26. After explaining the meaning of the words, he applies the doctrine to the honourable person deceased; of whom, he tells us, he was the better able to give a character, from the many happy hours he had spent in conversation with him, in the course of nine-and-twenty years. He gives a large account of Mr. Boyle’s sincere and unaffected piety, and more especially of his zeal for the Christian religion, without having any narrow notions concerning it, or mistaking, as so many do, a bigoted heat in favour of a particular sect, for that zeal which is the ornament of a true Christian. He mentions, as a proof of this, his noble foundation for lectures in defence of the gospel against infidels of all sorts; the effects of which have been so conspicuous in the many volumes of excellent discourses which have been published hi consequence of that noble and pious foundation. He had, says our prelate, designed it in his life-time, though some accidents did, upon great considerations, divert him from settling it; but not from ordering by his last will, that a liberal provision should be made for one who should, in a very few well-digested sermons, every year set forth the truth of the Christian religion in general, without descending to the subdivisions among Christians. He was at the charge of the translation and impression of the New Testament into the Malayan tongue, which he sent over all the East Indies. He gave a noble reward to him that translated Grotius’s incomparable book of the truth of the Christian religion into Arabic: and was at the charge of a whole impression, which he took care should be dispersed in all the countries where that language is understood. He was resolved to have carried on the impression of the New Testa-, meut in the Turkish language; but the company thought it became them to be the doers of it, and so suffered him only to give a large share towards it. He was at 700l. charge in the edition of the Irish Bible, which he ordered to be distributed in Ireland: and he contributed liberally, both to the impression of the Welsh Bible, and of the Irish Bible for Scotland. He gave, during his life, 300l. to advance the design of propagating the Christian religion in America; and, as soon as he heard that the East India company were entertaining propositions for the like design in the East, he presently sent a hundred pounds for a beginning, as an example; but intended to carry it much farther when it should be set on foot to purpose. When he understood how large a share he had in impropriations, he ordered considerable sums to be given to the incumbents in those parishes, and even to the widows of those who were dead before this distribution of his bounty. He did this twice in his life-time, to the amount of above 600l. and ordered another distribution, as far as his estate would bear, by his will. In other respects his charities were so bountiful and extensive, that they amounted, as this prelate tells us, from hfs own knowledge, to upwards of 1000l. per annum.

But that part of his discourse which concerns us most, is, the copious and eloquent account he has given of this great man’s abilities. “His knowledge,” says he, “was of so vast an extent, that if it were not for the variety of vouchers in their several sorts, I should be afraid to say all I know. He carried the study of the Hebrew very far into the rabbinical writings, and the other oriental tongues, He had read so much of the fathers, that he had formed a clear judgment of all the eminent ones. He had read a vast deal on the scriptures, had gone very nicely through the various controversies in religion, tind was a true master of the whole body of divinity. He read the whole compass of the mathematical sciences; and, though he did not set himself to spring any new game, yet he knew the abstrusest parts of geometry. Geography, in the several parts of it that related to navigation or travelling; history and books of novels, were his diversions. He went very nicely through all the parts of physic; only the tenderness of his nature made him less able to endure the exactness of anatomical dissections, especially of living animals, though he knew these to be most instructing. But for the history of nature, ancient and modern, of the productions of allcountries, of the virtues and improvements of plants, of ores, and minerals, and all the varieties that are in them jn different climates, he was by much, by very much, the readiest and' the perfectest I ever knew, in the greatest compass, and with the nicest exactness. This put him in the way of making all that vast variety of experiments beyond any man, as far as we know, that ever lived. And in these, as he made a great progress in new discoveries, so he used so nice a strictness, and delivered them with so scrupulous a truth, that all who have examined them have found how safely the world may depend upon them. But his peculiar and favourite study was chemistry, in which he was engaged with none of those ravenous and ambitious designs that drew many into it. His design was only to find out nature, to see into what principles things might be resolved, and of what they were compounded, and to prepare good medicaments for the bodies of men. He spent neither his time nor fortune upon the vain pursuits of high promises and pretensions. He always kept himself within the compass that his estate might well bear and, as he made chemistry much the better for his dealing in it, so he never made himself either worse or the poorer for it. It was a charity to others, as well as an entertainment to himself; for the produce of it was distributed by his sister and others, into whose hands he put it.” To thiseulogium of the bishop, we will only add that of the celebrated physician, philosopher, and chemist, Dr. Herman Boerhaave; who, after having declared lord Bacon to be the father of experimental philosophy, asserts, that “Mr. Boyle, the ornament of his age and country, succeeded to the genius and enquiries of the great chancellor Verulam. Which,” says he, “of all Mr. Boyle’s writings shall I recommend? All of them. To him we owe the secrets of fire, air, water, animals, vegetables, fossils: so that from his works may be deduced the whole system of natural knowledge.” The reader perhaps recollects, that Mr. Boyle was born the same year in which lord Bacon died. “Sol occubuitj nox nulla secuta est.”

As to the person of this great man, we are told that he was tall, but slender; and his countenance pale and emaciated. His constitution was so tender and delicate, that he had divers sorts of cloaks to put on when he went abroad, according to the temperature of the air; and in this he governed himself by his thermometer. He escaped indeed the small-pox during his life; but for almost forty years he laboured under such a feebleness of body, and such lowness of strength and spirits, that it was astonishing how he could read, meditate, make experiments, and write as he did. He had likewise a weakness in his eyes, which made him very tender of them, and extremely apprehensive of such distempers as might affect them. He imagined also, that if sickness should confine him to his bed, it might raise the pains of the stone to a degree which might be above his strength to support; so that he feared lest his last minutes should be too hard for him. This was the ground of all the caution and apprehension with which he was observed to live: but as to life itself, he had that just indifference for it, which became a philosopher and a Christian. However, his sight began to grow dim, not above four hours before he died; and, when death came upon him, it was with so little pain, that the flame appeared to go out merely for want of oil to maintain it. The reader may wonder that Mr. Boyle was never made a peer; especially when it is remembered, that his four elder brothers were all peers. A peerage was, however, often offered him, and as often refused by him. It is easy to imagine, that he might have had any thing he should express an inclination for. He was always a favourite at court: and king Charles II. James II. and king William, were so highly pleased with his conversation, that they often used to discourse with him in the most familiar manner. Not that Mr. Boyle was at any time a courtier; he spake freely of the government, even in times which he disliked, and upon occasions when he was ohliged to condemn it; but then he always did it, as indeed he did every thing of that nature, with an exactness of respect.

Mr. Boyle was never married: but Mr. Evelyn was assured, that he once courted the beautiful and ingenious daughter of Gary, earl of Monmouth; and that to this passion was owing his Seraphick Love. In the memorandum of Mr. Boyle’s life, set down by bishop Burnet, it is remarked, that he abstained from marriage, at first out of policy, afterwards more philosophically; and we find, by a letter of Dr. John Wallis to him, dated at Oxford, July 17, 1669, that he had an overture made him with respect to the lady Mary Hastings, sister to the earl of Hunting, don. But it does not appear from any of his papers, that he had ever entertained the least thoughts of that kind; nay, there is a letter of his, written when he was young to the lady Barrymore his niece, who had informed him of a report that he was actually married, which almost shews that he never did. The letter is written with great politeness, and in the true spirit of gallantry; and is a clear proof, that though Mr. Boyle did not choose to marry, yet it was no misanthropic cynical humour which restrained him from it. It is impossible to entertain the reader better, than by presenting him with that part of it which concerns the point in question. " It is high time for me to hasten the payment of the thanks I owe your ladyship for the joy you are pleased to wish me, and of which that wish possibly gives me more than the occasion of it would. You have certainly reason, madam, to suspend your belief of a marriage, celebrated by no priest but fame, and made unknown to the supposed bridegroom. I may possibly ere long give you a fit of the spleen upon this theme; but at present it were incongruous to blend such pure raillery, as I ever prate of matrimony and amours with, among things I am so serious in, as those this scribble presents you. I' shall therefore only tell you, that the little gentleman and I are still at the old defiance. You have carried away too many of the perfections of your sex, to leave enough in this country for the reducing so stubborn a heart as mine; whose conquest were a task of so much difficulty, and is so little worth it, that the latter property is always likely to deter any, that hath beauty and merit enough to overcome the former. But though this untamed heart be thus insensible to the thing itself called love, it is yet very accessible to things very near of kin to that passion; and esteem, friendship, respect, and even admiration, are things that their proper objects fail not proportionably to exact of me, and consequently are qualities, which, in their highest degrees, are really and constantly paid my lady Barrymore by her most obliged humble servant, and affectionate uncle,

Mr. Boyle’s posthumous works are as follow: 1. “The general history of the Air designed and begun,” 1692, 4to. Concerning the nature and value of this work, we have the testimonies of two of the most ingenious and able men of that age, Mr. Locke and Mr. Molineux. Mr. Locke, in a letter to Mr. Molineux, dated December 26, 1692, observes, that, though this treatise was left imperfect, “yet I think,” says he, “the very design of it will please you; and it is cast into a method, that any one who pleases may Add to it under any of the several titles, as his reason and observation shall furnish him with matter of fact. If such men as you are, curious and knowing, would join to what Mr. Boyle had collected and prepared, what comes in their way, we might hope in some time to have a considerable history of the air, than which I scarce know any part Of natural philosophy would yield more variety and use. But it is a subject too large for the attempts of any one man, and will require the assistance of many hands, to make it an history very short of complete.” To which Mr. Molineux answered: “I am extremely obliged to you for Mr. Boyle’s book of the air, which lately came to my hands. It is a vast design, and not to be finished but by the united labours of many heads, and indefatigably prosecuted for many years; so that I despair of seeing any thing complete therein. However, if many will lend the same helping hands that you have done, I should be in hopes; and certainly there is not a chapter in all natural philosophy of greater use to mankind than what is here proposed.” 2. “General heads for the natural history of a conntryy great or sinall; drawn out for the use of travellers and navigators. To which are added, other directions ior navigators, &c. with particular observations on the most noted countries in the world. By another hand.” 1692, 12mo. These general heads were first printed in the Philosophical Transactions, being drawn up by Mr. Boyle, at the request of the royal society. The other directions added in this edition were drawn up by various persons at divers times, by order of the royal society, and printed in different numbers of the Philosophical Transactions; but, being in pursuance of the plan sketched out by Mr. Boyle, were very properly annexed to the preceding ones. 3. A paper of the honourable Robert Boyle’s, deposited with the secretaries of the royal society, October 14, 1680, and opened since his death; being an account of his making the phosphorus, Sept. 30, 1680; printed in the Philosophical Transactions. 4. An account of a way of examining waters, as to freshness or saltness.To be subjoined as an appendix to a lately printed letter about sweetened water, Oct. 30, 1683; printed in the Philosophical Transactions. 5. “A free discourse against customary swearing, and a dissuasive from cursing,” 1695, 8vo. 6. “Medicinal experiments: or, a collection of choice remedies, chiefly simple, and easily prepared, useful in families, and fit for the service of the country people. The third and last volume, published from the author’s original manuscript; whereunto are added several useful notes, explicatory of the same,” 1698, 12mo. The first edition of this book was printed in 1688, under the title of Receipts sent to a friend in America: in 1692, it was reprinted with the Addition of a second part, and a new preface: and in 1698, as we now observe, was added the third and last volume. They have been all several times reprinted since in a single volume, and justly accounted the best collection of the kind.

These posthumous works, joined to those before mentioned, together with many pieces in the Philosophical Transactions, which we had not room to be particular about, were all printed in one collection, at London, in 5 volumes folio, and 6 volumes 4to. Dr. Shaw also published in 3 volumes 4to, the same works “abridged, methodized, and disposed under the general heads of Physics, Statics, Pneumatics, Natural History, Chymistry, and Medicine” to which he has prefixed a short catalogue of the philosophical writings, according to the order of time when they were first published, Sec.

, earl of Orrery, second son of Roger second earl of Orrery, by lady Mary Sackville, daughter to Richard earl of Dorset and Middlesex, was born in August 1676, at his father’s house in Chelsea; and at fifteen entered a nobleman of Christ-church, in Oxford, under the care of Dr. Francis Atterbury, afterwards bishop of Rochester, and Dr. Freind. Dr. Aldrich, the head of that society, observing his uncommon application, drew up for his use that compendium of logic which is now read at Christ-church, wherein he styles him “the great ornament of our college.” Having quitted the university, he was in 1700 chosen member for the town of Huntington. A petition being presented to the house of commons, complaining of the illegality of his election, he spoke in support of that election with great warmth; and this probably gave rise to his duel with Mr. Wortley, the other candidate, in which, though Mr. Boyle had the advantage, the wounds he received threw him into a dangerous fit of sickness that lasted for many months. On the death of his elder brother, he became fourth earl of Orrery; soon after, he had a regiment given him, and was elected a knight of the Thistle. In 1706 he married lady Elizabeth Cecil, daughter to the earl of Exeter. In 1709 he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and sworn of her majesty’s privy council. He was envoy extraordinary from the queen to the states of Flanders and Brabant, with an appointment of ten pounds a day, at a very critical juncture, namely, during the treaty of Utrecht. There, some in authority at Brussels, knowing they were soon to become the emperor’s subjects, and that his imperial majesty was not on good terms with the queen, shewed less respect to her minister than they had formerly done: upon which, Orrery, who considered their behaviour as an indignity to the crown of Great Britain, managed with so much resolution and dexterity, that, when they thought his power was declining, or rather that he had no power at all, he got every one of them turned out of his post, Her majesty, in the tenth year of her reign, raised him to the dignity of a British peer, under the title of lord Boyle, baron of Marston, in Somersetshire. On the accession of king George I. he was made a lord of the bedchamber, and lord -lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the county of Somerset. His frequent voting against the ministers gave rise to a report that he was to be removed from all his posts; upon which he absented himself from the court: but his friends assuring him that they had ground to believe the king had a personal esteem for him, he wrote a letter to his majesty, signifying that though he looked upon his service as a high honour, yet, when he first entered into it, he did not conceive it was expected from him that he should vote against his conscience and his judgment; that he must confess it was his misfortune to differ widely in opinion from some of his majesty’s ministers; that if those gentlemen had represented this to his majesty as a crime not to be forgiven, and his majesty himself thought so, he was ready to resign those posts he enjoyed, from which he found he was already removed by a, common report, which was rather encouraged than contradicted by the ministers. The king going soon after to Hanover, lord Orrery’s regiment was taken from him; which his lordship looking upon as a mark of displeasure, resigned his post of lord of the bedchamber.

On the 28th of September 1722, he was committed close prisoner to the Tower, by warrant of a committee of the lords of the privy council, upon suspicion of high treason, and of being concerned in Layer’s plot. His confinement brought on such a dangerous fit of sickness, that, as Dr. Mead remonstrated to the council, unless he was immediately set at liberty, he would not answer for his life twenty-four hours: upon which, after six months imprisonment, he was admitted to bail. Upon the strictest inquiry, no sufficient ground for a prosecutiofi being found, he was, after passing through the usual forms, absolutely discharged. After this he constantly attended in his place in the house of peers, as he had done before, and though he never spoke in that assembly, his pen was frequently employed to draw up the protests entered in its journals. He died after a short indisposition, on the 21st of August, 1731. He had a good' relish for the writings of the ancients, and gave some productions of his own.

Lord Orford, in enumerating his works, attributes to him a translation of the life of Lysander from Plutarch, which he says is published in the English edition of that author; but the life of Lysander in that edition is given to one Lemau, a Cambridge man. His first appearance as an author, was when Dr. Aldrich, dean of Christ- church, finding him to be a good Grecian, put him upon publishing a new edition of the epistles of Phalaris, which appeared in the beginning of 1695, under the title of “Phalaridis Agrigentinorum tyranni epistolae. Ex Mss. recensuit, versione, annotationibus, &. vita insuper auctoris donavit Car. Boyle, ex aede Christi, Oxon,” 8vo. In this edition he was supposed to have been assisted by Aldrich and Atterbury. The authenticity of these epistles being called in question by Dr. Bentley, Mr. Boyle wrote an answer, entitled “Dr. Bentley’s Dissertation on the epistles of Phalaris examined.” In laying the design of this work, in reviewing a good part of the rest, in transcribing the whole, and attending the press, half a year of Atterbu-ry’s life was employed, as he declares in his “Epistolary Correspondence,” 1783, vol. II. p. 22. His lordship wrote a comedy, called “As you find it,” printed in the second volume of the works of Roger earl of Orrery. He was also author of a copy of verses to Dr. Garth, upon his Dispensary, and of a prologue to Mr. Southerne’s play, called “The Siege of Capua.”

The instrument called the Orrery obtained his name from the following circumstance: Rowley, a mathematical instrument-maker, having got one from Mr. George Graham, the original inventor, to he sent abroad with some of his own instruments, he copied it, and made the first for the earl of Orrery; sir Richard Steele, who knew nothing of Mr. Graham’s machine, thinking to do justice to the first encourager, as well as to the inventor of such a curious instrument, called it an Orrery, and gave Rowley the praise due to Mr. Graham.

, earl of Cork and Orrery, a nobleman who added fresh lustre to his name and family, was the only son and heir of Charles, the fourth earl of Orrery (the subject of the preceding article), by the lady Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of John earl of Exeter. He was born on the 2d of January, 1706-7, and put early under the tuition of Mr. Fenton, the author of Mariamne, and one of the coadjutors of Mr. Pope in the translation of the Odyssey, by whom he was instructed in English; and carried through the Latin tongue from the age of seven to thirteen. Between this amiable poet and his noble pupil a constant friendship subsisted; and his lordship always spoke of him after his decease, and often with tears, as “one of the worthiest and modestest men that ever adorned the court of Apollo.” After passing through Westminster school, lord Boyle was admitted as a nobleman at Christ-church, Oxford, of which college, as we have already seen, his father had been a distinguished ornament. One of his first poetical essays was an answer to some verses by Mrs. Howe, on an unsuccessful attempt to draw his picture.

When the earl of Orrery was committed prisoner to the Tower on account of Layer’s plot, such was the filial piety of his son, that he earnestly entreated to be shut up with his noble father; but this indulgence was thought too considerable to be granted. Not long after he had completed the twenty-first year of his age, he married, on the 9th of May 1728, lady Harriet Hamilton, the third and youngest daughter of George earl of Orkney. Though this marriage had the entire approbation of lord Orrery, it unfortunately happened that a dissension arose between the two earls, which placed the young couple in a very delicate and difficult situation; but lord Boyle maintained at the same time the tenderest affection for his wife, and the highest attachment to his father. The earl of Orrery, however, was too much irritated by the family quarrel, to see at first his son’s conduct in a proper point of light, although his excellent understanding could not fail in the end to get the better of his prejudices, when a reconciliation took place, and the little coldness which had subsisted between them served but the more to endear them to each other. The earl of Orrery was now so much pleased with lord Boyle, that he could scarcely be easy without him; and when in town, they were seldom asunder. It is to be lamented, that this happiness was rendered very transient by the unexpected death of lord Orrery and that the stroke was embittered by circumstance peculiarly painful and affecting to his noble son and successor. The father, whilst under the impression of his dissension with the earl of Orkney, had made a will, by which he had bequeathed to Christ-church, Oxford, his valuable library, consisting of above ten thousand volumes, together with a very fine collection of mathematical instruments. The only exceptions in favour of lord Boyle were the Journals of the House of Peers, and such books as related to the English history and constitution. The earl of Orrery left, besides, though he was greatly in debt, several considerable legacies to persons nowise related to him. Upon his reconciliation with his son, he determined to alter his will, and had even sent for his lawyer with that view, when the suddenness of his decease prevented the execution of his just and reasonable design. The young lord Orrery, with a true filial piety and generosity, instead of suffering his father’s effects to be sold, took his debts upon himself, and fulfilled the bequests, by paying the legacies, and sending the books and mathematical instruments within the limited time to Christ-church. The loss, however, of a parent, thus aggravated and embittered, left a deep impression upon his mind, and was succeeded by a fit of illness which endangered his life, and obliged him to repair to Bath. Whilst he was in that city, he received a letter from a friend, with a copy of verses inclosed, exhorting him to dispel his grief by poetry r and to shew that Bath could inspire, as well as Tunbridge;. from which place he had written some humorous verses the year before. To this letter his lordship returned the following answer:

And sigh in secret, and in silence mourn:

In a few months lord Orrery so far recovered his health and spirits as to be able to attend his public duty as an English baron. He took his seat in the house of peers in the session of parliament which opened on the 13th of January, 1731-2, and soon distinguished himself by a speech in opposition to the ministry, against the mutiny-bill; the inconsistency of a standing army with the liberties of a free people being at that period the topic constantly insisted upon by the patriotic party. Though no notice is taken of his lordship’s speech in Timberland’s Debates, it is certain that he acquired considerable credit on this occasion. Mr. Budgell, in the dedication to his Memoirs of the Family of the Boyles, published in 1732, celebrates our noble lord as having displayed the united forces of reason and eloquence; and Mr. Ford, in a letter to Dr. Swift, written in the same year, mentions with pleasure a character which the dean had given of the earl of Orrery, and says, that he was extremely applauded for a speech he made against the army- bill. The approbation which his lordship received in this lirst exertion of his parliamentary talents, did not encourage him to become a public speaker; and we meet with only another instance in which he took any active part in a debate/ on the 13th of February, 1733-4, in favour of the duke of Marlborough’s bill for preventing the officers of the land forces from being deprived of their commissions, otherwise than by judgment of a court martial to be held for that purpose, or by address of either house of parliament. The delicacy of lord Orrery’s health, his passion for private life, and the occasions he had of sometimes residing in Ireland, seem to have precluded him from a very constant and regular attendance in the English house of peers. However, he did not fail to go thither when he apprehended himself to be called to it by particular duty; and we find his name to a considerable number of the protests which were so frequent during the grand opposition to sir Robert Waipole’s administration.

In the summer of 1732 the earl of Orrery went over to Ireland to re-establish his affairs, which were much embarrassed by the villainy of his father’s agent. As the family seat at Charleville had been burnt to the ground by a party of king James’s army in 1690, his lordship resided sometimes with a friend at that place, and sometimes at Cork. Whilst he was in this city, he met with a most severe affliction, in the loss of his countess, who died on the 22d of August, 1732. The character of this amiable lady has been drawn by lord Orrery himself, in his Observations on Pliny. The countess was interred with her ancestors, at Taplow, in Bucks; and Mr. S. Wesley, in a poem on her death, fully displayed her excellent qualities and virtues. Mr. Theobald did the same, in his dedication of Shakspeare’s Works to the earl. The dedication, it seems, was originally intended for her ladyship; and therefore lord Orrery is represented as succeeding to it by the melancholy right of executorship. Mr. Theobald professes to have borrowed many hints from hearing his patron converse on Shakspeare; and adds, “Your lordship may reasonably deny the loss of the jewels which I have disparaged in the unartful setting.” Such language, however, must be considered as partly complimentary; for if the earl of Orrery had contributed any material criticisms upon our great dramatic poet, they would undoubtedly have been distinctly specified. Some pathetic verses on the death of the countess, dated Marston, Dec. 17, 1734, were addressed by his lordship to Mrs. Rowe, who lived in his neighbourhood, and with whom he had an intimate friendship during the latter part of her life. How much this ingenious and excellent lady valued his esteem and regard, is evident from her observing, that “his approbation would be her vanity and boast, if she could but persuade herself she deserved it.” The house where she was born belonged to him; and he always passed by it, after her decease, with the utmost veneration. It appears from Mrs. Rowe’s posthumous letter to his lordship, that he had charged her with “a message to his Henrietta (Harriet), when she met her gentle spirit in the blissful regions.”

Whilst our noble lord resided in Ireland, he commenced a friendship with dean Swift, which produced also that of Mr. Pope. The earl having sent a copy of verses to the dean on his birth-day, they were so pleasing to that celebrated genius, that he begged the author “to accept his most humble thanks for the honour done him by so excellent a performance on so barren a subject.” “In spite,” says the dean, “of those who love me not, it will be said in future ages, that one of lord Orrery’s first essays in poetry was these verses on Dr. Swift.” There are, indeed, several evidences in Pope’s and Swift’s letters, of the sincere esteem they entertained for his lordship.

In October 1733, lord Orrery returned to England, and having now no attachment to London, he disposed of his house in Downing-street, Westminster, as likewise of his seat at Britwell, near Windsor, and retired to his seat at Marston, in Somersetshire. As this place had been much neglected by his ancestors, and was little more than a shell of a large old house, he amused himself in building offices, in fitting out and furnishing apartments, and laying out gardens and other plantations. Study and retirement being his principal pleasures, he took care to supply the loss he had sustained from his father’s will, by furnishing his library anew with the best authors. In the summer of 1734, probably in his way to France, where he sometimes went, he visited the tomb of his ancestors, Roger Boyle, esq, and Joan his wife, in Preston church, near Feversham. This monument, when the title of earl of Cork devolved upon him, he intended to have repaired, if his life had been prolonged. In the middle of the year 1735, we find him again in Ireland. On the 31st of October, in the same year, an amiable relation, and a most promising youth, Edmund duke of Buckingham, died at Rome, upon which melancholy event, lord Orrery paid a just tribute to the memory of the young nobleman, in an elegiac poem. It was printed in 1736, and is one of the most pleasing specimens which our author has afforded of his poetical abilities. In the winter of 1735-6, the duke of Dorset being then lord lieutenant of Ireland, the eail of Orrery neglected no opportunity of endeavouring to render his administration easy. If Dr. Swift is to be credited, Ireland was about that time in a wretched condition. As a proof of it, the dean asserted in a letter to Mr. Pope, that lord Orrery had 3000l. a year in the neighbourhood of Cork, and that more than three years rent was unpaid. In April 1737, his lordship, who was then at Cork, earnestly pressed Dr. Swift to accompany him to England; but the doctor, who never saw Marston, did not accept the invitation. Lord Orrery took over with him to Mr. Pope all the letters of that great poet to Swift, which the dean had preserved or could find, which were not more in number than twenty-five. About this time, our noble author, that his sons might be educated under his own eye, and also have the benefit of attending Westminster-school, took a small house in Duke-street, Westminster. On the 30th of June, 1738, the earl of Orrery, after having been six years a widower, married, in Ireland, Mrs. Margaret Hamilton, only daughter and heiress of John Hamilton, esq. of Caledon, in the county of Tyrone, grand-daughter of Dr. Dopping, bishop of Meath, and niece of Dr. Dopping, bishop of Ossory. Swift, in a letter to Miss Hamilton, on her intended nuptials, after pretending a prior claim, as she had made so many advances to him, and confessed “herself to be nobody’s goddess but his,” archly waves it, and politely “permits lord Orrery to make himself the happiest man in the world; as I know not,” he adds, “any lady in this kingdom of so good sense or so many accomplishments.” He gives a great character of her, likewise, in his last printed letter to Mr. Pope. In this lady, the earl of Orrery, with gratitude to Heaven, acknowledged that the loss of his former countess was repaired. In 1739 he published a new edition, 2 vols. 8vo, of the dramatic works of his great-grandfather. Though these volumes cannot be particularly valuable, they are now become exceedingly scarce. In 1741 he published separately, in folio, “The first Ode of the first book of Horace imitated, and inscribed to the earl of Chesterfield;” and “Pyrrha, an imitation of the fifth Ode of the first book of Horace.” In the preface to the last, lord Orrery characterises Dacier’s and Sanadon’s translations, and makes some observations on Horace, which shew that he entered with taste and spirit into the peculiar excellencies of that poet. In 1742 he published in one volume, folio, the “State Letters” of his great-grandfather, the first earl; to which were prefixed Morrice’s memoirs of that eminent statesman. On the 25th of August, 1743, his lordship was presented by the university of Oxford to the honorary degree of D. C. L.; and he was, likewise, F.R. S. Lord Boyle, in 1746, being settled at Oxford, and Mr. Boyle in the college at Westminster, their father quitted London, and fixed his residence at Caledon, in Ireland. During one of his occasional visits to England, after the publication of the second volume of the Biographia Britannica, he thanked Dr. Campbell, “in the name of all the Boyles, for the honour he had done to them, and to his own judgment, by placing the family in such a light as to give a spirit of emulation to those who were hereafter to inherit the title.” Lord Orrery resided in Ireland, with very little intermission, from 1746 to 1750; happy in that domestic tranquillity, that studious retirement and inactivity, from which, as he himself expressed it, he was scarcely ever drawn, but with the utmost reluctance. “Whenever,” as he observed in a private letter, “we step out of domestic life in search of felicity, we come back again disappointed, tired, and chagrined. One day passed under our own roof, with our friends and our family, is worth a thousand in any other place. The noise and bustle, or, as they are foolishly called, the diversions of life, are despicable and tasteless, when once we have experienced the real delight of a fire-side.” These sentiments, which do so much honour to the rectitude of his lordship’s understanding, and the goodness of his heart, reflect, at the same time, a just reproach on the absurd and criminal dissipation that prevails for the most part among persons of rank and fortune. During the earl of Orrery’s residence in Ireland, he employed his leisure in laying out gardens and plantations at Caledon, and in improving and adorning its fine situation. On his return to Marston, he continued his alterations and improvements in the house and gardens at that place, many of the plans for which were designed by lord Boyle, who had a taste for architecture. In the mean while, the amusement of our noble author’s winter evenings was his translation of “The Letters of Pliny the Younger, with observations on each letter, and an Essay on Pliny’s life, addressed to Charles lord Boyle.” The essay is dated Leicester-fields, January 27, 1750-1; and, together with the translation, was published at London, in the following April, in 2 vols. 4to. This work met with so good a reception from the public, that three editions of it in octavo have since been printed. In the summer of the same year, lord Orrery addressed to his second son Hamilton a series of letters, containing “Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Swift, dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin.” This work gave rise to many strictures and censures on his lordship for having professed himself Swift’s friend while he was exposing his weaknesses. Subsequent inquiries into Swift’s character have proved that the portrait he drew was not unfaithful. To this, however, we shall have occasion to recur in our account of Swift.

On the 3d of December, 1753, by the death of Richard the third earl of Burlington, and fourth earl of Cork, without issue male, lord Orrery succeeded to that nobleman’s Irish tides, viz. earl of Cork, viscount Dungarvan, and lord Boyle, baron of Youghall. About this time, Mr. Moore undertook the periodical publication called “The World;” to which our noble author contributed three papers, viz. No. 47, 68, 161. The two first are papers of some humour, intended to ridicule the practice of duelling, as it prevailed in the last age; and the third is a father’s account of his son, Charles lord Dungarvan, whose weakness of temper was such, that he could not resist the temptation to indulgences which at last proved fatal. The earl of Cork was a contributor, likewise, to the “Connoisseur,” carried on by Mr. Thornton and Mr. Coiman. In the last number of this publication, G. K. which was his lordship’s signature, is distinguished, by the ingenious authors, as their “earliest and most frequent correspondent;” and “we are sorry,” they add, “that he will not allow us to mention his name; since it would reflect as much credit on our work, as we are sure will redound to it from his compositions.” His communications to the “Connoisseur” were the most part of No. 14 and 17 the letter signed Goliah English, in No. 19 great part of No. 33 and 40 and the letters, signed “Reginald Fitzworm,” “Michael Krawbridge,” “Moses Orthodox,” and “Thomas Vainall,” in No. 102, 107, 113, and 129. These papers are chiefly of the humourous kind; and they confirm, in no small degree, Mr. Buncombe’s character of our author, that “for humour, innocent humour, no one had a truer taste, or better talent.” On the 20th of September, 1754, the earl and countess of Cork, with their daughter lady Lucy Boyle, began a tour to Italy. His lordship’s chief object was Florence, in which city and its neighbourhood he resided nearly a year. Whilst he was at that place, he presented to the academy della Crusca, his friend Dr. Samuel Johnson’s English Dictionary. His inveterate enemy, the gout, introduced by a severe winter, overtook him even in Italy, and prevented his attendance on the exercises of the academy. He enjoyed, at Florence, a general esteem; and, by a free conversation with books and men, and the assistance of manuscripts, collected materials for the History of Tuscany, which he intended to write in a series of Letters, twelve of which only he lived to finish. In November 1755; he arrived at Marston, having, in his return to England, on account of the commencement of the war with France, gone through Germany and part of Holland. The situation of public affairs, in this country, at the beginning of the year 1757, being such as required, in our national councils, the most exertion of wisdom and integrity, one of lord Cork’s friends urged him, in an ode, to exchange his retirement for a more active scene.

When Dr. Swift’s “History of the four last years of Queen Anne” appeared in 1758, and it was reported that our noble lord had consented to the publication of that work, he requested his friends to contradict the report. His opinion was, that the more the work was examined, the less it would answer the end either of the author or of the publisher. In that year he sustained, by the death of his excellent lady, Margaret countess of Cork and Orrery, the severest domestic affliction which could befal him. She departed this life, after a short illness, on the 24th of November, in lodgings at Knightsbridge, to which she had been removed, at her own request, a few days before, from a tender apprehension that her lord would quit his house, just taken, in Marlboro ugh-street, if she died there. This shock, however, he supported with the resignation becoming a man and a Christian. We have already seen the high opinion which Dr. Swift entertained of her ladyship. The earl of Cork, in his distress, took refuge, like Pliny, in his studies, as the best retreat from grief, and published, in the beginning of 1759, in one volume, octavo, from an original manuscript presented to him by a relation, “Memoirs of the Life of Robert Cary, earl of Monmouth,” with a preface, and explanatory notes, and a short but tender dedication to his youngest son. It is dated Marlborough-street, January 13, 1759, and signed, “Now, alas! your only parent.” There is, also, as a frontispiece, engraved from an old painting by Marc Garrard, “The Royal Procession of queen Elizabeth, to visit her cousin german, Henry lord Hunsdon, governor of Berwick.” A second edition of the Memoirs appeared in 1760. Mrs. Lennox was considerably indebted to lord Cork, in her translation of Brumoy’s Greek Theatre, published in 1759. The preface was written by him; and he also translated “The Discourse upon the Theatre of the Greeks,” “The Original of Tragedy,” and “The Parallel of the Theatres.” Some smaller things, of his lordship’s writing, are in the Gent. Mag. On September the 16th, 1759, the earl of Cork lost his eldest son, Charles lord viscount Dungarvan, already mentioned. The earl survived him about three years, during which he divided his lime between his house in Great George-street, Westminster, and his seat in Somersetshire. An hereditary gout, which. all his temperance could only parry, not subdue, put a comparatively early period to his life, at Marston house, on the 16th of November, 1762, in the 56th year of his age. His remains were deposited near to those of his second lady, in the burial-place of his family in Frome church.

His last work was posthumous, “Letters from Italy,” written in 1754 and 1755, to William Duucombe, esq. and published, in 1774, by the rev. Mr. John Buncombe, who well knew and highly esteemed lord Cork’s talents and virtues. Mr. Buncombe has prefixed a life of his lordship, with the following particulars of his character: “The character of John earl of Cork, as a writer and as a man, may partly be collected from his own works, and partly from the testimonies which have been given of him by some of the most distinguished among his contemporaries. I shall only beg leave to add, that, in every domestic and social relation, in alltthe endearing connections of life, as a husband, a father, a friend, a master, he had few equals. The lustre which he received from rank and title, and from the personal merit of his family, he reflected back, unimpaired and undhninished; and though ‘the post of honour’ which he chose and preferred was ‘a private station,’ though he was neither a statesman nor a soldier, like the first lord Cork, the first lord Orrery, and his own father; the rival of Palladio, like the late lord Burlington; or the rival of Bacon, like Mr. Robert Boyle; yet in a general taste for literature, or, as they are commonly called, polite studies, he was by no means inferior to his ancestors. Being much in the great world at the beginning of his life, he despised and detested it when he arrived at years of reflection. His constitution was never strong, and he was very thankful that it was not so; as his health was a true and no very irksome excuse to avoid those scenes, by which his body would have been hurt, and his mind offended. He loved truth even to a degree of adoration. He was a real Christian; and. as such, constantly hoped for a better life, there trusting to know the real causes of those effects, which here struck him with wonder, but not with doubt.”

Dr. Johnson, less biassed by friendship, and more discriminating, said of him, “My friend, the late earl of Cork, had a great desire to maintain the literary character of his family: he was a genteel man, but did not keep up the dignity of his rank. He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.” Warburton, in his letters to bishop Hurd, lately published, employs the full measure of his coarse censure on him for publishing his character of Swift.

, third earl of Burlington and fourth earl of Cork, another branch of the illustrious family of Boyle, was born on the 25th of April, 1695; and was married on the 21st of March, 1720-1, to the lady Dorothy Savile, the eldest of the two daughters and co-heirs of William Savile, marquis of Halifax. By this lady he had three daughters, the youngest of whom, Charlotte, alone survived him. She was married to the duke of Devonshire, and was mother to the late duke, and grandmother to the present. On the 18th of June, 1730, the earl of Burlington was installed one of the knights’ companions of the most noble order of the garter; and in June 1731, he was constituted captain of the band of gentlemen pensioners. In 1732, being at the city of York, the lord mayor, aldermen, and corporation, sent a deputation to return their thanks to him for the favour he had done them in building their assembly-room, and for his other benefactions to the city, and to beg his acceptance of the freedom of it; which was, accordingly, presented to him in a gold box. In 1733, he resigned his place of captain of the band of pensioners. After this he lived retired, employing himself in adorning his gardens at Chiswick, and in constructing several pieces of architecture. Never, says lord Orford, were protection and great wealth more generously and more judiciously diffused than by this great person, who had every quality of a genius and artist, except envy. Though his own designs were more chaste and classic than Kent’s, he entertained him in his house till his death, and was more studious to extend his friend’s fame than his own. Nor was his munificence confined to himself, and his own houses and gardens. He spent great sums in contributing to public works, and was known to choose that the expence should fall on himself, rather than that his country should be deprived of some beautiful edifices. His enthusiasm for the works of Inigo Jones was so active, that he repaired the church of Covent-garden, because it was the production of that great master, and purchased a gate-way of his at Beaufort-garden in Chelsea, and transported the identical stones to Chiswick with religious attachment. With the same zeal for pure architecture, he assisted Kent in publishing the designs for Whitehall, and gave a beautiful edition of the antique baths from the drawings of Palladio, whose papers he procured with great cost. Besides his works on his own estate at Lanesborough in Yorkshire, he new fronted his house in Piccadilly, built by his father^ and added the grand colonnade within the court. It is recorded that his father being asked, why he built his house so far out of town? replied, because he was determined to have no building beyond him. This is now in the heart of that part of the town. Our nobility formerly wished for town-houses, and not for town-neighbourhoods, but the latter being now obtruded upon them is probably the cause of their paying so little attention to the keep of their London-palaces. Bedford-house has been levelled to the ground some years, and Burlington-house is likewise said to be doomed to destruction.

Lord Burlington’s house at Chiswick, the idea of which was borrowed from a well-known villa of Palladio, is a model of taste, though not without faults. Other works designed by lord Burlington were, the dormitory at Westminster-school, the assembly-room at York, lord Harrington’s at Petersham (afterwards lord Camelford’s), except the octagon buildings at each end, which were added by Shepherd; the duke of Richmond’s house at Whitehall, and general Wade’s in Cork-street. Both these last were ill-contrived and inconvenient; but the latter has so beautiful a front, that lord Chesterfield said, “as the general could not live in it to his ease, he had better take a house over against it, and look at it.”, Pope dedicated to him his Epistle IV. and addressed to him his incomparable letter oa a Journey to Oxford with Lintot. He is also to be noticed with honour as the first patron of bishop Berkeley, whom he loved for his taste in architecture. He died December 1753, and by his death the title of Earl of Burlington became extinct. His lady, Dorothy Saville, had no less attachment to the arts than her lord. She drew in crayons, and succeeded admirably in likenesses, but working with too much rapidity, did not do justice to her genius.

, earl of Cork and Orrery, the second son of John, earl of Orrery, the subject of the last article but one, was born in February 1730, and educated at Westminster-school, where the masterly manner in which he acted the part of Ignoramus, and spoke the epilogue, did great credit to his genius. In June 1748, he was matriculated at Oxford, and December following was admitted student of Christ-church, and proceeded regularly to the degree of LL. B. In 1762 he succeeded his father in the earldom, his elder brother having deceased three years before. In 1763, he was created LL. D. by diploma, and at the same time appointed high steward of the university of Oxford. He continued student of Christ church on a faculty till his death, which happened at Marston house, Jan. 17, 1764. He is recorded as an author from having contributed two papers to the “World,” drawn up with vivacity, elegance, and humour, and affording a proof that if his life had been continued, he would have added new literary honour to his celebrated name and family. These papers are No. 60 and 170.

, Lord Carleton, and lord president of the council in the reign of king George I. was descended from Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork in Ireland, and was third son of Charles lord Clifford of Lanesborough in the county of York, by Jane, youngest daughter of William Seymour, duke of Somerset. Being elected a member of the house of commons, he scon distinguished himself to such advantage, that in March 1700-1, he was appointed chancellor and nnder-treasurer of the exchequer by king William, and was admitted into a high degree of favour and confidence with that prince. He continued in that post till the 11th of February, 1707-8, when he was made one of the principal secretaries of state, in the room of Robert Harley, esq. and was consequently one of the ministry when the reputation of England was carried to so great an height, and when the queen obtained so many successes in defence of the common cause of Europe. In this station he took all occasions of shewing his regard for men of genius and learning; and soon after the battle of Blenheim, was employed by the lord treasurer Godolphin, at the solicitation of the lord Halifax, to go to Mr. Addison, and desire him to write some piece, which might transmit the memory of that glorious victory to posterity. Mr. Addison, who was at that time but indifferently lodged, was surprised with this visit from a person of Mr. Boyle’s rank and station; who, after having acquainted him with his business, added, that the lord treasurer, to encourage him to enter upon this subject, had already made him one of the commissioners of the appeals; but entreated him to look upon that post only as an earnest of something more considerable. In short, Mr. Boyle said so many obliging things, and in so graceful a manner, as gave Mr. Addison the utmost spirit and encouragement to begin that poem, which he entitled “The Campaign;” soon after the publication of which, he was, according to Mr. Boyle’s promise, preferred to a considerable post. In 1710, Mr. Boyle was one of the managers at the trial of Dr. Sacheverell; but upon the general change of the ministry, not long after, was dismissed from the post of secretary of state; in which he was succeeded by Henry St. John, esq. afterwards lord viscount Bolingbroke. “I never,” says Swift, “remember such bold steps taken by a court; I am almost shocked at it, though I did not care if they were all hanged.” Upon the accession of his late majesty king George I. in 1714, he was created a baron of this kingdom, by the title of baron Carleton of Carleton, in the county of York, and was soon after made lord president of the council, in which post he continued till his death, which happened on Sunday the 14th of March, 1724-5, at his house in Pall-mall, now the residence of his royal highness the Prince Regent. Mr. Budgell tells us, that he was endowed with great prudence and a winning address; and that his long experience in public affairs had given him a thorough knowledge in business. He spoke frequently while he was a member of the house of commons; and it was allowed by very good judges, that he was never once known to say an imprudent thing in a public debate, or to hurt the cause which he engaged in; a circumstance peculiar to himself above most other speakers in so public an assembly. The author of the “Spectator,” in the dedication to him of the third volume of that work, observes likewise, that there was no person, whose merit was more universally acknowledged by all parties, and who had made himself more friends and fewer enemies: that his great abilities and unquestioned integrity in those high employments which he had passed through, would not have been able to have raised this general approbation, had they not been accompanied with that moderation in a high fortune, and that affability of manners, which were so conspicuous through all parts of his life: that his aversion to any ostentatious arts of setting to show those great services which he had done the public, contributed likewise not a little to that universal acknowledgment which was paid him by his country: and that he was equally remarkable for the great figure which he made in the senate, as for that elegance and politeness, which appeared in his more retired conversation. Davis, in his characters published under the name of Mackay, says of him, “He is a good companion in conversation; agreeable among the ladies; serves the queen very assiduously in council; makes a considerable figure in the house of commons; by his prudent administration obliges every body in the exchequer; and in time may prove a great man.” To this Swift added in his copy of the book, “had some very scurvy qualities, particularly avarice.”

, a learned clergyman of the seventeenth century, and nephew to the dean of Canterbury, hereafter mentioned, was of a good family in Kent, and was educated at Eton school, from which he was admitted a scholar of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, in May 1620. Here he took the degree of A. B. in 1623, of A. M. 1627, and was elected fellow in 1651. He proceeded B. D. and was appointed one of the university preachers in 1634; and in 1640, was presented to the rectory of Mautboy in Norfolk, upon the death of Mr. Thomas D'Engayne; but before he left college, he gave to its library a fine set of Binnius’s Councils. His patron was William Paston, esq. his friend and contemporary at college, to whose sou sir Robert Paston, bart. of Oxnead in that county, a volume of his “Sermons,” Lond. 1672, 4to, was dedicated sometime after his decease, by his friend the editor, Roger Flynt, who had likewise been of Bene r t college. He died either in 1665 or 1667, March 10. He was a much admired preacher, a favourite of the bishop of Norwich (the celebrated Hall), and a chaplain to Charles I. His editor, in the preface to the above “Sermons,” informs us that it was with difficulty he obtained leave of the dying author to make them public, and obtained it only upon condition that he should say nothing of him. He has, however, given a short, but excellent character of him.

, one of the translators of the Bible in the reign of James I. was son of William Bois, rector of West-Stowe, near St. Edmundsbury, in Suffolk, and born at Nettlestead in that county, Jan. 3, 1560. He was taught the first rudiments of learning by his father; and his capacity was such, that at the age of five years he read the Bible in Hebrew, and before he was six could write it in an elegant hand. He went afterwards to Hadley school, and at fourteen was admitted of St. John’s college, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by his skill in the Greek; and such was his diligence that we are told he would go to the university library in summer, at four in the morning, and remain till eight in the evening without any intermission. Happening to have the small-pox when, he was elected fellow, to preserve his seniority, he caused himself to be carried, wrapped up in blankets, to be admitted. He applied himself for some time to the study of medicine, but fancying himself affected with every disease he read of, he quitted that science. June 21, 1583, he was ordained deacon, and next day, by virtue of a dispensation, priest. He was ten years chief Greek lecturer in his college, and read every day. He voluntarily read a Greek lecture for some years, at four in the morning, in liis own chamber, which was frequented by many of the fellows. On the death of his father, he succeeded him in the rectory of West Stowe; but his mother going to live with her brother, he resigned that preferment, though he might have kept it with his fellowship. At the age of thirty-six, he married the daughter of Mr. Holt, rector of Boxworth, in Cambridgeshire, whom he succeeded in that living, 1596. On quitting the university, the college gave him one hundred pounds. His young wife, who was bequeathed to him with the living, which was an advowson, proving a bad economist, and himself being wholly immersed in his studies, he soon became so much in debt, that he was forced to sell his choice collection of books to a prodigious disadvantage. The loss of his library afflicted him so much, that he thought of quitting his native country. He was, however, soon reconciled to his wife, and he even continued to leave all domestic affairs to her management. He entered into an agreement with twelve of the neighbouring clergy, to meet every “Friday at one of their houses by turns, to give an account of their studies. He usually kept some young scholar in his house, to instruct his own children, and the poorer sort of the town, as well as several gentlemen’s children, who were boarded with him. When a new translation of the Bible was, by James I. directed to be made, Mr. Bois was elected one of the Cambridge translators. He performed not only his own, but also the part assigned to another (part of the Apocrypha), with great reputation, though with little profit: for he had no allowance but his commons. The king indeed nominated him one of the fellows of his new college at Chelsea, but he never derived any benefit, as the scheme was not executed. He was also one of the six who met at Stationers-hall to revise the whole translation of the Bible, which task they went through in nine months, having each from the company of stationers during that time thirty shillings a week. He afterwards assisted sir Henry Saville in publishing the works of St. Chrysostom, and received a present of one copy of the book, for many years labour spent upon it: which however was owing to the death of sir Henry Saville, who intended to have made him fellow of Eton. In 1615, Dr. Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Ely, bestowed on him, unasked, a prebend in his church. He died 1643, in the 84th year af his age; leaving a great many manuscripts behind him, particularly a collation of the text of the Gospels and Acts. When he was a young student at Cambridge, he received from the learned Dr. Whitaker these three rules, for avoiding those distempers which usually attend a sedentary life, to which he constantly adhered: the first was, to study always standing; the second, never to study in a window; the third, never to go to bed with his feet cold. The work mentioned above, which Wolfius says is” Liber infrequentissimus etrarissime occurrens,“owing to very few copies having been printed, was entitled” Veteris interpretis cum Beza aliisque recentioribus Collatio in Quatuor Evangeliis et Apostolorum Actis, autore Johanne Boisio, Eccl. Eliensis Canonico, opus auspiciis rev. Praesulis Lancelot!, Winton. Episc. caeptum et perfectum," Lond. 1655, 12mo.

, dean of Canterbury, descended from John de Bosco, who entered England with theConqueror, and allied to a family so opulent and extensive as to be divided into eight branches, each residing in their respective seats in the county of Kent, was born in 1571. He was the fourth son of Thomas Boys of Eythorne in that county, esq. hy Christian, daughter and co-heiress of John Seajles, of Wye, esq. Having most probably received the earlier part of his education at the king’s school in Canterbury, he went to Cambridge in 1586, where he became a scholar of Corpus Christi college, and proceeded to the degree of M. A. in 1593> He was about this time elected to a fellowship of Clare-hall, which is appropriated to a native of Kent.

He entered on the duties of a parish priest first at Hollingbourne in his native county, of which place, however, he was not the vicar, as Mr. Masters conjectures; and to the inhabitants of it he dedicated his Exposition of the Festival Epistles and Gospels. In 1597, he was preferred by his uncle, sir John Boys, who had been the patron of his studies at the university, to the rectory of Bettishanger near Deal. In the same year he was also collated by archbishop Whitgift to the mastership of East-bridge hospital in Canterbury. In 1599, the same patron presented him to the vicarage of Tilmanstone, adjoining to Bettishanger. He had now acquired the character of a distinguished theologist, and proceeded soon afterwards to the degree of D. D. He was likewise what then was termed “a painful preacher,” one who in preaching was frequent and laborious, as his works testify, which were all delivered originally in the pulpit.

His merit becoming known to James I. he was appointed one of the first fellows of Chelsea-college; but that scheme, as we have had occasion to remark in the preceding article, never having been carried into execution, his title was only nominal. Of this college we shall give some account in the life of Dr. Sutclifte the founder. In 1618, Dr. Boys was collated by archbishop Abbot to the rectory of Great Mongeham, adjoining also to his benefice of Bettishanger, and resigned the vicarage of Tilmanstone. On the death of Mr. Fotherby, king James promoted him to the deanry of Canterbury, to which he was admitted May 3, 1619; but this preferment he did not enjoy long, dying suddenly in his study Sept. 26, 1625, aged fifty-four.

If we examine his “Postils,” or the Defence of our Liturgy, we shall have reason to admire his unwearied diligence, and his profound knowledge; to respect him as a scholar and a divine. His style, indeed, partakes of the quaintness of the age, but upon the whole we think him less blameable on this score than some of his contemporaries. His main object was opposition to popery. He accordingly attacks the pope both with unsparing ridicule. and with elaborate argument. In a sermon preached on the Gunpowder treason, he introduced a parody on the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, “Papa noster qui es llomae, maledicetur nomen tuum, intereat regnum tuum, impediatur voluntas tua, sicut in coelo sic et in terra. Potum nostrum in ccena dominica da nobis hodie, et remitte nummos nustros quos tibi dedimus ob indulgentias, et ne nos indticas in haeresin, sed libera nos a miseria, quoniam tuum est infernum, pix et sulphur in saecula sseculorurn.” Granger gives this prayer in English, as if Dr. Boys had used it in that language, and adds, what he certainly could not know, that “he gained great applause by turning the Lord’s Prayer into an execration.” The truth is, he only quoted it, saying “I have another prayer, and forasmuch as it is in Latin, &c.” It occurs in a ms. of sir Henry Fynes, who says he found it in an old book. Sir Henry Fynes was born in 1587, and Dr. Boys’s works could not be deemed an old book in his time.

His “Postils,” a series of Sermons on the book of Common Prayer, Epistles, and Gospels, &c. were first published in 1614, 4to; and afterwards reprinted in folio, 1622 and 1629, with some additional lectures. The editions of 1622 and 1629 have an engraved frontispiece, with four portraits of the author in different attitudes. After his death his remains, viz. “Certaine Sermons,” were printed, 1631, 4to. He is also said to have written a “Defence of bishop Andrews’s Tortura Torti,” against Becanus the Jesuit. The manuscript of his Postils was deposited by his nephew Edward in the library of Bene't college, Cambridge.

He married Angela, the daughter of Robert Bargrave of Bridge, in the county of Kent, esq. and sister to his successor dean Bargrave. She survived him many years, and was rudely treated by the rebels in 1642, at the age of eighty. To his memory a very fine monument was placed by her, in the dean’s chapel, in Canterbury cathedral, where he was buried.

, esq. F. A. and L. S. S. was born at Deal in Kent, Sept. 7, 1735; and was for many years an eminent surgeon at Sandwich, in the same county. He was the eldest of two sons of the late William Boys, esq. commodore by commission in the royal navy, and lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital, by his wife Elizabeth Pearson of Deal; and was descended, paternally, from an ancient and knightly family, who were seated at Bonnington, in the parish of Goodnestone, in Kent, at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Mr. Boys, early in life, shewed a strong propensity to cultivate literature and science. Every moment he could spare from his professional duties was devoted to some useful pursuit. Residing within a mile of Richborough, (the ancient fthutupium,) he was soon led to investigate the history of his neighbourhood. He acquired an uncommon facility in decyphering ancient Mss. and inscriptions; and being fortunately in very easy circumstances, independently of his professional income, he was enabled to gratify his taste at no inconsiderable expence; and gradually collected together many valuable and curious books, manuscripts, coins, and other antiquities. He likewise applied himself with great zeal and success to the study of natural history; to mathematics, astronomv, and other branches of philosophy. In 1786 he circulated, among his friends, proposals to print, privately, “Collections for a History of Sandwich, with notices of the other Cinque ports; and pf Richborough.” Disclaiming all views of profit, he proposed to fix such a price on the work as should merely defray the expence of printing and engraving; and so conscientiously did he adhere to this proposal, that, after the distribution of the book, he found himself a considerable loser. A part of the volume (printed at the Canterbury press) appeared in 1788; and a second part, completing this elaborate and valuable work, in 1792; making together a volume in quarto of 877 pages.

This was his principal literary production; but being of a most liberal and communicative disposition, he was at all times ready to assist his friends with hints and observations on any subject which had engaged his attention. Thus, in 1783, we find him communicating to the late rev. John Duncombe some “Observations on the Antiquities of Reculver;” which are inserted by that writer in his History of Reculver and Herne: and, in 1784, appeared a small work of 25 pages in quarto, with three plates, entitled “A Collection of the minute and rare Shells lately discovered in the sand of the sea-shore near Sandwich, by William Boys, esq. F. S. A. considerably augmented, and a11 their figures accurately drawn, as magnified with the microscope, by George Walker, bookseller at Faversham;” which in the preface is candidly acknowledged, by the editor, to be the joint production of Mr. Boys and himself, assisted by their common friend, the late Edward Jacob, esq. of Faversham. Plancus, in a treatise “De Conchis minus notis,” printed at Venice in 1739, is the only writer who had before described shells so minute as those which are the subject of Mr. Walker’s work.

In 1787, Mr. Boys printed, in 40 pages quarto, an affecting narrative, drawn up by his father, lieutenant-governor Boys, and left by him in manuscript (a copy of which has since been inserted in the History of Greenwich Hospital), entitled, “An account of the Loss of the Luxborough Galley by Fire, on her voyage from Jamaica to London, with the sufferings of her crew, in the year 1727; by William Boys, second mate;” to which he added a preface and an appendix containing some additional anecdotes of the sufferers.

In 1792, Mr. Boys communicated to the society of antiquaries “Observations on Kits-Goity house in Kent,” which have been inserted in the Archaeologia, vol. XL; and Mr. Pennant, Dr. Latham, and many other antiquaries and naturalists in their respective works acknowledge their obligations for assistance contributed by him. Dr. Latham, in his Index Ornithologicus, has given his name to a new species of Fern communicated by Mr. Boys. In 1787 Mr. Boys was appointed surgeon to the sick and wounded seamen at Deal; but this appointment, during the progress of the late war, was found to require so much of his time and attention that in 1796 he was induced to relinquish entirely his medical practice at Sandwich, and to reside near the naval hospital at Walmer till 1799, when the commissioners of the sick and hurt office accepted his resignation of the office of surgeon of the hospital, and appointed to it his fourth son, Edward Boys, M. D. who now holds it. At this period he returned to Sandwich, but with very impaired health. In the month of February of that year, he had a slight attack of apoplexy, and in December following, another and more alarming paroxysm occurred, from the effects of which he did not recover for nine or ten. months. On the 2d of March 1803, his servant, on coming into the parlour where he was sitting after breakfast, found him fallen back in his chair in a state of apoplexy. He remained in this state, but with symptoms which, for some days, at intervals, encouraged his friends to hope that he might still recover, till the 15th of the same month in the afternoon, when he placidly breathed his last.

He was for many years a very useful magistrate of the town in which he resided; having been elected a jurat of Sandwich in 1761, and served the office of mayor in 1767 and 1782. In 1775, when the corporation found it expedient to oppose an intended act of parliament for draining the general valleys of East Kent, on the grounds that the remedy proposed to be adopted might, without effecting the professed object of the bill, prejudice, if not totally destroy, the haven and harbour of Sandwich; Mr. Boys drew up a very sensible memorial on the subject, which was printed in 4to at the Canterbury press, but without his name, under the title of “The Case of the inhabitants and corporation of the town and port of Sandwich, in the county of Kent, touching a bill lately brought into the house of commons, to enable the commissioners of sewers, for several limits in the eastern parts of the county of Kent, more effectually to drain and improve the lands within the general valleys.” The attention he paid to this subject rendered him afterwards very useful as one of the commissioners of sewers for East Kent, at whose meetings he was a constant attendant as long as his health permitted.

He was twice married, first in 1759, to Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Henry Wise, jurat of Sandwich, who died in 1761, by whom he had a son and daughter: and secondly, in 1762, to Jane, daughter of Thomas Fuller, esq. and coheiress of her uncle John Paramor, esq. of Statenborough, who died in 1783, and by whom he had eight children. An elegant mural monument has been erected in the parish church of St. Clement at Sandwich, by his family, with a Latin inscription.

a protestant dissenting minister, was born at Leeds in Yorkshire, in January, 1659-60. After early instruction under the care of his parents, he received the first part of his education for the ministry at the private academy of the rev. Mr. Frankland, near Kendal, in Westmoreland, and completed it under the tuition of the rev. Mr. Edward Veal, who kept a private academy at Stepney, near London. Having continued in these seminaries five years, and availed himself of the opportunities which he enjoyed in the latter situation of attending on the preaching of many able divines, both conformists and non-conformists, he entered on the exercise of his ministry about the year 1680. In 1683, finding that he could not discharge the duties of his function in England without molestation, he accepted an invitation to be joint pastor with Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Daniel Williams, in Dublin; and had afterwards for his coadjutor the rev. Mr. Thomas Emlyn, so well known for his writings and his sufferings. This connection subsisted for more than ten years with mutual friendship and uninterrupted harmony; but it was at length dissolved in consequence of Mr. Emlyn’s sentiments concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. On this occasion the zeal of Mr. Boyse for the orthodox led him to take some steps that were thought injurious to his former colleague, and inconsistent with the friendship that had subsisted between them; though he disapproved the prosecution which Mr. Emlyn suffered, and behaved towards him with a greater degree of kindness than any of the other dissenting ministers of Dublin. The latter years of Mr. Boyse^s life were embittered by bodily disorders and straitened circumstances. His funeral sermon was preached in December, 1728; but the precise time of his death is not known. He was considered as a pious, learned, and useful divine; assiduous in the exercise of his ministry, and in his conduct generally esteemed. He had a principal concern in promoting the act of toleration in Ireland. His works were published in 1728, in 2 vols. fol. The first contains 71 sermons, 6 dissertations on the doctrine of justification, and a paraphrase on those passages of the New Testament which chiefly relate to that doctrine. One of his sermons, originally printed separately, on “the Office of a Christian Bishop,” was ordered to be burnt by the Irish parliament in Nov. 1711. The second volume contains several pieces, of which the principal is a“Vindication of the true Deity of our blessed Saviour,” in answer to Mr. Emlyn’s “Humble inquiry into the Scripture account of Jesus Christ, &c.” As Mr. Boyse’s answer was published at the time when Mr. Emlyn was under prosecution for his sentiments, his conduct did not escape censure from the friends of Emlyn, who did not think it candid, liberal, or ingenuous.

, the only son of the preceding, and whose life affords an excellent moral, was born in the year 1708, and after receiving the rudiments of education in a private school in Dublin, was sent at the age of eighteen to the university of Glasgow. His father’s int?ntion was, that he might cultivate the studies that are preparatory to entering into the ministry, but before he had resided many months at Glasgow, he contracted an attachment for a Miss Atchenson, the daughter of a tradesman in that city, and married her about a year after, probably without the consent of the parents on either side. By this imprudent match his studies were in some measure interrupted, and his expenses increased. The family of his wife were either unwilling or unable to support their new relation, and he soon found it necessary to repair to Dublin in hopes of receiving assistance from his father. On this expedition he was accompanied by his wife and her sister; but notwithstanding this additional incumbrance, and tue general levity of his conduct, his father received him with kindness, and out of the scanty and precarious income which he derived from his congregation by voluntary subscriptions, and from a small estate of eighty pounds a year in Yorkshire, endeavoured to maintain his son, and to reclaim him to the prosecution of his studies. Tenderness like this, however, which only to mention is to excite gratitude, produced no corresponding effects on t>ur poet, who abandoned his mind and time" to dissipation and idleness, without a thought of what he owed to his father or to himself. In this course too he was unhappily encouraged by the girl he married, who, while she imposed upon the good old man by a show of decency, and even sanctity, became in fact devoid of all shame, and at length shared her favours with other men, and that not without the knowledge of her husband, who is said to have either wanted resolution to resent her infidelity, or was reconciled by a share of the profits of his dishonour. Such a connection and such a mind, at an age when the manly and ingenuous feelings are usually strongest, may easily account for the miseries of his subsequent life.

His father died in the year 1728, and his whole property having been exhausted in the support of his son, the latter repaired in 1730 to Edinburgh, where his poetical genius raised him many friends and some patrons of considerable eminence, particularly the lords Stair, Tweedale, and Stormont; and there is some reason to think that he was occasionally entertained at their houses. In 1731, he published a volume of poems, to which was subjoined a translation of the Tablature of Cebes, and a Letter upon Liberty which had been before published in the Dublin Journal. This volume, which was addressed to the countess of Eglinton, a lady of great accomplishments, procured him much reputation. He also wrote an elegy on the viscountess Stormont, entitled, “The Tears of the Muses/‘ in compliment to her ladyship’s taste as a patroness of poets. Lord Stormont was so much pleased with this mark of respect to the memory of his lady, that he ordered a handsome present to be made to the author, whom, however, it was not easy to find. Such was Boyse’s unsocial turn and aversion to decent company, that his person was known only among the lower orders, and Lord Stormont’ s generous intention would have been frustrated, if his agent had not put an advertisement into the papers desiring the author of” The Tears of the Muses“to call upon him. By means of lady Eglinton and lord Stormont, Boyse became known to the duchess of Gordon, who likewise was a person of literary taste, and cultivated the correspondence of some of the most eminent poets of her time. She was so desirous to raise Boyse above necessity, that she employed her interest in procuring the promise of a place for him; and accordingly gave him a letter, which he was next day to deliver to one of the commissioners of the customs at Edinburgh.” But it unluckily happened that he was then some miles distant from the city, and the morning on which he was to have ridden to town with her grace’s letter, proved to be rainy. This trivial circumstance was sufficient to discourage Boyse, who was never accustomed to look beyond the present moment: he declined going to town on account of the rainy weather; and while he let slip the opportunity, the place was bestowed upon another, which the commissioner declared he kept for some time vacant, in expectation of seeing a person recommended by the duchess of Gordon."

Sueh is the story of this disappointment in which all Boyse’s biographers have acquiesced, although it is not very consistently told. If the commissioner kept the place open for some time, which seems to imply weeks, Boyse might have easily repaired the neglect of not presenting his letter next day; but the truth perhaps was that he disliked the offer of regular employment, and loitered about until he could pretend that it was no longer in his choice. It is certain that this as well as every other kind intention of his patrons in Scotland, were defeated by his perverse conduct, and that he remained at Edinburgh until contempt and poverty were followed by the dread of a jail.

While any prospect, however, remained of a more advantageous lot, he could still depend on the friends who first noticed him, and he had no sooner communicated his design of going to England, than the duchess of Gordon gave him a recommendatory letter to Mr. Pope, and obtained another for him to sir Peter King, then lord chancellor. Lord Stormont also recommended him to his brother, the solicitor general, afterwards the celebrated lord Mansfield. On his arrival in London, in 1737, he waited on Pope, but, as he happened to be from home, he never repeated the visit. By the lord chancellor he is said to have been received with kindness, and to have occasionally been admitted to his lordship’s table; so sordid were his habits, however, and such his aversion to polite company, that this latter part of his historv, which he used to relate himself, has been doubted by those who lived near enough to the time to have known the fact. But whatever advantage he derived from the recommendations he brought from Scotland, it does not appear that it made any alteration in his habits. In London he was soon reduced to indigence, from which he attempted no means of extricating himself, but by writing complimentary poems, or mendicant letters, except that he frequently applied for assistance to some of the more eminent dissenters, from whom he received many benefactions, in consequence of the respect which they paid to the memory of his father. But such supplies were soon dissipated in the lowest gratifications, and his friends were at length tired of exerting their bounty that was so useless to the object of it. The author of his life in Gibber’s work informs us, that often, when he had received half a guinea, in consequence of a supplicating letter, he would go into a tavern, order a supper to be prepared, drink of the richest wines, and spend all the money that had been just given him in charity, without having any one to participate and regale with him, and while his wife and child were starving at home.

About the year 1738 he published a second volume of poems, but with what success is not known and, as he did not put his name to this volume, his biographer has not been able to find any mention of it. In the year J 740 he was reduced to the lowest state of poverty, having no clothes left in which he could appear abroad; and what bare subsistence he procured was by writing occasional poems for the magazines. Of the disposition of his apparel, Mr. Nichols received from Dr. Johnson, who knew him well, the following account. He used to pawn what he had of this sort, and it was no sooner redeemed by his friends, than, pawned again. On one occasion Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money for this purpose, and in two days the clothes were pawned again. In this state he remained in bed, with no other covering than a blanket, with two holes, through which he passed his arms when he sat up to write. The author of his life in Gibber, adds, that when his distresses were so pressing as to induce him to dispose of his shirt, he used to cut some white paper in slips, which he tied round his wrists, and in the same manner supplied his neck. In this plight he frequently appeared abroad, while his other apparel was scarcely sufficient for the purposes of decency. While in this wretched state, he published “The Deity,” a poem, which was highly praised by some of the best critics of the age. Among those whose praise was of considerable value, Hervey introduced the mention of it in his Meditations, “as a beautiful and instructive poem;” and Fielding, in his Tom Jones, after extracting a few lines, adds that they are taken from “a very noble poem called the Deity, published about nine years ago (1749), and long since buried in oblivion; a proof that good books no more than good men, do always survive the bad.” These encomiums tended to revive the poem, of which a third edition was published in 1752; and it has since been reprinted in various collections. An account of the Deity was sent to the Gentleman’s Magazine, and, although not inserted, was probably the means of Boyse’s introduction to Mr. Cave, from whom he obtained some supplies for writing and translating in that jourual between the years 1741 and 1743. Cave’s practice was to pay by the hundred lines, which after a while he wanted poor Boyse to make what is called the long hundred. His usual signature for his poems was Y. or Alcæus. When in a spunging-house in Grocer’salley, in the Poultry, he wrote the following letter to Cave, which was communicated by the late Mr. Astle to the editor of the Biographia Britannica.

“Sir, “"I wrote you yesterday an account of my unhappy case. I am every moment threatened to be turned out here, because I have not money to pay for my bed two nights past, which is usually paid before-hand, and I am loth to go into the Compter ‘till I can see if my affair can possibly be made up: I hope therefore you will have the humanity to send me half a guinea for support, ’till I finish your papers in my hands. The Ode to the British Nation I hope to have done to-day, and want a proof copy of that part of Stowe you design for the present magazine, that it may be improved as far as possible from your assistance. Your papers are but ill transcribed. I agree with you as to St. Augustine’s Cave. I humbly entreat your answer, having not tasted any thing since Tuesday evening I came here, and my coat will be taken off my back for the charge of the bed, so that I must go into prison naked, which is too shocking for me to think of.

The greater number of the poems which he wrote for the Gentleman’s Magazine during the years above mentioned, are reprinted in the late edition of the English Poets; but all of his fugitive pieces were not written for the magazine, some of them having been composed long before he had formed a connection with Cave, and, as there is reason to believe, sent in manuscript to such persons as were likely to make him a pecuniary return.

By a letter to Dr. Birch, dated Oct. 23, 1742, it appears that he had, among many similar projects, an intention of publishing a translation of Voltaire’s poetical works, and sent to the Doctor a specimen of three of his Ethic epistles. On the next day, he sent another letter supplicating assistance, and assuring Dr. Birch that his distress was not in any way the effect of his own misconduct! In a letter dated Nov. 5, after acknowledging Dr. Birch’s kindness to him, and urging him to make his case known to others, he gives the following account of himself:

"I am, Sir, the only son of Mr. Boyse of Dublin, a man whose character and writings are well known. My father died in 1728 in very involved circumstances, so that I had nothing left to trust to, but a liberal education. In 1730 I removed to Edinburgh, where I published a Collection of Poems with a translation of the Tablature of Cebes. After some years stay there, and many disappointments, I came in 1737 to London, where I have done several essays in the literary way [chiefly poetry) with but slender encouragement. Mr. Cave, for whose magazine I have done many things, and at whose desire I removed to this neighbourhood (St. John’s-court, Clerkenwell,) has not used me so kindly as the sense he expressed of my services gave me reason to expect. Learning, however it may be a consolation under affliction, is no security against the common calamities of life. I think myself capable of business in the literary way, but by my late necessities am unhappily reduced to an incapacity of going abroad to seek it. I have reason to believe, could I wait on lord Halifax (which a small matter would enable me to do) I should receive some gratuity for my dedication, so as to make me easy. This is all the hope I have left to save me from the ruin that seems to threaten me if I continue longer in the condition I am in: and as I should be willing most gratefully to repay any assistance I might receive out of my lord’s bounty, so I should ever retain a deep impression of the obligation. I humbly beg you will forgive this liberty, and believe me, with the greatest gratitude and esteem,

Mrs. Boyse was generally employed in conveying his letters of this description, and if she felt so much on delivering the above, her feelings were again tried on the 16th of the same month, when Boyse sent another importunate letter, which Dr. Birch probably found it necessary to disregard. When he had thus exhausted the patience of some, he made attempts on the humanity of others by yet meaner expedients. One of these was to employ his wife in circulating a report that he was just expiring; and many of his friends were surprized to meet the man in the streets to-day, to whom they had yesterday sent relief, as to a person on the verge of dissolution. Proposals for works written, or to be written, was a more common trick: besides the translation of Voltaire, we find him, in one of his letters, 'thanking sir Hans Sloane’s goodness in encouraging his proposals for a life of sir Francis Drake. But these expedients soon lost their effect: his friends became ashamed of his repeated frauds and general meanness of conduct, and could only mix with their contempt some hope that his brain was disordered.

In 1743, he published without his name, an ode on the battle of Dettingen, entitled “Albion’s Triumph,” a fragment of which is printed in the last edition of the Poets. In 1745 we find him at Reading, where he was employed by the late Mr. David Henry in compiling a work, published in 1747, in two volumes octavo, under the title of “An historical Review of the Transactions of Europe, from the commencement of the war with Spain in 1739 to the insurrection in Scotland in 1745; with the proceedings in parliament, and the most remarkable domestic occurrences during that period. To which is added, An impartial History of the late Rebellion, interspersed with characters and memoirs, and illustrated with notes.” To this he affixed his name, witli the addition of M. A. a degree which it is probable he assumed without authority. The work, however, considered as a compilation of recent and consequently very imperfectly-known events, is said to possess considerable merit. In a letter, published by Mr. Nichols, we have some information relative to it, and to the present state of his mind and situation. “My salary is wretchedly small (half a guinea a week) both for writing the history and correcting the press; but I bless God I enjoy a greater degree of health than I have known for many years, and a serene melancholy, which I prefer to the most poignant sensations of pleasure I ever knew. All I sigh for is a settlement, with some degree of independence, for my last stage of life, that I may have the comfort of my poor dear girl to be near me, and close my eyes. I should be glad to know if you have seen my history, from which you must not expect great things, as I have been over-persuaded to put my name to a composure, for which we ought to have had at least more time and better materials, and from which I have neither profit nor reputation to expect. I am now beginning * The History of the Rebellion,‘ a very difficult and invidious task. All the accounts I have yet seen are either defective, confused, or heavy. I think myself, from my long residence in Scotland, not unqualified for the attempt, but I apprehend it is premature; and, by waiting a year or two, better materials would offer. Some account, I think, will probably be published abroad, and give us light into many things we are now at a loss to account for. I am about a translation (at my leisure hours) of an invaluable French work, entitled * L’Histoire Universelle,' by the late M. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, and preceptor to the dauphin, eldest son of Lewis XIV. I propose only to give his dissertations on the ancient empires, viz. the Egyptian, Assyrian, Grecian, and Roman, which he has described with surprising conciseness, and with equal judgment and beauty. I design to inscribe it to the right honourable Mr. Lyttelton, one of the lords of the treasury, one of the most amiable men I have ever known, and to whose uncommon goodness, if you knew my obligations, you would esteem him as much as he deserves.”

During his residence at Reading, his wife died, and notwithstanding the good sense expressed in the above letter, he put on airs of concern on this occasion, which inclines us to think that intemperance had in some degree injured his reason. Being unable to purchase mourning, he tied a piece of black ribbon round the neck of a lapdog which he carried about in his arms; and when in liquor, he always indulged a dream of his wife’s being still alive, and would talk very spitefully of those by whom he suspected she was entertained. This he never mentioned, however, but in his cups, which was as often as he had money to spend. The manner, it is added, by his biographer, of his becoming intoxicated, was very particular. As he had no spirit to keep good company, he retired to some obscure alehouse, and regaled himself with hot twopenny, which, though he drank in very great quantities, yet he had never more than a pennyworth at a time. Such a practice rendered him so completely sottish, that his abilities, as an author, were sensibly impaired.

After his return from Reading, his behaviour, it is said, became so decent, that hopes were entertained of his reformation. He now obtained some employment from the booksellers in translating, of which, from the French language at least, he was very capable; but his former irregularities had gradually undermined his constitution, and enfeebled his powers both of body and mind. He died, after a lingering illness, in obscure lodgings near Shoelane, in the month of May 1749. The manner of his death is variously related. Mr. Giles, a collector of poems, says he was informed by Mr. Sandby, the bookseller, that Boyse was found dead in his bed, with a pen in his hand, and in the act of writing: and Dr. Johnson informed Mr. Nichols that he was run over by a coach, when in a fit of intoxication; or that he was brought home in such a condition as to make this probable, but too far gone to be able to give any account of the accident.

Another of Mr. Nichols’s correspondents produces a letter from Mr. Stewart, the son of a bookseller at Edinburgh, who had long been intimately acquainted with Mr. Bpyse, in which the particulars of his death are related in a different manner. “Poor Mr, Boyse was one evening last winter attacked in Westminster by two or three soldiers, who not only robbed him, but used him so barbarously, that he never recovered the bruises he received, which might very probably induce the consumption of which he died. About nine months before his death he married a cutler’s widow, a native of Dublin, with whom he had no money; but she proved a very careful nurse to him during his lingering indisposition. She told me, that Mr. Boyse never imagined he was dying, as he always was talking of his recovery; but, perhaps, his design in this might be to comfort her, for one incident makes me think otherwise. About four or five weeks before he breathed his last, his wife went out in the morning, and was surprised to find a great deal of burnt papers upon the hearth, which he told her were old bills and accompts; but I suppose were his manuscripts, which he had resolved to destroy, for nothing of that kind could be found after his death. Though from this circumstance it may be inferred that he was apprehensive of death, yet, I must own, that he never intimated it to me, nor did he seem in the least desirous of any spiritual advice. For some months before his end, he had left off drinking all fermented liquors, except now and then a glass of wine to support his spirits, and that he took very moderately. After his death I endeavoured all I could to get him decently buried, by soliciting those dissenters who were the friends of him and his father, but to no purpose; for only Dr. Grosvenor, in Hoxton-square, a dissenting teacher, offered to join towards it. He had quite tired out those friends in his life-time; and the general answer that I received was, ‘That such a contribution was of no service to him, for it was a matter of no importance how or where he was buried.’ As I found nothing could be done, our last resource was an application to the parish; nor was it without some difficulty, occasioned by the malice of his landlady, that we at last got him interred on the Saturday after he died. Three more of Mr. Johnson’s amanuenses, and myself, attended the corpse to the grave. Such was the miserable end of poor Sam, who was obliged to be buried in the same charitable manner with his first wife; a burial, of which he had often mentioned his abhorrence.”

Although there is too much reason to believe that no part of Boyse’s character has been misrepresented in the preceding narrative, he must not be deprived of the evidence which Mr. Nichols’s correspondent has advanced in his favour. He assures us that he knew him from the year 1732 to the time of his death; and that he never saw any thing in his wife’s conduct that deserved censure; that he was a man of learning; and when in company with those by whom he was not awed, an entertaining companion; but so irregular and inconsistent in his conduct, that it appeared as if he had been actuated by two different souls on different occasions. These last accounts are in some degree confirmed by the writer of his life in Gibber’s collection, who says that while Boyse was in his last illness he had no notion of his approaching end, nor “did he expect it until it was almost past the thinking of.” His mind, indeed, was often religiously disposed; he frequently thought upon that subject; and probably suffered a great deal from the remorse of his conscience. The early impressions of his good education were never entirely obliterated; and his whole life was a continual struggle between his will and reason, as he was always violating his duty to the one, while he fell under the subjection of the other. It was, adds the same author, in consequence of this war in his mind, that he wrote a beautiful poem called “Recantation.”

Such was the life of a man whose writings, as far as we have been able to discover them, are uniformly in favour of virtue, remarkable for justness of sentiment on every subject in which the moral character is concerned, and not unfrequently for the loftiness and dignity which mark the effusions of a pure and independent mind. To reconcile such a train of thought with his life, with actions utterly devoid of shame or delicacy, or to apologize for the latter with a view to remove the inconsistency between the man and his writings, if not impossible, must at least be left to those who have no scruple to tell us that genius is an apology for all moral defects, and that none but the plodding prudent sons of dulness would reveal or censure the vices of a favourite poet. Such is already the influence of this perversion of the powers of reasoning, that if it is much longer indulged, no men will be thought worthy of compassion or apology, but those who err against knowledge and principle, who act wrong and know better. The life of Boyse, however, as it has been handed down to us, without any affected palliation, will not be wholly useless if it in any degree contribute to convince the dissipated and thoughtless of what dissipation and thoughtlessness must inevitably produce. It is much to be regretted, that they who mourn over the misfortunes of genius have been too frequently induced by the artifice of partial biographers, to suppose that misery is the inseparable lot of men of distinguished talents, and that the world has no rewards for those by whom it has been instructed or delighted, except poverty and neglect. Such is the propensity of some to murmur without reason, and of others to sympathize without discrimination, that this unfair opinion of mankind might be received as unanswerable, if we had no means of looking more closely into the lives of those who are said to have been denied that extraordinary indulgence to which they laid claim. Where the truth has been honestly divulged, however, we shall find that of the complaints which lenity or affectation have encouraged and exaggerated in narrative, some will appear to have very little foundation, and others to be trifling and capricious. Men of genius have no right to expect more favourable consequences from imprudence and vice than what are common to the meanest of mankind. Whatever estimate they may have formed of their superiority, if they pass the limits allotted to character, happiness, or health, they must not hope that the accustomed rules of society are to be broken, or the common process of nature is to be suspended, in order that they may be idle without poverty, or intemperate without sickness. Yet the lives of men celebrated for literary and especially for poetical talents, afford many melancholy examples of these delusions", which, if perpetuated by mistaken kindness, cannot add any thing to genius but a fictitious privilege, which it is impossible to vindicate with seriousness, or exert with impunity.

If the life of Boyse be considered with a reference to these remarks, it will be found that he was scarcely ever in a situation of distress, of which he could justly complain. He exhausted the patience of one set of friends after another, with such unfeeling contempt and ingratitude, that we are not to wonder at his living the precarious life of an outcast, of a man who belongs to no society, and whom no society is bound to maintain. Among his patrons were many persons of high rank and opulence, whom he rendered ashamed of their patronage, and perhaps prevented from the exercise of general kindness, lest it might be disgraced by the encouragement of those who dissipate every favour in low and wanton excesses.

What can be urged in his favour from internal evidence ought not to be concealed. We do not find in his works much of the cant of complaint: and, although he submitted to every mean art of supplication, he does not seem to have resented a denial as an insult, nor to have taken much pains to make the worse appear the better cause. In his private letters, indeed, he sometimes endeavoured by false professions and imaginary misfortunes, to impose upon others, but he did not impose upon himself. He had not perverted his own mind by any of the impious sophistries which by frequent repetition become mistaken for right reason. He was not, therefore, without his hours of remorse; and towards the latter part of his life, when his heart was softened by a sense of inward decay, he resolved in earnest to retrieve his character.

As a poet, his reputation has been chiefly fixed on the production entitled “Deity,” which, although irregular and monotonous, contains many striking proofs of poetical genius. The effort indicates no small elevation of mind, even while we must allow that success is beyond all human power. His other pieces may be regarded as curiosities, as the productions of a man who never enjoyed the undisturbed exercise of his powers, who wrote in circumstances of peculiar distress, heightened by the consciousness that he could obtain only temporary relief, that he had forfeited the respect due to genius, and could expect to be rewarded only by those to whom he was least known. We are told that he wrote all his poems with ease and even rapidity. That many of his lines are incorrect will not, therefore, excite surprize, especially when we consider that he wrote for immediate relief, and not for fame, and that when one piece had produced him a benefaction, he generally dismissed it from his mind, and began another, about which he had no other care than that it might answer the same purpose.

, a French antiquary, was born at Lyons, Jan. 28, 1680, of parents who gave him an excellent education. He attached himself at first to jurisprudence, but antiquities and medals soon occupied him entirely. The chancellor de Pontchartrain, the abbe Bignon, Vaillant, Haruouin, admired him for the amiableness of his manners, and the depth of his learning. In 1705 he published some ingenious dissertations upon medals and other monuments, which procured him to be admitted into the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres, under the title of pupil; and the year following he became perpetual secretary. The French academy too admitted him of their society in 1715, as successor to M. Fenelon. He was made keeper of the royal cabinet of medals in 1719; and the year after he set out for Holland, with the view of augmenting that grand collection. On returning to Paris he devoted the whole of his time to the academy of belles-lettres, to which he contributed a great many memoirs, and the cabinet of medals. He had the inspection of the library in 1745, during the illness of M. Maboul, before which time he resigned the place of secretary to the academy. He died the 10th of September, 1753, aged seventy-four. He was as estimable for the sweetness of his temper as for the depth of his knowledge. Among his works, are: 1. The edition of the first 15 vols. of the “Memoires de l'academie des inscriptions et belleslettres.” The historical panegyrics which embellish these memoirs were printed separately in 2 vols. 12mo. They are ingenious and agreeable; they may contain fewer of those delicate strokes with which the éloges of Fontenelle abound, but perhaps they exceed them in elegance and taste! They are, however, unequal. 2. The second edition of the “Medallic history of Louis XIV.” brought down to his death, 1723, folio. He gives the drawings and impresses of many of them. 3. “The history of the emperor Tetricus illustrated by medals.” 4. Several dissertations on the ancient medals, dispersed for the most part throughout the “Memoires de l'academie des belles-lettres.” 5. He published the “Catalogue of his library,” 1745, fol. which was well chosen, and full of rare and curious books. This catalogue is very much in request among the bibliographers, and sells at a high price. Another was published after his death, Paris, 1753, 8vo. There is also attributed to him a work called the “Yellow Book,” “Livre jaune, contenant quelques conversations sur les logomachies, disputes de mots, abus de termes,” &c. Bale, 1748, 8vo, of which only thirty copies were printed, on what is called vegetable paper.

, an Italian poet of some celebrity, known by the name of Bracciolini Dell’ Api, a surname given him by the pope, was born at Pistoia, in Tuscany, 1566, and was fellow-student with Maffei Barberini, whose love of poetry and polite literature resembled his own, and increased their friendship. When Barberini was afterwards appointed nuncio in France, under the pontificate of Clement VIII. he engaged Bracciolini as his secretary, who accepted the office in hopes that his patron might become a cardinal, and serve his interest more essentially, for Bracciolini was not free from the unpoetical failing of avarice; but this event not taking place so soon as he expected, he retired to Pistoia, where he composed a part of his works. Barberini, however, being not only made cardinal, but also pope in 1622, under the title of Urban VIII. Bracciolini waited upon him with a poem of congratulation, amounting to twenty-three books, which the pope liked so well, that he ordered him to adopt the surname Dell' Api, and to add to his arms three bees, which are the arms of the Barberini family. He gave him at the same time more substantial rewards, and placed him as secretary under his brother, cardinal Antonio Barberini. After the death of Urban VIII. in 1644, Bracciolini again retired to Pistoia, where he died the following year. He wrote a great number of poems of every species, epics, tragedies, comedies, pastorals, lyrics, satires, and burlesque verses. Of these, the only ones worthy of notice, seem to be: 1. “La Croce Racquistata,” a heroic poem in fifteen cantos, Paris, 1605, 12mo; and again, enlarged and divided into thirty-five cantos, Venice, 1611, 4to. This, his countrymen once did not hesitate to rank immediately after the works of Ariosto and Tasso, but modern critics have placed a greater distance between them. 2. “Lo Scherno degli Dei,” a mock-heroic, in ridicule of the heathen mythology, Florence, 1618, 4to, a better edition in 1625, 4to. This poem has given him some title to the invention of the mock-heroic, because in the preface it is asserted that the “Lo Scherno” although printed some years after Tassoni’s “La Secchia Rapita,” was written many years sooner. It is, however, a poem of considerable merit in that style.

, an Italian historian and antiquary, was a native of Sarzano, in Tuscany, in the fifteenth century. He was secretary to the republic of Genoa, but refused the honour of that appointment when offered by pope Nicholas V. who was his countryman. He died in 1460. He wrote in elegant Latin five books, “De Bello inter Hispanos et Genuenses,” from 1412 to 1444, which were published at Paris in 1520, 4to, and afterwards at Haguenau, 1530, and Rome, 1537, and 1573, and were afterwards inserted in Graevius’s Thesaurus. He wrote also a biography of eminent men of Genoa, “De Claris Genuensibus,” and “Orae Ligusticae descriptio,” Rome, 1573, 4to, inserted likewise in Graevius’ and in Schottus 1 collections. Mabillon, in his “Jter Italicum,” has printed a small work by Bracelli, “De praecipuis Genuensis urbis familiis.” His letters, “Epistoloe,” were printed at Pc.ris, 1520. All these were collected by Augustin Justinian, and published at Paris, in 1 vol. 4to, in the last-mentioned year, with a preface containing some brief notices of the author.

, a celebrated English lawyer in the thirteenth century, was, according to Mr. Prince, born in Devonshire; and studied at Oxford, where he took the degree of LL. D. Applying himself afterwards to the study of the laws of England, he rose to great eminence at the bar; and, in 1244, was by king Henry III. made one of the judges itinerant. At present he is chiefly known by his learned work, “Delegibus et consuetudinibus Angliae,” the first printed edition of it was in 1569, folio, Jn 1640 it was printed in 4to, and great pains was taken to collate various Mss. One of the most authentic manuscripts of this work was burnt in the fire which consumed a part of the Cotton library, Oct. 23, 1731. It is a finished and systematic performance, giving a complete view of the law in all its titles, as it stood at the time it was written. It is divided into five books, and these into tracts and chapters. Consistently with the extensiveness and regularity of the plan, the several parts of it are filled with a curious and accurate detail of legal learning, so that the reader ever fails of deriving instruction or amusement from the study of this scientific treatise on our ancient laws, and customs. It is written in a style much beyond the generality of the writers of that age; being though not always polished, yet sufficiently clear, expressive, and nervous. The excellence of Bracton’s style must be attributed to his acquaintance with the writings of the Roman lawyers and canonists, from whom likewise he adopted greater helps than the language in which he wrote. Many of those pithy sentences which have been handed down from him as rules and maxims of our law, are to be found in the volumes of the imperial and pontifical jurisprudence. The familiarity with which Bracton recurs to the Roman code has struck many readers more forcibly than any other part of his character; and some have thence pronounced a hasty judgment upon his fidelity as a writer upon the English law. It seems, indeed, to be a fashion to discredit Bracton, on a supposition of his having mingled too much of the civilian and canonist with the common lawyer; any notion that has got into vogue on such a subject is likely to have many to retail it, and few to examine its justness. Among others who have most decidedly declared against Bracton, we find M. Houard, the Norman advocate: this gentleman was at the pains to give an edition of Glanville, Jb'leta, and Britton but has omitted Bracton, because his writings had corrupted the law of England. But his conceptions about the purity of the law of England have seduced him into a very singular theory. He lays it down that Littleton’s tenures exhibit the system introduced by William the Conqueror in all its genuine purity; that this system was corrupted by a mixture from other polities in the writings of Britton, Fleta, and Glanville, but more particularly in those of Bracton. Full of this preposterous idea, he published an edition of Littleton, with a commentary, and, to decide the point without more debate, has entitled it “Anciennes Loix des Francois.” After this, the admirers of Bracton will not apprehend much from this determined enemy to his reputation as an English lawyer.

The value set on this work soon after its publication is evinced by the treatises of Britton, and Fleta, which are nothing more than appendages to Bracton. The latter was intended as an epitome of that author; and the merit of the former is confined to the single office of supplying some few articles that had been touched lightly by him, with the addition of the statutes made since he wrote. In after-times he continued the great treasure of our ancient jurisprudence. Thus was Bracton deservedly looked up to as the first source of legal knowledge, even so low down as the days of lord Coke, who seems to have made this author his guide in all his inquiries into the foundation of our law.

, a facetious preacher among the dissenters, whose oddities are still traditionary, was born in 1677, at Wakefield, in Yorkshire. His father belonged to a dissenting meeting at Alverthorp, near that town, of which Mr. Peter Naylor, an ejected minister, was pastor. Under his care, and at the free-school at Leeds, he received the first rudiments of learning. He was afterwards sent to an academy kept by Mr. Jollie, at Attercliffe. He began to preach at the early age of eighteen, about the year 1696, when his juvenile figure procured him some rebuffs, which he soon disregarded, and convinced his hearers that he was a boy only in appearance. His conquest over these remarks at this time seems to have formed an aera in his history, as he used to “bless God that from that hour he had never known the fear of man.” He soon after left the academy, and was taken into the family of Mr. Whitaker, who, according to his biographer, checked his ardour, at least so far that he preached but seldom. In 1697 he went to Beverley, where he continued two years, and then became assistant to Dr. Gilpin, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and remained there three years, with almost unbounded popularity. He then removed to Stepney, near London, and in 1707 was chosen pastor of a meeting in Fetter-lane, vacant by the death of Mr. Benoni Rowe. After preaching here to a crowded congregation for twenty years, a quarrel took place; about what, his biographer does not inform us; but Mr. Bradbury was immediately invited to succeed the noted Daniel Burgess, in the meeting at New-court, Carey-street, and in less than a fortnight exchanged his former for his latter pulpit, carrying with him such of his Fetter-lane hearers as adhered to him in the late contest. Here he succeeded Daniel Burgess as a wit as well as a divine, and his biographer gravely informs us, that “this pulpit a se*cond time presented a phenomenon as rare as it is beneficial, wit consecrated to the service of serious and eternal truth.” Of this wit, however, Mr. N. Neal, in a letter to Dr. Doddridge, (1749,) gives a different opinion. “I have seen Mr. Bradbury’s sermons, just published, the nonsense and buffoonery of which would make one laugh, if his impious insults over the pious dead did not make one tremble.” After entertaining the public by this species of comic preaching for thirty-two years, he died at Warwick-court, Gray’s-inn, Sept. 9, 1759, aged eighty-two. Of his character it is said, that “had he possessed as much judgment as quickness of wit, and as much temper as zeal, he would have been a man of much greater consideration. His usefulness was much abated after the Sailers’ -hall synod, for though he was warm on the orthodox side, his ill-conducted zeal did much mischief.” Among his other differences of opinion from his brethren, he made it his business in the pulpit to lampoon and satirize the hymns and psalms of Dr. Watts. It is said, indeed, that whentever he gave out one of the former, it was prefaced with “Let us sing one of Watts’s whims.” Among the numerous anecdotes of Tom Bradbury, as he was familiarly called, we shall give only the following, which contains some characteristic features. “Tom generally gave audience at supper-time, and the ceremony was thus conducted. On a little table lay two pocket bibles, one of which was taken up by Bradbury, and the other by his daughter, and each having read a portion, one of the visiting ministers was desired to pray: they then adjourned to supper; after which, Tom entertained the company with ‘ The roast beef of old England,’ which, it is said, he sung better than any man in England.” His printed works amply justify the character usually given of him, that with much zeal he was totally destitute of judgment, and regardless of the dignity of his sacred calling, dwelling perpetually on political topics, and enforcing them in a strain of ridicule totally unfit for the place in which he stood. These works consist of “Fifty-four Sermons,” 1762, in 3 volumes octavo, all of which, except seven, had been printed separately. They are principally of the political kind, and it was justly remarked of them at the time of publication, that " from the great number of satred texts applied to the occasion, one would imagine the bible was written only to confirm, by divine authority, the benefits accruing to this nation from the accession of king William III.

, one of the most eminent of the protestant divines who suffered martyrdom in the reign of queen Mary, was born in the former part of Henry Vjii.'s reign in Manchester, where he was educated in grammar, Latin, and accounts, in which last he was reckoned so expert that he was employed as clerk or secretary to sir John Harrington, treasurer and paymaster of the English forces in France; and in this employment he lived many years in great credit. His exchanging so profitable a situation for the clerical profession is rather obscurely accounted for by his biographers, some attributing it to his having imbibed the principles of the reformers, and being encouraged to join their number; others to certain abuses in sir John Harrington’s office, in which he either participated, or at which he connived, and the iniquity of which first struck him on hearing a sermon of bishop Latimer upon the subject of restitution as constituting the only basis of repentance. There is much reason, however, to doubt whether this sermon was not subsequent to the restitution he made of about 500l. which he apprehended the king had lost by some error in his and sir John Harrington’s accounts. The author of his life in the Biog. Brit, dwells with tiresome prolixity on this affair, as a new discorery of greater importance than, upon a perusal of the whole, we have beeri able to attach to it. The fact seems to have been, that Bradford was a man of great tenderness of conscience, and where he imagined he had done an injury, was restless until he had made restitution; and lamented his crime on this occasion with more bitterness than will be thought necessary by many persons who have been, intrusted with, much larger public accounts.

It appears that after he left the army, he studied for some time in the Inner Temple, but is said to have heard more sermons than law-lectures, and at length determined to study divinity. With this view he went to Cambridge about the month of August 1548, and took his degree of master of arts at Katherine-hall, and not Queen’s college, as some authors have reported. Dr. Ridley, bishop of Rochester, and afterwards of London, being then master of Pembroke-hall, invited him and his pious companion Thomas Horton, to become fellows of that hall, to which he was chosen. When urged by Bucer to take orders, he pleaded his inability, notwithstanding the high reputation for learning which he had established in college; but Bucer reconciled him by saying, “Though thou couldst not feed the flock with fine cakes and white bread, yet should thou satisfy them with barley-bread.” In 1550, when Ridley was translated to the see of London, he sent for him to take upon him deacon’s orders, after which he became one of the most celebrated and popular preachers of his time, and was made one of the king’s chaplains. The bishop afterwards gave him a prebend in St. Paul’s, and lodged him in his house.

For some time after the death of Edward VI. Bradford continued his public services; but a man of such zeal against popery could not be long safe, and the method that was taken to bring him to the stake is one of the most tyrannical measures of Mary’s reign. It is thus related by his biographers: On the 13th of August, in the first year of queen’s Mary’s reign, Gilbert Bourne, then preacher at Paul’s Cross, but not then bishop of Bath as Fox mistakes, he not being elected to that see before the beginning of the next year, made a seditious sermon at the said cross; wherein he so much traduced the late king, and harangued so intolerably in favour of popery, that the auditory were ready to pull him out of the pulpit. Neither could the reverence of the place, nor the presence of the bishop of London, nor the authority of the lord mayor, restrain their rage. Bourne, seeing himself in this peril, and his life particularly aimed at by a drawn dagger that was hurled at him in the pulpit, which narrowly missed him, turned about, and perceiving Bradford behind him, he earnestly begged him to come forwards and pacify the people. Bradford was no sooner in his room, and recommended peace and concord to them, than with a joyful shout at the sight of him, they cried out, ‘ Bradford, Bradford, God save thy life, Bradford!’ and then, with profound attention to his discourse, heard him enlarge upon peaceful and Christian obedience; which when he had finished, the tumultuous people, for the most part, dispersed; but, among the rest who persisted, there was a certain gentleman, with his two servants, who, coming up the pulpitstairs, rushed against the door, demanding entrance upon Bourne; Bradford resisted him, till he had secretly given Bourne warning, by his servant, to escape; who, flying to the mayor, once again escaped death. Yet conceiving the danger not fully over, Bourne beseeched Bradford not to leave him till he was got to some place of security; in which Bradford again obliged him, and went at his back, shadowing him from the people with his gown, while the mayor and sheriffs, on each side, led him into the nearest house, which was Paul’s school; and so was he a third time delivered from the fury of the populace. It is added that one of the mob, most inveterate against Bourne, exclaimed, ‘ Ah! Bradford, Bradford, dost thou save his life who will not spare thine? Go, I give thee his life; but were it not for thy sake, I would thrust him through with my sword.’ The same Sunday, in the afternoon, Bradford preached at Bow church in Cheapside, and sharply rebuked the people for their outrageous behaviour. Three days after this humane interposition, Aug. 16, he was summoned by the council and bishops to the Tower of London, where the queen then was, and charged with sedition, and preaching heresy; and notwithstanding the defence he made, was committed to prison in the Tower, where he lay for a year and a half. This forbearance is the more remarkable, because, when in the Tower, or other prisons, by his discourses, exhortations, and especially by his letters, he did nearly, if not quite as much service to the protestant cause, as when he was at large. In his letters, he evinced a spirit of inflexible constancy in his principles, a primitive and apostolic zeal for the propagation of truth, and a sincere abhorrence of the delusions of the church of Rome; and strengthened the minds of the adherents of the reformation to such a degree that his enemies at last determined to cut him off. In 1554, he was removed to the court of king’s bench, Southvvark, and on Jan. 22, examined before Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and chancellor, Bonner bishop of London, and others. For this and his other examinations we refer to Fox. After it was over, he was sent back to the same prison under stricter restraint than before, especially as to the exercise of his pen: but the sweetness of his comportment towards his keepers so won upon them, that it defeated the severity of his enemies’ commands in that particular; and his arguments, thus discharged out of prison, did their cause more hurt, than all the terror of their tyrannical treatment did it good. A week after, on the 29th, he was brought before them in the church of St. Mary Overies to his second examination, and next day to a third, in all which he acknowledged and adhered to his principles with undaunted constancy, and answered every thing offered in the shape of argument with authority from the scriptures, and every reproach with meekness. He was now condemned to die, but he lay after this in the Poultry counter for five months, visited constantly by some of the popish bishops, their chaplains or priests, so desirous were they to gain over a champion of his consequence. We are told that both while he lay in the king’s bench, and in the counter, he preached twice a-day, unless sickness hindered him. The Sacrament was often‘ ministered; and, through his keeper’s indulgence, there was such a resort of pious people to him, that his chamber was usually almost filled with them. He made but one short meal a-day, and allowed himself but four hours rest at night. His gentle nature was ever relenting at the thoughts of his infirmities, and fears of being betrayed into inconstancy; and his behaviour was so affecting to all about him, that it won even many papists to wish for the preservation of his life. His very mien and aspect begat veneration; being tall and spare, or somewhat macerated in his body; of a faint sanguine complexion, with an auburn beard; and his eyes, through the intenseness of his pious contemplations, were often so solemnly settled, that the tears would silently gather in them, till he could not restrain them from overflowing their banks, and creating a sympathy in the eyes of his beholders. The portions of his time he did not spend in prayer or preaching, he allotted to the visitation of his fellow-prisoners; exhorting the sick to patience, and distributing his money to the poor, and to some who had been the most violent opposers of his doctrines; nor did he leave the felons themselves without the best relief they were capable of receiving, under the distresses they had brought upon themselves, which excited them to the most hearty and sincere repentance. On the last day of June 1555, he was carried to Newgate, attended by a vast multitude of people, who, because they had heard he was to suffer by break of day, that the fewer spectators might be witnesses of his death, either stayed in Smithfield all night, or returned in greater numbers thither by four o’clock the next morning, the 1st of July; but Bradford was not brought thither till nine o'clock, and then came under a stronger guard of halberdeers than was ever known on the like occasion. As he came out of Newgate, he gave his velvet cap and his handkerchief to an old friend, with whom he had a little private talk. Such was the inveteracy of his enemies, that his brother-in-law, Roger Beswick, for only taking leave of him, had his head broke, till the blood ran down his shoulders, by the sheriff Woodrofe. When he came to Smithfield, and in his company a Yorkshire youth, who was an apprentice in London, named John Lyefe, and to be burnt at the same stake with him, for maintaining the like faith in the sacrament, and denying that priests had any authority to exact auricular confession, Bradford went boldly up to the stake, laid him down flat on his face on one side of it, and the said young man, John Lyefe, went and laid himself on the other; where they had not prayed-to themselves above the space of a minute, before the sheriff bid Bradford arise, and make an end; for the press of the people was very great. When they were on their feet, Bradford took up a faggot and kissed it, and did the like to the stake. When he pulled off his clothes, he desired they might be given to his servant; which was granted. Then, at the stake, holding up his hands and his face to Heaven, he said aloud, “O England, England, repent thee of thy sins! Beware of idolatry, beware of antichrists, lest they deceive you.” Here the sheriff ordered his hands to be tied; and one of the fire-rakers told him, if he had no better learning than that, he had best hold his peace. Then Bradford forgiving, and asking forgiveness of, all the world, turned his head about, comforted the stripling at the same stake behind him, and embracing the flaming reeds that were near him, was heard among his last words to say, “Strait is the way, and narrow is the gate,” &c.

Bradford’s writings were very numerous: besides his letters, &c. which are in Fox and other Martyrologies, particularly seventy-two letters in Coverdale’s collection. 1. “Primitiae,” translations, 1548. 2. “A godly treatise of Prayer,” translated from Melancthon, printed by Wight, no date. 3. “Sermon of Repentance,” 1553,1558, 16ma. 4. “Meditations,” 1553, 1558, and 1561. 5. Complaint of Verity,“1559, 8vo. 6.” Three examinations before the commissioners, and his private talk with the priests, with the original of his life,“1561, 8vo. 7. The hurt of bearing masse,” written in the Tower, no date, reprinted 1580 and 15S8. 8. “Two notable sermons,” 1574, 1581, and 1631, 8vo. 9. “A short and pithie defence of the doctrine of the holy Election and Predestination of God,” 1562. 10. “Fruitful treatise against the Feare of Death,” no date, printed by Singleton, and by Wolf in 1583. 11. "Godly Meditations upon the Ten Commandments, 1562, and 1567, 8vo. There are some other works ascribed to him on doubtful authority.

, D. D. bishop of Rochester, was a native of London, the son of William Bradford, of whom it is recorded, that being a parish-officer in the time of the plague, he looked upon it as his duty to take care in person both of the dead and living, although he removed his family to Islington. The subject of this article was born Dec. 20, 1652, in St. Anne’s Blackfriars, and was educated at St. Paul’s school, and afterwards in the Charter-house. In 1669, he was admitted a student of Bene't college, Cambridge, and matriculated March 27, 1672, but left it without taking a degree, having at that time some scruples of conscience respecting the subscriptions, declarations, and oaths then required. He pursued his studies, however, in private, and after studying divinity, having overcome his scruples by a careful examination of the matters in controversy, he became desirous of orders in the church of England; but as he was then twenty-eight years old, and could not return to the university and go regularly on in the statutable course of taking his degrees, archbishop Sancroft procured him a royal mandate for M. A. in 1680, and he was admitted to the same at Oxford in 1697. As the state of affairs, however, was critical at the time he received his degree at Cambridge, he declined proceeding in his design, living as a private tutor to gentlemen’s families, until after the revolution, when he was ordained deacon and priest in 1690, and in the spring following was elected minister of St. Thomas’s church, Southwark, by the governors of that hospital.

He was soon aften chosen lecturer of St. Mary-le-Bow, and engaged by archbishop Tillotson to educate his grandsons, which occasioned him to reside at Carlisle-house in Lambeth. While here, the rector of St. Mary-le-Bow died, and the parishioners were so pleased with Mr. Bradford, as to solicit the archbishop to give him the living, with which his grace complied, but not without acquainting them with the informality of such applications. On this Mr. Bradford resigned St. Thomas’s, and the lectureship of Bow;‘ but soon after accepted that of Allhallows, in Bread-street. In 1698, he preached on the 30th of January before king William, who was so well pleased with the sermon, as to command it to be published; and also, in March following, appointed him one of his chaplains in ordinary, in which office he was retained by queen Anne. In 1705, when she visited Cambridge, he was made D. D. and in 1707, her majesty gave him a prebend of Westminster. He now was exemplary in a diligent and conscientious discharge of his parochial duties, and enjoyed the esteem of his superiors, the good opinion and friendship of his brethren the clergy, and the affection of his parishioners. In 1710, he refused the bishoprick of St. David’s, as the then ministry would not suffer him to hold his prebend in commendam, nor the rectory of Bow, either of which was necessary to enable him to keep up his rank as a bishop. In 1716, he was unanimously elected master of Bene’t college, and in 1718 was consecrated bishop of Carlisle, whence in 1723 he was translated to Rochester, which he held with the deanry of Westminster. About a year afterwards he resigned the mastership of the college. He died May 17, 1731, and was buried in Westminsterabbey. His character appears to have been excellent, according to every account. His Boylean lectures were published in 4to, 1699, under the title of “The Credibility of the Christian Religion from its intrinsic evidence, being eight sermons, &c. with a ninth as an appendix, in reply to an objection from the imperfect promulgation of the gospel,” 4to. He published also separately twenty-three sermons preached on public occasions, and assisted in the publication of Tillotson’s works. He left two daughters, one married to Dr. Reuben Clarke, archdeacon of Essex, and the other to Dr. John Denne, archdeacon of Rochester.

, D. D. Savilian professor of astronomy in Oxford, F. R. S. and member of the academies of sciences and belles-lettres of Paris, Berlin, Petersburgh, and Bologna, was born at Shireborn in Gloucestershire in 1692, and educated at Northleach in the same county. Thence he was admitted a commoner of Balliol-college in Oxford, March 15, 1710: where he took the degree of B. A. Oct. 14, 1714, and of M. A. Jan. 21, 1716. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1719, and instituted the same year to the vicarage of Bridstow in Herefordshire. He never had any other preferment in the church, except the small rectory or sinecure of Landewy Welfry, in the county of Pembroke, and diocese of St. David: and his institution to this bears date the Jst of March 1719. It is presumed that the bishop of Hereford, to whom he was chaplain, was his patron to the vicarage; and Mr. Molyneux, who was then secretary to the prince of Wales, procfcred him the sinecure.

It appears that thus early in life he had many friends; and it is probable that by some of them he might have risen to eminence in the church, had not his natural inclination led him to pursue other studies, in which he afterwards shone so conspicuously. He received his first rudiments of the mathematics from his uncle Dr. James Pound, who resided at his living of Wanstead in Essex, where our astronomer was some time curate: this gentleman was his mother’s brother, a man of singular capacity and genius, and eminent as a divine, a physician, and a mathematician. In the two former capacities he went to the East-Indies in the company’s service; and was one of those who had the good fortune to escape from the massacre of the factory, on the island of Pulo Condore, in Cochin China. An account of this shocking scene remains amongst Dr. Bradley’s papers, written by Dr. Pound, together with a journal kept by him on board the Rose sloop, until, after many difficulties* and distresses, they arrived at Batavia the 18th of April 1705. The public suffered much in this catastrophe, by the loss of Dr. Pound’s papers, and other valuable curiosities collected by him, which all perished in the conflagration; as he had no time to save any thing but his own life. With this relation, to whom he was dear even more than by the ties of blood, he spent all his vacations from other duties: it was whilst with him at Wanstead, that he first began the observations with the sector, which led to his future important discoveries.

On the death of John Keill, M. D. he was chosen Savilian professor of astronomy in Oxford, Oct. 31, 1721. On this promotion, so agreeable to his taste, he resigned the living of Bridstow, and also the sinecure of Landewy Welfry, and henceforward devoted his time and studies to his beloved science; nor was he sooner known, than distinguished by the friendship of lord Macclesfield, sir Isaac Newton, his colleague in the Savilian professorship, Dr. Halley, and other great mathematicians, astronomers, and patrons of science. In the course of his observations, which were innumerable, he discovered and settled the laws of the alterations of the fixed stars, from the progressive motion of light, combined with the earth’s annual motion about the sun, and the nutation of the earth’s axis, arising from the unequal attraction of the sun and moon on the different parts of the earth. The former of -these effects is called the aberration of the fixed stars, the theory of which he published in 1727; and the latter the nutation of the earth’s axis, the theory of which appeared in 1737: so that in the space of about 10 years, he communicated to the world two of the finest discoveries in modern astronomy; which will for ever make a memorable epoch in the history of that science. In 1730, he succeeded Mr. Whiteside, as lecture-reader of astronomy and experimental philosophy in Oxford: which was a considerable emolument to himself, and which he held till within a year or two of his death, when the ill state of his health made it necessary to resign it. At the decease of Dr. Halley, he was appointed astronomical observator at the royal observatory at Greenwich, February 3, 174-1-2. From letters found amongst his papers, it appears that Dr. Halley was very desirous that our astronomer should succeed him; and in one letter, when he found himself declining, he desires his leave to make interest for him: but he owed this new acquisition chiefly to the friendship of lord Macclesfield, the late president of the royal society. Upoa this promotion he was honoured with the degree of doctor of divinity, by diploma from Oxford.

In 1747, he published his Letter to the earl of Macclesfield, concerning an apparent motion observed in some of the fixed stars; on account of which he obtained the annual gold prize-medal from the royal society. It was in consequence of the royal society’s annual visit to the observatory at Greenwich, during which he represented to them the necessity of repairing the old instruments, &c. that in 1748 George II. by his sign manual, directed to the commissioners and principal officers of his navy, ordered the payment of 1000 to James Bradley, D. D. his astronomer, and keeper of the royal observatory, in order to repair the old instruments in the said observatory, and to provide new ones. This enabled him to furnish it with the noblest and most accurate apparatus in the known world, suited to the 'dignity of the nation and the royal donor: in the executive part of this useful work, those eminent artists, Mr. George Graham and Mr. Bird, deserve honourable mention, who contributed much towards the perfection of those instruments, which enabled Dr. Bradley to leave behind him the greatest number of the most accurate observations that were perhaps ever made by any one man. Nor was this the last instance by which his late majesty distinguished his royal astronomer; for, upon his refusing to accept the living of Greenwich from a conscientious scruple, “that the duty of a pastor was incompatible with his other studies and necessary engagements,” his majesty granted him an annuity or yearly pension of 250l. during pleasure in consideration (as the sign manual, dated Feb. 15, 1752, expresses it) of his great skill and knowledge in the several branches of astronomy, and other parts of the mathematics, which have proved so useful to the trade and navigation of this kingdom. This pension was continued to the demise of the late, and renewed by the present king. The same year he was chosen one of the council of the royal society.

About 1748, he became entitled to bishop Crew’s benefaction of 30l. per aim. to the lecture reader in experimental philosophy in Oxford. He was elected member of the royal society in 1752; of the academy of sciences at Paris, in 1748; of that at Petersburg, in 1754; of the academy of sciences at Bologna, in 1757; and also of the royal Prussian academy of sciences and belles lettres, but the time when does not appear amongst his papers.

By too close application to his observations and studies, as is probable, he was afflicted for near two years before his death, with a grievous oppression on his spirits, which quite put an end to his labours: his chief distress arose from an apprehension, that he should survive his rational faculties; but this so much dreaded evil never came upon him. In June 1762, he was taken with a suppression of urine, occasioned (as it afterwards appeared) by an inflammation in his kidnies, which proved fatal the 13th of July following. He died at Chalford in Gloucestershire, in the 70th year of his age, and lies interred at Minchinhampton in the same county, near to the remains of his wife and mother. In 1744, he had married a daughter of Samuel Peach, of Chalford, esq. by whom he left one daughter, who in 1769, gave her father’s portrait, by Hudson, to the picture gallery, Oxford.

Dr. Bradley was extremely amiable in his private character, as well as illustrious for his scientific knowledge. His temper was gentle and placid, and he was eminently characterised by his modesty. He appears to have taken, little pains to attract the notice of mankind, and it was his singular merit alone which procured him the general esteem and regard of the friends of learning and science. Among his acquaintance and friends were many of the first persons in this kingdom, both for rank and abilities; and it is said, that there was not an astronomer of any eminence in the world, with whom he had not a literary correspondence. He spoke well, and expressed his ideas with great precision and perspicuity; but in general was silent, and seldom spoke, except when he conceived it absolutely necessary. He was, however, very ready to communicate useful knowledge to others, and especially in that science which he more particularly professed, whenever he thought there was. a proper opportunity. He also encouraged those who attended his lectures to propose questions to him, by the exactness with which he answered them, and his obvious solicitude to accommodate himself to every capacity. He was censured by some, for having withheld his observations from the public use; but this charge appears not to have been well founded: and it has been alleged, on the contrary, that an improper use was made of the facility with which he made his communications; that his observations were very ungenerously transmitted abroad; and that, by such practices, foreigners have been enabled to gain reputation, and to adopt the fruits of his labour as their own. He was extremely temperate, even to abstinence; and he enjoyed a great share of health, and was active and robust, till towards the close of his life. Eminently remarkable for the equanimity of his temper, he was yet in a very great degree compassionate and liberal; and was extremely generous to such of his relations as needed his assistance. Though he was unquestionably one of the greatest astronomers of the age, - he has published very little which seems to have arisen from his natural diffidence, and from that solicitous accuracy, which made him always apprehensive that his works were imperfect. His papers which have been inserted in the Philosophical Transactions are, 1. Observations on the comet of 1703; vol. 33, p. 41. 2. The longitude of Lisbon and of the fort of New York from Wansted and London, determined by the eclipse of the first satellite of Jupiter; vol. 34, p. 85. 3. An account of a new discovered motion of the fixed stars; vol. 35, p. 637. 4. On the going of clocks with isochronal pendulums; vol. 38, p. 302. 5. Observations on the comet of 1736-7; vol. 40, p. 111. 6. On the apparent motion of the fixed stars; vol. 45, p. 1. 7. On the occultation of Venus by the moon, the 15th of April 1751; vol. 46, p. 201. 8. On the comet of 1757; vol. 50, p. 408. 9. Directions for using the common micrometer; vol. 62, p. 46. His observations made at the royal observatory during 20 years, comprized in 13 folio and two quarto volumes, unfortunately for the interests of science, were taken away at his death by his representatives, who, upon preparations being made by government for recovering them by process of law, (and an actual commencement of a suit for that purpose,) presented them to lord North, by whom they were transferred, in 1776, to the university of- Oxford, of which he was chancellor, on condition of their printing and publishing them. Accordingly the first volume was published in, 1798, by the late Dr. Hornsby, in a splendid form, entitled “Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, from the year 1750 to the year 1762,” fol. The remainder are in the possession of Dr. Hornsby’s very learned successor in the astronomical chair, Dr. Abraham Rpbertson.

, a popular and very voluminous writer on gardening and agriculture in the last century, was one of the first who treated these subjects in a philosophical manner, and certainly possessed considerable botanical knowledge, although his general conduct was little entitled to respect. He first made himself known to the public by two papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions: one on the motion of the sap in vegetables, the other on the quick growth of mouldiness in melons. He became a fellow of the royal society, and was chosen, Nov. 10, 1724, professor of botany at Cambridge, but in a manner which reflects little credit on him. His election was procured by a pretended verbal recommendation from Dr. Sherrard to Dr. Bentley, and pompous assurances that he would procure the university a public botanic garden by his own private purse and personal interest. The vanity of his promises was soon discovered, as well as his almost total ignorance of the learned languages; and as he neglected to read lectures, the university made no difficulty in permitting Dr. Martyn to do it. Mr. Bradley, however, read a course of lectures on the Materia Medica in 1729 at the Bull inn, which he published next year at London, 8vo, and of which the reader may see a humorous criticism in the Grub-street Journal, No. 11* In 1731, his conduct became so scandalous, that it was in agitation to dismiss him. from his professorship, but he died soon after, Nov. 5, 1732. He was the author of several publications, chiefly on gardening and agriculture, consisting of two folio volumes, four quarto, and nearly twenty in octavo, which are enumerated in Mr. Nichols’s Life of Bowyer. His “New Improvement of Planting and Gardening, both philosophical and practical,” 1717, 8 vo, went through repeated impressions, as did his “Gentleman’s and Gardener’s Kalendar.” His “Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature,” 1721, 4to, was a popular, instructive, and entertaining work, and continued in repute several years. The same may be said of his “General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening,” 1726, 2 vols. 8vo; and of his “Practical Discourses concerning the four elements, as they relate to the growth of plants,” 1727, 8vo. His “Dictiona-ium Botanicum,” 1728, 8vo, Dr. Pulteney thinks, was the first attempt of the kind in England. Exotic botany was indebted to him for an undertaking, which there is reason to regret he was not enabled to pursue and perfect. This work was entitled “Historia plantarum Suceuientarum,” 1716, 4to, published in decads from 1716 to 1727, but only five were completed. The industry and talents of Bradley were not mean; and though^ unadorned by learning, were sufficient to have secured him that reputable degree of respect from posterity, which it will ever justly withhold from him who fails to recommend such qualifications by integrity and propriety of conduct, but in these, unhappily, Bradley was deficient. Among his other publications appears a translation of Xenophon’s GEconomicks from the Greek. It was, however, only an old translation modernized, to pass oft' which the booksellers paid him a sum of money for his name, then a popular one. There are obvious coincidences between his character and that of the more recently celebrated botanical and miscellaneous writer, sir John Hill.

, an early English poet, was a native of Chester, where he was born about the middle of the fifteenth century. Discovering an early propensity to religion and literature, he was received, while a boy, into the monastery of St. Werbergh, in that city; and having there imbibed the rudiments of his education, he was sent afterwards to Gloucester college (now Worcester) in the suburbs of Oxford, where, for a time, he studied theology, with the novices of his order, and then returned to his convent at Chester: here in the latter part of his life, he applied himself chiefly to the study of history, and wrote several books. He died either in 1508, or in 1513. Before the year 1500, he wrote the “Life of St. Werburgh,” in English verse, declaring that he does not mean to rival Chaucer, Lydgate, Barklay, or Skelton, which two last were his contemporaries, and his versification is certainly inferior to Lydgate’s worst manner. This piece was first printed by Pinson in 1521, 4to. a volume of great rarity^ but amply analysed by Mr. Dibdin in his second volume of Typographical Antiquities, who thinks that he may stand foremost in the list of those of the period wherein he wrote. His descriptions are often happy as well as minute: and there is a tone of moral purity and rational piety in his thoughts, enriched by the legendary lore of romance, that renders many passages of his poem exceedingly interesting. It comprehends a variety of other subjects, as a description of the kingdom of the Mercians, the lives of St. Ethelred and St. Sexburgh, the foundation of the city of Chester, and a chronicle of our kings.

, president of what was called the “high court of justice” in which Charles I. was condemned to be beheaded, was oue of an antient family in the county of Lancaster, but of a branch seated, some say, at Bradshaw, or Bradshaigh, in Derbyshire, others at Marple, in Cheshire: where he was educated is not recorded; the first notice we have of him is that he studied law in Gray’s-inn, and after being admitted to the bar, had much chamber practice among the partizans of the parliament, to which he was zealously devoted. Lord Clarendon says he was not without parts, but insolent and ambitious. In 1644, he was appointed by the parliament to prosecute lord Macquire and Macmahon, the Irish rebels. In Oct. 1646, he was a joint commissioner of the great seal for six months, by a vote of the house of commons, and in Feb. following, both houses voted him chief justice of Chester. In June of the same year (1647) he was named by parliament one of the counsel to prosecute the loyal judge Jen kins; and was called to the rank of Serjeant Oct. 12, 1648. When the death of the king was determined upon, Bradshaw was one of die few lawyers who could be preraile4 upon to act, and was appointed President, an office which, had he declined, there is some reason to think it would hav$ been difficult to find a substitute. When called upon, Jan, 12, 1648, by the court to take his seat as President^ he affected to make an earnest apology and excuse. Lord Clarendon, says that he seemed much surprized and very resolute tp refuse it, and even required time to consider of it, but next day accepted the office, and soon demonstrated tba.t he was exactly fitted for it, by his contemptuous treatment of his unnappy sovereign, The court then bestowed on him the title of Lord President, without as well as within the court, during the commission and sitting of the court. A retinue of officers was appointed to attend him, going and returning from Westminster-hall; lodgings were provided for him in New Palace-yard; he was to be preceded by a sword and a mace, carried by two gentlemen, and in court he had a guard of two hundred soldiers; he had a chair of crimson velvet in the middle of the court; he wore his hat when his majesty appeared, and was highly offended that his sovereign should not be uncovered in his presence, which was, however, after the first day of the trial, duly enjoined. Besides these pompous honours, he was rewarded for his coarse and brutal behaviour on his majesty’s trial, with the deanery house in Westminster, as his residence; the sum of 3000l. was given him to procure an equipage suitable to his new rank: he received also the seat of the duke of St. Alban’s called Summer-hill, and lord Cottington’s estate in Wiltshire, valued at 1500l. -per annum, with other landed property, amounting in all to about 4000l. per annum, to him and his heirs. He was also made chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. Those writers, therefore, who represent him as no more accessary to the murder of Charles I. than any other members of the council, or court, must see from these circumstances, which would not otherwise be worth repeating, that the republicans attached the greatest importance to the part he had to perform, and considered it as worthy, not only to be honoured with the most splendid accompaniments, but to be rewarded with the richest gifts and -grants. Bradshaw was in truth a more thorough republican than most of the party, and became obnoxious to Cromwell for disapproving of the latter placing himself at the head of the government. This occasioned frequent disputes between them, ajid Cromwell at length prevailed in depriving him of the office of chief justice of Chester. On the death of Cromwell, when the long parliament was restored, Bradshaw obtained a seat in the council, was elected president, and would have been appointed commissioner of the great seal, but his infirm state of health obliged him to decline the latter. He died Nov. 22, 16.59, declaring, consistently enough with his former principles, that if the king were to be tried and condemned again, he would be the first man that should do it. He was pompously interred in Westminster abbey, from whence his body was taken up, at the restoration) and exposed on the gibbet with those of Cromwell and Ireton. Doubts have been entertained as to this fact, and some have supposed he went abroad and died at Jamaica, because a cannon was found therewith an inscription signifying that his dust was deposited near it. Nothing, however, can be better ascertained than his death in. England.

, an eminent puritan divine, was born in 1571 at Market-Bosworth, in Leicestershire, of an ancient but reduced family, and was first educated at Worcester free school, at the expense of an uncle, ou whose death he was obliged to return to Bosworth, but afterwards found a friend in Mr. Ainsworth, schoolmaster at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who continued his education in that school. In 1589, he was admitted along with Joseph Hall, afterwards the celebrated bishop of Exeter, into Emmanuel college, Cambridge, and took in course his degree of B. A. and M. A. but could not obtain a fellowship, according to the statutes, which allow but of one of a county at time, and that for Leicestershire was gained by Mr. Hall. The master of the college, however, Dr. Chaderton, who had a high respect for him, first procured him to be tutor to the children of sir Thomas Leighton, governor of Guernsey, and afterwards to be fellow of Sidney Sussex college, then newly founded. He then entered into holy orders, and preached first as a lecturer at Abington, near Cambridge, and at Steeple Morton. Afterwards, by the recommendation of Dr. Chaderton, he was in 101i settled at Chatham, in Kent; but before he had been there a year, he was sent for by the archbishop of Canterbury (Whitgift) and commanded to subscribe, which he refusing, was suspended. He therefore was obliged to remove, but was afterwards licensed by the bishop of Litchfield and Coventry (Dr. Overton) to preach any where in his diocese, and at length coming to London, was chosen lecturer of Christ Church, Newgate-street. Here, however, he published a treatise against the Ceremonies, which obliged him, to leave the city and retire to the house of his friend and patron, Mr. Redriche, at Newhall, in Leicestershire, and he remained here until near his death, which happened when, on a visit at Chelsea in 1618. Bishop Hall says of him$ that he was “of a strong brain and of a free spirit, not suffering himself for small differences of judgment to be alienated from his friends, to whom, notwithstanding his seeming austerity, he was very pleasing in conversation, being full of witty and harmless urbanity. He was very strong and eager in arguing, hearty in friendship, regardless of the world, a despiser of compliments, a lover of reality, full of digested and excellent notions, and a painful labourer in God’s vineyard.” The rev. Thomas Gataker, of Ilotherhiihe, wrote his life, a long and not uninteresting account.

Of his works we know only “Several Treatises of Worship and Ceremonies,” first printed in 1601, afterwards that on ceremonies, as mentioned above, and the whole reprinted 1660: “English Puritanism, containing the main opinions of the rigidestsort of those that went by that name in the realm of England,” 1605. This is valuable, as showing the difference between the principles of the ancient and modern non-conformists; Neal has given an abstract of it, and Dr. Ames translated it into Latin. Mr. Bradshaw also wrote “Dissertatio de justificatione,” printed at Leyden the year of his death, 1618, 12 mo, and “A plaine and pithy Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,” 162O, 4to, published by Gataker.

, archbishop of Canterbury, is supposed to have been born at Hortfield, in Cheshire, about the middle of the reign of king Edward I. in the fourteenth century. He was of Merton colle'ge, Oxford, and was one of the proctors of that university in 1325. He excelled in mathematical knowledge, and was in general distinguished for his accurate and solid investigations in divinity, which procured him the title of the “profound Doctor.” He was confessor to Edward III. and attended that monarch in his French wars, often preaching before the army. Sir Henry Savile informs us that some writers of that time attributed the signal victories of Edward, rather to the virtues and holy character of his chaplain, than to> the bravery or prudence of the monarch or of any other person. He made it his business to calm and mitigate the fierceness of his master’s temper when he saw him eitherimmoderately fired with warlike rage, or improperly flushed with the advantages of victory. He also often addressed the army, and with so much meekness and persuasive discretion, as to restrain them from those insolent excesses which are too frequently the attendants of military success. When the see of Canterbury became vacant, the monks of that city chose him archbishop, but Edward, who was fond of his company, refused to part with him. Another vacancy happen ing soon after, the monks again elected him^ and Edward yielded to their desires. The modesty and innocence of his manners, and his unquestionable piety and integrity, seem to have been the principal causes of his advancement. He was, however, by no means adapted to 'a court, where his personal manners and character became an object of derision, the best proof history can afford us of their excellence. Even when he was consecrated at Avignon, cardinal Hugh, a nephew of the pope, ridiculed the prelate by introducing into the hall a person in a peasant’s habit, ridiog on an ass, petitioning the pope to make him archbishop of Canterbury, but the jest was so ill relished that the pope and cardinals resented the indignity, and frowned on the insolent contriver. Bradwardine was consecrated in 1349; but not many weeks after his consecration, and only seven days after his return into England, he died at Lambeth. His principal work “De Causa Dei,” against the Pelagian heresy, was edited from the ms. in Merton college library by sir Henry Savile, 1618, fol. with a biographical preface, in which he informs us that Bradwardine devoted his principal application to theology and mathematics; and that particularly in the latter he distanced, perhaps, the most skilful of his contemporaries. These mathematical works are, 1. “Astronomical tables,” in ms. in the possession of Sir Henry. 2. “Geometria Speculativa, cum Arithmetica specuiativa,” Paris, 1495, 1504, fol. The arithmetic had been prAited separately ia 1502, and other editions of both appeared in 1512 and 1530. 3. “De proportionibus,” Paris, 1495, Venice, 1505, fol. 4. “De quadratura circuli,” Paris, 1495, fol. Sir Henry Savile informs us that the treatise against Pelagius was first delivered in lectures at Oxford, and the author, at the request of the students of Merton college, arranged, enlarged, and polished them, while he was chancellor of the diocese of London. As Bradwardine was a very excellent mathematician, he endeavoured to treat theological subjects with a mathematical accuracy, and was the first divine, as far as I know, says sir Henry, who pursued that method. Hence this book against Pelagianism is one regular, connected series of reasoning, from principles or conclusions which have been demonstrated before; and if, in the several lemmas and propositions, a mathematical accuracy is not on all occasions completely preserved, the reader must remember to ascribe the defect to the nature of the subject, rather than to the author.

, an English divine of good parts and learning, the son of Nicholas Brady, an officer in the king’s army in the civil wars of 1641, was born at Bandon, in the county of Cork, Oct. the 28th, 1659; and continued in Ireland till he was 12 years of age. Then he was sent over to England to Westminster-school; and from thence elected stuJent to Christ-church in Oxford. After continuing there about four years, he went to Dublin, where his father resided; at which university he immediately commenced B. A. When he was of due stanuing, his diploma for the degree of D. D. was, on account of his uncommon merit, presented to him by that university while he was in England; and brought over by Dr Pratt, then senior travelling fellow, afterwards provost of that college. His first ecclesiastical preferment was to a prebend in the cathedral of St. Barry, at Cork; to which he was collated by bishop Wettenhal, whose domestic chaplain he was. He was a zealous promoter of the revolution, and in consequence of his zeal suffered for it. In 1690, when the troubles broke out in Ireland, by his interest with king Tatnes as general, M'Carty, he thrice prevented the burning of the town of Bandon, after three several orders given by that prince to destroy it. The same year, having been deputed by the people of Bandon, he went over to England, to petition the parliament for a redress of some grievances they had suffered while king James was in Ireland; and afterwards quitting his preferments in Ireland, he settled in London; where, being celebrated for his abilities in the pulpit, he was elected minister of St. Catherine Cree church, and lecturer of St. Michael’s Wood-street. He afterwards became minister of Richmond in Surry. and Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, and at length rector of Clapham in Surry; which last, together with Richmond, he held till his death. His preferments amounted to 600l. a year, but he was so little of an Œconomist as to be obliged to keep a school at Richmond. He was also chaplain to the duke of Ormond’s troop of horse-guards, as he was to their majesties king William and queen Mary. He died May 20, 1726, aged 66, leaving behind him the character of being a person of an agreeable temper, a polite gentleman, an excellent preacher, and a good poet. He has no high rank, however, among poets, and would have long ere now been forgotten in that character, if his name was not so familiar as a translator of the new version of the “Psalms,” in conjunction with Mr. Tate, which version was licensed 1696. He translated also the Æneids of Virgil,“published by subscription in 1726, 4 vols. 8vo,­and a tragedy, called” The Rape, or the Innocent Impos-­tors,“neither performances of much character. His prose works consist of” Sermons," three volumes of which were published by himself in 1704, 1706, and 1713, and three others by his eldest son, who was a clergyman at Tooting, in Surry, London, 1730, 8vo.

, a noted historian and physician of the seventeenth century, was born in the county of Norfolk, and admitted in Caius college in Cambridge, February 20, 1643. He took his degree of bachelor of physic in 1653, and was created doctor in that faculty September 5, 1660, by virtue of the king’s mandatory letters. On the first of December the same year, he was, in pursuance of king Charles’s mandate, elected master of his college, upon the resignation of Dr. Bachcroft. About the year 1670, or as some think not until 1685, he was appointed keeper of the records in the Tower of London; in which office he employed himself in perusing those most valuable monuments in his possession, with a view to his historical works. Some time after, he was chosen regius professor of physic in the university of Cambridge. In 1679, he wrote a letter to Dr. Sydenham, on the influence of the air, &c. which is published among that learned person’s works. But his largest and most considerable performance was, “An Introduction to the old English History,” in which he maintains these three propositions: 1. That the representatives of the commons in parliament, viz. knights, citizens, and burgesses, were not introduced till the forty-ninth of Henry III.; 2. That William, duke of Normandy, made an absolute conquest of the nation; 3. That the succession to the crown of England is hereditary (descending to the nearest of blood), and not elective: And “A complete History of England, from the first entrance of the Romans, unto the end of the reign of king Richard II.” in three vols. fol. about which he was employed several years, and which was printed 1685 and 1700, usually bound in two volumes. In the year 1681 he was chosen one of the representatives for the university of Cambridge, in that parliament which met at Oxford; and again in 1685, in the parliament of king James II. He was likewise physician in ordinary to this king; and, on the twenty -second of October, 1688, was one of those persons who gave in their depositions concerning the birth of the pretended prince of Wales. He died on the nineteenth of August, 1700. He was an accurate writer, and a curious and diligent searcher into our ancient records; but his impartiality has been called in question, particularly by those who contend for the higher antiquity of parliaments, and a larger proportion of popular influence in the constitution. Tyrell wrote his “General History of England,” in opposition to that of Brady. Dr. Gilbert Stuart, who hated all Scotch historians except himself, maintains that Hume executed his History on Brady’s principles; allowing Brady to pdssess an excellent understanding and admirable quickness, Dr. Stuart asserts also, that he was the slave of a faction. Dr. Brady’s other publications were, “An Answer to Mr. Petyt’s Book on Parliaments,” London, 1681, 8vo;- and “An Historical Treatise of Cities and Burghs or Boroughs,” ibid. 1690, fol. reprinted 1704.

, a very celebrated astronomer, descended from a noble and illustrious Danish family, was born in 1546 at Knudstorp, a small lordship near Helsingborg, in Scania. His father, Otto Brahe, having a large family, Tycho was educated under the care and at the expence of his uncle George Brahe, who, having no children, adopted him as his heir. Finding his nephew a boy of lively capacity, and though only seven years of age, strongly inclined to study, he had him instructed in the Latin tongue unknown to his father, who considered literature as inglorious, and was desirous that all his sons should follow the profession of arms. In the twelfth year of his age, Tycho was removed to the academy of Copenhagen; and his mind, which, had not yet taken any direction, was casually incited to the study of astronomy by fin eclipse of the sun, which happened on. Aug. 21? 1560. He had for some time examined the astrological diaries or almanacks, which pretended to predict future events from the inspection of the stars; but when he observed that the eclipse happened at the precise time at which it was foretold, he considered that science 'as divine, which could thus so thoroughly understand the motions of the heavenly bodies as to foretel their places and relative positions: and from that moment he devoted himself to astronomy.

In 1562, he was sent to Leipsic for the purpose of studying civil law; but attending to it no farther than he was compelled, continued his astronomical pursuits, and from his tutor’s remonstrances conceived a greater disgust for law studies. All the money his uncle allowed him for pocket-expences, he laid out in the purchase of astronomical books; and having obtained a small celestial globe, he took the opportunity, while his preceptor was in bed, of examining the heavenly bodies, and before a month had elapsed, he made himself acquainted with all the stars which at that time appeared above the horizon. Inspired with the same ardent zeal in pursuit of his favourite science, he learned geometry and mathematics without a master, and invented a radius, and several mathematical instruments.

Having passed three years at Leipsic, he was preparing to pursue his travels though Germany ', but the death of his uncle obliged him to return to his native country, in order to superintend and settle his estates, which he largely inherited. Instead of finding himself encouraged and esteemed for the wonderful progress which at his early age he had made in the science of astronomy and its concomitant studies, he was mortified at being treated with contempt by his relations and and acquaintance for following a science which they considered as degrading, and who reproached him for not pursuing the study of the law. Disgusted at their behaviour, he settled his affairs, and before a year had elapsed set out upon his travels. He proceeded to Wittenberg, and afterwards to Rostoc, where an accident happened which had nearly occasioned his death. Being invited to a wedding feast, he had a dispute with a Danish nobleman relative to some subject in mathematics; nd as they were both of choleric dispositions, the dispute ended in a duel. In the conflict part of Tycho’s nose was cut off. Jn order to remedy this defect, Tycho contrived a nose made of gold and silver, which he fastened by means of a glue, so artfully formed, it is said, as to bear the appearance of the real membe and to deceive many who were not acquainted with his loss.

From Rostoc Tycho continued his travels, and prosecuted his studies in the principal towns of Germany and Italy, and particularly at Ausburgh, where he formed an acquaintance with the celebrated Peter Ramus; invented and improved various mathematical instruments, superintended the building of an observatory at the expence of the burgomaster Paul Hainzell, after a plan communicated by himself, and formed a series of astronomical observations and discoveries, which astonished and surpassed all who had hitherto been considered as the greasest proficients in that science. On his return to Copenhagen, in 1570, he was soon disgusted with the necessity of going to court; and meeting with innumerable interruptions of his studies, he removed to Herritzvold, near Knudstorp, the seat of his maternal uncle, Steno Bille, who alone of all his relations encouraged him to persevere in his astronomical labours. Steno consigned to his nephew a commodious apartment, and a convenient place for the construction of his observatory and laboratory. Here Tycho, besides his astronomical researches, seems to have followed with no less zeal the study of chemistry, or rather of alchemy, from the chimerical view of obtaining the philosopher’s stone, that he might amass sufficient riches to settle in some foreign country, but neither his philosophy, or the unwearied zeal with which he prosecuted his studies, could exempt him from the passion of love. Being a great admirer of the fair sex, he conceived a violent inclination for Christina, a beautiful country girl, the daughter of a neighbouring peasant, and alienated his family, who conceived themselves disgraced by the alliance, and refused to hold any intercourse with him, until Frederick II. commanded them to be reconciled. Tycho, who chose her because she might be more grateful and subservient than a lady of higher birth, never seems to have repented, but ever found his Christina an agreeable companion and an obedient wife. About this period, he first appeared as a public teacher, and read lectures on astronomy at the express desire of the king. He explained the theory of the planets, and preceded his explanation by a very learned oration concerning the history and excellency of astronomy and its sister sciences, with some remarks in favour of judicial astrology, a study as congenial to the time as to the inclinations of our philosopher.

Offended with his relations, and disgusted with his countrymen, he had long determined to quit Denmark, and to settle abroad; and after travelling through Germany and Italy, he at length fixed upon Basil: which he preferred, for the wholesomeness of the air, the cheapness of the living, and the celebrity of the university; and irom whence he might hold a correspondence with the astronomers of France, Germany, and Italy. On his return to Denmark he was preparing with the utmost secrecy to transport his library, &c. but was prevented by an unexpected summons from the king, who, in order to retain him, offered him his protection and encouragement, presented him with the island of Huen as a proper retirement, and promised to erect, at his own expence, whatever buildings and apparatus should be found necessary for his astronomical pursuits. He settled upon him likewise a pension of a thousand crowns a year, and gave him a canonry of Roschild, worth two thousand more. Tycho, delighted with this liberality, did not hesitate to accept the king’s offer, but immediately repaired to Huen, Aug. 8, 1576, and was present at the foundation of a magnificent house, which he afterwards called Uranienburgh, or the Castle of the Heavens, and which contained a large suite of apartments, an observatory, and a subterraneous laboratory; and although the king supplied 190,000 rix-dollars, Tycho Brahe did not expend less than the same sum. He afterwards constructed a detached building, which he culled Stiernberg, or the, Mountain of the Stars.

In this retreat Tycho Brahe passed twenty years, and greatly improved the science of astronomy by the diligence and exactness of his observations. He maintained several scholars in his house for the purpose of instructing them in geometry and astronomy, some of whom were sent and their expences defrayed by the king; others, who voluntarily offered themselves, he received and supported at his own expence. He lived at the same time in a most sumptuous manner, kept an open house with unbounded hospitality, and was always happy to entertain and receive all persons, who flocked in crowds to pay their respects to a person of his renown. During his residence in the island of Huen, he received numerous visits from persons of the highest rank. Among these must be particularly mentioned Ulric duke of Mecklenburgh, in company with his daughter Sophia, queen of Denmark; William, landgrave of Hesse Cassel, whose correspondence with Brahe on astronomical subjects has been given to the public, and who had shewn himself a constant patron to the Danish astronomer. In 1590 Tycho was honoured with a visit from James the First, then king of Scotland, when that monarch repaired to the court of Copenhagen, to conclude his marriage with the princess Anne, and was so delighted with Brahe’s apparatus and conversation, that he remained eight days at Uranienburgh. On retiring he presented Tycho with a magnificent present, and afterwards accompanied his royal licence for the publication of Tycho Brahe’s works with the following flattering testimony of his abilities and learning: “Nor am I acquainted with these things from the relation of others, or from a mere perusal of your works; but I have seen them with my own eyes, and heard them with my own ears, in your residence at Uranienburgh, during the various learned and agreeable conversations which I there held with you, which even now affect my mind to such a degree, that it is difficult to decide, whether I recollect them with greater pleasure or admiration; which I now willingly testify by this licence to present and future generations, &c.” His majesty also, at his particular request, composed, in honour of the Danish astronomer, some Latin verses, more expressive indeed of his esteem and admiration than remarkable for classic elegance.

In 1592 he was honoured with a visit from his own sovereign, Christian the Fourth, then in the fifteenth year of his age, who continued some days at Uranienburgh. That promising young prince shewed great curiosity in examining the astronomical and chemical apparatus,- expressed the highest satisfaction in receiving explanations and instructions, proposed various questions on several points of mathematics and mechanics, to which his majesty was attached, and particularly on the principles of fortification, and the construction of ships. He was also highly delighted with a gilt tin globe, which represented the face of the heavens, and so contrived, that, being turned on its own axis, it shewed the rising and setting of the sun, the motions of ths planets and heavenly bodies; a wooclerful contrivance for that age. Tycbo, observing the delight which the young king shewed in observing these phenomena, presented it to him, who in return gave him a gold chain, and assured him of his unalterable protection, and attachment.

Notwithstanding, however, these assurances, the king’s youth was worked upon by those courtiers who were envious of Brahe’s merit, or who had been offended by the violence of his temper, and the severity of his satire, and under various pretences, prevailed upon Christian to deprive him of his pension, and the canonry of Roschild, Being thus deprived of the means of supporting his establishment at Uranienburgh, he repaired to his house at Copenhagen, and having afterwards transported from Uranienburgh all such instruments as could be removed, he left Copenhagen, landed at Rostock, and remained a year at Wansbeck with his learned friend Henry Rantzau. Having dedicated a treatise on astronomy to the emperor Rhodolph II. who was extremely addicted to astronomy, chemistry, and judicial astrology, he at length received a very flattering invitation from that monarch, which he accepted without hesitation, and repaired to Prague in 1599. The emperor received him in the kindest and most honourable manner, built for him an observatory and elaboratory, settled on him an ample pension, and treated him with the highest marks of deference and respect.

In the service of Rhodolph he passed the remainder of his days, but did not live long to enjoy his protection. He had had a good state of health till the year previous to his death, when his constitution, somewhat weakened by the intenseness of his application, was still farther shattered by the chagrin occasioned by his removal from Uranienburgh. At that period he began to experience symptoms of complaints which announced his approaching dissolution, but which he concealed as much as possible from his friends. He was reduced, however, to so low a state as to be affected with the most trifling circumstances, which he considered as prodigies, and would frequently interrupt his sallies of wit with sudden reflections on death. The immediate cause of his death was a strangury, occasioned by an imprudent retention, from delicacy, while in company, which being attended with the most excruciating torments, brought on a violent fever, and a temporary delirium, in the midst of which he was heard repeatedly to cry out, “Ne frustra vixisse videar.” His delirium at length subsiding, he became calm and composed, and perfectly sensible. Being extremely debilitated by the violence of his disorder, he perceived that he had not many hours to live. Accordingly he gave orders with the utmost coolness and resignation; even amused himself with composing an extempore copy of verses, sung various hymns; offered up prayers and supplications to the Supreme Being; recommended to his family and friends piety and resignation to the divine will; exhorted his pupils to persevere in their studies; and conversed with Kepler on the most abstruse parts of astronomy. Thus, amidst prayers, exhortations, and literary conversation, he expired so peaceably, that he was neither heard nor seen, by any of those who were present, to breathe his last. He died in October 1601, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.

It is remarkable, that so sensible a man, and so accurate an observer as Tycho Brahe, should be so infected with the rage of system-making as to reject the simple and beautiful system of Copernicus, established by the most incontrovertible proofs, and to endeavour to reconcile the absurdities of the Ptolemaic system. He was, indeed, too well acquainted with the motions of the heavenly bodies, not to be sensible that the sun was the centre of the system; and though he was struck with the simplicity and harmony of the Pythagorean system, which Copernicus had lately revived, yet, out of respect, it is said, for several passages in scripture, he absurdly endeavoured to reconcile (what were never intended to be reconciled) his learning with his faith: he rejected the diurnal rotation of the earth on its own axis; supposed that the earth was quiescent; that the sun, with all the planets, was carried about the earth in the space of a year; and that the planets, by their proper motions, revolved round the sun in their several periods; thus retaining the most absurd part of the Ptolemaic hypothesis, which makes the whole planetary system revolve round the earth in the space of every twenty-four hours. Tycho, indeed, was so bigotted to his own hypothesis, and shewed, even in his last moments, such an attachment to his own system, as to desire his favourite scholar, the great Kepler, to follow his system rather than that of Copernicus.

If we were to estimate the merits of Tycho Brahe as an astronomer, we should compare the science as he left it with the state in which he found it. His great merit consisted in his inventions and improvements of mathematical instruments, and in the diligence and exactness with which he made astronomical observations for a long series of years. And as his instruments were remarkably good, he composed a catalogue of 777 fixed stars, all observed by himself, with an accuracy unknown to former astronomers. He likewise discovered the refraction of the air; demonstrated, against the prevailing opinion of those times, that the comets were higher than the moon; and from his observations on the moon and the other planets, the theories of their motions were afterwards corrected and improved. He was also the first astronomer who composed a table of refractions, and shewed the use to be made of them in astronomy. Such is the reputation of Tycho Brahe, for his great proficiency in that science, that Costard, in his History of Astronomy, has fixed upon his name as marking the beginning of a new period.

He seems to have embraced a large circle of the arts and sciences. He cultivated poetry, and wrote Latin verses, not without some degree of classic elegance. He drew the plan for building the castle of Cronberg, and sketched the design for the noble mausoleum of Frederic the Second, which was executed in Italy, and is erected in the cathedral of Roschild. He dabbled also in physic. He was fond of being consulted, and readily gave his advice and medicines gratis to those who consulted him. He invented an elixir, which he calls an infallible cure for epidemic disorders, of which he has published the recipe in a letter to the emperor Rhodolph. He was a good mechanic. He possessed several automates, and took great delight in showing them to the peasants, and was always pleased if they took them for spirits. He was no less fond of being consulted as a fortune-teller, and willingly encouraged an opinion, that his knowledge of the heavenly bodies enabled him to observe horoscopes, and foretel events. Many traditional fables of his predictions have been handed down to posterity, which shew his proneness to judicial astrology, and the weakness of those who beheved his predictions. In many instances astrological predictions, by alarming, occasion the event which they foretel, and have thus gained a false credit from the weak or the unwary. Thus Tycho Brahe’s astrological predictions proved fatal to the emperor Rhodolph II. for, being informed by Tycho, that a star Which presided at his nativity threatened him with some sinister designs to his prejudice, from his relations, he was thrown into such a panic, that he did not venture to quit his palace, or appear before any person; and, as the conduct of his brother Matthias conlirmed the astrologer’s informations, he fell at last a prey to his grief, and died 18th of January 1612, aged fiftynine years.

At Uranienburgh Tycho Brahe had several contrivances calculated to deceive and astonish those who came to visit and consult him. Among others, several bells, communicating with the rooms in the “upper story, inhabited by his scholars, the handles of which were concealed in his own apartments. Frequently, when company was with him, he would pretend to want something, and having secretly pulled the bell, would cry out,” Come hither Peter, come hither Christian,“and was pleased to observe the astonishment of the company, who not hearing the bells, were surprized at the appearance of the person who was thus summoned. He was no less devoted to the study of chemistry than to astronomy, and expended as much on the terrestrial astronomy, as he styles it, as on the celestial. He left, indeed, no writings upon that science, although it seems to have been his intention to have given to the public a selection of his experiments, which he had made with so much labour and expence; yet, he adds, in the true cant of alchymy,” On consideration, and by the advice of the most illustrious as well as the most learned men, he thought it improper to unfold the secrets of the art to the vulgar, as few people were capable of using its mysteries to advantage, and without detriment."

His foibles were as prominent as his virtue and capacity. He was of a morose and unbending disposition, indulged himself in too great freedom of speech, but while he rallied others was not pleased to be rallied himself. He was greatly addicted to judicial astrology, and prone to a credulity and superstition below his learning and judgment. If he met an old woman in going out of his house, he would instantly return home; and considered an hare as an ill omen. While he lived at Uranienburgh he had a fool, whose name was Sep, who was accustomed during dinner to sit at his feet, and whom he used to feed with his own hand, This man was continually uttering incoherent expressions, which Tycho observed and noted down, from a persuasion that the mind, in a state of emotion, was capable of predicting future events, and he even believed, if any inhabitant of the island was taken ill, that this madman could predict whether he should live or die. He maintained, that the cabala and magic, if they did not act to the offence of God or man, could lay open many abstruse things by figures, images, and marks. But upon the whole, with all these weaknesses, we may assent to the truth of the eulogium given in his “Oratio funebris,” that to him his studies were life; meditation his delight; science riches; virtue nobility; and religion his constant direction.

Gassendus, in his “Equitis Dani Tychonis Brahe Astronomorum Coryphaei vita,” gives the following list of his principal writings: 1. “An account of the new star which appeared Nov. 12th, 1572, in Cassiopeia,” Copenhagen, 1573, 4to. 2. “An oration concerning the mathematical sciences, pronounced in the university of Copenhagen, in 1574,” published by Conrad Aslac, of Bergen, in Norway. 3. “A treatise on the comet of the year 1577, immediately after it disappeared.” Upon revising it nine years afterwards, he added a tenth chapter, printed at Uraniburgh, 1589. 4. “Another treatise on the new phenomena of the heavens;” in the first part of which he treats of the restitution, as he calls it, of the sun, and of the fixed stars; and in the second part, of a new star which had then made its appearance. 5. “A collection of' astronomical epistles,” Uraniburgh, 1596, 4to; Nuremberg, 1602, and Francfort, 1610. It was dedicated to Maurice, landgrave of Hesse, because it contains a considerable number of letters of the landgrave William, his father, and of Christopher Rothmann, the mathematician of that prince, to Tycho, and of Tycho to them. 6. “The mechanical principles of Astronomy restored,” Wandesburg, 1598, folio. 7. “An answer to the letter of a certain Scotchman concerning the comet in the year 1577.” 8. “On the composition of an elixir for the plague; addressed to the emperor Rodolphus.” 9. “An elegy upon his exile,” Rostock, 1614, 4to. 10. “The Rodolphine tables,” revised and published by Kepler, according to Tycho’s desire. 11. “An accurate enumeration of the fixed stars, addressed to the emperor Rodolphus.” 12. “A complete catalogue of 1000 of the fixed stars, which Kepler has inserted in the Rodolphine tables.” 13. “Historia caelestis or a history of the heavens, in two parts” the first containing the observations he had made at Uraniburgh, in 16 books; the latter containing the observations made at Wandesburg, Wittenberg, Prague, &c. in four books. 14. “An epistle to Caster Pucer,” printed at Copenhagen, 1668.

The apparatus of Tycho Brahe, after having been transported from place to place during his life, was, after his death, purchased of his heirs by the emperor Rodolph, for 22,000 crowns of gold. The persons to whose custody he committed them, concealed them from inspection; and thus they remained useless till the time of the troubles of Bohemia, when the army of the elector palatine plundered them, breaking some of them, and applying others to different uses. The great celestial globe of brass was preserved, carried from Prague, and deposited with the Jesuits of Neyssa, in Silesia, whence it was afterwards taken, about the year 1633, by Udalric, son of Christian, king of Denmark, and placed in the hall of the royal academy at Copenhagen.

, or Donato Lazzari, but celebrated under the former name, a painter and architect, was born at Castel Durante, in the territory of Urbino, irv 1444, and at Urbino studied the works of Fra Carnevale, er Corradini. His fame as an architect has nearly obliterated his memory as a painter, though many of his works remain at Milan and its district, and are repeatedly mentioned by Cesariani and Lomazzo, who observe that his style on the whole resembled that of Andrea Mantegna. He painted portraits, sacred and profane history, in distemper and in fresco. He too, like Mantegna, studied much after casts, thence perhaps the too salient lights of his flesh. Like him, he draped models in paper or glued linen, to avoid stiffness. Lomazzo, who cleaned one of his pictures in distemper, found that, like Mantegna, he made use of a viscous liquid. The public frescoes of Bramante at Milan, mentioned by Lomazzo and Scaramuccia, are either no more, or spoiled; but a considerable number of private ones still remain in certain apartments of the palaces Borri and CastiglionL In the Certosa of Pavia there is likewise a chapel said to have been painted by him: the proportions are square, and rather heavy; the faces full, the aged heads grand; the colour vivid and salient, not without some crudity. The same style prevails in a picture of his belonging to the Melzi family, representing several saints and a beautiful perspective; it recurs again in an altar-piece of the Incoronata at Lodi, a charming temple built from the design of Bramante, by Gio. Bataggio, a native of the place; but his master-piece at Milan is at the church of S. Sebastian, the patron saint, in whose style no trace of Quattrocento appears.

His talents, however, being more strongly 'turned for architecture, he devoted himself to it with great success. His first patron, after his arrival at Rome, was cardinal Oliver Carafta, for whom he designed and completed the choir in the convent of the Frati della pace. This specimen of his talents recommended him to the notice of Alexander VI. in whose service he executed many designs. Under Julius II. he was employed as superintendant of his buildings, in accomplishing the grand project of joining the Belvidere with the Vatican, by means of two galleries extended across a valley. In 1504 he accompanied pope Julius to Bologna, and was engaged in fortifying the town; and during the war of Mirandola, he had several opportunities of exercising his talents in the military art. After his return to Rome, he adorned the city with many fine buildings; and at length undertook to demolish the cathedral of St. Peter’s, and to supply its place with another edifice suited to the capital of the Christian world. His plan for this purpose was adopted; and before the death of the pope, in 1513, the new structure was advanced as far as the entablature; and at the time of his own death, in 1514, the four great arches for the support of the dome were erected. The original design was abandoned by the architects who succeeded him, not without injury to the structure; but the prosecution of the work was entrusted with Michael Angelo, who praised his plan, and conformed as much as possible to his ideas. Bramante was no less estimable for his general character than for his extraordinary talents as an artist. Obliging in his disposition, he took pleasure in encouraging young persons of the profession; and he invited the celebrated Raphael, who was his cousin, to Rome, instructed him in architecture, and procured for him employment in the Vatican. He was also skilled in poetry and music, and composed extemporaneously for his harp. To him is ascribed the invention of constructing arches by casting in wooden moulds a mixture of lime, marble dust, and water, supposed to be a revival of the stucco of the antients. His poetical works were printed at Milan, in 1756. The knowledge and practice of the art of engraving may also be added to his other accomplishments. This art he probably acquired at Milan, and his execution of it exactly resembles the style of Andrea Mantegna, that is, with the strokes running from one corner of the plate to the other, without any crossing. He died in 1514.

, a Flemish historical painter, was born at Delft, in 1596, and acquired the art of painting in the school of Rembrandt, whose manner in small he imitated. At the age of 18 years he went to Rome for further improvement, but could never wholly divest himself of the Flemish style. With a fine taste of design he combined an expression generally good, and occasionally noble. His pencil is delicate, and his colouring very peculiar in Che tints, and by great skill in the management of the chiaro-scuro, light, bold, and full of lustre, particularly in the vases, which he was fond of introducing, and to which he gave a rich and fine relievo. To his pictures he was accustomed to give a great degree of transparence, by painting witk a very thin body of colour, especially in the brown and shadowy parts. His name was famous, not only at Rome, but in several other cities of Italy, anu his works, but of Italy, are scarce but when“they occur in an undamaged state, they fetch high prices. Among his most capital pictures are the” Raising of Lazarus,“exhibiting a charming contrast of light and shadow; his” Denial of St. Peter,“both executed in his best manner, and preserved at Rome; and particularly a small picture on copper, representing the” Story of Pyramus and Thisbe."

, an eminent prelate, was descended from the antient family of the Bramhalls, of Cheshire, and born at Pontefract, in Yorkshire, about 1593. He received his school education at the place of his birth, and was removed from thence to Sidney-college, Cambridge, in 1608. After taking the degrees of B A. and M. A. he quitted the university; and, entering into orders, had a living given him in the city of York. About the same time he married a clergyman’s widow of the Hally’s family, with whom he received a good fortune, and a valuable library, left by her former husband. In 1623 he had two public disputations, at North-Allerton, with a secular priest and a Jesuit. The match between prince Charles and the infanta of Spain was then depending; and the papists expected great advantages and countenance to their religion from it. These two, therefore, by way of preparing the way for them, sent a public challenge to all the protestant clergy in the county of York; and when none durst accept it, our author, though then but a stripling in the school of controversy, undertook the combat. His success in this dispute gained him. so much reputation, and so recommended him in particular to Matthews, archbishop of York, that he made him his chaplain, and took him into his confidence. He was afterwards made a prebendary of York, and then pf Rippon; at which last place he went and resided after the archbishop’s death, which happened in 1628, and managed most of the affairs of that church, in the quality of sub-dean. He had great political influence, especially in elections, in the town of Rippon, and was also appointed one of his majesty’s high commissioners, in the administration of which office he was by some accounted severe, although far less so than some of his brethren.

In 1630 he took a doctor of divinity’s degree at Cambridge; and soon after was invited to Ireland by the lord viscount Wentworth, deputy of that kingdom, and sir Christopher Wandesford, master of the rolls. He went over in 1633, having first resigned all his church preferments in England; and a little while after obtained the archdeaconry of Meath, the best in that kingdom. The first public service he was employed in was a royal visitation, when, finding the revenues of the church miserably wasted, the bishoprics, in particular, wretchedly dilapidated by fee-farms and long leases, and small rents, the discipline scandalously despised, and the ministers but meanly provided, he applied in process of time proper remedies to these several evils. In 1634 he was promoted to the bishopric of Londonderry; and improved that see very much, not only by advancing the rents, but also by recovering lands detained from his predecessors. But the greatest service he did the church of Ireland, was by getting, with the lord deputy’s assistance, several acts passed in the parliament which met in that kingdom on the 14th of July, 1634, for the abolishing fee-farms, recovering impropriations, &c. by which, and other means, he regained to the church, in the space of four years, 30 or 40,000^. a year. In the convocation that met at the same time, he prevailed upon the church of Ireland to be united in the same faith with the church of England, by embracing the thirty-nine articles of religion, agreed upon in the convocation holden at London in 1562. He would fain, also, have got the English canons established in Ireland; but could obtain no more than that such of our canons as were proper for the Irish should be extended thither, and others new framed, and added to them. Accordingly, a book of canons was compiled, chiefly by our bishop, and having passed in convocation, received the royal confirmation; but these efforts were either misunderstood or misrepresented, and his zeal for uniformity of opinion was branded by one party as Arminianism, and by another, as Popery, neither of which charges, however, diverted him from his steady purpose.

In 1637, he took a journey into England, and was there surprised with the news of an information exhibited against him in the star-chamber, “for being present at Rippon when one Mr. Palmes had made some reflecting discourse upon his majesty, and neither reproving nor informing against him.” The words deserved no very great punishment if they had been true, being no more than, that “he feared a Scottish mist was come over their town,” because the king had altered his lodgings from Rippon, where he had designed them, to sir Richard Graham’s house, not far from that place. But the bishop easily cleared himself and the whole company. After having received much honour from Charles 1. and many civilities from archbishop Laud and other persons, he returned to Ireland, and, with 6000l. for which he sold his estate in England, purchased another at Omagh, in the county of Tyrone, and began a plantation, which the distractions of that kingdom hindered him from perfecting. In March 1641 articles of high treason were exhibited against him in Ireland, wherein he was charged with having conspired with others to subvert the fundamental laws of that kingdom, to introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government, &c. The bishop was at Londonderry, when he received intelligence of this accusation. All his friends wrote to him to decline the trial; but, thinking it dishonourable to fly, he went directly to Dublin, and was made a close prisoner by the parliament. In this distress he wrote to the primate Usher, then in England, for his advice and comfort; who mediated so effectually in his behalf with the king, that his majesty sent a letter to Ireland, to stop proceedings against him. This letter was very slowly obeyed; however, the bishop was at length restored to liberty, but without any public acquittal, the charge lying still dormant against him, to be awakened when his enemies pleased. Shortly after his return to Londonderry, sir Phelim O'Neil laid a plot to affect his life, in the following manner. He directed a letter to him, wherein he desired, “that, according to their articles, such a gate of the city should be delivered to him;” expecting that the Scotch in the place would, upon the discovery, become his executioners: but the person who was to manage the matter, ran away with the letter. But, though this design faded, the bishop did not find any safety there: the city daily being crowded with discontented persons out of Scotland, he began to be afraid lest they should deliver him up. One night they turned a cannon against his house to affront him; and, being persuaded by his friends to consider that as a warning, he took their advice, and privately embarked for England. Here he continued active in the king’s service, till his majesty’s affairs were grown desperate; and then, embarking with several persons of distinction, he landed at Hamburgh on July 8, 1644. Shortly after, at the treaty of Uxbridge, the parliaments of England and Scotland made this one of their preliminary demands, that bishop Bramhall, together with archbishop Laud, &c. should be excepted out of the general pardon.

From Hamburgh he went to Brussels, where he continued for the most part till 1648, with sir Henry de Vic, the king’s president; constantly preaching every Sunday, and frequently administering the sacrament. In that year he returned to Ireland; from whence, after having undergone several difficulties, he narrowly escaped in a little bark: all the while he was there, his life was in continual danger. At Limerick he was threatened with death, if he did not suddenly depart the town. At Portumnagh, indeed, he afterwards enjoyed more freedom, and an allowance of the church service, umler the protection of the marquis of Clanrickard: but, at the revolt of Cork, he had a very narrow deliverance; which deliverance, however, troubled Cromwell so, that he declared he would have given a good sum of money for that Irish Canterburv, as he called him. His escape from Ireland is accounted wonderful: for the vessel he was in was closely chased hy two of the parliament frigates, and when they were come so near, that all hopes of escape vanished, on a sudden the wind sunk into a perfect calm, by which it happened wonderfully that his ship got off, while the frigates were unable to proceed at all. During this second time of being abroad, he had many disputes about religion with the learned of all nations, sometimes occasionally, at other times by appointment and formal challenge; and wrote several things in defence of the church of England. He likewise purposed to draw a parallel between the liturgy of the church of England, and the public forms of the protestant churches abroad; and with this view he designed to travel about. But he met with a very unexpected interruption in his first day’s journey: for he no sooner came into the house where he intended to refresh himself, but he was known and called by his name by the hostess. "While the bishop was wondering at his being discovered, she revealed the secret by shewing him his picture, and assured him there were several of them upon the road, that, being known by them, he might be seized; and that her husband, among others, had power to that purpose, which he would certainly make use of if he found him. The bishop saw evidently he was a condemned man, being already hanged in effigy; an'd therefore, making use of this intelligence, prudently withdrew into safer quarters.

Upon the restoration of the church and monarchy, he returned to England, and was from the first designed for higher promotion. Most people imagined it would be the archbishopric of York; but at last he was appointed archbishop of Armagh, to which he was translated upon the 18th of January, 1660-1. The same year he visited his diocese, where he found great disorder; some having committed horrible outrages; and many imbibed very strong prejudices, both against his person and the doctrine and discipline of the church; but, by argument, persuasion, and long suffering, he gained upon them even beyond his own expectation. His biographer affords one instance of his prudence, in turning the edge of the most popular objection of that time against conformity. When the benefices were called over at the visitation, several appeared, and exhibited only such titles as they had received from the late powers. He told them, “they were no legal titles, but in regard he heard well of them, he was willing to make them such to them by institution and induction;” which they thankfully accepted of. But when he desired to see their letters of orders, some had no other but their certificates of ordination by some presbyterian classes, which, he told them, did not qualify them for any preferment in the church. Upon this, the question arose, “Are we not ministers of the gospel r” To which his grace answered, That is not the question; at least, he desired for peace sake, that might not be the question for that time. “I dispute not,” said he, “the value of your ordination, nor those acts you have exercised by virtue of it; what you are, or might be here when there was no law, or in other churches abroad. But we are now to consider ourselves as a national church limited by law, which among other things takes chief care to prescribe about ordination: and I do not know how you could recover the means of the church, if any should refuse to pay you your tithes, if you are not ordained as the law of this church requireth; and I am desirous that she may have your labours, and you such portions of her revenue, as shall be allotted you in a legal and assured way.” By this means he gained such as were of the moderate kind, and wished to be useful. As he was by his station president of the convocation, which met upon the 8th of May, 166 1, so was he also chosen speaker of the house of lords, in the parliament which met at the same time: and so great a value had both houses for him, that they appointed committees to examine what was upon record in their books concerning him and the earl of Strafford, and ordered the scandalous charges against them to be torn out, which was accordingly done. In this parliament many advantages were procured, and more designed, for the church, in which he was very industrious. About this time he had a violent sickness, being a second fit of the palsy, which was very near putting an end to his life; but he recovered. A little before his death, he visited his diocese; and having provided for the repair of his cathedral, and other affairs suitable to his pastoral office, he returned to Dublin about the middle of May 1663. The latter end of June, he was seized with a third fit of the palsy; of which he soon died, being then 70 years old. At this time he had a trial for some part of his temporal estate at Omagh, with sir Audley Mervyn, depending in the court of claims; and there, at the time of hearing, the third fit of the palsy so affected him, that he sunk in the court, was carried out senseless, and never recovered. The cause, however, was determined in his favour.

Of his person and character, his biographer informs us that he “was of a middle stature, and active, but his mien and presence not altogether so great as his endowments of mind. His complexion was highly sanguine, pretty deeply tinctured with choler, which in his declining years became predominant, and would sometimes overflow, not without some tartness of expression, but it proceeded no farther. As he was a great lover of plain-dealing and plain-speaking, so his conversation was free and familiar, patient of any thing in discourse but obstinacy; his speech ready and intelligible, smooth and strong, free from affectation of phrase or fancy, saying it was a boyish sport to hunt for words, and argued a penury of matter, which would always find expression for itself. His understanding was very good, and greatly improved by labour and study. As a scholar, his excellency lay in the rational and argumentative part of learning. He was also well acquainted with ecclesiastical and other histories; and in the pulpit an excellent persuasive orator. He was a firm friend to the church of England, bold in the defence of it, and patient in suffering for it; yet he was very far from any thing like bigotry. He had a great allowance and charity for men of different persuasions, looking upon those churches as in a tottering condition that stood upon nice opinions. Accordingly, he made a distinction between articles necessary for peace and order, and those that are necessary to salvation; and he often declared, that the church was not to be healed but by general propositions.”

His various works, published at different times, were reprinted at Dublin in 1677, in one vol. fol. with his Life by the editor, Dr. Vesey, bishop of Limerick. His funeral sermon, with a shorter account of his life, was preached and published by Dr. Jeremy Taylor, bishop of Down and Connor, Dublin, 1663, 4to. His works are chiefly levelled at the Roman catholics and the sectaries, some of both parties, in his opinion, uniting for the destruction of the established government and church. But perhaps the most valuable part of his works is that in which he contended with Hobbes. He argued with great acuteness against Hobbes’s notions on liberty and necessity, and attacked the whole of his system in a piece called the “Catching of the Leviathan,” originally published in 1658, in which he undertakes to demonstrate, out of Hobbes’s own works, that no sincere Hobbist can be a good Christian, or a good Common-wealth’s-man, or reconcile himself to himself. For some time an answer to Milton’s “Defensio populi,” was attributed to archbishop Bramhall, but with what injustice Mr. Todd has lately shewn, in his accurate and valuable Life of Milton.

, vicar of Starting in Sussex. Of this gentleman we have only been able to discover that he was educated at Westminster-school, whence he was elected to Christ church, Oxford, in 1713, and took his degree of A. M. in that university, April 5, 1720. He died March 16, 1744. He wrote two excellent poetical satires, “The Art of Politics,” in imitation of Horace’s Art of Poetry, and “the Man of Taste,” occasioned by Pope’s Epistle on that subject; both in Dodsley’s Collection, vol. I.; and ft The Crooked Sixpence,“in imitation of Phillips’s Splendid Shilling, inserted in the” Repository,“vol. I. Dr. Warton objects to his” Man of Taste," that he has made his hero laugh at himself and his own follies. The satire, however, in other respects, is truly legitimate.

, abbe d'Aulnay, who was born in the comtat Venaissin, and died April 11, 1758, is known by several works in physics and astronomy. The abundance of words, the frequent repetitions, the great number of insignificant ideas perceived in his writings, have disgusted many readers; though they contain much excellent matter. The principal are, 1. “Letters on cosmography,” 1744, 4to. 2. “Modern system of cosmography and general physics,” 1747, 4to. 3. “Explication of the flux and reflux of the sea,” 1739, 4to. 4. “Cosmographical ephemerides,” 1750, 12mo, 5. “History or police of the kingdom of Gala,” 1754, 12mo, pretendedly translated from the Italian into English, and from English into French.

, an eminent mathematician of the seventeenth century, son of Thomas Brancker, some time bachelor of artsj,in Exeter college, Oxford, was born in Devonshire in 1636, and was admitted batler (and not butler, as some late biographical compilations blunderingly assert), of the said college, Nov. 8, 1652, in the seventeenth year of his age. In 1655, June 15, he took the degree of bachelor of arts, and was elected probationary fellow the 30th of the same month. In 1658, April 22, he took the degree of master of arts, and became a preacher; but after the restoration, refusing to conform to the ceremonies of the church of England, he quitted his fellowship in 1662, and retired to Chester: but not long after, he became reconciled to the service of the church, took orders from a bishop, and was made a minister of Whitegate. He had, however, for some time, enjoyed great opportunity and leisure for pursuing the bent of his genius in the mathematical sciences; and his skill both in the mathematics and chemistry procured him the favour of lord Brereton, who gave him the rectory of Tilston. He was afterward chosen master of the well-endowed school at Macclesfield, in that county, where he spent the remaining years of his life, which was terminated by a short illness in 1676, at 40 years of age; and he was interred in the church at Macclesfield.

Brancker wrote a piece on the doctrine of the sphere, in Latin, which was published at Oxford in 1662; and in 1668, he published at London, in 4to, a translation of Rhonius’s Algebra, with the title of “An Introduction to Algebra” which treatise having communicated to Dr. John Pell, he received from him some assistance towards improving it which he generously acknowledges in a letter to Mr. John Collins; with whom, and some other gentlemen, proficients in this science, he continued a correspondence during his life.

, secretary to the society of antiquaries, and rector of the united parishes of St. Mary-hill and St. Andrew Hubbard, in the city of London, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, about 1743, and educated at Lincoln college, Oxford, where he took his bachelor’s degree, but left college in 1774, on being presented by Matthew Ridley, esq. to the curacy of Cramlington, a chapel of ease to St. Nicholas at Newcastle, from which it is distant about eight miles. While at the university, he published a poem “On Illicit Love; written among the Ruins of Godstow Nunnery,” 1775, 4to. The spot where this poem was written is the burial-place of the celebrated Rosamond, mistress of Henry II. whose history has afforded subject for various productions both of the amorous and elegiac kind; but perhaps none in which the criminality of an unlawful passion is more forcibly exposed, or chastity recommended in a warmer strain of poetry than in this production by Mr. Brand. The sentiments are glowing and just, the imagery is animated, and the poem is in general beautiful, pathetic, and moral. Mr. Brand, however, does not appear to have much cultivated his poetical talent, and had already begun to devote himself to researches into the antiquities of his native country. In 1777 he evinced a general knowledge of ancient manners and customs, by publishing “Observations on Popular Antiquities, including the whole of Mr. Bourne’s Antiquitates Vulgares, with Addenda to every chapter of that work; as also an Appendix, containing such articles on the subject as have been omitted by that author,” 8vo. This work is dated from Westgate-street, Tyne, where the author then resided. He afterwards continued to augment his materials by subsequent and more extensive researches, and left a much enlarged edition in ms. which is now in the hands of an eminent antiquary, and is intended for publication. About the time of the publication of his “Popular Antiquities,” he was admitted a member of the society of Antiquaries, and in 1784 was presented by the duke of Northumberland, who, if we mistake not, had been his earliest friend and patron, to the rectory of St. Mary-hill. In the same year he was elected resident secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, on the death of Dr. Morell, the duties of which office he performed with uncommon ability, and to the entire satisfaction of the society, who continued to re-elect him annually until his death.

In 1789, he published “The History and Antiquities of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,” 2 vols. 4to, a very elaborate work, embellished with views of the public buildings, engraved by Fittler, at an expence of 500l. In the sale, however, from various circumstances, and particularly the death of his bookseller, he was peculiarly unfortunate, notwithstanding its high merit as a piece of local history. Mr. Brand also communicated manypapers on subjects of antiquity to the society, the principal of which are printed in the Archseologia, vols. VIII. X. XIII. XIV. and XV.

He was twice prosecuted by common informers for nonresidence, having let his parsonage-house when he went to reside in the society’s apartments at Somerset-house; although none could exceed him in the punctual discharge of his parochial duties, both on Sundays and week-days. After the late regulations respecting residence, he constantly slept in the rectory-house. He always took much exercise, and on the day before his death, had a long ramble with two much-valued friends, with whom he parted in the evening apparently in perfect health, Sept. 10, 1806. He rose next morning about seven o'clock, his usual hour, and went into his study, when his servant took him an egg, which he usually ate before he went to Somerset- house. The servant afterwards wondering at his remaining so long in his study, went into the room and found him lying on the floor lifeless. He died unmarried, and without leaving any relation except a very aged aunt. He was buried in the chancel of his church Sept. 24. In him the Society of Antiquaries sustained a very great loss. Although his publications were few, his knowledge of antiquities was very extensive, and he had accumulated a very numerous and curious library, rich in old English literature, which was sold by auction some time after his death. His manners, somewhat repulsive to a stranger, became easy on closer acquaintance, and he loved to communicate to men of literary and antiquary taste, the result of his researches on any subject in which they might require information. Many of his books were supplied with portraits drawn by himself in a style not inferior to the originals, of which they were at the same time perfect imitations. A small silhouette likeness of him is in the frontispiece to his “History of Newcastle.”

, M. A. rector of St. George the Martyr, Southwark, and vicar of Wickham-Skeith, a political writer, who has been sometimes mistaken for the subject of our last article, was, however, probably of the same age, although we have no account of his early life. He was of Caius college, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. 1766, and M. A. 1769. When he had obtained the latter degree, he wrote an ethical essay, entitled “Conscience,” intended for one of the Seatonian prizes; but an accidental delay which it met with on the road, occasioned its being presented to the vice-chancellor two days after the appointed time, and on that account it could not be admitted to the competition. Mr. Brand, however, published his poem in a quarto pamphlet in 1772, and it was allowed to possess considerable merit, but not enough to procure it a place among the favourite poems of the day. From this time we find him devoting his attention to political subjects, which produced in succession; 1. “Observations on some of the probable effects of Mr. Gilbert’s bill, with remarks deduced from Dr. Price’s account of the national debt,” 1776, 8vo. 2. “The Alteration of the Constitution of the House of Commons, and the inequality of the Land-Tax, considered conjointly,” 1793, 8vo. 3. “A Defence of the pamphlet ascribed to John Reeves, esq. and entitled ‘ Thoughts on the English government,’ addressed to the members of the loyal associations against republicans and levellers,” 1796, 8vo; a clear and methodical tract, but exceeded in general utility by, 4. “An historical essay on the principles of Political Associations in a state; chiefly deduced from the French, English, and Jewish Histories; with an application of those principles, in a comparative view of the associations of the year 1792, and that recently instituted by the Whig Club,” 1796, 8vo. 5. “A determination of the average depression of the price of wheat in war, below that of the preceding peace; and of its readvance in the following; according to its yearly rules, from the Revolution to the end of the last peace; with remarks on their greater variations in that entire period/* 1800, 8vo. 6.” A Letter to **** ******, esq. on Bonaparte’s proposals for opening a negociation for peace; in which the British guarantee of the crown of France to the house of Bourbon, contained in the triple and quadruple alliances, and renewed by the treaty of 1783, is considered; together with the conduct of our national parties relating to it,“1800, 8vo, an argument more ingenious than satisfactory, and unfortunately leading to an impracticable conclusion. 7.” A Refutation of the Charge brought against the marquis Wellesley, on account of his conduct to the nabob of Oude. From authentic documents,“1807, 8vo. This was the last of Mr. Brand’s political works. As a divine, we know only of a” Fast Sermon,“published by him in 1794, and a” Visitation Sermon," 1800. In 1797, he was presented by the lord chancellor (Loughborough) to the rectory of St. George’s in Southwark, vacant by the death of the rev. Joseph Pote, the value of which Mr. Brand procured to be increased by act of parliament, in 1807, but did not live long enough to profit by it, as he died Dec. 23, 1808, leaving a numerous family.

, a painter of portrait and history, was born at Prague, in 1660; and having spent about four years in the school of John Schroeter, principal painter at that court, a kind of jealousy of his rising merit was excited in the mind of his master, which Brandel resented, and removed from him; and at the age of about iy years, commenced a master himself. Schroeter’s jealousy is thus accounted for by one of Brandel’s biographers. When in the fourth year of his apprenticeship, he was ordered 'to paint an altar-piece, which having executed in one day, he devoted the remainder of the time allowed to his pleasures, and when his master upbraided him with this apparent negligence of his orders, he produced the picture, which excited in Schroeter equal jealousy and astonishment. Most of the churches at Prague and Breslau are embellished with his works; and the prince of Hazfeld is said to have given 100 ducats for one picture of St. Jerome at half length. He spent most of his time at Prague, where the wealth which he acquired was dissipated by profusion and irregular conduct so that he died poor, in 1739, and was buried by charitable contributions. The Jesuits and monks, however, honoured his memory by appointing for him a solemn funeral procession, in which 300 tapers of wax were carried by ecclesiastics. Brandel was distinguished by a ready invention, an expeditious manner of painting, and natural colouring, except that his shadows were sometimes too black. His pencil was broad, easy, and free.

, esq. F. R. S. and F. S. A. and a trustee of the British Museum, was a Swede by family, born about the year 172u, and brought up to trade, which he carried on so successfully as to fill the honourable office of Director of the Bank for many years; and having inherited the accumulated fortune of his uncle, Mr. Spicker, he indulged his favourite pursuits in literature and the fine arts. He had a mind strongly tinctured with the love of literature, and a heart which was always most gratified in employing his great fortune in acts of beneficence, and in forming those collections which administer to the researches of literary men. Atnong his principal curiosities was the magnificent chair in which the first emperors of Germany used to be crowned; which being taken by Gustavus Adolphus in his wars, and carried into Sweden, was brought over from thence, and purchased by Mr. Brander; and afterwards sold to lord Folkestone, on his going to Christchurch. It contained all the Roman history, from its beginning to the emperors, wrought in polished iron. In 1766 he removed from London to Westminster, and afterwards into Hampshire, where he purchased the site of the old priory at Christ- church, in removing the ruins of which several curious discoveries were made, some of which are inserted in the Archaeologia, vol. IV. Having completed his villa and gardens in this beautiful spot, commanding an extensive view of the British channel, and the Isle of Wight, he married Jan. 1780, Elizabeth, widow of John, Lloyd, vice-admiral of the blue, daughter of Gulston of Widdial, Hertfordshire and spent the greatest part of the year in the society of his friends and neighbours of the adjacent counties, and of others who visited him from London. In the winter of 1786, he had just completed the purchase of a capital house in St. Alban’s street, when he was unexpectedly seized with a strangury, which carried him off, Jan. 21, 1787.

A singular accident happened to him in 1768, which had so strong an effect upon his mind, that it infused into his character an ardent sense of piety, and a peculiar reliance upon the superintendance of Providence, both which he preserved to the last. As his carriage was passing down, Temple-lane, the horses suddenly took fright, and ran with the most violent rapidity down three flights of steps into the Thames, and would have proceeded into the middle of it, if the wheels had not been so clogged by the mud, that the horses could not drag them any further. The servant behind was so absorbed in terror, that he was unable to throw himself from the carriage; but as soon as it stopped he jumped off, and procured the assistance of some persons from a neighbouring public house, who, after disengaging the horses, pulled the carriage on shore. In consequence of the above circumstance, the present gateway at the Temple-stairs was erected to prevent any future accident of the same kind. Mr. Brander from a sense of this singular preservation, made the following bequest “Two guineas to the vicar, ten shillings to the clerk, and five to the sexton of the parish of Christ-church, for a commemoration sermon on the third Sunday in August, as an everlasting memorial, and us expressive of my gratitude to the Supreme Being for my signal preservation in 1768, when my horses ran violently down the Temple-lane, in London, and down three flights of steps into the Thames in a dark night; and yet neither horses nor carriage, myself, or servants, received the least injury; it was fortunately low water.”

To Mr. Brander, the British Museum is indebted for a capital collection of fossils found in the cliffs about Christchurch and the coast of Hampshire; which were published at his expence, in a thin quarto volume, entitled “Fossilia Hantohiensia collecta, et in Museo Britannico deposita, a Gustavo Brander,” 1766. Of these curious fossil-shells, collected pat of the cliffs between Christ-church and Lymington, very few are known to be natives of our own, or indeed of any of the European shores; the greater part, upon a comparison with the recent, are wholly unknown to us. The copper-plates are exact draughts, en^ -aved from the originals, by the late Mr. Green. To the figures were annexed a scientific Latin description by Dr. Solander (whilst composing a scientific catalogue of all the natural productions in the British Museum), and a prefatory account of these phenomena in Latin and English. Mr. Bra;ider also communicated an account of the effect of lightning on the Danish church in Wellclose-square, Phil. Trans, vol. XLIV. And from a ms. in his possession, “The Forme of Cury” was printed for private use, with notes by the rev. Dr. Pegge, for whose fine portrait, by Basire, we are likewise indebted to Mr. Brander’s munificence. It yet remains to be noticed that he was one of the first supporters of the society for the encouragement of arts.

, a painter, was born at Poli, not far from Rome, in 1633, and studied in the school of Lanfranc. The greater part of the churches and palaces at Rome were embellished by his pencil. His best pictures arc his “St. Rocco,” in the church of Ripatta, and the “Forty Martyrs” in the Stigmata. An imagination full of fire, a great facility, a feeble and incorrect colouring, characterise his performances. He worked with uncommon rapidity, always preferring his pleasures and money to fame. He died at Rome in 1691, aged 58, prince of the academy of St. Luc, and chevalier of the order of Christ. His daughter was married to the celebrated Rosa da Tivoli, of whom Giacinto conceived a mean opinion, because he painted only beasts. By this contemptuous behaviour Rosa was so incensed, that he collected all the clothes belonging to his bride, on the morning after marriage, and sent them back to her father with a message, “that his daughter’s person was fortune enough to make her husband happy; and that a good painter of beasts was as likely to become rich, as a bad painter of men.”

, considered in the Helvetic school as an artist of the first rank, was born at Basil, in 1661. He acquired the knowledge of design by studying and copying some good punis which were in the possession of his father; and from the appearapce of his having a strong natural talent, he was placed as a disciple with Caspar Meyer. When he quitted Basil, he went to Paris, and had the good fortune to be received into the school of Le Brun and the variety of works in which that eminent master was employed, proved an excellent means of instruction to the young artist. He so pleased Le Brun by the progress he made, that he was intrusted with several designs, under the immediate inspection of that great painter; but the particular respect and preference shewn by the master to the disciple, excited the envy and jealousy of others to such a degree, as might have been attended with unhappy consequences, if Brandmulier had not retired to his own country; though not before he had obtained the prize in the royal academy at Paris. He excelled in history and portrait, and his genius resembled that of Le Brun; his subjects being full of fire, and treated with elevation and grandeur. His design is correct, and his expression animated and just. He had a good method of colouring, laying on each mass in so proper a manner as to avoid breaking or torturing his tints; which made his colours retain their original beauty and strength without fading. He was fond of painting portraits in an historical style, and was generally commended for the resemblance of the persons who were his mpdels, and the agreeable taste in his compositions. He died in 1691, aged only thirty.

, the eldest of a family who have made some figure in Swisserland, was a native of Biberach, in Suabia, where he was born in 1533. He imbibed the principles of the reformation from CEcolampadius, and became himself a preacher in various reformed churches. In 1576 the magistracy of Basil bestowed the rank of citizenship on him and his posterity, and in 1581 he was appointed professor of Hebrew in that city. He had studied medicine and law, as well as divinity, but confined himself chiefly to the latter, which he taught for many years at Basil, where he died in 1596. He wrote many funeral discourses, or “consciones funebres,” as they were called, taken from the Old and New Testament, which were printed at Basle, in 1752, and some dialogues in the German language. We have seen only a part of the former, entitled “Consciones Funebres,” Hanov. 1603, 8vo.

, son of the preceding, was born in 1565, was master of arts in 1585, and two years after, professor of poetry at Basil. In 1589 he received a call from the church of Oberweiller, and preached there for upwards of forty years. When Buxtorf went home to Westphalia, Brandtnuller officiated for him as Hebrew professor: he died Nov. 1, 1629, after having published “Analysis typica librorum Veteris et Novi Testamenti,” Basil, 1621, and 1622, 3 vols. 4to. The first two were by Moses Phlacer, and that only which contains the epistles and the apocalypse, by Brandmuller.

, grandson of James, the subject of the last article, followed the profession of the law, in which he became very eminent. He was born at Basil, Sept. 1617, and was educated partly in that city, and partly at Montbeliard. After taking his master’s degree, in 1634, he applied particularly to the study of civil law, but without neglecting philology and philosophy. According to the custom of his countrymen, he travelled fot some time in France, England, Holland, and Germany, where he became acquainted, and established a correspondence with the literati of those countries, particularly with Salmasius. In 1649 he was made doctor of laws, and in 1652 professor of the institutes at Basil: and fourteen years afterwards professor of the Pandects. He was also twice rector of the university. His reputation brought a great concourse of students thither, particularly foreigners, and his agreeable conversation and temper not a little contributed to increase the number of his pupils. Besides his fame as a lawyer, he was not less esteemed for his acquaintance with Roman antiquities and polite literature in general. It is said he wrote verse with as great facility as prose, but his talents in versification have probably been over- rated. He had more reputation from his success as a teacher, and the perspicuous manner in which he lectured on subjects of law. He died Sept. 1677, leaving several professional works “Dispntationes de lege” “Manuductio ad jus canonicum et civile” “Dubia Juridica,” &c.

, of a noble family of Florence, in the fifteenth century, was surnamed Lippus, on account of the loss of his sight, which did not, however, prevent his becoming a scholar of much reputation, and an orator, musician, and poet. His fame procured him an invitation from Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, to teach oratory, which he accepted, and taught at the university of fiada. After returning to Florence, he took the habit of the friars of St. Augustin, was made priest some time after, and preached to numerous auditories. He died of the plague at Rome, in 1497. Wonders are told of his powers of extempore versification, and he is classed among the first of the improvisator!. As to his preaching, Bosso says that those who heard him might fancy they listened to a Plato, an Aristotle, and a Theopfcrastus; he is yet more extravagant in noticing his extempore effusions. The circumstance, says he, which placed him above all other poets, is, that the verses they compose with so much labour, he composed and sang impromptu, displaying all the perfections of memory, style, and genius. At Verona, on one occasion, before a numerous assemblage of persons of rank, he took up his lyre, and handled every subject proposed in verse of every measure, and being asked to exert his improvisitation on the illustrious men of Verona, without a moment’s consideration or hesitation, he sang the praises, in beautiful poetry, of Catullus, Cornelius Nepos, and Pliny the elder; nay, he delivered in the same extempore manner all the subjects in Pliny’s thirty-seven books of natural historj r without omitting any one circumstance worthy of notice. Whatever credit may be given to these prodigies, his works prove him to have been a man of real learning. The principal of these are: 1. “Libri duo paradoxorum Chris ­tianorum,” Basil, 1498, Rome, 1531, Basil, 1543, and Cologn, 157,3. 2. “Dialogus de humanae vitae conditione et toleranda corporis aegritudine,” Basil, 1493, and 1543, and Vienna, 1541. 3. “De ratione scribendi Epistolas,” Basil, 1498, 1549, Cologn, 1573. Among his manuscripts, which are very numerous, Fabricius mentions one “de laudibus musicae.” Julius Niger mentions also some works of his on the laws commentaries on St. Paul’s epistles, and the Bible histories, in heroic verse, but, whether printed, does not appear.

, a learned ecclesiastical historian, was born at Amsterdam, July 2 5, 1626, and after having made distinguished progress in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, philosophy, and divinity, he was invited to be pastor of a church of remonstrants at Nieukoop, where he married Susanna, daughter of the celebrated professor Gaspard Barleus. In 1660, he came to Hoorn, and in L667 to Amsterdam. He died Oct. 11, 1685, leaving two sons, both excellent scholars, Caspar and Gerard. He wrote in German, 1. “A short history of the Reformation,” and of the war between Spain and the Netherlands, until 1600, Amst. second edit. 1658, which has a continuation, in the form of a chronicle, until that year. 2. Also in German, “A history of the Reformation in the Low Countries, &c.” 4 vols. 4to, 1671, and following years, a work of which the pensionary Fagel said to bishop Burnet, that it was worth while to learn German on purpose to read it. The English public, however, has been long acquainted with it, in a translation in 4 vols. fol. 1720, & seqq. The translator was John Chamberlayne, whom Foppen has converted intoRichardCumberland, merely that he may add,with true Popish bigotry, that he was “pseudo-episcopus Petro^ burgensis.” Brandt’s history was also abridged in 1725, in English, in 2 vols. 8vo, apparently from a French abridgement. Ruleus or Ruillius, a minister of the reformed church, having attacked some parts of his history, Brandt published an apology. 3. “A history of Enkhuisen,” a celebrated mercantile town. 4. “The Life of De Ruyter,” the celebrated Dutch admiral, Amst. 1684, fol. translated into French, ibid. 1690. 5. “Historical Diary,” with biographical notices of eminent men, Amst. 1689, 4to. 6. “Poemata,” Rotterdam^ 1649, 8vo. 7. “Poemata sacra et prophana,” Amst. 1638, 4to, and 1726, in. 2 vols. 8. “Historia judicii habiti annis 1618 and 1619^ de tribus captivis, Barnevelt, Hogerbeets, et Grotio,” Rotterdam, 1708, and 1710, 4to, with some other works, enumerated by Foppen, and Adrian a Cattenburg in his “Bibl. Scriptorum Remonstrantium.”

, eldest son of the preceding, was born in 1653, at Nieukoop, educated at Hoorn and Amsterdam, and studied philosophy and divinity under Philip Limborch. After passing the usual examinations, he was licensed, in 1673, to the office of the ministry at Schoonhoven, where he remained tiiree years. He then removed to the Arminian congregation at Hoorn; to Alomar, in 1631; Rotterdam, in 1683; and finally to Amsterdam, where he died in 1696. He published some sermons and religious tracts in German, and in Latin the lives of Grotius and Arminius; the latter was republished at Brunswick, with a preface and notes by Mosheim, in 1725, 8vo.

, second son of Gerard, and brother to the preceding, was born in 1657. (Saxius says 1653, which is the year of the preceding), at Nieukoop, and studied with his brother for eight years, philosophy and divinity under Limborch, to which he joined the knowledge of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Italian, French, and English. He was minister at Schoonhoven, at Dokkum, and at Rotterdam, where he died at the age of twenty-six, but Saxius says thirty, in 1683. He translated Dr. HeyJyn’s Quinqu articular History, or History of the Five Articles. In 1678, he published in German, without his name, and with only the letters V. T. V. a history of events in Europe for the years 1674 and 1675, and sixtyfive sermons.

, the youngest son of Gerard, and brother to the two preceding, was born at Nieukoop, July 6, 1660, 'and having gone through his divinity course, was chosen minister at Warmont in 1682, whence he was, the following year, invited to Hoorn. He was afterwards called to the Arminian church at the Hague, and some time after that, to Amsterdam, where he died Jan. 13, 1708. He wrote in German a life of St. Paul, 1695, 4to; a funeral oration on Mary queen of England, and a treatise against Leidekker. In 1702 he published a collection of letters, “Clarorum virorum Epistolae centum ineditae de vario eruditionis genere, ex museo Joan. Brandt, G. F. Gerardi filii,” comprising some from Nich. Heinsius, Grotius, Guy Patin, Huet, Rabelais, &c. He wrote also some poems.

, or Brantz, a learned philologer, was born at Antwerp in Sept. 1554, and after receiving the early part of his education at home, studied philosophy at Louvain. The troubles in the Netherlands obliging him to remove to France, he took that opportunity to study law at Orleans under John and William Fournier, and then at Bourges under the celebrated Cujacius. After travelling for some time in Italy, he settled at Brussels, and for five years practised as an advocate; but in 1591 was invited to Antwerp, and appointed secretary to the city, which office he discharged for more than thirty years with much reputation, and there he died iti 1639. He was considered as a man of great learning, modesty, and candour, laborious in his own studies, and always desirous of assisting others in theirs. His motto was “Libenter, Ardenter, Constanter,” not inapplicable to a man of studious industry. His principal works were, 1. “Notae cum Politico turn CriticiE in C. Julii Cæsaris et A. Hirtii Commentaries,” with the text of Cæsar in Greek and Latin, &c. Francfort, 1606, 4to, the same year in which Jungerman’s edition appeared, which is said to have been the first in which theGreek translation of the commentaries was published, but none of our bibliographers have noticed this contemporary edition by Brandt. 2. “Elogia Ciceroniana llomanoruni domi militiaque illustrium,” Antwerp, 1612, 4to. This contains biographical notices of the eminent political and military Romans, extracted from the works of Cicero, and in his words. Brandt intended to have compiled a volume on the same plan, respecting the orators, poets, and philosophers mentioned by Cicero, but this, if ever executed, has not been printed. 3. “Vita Philippi Rubenii,” with Rnbenius* posthumous works, 1615, 4to. 4. “Senator, sive de perfect! et veri Senatoris officio,” ibid. 1633, 4to. 5. “Spicilegium Criticum in Apuleium,” 1621, &c.

, a lawyer, poet, and historian, was born at Strasburgh, in 1448, and after prosecuting his first studies in that city, removed to Basil, where he took his master’s degree in arts, and superintended the education of youth, as public professor, both at Basil and Strasburgh. Here he arrived at the highest honours of the law, being made count Palatine, and counsellor and chancellor of Strasburgh. He died in 1520, leaving a great many works on subjects of law and'divinity, some volumes of poetry, and the celebrated “Ship of Fools,” which has chiefly perpetuated his memory. It was originally written in the German language. Locher, his disciple, tran shite d it into Latin, Strasburgh, 1497, 4to. A French translation of it by Bouchet and Riviere, was published at Paris, in small folio, in the same year, entitled “La nef des folz du monde.” Our countryman Alexander Barclay (See Barclay) was the author of the English metrical version printed by Pynson in 1509. The bibliographical history of Brandt’s work may be seen in our authorities.

, or, as some call him, Sebastian, a German chemist, much addicted to the fanciful researches of the period in which he lived, was born in 1458, and died in May 1521. Leibnitz, in the Melanges de Berlin for 1710, cited by Chaptal, in his “Elements of Chemistry,” vol. III. p. 350, mentions Brandt as a chemist of Hamburg, who, during a course of experiments upon urine, with a view of extracting a fluid proper for converting silver into gold, discovered phosphorus in 1667, or, as others say, in 1669. He communicated his discovery to Kraft, who imparted it to Leibnitz, and, as it is pretended, to Boyle. Leibnitz, says Chaptal, introduced Brandt to the duke of Hanover, before whom he performed the whole operation; and a specimen of it was sent to Huygens, who shewed it to the academy of sciences at Paris. It is said that Kunckel had associated himself with Kraft to purchase the process from Brandt; but Kunckel having been deceived by Kraft, who kept the secret to himself, knowing that urine was made use of, set to work, and discovered a process for making the substance and hence it has been called Kunckel’s phosphorus.

, a famous physician, was born at Ferrara, in 1500, of a noble family. His knowledge was not confined to medicine. In consequence of his having maintained at Paris, for three days successively, theses “de omni scibile,” the surname of Musa was given him by Francis I. He was physician to that prince, who made him chevalier of the order of St. Michael; to the emperor Charles V. who bestowed on him the title of count palatine; and to Henry VIII. of England. He was not of less consequence in his own country. Successively first physician to the popes Paul III. Leo X. Clement VII. and Julius III. cherished and favoured by all the other princes of Italy, and particularly the dukes of Ferrara, he was proceeding in this brilliant career, when he died at Ferrara in 1555, at the age of 55, after having long been a professor of medicine there with universal applause; leaving a great number of works, principally on medicine, and among others, 1. “Commentaries on the aphorisms of Hippocrates and Galen,” printed at Basle, in 1542, folio. 2. “Index refertissimus in Galeni libros,” Venice, 1623, fol. which Castro, in his Biblioth. Med. styles “opus indefessse elucubrationis & utilitatis inexplicabilis.”

, whom Warton calls one of the minor pastoral poets of the reign of James I. was the second son of Thomas Brathwaite, of Warcop, near Appleby, in Westmoreland, descended of a respectable family. He was born in 1588, and at the age of sixteen became a commoner of Oriel-college, Oxford, being matriculated as a gentleman’s son, and a native of Westmoreland. While he continued in that college, which was at least three years, Wood informs us, that “he avoided as much as he could the rough paths of logic and philosophy, and traced those smooth ones of poetry and Roman history, in which, at length, he did excel.” He afterwards removed to Cambridge, where he spent some time “for the sake of dead and living authors,” and then going into the north, his father gave him the estate of Barnside, where he lived many years, having a commission in the militia, and being appointed deputylieutenant in the county of Westmoreland, and a justice of peace. In his latter days he removed to Appleton, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, where he died May 4, 1673, and was buried in the parish church of Catterick, near that place, leaving behind him, says Wood, the character of a “well-bred gentleman, and a good neighbour.” Wood has enumerated as his publications: 1. “Golden Fleece, with other poems,” Lond. 1611, 8vo. 2. “The Poet’s Willow, or the passionate shepherd,” ibid. 1614, 8vo. 3. “The Prodigal’s Tears, or his farewell to vanity,” 1614, 8vo. 4. “The Scholar’s Medley, or an intermixt discourse upon historical and poetical relations, &c.” 1614, 4to. 5. “Essays upon the Five Senses,” 1620, 8vo, 1635, 12mo. 6. “Nature’s Embassy, or the wild man’s measures, danced naked by twelve Satyrs,” 1621, 8vo. To these are added, Divine and moral essays, Shepherds’ tales, Odes, &c. 7. “Time’s curtain drawn: divers poems,” 1621, 8vo. 8. “The English Gentleman,” 1630, 1633, 1641, 4to. 9. “The English Gentlewoman,” 1631, 1633, 4to; 1641, fol. 10. “Discourse of Detraction,” 1635, 12mo. 11. “The Arcadian Princess, or the triumph of justice,” 1635, 8vo. 12. “Survey of History, or a nursery for gentry; a discourse historical and poetical,” 1638, 4to. 13. “A spiritual Spicery, containing sundry sweet tractates of devotion and piety,” 1638, 12mo. 14. “Mercurius Britannicus, or the English intelligencer,” a tragi-comedy, acted at Paris, and a satire upon the republicans, 16-H, second edit. 4to. 15. “Time’s Treasury, or Academy for the accomplishment of the English gentry in arguments of discourse, habit, fashion, &c.” 1655, 1656, 4to. 16. “Congratulatory poem on his Majesty, upon his happy arrival in our late discomposed Albion,” 1660, 4to. 17. “Regicidium,” a tragi-comedy, 1665, 8vo. To these Mr. Ellis has added “Panedone, or health from Helicon,” 1621, 8vo; and Mr. Malone thinks that “The description of a Good Wife, or a rare one among women,” 1619, 8vo, was also his. Specimens of the former are given by Mr. Ellis, and of the latter, by Mr. Park, in the Censura Literaria. Mr. Ellis’s specimens of Brathvvaite’s powers as a poet are, perhaps, less favourable than some given by Mr. Dibdin in his Bibliomania, from the “Arcadian Princess.” It appears to us, that in his poetry, as in his prose, he excels’most as a painter of manners, a subject which he had studied all his life, and of which he delivered some of the earliest precepts. His style, however, must still render his works more acceptable to the curious, than to the common reader.

, in Latin Braunius, Bruinus, or Brunus, was archdeacon of Dortmund, and dean of Notre Dame at Cologne, and flourished about the beginning of the seventeenth century. He wrote a “Latin oration against the Fornicating Priests,” 1566 5 a Life of Jesus Christ, and another of the Virgin Mary, and some controversial works against the reformed churches; but he is best known by his magnificent work, “Civitates orbis terrarum in aes incisse et excusce, et descriptione topographica, morali, politica, illustrate,” 6 vols. large fol. with five coloured plates by Hohenberg and Hoeft'nagel, 1572, &c. reprinted in 5 vols. 1612. He died in 1622.

, was second son of sir Richard Bray, one of the privy council to king Henry VI. who lies buried in the north aile of Worcester cathedral, in which county sir Reginald was born. One of this family (which were lords of Braie, or Bray, in Normandy) came with William the Conqueror into England, where they flourished in the counties of Northampton and Warwick; but Edmond, the father of sir Richard, is styled of Eton Bray, in the county of Bedford, which county they had represented in parliament in 18 Ed. I. and 6 Ed. II. In 1 Rich. III. this Reginald had a general pardon granted to him, probably on account of his having taken part with Henry VI. to whose cause he had a personal as well as hereditary attachment being receiver- general to sir Henry Stafford, who married Margaret, countess of Richmond, mother to the earl of Richmond, afterward king Henry VII. and continued in her service after the death of sir Henry, and was put in trust for her dowry, on her marriage to Thomas, earl of Derby. When the duke of Buckingham had concerted with Morton, bishop of Ely (then his prisoner at Brecknock in Wales), the marriage of the earl of Richmond with the princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward I V. and the earl’s advancement to the throne, the bishop recommended sir Reginald for the transaction of the affair with the countess, telling the duke he had an old friend with her, a man sober, secret, and well-witted, called Reginald Bray, whose prudent policy he had known to have compassed matters of great importance; and accordingly wrote to him in Lancashire, where he then was with the countess, to come to Brecknock with all speed. He readily obeyed the summons, entered heartily into the design, and was very active in carrying it on; and soon engaged sir Giles Daubeney (afterwards lord Daubeney), sir John Ciieney, Richard GuiUbrd, esq. and many other gentlemen of note, to take part with Henry. After the success at Bosworth, he gradually rose into great favour with the king, who eminently distinguished and liberally rewarded his services. His attachment to that prince was sincere and uriremitted; and such were his ptudence and abilities, that he never forfeited the confidence he had acquired, during an attendance of seventeen years on the most suspicious monarch of his time. He was made a knight banneret, probably at the battle of Bosworth; a knight of the bath at the king’s coronation, and afterwards a kni“ht of the garter. In the first year of the kind’s reign he had a grant of the constableship of the castle of Oakham in Rutlandshire, and was appointed joint chie‘ justice, with the lord Fitzwalter, of all the forests south of Trent, and chosen of the privy council. After this he was appointed high-treasurer, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and nigh steward of the university of Oxford. At the queen’s coronation, the ducliess of Norfolk, &c. sat at one side-table at the other, lady Ferrars, v>f Chartley, lady Bray, &c. At the christening of prince Arthur, sir Reginald bore a rich salt of gold which was given by the earl of Derby. He was amongst the knights bannerets when Henry, the king’s second son, was created duke of York in 1494. In the 7th year of the king, he by indenture covenanted to serve him in his wars beyond sea a whole year, with twelve men, himself accompted, each having his custrell and page, twenty-four demy lances, seventy-seven archers on horseback, two hundred and thirty-one archers, and bil’.es on foot twenty-four. In the 10th year he had a grant for life of the Isle of Wight, castle of Carisbrook, and the manors of Swainston, Brixton, Thorley, and Welow, in that isle, at th^ rent of 308l. 6s. 8rf. Camden mentions the grant of the Isle of Wight at the rent of 300 marks. In June 1497 he was at the battle of Blackheath, when the lord Audley, having joined the Cornish rebels, was taken prisoner; on whose execution and attainder, his manor of Shire Vachery and Crap ley in Surry, with a large estate there, was given to sir Reginald. He received many other marks of the king’s bounty and favour, and died 5th August 1503, possessed of a very great estate; notwithstanding which, and his activity as a minister, under a monarch whose love of, money was the cause of great and just complaints amongst the people, historians call him the father of his country, a sage and grave person, a fervent lover of jusuce, and one who would often admonish the king when he did any thing contrary to justice or equity. That he should do this, and the king still continue his favour, is an ample proof of the sense which his sovereign entertained of his services and abilities. He appears to have taken great delight in architecture, and to have had no small skill in it, as he had a principal concern and direction in building Henry Vllth’s chapel in Westminster-abbey, and in the finishing and bringing to perfection the chapel of St. George at Windsor, to which he was a liberal benefactor in his life-time, and for the completion of which he made farther provision by his will. His arms, crest, and device (R. B.) are exhibited on the cieling of the chapel at Windsor in many places; and in the middle of the south aile is a spacious chapel erected by him, and still called by his name, in which also, by his own particular direction, he was interred, though his executors neglected to erect a tomb for him, as he desired. Perhaps they thought his merit would be the most lasting monument. It is supposed that he is buried under the stone which covers Dr. Waterland; for, on opening the vault for that gentleman, who died in 1740, a leaden coffin, of ancient form and make, was found, which by other appearances also was judged to be that of sir Reginald, and was, by order of the dean, immediately arcned over with great decency. He was of great devotion, according to the piety of the times, and a bountiful friend, in his life-time, to many churches. In one of the letters of the dean and chapter of Westminster, John, abbot of Newminster in Northumberland, addresses him as founder of the monastery of Pipwell (in Northamptonshire); but this must be on account of some donations, as that house was founded by William Boutevileyr in 1143. In 1494, being then high steward of Oxford, he gave 40 marks to repair the church of St. Mary’s, in a window of which were the figures of him and his wife kneeling, their coats of arms on their backs, remaining in 1584. The dean and chapter of Lincoln, in recompence for his services to them, receive him and my lady his wife to be brother and sister of their chapter, and to be partakers of all suffrages, prayers, masses, fastings, almsdeeds, and other good deeds, whatever they be, done in the said church, both in their lives and after their deceases. The prior of the cathedral church of Durham receives him in like manner. In a south window of the priory church of Great Malvern in Worcestershire, were the portraits of Henry VII. Elizabeth his queen, prince Arthur, sir Reginald Bray, John Savage, and Thomas LoveJ), esquires, with their coats of arms on their armour, and the following words underneath:” Orate pro bono statu nobilissimi et excellentissimi Regis Henrici Septimi et Elizabeths Reginse, ac Domini Arthuri Principis filii eorundem, nee not) praedilectissimae consortis suoe, ac suorum trium militum." The portraits of the king and sir Reginald remained in 1774, and are engraved in Mr. Strutt’s View of the Arms and Habits of the English, vol. II, plate 60. The others have been broken and destroyed. He had no issue, and his elder brother John having only one daughter, married to sir William Sandes, afterwards lord Sandes of the Vine, he left the bulk of his fortune to Edmund, eldest son of his younger brother John (for he had two brothers of that name). This Edmund was summoned to parliament in 1530, as baron of Eaton Bray; but his son John lord Bray dying without issue in 1557, the estate was divided amongst six daughters of Edmund. Sir Reginald left very considerable estates to Edward and Reginald, younger brothers of Edmund. From Edward the manor of Shire Vachery and Cranley, above mentioned, has descended to the rev. George Bray, who was owner in 1778. Reginald settled at Barrington in Gloucestershire, where the male line of that branch became extinct about sixty years ago.

, D.D. an eminent learned and pious divine of the seventeenth century, was born at Marton in Shropshire, in 1656, where his parents were persons of good reputation. His infancy discovering promising parts, he was early sent to the school at Oswestry, in the same county, and his close application to school-learning, determining his parents to dedicate him to religion and learning, he was entered of Hart-hall, Oxford. Here he soon made a considerable proficiency in divinity, as well as other studies necessary for the profession for which he was intended: but, labouring under the common disadvantages of a narrow fortune, his circumstances not permitting a longer residence at Oxford, he left the university soon after he had commenced bachelor of arts. Much about this time he entered into holy orders; and the first duty he had was that of a parish near Bridgenorth in Shropshire, his native county, from which curacy he soon removed into Warwickshire, officiating as chaplain in sir Thomas Price’s family, of Park-hall, and had the donative of Lac Marsin given him by sir Thomas, which proved very advantageous; for living now in the neighbourhood of Coieshill, his exemplary behaviour, and distinguished diligence in his calling, introduced him into the acquaintance of Mr. Kettlewell, sir Charles Holt, and the lord Simon Digby. One incident which contributed to establish his character at this juncture, was his preaching the assize sermon at Warwick, on which occasion Mr. Bray, though but young, acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the whole audience, particularly the lord Digby, who was afterwards pleased to honour him with many proofs of his friendship and esteem, recommending him to the worthy and honourable patronage of his brother, the fifth lord Digby, who some time after gave him the vicarage of Over-Whitacre in the same county, since augmented, by his patron’s uncommon generosity, with the great tithes. In 1690, the rectory of Sheldon being vacant, by Mr. Digby Bull’s refusing to take the oaths at the revolution, his lordship presented Mr. Bray to it; which preferment he held till about a quarter of a year before his death, when he resigned it by reason of his advanced age, and the known worth and abilities of his appointed successor, the Rev. Mr. Carpenter. Dec. 12, 1693, he took his master of arts degree in Hart-hall, Oxford. In this parish of Sheldon he composed his “Catechetical Lectures,” a work which met with general approbation and encouragement, and produced to him the sum of 700l. This publication, which drew him out of his rural privacy to London, determined Dr. Compton, bishop of London, to pitch upon him as a proper person to model the infant church of Maryland, and establish it upon a solid foundation. Accordingly, in April 1696, he proposed to Mr. Bray to go, on the terms of having the judicial office of commissary, valued, as was represented to him, at four hundred pounds per annum, conferred upon him, for his support in that service. Mr. Bray, disregarding his own interest, and the great profit which would have arisen from finishing his course of lectures on the plan he had formed, soon determined, in his own mind, that there might be a greater field for doing good in the Plantations, than by his labours here, and no longer demurred to the proposal, than to inquire into the state of the country, and inform himself what was most wanting to excite good ministers to embark in that design, as well as enable them most effectually to promote it. With this view he laid before the bishops the following considerations: That none but the poorer sort of clergy could be persuaded to leave their friends, and change their native country for one so remote; that such persons could not be able sufficiently to supply themselveswith books; that without such a competent provision of books, they could not answer the design of their mission; that a library would be the best encouragement to studious and sober men to undertake the service; and that, as the great inducement to himself to go, would be to do the most good of which he could be capable, he therefore purposed, that if they thought fit to encourage and assist htm in providing parochial libraries for the ministers, he would then accept of the commissary’s office in Maryland. This proposal for parochial libraries being well approved of by the bishops, and due encouragement being promised in the prosecution of the design, both by their lordships and others, he set himself with all possible application to provide missionaries, and to furnish them with libraries, intending, as soon as he should have sent both, to follow after himself. But, upon his accepting of this employment of commissary of Maryland, it fell to his share to solicit at home whatever other matters related to that church, more particularly to the settlement and establishment thereof, which he laboured to promote with unwearied diligence, and spared neither expence or trouble. But, above all, it was his greatest care, to endeavour to send over to Maryland, and the other colonies, pious men, of exemplary lives and conversations, and to furnish those whom he had a hand in sending, with good libraries of necessary and useful bdbks, to render them capable of answering the ends of their mission, and instructing the people in all things ecessary to their salvation. The sense of the clergy and inhabitants, with respect to these'important services, was testified by the solemn letters of thanks, returned him from the assemblies of Maryland, from the vestries of Boston and Baintrie in New England, from Newfoundland, Rhode Island, New York, Philadelphia, North Carolina, Bermudas, and by the acknowledgments of the royal African company, on account of those procured for their factories. About the same time it was, that the secretary of Maryland, sir Thomas Lawrence, with Mr. Bray, waited on the then princess of Denmark, in behalf of that province, humbly to request her gracious acceptance of the governor’s and country’s dutiful respects, in having denominated the metropolis of the province, then but lately built, from her royal highness’s name, Annapolis: and Mr. Bray being soon after favoured with a noble benefaction from the same royal hand, towards his libraries in America, he dedicated the first library in those parts, fixed at Annapolis, and which had books of the choicest kind belonging to it, to the value of four hundred pounds, to her memory, by the title of the Annapolitan Library, which words were inscribed on the several books. Another design was also set on foot, much about the same time, by Dr. Bray, to raise lending libraries in every deanery throughout England and Wales, out of which the neighbouring clergy might borrow the books they had occasion for, and where they might consult upon matters relating to their function, and to learning. Upon this, many lending libraries were founded in several parts of the kingdom, besides above a hundred and fifty parochial ones in Great Britain and the plantations, from ten to fifty pounds value, those in South Britain being afterwards secured to posterity, by an act of parliament passed for that purpose in 1708. Soon after, upon the repeated instances of the governor and some of the country, Mr. Bray was at the charge of taking the degree of doctor of divinity, which, though it might be of some use, as procuring a certain degree of respect, did then but ill comport with his circumstances. He took his degrees of bachelor of divinity, and doctor, together, by accumulation, not of Hart hall where he was entered, but of Magdalen college, Dec. 17, 1696. Soon after, the better to promote his main design of libraries, and to give the missionaries directions in prosecuting their theological studies, he published two books, one entitled, “Bibiiothee* Paroctnalis or, a Scheme of such Theological and other heads, as seem requisite to be perused, or occasionally consulted by the reverend Clergy, together with a catalogue of books, which may be profitably read on each of those points,” &c. The other, “Apostolic Charity, its nature and excellency considered, in a discourse upon Daniel xii. 3. preached at St. Paul’s, at the ordination of some Protestant Missionaries to be sent into the plantations. To which is prefixed, a general view of the English colonies in America, in order to show what provision is wanting for the propagation of Christianity in those parts, together with proposals for the promoting the same r to induce such of the clergy of this kingdom, as are persons of sobriety and abilities, to accept of a mission.” During this interval, viz. in the year 1697, a bill being brought into the house of commons to alienate lands given, to superstitious uses, and to vest them in Greenwich hospital, he preferred a petition to the house, that some share thereof might be appropriated for the propagation of religion in the Plantations, and that the same should be vested in a body politic, to be erected for that purpose; which petition was received very well in the house, and a fourth part of all that should be discovered, after one moiety to the discoverer, was readily and unanimously allotted by the committee for that use, it being thought by far more reasonable, to appropriate some part at least of what was given to superstitious uses, to uses truly pious, than altogether to other, though charitable purposes: but the bill was never suffered to be reported. In the year 1698, failing of a public and settled provision by law, for carrying on the service of the church in Maryland, and the other plantations, he addressed his majesty for a grant of some arrears of taxes due to the crown; and some time after, was obliged to be at the charge and trouble of going over to the king in Holland, to have the grant completed. The recovery of these arrears of taxes was represented as very feasible and very valuable, and also without any grievance *o the subject: but as they proved troublesome to be recovered, so they were scarcely of any value. All designs failing of getting a public fund for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, he thereupon formed a design, of which he then drew the plan, of having a Protestant confregation, pro jide propaganda, by charter from the king, ut this he was obliged to defer till a more favourable opportunity. However, to prepare the way for such a charlet-society, he soon after made it his endeavour, to find worthy persons ready to form a voluntary society, both to carry on the service already begun for the Plantations, and to propagate Christian knowledge as well at home as abroad, hoping afterwards to get such a society incorporated. This he laid before the bishop of London, in the year 1697, and a society was constituted on this plan; and though the design of having them incorporated by charter could not then be brought to bear, yet they still subsisted and acted as a voluntary society. But their number and benefactions at last increasing, a different constitution and more extensive powers appeared necessary for the success of the undertaking: application was therefore made, by Dr. Bray, to his then majesty king William, for his royal charter. The doctor’s petition to his majesty, with other papers relating to the corporation to be erected for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, was read May 5, 1701; and his majesty’s letters patent, under the great seal of England, for erecting a corporation, by the name of “The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts,” was laid before the society, and read the ninth of June following. He received no advantage all this time from his commissary’s place in Maryland; neither was any allowance made him at home, or preferment give him, to support the charge of living altogether in town, to solicit the establishment and endowment of the church of Maryland, and to provide missionaries for that and all the colonies on the Continent; which, excepting Virginia, lay upon him; all the benefactions that were received being to be laid out to raise them libraries, which also he did faster than money came in to answer the charge. This being observed by some of his friends, they endeavoured to persuade him to lay his design of going abroad aside, and take two good preferments that were then offered him at home, of as good or better value than what was proposed to him in Maryland, viz. that of sub-almoner, and the donative of Aldgate, in the city of London. But he declined all offers that were inconsistent with his going to Maryland, as soon as it should become proper for him to take that voyage. By the year 1699, having waited upwards of two years for the return of the act of religion from Maryland, with such amendments as would render it without exception at the court of England; and it being presumed by his superiors, that it would be requisite the doctor should now hasten over, as well to encourage the passing of that act in their assemblies, as to promote other matters for the service of religion there, it was signified to him from them that they would have him take the opportunity of the first ship; and indeed, the doctor having, by this time, tried all ways he could think of, and done all he was able to do here, to serve those parts, and according to proposal having provided Maryland, as also many other colonies, with a competent number of missionaries, and furnished them with good libraries, to be fixed in the places where they were sent, to remain there for ever, he was himself eager to follow, and did so accordingly, even, in the winter, though he had no allowance made him towards his charge of the voyage, and the service he was to do; but was forced to dispose of his own small effects, and raise money on credit to support him. With this poor encouragement, and thus, on his own provision, he took the voyage, December 16, 1699, and set sail from the Downs the twentieth of the same month; but was driven back into Plymouth-sound on Christmas-eve, and remained in harbour almost all the holydays, where his time was not unusefully spent, in the recovery of a tolerable library there out of dust and rubbish, which was also indebted to him for a benefaction of books and where he left a proposal for taking in subscriptions to make it a sea- port library, for the use of missionaries and sea-chaplains, as well as others. After an extremely tedious and dangerous passage, the doctor arrived at Maryland the twelfth of March, where he applied himself immediately to repair the breach made in the settlement of the parochial clergy; in order to which he consulted, in the first place, the governor, whom he found ready to concur in all proper methods for the re-establishment of their maintenance. Before the next assembly, which was to be in May following, he sent to all the clergy on the western shore, who only could come together in that season, to learn from them the disposition of the people, and to advise with them what was proper to be done, in order to dispose the members of the assembly to re-enact their law next meeting. Soon after he had dismissed their clergy, he made his parochial visitation, as far as it was possible for him at that season; in which, he met with very singular respect from persons of the best condition in the country, which the doctor turned to the advantage of that poor church. During the sessions of the assembly, and whilst the re-establishment of the church was depending, he preachod very proper and seasonable sermons, with a tendency to incline the country to the establishment of the church and clergy; all which were so well received, that he had the thanks of the assembly, by messages from the house. The doctor was providentially on such good term* with the assembly, that they ordered the attorney-general to advise with him in drawing up the bill; and that he himself might be the better advised in that case, he sent for the most experienced clergy within reach, to suggest to him, what they found would be of advantage to them and the church, to be inserted in, or left out of it; by which means the constitution of that church had much the advantage of any in America. It may not be amiss to observe in this place, that as well during the general court or assize, which preceded the assembly, and lasted thirteen days, as during the sessions of the assembly itself, he was under a necessity of entertaining the gentlemen of the province, who universally visited him; a charge, however, which he thought requisite as circumstances then were, that he might strengthen his interest in them, the better to promote the establishment of the clergy’s maintenance. The bill being prepared, passed with a nemiilt contradicente; but it was on all hands declared and confessed, that it was very providential that Dr. Bray came into the country at that juncture. Soon after the assembly was up, the commissary cited the whole clergy of the province to a general visitation at Annapolis, to be held May 22, 1700. At the close of this visitation, the clergy taking into consideration, that the opposition of the Quakers against the establishment of that church would in all probability continue, so as to get the law for its establishment so lately re-enacted, annulled again at home, they entered into debates, whether it would not be of consequence to the preservation and final settlement of that church, that the doctor should be requested to go home with the law, and to solicit the royal assent. It had been before voted, at the passing the bill in the house of burgesses, that he should be desired to request his grace of Canterbury, and the bishop of London, to favour that good law, by obtaining his majesty’s royal assent to it with all convenient speed; and the members who gave him an account of passing their vote, told him withal, that it was the general opinion of the house, that he could be most serviceable by waiting personally on their lordships, rather, than by letters, in which he conld not crowd all that might be necessary to be represented concerning the then state of the church, and the necessity, at that time, of their utmost patronage: and it was in debate, whether this should not be the desire of the assembly; but it was thought too unreasonable a request from them, who were sensible of the great danger and fatigue he had already been at in the service of that province, as they had a few days before acknowledged by a message of thanks from that house. Such were the sentiments of the members of the assembly, as to the necessity of his coming home to solicit the establishment of that church; and the clergy meeting at their visitation, some weeks after, represented to him, as the earnest desire of the more sensible persons throughout the country, as well as of the assembly-men, that he should go over with the law for England; being aware that its opponents would make the utmost efforts against the establishment of that church, by false representations at home of the numbers and riches of their party, and by insinuating, that to impose upon them an established maintenance for the clergy, would be prejudicial to the interest of the province, by obliging so many wealthy traders to remove from thence, the falsity of which, or any other suggestions, they thought him best able to make appear, by the information he had gained from this visitation, There were also many other advantages to the church in those parts, which they proposed by his coming home at that time, upon the consideration of all which he took his voyage soon after. He was no sooner arrived in England, but he found their apprehensions in Maryland'not ill grounded; but the objections raised against the plan, Dr. Bray refuted, by a printed memorial, representing truly the state of the church of Maryland, to the full satisfaction of all to whom it was communicated. The quakers’ opposition to the establishment now depending, was carried by united councils and contributions; but the doctor refuted their specious objections by unanswerable reasons, and placed the affair in such an advantageous light, that his majesty decided, without any appearance of hesitation, in the church’s favour, and gave the royal assent in these remarkable words: “Have the Quakers the benefit of a toleration? let the established church have an established maintenance.” This chargeable and laborious undertaking having swallowed up the doctor’s own small fortune, lord Weymouth generously presented him with a bill of 300l. for his own private use, a, large portion of which the doctor devoted to the advancement of his farther designs. Though he was vested with the character of commissary, yet no share of the revenue proposed was annexed to it; and his generosity even induced him to throw in two sums of fifty pounds each, that were presented to himself in Maryland, towards defraying the charges of their libraries and law. After the return of Dr. Bray from thence in 1701, he published his “Circular Letters to the Clergy of Maryland,” a memorial, representing the present state of religion on the continent of North America, and the acts of his visitation held at Annapolis; for which he had the thanks of the society above mentioned. Not only the bishop of London approved entirely of all these transactions, but also the archbishop of Canterbury declared, that he was well satisfied with the reasons of Dr. Bray’s return from the West Indies, and added, that his mission thither would be of the greatest consequence imaginable to the establishment of religion in those parts. In 1706, he had the donative of St. Botolph without Aldgate offered him again, which he then accepted of, worth about 150l. per annum. In the year 1712, the doctor printed his “Martyrology; or, Papal Usurpation,” in folio. That nothing might be wanting to enrich and adorn the work, he established a correspondence with learned foreigners of the first distinction, and called in the assistance of the most eminent hands. This work consists of some choice and learned treatises of celebrated authors, which were grown very scarce, ranged and digested into as regular an history as the nature of the subject would admit. He proposed to compile a second volume, and had, at no small expence and pains, furnished himself with materials for it; but he was afterwards obliged to lay the prosecution, of his design aside, and bequeathed by will his valuable collection of Martyrological Memoirs, both printed and manuscript, to Sion college. He was, indeed, so great a master of the history of popery, that few authors could be presumed able, with equal accuracy and learning, to trace the origin and growth of those exorbitant claims which are made by the see of Rome. He was happily formed by nature both for the active and for the retired life. Charity to the souls of other men, was wrought up to the highest pitch in his own: every reflection on the dark and forlorn condition of the Indians and negroes, excited in his bosoin the most generous emotions of pity and concern. His voyage to Holland, to solicit king William’s protection and encouragement to his good designs, and the proofs he gave of a public spirit and disinterested zeal, in such a series of generous undertakings, obtained him the esteem of M. d‘Allone of the Hague, a gentleman not more celebrated for his penetration and address in state affairs, than for a pious disposition of mind. An epistolary correspondence commenced very early between him and the doctor upon this subject; the result of which was, that M. d’Allone gave in his life-time a sum to be applied to the conversion of negroes, desiring the doctor to accept the management and disposal of it. But that a standing provision might be inade for this purpose, M. d'Allone bequeathed by will a certain sum, viz. 900 pounds, out of his English estate, to Dr. Bray and his associates, towards erecting a capital fund or stock, for converting the negroes in the British plantations. This was in the year 1723, much about which time Dr. Bray had an extremely dangerous fit of illness, so that his life and recovery were despaired of. In the year 1726, he was employed in composing and printing his “Directorium Missionarium,” his “Primordia Bibliothecaria,” and some other tracts of the like kind. About this time he also wrote a short account of Mr. Rawlet, the author of “The Christian Monitor;” and reprinted the Life of Mr. Gilpin. Some of these were calculated for the use of the mission; and in one he has endeavoured to shew, that civilizing the Indians must be the first step in any successful attempt for their conversion. In his “Primordia Bibliothecaria,” we have several schemes of parochial libraries, and a method laid down to proceed by a gradual progression, from a collection not much exceeding one pound in value, to one of a hundred. His attention to other good works occasioned no discontinuance of this design, the success of which was so much the object of his desires; and accordingly benefactions came in so fast, that he had business enough upon his hands to form the libraries, desired. As trie furnishing the parochial clergy with the means of instruction, would be an effectual method to promote Christian knowledge, so another expedient, manifestly subservient to the same end, would be, he thought, to imprint on the minds of those who are designed for the ministry, previously to their admission, a just sense of its various duties, and their great importance. With a view to this, he reprinted the “Ecclesiastes of Erasmus.” In the year 1727, an acquaintance of Dr. Bray’s made a casual visit to Whitechapel prison; and his representation of the miserable state of the prisoners had such an effect on the doctor, that he immediately applied himself to solicit benefactions in order to relieve them; and he had soon contributions sufficient to provide a quantity of bread, beef, and broth, on Sundays, and now and then on the intermediate days, for this prison and the Borough compter. To temporal, he always subjoined spiritual, provisions; and to enure them to the most distasteful part of their office, the intended missionaries were here employed in reading and preaching. On this occasion that scene of inhumanity was imperfectly discovered, which afterwards some worthy patriots of the house of commons took so much pains to inquire into and redress. Being now far advanced in years, and continually reminded of his approaching change, by the imbecility and decays of old age, he was desirous of enlarging the number of his associates, and adding such to them, ^in whose zeal and integrity he might repose an entire confidence. His inquiry into the state of the gaols, made him acquainted with Mr. (afterwards general) Oglethorpe, who accepted the trust himself, and engaged several others, some of the first rank and distinction, to act with him and the former associates. In short, most of the religious societies and good designs in London, owe grateful acknowledgment to his memory, and are, in a great measure, formed on the plans he projected; particularly the society for the reformation of manners, charity schools, and the society for the relief of poor proselytes, &c. The doctor having thus happily lodged his principal designs in the hands of able managers, departed this life February 15, 1730, in the seventy-third year of his age, leaving issue a son and daughter.

Besides the works above mentioned, the accurate editor of the new edition of his life, informs us that he printed “Proposals for the encouragement and promoting of religion and learning in the foreign plantations,” in a folio sheet with the addition of “The present state of Maryland.”

, of Nizza, an artist who flourished from 1483 to 1513, may be considered as the founder of the primitive Ligurian school Genoa and its states still possess many of his works. Though inferior in taste to the best contemporaries of other schools, meagre in design, and attached to gilding, he yields to none in characteristic beauty of heads, and a vivacity of colour, which has defied time. The folds of his draperies are natural, his composition has propriety, his attitudes spirit, his plans are uncommon. He possesses an originality which clears him from all suspicion of imitation, or deference to another school; all this is to be understood of small proportions, for on large dimensions it does not appear that he ever ventured. The most praised of his relics are a “Murder of the Innocents” at St. Agostino; and a “St. John,” in the oratory of the Madonna di Savona.

, a French poet, was born at Torigniin Lower Normandy, 1618. He was distinguished chiefly by a translation of Lucan; which, notwithstanding its inflated style, its numerous antitheses, and its various false brilliancies, continued to be long admired. It engaged attention and applause so powerfully at first, that cardinal Mazarine made great promises of advancement to the translator; but died without fulfilling them. But the l>est and the most popular of his works is, the first book of Lucan travestied, an ingenious satire upon the great, who are described as never losing a moment’s sight of their greatness and titles; and upon the meanness and servility of those who, with a view of making their fortunes, submit to flatter them as gods. It is said of Brebeuf,. that he bad a fever upon him for more twenty years. He died in 1661, aged 4S; and, if the last anecdote of him be true, it is somewhat marvellous that he lived so long.

, a painter of landscapes and cattle, was born at Antwerp in 1630; studied landscape after nature, and adorned his designs with figures, correctly drawn and judiciously grouped. His icenes are generally enriched with elegant Roman buildings, fountains, monuments, and ruins. His style, though, inferior, resembled that of John Brueghel. He died in. 1681.

, a painter of history, landscape, and conversations, was born at Antwerp in 1683, and instructed by his father Alexander Van Breda, who was much esteemed as an artist, with whom he continued, profiting by good example and advice, till he was 18 years of age. Having established his reputation in Holland, he accompanied Rysbrack the sculptor to London, where he was highly esteemed and obtained considerable patronage, and particularly that of the earl of Derwentwater, who was beheaded for rebellion in 1715. In London he was much employed by the court and nobility, and was hardly able to supply the demands for his performances. From London, after a residence of five years, he returned to Antwerp, much enriched; and in 1746, when Louis XIV. visited that city, he honoured this master by purchasing four of his pictures; viz. “Christ at the sea of Tiberias,” “Christ performing miracles,” and “two landscapes.” He certainly approached nearer to those great masters whose manner he imitated, Brueghel and Wouwermans, than any other artist of his time. His landscapes are in the style and taste of the former; and his conversations, historical figures, fairs, and battles, are in the manner of the latter. He died in 1750.

, a painter and engraver, was born at Utrecht in 1620, and went, at an early period, for improvement to Rome, where the society of Flemish painters, called Bentvogels, distinguished him by the appellation of Bartolomeo. Among the superb ruins and beautiful objects, in and about the city, he acquired an elegant taste; and he peculiarly excelled in landscapes, which he enriched with historical subjects. The figures and animals, which he introduced, were elegantly disposed, and executed with spirit and freedom: especially when they were not larger than the small size, in which he usually painted them. His manner, particularly with respect to colouring, gradually improved; hia touch is light and spirited, his tone of colouring very pleasing, his taste altogether of the Roman school, and his pictures are distinguished both by force and delicacy. The draperies of his figures, which are gracefully proportioned and designed, are easy and ornamental, and in his smallest figures, the expression is lively, sensible, and natural. His pictures are exceedingly rare, and highly valued. We have of his etching a set of 24 views, and landscapes, ornamented with ruins, &c. from his own designs. Sir Robert Strange had an excellent small picture of Breenberg’s, a view of the monument of Caecilia Metella, situated near the banks of the Tiber, a few miles distant from Rome. The foreground is beautifully enriched with figures, and the whole painted with great transparency. The sky in particular is penciled with an elegance which exceeds any thing of the kind in the works of Wouwermans. Breenberg died in 1660.

, neice of the learned Saumaise (Salmasius), was one of the ladies of honour to queen Anne of Austria. She was distinguished at that court by her beauty and her wit; both of which she preserved to an advanced age, and died at Paris, April 13, 1693, at the age of 74. She wrote a collection of letters and verses, 1688, 12mo, in which we meet with many ingenious thoughts; her verses almost entirely turn on a metaphysical love, which employed her mind more than her heart. But there are several pieces that are not of this description. In one of them she gives the following portrait of herself: “I am fond of praise; and this it is that makes me repay it with usury to those from whom I receive it. I have a proud and scornful heart; but this does not prevent me from being gentle and civil. I never oppose the opinions of any; but I must own that I never adopt them to the prejudice of my own. I may say with truth that I am by nature modest and discreet, and that pride always takes care to preserve these two qualities in me. I am indolent; I never seek pleasures and diversions, but when my friends take more pains, than I do to procure them for me. I feel myself obliged, and I appear at them very gay, though I am not so in tact. 1 am not much given to intrigue, but if I should get into an affair of that sort, I think I should certainly bring myself off with some propriety. I am constant, even to obstinacy, and secret to excess. In order to contract a friendship with me, all advances must be made by the ther party; but I amply compensate all this trouble in the sequel: for I serve my friends with all that ardency usually employed in selfish interests. I praise them, and I defend them, without once consenting to what I may hear against them. I have not so much virtue as to be free from the desire of the goods of fortune and honours; but I have too much for pursuing any of the ways that commonly lead to them. I act in the world conformably to what it ought to be, and too little according to what it is.”

This lady, whose article we have retained from the former edition, principally on account of her character, a tolerable specimen of the vanity of a Frenchwoman, married M. de Flecelles, count de Bregy, lieutenant-general in the army, counsellor of state, envoy extraordinary in Poland, and afterwards embassador in Sweden.

, whom Meister calls the greatest reformer of the Swiss schools which the last century produced, was born at Zurich March 1, 1701, and after going through a course of academical instruction, was admitted into orders in 1720. The space which usually intervenes between the ordination of young ministers and their establishment in a church, he employed principally in the study of the ancient authors, familiarizing himself with their language and sentiments, an employment which, like Zuinglius, he did not think unworthy of the attention of an ecclesiastic. Persius was his favourite poet, whom, he studied so critically as to furnish the president Bouhier with some happy elucidations, which the latter adopted, Breitinguer, however, was not merely a verbal critic, and considered such criticism as useful only in administering to higher pursuits in philosophy and the belles-lettres. The “Bibliotheque Helvetique” which he and Bodmer wrote, shews how criticism and philosophy may mutually assist each other. He formed an intimacy with Bodmer in early life, (see Bodmer), and both began their career as reformers of the language and taste of their country. Breitinguer found a liberal patron in the burgomaster Escher, who himself proved that the study of the Greek language is a powerful counterpoise to a bad taste, and was the person who encouraged Breitinguer principally to produce a new edition of the Septuagint translation. In 1731 he was chosen professor of Hebrew, and in ordeir to facilitate the study of that language to his pupils, he wrote his treatise on the Hebrew idioms. Some time after he was appointed vice-professor of logic and rhetoric, and from that time began the reformation which he thought much wanted in the schools, with a treatise “De eo quod nimium est in studio grammatico,” and a system of logic in Latin and German, which soon took the place of that ofWendelin. He contributed also various papers to the “Tempe Helvetica,” and the “Musaeum Helveticum,” and at the request of the cardinal Quirini drew up an account of a ms. of the Greek psalms which was found in the canons’ library. He published also the “Critical art of Poetry.” His biographer bestows great praise on all those works, and different as the subjects are, assures us that he treated each as if it had been the exclusive object of his attention. His literary acquaintance was also very extensive, and he numbered among his correspondents the cardinals Passionei and Quirini, the president Bouhier, the abbe“Gerbert de St. Blaise, with Iselin, Burmann, Crusius, le Maitre, Vernet, Semler, Ernesti, &c. But he chiefly excelled as a teacher of youth, and especially of those intended for the church, having introduced two regulations, the benefit of which his country amply acknowledges. The one was that young divines should preach, in turn, twice a week, on which occasion the sermon was criticised by the whole body of students, aided also by Breitinguer’s remarks. The other respects an institution or society of Ascetics, as they were called. This was composed of the clergy, who assembled at stated hours, to discuss subjects relative to their profession, and compose sermons, prayers, hymns, &c. Some of them also were employed in visiting the hospitals, others qualified for schoolmasters, and all were to assist the poor with advice or pecuniary aid. Breitinguer also prepared a catechism for the young, on an improved plan, and a little before his death, published” Orationes Carolina? d'Hottinguer,“dedicated to Semlin. He continued his active exertions almost to the last hour of his life, being present at an ecclesiastical council, on Dec. 13, 1776, but on his return was seized with an apoplexy, of which he died the following day. Breitinguer had as much learning as Bodmer, though not as much natural fire; and was an excellent critic. To the works already noticed, we may add his” Diatribe historico-Jiteraria in versus obscurissimos a Persio Satir. I citatos," 1740, 8vo. His edition of the Septuagint, in 4 vols. 4to, wa.t published at Zurich, (TigUnim,) 1730. The text is accurately compiled from the Oxford edition of Grabe: to which are added at the bottom of each page the various readings of the Codex Vaticanus. Nothing is altered except a few typographical errors, and some emendations of Grabe, which did not coincide with the editor’s opinion. The clearness of the type and beauty of the paper recommend it to the reader’s attention; and the care, accuracy, and erudition displayed throughout the work, may entitle it to bear, away the palm even from Grabe’s edition. Such at least is the opinion of Masch.

, an ingenious printer, letter-founder, and bookseller of Leipsic, was born in that city, Nov. 23, 17 It. An accidental perusal of a work by Albert Durer, in which the shape of the letters is deduced from mathematical principles, appears to have suggested to him some valuable improvements in the art of casting types, which gave his printing-office and foundery great reputation. He was also the first who cast musical types, now so common, although they possess so little of the beauty or -accuracy of copper-plates as to be seldom used. He also contrived to print maps with moveable types, and even to cQpy portraits by the same means, but neither of these were found of much utility. He was better employed in 1793, in endeavouring to print the Chinese characters on moveable types, and succeeded so far as to exhibit specimens, which were much admired. He is said also to have discovered some improvements in the composition of type-metal, and the process of melting and casting, but what these were he concealed. He died Jan. 28, 1794. In 1774, he published a small treatise, containing a refutation of the opinion of those who pretend that printing was first employed at Florence, Wirtzburg, or Antwerp. In 1784, he published the first part of a work, entitled “An Attempt to illustrate the origin of Playing-cards, the introduction of paper made from linen, and the invention of engraving on wood in Europe.” The latter part of this work was finished, but not published, before his death. His last publication was a small “ Treatise on Bibliography, &c.” published in 1793, and containing extracts from his larger works, with his reasons for retaining the present German characters, and a refutation of some assertions respecting typography.