In the year 1660, lie published his " New Expe riments Physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air." This work was translated into Latin, and attacked by Franciscus Linus, and Thomas Hobbes, and defended by himself in a second edition. From this time, few if any years passed, in which the world was not indebted to the labours of Mr Boyle. A catalogue of his works, in the order of publica tion, would afford no common proof of assiduity and success in prosecuting inquiries into nature ; and this evidence, though ample, is defective, as many of his papers were lost ; some in the fire of London, some stolen, and others injured by corrosive liquor, from a phial which his servant unfortunately let fall among them. Of the importance of his annual communi cations, no just estimate can be formed from a cur sory notice of the subjects : the Philosophical Trans actions are enriclved with many of them, and for the entire catalogue, reference must be made to his works. Though Mr Boyle engaged in in vindi cation of his first discoveries, he appears rather to have shunned than sought occasions of that sort. In the conflict betwixt the members of the Royal So ciety, and the adherents to the old school of philo sophy, he took no greater share than was unavoid able, Irom the nature of his pursuits, and the ne cessiLy of justifying the results of them when they were given to the public. Phis was a duty which he owed to himself and to science ; and in the dis charge of it, his candour, love of ti uth, purity, and simplicity of motive, were so apparent, that none of the acrimony, of which the combatants were suffici ently liberal, fell upon him personally. In the con troversy that was occasioned by the pretensions of Mr Valentine Greatraks, he did not think fit to stand loath as a public disputant on either side, though, as appears from his correspondence with Mr Henry Stubbe, his thoughts were much occu pied about it. Mr Greatraks was the forerunner of those ingenious gentlemen, who have more recently persuaded themselves that they had the power of ef fecting cures without the aid of medicine, by means of certain sympathies, whose action they have named animal magnetism. His integrity was undoubted ; his disinterestedness could not be questioned, as his practice was gratuitous ; and many facts, said to be well-attested, were produced in evidence of his ex traordinary powers. Mr Boyle was prepared, by his habits of thinking, and his chemical pursuits, not to reject any fact, however new to his own experi ence, which offered itself to his notice, with suffici em credentials of its truth, for no better reason than his own inability to explain the natural process on which it depended ; and his sentiments on the pre sent occasion ought to be considered as the conse quence, not of the credulity either of ignorance or superstition, but of the habitual modesty of the philosopher. His opinion on the subject of alchemy should be regarded in the same light. Having stea dily opposed the theoretic philosophy, it is not sur prising, that, at the dawn of chemical discovery, he did not think himself warranted in pronouncing the transmutation of metals impossible, because irrecon cileable with any of the crude theories of which he had shewn the futility. That he was far from a con viction of the impossibility of such a transmutation may be inferred, from his having employed his influ ence in procuring the repeal of the statute of Henry IVth. against the multiplying of gold and silver.
Mr Boyle continued to reside at Oxford during the Protectorate ; and though after the Restoration he was distinguished by many flattering attentions, both from the king and his ministers, the lords Southampton and Clarendon, he declined making any use of their patronage with a view to power or emolument ; and though he might confidently have looked forward to the possession of. the highest ec
clesiastical honours, he refused to comply with press ing solicitations to enter into holy orders. His reso lution on this subject remained fixed ; though, upon the death of Dr John Meredith, he was nominated, by the king, Provost of Eton College. He chose rather to decline an appoini went for which he thought taking orders a necessary qualification. Tile piety of his character leaves no doubt, that this reluctance proceeded front his high sense of the importance of cler ical duties, his devo,ion to scientific labours, and his opinion of the unlawfulness of becoming a mem ber of such a proles ion, without proposing to resign himself to its service.
Atter a residence of 14 years at Oxford, Mr Boyle removed to London, in the year 1668, and established himself in the house of his sister, lady Ranclagh, in Pall Mal., with whom he remained till her death, and survived her only one week. Not withstanding his resolution to accept no situation of high trust, either in church or state, he was induced, in several instances, by his zeal for the promotion of Christian knowledge, to accede to several appoint ments of less distinction. In 1662, a grant of the for feited impropriations was obtained in his name, but without his knowledge, which he applied to the ser vice of learning and religion. He was also appoint ed Governor of the Corporation for propagating the Gospel in New England. \Vith a view to furthering the same design in the East, he was many years a Di rector of the Last India Company.
In 1664, he was elected into the Society of Royal Mines ; and, in 1680, he was elected President of the Royal Society, but declined the honour ; and, in a letter to Mr Hooke of Gresham College, as signed his particular feeling on the subject of oaths as the reason of his refusal.
Mr Boyle did not possess a firm constitution. In his eleventh year, his studies were interrupted by ague; as early as his 21st year, he had a severe fit of the stone, from which disease he suffered much in the course of his life; and in his 44th year, he was shaken by a paralytic distemper, which was at length subdued by strict regimen. The general state of his health was indeed such, that he found it ne cessary to adjust his clothing by the varying states of the thermometer. Notwithstanding every pre caution, at the age of sixty, he became sensible of a rapid decay of strength, and judged it therefore ne cessary to make a more economical arrangement of time, and to concentrate his labours. With this view, he made known, by public advertisement, his reason for declining the greater number of visits with which he was honoured, and caused a board to be fixed to his door, which expressed the hours on which visits were received. And such was the sim plicity and modesty of his character, that this sin gularity drew upon him no imputation of vanity and ostentation. Mr Boyle had the satisfaction of see ing the liberties of his country placed upon a lasting basis; he survived the sera of the Revolution about two years. His sister, to whom he was very warm ly attached, and with whom he principally lived for nearly 47 years, died on the 23d of December, and himself on the 30th, 1691. His body was interred near that of his sister, at the south side of the chancel of St Martin's in the Fields.
Of his person, which was tall and slender, with a pale and sickly countenance, two portraits remain, one taken in his 38tn year, which is copied in the title-page of the quarto edition of his works ; the other was exe, uteu in the latter part of his life. It was it) the collection of Dr Mead, and is supposed to be the same that is now placed in the meetnig-room of the Royal Society.