Mr. Boyle, regarded as a philosopher, appears en titled to a place in the very first rank. He shone as the morning star of physical science ; and not only were several Important discoveries the result of his very accurate expel intents, but machines of the great est value, and of constant use in experimental philo sophy, were either invented or improved by him. Of this number were the air pump, the thermometer, and the hydrometer.
As a man of letters, his attainments were con siderable. Dr Burnet, who preached his funeral sermon, declares, that his knowledge was of prodi gious extent ; that he was master of the learned and of several oriental languages, and deeply versed in mathematical science. If we may judge, however, from his publications at a more advanced period, of some of his juvenile productions, written in a very faulty style, his taste never reached the true point of refinement. If, indeed, as Mr Evelyn pretends, his Seraphic Love was composed when his imagina tion was kindled with the love of a mortal, the daughter of the Earl of Monmouth, as he informs us, its production is very well accounted for. His " Occasional Reflections on several Subjects," which were written in his youth, were published when he was near forty, and lurnished Swift with an occasion of satire, in his Meditations on a Broomstick, in the manner of Mr Boyle. Swift hasteen severely cen sured for this attack by many of Boyle's admirers ; but if the authority of the name of Boyle was great, it was the more necessary that a false and puerile taste should not find protection in his example. Mr Boyle, whose income was liberal, was a generous and disseminating patron. Dr Robert Sanderson, after wards Bishop of Lincoln, was among the number of his beneficiaries. In consideration of the losses which he had sustained in the royal cause, Mr Boyle settled upon him an annual stipend of 501. A condition was
annexed, that he should prepare a number of cases of conscience for the public, and ten lectures were in consequence published, which had been delivered in Latin, and were now in their present form dedicated to his patron. The piety of Mr Boyle was fervent and active, and its operation was always liberal and benevolent. It has been remarked, in proof of the strength of his religious feelings, that a short pause always preceded his expression of the name of God. It may he doubted, however, whether he tnought it necessary to make such a punctilious indication of that veneration of his Maker, which was better dis played in every action of his life ; and it is not un likely that this report in a mistake, wilt h is very well accounted for by the habitual pauses and impediment in his speech ; the letter 8- was pro bably one of difficult enunciation.
The manners of this great man are described, such as his letters would lead us to suppose, mild, amiable, and unassuming, displaying an unwillingness to in flict pain himself; and a disposition to protect the defenceless from rude and unfeeling raillery. Such was the delicacy of his constitution, that, notwith standing every aid of regimen and strict abstinence, he was often very seriously indisposed, subject to great depression of spirits, and did not survive the 65th year. He lived, however, long enough to leave to posterity a lasting monument of his in dustry, fidelity, and success, in the pursuits of sci ence ; of his zeal and consistency in the service of religion, and of a character adorned with the best social virtues.—See Birch's Life of Boyle, (London 1743) the materials of which were taken principally iron Mr Boyle's account of himself, under the name of Philocetus, and Burnet's Funeral Sermon.
M.)