writings of Lord Bacon, Des Cartes, Galileo, and all the profoundest philosophers of the age. In 1649, he commenced B.A.; in 1652, he proceeded M.A., and in the same year was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford. After his election to a fellowship in Trinity college, he was so discouraged at the aspect of the times towards the episcopal clergy, that he turned his attention to the medical profession, and pursued with great vigour the study of anatomy, botany, and chemistry. On further consideration, however, and consultation with his uncle, he abandoned the study of medicine, and resumed the profession of divinity. It is said that the reading of Scaliger upon Eusebius directed his attention to astronomy, as a science essentially necessary in the study of chronology; and that his application to astronomy made him a student of the mathematics in which he afterwards attained such extraordinary eminence. About this time he was an unsuccessful competitor for the professorship of Greek, then vacant by the resignation of Duport. It is said that his Arminianism was the cause of his defeat. In the year 1655 he set out on his travels into foreign countries, having sold his books to defray his expenses. In Paris he found his father an attendant upon the English court; and, as one of the doctor's biographers tell us, "out of his small viaticum, he made his father a seasonable present." After staying some months in France, he visited Italy, and at Florence availed himself of the opportunity of consulting the ducal library. The plague then raging at Rome, he was prevented from visiting the eternal city, so that he took shipping at Leghorn and sailed for Smyrna. The vessel was attacked by an Algerine corsair; on which occasion Barrow came on deck, and fought manfully through the whole action, until their obstinate defence compelled the pirate to abandon the attempt. Of this voyage and combat he has given us a long poetical narrative in hexameter and pentameter verse. At Constantinople, Barrow read through the works of Chrysostom, whose diocese was there prior to the irruption of the Turks. For the writings of this father he always entertained the highest esteem. He returned to England by way of Venice, and through Germany and. Holland. Soon after his return he was ordained by Brownrigg, bishop of Exeter,-a prelate whose works, in two volumes folio, attest the vigour of his understanding and the depth of his learning. At the time of the Restoration it was expected by Barrow and his friends that something would have been done for him; but our most religious sovereign the king' was too deeply occupied with court-harlequins and prostitutes to remember any thing so insignificant as piety and learning. It was at this time that Barrow wrote his well-known epigram,

"Te magis optavit rediturum, Carole, nemo,

Et nemo sensit, te rediisse minus."

Though far from adopting the Cartesian physics, he thus speaks of the French philosopher in an essay bearing this title, Cartesiana hypothesis haud satisfacit præcipuis Nature Phoenomenis:' "Renatus Cartesius, vir procul dubio optimius atque ingeniosissimus, ac serio philosophus, et qui videtur ad philosophiae hujus contemplationem ea attulisse auxilia, qualia fortassis nemo unquam alius; intelligo eximiam in mathematicis peritiam; animum natura atque assuefactione meditationis patientissimum; judicium præjudiciis omnibus et popularium errorum laqueis exutum, extricatumque; ne memorem incomparabile ingenii acumen, et facultates quibus præstabat eximiis tam clare et distincti cogitandi, quam mentem suam paucis verbis admodum plene ac dilucide explicandi.”

In 1660 he was elevated to the Greek professorship at Cambridge. He delivered a course of lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric; "of which," says Hill, "I can only say, that some friend (to himself, I mean,) thought fit to borrow, and never to return those lectures." In 1661 he took the degree of B. D. The following year he was appointed, on the recommendation of Dr Wilkins, to the professorship of geometry in Gresham college; where he not only filled his own chair with distinguished ability, but also lectured on astronomy in the absence of his colleague, Dr Pope. In 1663 he was chosen fellow of the Royal Society in the first election of members after their incorporation. In the same year he was appointed to the then recently instituted Lucasian professorship of mathematics at Cambridge, when he resigned the Greek chair in that university, as well as his situation in Gresham college. After discharging the duties of this office with great ability for nine years, he resigned it to his illustrious pupil, Mr, afterwards Sir Isaac Newton; and, for the remainder of his life, applied himself wholly to divinity. He was created doctor of divinity in 1670. Two years after he was raised to the mastership of Trinity college; on which occasion the king observed, that " he had given it to the best scholar in England." On receiving this appointment he resigned a small living in Wales, previously bestowed upon him by his uncle, the bishop of St Asaph, and a prebend in Salisbury cathedral, to which he had been presented by Ward, bishop of Salisbury. Of these preferments he had always distributed the profits in charity. A few years after he was made vice-chancellor of the university. In the month of April, 1677, he was seized with a fever, which terminated his life on the fourth of May following. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his friends erected a monument to his memory, exhibiting a Latin epitaph from the pen of Dr Mapletoft. Dr Barrow is described as short in stature, of a pale conracxion, but possessed of great muscular strength. His character was a beautiful asseinblage of virtues: intrepid firmness, incorruptible integrity, a perfect simplicity of life and manners, a courtesy and cheerfulness which no charge of eirecmstances seems to have inpa red, a native modesty unspoiled by all his great abutes and ac quirements, and a serious party arising ent of the profoundest conviction of the truth and value of religion. Of his humanity the following characteristie anecdote is preserved. Walking about the premies of a mend in the evening, he was attacked by a ferce mastif, wich was left unebained at night, and had not becctie acquainted with the Doeter's person. He struggled with the dog and threw in dewe; but when on the point of stranging him, he rodected that the animi vis or y doing his duty in seizing a stranger; Kewich, therefore, he did not deserve to die. As de furst not loose his bold lest the dog savoud sede and tear 3 m. be laid à usif down on the animal and there remained a son- cne came to 's assistance. Dr Barrew is sad to have been extreme DR R of his person & Gr100 erous story is reccried in the Bleranda Britannica. anecdote of is reembat' with Lurt Rester

yours to the antipodes." Determined not to be outdone, his lordship blasphemously added, "Doctor, I am yours to the lowest pit of hell;" on which Barrow turned on his heel and said, " And there, my lord, I leave you." In speaking of the intellectual powers of Barrow, and commenting upon his works, it is difficult to do anything like justice to the subject, without seeming to run into the extravagances of inflated and unmeaning panegyric. Yet he may be safely pronounced one of the most remarkable men of any age or nation. As a mathematician, he is, unquestionably,

"If not first, in the very first line;"

deserving honourable mention even in the age of Newton and Leibnitz, of Pascal and the two Bernoullis. After all the improvements in the exact sciences to which later times have given birth, his mathematical lectures may still be read, even by accomplished geometers, with instruction and delight. In particular they display extraordinary insight into what may be called the metaphysics of mathematical science. The theological writings of Barrow-which were most of them published after his death-consist principally of sermons; containing, however, two longer treatises of great value, on the Pope's supremacy, and the Unity of the Church. His sermons are truly extraordinary performances; and, intellectually considered, are, in our judgment, beyond comparison superior to those of even his greatest contemporaries. We can willingly spare the ever-blazing imagination of Taylor, the wit and elegance of Louth, the rough originality of Hall and Donne, and the nervous rhetoric of Chillingworth, in one who every where displays a gigantic grasp of intellect, an exuberant fecundity of thought and illustration, a closeness of logic, and a sustained majesty of style, for which, in their combination, we know not where else to look. He possessed beyond all men, since the days of Aristotle, the power of exhausting a subject. Hence Le Clerc says of his sermons, that they are treatises or exact dissertations, rather than harangues to please the multitude. The discourses on the duty of thanksgiving, on bounty to the poor, on the folly and danger of delaying repentance, on faith, and on the Trinity, may be instanced as among his finest. His description of facetiousness, (in the sermon against foolish talking and jesting,) which Dr Johnson considered the finest thing in the language, is both too long and too well-known to be quoted here. We shall give one or two quotations, however, which may exhibit, not indeed the reach and force of his intellect, for a due idea of which it would be necessary to read through a whole discourse, but the rich exuberance of thought, the beauty of imagery, and felicity of diction, by which he is eminently distinguished.

"Yea, 'tis our duty not to be contented only, but to be delighted, to be transported, to be ravished with the emanations of God's love: to entertain them with such a disposition of mind as the dry and parched ground imbibes the soft dew and gentle showers; as the chill and darksome air admits the benign influences of heavenly light; as the thirsty soul takes in the sweet and cooling stream. He that with a sullen look, a dead heart, a faint sense, a cold hand, embraces the gifts of heaven, is really unthankful, though with deluges of wine and oil he makes the altars to o'erflow, and clouds the sky with the steam of his sacrifices."3

First Sermon on Thanksgiving.

"As to the commands of God, we may lift up ourselves against them,' we may fight stoutly, we may in a sort prove conquerors; but it will be a miserable victory, the trophies whereof shall be erected in hell, and stand upon the ruins of our happiness."

"We may consider and meditate upon the total incomprehensibility of God, in all things belonging to him; in his nature, his attributes, his decrees, his works and ways; which are all full of depth, mystery, and wonder. God inhabiteth a light inaccessible to the dim and weak sight of mortal eyes; which 'no man hath seen, or can see.' Even those spiritual eagles, the quick and strong-sighted seraphim, are obliged to cover their faces, as not daring to look upon nor able to sustain the fulger of his immediate presence, the flashes of glory and majesty issuing from his throne." 5

"Let us consider the Spirit of God as vouchsafing to attend over us, to converse with us, to dwell in us; rendering our souls holy temples of his divinity, royal thrones of his majesty, bright orbs of his heavenly light, pleasant paradises of his blissful presence,―our souls which naturally are profane receptacles of wicked and impure affections, dark cells of false and fond imaginations, close prisons of black and sad thoughts."6 With all the excellencies of which we have spoken, the sermons of this illustrious divine are by no means recommended as models of pulpit eloquence. Their very depth and comprehensiveness of thought, their laboured majesty of style, would place them far beyond the understanding of any congregation that ever was or ever will be assembled in this world. They are also chargeable with a more serious fault; a defective exhibition of the great principles of the gospel. In saying this, we do not allude to his Arminianism; nor do we charge him with denying any one of the essential doctrines of the gospel. But the fault we find is this; that the great evangelical principles which we know him to have held, were not exhibited with sufficient prominence or in due proportion. They are recognised, they are defended by him; nay, they sometimes kindie him into a rapturous eloquence worthy of his theme. But they are not made the life and soul of his theology, the centre of the system, the source of influence, vitality, and attraction. The Opuscula of Barrow consist in the main of college-exercises, both verse and prose, in the learned languages; and of lectures delivered in his professorial capacity. They possess a high degree of merit; displaying, indeed, all the excellencies of thought and style by which his English compositions are distinguished. If the Oratio Sarcasmica in Schola Græca, is not to be considered a mere jeu d'esprit, we fear that the study of Greek was but lightly esteemed by the young Cantabrigians of that day. "Levasti me," says the doctor, "levasti me (humanissimi quotquot estis academici) gravissimo onere; a maximo periculo liberastis; labori, solicitudini, pudori meo abunde pepercistis; jugi scilicet illa et pertinaci absentià, qua has scholas refugistis.— Enimvero ex quo in anni decedentis auspiciis longum mihi vale peroranti dixistis, desedi continuo solus huic cathedræ (nemo vestrum sat scio vel mentienti aus testis fidem derogabit) tanquam rupi suæ Prometheus affixus: vel ut arbiter quidam supremus in illa (quam non nemo nuper excogitavit) republica Solipsorum; non montibus dico Sermon on the Trinity. 6 Ibid.

On Submission to the Divine Will.

aut sylvis, sed parietibus istis atque subselliis sententias Græcas, figuras, phrases, etymologias undique conquisitas admurmurans; plane ut Attica noctua ab omni aliarum avium commercio segregata.-Quod si forti vagabundus quispiam recens, vel naufragus sophista (unus aut alter) temerario cestu abreptus, vel infelicis auræ cujuslibet impulsu deportatus in has aliquando (quod perraro tamen memini accidisse) oras appulerit, vix obiter is inspecta provincia, aut tribus verbis acceptis, tragici quippe nescio quid sonantibus, quasi a barbato Græculo, si perstaret, propediem devorandus, e meo repente Polyphemi antro in pedes se conjicit." He pursues the same vein of pleasantry through several pages. Dr Barrow's theological works first appeared in three vols. folio, in 1685. They were published under the superintendence of Dr Tillotson and Abraham Hill. The Opuscula were first published in 1687. His mathematical works appeared in the following order. Euclidis Elementa, 8vo. Cantab. 1655. Euclidis Data, 8vo. Cantab. 1657. Lectiones Opticæ, 4to. Lond. 1669. Lectiones Geometricæ, 4to. Lond. 1670. Archimedis Opera; Apollonii Conicorum Libri IV.; Theodosii Sphærica, 4to. Lond. 1675. After his death appeared his Lectio de Sphoera et Cylindro, 12mo. Lond. 1678; and his Lectiones Mathematicæ, 8vo. Lond. 1783.1

John Tombes, B.D.

EORN A. D. 1603.-DIED A.D. 1676.

THIS pious and learned non-conformist was born at Bewdley In Worcestershire, in 1603. His early proficiency in grammar-learning enabled those who had the charge of his education to send him to Magdalene hall, Oxford, before completing his fifteenth year. His tutor at the university was William Pemble, upon whose decease he was chosen to succeed him in the catechetical lecture given in the hall, though but twenty-one years of age at the time. He held this lectureship about seven years, and then removed, first to Worcester, and afterwards to Leominster, in both which places he was very popular as a preacher. He ultimately was presented with the living of Leominster; but, in 1641, he was compelled to relinquish his charge in that place, and retire to Bristol, in consequence of the virulence of the high church party, who disliked the zeal and tolerant spirit of their brother of Leominster, and felt particularly aggrieved by the disposition which he evinced to purge the service of the church from human in

ventions.

At Bristol he was warmly received by General Fiennes, then in command there, who gave him the living of All Saints; but on that city falling into the hands of the royalists, a special warrant was issued for his apprehension, and he made his escape with difficulty to London. Here he was some time minister of Fenchurch; but beginning to entertain scruples respecting infant baptism, he was ultimately obliged to resign his charge. So early as the year 1627, he had been led in the

Hill's Life of Barrow.--Pope's Life of Ward, Bishop of Salisbury.-Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College.-Biog. Brit.