of the members, and the conferences which took place among them led the way for that experimental study of natural philosophy to which science has been ever since so largely indebted. Boyle himself was ever among the most active and persevering of the inquirers, and one of the earliest results of his labours was the invention of the air-pump, which at once changed the whole aspect of pneumatical science. The first instrument of this kind that had ever been produced, was invented by a counsellor of Magdeburg, named Otto Guericke, and an account of which was given in the Technica Curiosa, a work published by Schottus, the professor of mathematics in the university of Wirtemberg. From this publication our philosopher simply learnt that the instrument had been invented by Guericke, and that he had now been long employed in making experiments respecting the air, and the relative weights of bodies weighed in that and other fluids: but he eagerly caught at the idea, and produced an instrument, which, though second to that of the Magdeburg counsellor, was sufficiently different to secure him a considerable share of credit as an inventor. The experiments which he made with his air-pump were productive of important improvements, and tended to prove in the most striking manner all those laws explanatory of atmospheric phenomena which had been first investigated by Toricelli, Pascal, Huygens, and some other philosophers on the continent. But even at this period, when his mind might have so easily allowed itself to be engrossed by the pursuits which were daily procuring him some additional praise, he continued to attend with unremitted ardour to the examination of Scripture. This led him to cultivate the acquaintance of the most eminent divines of the age, and so great was the reputation he enjoyed among the best supporters of the church, that after the restoration he was earnestly solicited by the lord-chancellor Clarendon and others, to receive holy orders and devote himself to the ecclesiastical profession. He was only prevented from taking this step by the consideration, that what he wrote in favour of religion as a layman, would have more force with many persons than it would if coming from him as one of the clergy. His reputation and fortune, however, enabled him to effect much good, and in a great variety of ways, for which the government found means to reward him, without raising him to a bishoprick. In 1662 he received a grant of forfeited impropriations in Ireland, and on the re-establishment of the corporation for the propagation of the gospel in New England, he was appointed governor of the society. From both these marks of public favour he drew fresh motives for benevolent exertion. With the income he derived from the Irish lands he maintained industrious clergymen in the several parishes, and improved the condition of the poor. In his capacity of governor to the society above named, he contributed greatly by his individual attention to its interests to promote the prime objects of its institution. The same circumstance also is apparent at this period of his life which we have remarked before, and which, indeed, characterized the whole course of this excellent man's career. Religion and philosophy walked with him side by side, giving to each other mutual support, and to their votary himself continual increase of strength and wisdom. While labouring in the most profitable manner to propagate he at the same time shone as one of the first of European d in his situation in the council of the newly established

Royal society, he pursued the most effectual methods for establishing it on the broad and permanent basis of genuine science. In the year 1663 appeared his Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy,' and soon after the 'Experiments and Considerations touching colours, with observations on a diamond that shines in the dark.' In the latter of these works he is said to have made observations on the nature of light to which Newton himself was probably in some measure indebted for the first germ of his own exquisite and profoundly reasoned theory.

Mr Boyle was now in the enjoyment of a fame for which he might have been envied by the most aspiring minds, but, in 1665, he published a work, entitled, Occasional Reflections on Several Subjects,' which exposed him to the sarcasms of men who, without possessing half his ability or worth, were well-qualified to satirize the simpler workings of his mind. His treatise, however, entitled, 'New Experiments and Observations upon Cold; with an Examen of Mr Hobbes' Doctrine of Cold,' was both too acute and too profound to admit of any such attacks. The letter which he wrote to Mr Stubbes on the miraculous pretensions of Greatraks, who pretended to cure the king's evil by the touch of the hand, is an admirable specimen of learned reasoning, imbued with a cautious but fervent piety. His work, entitled, 'Hydrostatical Paradoxes,' and that on the Origin of Forms and Qualities, according to the Corpuscular Philosophy, illustrated by Experiments,' both appeared in 1666. He had, shortly before this, been nominated to the dignified post of provost of Eton College, but had declined the proffered honour, the station he now occupied in the learned world furnishing him with sufficient employment, and the most efficient means for satisfying the only ambition he allowed himself to indulge. We find, therefore, that, in 1668, he left Oxford, and took up his permanent residence with his sister, Lady Ranelagh, in order to be able to attend the meetings of the Royal society with more regularity, and support its pretensions against the numerous adversaries with which it had now to contend. In the same year, he produced 'A Continuation of the Experiments on Air; with a Discourse of the Atmospheres of Consistent Bodies;' 'A Discourse of Absolute Rest in Bodies;' 'An Invention to Estimate the Weight of Water;' and 'A Letter to Dr Du Moulin' on the narrative he had lately published, respecting some singular and supernatural occurrences which had taken place at Mascon, in Burgundy. The collection of 'Tracts about the Cosmical Qualities of Things, the Temperature of the Subterranean and Submarine Regions,' appeared in 1670, and though his studies were suddenly interrupted the following year, by a stroke of paralysis, we find him, soon after, pursuing his inquiries and experiments with all the vigour of the best periods of his health. In 1680, he was elected president of the Royal society, but again, from conscientious motives, declined promotion to public honours, the official oaths which it would have been necessary for him to take, forming, on this occasion, the main motive of his refusal. Of his desire to promote the interests of religion, he gave another strong proof at this period, by bearing a large portion of the expense incurred in the publication of Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation. The Discourse of Things above Reason, Inquiring whether a Philosopher should admit there are any such,' affords a

similar indication, as does also his excellent treatise, entitled, A Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly received Notion of Nature,' which appeared some few years later. It would be of little use to give the titles of all the tracts which he published from time to time, but there are few of them which do not prove the extent of his learning, and the judicious manner in which he combined the great objects of his pursuits. In his 'Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection,' and also in his 'Considerations about the Reconcilableness of Reason and Religion,' he speaks with that clearness which is only to be attained by a full acquaintance with all the bearings of the subject; and, in his treatise 'On the high Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God, peculiarly for his Wisdom and Power,' he alludes especially to the strong and peculiar proofs afforded to revelation by the system of experimental philosophy.

The virtuous and useful tenor of Mr Boyle's life was uninterrupted by any of those distressing cares or anxieties which so frequently fall to the lot of men of talent. Almost the only misfortune he had to deplore, was the destruction of some manuscripts by an accident, and the loss of others through the dishonesty of visitors. His fortune was ample, his literary and scientific projects proved nearly all successful, and he was treated with universal esteem and honour. Towards the close of his life, he found himself obliged to retire from his public cares, and to restrict the visits of his numerous acquaintances to certain days in the week. In the summer of 1691, his health, which had long been delicate, became daily worse, and, on the 30th of December, he ended his earthly career, his beloved sister, Lady Ranelagh, preceding him to the grave only the week before.

Of the moral and religious character of this great man, the most convincing traces may be discovered, not merely in what he wrote, but in the tendency of his actions and conversation. Honours which were pressed upon him in the most tempting form he calmly rejected; a peerage, the highest offices in the Church,-the most lucrative situations that the government had to offer,-were all refused, on the plea that they would interfere with the duties he was best able to perform. Charity and kindness of feeling marked his intercourse with every class of society, and men of learning in distress ever found him a firm and constant benefactor. As a philosopher, he conferred advantages on science which place him in the same rank with Bacon and Newton. When he began his experiments, the inquiries to which he devoted himself had scarcely carried the students of nature to the threshold of her sanctuary. The most unwarranted suppositions were allowed to hold the place of facts, and reasoning was carried on with but very rare appeals to any but a mere empirical experience. Aristotle had still his ardent admirers on the one side, and on the other, Descartes was dazzling, as well as aweing, the minds of men into the belief that Nature had unveiled herself to his bold and subtle gaze. There was, therefore, as yet, every thing to do. And, in this country, the learned had other difficulties to struggle with besides those peculiar to their calling. Political contenti vas now at its height, and, in the busy struggle which had taken pl tween different parties, the minds of a large portion of even the elligent class of society had been thrown into a state little in the cultivation of philosophy. The wit

was more likely than ever to prove an overmatch for the scholar, and politics to act as a barrier to the free progress of science. But difficulties of every kind yielded to the persevering efforts of Boyle and his associates, and the era in which he lived was rendered, notwithstanding all the struggles with which they had to contend, one of the brightest in the history of knowledge. The inductive system was established, as the only legitimate mode of inquiry; a large accession was made to the stock of knowledge immediately applicable to the wants of mankind : the fantastic schemes of philosophical adventurers rapidly gave way to plain experimental demonstration; and men of letters were thenceforth constrained either to remain satisfied with the less laborious branches of study, or to pursue science with modest and cautious assiduity. When we consider how great a share Boyle had in producing this improvement in the state of knowledge, and unite with this cons deration, the recollection, that he was at the same time one of the mos virtuous and pure-hearted men that ever lived, we shall readily assiET him a place, not merely among the great scholars of his own count but with the best and noblest benefactors of our race.

Dr Edward Pocock.

RORN A. D. 1604.—died a. D. 1691.

THIS distinguished oriental and biblical scholar was bor 8th of November, 1604. His father was vicar of Cinevere, In 1618, young Pocock was enterea of Magdaler-ual at admitted to a fellow's place in Corpus Christi college. direct his attention to the Eastern languages in 162 un Pasor, a German refugee then established at Oxford; an enjoyed the instructions of Mr William BedweL VIET "a person to whom," says Dr Twells, "the prewho considerably promoted the study of the Araus er may perhaps more justly belong, than to Thoma monly has it." Under Bedwell's tuition, FeDOLLA incredible ardour and perseverance to the BLLand such was the progress he made tuz va twentieth year he completed that versio ment which was afterwards publisher recommendation of Gerard Voss commonwealth of learning.'

In the year 1629, Mr Poever ma laincy at Aleppo. He improve a purpose of extending his acqu dialects, but chiefly the Araut great progress that his

ter in it in no sort inferri residence at Aleppo, Fucer Archbishop Laud, w

Arabic chair in Oxir ted, and immedianer om great satisfaction

and bubop, Puesek set out on a new visit to the East in company with his friend Mr. Jots Greaves. He went to Constantinople, where be crieby employed aimeef in eclecting oriental manuscripts for his university Lorary. After a residence of four years it that city, be returned to Lagand by way of Paris.

He was now confessedly without a rival in Arabie and Rabbinical karning; but the confusion of the times prevented him resuming the cuties of his chair, and in 1643, he accepted the rectory of Chudry in Berks, which removed him from the troubles and contentions which then distracted Oxford. There is a pleasant enough anecdote recorded of Lằm, which shows that he was more careful to acquit himself to his parishioners as an humble and faithful minister of the gospel, than to make any ostentatious display of those stores of learning which he had acquired. One of his Oxford acquaintances, in passing through Childry, inquired at one of the parishioners who was their minister and how they liked him, when he received the following answer: "Our parson is one Mr Pocock, a plain, honest man; but master, he is no Latiner.” The fall of Laud deprived Pocock of a staunch and powerful friend; but, through the influence of the learned John Selden, on the death of the professor of Hebrew at Oxford, Dr Morris, the committee of visitation appointed Pocock to that chair, an appointment which had been already made by the king, then a prisoner in the isle of Wight. His refusal to take the tests prescribed by the visitors, exposed him for a time to some trouble; but he was ultimately allowed to enjoy his doul le professorship of Hebrew and Arabic unmolested. In 1649, he published his Specimen Historia Arabum,' from the historical work of Farajius. In 1655, the Porta Mosis' appeared, with a Latin translation and appendix of notes, by our author. The publication of that stupendous monument of human industry and erudition, Walton's polyglott Bible, was greatly facilitated by Pocock's judicious advice and assistance. He undertook the collating of the Arabic Pentateuch, and prepared a general preface to that part of the Bible. He also materially assisted Dr Castell in his Heptaglott lexicon.

In the year 1660, Dr Pocock published his Arabic version of Grotius De veritate Religionis Christianæ.' In 1663 a complete translation of Farajius's historical work with the original Arabic, was published by our indefatigable orientalist. In 1674 his Arabic translation of portions of the English liturgy appeared; and in 1677 his commentaries on Micah and Malachi. His large and laborious work on Hosea was given to the public in 1685. This huge work was exceedingly well received by the more learned class of theologians, who were profuse in their compliments to the author upon the occasion. His commentary on Joel appeared in 1691. But the lamp of life was now flickering to its close; a gradual decrease of strength and bodily vigour had for some time given sure indication that although this laborious student's constitution was yet unattacked by any formed disease, yet the powers of nature were gradually sinking. He died calmly without any severe illness, on the 10th of September, 1691.

Pocock was esteemed, by the universal consent of scholars, one of the most learned men in Europe. In Arabic literature he was without an equal, although Golius, Ludolph, Noldius, Altingius, Whelocke, and Langbaine were amongst his contemporaries. His devotion to Oriental