General biography; or, Lives, critical and historical, of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions, arranged according to alphabetical order . loso-phical and religious life, and also perhaps onaccount of his infirmities, he avoided engagingin the politics of die times. Burnet informs us, that his knowledge wa*of prodigious extent; that he was master ofthe Greek and Hebrew, acquainted with theChaldee and Syriac, deeply ikilled in religioutcontroversy, and had read much of the affirms also, that he was acquainted withthe whole of the mathematical s
General biography; or, Lives, critical and historical, of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions, arranged according to alphabetical order . loso-phical and religious life, and also perhaps onaccount of his infirmities, he avoided engagingin the politics of die times. Burnet informs us, that his knowledge wa*of prodigious extent; that he was master ofthe Greek and Hebrew, acquainted with theChaldee and Syriac, deeply ikilled in religioutcontroversy, and had read much of the affirms also, that he was acquainted withthe whole of the mathematical sciences ; andwith regard to his knowledge of experimentalphilosophy, his works every-where testify hovfgreat it was. From all the incidents of the life of this ad-mirable man, authors have not hesitated to placehim in the first rank of philosophers; a stationwhich, indeed, he deserves. Yet it has beenremarked, that modern writers have been lessattentive to his fame than his of his discoveries are so generally use-ful, and lead to such extensive practical results,that they have become too familiar to direct theattention towards tkeir author. As the ^.i -Pu<i/i/Z^ ?/, A/ir-i/ /io7 it^^iZ/^f-ain^ r:i7 J^// Jfa/^ BOY ( 277 ) BOY the plough, the pump, the mill, have become thetools of civilised society, while their inventorshave been forgotten; so have tlie air-pump, thethermometer, the hydrometer, and numerousother instruments and processes, invented orimproved by Boyle, become essential to philo-sophical research, and arc too often used, toadmit of continual reference to tlieir great mental powers of this man were as-sisted by his moral habits. If he could havedeceived himself or others, his narrations wouldnot possess the character they do at this of a century has elapsed since heopened the path of philosophical chymistry tothe world. Thousands of active and intelli-gent operators have repeated and extended hisdiscoveries, a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1810, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
