A. D. 1643]

CHARLES I. AND JOHN HAMPDEN.

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"inventive wit, and of whom he was as tender as if he "had been his own child, who gave him his first instruc"tions in Geometry and Arithmetic; and when he was

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a young scholar at the university of Oxford, was a

very necessary and kind friend." Mrs. Holder is recorded by the same biographer, to have been very skilful in practical surgery, as was usual with English housewives in those days, and acquired reputation by curing Charles II. of a hurt in his hand.

YOUNG Wren's family troubles began early; for in his ninth year, his uncle, Bishop Wren, was impeached by the House of Commons, and began his long imprisonment in the Tower. The civil war between Charles and his Parliament was raging. In the lad's tenth year the battle of Edge-hill was fought; and the following year witnessed the beheading of Archbishop Laud on Tower Hill, after three years' imprisonment. The same year deprived the country of its illustrious patriot, John Hampden, who was wounded by a musket ball in his shoulder, in a sudden skirmish with Prince Rupert, at Thame, in Oxfordshire. The King held this great man in such estimation, although in arms against him, that on hearing of the occurrence, he sent his own physician to attend him, but the wound proved fatal. The illustrious Hampden left an imperishable and honoured name in the historical records of his country. The conduct of the King in this case is praiseworthy, and with other, many other instances, proves, that if His Majesty's head had

been as wise, as his heart was kind, he might have died the death of his fathers.

THE youthful Wren, amidst all these public disarrangements and private troubles, continued his studies, under his able and affectionate tutors, with unabated zeal and perseverance; and the bent of his genius for the strict sciences, and his taste for elegant literature and fine arts, began to disclose themselves in a manner that promised the highest results. The first fruits of his inventive faculty was put forth in 1645, whilst in his thirteenth year, by the production of a new astronomical instrument, which, with filial piety, he dedicated to his father, with a dutiful Latin address, and eighteen goodly hexameter verses worthy of a riper age. This invention was speedily followed up by an exercise in physics, on the origin of rivers, and by the invention of a pneumatic machine. The dedication of the treatise not being so long as that of his Panorganum Astronomicum, the name of his first invention, I have detached it from its twin brother in the appendix to my larger biography.

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Dedicatio, ad Patrem, Tractatús De Ortu Fluminum. "Jurè accepta TIBI refera mea FLUMINA: pulchrè

"Derivata suum respicit UNDA caput." The thought of restoring his minor streams to the head or chief river, as a right and not a gift, is ingenious and filial.

THE same year, 1645, is memorable in the history of science and philosophy, as being that wherein the first meetings of those eminent men who laid the foun

A. D. 1643-5]

CROMWELL'S IRONSIDES.

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dations and accomplished the construction of the Royal Society, which has continued to this day the chieftain of its class. The continued successes of Cromwell, with his own regiment of a thousand stout men of gravity, imbued with the fiery zeal of Puritanism-substantial freeholders and their sons, all acquainted with their leaders and with each other, well mounted and equipped, and glorying in the name of "Cromwell's Ironsides," at Marston-Moor, where they turned the fortune of the day; at the battle of Newbury, where they obtained the same renown; up to the decisive victory at Nazeby, in June 1645, accomplished the ruin of the royal cause, and terminated the Parliamentary War.

THE little band of philosophers who had been engaged in literary and scientific researches within the academic walls and gardens of Gresham College, were obliged by these national troubles to suspend their public lectures, but they continued their peaceful studies in the sacred recesses of their own chambers, the lecture rooms being deserted by the public, and pillaged by the soldiers. To these public lectures and private discussions the youthful Wren was led, no less by his own inclination than by his father, who was a zealous and active member of this academic body, whose object was the investigation of the new or experimental philosophy, bequeathed to posterity by its father, the illustrious Lord Bacon, who writes in one of his letters, preserved in Birch's Collection-" Since I "have lost so much time with this age, I shall "be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it

"with posterity;" and worthily did the Gresham Professors aid their great master in executing his desire.

DR. JOHN WALLIS, author of "Mathesis Universalis," and other important mathematical and philosophical works, was a prime mover in the great work of mental improvement. During his residence in London, as Rector of St. Gabriel Fenchurch, he became acquainted with many eminent men of his own class, and renewed some college friendships. These sages held a weekly meeting to discuss matters relating to literature, science and philosophy. Among these searchers for priceless pearls and golden truths, were Dean WREN, Bishop WILKINS, Dr. Jonathan GODDARD, an eminent physician, and the first English constructor of a telescope, Sir George ENT, also a physician, the friend of the celebrated HARVEY, whom he learnedly defended in hiş "Apologia pro Circulatione Sanguinis," Dr. Francis GLISSON, another eminent physician and skilful anatomist, to whom the world is indebted for the discovery of the capsule of the vena portarium, which he published in his "Anatomia Hepatis," Dr. Christopher MERRETT, also an eminent brother of the Faculty of Medicine, the friend and associate of the Hon. Robert BOYLE, in philosophical and physical experiments, Samuel FOSTER, an eminent astronomer, who wrote on the art of dialling, the improvement of the sector, and the portable quadrant, Theodore HAAK, a learned native of the Palatinate, who then resided in London, and has the honour of being the proposer of these

A. D. 1646] ROBERT BOYLE AND DR. PETTY.

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philosophical banquets, with other of the most celebrated men of the day.

In the two succeeding years this band of brothers lost three leading members, by the removal of Drs. WILKINS, WALLIS, and GODDARD, to Oxford, who took with them a love for such disquisitions to that university. They did not separate themselves from the parent society, but visited it whenever their avocations called them to London, or their presence specially required. The Greshamites carried with them the spirit of the metropolitan college, and formed a similar society in their university. They were immediately joined by Dr. Seth WARD, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Ralph BATHURST, a classical scholar, writer, and poet, of distinguished eminence, then President of Trinity College, and afterwards Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and Dean of Wells; Dr., afterwards Sir William PETTY, Professor of Anatomy in the University-the learned ancestor of the present Marquess of Lansdowne, Dr. Thomas WILLIS, a highly-esteemed physician, known by his numerous Latin works on his art, particularly on the anatomy and pathology of the brain, and other illustrious Oxonians, who were often honoured with the kindred friendship of ROBERT BOYLE, whom it is needless to do more than mention.

THE meetings of the Oxford Philosophical Association were at first held at Dr. Petty's apartments, on account of their being at the house of his apothecary; the dispensatory and medical materials of that useful functionary being convenient for their practical experi