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152 mounted on a starting horse, the animal reared up, and had almost thrown him backwards, when he would certainly have been crushed, had he not fortunately disengaged himself in time from the stirrups, and thrown him- self off. On another occasion, an apothecary's servant having by mistake delivered to him a strong emetic instead of a cooling draught, his life was in great danger through the violent operation of so improper a medicine on his delicate constitution. The most severe accident, however, happened one night when he was in bed; the room giving way, he was enveloped amidst falling timber, bricks, and rubbish; at which time, in addition to the imminent danger of being crushed by the ruins, he would inevitably have been choked by the dust caused by the disturbance, had it not been for his presence of mind in wrapping the sheet round his face, and thus securing to himself the power of breathing with freedom. When about ten years old, he was afflicted with an ague, which had occasioned so great a depression of his spirits, that in order to revive him from the melancholy into which he had fallen, they made him read Amadis de Gaul," and several other works of the same description; which, as he informs us in his Memoirs, produced such a restlessness in him, that he was obliged to apply himself to the extraction of the square and cube roots, and to the more laborious operations of algebra, in order to fix and settle the volatility of his fancy. These studies, with the addition of several of the higher branches of the mathematics, he afterwards pursued with great application and success, more particularly during his residence at Geneva.

After having remained at Eton about three years, he accompanied his father to his seat at Stalbridge, in Dorsetshire, where he continued his studies under the direction of the Rev. William Douch, rector of that place, until the autumn of 1638, when he returned to London. Here he resided with his father at the Savoy, till his brother, Mr. Francis Boyle, espoused Mrs. Elizabeth Killigrew,