Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/6

 others' eyes) read Melancthon's Logicks, Magirus's Physica, Ursin's Theologica, which was the best I could then hear of; and (at first reading) by heart I learned them, too perfectly, as I now conceive. Afterwards, in Cambridge, proceeding in the same order and diligence with their logicians, philosophers, and schoolmen, I could at last learn them by heart faster than I could read them—I mean, by the swiftest glance of the eye, without the tediousness of pronouncing or articulating what I read. Thus I oft-times saved my purse by looking over books in stationers' shops. . . . Constantly I repeated in my bed (evening and morning) what I read and heard that was worthy to be remembered; and by this habitude and promptness of memory I was enabled, that when I read to the students of King's College, Cambridge (which I did for two years together, in all sorts of the current philosophy), I could provide myself without notes (by mere meditation, or by glancing upon some book) in less time than I spent in uttering it; yet they were then a critical auditory, whilst Mr. Bust was schoolmaster of Eton' (, Works v. 426).

Beale, who graduated B.A. in 1632, M.A. in 1636, and was subsequently created a doctor of divinity, spent some time in foreign travel, being at Orleans in 1636, when he was thirty-three years of age. His love of learning brought him into frequent correspondence with Samuel Hartlib and the Hon. Robert Boyle. Two of his letters to Hartlib on 'Herefordshire Orchards' were printed in 1656, and produced such an effect, that within a few years the author's native county gained some 100,000l. by the fame of its orchards (, Brit. Topog. i. 415). In the preface Beale makes the following autobiographical remarks: 'My education was amongst scholars in academies, where I spent many years in conversing with variety of books only. A little before our wars began, I spent two summers in travelling towards the south, with purpose to know men and foreign manners. Since my return I have been constantly employed in a weighty office, by which I am not disengaged from the care of our public welfare in the peace and prosperity of this nation, but obliged to be the more solicitous and tender in preserving it and promoting it.'

Beale resided chiefly in Herefordshire until 1660, when he became rector of Yeovil, in Somersetshire, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was also rector of Sock Dennis in the latter county. He was an early member of the Royal Society, being declared an honorary one on 7 Jan. 1662-3, and elected a fellow on the 21st of the same month. In 1665 he was appointed chaplain to King Charles II. In his last letter to Boyle, dated 8 July 1682, he mentions that he was then entering into his eightieth year, and adds that 'by infirmities I am constrained to dictate extempore, and do want a friend to assist me.' It is probable that he did not live long after this.

Samuel Hartlib, writing to Boyle in 1658, says of Beale: 'There is not the like man in the whole island, nor in the continent beyond the seas, so far as I know it—I mean, that could be made more universally use of, to do good to all, as I in some measure know and could direct' (, Works, v. 275).

His works are: 1. 'Aphorisms concerning Cider,' printed in John Evelvn's 'Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees,' 1644, and entitled in the later editions of that work, 'General Advertisements concerning Cider.' 2. 'Herefordshire Orchards, a Pattern for all England, written in an Epistolary Address to Samuel Hartlib, Esq. By I. B.,' Lond. 1656, 8vo; reprinted in Richard Bradley's 'New Improvements of Planting and Gardening,' 1724 and 1739. 3. Scientific papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions.' 4. Letters to the Hon. Robert Boyle, printed in the 5th volume of that philosopher's works.

[Information from the Rev. Dr. Luard; Birch's Hist. of the Royal Society, iv. 235; Gough s British Topography, i. 416, ii. 221, 225, 391, 634; Boyle's Works, v. 275, 277. 281, 346, 423-510; Harwood's Alumni Eton. 228; Worthington's Diary, i. 122; Birch's Life of Boyle, 115; Collinson's Somersetshire, iii. 212; Felton, On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, 2nd ed. 21; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 447, iv. 256; Addit. MSS. 6271, f. 10, 15948, ff. 80, 136. 138; Thomson's History of the Royal Society. Append, xxiv.]  BEALE, MARY (1632–1697), portrait painter, born in Suffolk in 1632, was the daughter of the Rev. J. Cradock, vicar of Walton-upon-Thames. She is said to have learned the rudiments of painting from Sir Peter Lely, but it is more probable, as Vertue thought, that she received instruction from Robert Walker, and only copied the works of Lely, who was supposed to have had a tender attachment to her, and through whose influence she obtained access to some of the finest works of Van Dyck, by copying which she acquired that purity of colouring for which her portraits are remarkable. She married Charles Beale, the lord of the manor of Walton, in Buckinghamshire, who had some employment under the board of green cloth, and took great interest in chemistry, especially the manufacture of colours, in which he did business with