Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/18

389] He went towards Ireland in order to be a member of that Parliament, March 22, 1679-1680.18 I remember one St. Andrew's Day (which is the day of the general meeting of the Royal Society). I said methought it, was not so well that we should pitch upon the patron of Scotland's day; we should rather have taken St. George or St. Isidore (a philosopher canonized). "No," said Sir William, "I would rather had it been on St. Thomas, for he would not believe till he had seen, and put his fingers into the holes according to the motto, nullius in verba. "

He hath told me that he never got by legacies in his life but only ten pounds, which was not paid. He hath told me, that whereas some men have accidentally come into the way of preferment by being at an inn, and there contracting an acquaintance on the road, or as some others have done, he never had any such like opportunity, but hewed out his fortune himself.19

He is a proper handsome man, measured six-foot high, good head of hair moderately turning up: vide his picture as Dr. of Physick. His eyes are a kind of goose-grey, but very short-sighted, and as to aspect beautiful, and promise sweetness of nature, and they do not deceive, for he is a marvelous goodnatured person. Eyebrows thick, dark and straight. His head is very large. He was in his youth slender, but since these twenty years and more past he grew very plump, so that he is now abdomine tardus. This last March I persuaded him to sit for his picture to Mr. Logan, the graver, whom I forthwith went for myself, and he drew it just before his going into Ireland, and is very like him. But about 1659 he had a picture in miniature drawn by his friend and