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THE materials for the personal life of Barrow may be found in the 'Biographia Britannica,' with full references to authorities, particularly to Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors,' also in Martin's Biographia Philosophica,' the Biographie Universelle,' and the life by Abraham Hill, prefixed to Tillotson's edition of Barrow's works. In this part we have followed the firstmentioned work in the facts and anecdotes cited.

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Isaac Barrow was the eldest son of Thomas Barrow, linendraper to Charles I., and descended of a respectable Suffolk family. His father's brother, named also Isaac Barrow, was fellow of Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and ejected from thence by the Presbyterians about 1644. After the Restoration he was successively bishop of Man and St. Asaph, and died in 1680. Isaac Barrow, the nephew, is supposed to have been born in October, 1630, but this has been disputed on the strength of an expression of his own, reported by a friend, im

plying that he was born on the 29th of February. However this may be, he was placed first at the Charterhouse, and afterwards at Felstead school in Essex. In the first he gave but little promise of excellence, his principal delight being in fighting, and his general habits negligent; so that his father is reported to have wished, that if it pleased God to take any of his children, it might be Isaac. At the second school he formed a good character, and in December, 1643, he was entered at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, under his uncle abovementioned. But by the time (February, 1645) the nephew began his residence at the university the uncle had been ejected, and the nephew accordingly removed to Trinity College. His father, in the meanwhile, had suffered losses for his adherence to the cause of Charles I., and it is said that young Barrow was indebted for his support to the well-known Dr. Hammond. He was scholar of his college in 1647; B.A. in 1648; fellow in 1649; and M.A. in 1652; ad eundem at Oxford, 1653; B.D. 1661; D.D. (by mandate), 1670. These testimonies to his merit (the two last excepted) were the more remarkable, as he was, and always continued, a staunch Royalist.

Barrow was led to his mathematical studies instead of beginning by them. He had at first intended to practise physic, and had studied accordingly, but on his accession to a fellowship he began to study theology, as required by the statutes of the college. He found by his own wants that a divine must be a chronologist, a chronologist an astronomer, and an astronomer a geometer. To the mathematics he therefore applied himself; he had in the meanwhile, as all his writings show, closely studied the learned languages, so that on the resignation of the Greek professor he was recommended to that chair. This he did not gain, being suspected of Arminianism; and the disappointment, together with the unfavourable character of public events to his views, induced him to go abroad. He travelled (1655-1659) through France and Italy to Smyrna and Constantinople, thence again to Venice, and through Germany and Hol

land home.

After his return he was episcopally ordained, a little before the Restoration. The neglect with which he was treated after that event, and the distich in which he celebrated it,

'Te magis optavit rediturum, Carole, nemo,

Et nemo sensit te rediise minus '-*

are well known; but in 1660 he was chosen Greek professor at Cambridge, and 1662 Gresham professor of geometry. But this last he resigned in 1664, holding its duties to be incompatible with those of the Lucasian professorship, to which he was appointed by Mr. Lucas at the institution of that chair in 1663; and this again he resigned in 1669 in favour of a pupil, a young man whom he considered as of the highest promise, aged 27, and named Isaac Newton; indeed his whole history is one of resignations of profit upon principle. He had previously been offered a good living upon condition of instructing the son of the donor; he rejected the offer as simoniacal, His uncle gave him a small living in Wales, and Dr. Seth Ward, bishop of Salisbury, made him one of the prebendaries of that cathedral. He ap plied the revenues of both preferments to charitable purposes, and resigned them when Charles II., in 1672, appointed him master of Trinity College. In this capacity he exerted himself to form a library, the want of which had been long felt. His letters to various individuals to induce them to subscribe to the undertaking are preserved in the edifice which they were, through his energy, and the influence of his high character, the means of erecting, and which is one of the most beautiful works of art in the university. He likewise remitted to the college several expenses which statute or custom might have compelled them to incur for the maintenance of his office. He died very young, considering his reputation, May 4, 1677, aged about 47, and was buried in Westminster Abbey: he left his manu

* No one, Charles, desired your return more than I did, and no one has felt it less.

VOL. VIII.

D

scripts to Tillotson (afterwards archbishop), and Abraham Hill, his biographer.

On the moral and personal character of Barrow there does not seem a shade which can enable any one to deny him the highest degree of human excellence. His energy of mind is sufficiently attested by the quantity of his writings-by the successful variety of his studiesby the extraordinary opinion of him formed by his associates, when compared with the degree of interest his writings present to posterity; which is always, in our opinion, proof of a lustre cast upon writings by personal character-and by the erection of Trinity College Library above-mentioned. The quarrelsome disposition of his boyhood subsided into rational and even reasoning courage, under the discipline to which he subjected his mind. It is related of him, that being once attacked by a large dog which was kept chained all day, but let loose at night for the security of the house (in which he was a visiter, and in the garden of which he was wandering early in the morning), "he catched him by the throat, threw him, and lay upon him, and whilst he kept him down, considered what he should do in that exigent: once he had a mind to kill him, but he quite altered his resolution, judging that it would be an unjust action, for the dog did his duty, and he himself was in fault for rambling out of his lodgings before it was light. At length he called out so loud that he was heard." Being attacked by Algerines during his voyage to Smyrna, “he betook himself to his arms, stayed upon the deck, cheerfully and vigorously fighting, till the pirate, perceiving the stout defence the ship made, sheered off and left her. I asked him why he did not go down into the hold, and leave the defence of the ship to those to whom it did belong. He replied, 'It concerned no man more than myself: I would rather have lost my life than have fallen into the hands of those merciless infidels.""

The preceding quotations are from Dr. Pope, who was personally intimate with him, as cited in the Biogr. Britann.' The following (from the same source) is the testimony of the same and other friends:-"As to his

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person, he was low of stature, lean, and of a pale complexion, and negligent of his dress to a fault." Being invited to preach for Dr. Wilkins (afterwards bishop of Chester, author of the Mathematical Magic,' &c.) in a parish church in London, his appearance, which was that of an apprentice, drove the whole of the congregation away, except a few persons, among whom was Mr. Baxter, the Nonconformist, who declared afterwards that he could have sat all day to hear him, much to the confusion of the congregation, who had complained to their rector of his substitute. An apprentice, when he came down from the pulpit, said to him, "Sir, be not dismayed, for I assure you it was a good sermon. being asked what he thought of this person, he said, "I take him to be a very civil person, and if I could meet with him I 'd present him with a bottle of wine." "He was of extraordinary strength, a thin skin, and very sensible of cold; his eyes grey, clear, and somewhat short-sighted; his hair a light brown, very fine, and curling. He was of a healthy constitution, very fond of tobacco, which he used to call his panpharmacon, or universal medicine, and imagined it helped to compose and regulate his thoughts. If he was guilty of any intemperance, it seemed to be in the love of fruit, being of opinion, that if it kills hundreds in autumn, it preserves thousands. He slept little, generally rising in the winter months before day."

Dr. Barrow never married: his fellowship prevented his doing so in earlier life, and on his appointment to the mastership he had the permission rescinded, which was granted in the patent. Mr. Hill says he judged it contrary to the college statutes. Dr. Pope gives a curious reason, and says that Barrow would not expose himself to the civilities which a good match might perhaps receive. Such things do happen in our days, but Dr. Pope talks of " sieges, batteries, and importunities which he foresaw that honourable and profitable preferment would expose him to."

His sermons were excessively long. in Westminster Abbey, at which time

Preaching once it was usual to