in the 54th year of his age, and was interred in Westminster Abbey. The Earl of Halifax was, as Pope says, "fed with dedications;" but we must remember the age in which he lived, and the extensive patronage that he enjoyed. Besides several political pamphlets, he published a volume of poems, which, however, have not shared the immortality of his verses on the toasting-glasses of the Kit-Kat Club, of which he was an original member 10 Lord Halifax was a most liberal patron of genius, and, apart from his literary attainments, his name will ever be intimately and honourably associated with that of Newton. The author of the Principia must have felt an especial pleasure to have addressed to him, whilst President of the Royal Society, his solution of the celebrated problems, proposed by John Bernouilli. A remarkable circumstance in the history of the Society, during the presidency of Mr. Montague, was the publication of Dr. Woodward's Essay towards a 10 It was customary at this once-celebrated Club to inscribe on the glasses, the name of the lady who was the toast for the year. "When she is regularly chosen," says the Tatler (No. 24), “her name is written with a diamond on the drinking-glasses. The hieroglyphic of the diamond is to shew her, that her value is imaginary; and that of the glass to acquaint her, that her condition is frail, and depends on the hand which holds her." The Duchess of Richmond' was an enthusiastic toast in the time of Lord Halifax. To her he inscribed the following lines, which, according to custom, were cut on the glasses : "Of two fair Richmonds, different ages boast; Theirs was the first, and ours the brighter toast; Natural History of the Earth, printed in 1695, and reviewed at considerable length in the Transactions for that year. His theory attracted a great deal of attention, and gained him considerable reputation. "Among the contemporaries of Hooke and Ray," says Mr. Lyell in his Geology, Woodward, a Professor of Medicine, had acquired the most extensive information respecting the geological structure of the crust of the earth";" and Dr. Whewell, in his History of the Inductive Sciences, observes, that "one of the most remarkable occurrences in the progress of descriptive Geology in England, was the formation. of a geological museum by William Woodward, as early as 1695. This collection, formed with great labour, systematically arranged, and carefully catalogued, he bequeathed to the University of Cambridge; founding and endowing at the same time a professorship of the study of Geology. The Woodwardian Museum still subsists, a monument of the sagacity with which its author so early saw the importance of such a collection 12." Dr. Woodward was only 30 years of age when his book was published; his life is one among many examples of the triumph of abilities and application over difficulties. Of humble origin, he was placed apprentice to a linen-draper in London, but this situation not according with his philosophical turn of mind, he soon left it, and devoted himself to science. "He was so fortunate as to attract the attention of Dr. Peter Barwick, an eminent physician, who finding him of a very promising genius, took him 11 Vol. I. p. 53. 12 Second edition, Vol. I. p. 542. under his tuition in his own family. In this situation he began to apply himself to philosophy, anatomy, and physic, until he was invited by Sir Ralph Dutton to his seat at Sherborne, in Gloucestershire 13" Here it was that he began those observations and collections relating to the present state of our globe, which laid the foundation for his discourses afterwards on that subject, concerning which he has given the following account. "The country about Sherborne, and the neighbouring parts of Gloucestershire, to which I made frequent excursions, abounding with stone, and there being quarries of this kind open almost everywhere, I began to visit these in order to inform myself of the nature, the situation, and the condition of the stone. In making these observations, I soon found there was incorporated with the sand of most of the stone thereabouts, great plenty and variety of seashells, with other marine productions. I took notice of the like lying loose on the fields in the ploughed lands so thick, that I have scarcely observed pebbles or flints more frequent and numerous on the ploughed lands of those countries that most abound in them. This was a speculation new to me, and what I judged of so great moment, that I resolved to pursue it through the other remoter parts of the kingdom; where I afterwards made observations upon all sorts of fossils, collected such as I thought remarkable, and sent them up to London"." In 1692, Dr. Woodward was appointed Professor of Physic at Gresham College, and the following year was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He took 13 Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors, p. 284. a very active part in its pursuits, and particularly in those relating to Geology, or, as this science was then termed, "the Natural History of the Earth." The Journal-books of that period show that Geology was frequently discussed at the ordinary Meetings. Dr. Woodward was often placed on the Council of the Royal Society. In 1710, when associated among others with Sir Hans Sloane, he made use of expressions in reference to the knight, which were considered so insulting, that he was required by the other members to make an apology. This he refused to do; and consequently, after solemn deliberation, he was expelled the Council. He brought an action at law against that body, with the view of being reinstated in his place, but was unsuccessful. The history of this quarrel is detailed at considerable length in the Council-minutes, and is remarkable as being the first recorded in the annals of the Society 15. In 1693 Dr. Sloane was elected Secretary in the place of Dr. Gale, who withdrew from office. Mr. Montague continued to occupy the chair until the Anniversary in 1698, when he resigned; and Lord Somers, then Lord Chancellor, was unanimously chosen President. 15 Woodward fought a duel with Dr. Mead, under the gate of Gresham College. Woodward's foot slipped, and he fell. "Take your life!" exclaimed Mead. "Any thing but your physic," replied Woodward. The quarrel arose from a difference of opinion on medical subjects. VOL. I. Ν CHAPTER XIII. Memoir of Lord Somers-Committee appointed to wait upon him-Society receive valuable present from the East India Company-Halley sails on a Scientific Expedition-Mr. Jones sent by the Society on an Expedition of Discovery-Resolution not to give opinions in Scientific Controversies-The Transactioneer-Dr. Woodward disowns the Work-Favour shown to the Academy of Sciences-Letter of M. Geoffroy-Zeal of Sir Hans Sloane-Savery exhibits his Steam-engine-Presents Drawing of it to Society-Receives a Certificate-Performance of the Engine-Death of Hooke-His interest in the SocietyHis design of endowing the Society-His Wealth-Proposal to rebuild Gresham College-Wren furnishes plan of rooms for the Society-Scheme abandoned-The Society resolve on building or buying a House-Lord Somers resigns-Sir Isaac Newton elected President. 1695-1705. THE election of Lord Somers to the office of President, reflects great lustre upon the Royal Society, "He was a man," says Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Lord Chancellors, "eminent as a lawyer, a statesman, and a man of letters, the whole of whose public career and character I can conscientiously praiseand whose private life, embellished by many virtues, could not have been liable to any grave imputation, since it has received the unqualified approbation of Addison." The family to which Lord Somers belonged, had long been proprietors of a small estate in the parish of Severn Stoke, in the county of Gloucester; and of the site of a dissolved nunnery, called the "White Ladies," a short distance from Worcester. The Chancellor's father, John Somers, was bred to |