Robert Boyle by Himself and His Friends (review)

Abstract

~44 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 35: ~ JANUARY 1997 tered many times over Leibniz's thought on the nature of individual substance, freedom and contingency, and pre-established harmony. Again, tbis repetition will only be noticed by those who read the entire work, and those who pick and choose articles within the volume will actually be aided by the fact that each author has done an excellent job in explaining his or her particular subject. BRANDON LOOK University of Kentucky Michael Hunter, editor. Robert Boyle byHimselfand His Friends. London: William Pickering , 1994. Pp. cvii + 188. Cloth, $75.oo. For over two hundred and fifty years the biography which Thomas Birch wrote for the first complete edition of Boyle's Works (x744) has been the definitive statement of Boyle's life. In that biography, Birch relied heavily upon the details Boyle had presented in his youthful autobiography and on Bishop Gilbert Burnet's funeral sermon, as well as upon papers found among Boyle's manuscript remains and papers which were prepared in connection with two earlier but never completed projects for a biography of Boyle (one by Burnet himself, and the other by William Wotton, author of the celebrated Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, published in a694). Now, Michael Hunter has gathered together and published in full all of these documents in one convenient volume, revealing the extent to which Birch's selective inclusion of some excerpts from the documents (and his silent exclusion of others) resulted in a one-sided and considerably oversimplified portrayal of the interests and concerns of the great natural philosopher and lay theologian. There are nine documents in all, only two of which have previously been published in full: Boyle's youthful Account of Philaretus and Burnet's funeral sermon (Evelyn's correspondence is a partial exception; see the comments below). One of the new documents is related to a later attempt at autobiography on Boyle's part--a set of biographical notes which he dictated to his amanuensis, and which, when contrasted with the account in Philaretua, provides insight into Boyle's later reflections on his earlier attempt at autobiography and clues as to how, in his maturity, he wished to be perceived by the public. Another document is more revealing of Boyle's private rather than his public personality--a memorandum made by Burnet (one of Boyle's confessors and intimates) based on an interview (or interviews) with Boyle. As Hunter rightly comments, "in many ways this is the single most significant biographical source relating to Boyle" (xxvii). It includes a number of previously unknown facts about Boyle's life; the most striking thing about it is that approximately half of the text is devoted to his interest in and concern about the legitimacy of spirit-contact. In addition, Hunter has included Sir Peter Pett's notes on Boyle, notes which Pett compiled to assist Burnet in the latter's plan to write a biography of Boyle. Scholars who have been intrigued by the opening pages of this manuscript (which are in a neat scribal hand) yet unable to decipher the remainder (which are in Pett's almost unreadable hand) will appreciate the pains to which Hunter has gone to transcribe the whole. BOOK REVIEWS 145 Pett's intention, apparently, was to enrich Burnet's rather general funeral sermon with a wealth of circumstantial details about Boyle's life, some of which he entrusted to Burnet confidentially, expecting Burnet to use his own discretion as to which details were fit for public knowledge. Although Burnet never published the intended biography , Birch himself exercised his own discretion as to what should be silently deleted, as he did in the case of thc Burnet memorandum as well. The remaining documents are related to Wotton's attempt at Boyle's biography. In addition to the sole extant section of a chapter from Wotton's biography--significant if for no other reason than because it was arguably the first attempt at intellectual biography in England--there are letters to Wotton written to aid him in his efforts by John Evelyn (Evelyn's copies have been published in his own correspondence; Hunter's texts are from the...