studied chemistry, botany, and anatomy. But he failed to satisfy himself of the wisdom of his choice. In becoming Fellow, he had taken an oath to make divinity the end of his studies. He talked the matter over with his uncle, the bishop, and saw that it was his duty to adhere to the letter of his obligations.

Of Barrow, at Cambridge, Abraham Hill gives a very pleasing picture. He speaks "of his calm temper in a factious time; his large charity in a mean estate; his facetious talk upon fit occasions; his indefatigable industry in various studies; his clear judgments on all arguments; his steady virtues in all difficulties." Ray, the illustrious naturalist, was his great companion, "sometimes his fellow-traveller in simpling, and always his very much-esteemed friend." Tillotson was like

wise his fellow-student and intimate friend.

In a Latin speech which he delivered, about this period, as Moderator of the schools, he uttered some words of grave and well-deserved censure to his hearers. Some of the strictures which Barrow passed on the manners of his contemporaries are applicable enough to the present age. He could not tolerate those who looked upon life simply in the grotesque or ludicrous point of view, and overlooked its earnestness and awfulness. "If

1 Ray in 1662, being unwilling to comply with the Act of Uniformity, withdrew from the university and resigned his fellowship. Barrow's convictions were no less strong on the other side. But no breach of friendship or affection happened between those wise and good men.

it is true," he said, "that nothing has for you any relish except painted comfits and unmeaning trifles-that not even wisdom will please you, unless without its own peculiar flavour; nor truth, unless seasoned with a jest; nor reason, unless cloaked in fun-then in an unlucky hour have I been assigned as your purveyor, neither born nor bred to such a frivolous confectionery. The insatiable appetite for laughter keeps itself within no bounds. Have you crowded to this place for the purpose of listening and studying and making progress, or only for the sake of laughing at this thing, and making a jest of that other? There is nothing so remote from levity which you do not instantly transmute into mirth and absurdity. And let a discourse be such as to move no laughter, nothing else will please-neither dignity, nor gravity, nor solidity -neither strength, nor point, nor polish." That Barrow was no enemy to innocent amusement, within the bounds of moderation, his whole life may prove. But he felt that the habit of mind which turns everything into a jest, and looks at the gravest subjects from a comic point of view, could not be too seriously deprecated.

The process by which he was led to the study of mathematics, in which he was afterwards so greatly to distinguish himself, is noteworthy, as illustrating the thoroughness with which he devoted all his powers to one topic, and spared no pains to discover the truth. In the investigation of some chronological question he was reading Scaliger upon Eusebius, and perceived the intimate connexion between astronomy and chronology.

Immediately he set himself to the study of astronomy. But a competent knowledge of astronomy could not be attained without a more thorough acquaintance with mathematics than he possessed. To mathematics, therefore, he forthwith turned his attention; and beginning with Euclid's elements, worked his way upward, step by step, till he became one of the first mathematicians of his age, second only to his illustrious pupil Sir Isaac Newton.

Arabic was the study which interposed as the severest check to his pursuit. Many of the most important treatises on pure mathematics had been written by the Arabic mathematicians. To the study of these, therefore, he devoted himself, but with less than his usual success. He says, in one of his few letters which have been preserved :-" As for Mengolus, I have been once or twice looking into him; but his language is so uncouth and ambiguous, his definitions so many and so obscure, that I think it were easier toward the understanding any matter to learn Arabic than his dialect." This is a criticism which will serve for many other writers besides the obscure Mengolus.

In June, 1655, he left England to travel on the continent, though in order to raise the needful funds he had to sell his library. Probably he was impelled to undertake this journey by the threatening aspect of public affairs at home, and by the disappointment he suffered in the failure of his candidature for the Greek professorship. But foreign travel, at all times beneficial, was

especially so in the days of Barrow. It was difficult and costly to communicate with foreign scholars by letter; public libraries and museums were few and illfurnished; and in those stormy times it was almost as arduous and perilous an enterprise to undertake a journey through England as to cross the continent of Eu

rope. A few years spent among continental scholars, therefore, formed an almost essential part of education.

He first went to Paris. Here he found his father, in attendance on the wandering Charles II.; both master and servant in deep poverty. From his own scanty resources, Barrow relieved the wants of his father, who in return was able to give him peculiar facilities of introduction into French society. It was just about the close of the minority of Louis XIV. Anne of Austria was the Queen Regent; and Cardinal Mazarin, the allpowerful minister, was invested with more than royal authority.

While on his travels he wrote a series of Latin letters to his college friends, some in prose, some in hexameter verse, describing the countries through which he passed, and the people with whom he associated. His descriptions of scenery are graphic and picturesque, and he often narrates incidents with much humour.

Some of Barrow's notices of Paris are of the deepest interest. They show him to have possessed a keen, observant eye, and an unusual amount of political sagacity. He penetrated the superficial show and glitter of French society, and discerned the corruption, the misery, the

discontent which lay beneath. He describes the lower classes as exasperated against their rulers, by the memory of past wrongs and the sense of present injuries. The courts of law and justice were instruments for extortion. The highest offices in the state were openly bought and sold. "In the palace, magnificence and revelry hold court -all is an endless round of play-acting, dancing, feasting, rejoicing—every man in his humour, and no day of evil coming. But what security there is for all this felicity, what heavings toward a storm may agitate the bosom of this deep, and what tempests may be struggling forth, the more knowing must determine. . . . For where violence is the basis, who can guarantee stability? And who can pledge the patience of an afflicted people whilst the hooks of a ceaseless extortion are rankling in their vitals? ... When the people are retained in allegiance, not by the silken cords of kindness, but by the reins of terror and the force of fear-when such scandals strike every eye, what tranquillity can be lasting?" The evils which Barrow thus shrewdly discerned and vigorously described continued to increase in intensity, till, ultimately, the Revolution justified his prophetic warning.

After spending some months in France, Barrow proceeded to Italy, and took up his residence at Florence, where the grand-ducal library and museum formed a powerful attraction. But his funds were now rapidly diminishing, and Florence was too costly a place to remain in very long. The plague was raging violently at Rome. He therefore proceeded to Leghorn and