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those few precocious youths who entirely fulfil the promise CHAP. of their boyhood. At the age of thirteen he presented to his father an astronomical instrument of his own invention, with a copy of Latin verses by no means destitute of merit. In the case of Wren at Westminster School, Latin verse did not interfere with science. There is another

much longer hexameter poem on the Zodiac, which the devout youth would Christianise, discarding the profane pagan names of the Signs, and substituting others from our religion-for Leo, the Lion of Judah, for the Twins, Jacob and Esau; we cannot doubt about the Virgo.

At fourteen years Wren entered at Oxford as a fellowcommoner of Wadham. At Oxford he happily encountered men able and willing to appreciate and encourage in the right course the development of his extraordinary powers: Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester; Seth Ward, the Warden of his college, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. Young Wren was initiated in that circle of men who took refuge in scientific pursuits from the turbulent and perilous politics of the day, and from the collision of hostile fanaticisms. No higher testimony can be borne to the character and attainments of young Wren than that of Evelyn: After dinner (Wren had become Fellow of All Souls) visited that miracle of a youth, Mr. Christopher Wren, nephew of the Bishop of Ely.'" In another work Evelyn writes of that rare and early prodigy of universal

science, Dr. Christopher Wren, our worthy and accom'plished friend.' It was the universality of Wren's genius which struck and impressed Evelyn, a man of the soundest and calmest judgement. There was no branch of scientific inquiry of which he was not master, in which he had not advanced as far as any man, and surpassed most. I can only deplore my own ignorance on such subjects. Wren

Diary, July 11, 1634.

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СНАР. has not been fortunate in his biographers. It would be but due honour-I might say justice-to his memory (a chapter in the history of science which ought to be written), if some competent philosopher would determine the originality and the value of Wren's multifarious inventions and discoveries. His range was boundless, all-comprehensive. Nothing was too profound for his restless mind. In Astronomy, Wren became Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, Gresham Professor of Astronomy in London. In the higher mathematics he gave a solution of Pascal's celebrated problem; in aërostatics, he claimed to be the inventor, at least the first who, with his friend Boyle, ascertained the use and value of the barometer; he studied chemistry, mechanics—for him nothing was too profound, nothing too minute. Orders are sent to him from the King (Charles dabbled in scientific pursuits) to send up his lunar globe, and at the same time to continue his microscopic investigations about insects. There is extant a catalogue of no less than fiftytwo inventions or discoveries, some of high importance, claimed by or attributed to Wren.' Wren was a chosen brother, an active and zealous member, of that Club (of which his Oxford friends, Wilkins and Ward, were leaders) which held its meetings and delivered lectures at Gresham College, grew in fame and influence, and at length, incorporated by Royal Charter, became and still lives as the famous Royal Society.

While, however, Wren might seem destined to be the precursor, if not the actual anticipator, of some of our great discoverers in one or more of the great sciencesof that art or science, or both, in which he was to transcend all Englishmen who have attained fame, and to rival the most renowned in Europe, he does not appear to have Elmes's Life.

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made any special study. He suddenly breaks out, as it were, as a consummate architect. He is installed as Surveyor to the King; he is consulted, first, on the restoration of the Cathedral, then commissioned to prepare the design and model for the new building. It is even more extraordinary, that the first great work which he is known to have executed, which from its most felicitous adaptation to its peculiar purpose, from the ingeniousness and successful boldness of its entirely original construction, has remained an object of admiration, almost of wonder, was the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford.

From that time Wren ruled as the supreme and undisputed oracle of architecture; no one presumed to question, no one aspired to rival, his authority; and it was not the fault of Wren that London missed the glorious opportunity offered by the Fire, of rising from its ashes, if the wealthiest, also the noblest and most commanding city in Europe. It was not Wren's fault that her streets were not broad and spacious. His plan showed regularity, without long and wearisome monotony; the streets terminating and issuing forth again from commodious and ample centres. It was not Wren's fault that the river was not bordered with magnificent quays, which would have given order and facility to her commerce, and made the Thames the mirror to her splendour as well as the channel to her wealth. It was not the fault of Wren that her churches, which rose from his hand in such infinite variety, with their tall and graceful towers and steeples, were not presented to her streets, each with its front visible and accessible to the worshippers, and enlivening and adorning the thoroughfares. It was not the fault of Wren that S. Paul's was cabined and confined by buildings crowding around it, though kept in his day in some 2 See the plans in Elmes and other works.

CHAP.

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