THOMAS GUY. THIS remarkable person was the founder of Guy's Hospital, and the son of Thomas Guy, coal-dealer and lighterman in Horsleydown, Southwark. He put his son Thomas apprentice to a bookseller, and set him up in trade, with a stock of books to the amount of 2007., between Cornhill and Lombard street. The English Bibles at that time (1660) were very badly printed: Mr. Guy therefore engaged with other booksellers in a plan to have the Bibles better printed in Holland, and to import them but Government put a stop to this. He next contracted with the University of Oxford for the privilege of printing them, and carried on a great Bible trade for many years, to considerable advantage. Thus he began to accumulate money, and his profits rested in his hands: for being a single man, and very penurious in his habits, his expences were next to nothing. His custom was to dine on the shop counter, with an old newspaper for a table cloth. He was equally plain in his dress. The bulk of his large fortune was, however, acquired by purchasing the tickets of seamen, during the wars of Queen Anne, and by South Sea Stock, in the memorable year 1720. To shew what great events spring from small beginnings, or as the old song says, it may "On what small springs, On which men build their glory," be observed, that the public are indebted to a most trifling accident for the final devotion of his great fortune to charity. Guy had a housemaid, whom he had agreed to marry. Preparatory to his marriage, he had ordered the pavement before his door to be mended, so far as to a particular stone, which he marked. The maid, thinking she might now exercise a little authority, looked on the men at work upon the pavement, and seeing a broken place, which they had not repaired, she mentioned it to them. But they told her that Mr. Guy had directed them not to go so far. "Well," said she, "do you mend it; tell him I bade you do it, and I know he will not be angry." But the poor girl had presumed too much on her influence with her wary lover, with whom the difference of a few shillings turned the scale against her. Guy was enraged to find that his orders had been exceeded. He renounced his scheme of matrimony, and built hospitals in his old age. He died in 1724, in his eighty-first year. He left more money in charity than any one private man in Great Britain. STEPHEN HALES, LL.D. & F.R.S. THIS most respectable and learned man was born in 1677. His grandfather was created a Baronet by Charles the Second. His son Stephen was entered at Cambridge in 1696, and admitted a fellow in 1703; he soon gave proof of great talents, with most indefatigable patience and perseverance, combined with an amiable disposition. His genius for natural philosophy appeared very soon: he shewed a taste for botany also when a very young man. He was accustomed when very young to walk out with Ray's Botanical Catalogue of plants in his pocket, and to ramble far away many miles in search of new plants and flowers. He was so attached to reading, that he used to call good books "his best friends," at eighteen years of age. He often said, "I can hardly conceive how our forefathers existed without books, and before the art of printing was discovered. It appears to me that as the world makes progress to old age, the goodness of God has supplied the mind with more and more sources of mental happiness, as the means to exalt and elevate the soul previous to immortal life." He was used to attend constantly at Queen's College, Cambridge, to hear the lectures; and afterwards he would himself go through the whole process of Mr. Boyle's experiments. He distinguished himself by inventing a machine of brass, to demonstrate the motions of the planets. This machine was constructed with great ingenuity, and was nearly the same which was afterwards invented by Rowley, under the name of the Orrery. Our philosopher was next admitted to a Doctor's degree, and was afterwards elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and soon after received thanks from that learned body, for experiments on the nature of vegetation. He spent the latter part of his life at his parsonage near Hampton Court. Here he was honoured with particular esteem by his Royal Highness, Frederick Prince of Wales, the grandfather of his most gracious Majesty, George the Fourth. This very excellent Prince had great talents and virtues; and his death was deeply lamented by all the superior men of that period: he had not only taste and talents for the sciences, but his heart was full of benevolence. His candour and good feelings were loved and honoured by all who had opportunities of knowing his many virtues. His Royal Highness would often take great pleasure in surprising Dr. Hales in his library, or in his laboratory near to Hampton Court. After the death of that excellent Prince, the Princess of Wales appointed Dr. Hales to be her Royal High |