ABSTRACT
Robert Boyle (1627-91) was the fourteenth child of Richard, Earl of Cork, and brother of Mary Boyle (Rich) [see 4: 12]. He was educated at Eton College between the ages of 8 and 12, afterwards by private tutors-first the local clergyman, and then a Frenchman, who in 1638 accompanied him to Geneva, where he was to polish both his learning and his social skills. Boyle also studied in Italy, and did not return to England till 1644. Learning and his deep Christian faith were the twin pillars of his life. He became one of leading chemists of his day, and was very active in the scientific community, both in Oxford and in London, where he was a central figure in the development of the Royal Society. He also applied himself to the study of scripture, and, in order to read it in the original languages, learnt Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldee. His religion was practical too; he contributed large amounts of money to support the propagation of the Christian message in many countries. He also gave generously to educational programmes. Boyle's autobiography, which covers only his early years, and which was not published in his lifetime, is narrated in the third person. This foregrounds what in many of the extracts is less obvious to a reader - the differences between the actual, the writing and the written selves. Boyle has created a narrator with a personality and a point of view, who seems knowingly to construct an image of his earlier self-a self presented as an object of interest and even amusement to the narrator. The reader is therefore alerted to the process of construction, and made aware of the simultaneous presence in the text of two versions of the actual author .
