sen one of the council; and rose in succession to the
chair of the presidentship, which, as Lysander above truly
says, he filled with a credit and celebrity that has since
never been surpassed. On this occasion he was told by Dr.
Jurin, the Secretary, who dedicated to him the 34th vol. of
the Transactions, that "the greatest man that ever lived
(Sir Isaac Newton) singled him out to fill the chair, and to
preside in the society, when he himself was so frequently
prevented by indisposition; and that it was sufficient to
say of him that he was _Sir Isaac's friend_." Within a few
years afterwards, he was elected President of the Society of
Antiquaries. Two situations, the filling of which may be
considered as the _ne plus ultra_ of literary distinction.
Mr. Folkes travelled abroad, with his family, about two
years and a half, visiting the cities of Rome, Florence, and
Venice--where he was noticed by almost every person of rank
and reputation, and whence he brought away many a valuable
article to enrich his own collection. He was born in the
year 1690, and died of a second stroke of the palsy, under
which he languished for three years, in 1754. He seems to
have left behind him a considerable fortune. Among his
numerous bequests was one to the Royal Society of 200_l._,
along with a fine portrait of Lord Bacon, and a large
cornelian ring, with the arms of the society engraved upon
it, for the perpetual use of the president and his
successors in office. The MSS. of his own composition, not
being quite perfect, were, to the great loss of the learned
world, ordered by him to be destroyed. The following
wood-cut portrait is taken from a copper-plate in the
_Portraits des Hommes Illustres de Denmark_, 4to., 7 parts,
1746: part 4th, a volume which abounds with a number of
copper-plate engravings, _worked off_ in a style of uncommon
clearness and brilliancy. Some of the portraits themselves
are rather stiff and unexpressive; but the vignettes are
uniformly tasteful and agreeable. The seven parts are rarely
found in an equal state of perfection.

[Illustration]

Dr. Birch has drawn a very just and interesting character of
this eminent man, which may be found in Nichols's _Anecdotes
of Bowyer_, pp. 562-7. Mr. Edwards, the late ornithologist