of his interesting career for which he is
remembered in the annals of English science. He was to marry Durie's
only daughter, and be retained by that tie, as well as by others, in
the Hartlib-Durie cluster of Milton's friends.

[Footnote 1: Dr. Peter Du Moulin was one of Robert Boyle's friends
and correspondents both before and after the Restoration. It was at
Boyle's request that Du Moulin translated and published in 1658 a
little book called _The Devil of Mascon_, a French story of
well-authenticated spirit-rapping; and the book was dedicated by
Dumoulin to Boyle, and Boyle contributed an introductory letter to
it. Moreover, it was to Boyle that Du Moulin in 1670 dedicated the
first part of his _Parerga_ or Collection of Latin Poems, the
second part of which contained his reprint of the Iambics against
Milton from the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_.--See Birch's Life of
Boyle, p. 60, and four letters of Du Moulin to Boyle in Boyle's
Works, Vol. V (pp 594-596). In three of these letters, all written
after the Restoration, Du Moulin presents his respectful services to
"My Honourable Lady Ranelagh" in terms implying long-established
acquaintanceship. But there are other scattered proofs of Du Moulin's
long intimacy with the whole Boyle family.]

[Footnote 2: The young Earl had married, hastily and against his
mother's will, in 1649, shortly after he had been Milton's pupil. See
a letter of condolence on the subject from Robert Boyle to his
sister, the young Earl's mother (Boyle's Works, V. 240). For the
intimacy between the young Earl of Barrimore and young Henry Lawrence
see a letter of Hartlib's to Boyle. (Ibid. V. 279).]

[Footnote 3: Letters of Hartlib to Boyle in Vol. V. of Boyle's
Works.]

Marvell, Needham, and Cyriack Skinner are not certainly known to have
been among Lady Ranelagh's acquaintances. _Their_ visits to
Milton, therefore, have to be imagined apart. Marvell's, if he were
still domiciled at Eton, can have been but occasional, but must have
been always welcome. Needham's cannot have been, as formerly, on
business connected with the _Mercurius Politicus_; for Milton
had ceased for some years to have anything to do with the editorship
of that journal. The duty of licensing it and its weekly double,
_The Public Intelligencer_, also edited by Needham and published
by Newcome, was now performed regularly by the omnipotent Thurloe.
Both journals would come to Milton's house, to be read to him; and
Needham, in