Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, was just rising into fame and power, and preparing the way for the high position which he occupied during the reign of Anne. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was just appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces. George Byng, the celebrated admiral, was beginning to display the bravery and the naval skill for which he is still remembered. John Radcliffe, the renowned physician, had recently removed to London, where he received from King William, during the first six years of his reign, nearly eight thousand guineas for his professional assistance. Isaac Newton, the unrivalled philosopher, was just elected one of the representatives of the Cambridge University. Sir Hans Sloane was bringing home eight hundred species of plants from the West Indies. Richard Bentley, the son of a Yorkshire blacksmith, had just removed with his pupil, Stillingfleet’s son, to the Oxford University, having already evinced his amazing powers as a scholar and a critic. Matthew Prior was writing his poem on the Deity. Jonathan Swift, having lost his uncle, and being almost penniless, was applying, by the advice of his mother, to the celebrated Sir William Temple to afford him shelter, and to find him bread. William Penn was writing his prolix “Maxims and Reflections on Human Life.” Sir Godfrey Kneller, with King James before him, was painting a portrait of that monarch at the very moment when the landing of Prince William was announced. Grinling Gibbons, whom Evelyn considers the greatest of all sculptors, was at the zenith of his fame. Sir Christopher Wren was building St Paul’s Cathedral. Dryden, deprived of his official emoluments by the abdication of King James, was now writing for bread, and producing some of the finest pieces he ever published. John Locke, whom Dr Watts describes as having a soul wide as the sea, calm as the night, and bright as the day, was finishing his immortal “Essay on the Human Understanding.” And Robert Boyle, not unworthy to be ranked with Lord Bacon, acquainted with the whole compass of mathematical sciences, and from whose works may be deduced the whole system of natural knowledge, was, as usual, regulating, by a thermometer, the quantity of clothes he ought to wear. Such were some of the illustrious men flourishing at this period. We shall meet with others farther on. Mr Wesley’s first ecclesiastical appointment was a curacy, with an income of £28 a-year. He was then appointed chaplain on board a man-of-war, where his salary was at the rate of £70 a-year, and where he began his poem on the Life of Christ. He then obtained another curacy in London, his ecclesiastical income during the two years’ service that he rendered, being £30 per annum, an amount which he doubled by his industry and writings. It was while he held this appointment that he married, he and his wife living in lodgings, until after the birth of their first-born, Samuel.