We are not disposed to question either his talent, or his veracity, hence the difficulty of offering any simple, direct, satisfactory reply to what otherwise appears to be an easily answered interrogative. Eminent writers of the seventeenth and previous centuries maintained that perpetual motion was possible. Dr. Dee, in his very curious preface to the first translation of Euclid into English, wrote favourably on this very topic; so that, however the modern scientific sceptic may blame his Lordship for want of skill, or, worse, of veracity, his opinion was quite in accordance with the estimation in which the subject was viewed in his day. But he goes a step farther, he speaks of a practical result. Hence he leaves us no alternative but to declare that he propounds either a truth or a falsehood; and if false that he was either himself mistaken, or deceived by others. But either way it is difficult to arrive at a thoroughly satisfactory conclusion, even as to what his Lordship actually intended and performed in this instance, owing to the usual vagueness of his own statements. At 38 years of age Lord Herbert had enjoyed seven years of matrimonial felicity, and had been during four years a widower. In 1639, his son Henry would be 10 years old, his two daughters much younger, so that as well for their education as for the gratification of his own scientific investigations, he may have continued for some time to reside at Worcester House: the Strand and all that neighbourhood being then in the occupancy of families of title, wealth and high position. During his father’s lifetime, the resident housekeeper was James Redman, Esquire, as we learn from the list of his household. The private studies and pursuits in which Lord Herbert was indefatigably engaged, must have occupied his attention from an innate love of physical science. The society in which he moved had no tendency that way, while the times in which he lived were far from affording any encouragement for such investigations as those in which he was principally engaged. The metropolis in his day was without coaches until 1625, when they were first used by the gentry, and ten years later hackney coaches were considered to have arrived at such a dangerous increase that their plying was restrained by law; and London streets were either so bad, or the treasury so low, that penalties were levied on all heavy vehicles passing over the highways. It is characteristic of the state of our laws at that period, that Dr. Leighton was for his writings sentenced to barbarous mutilations, as also happened in 1633 to the unfortunate learned Mr. Prynne, and four years later to John Lilburn. The pillory, whipping culprits through the streets, cropping ears and other mutilations and barbarities were ordinary punishments, and in 1636 the plague was raging throughout the metropolis and its suburbs, with all its accustomed terrors.