A Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib, with a reprint of
his pamphlet entitled "An Invention of Engines of Motion." By H. Dircks, Esq. (John Russell Smith.)—A scholarlike little monograph, giving all the information that can be given about a man whose name occurs in the correspondence of almost every eminent literary or scien- tific person of the time of the Commonwealth. Hartlib was a Prussian merchant, driven from Poland by the Jesuits, who came to England about 1628. Giving up trade, he devoted himself to promoting certain theological objects, and also made himself a kind of medium of com- munication between scientific men. All projectors were sure of his countenance and pecuniary aid. The pamphlet, for instance, which Mr. Dircks reprints, was by one Cressy Dymock, who had discovered perpetual motion, and not, as has been supposed, the steam-engine, and Hartlib had supported Dymock warmly. Every one, Milton included, valued and loved Hartlib, and no one will be astonished that he got rid of all his money. Daring Cromwell's Protectorship he then obtained a pension of 300/. a year, but it was two years in arrear when Cromwell died, and though not revoked by Charles II. it was never paid, and Hartlib died in extreme poverty, place and time unknown. He was alive April 9, 1662, but in very bad health. He seems to have been one of those men whose importance is purely social, and whose accom- plishments fit them for patrons. Unfortunately if you take up patron- age as a vocation in life you ought to have a fortune, and Hartlib had not. In these days he would probably have been made secretary to some learned society or a librarian to some public institution. In those times he starved. But he really seems to have had no claims on the public, certainly none on Charles H. which would compare with those -of the ruined cavaliers. Charles, however, cannot plead that excuse.
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