into fragments. The broken-hearted inventor sent his family back to Cassel, and he himself was again a lonely refugee in London, and was content to return to the service of English men of science. The only remaining traces of him are in his letters to Sir Hans Sloane, the secretary of the Royal Society; the last, to which I find reference, is dated 23rd January 1712. The date of his death has not been ascertained.
Professor W. J. Macquorn Rankine in the “Imperial Dictionary of Biography” has truly said : — “In connection with the steam-engine, Papin was unquestionably the inventor of the safety-valve and of the piston; and though his inventions never attained any practical success, they formed essential steps towards, and elements in, the inventions of his followers.”
VI. Justel.
Henri de Justel was (says the Biographia Britannica) born at Paris in 1620. He was Secretary and Councillor to Louis XIV. and had a high place in the confidence of that king. As a great scholar and man of letters he was of the same reputation as his father, Christophe Justel (who died in 1649). He was the chieftain of Protestant controversialists, though his position at court compelled him to shelter among the anonymous. His “Answer to the Bishop of Condom’s [Bossuet] Book, entituled, An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church upon matters of controversie,” was translated and printed at Dublin in 1676. It was licensed for the press by Dr Edward Wetenhall with this observation, “If any one should think that in this book he finds anything not quite in conformity with the doctrine and offices of the Anglican Church, let him set that to the account of the peculiar constitution of the Reformed Churches in France. Assuredly I judge the body of the Reply to be truly worth its weight in gold, and worthy of this imprimatur” Justel’s Dedicatory Epistle is “To Monsieur Conrart. Since it is you, sir, who inspired me with the thought of undertaking the defence of our common cause against a Prelate of the reputation of the Bishop of Condom, be pleased also to become responsible to the public for the manner in which I have acquitted myself herein. I am persuaded a man could not set here a better name than yours, to do no wrong to himself, or to give more weight to the Answer he had made. It is notorious that you are known through all parts where desert is known. You are equally loved and esteemed by all worthy persons both of one and the other communion, and by the Bishop of Condom himself. And as all the world agrees, that none can wear a spirit or an heart more upright than that which you own, so it will easily be presumed that those sentiments which you shall have approved are no less sincere than faithful. Nor can any say that this in an anonymous work, in that they see not my name here, if that you will be pleased it be known that he who writ it has the honour to be one of the friends of Monsieur Conrart.”
Justel’s house in Paris was much visited by distinguished Englishmen, among these John Locke and Rev. Dr Hickes are specially mentioned; and to them should be added Wake, who in his publications against Bossuet got many hints from the above-named compendious volume and its author. Dr Hickes returned from France to England in 1674, and by him Justel sent to the University of Oxford the manuscript of Canones Ecclesice Universalis in Greek, which his father had printed. How the University acknowledged this gift, Anthony Wood has recorded in the Fasti: — “1675, June 23. Henry Justell, Secretary and Councillor to the Most Christian King, was diplomated Doctor of the Civil Law; he was a most noted and learned man, and, as the public register said, non modò omni scicntiarum et virtutum genere per se excelluit, verùm etiam parentis optimi et cruditissimi Christoph. Justelli doctrinam et merita, ornando et excolendo, sua fecit. He had given several choice MSS. to the public library, and had sent by Mr George Hicks of Lincoln College (who became acquainted with him at Paris), the original MS. in Greek of the Canones Ecclesiae Universalis, put out by his father Christopher, which is at this time in the Public Library. What this eminent author Henry Justell hath written and published, the printed catalogue belonging to that library, commonly called the Oxford Catalogue, will tell you.”
Hickes, in conversation with Justel in Paris, remarked on the frequent demolition of the Protestant temples, nothwithstanding the Edict of Nantes. Justel replied, “As I am wont to talk in confidence with you, I will tell you a secret which almost none of us know besides myself. Our extirpation is decreed; we must all be banished our country or turn Papists. I tell it you because I intend to come into
