The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened | Page 8

never repented of his policy, and he carried it out, so far as might be, in his dealings with Cromwell a few years later. And Henrietta Maria bore him no grudge on this score.
Exile in Paris meant friendly intercourse with, and consolation of the Queen, but also scientific research. In 1651 Evelyn was visiting him there, and being stirred by his enthusiasm into attending Fébur's chemistry lectures along with him. Before that must have taken place his pilgrimage to Descartes, who died in 1650. Apparently Sir Kenelm had gone to Egmont as an unknown stranger; and it throws light on his wide reputation as a man of ideas and a conversationalist, that into his torrent of questions and speculation Descartes broke with, "You can be none other than Digby." The English scientist's practical mind--for he had always a practical end in view, however fantastic his methods--showed itself in his counsel to the author of the _Discours sur la Méthode_. Why all this labour for mere abstract speculation? Why not apply his genius to the one great subject, the prolongation of human life? Descartes, it appears, did not need the advice. He said the subject was engaging his mind; and though he "dared not look forward to man being rendered immortal, he was quite certain his length of life could be made equal to the patriarch's." In fact, he was composing at the time an _Abrégé de Médecine_, and popular report said he believed men could live four or five hundred years. He died prematurely of too much faith in his own medical theories.
In 1653 permission was given to Digby to return, on condition he would not meddle with Royalist plots. He had been in communication with Cromwell, and had done some diplomatic business for him in Paris. On his return in 1654, and for the next few years, he was in the closest relations with the Protector, thereby carrying out the principle he had probably adopted from White, of a "universal passive obedience to any species of government that had obtained an establishment." His Royalist friends made an outcry, and so did the Puritans; but Digby was confident of obtaining from Cromwell great advantages for the English Catholics, and the Protector, it seems, fully trusted the intentions and the abilities of this strange and fascinating personality who came to him out of the enemy's camp. Delicate business was given into his hands, that of preventing an alliance between France and Spain. Prynne, in his True and Perfect Narrative, bitterly denounced Cromwell in "that Sir Kenelme Digby was his particular favourite, and lodged at Whitehall; that Maurice Conry, Provincial of the Franciscans in England, and other priests, had his protections under hand and seal." Of Digby's feelings towards Cromwell there is clear evidence. It seems his loyalty had been questioned in his absence; and he writes from Paris, in March, 1656, to Secretary Thurloe: "Whatsoever may be disliked by my Lord Protector and the Council of State must be detested by me. My obligations to his Highness are so great, etc." And again, "How passionate I am for his service and for his honour and interest, even to exposing my life for him." The intimacy, begun on both sides in mere policy, had evidently grown to friendship and mutual admiration.
The illness of which he died had already attacked him, and it was for his health he went to Montpelier in 1658. His stay in that seat of learning was made memorable by his reading to a company of eminent persons his Discourse on the Powder of Sympathy, which has brought him more fame and more ridicule than anything else. I have already referred to the secret confided to him as a youth in Florence by the Carmelite Friar from the East. When he came back to England he spoke of the great discovery, and had occasion to use it. Howell--of the _Familiar Letters_--was, according to Sir Kenelm's account, wounded while trying to part two friends who were fighting a duel. His wounds were hastily tied up with his garter, and Digby was sent for. Digby asked for the garter-bandage, and steeped it in a basin in which he had dissolved his secret powder (of vitriol). Immediately Howell felt a "pleasing kind of freshnesse, as it were a wet cold napkin did spread over my hand." "Take off all the plasters and wrappings," said Digby. "Keep the wound clean, and neither too hot nor too cold." Afterwards he took the bandage from the water, and hung it before a great fire to dry; whereupon Howell's servant came running to say his master was much worse, and in a burning fever. The bandage plunged once more in the dissolved powder, soothed the patient at a distance; and in a few days the wound