Sir Kenelm, an eminent English philosopher, was born at Gothurst, Buckinghamshire, in 1603. He was descended from an ancient and illustrious family. His great-grandfather had distinguished himself at Bosworth on the side of Henry VII.; and his father, Sir Everard Digby, was one of the leading Roman Catholic gentry at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. Having risen in arms on that occasion, Sir Everard was apprehended, tried, and executed at London, Jan. 27, 1606. The young philosopher was thus three years old at his father's death, and was educated by his guardians in the Protestant faith. Having finished his education at Oxford, he went abroad in 1621; and on his return he received from Charles I. the appointments of gentleman of the bed-chamber, commissioner of the navy, and governor of Trinity House. At the head of a small squadron he sailed in 1628 against the Algerines, and afterwards defeated the Venetians near the port of Scanderoon. During a brief stay in Paris, he joined the Church of Rome. Having returned to England in 1638, he espoused the cause of the king, and was imprisoned in Winchester House by order of the parliament. He was, however, liberated in 1643, and retired to France, where he was taken into the confidence of the court, and enjoyed the friendship of Descartes and other learned men. Here he wrote his *Treatise on the Nature of Bodies*, his *Treatise on the Soul*, *Peripatetic Institutions*, and other works. He visited England during the Protectorate of Cromwell, and seemed to be more zealous for the advancement of the interests of the Commonwealth than befitted a staunch royalist. At the Restoration he returned finally to London, where he died in 1663. He married Venetia Anastasia, the daughter of Sir Edward Stanley of Shropshire, "a lady of an extraordinary beauty and of as extraordinary a fame." His whimsical experiments to preserve her beauty procured him as much notoriety as his sympathetic powder for the cure of wounds at a distance. Besides the works already mentioned, Digby wrote *A Conference about a Choice of Religion*, Paris, 1638; *Letters* on the same subject, Lond. 1651; *Observations on Religio Medici*, Lond. 1643; *A Treatise of Adhering to God*, Lond. 1654; *On the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy*, Lond. 1658; and a *Discourse on Vegetation*.