occupied a prominent position in the literary and scientific worlds as President of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. He was more a generally accomplished man than a man of science, and it has been the fashion to laugh at his pretensions to the chair of the Royal Society, but his contemporaries thought well of him. Dr. Jurin, secretary of the Royal Society, said that “The greatest man that ever lived (Sir Isaac Newton) singled him out to fill the chair, and to preside in the Society when he himself was so frequently prevented by indisposition; and that it was sufficient to say of him that he was Sir Isaac’s friend.”
Edwards, the ornithologist, said of Folkes—
“He seemed to have attained to universal knowledge, for in the many opportunities I have had of being in his company, almost every part of science has happened to be the subject of discourse, all of which he handled as an adept. He was a man of great politeness in his manners, free from all pedantry and pride, and in every respect the real, unaffected, fine gentleman.”