THE ENGLISH PRECURSORS OF NEWTON. 6 77 



isolated impulse. On all sides men were rising up eager to devote 

 their best energies to physical inquiries ; and society, whether fanatic 

 or frivolous, animated them by its curiosity and rewarded them with its 

 applause. The Long Parliament appointed, July 20, 1653, a commit- 

 tee "for the advancement of learning." Evelyn drew up, in 1059, an 

 elaborate scheme for the foundation of a " philosophic-mathematic 

 college." Cowley dismounted for a moment from his " Pindaric Pega- 

 sus " to make a " proposition for the advancement of experimental 

 philosophy," whereby " the lost inventions, and, as it were, drowned 

 lands of the ancients, should be recovered ; all things of nature, deliv- 

 ered to us by former ages, weighed, examined, and proved ; all arts 

 which we now have improved, and others which we yet have not, dis- 

 covered." * Samuel Pepys was scarcely less interested in astronomy 

 than in the playhouse, and gossiped with as much zest about the ex- 

 periments at Gresham College as about the pageants of Whitehall. 

 Charles I. thought of founding a scientific repository at Vauxhall ; the 

 Earl of Worcester actually bought tenements there for the purpose ; 

 Sir William Petty recommended a comprehensive plan for the " inter- 

 pretation of nature whereof there is so little, and that so bad, extant 

 in the world." This design, "breathed after " (as Evelyn says) by so 

 many, was, at least in part, realized by the foundation of the Royal 

 Society. 



This celebrated institution had its origin in the meetings of the 

 " Invisible College, " of which Robert Boyle, John Wallis, and Dr. 

 Wilkins afterward Bishop of Chester and author of a novel project 

 for traveling to the moon were members. It was in 1045 that these, 

 with several other no less eminent men, began to seek in the so-called 

 " new philosophy " a refuge from the turmoil of civil war, their scien- 

 tific symposia being sheltered either in Gresham College or the less 

 dignified retreat of the " Bull's Head " tavern, in Cheapside. Their 

 fortunes were destined to expand. Fifteen years later they consti- 

 tuted themselves a society for the promotion of experimental science, 

 and were incorporated by royal charter, July 15, 1602. 



Thus the " Solomon's House " of the " New Atlantis " received a 

 " local habitation " in Bishopsgate Street, and' Bacon's splendid fable 

 was brought to the test of actual, if only partial, embodiment in a liv- 

 ing institution. Nothing can be more evident than the enormous in- 

 fluence exercised by the " incomparable Verulam " over the founders 

 of the Royal Society. Not only were his praises celebrated among 

 them, but his precepts were, as far as possible, obeyed by them. Their 

 foreign correspondents acted the part of the " merchants of light " ap- 

 pointed to enrich the Island of Bensalem with the knowledge of other 

 lands. The " mystery-men," " dowry-men," " pioneers," and " com- 

 pilers" of Solomon's House had all their representatives among the 

 " learned knot," who designed 



* Weld, "History of the Royal Society," vol. L, p. 51. 



