THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 531 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY; OR, SCIENTIFIC VISIONARIES 

 OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



Br MAEY DAVIES STEELE. 



DURING the English Commonwealth period two little com- 

 panies of natural philosophers were in the habit of meeting 

 for study and experiments one in London, and the other at the 

 lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, warden of Wadhani College, Oxford. 

 At a later day these small clubs of virtuosi, as the scientists of 

 that age were called, were united, and the society held all its 

 sessions in London, at a tavern or private house ; and when finally 

 it attained such dimensions that a large room was necessary, 

 it established itself in the parlor of Gresham College. It was 

 originally called the Philosophic Assembly ; but when, soon after 

 the restoration of Charles II, Evelyn, in his dedicatory epistle, 

 prefixed to Naude's Treatise on Libraries, spoke of the Philosoph- 

 ic Assembly as the Royal Society, the name was immediately 

 adopted by the members, with a vote of thanks to him for sug- 

 gesting it. Charles was gratified, and declared himself their 

 founder, giving them, as Evelyn records, August 21, 1662, " the 

 armes of England, to be borne in a canton in our armes ; and sent 

 us a mace of silver gilt of the same fashion and bigness as those 

 carried before his Majesty, to be borne before our president on 

 meeting days/' Evelyn, besides writing several books, at the 

 request of the society, procured for it from the Howard family 

 the noble Arundelian Library, adding, on one of his birthdays, his 

 table of the lungs, liver, veins, and arteries ; the first chart of the 

 kind that was ever made. A rare print, designed by Evelyn, 

 probably as a frontispiece to Spratt's History of the Royal So- 

 ciety, and beautifully engraved by Hollar, represents Lord Bacon 

 as the founder of the society ; for, as Disraeli says, he " planned 

 the ideal institution in his philosophical romance of the New 

 Atlantis." The picture contains fine portraits of Charles II, 

 patron of the society; Lord Brouncker, its first president, and 

 Lord Bacon, its founder, inscribed Artium instaurator. The 

 library, statutes, journals, and mace of the Royal Society, and 

 numerous philosophical instruments are represented in the en- 

 graving. 



One peculiarity of the association was that men of all nations, 

 religions, and professions were admitted to membership ; for, as 

 their historian, Bishop Spratt, said, they did not wish " to lay the 

 foundations of an English, Scotch, Irish, Popish, or Protestant 

 philosophy, but a philosophy of mankind." When the Society 

 for Promoting Christian Knowledge desired to hold its meetings 

 in the Royal Society's rooms, Sir Isaac Newton made the follow- 



