THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 535 



a rate we should have thought impossible to him, at " the ignorant 

 and comical buffoons who, with an insolence suitable to their un- 

 derstanding, are still [as he repeats] crying out, ' What have the 

 society done ? ' " And he prophesies that the society " will sur- 

 vive the triumphs of the proudest conquerors; since when all 

 their pomp and noise is ended, they [the F. R. S.] are those little 

 things in black, whom now in scorn they term philosophers and 

 fops, to whom they must be obliged for making their names out- 

 last the pyramids, whose founders are as unknown as the heads 

 of the Nile." 



Unfortunately, though Evelyn's claim for the society was sub- 

 stantially correct, the virtuosi laid themselves open to ridicule by 

 their many trifling, useless, and ludicrous questions, researches, 

 and experiments, and much of their labor was wasted, and its 

 results are now forgotten. The great Mr. Boyle is represented as 

 mortified by the absurd investigations of trivial subjects in which 

 some of his colleagues engaged, and as on one occasion tendering 

 to a friend, with blushing and confusion at the simplicity of the 

 society, their paper "giving instructions for inquiries." That 

 " pleasant rascal," the witty Charles II, whom Evelyn could 

 hardly have numbered among the scorners whom he described as 

 " magnificent fops, whose talents reach but to the adjusting of 

 their perukes," set the example of making fun of the Fellows on 

 the very day that he constituted them a society. He dined with 

 them on this occasion, as he did afterward; when he was not 

 present they feasted on venison sent them by his Majesty. Toward 

 the close of this first meeting, after expressing his satisfaction at 

 being the only King of England who had founded a scientific 

 society, he added, with that " peculiar gravity of countenance " 

 which he assumed when preparing to mystify or hoax his com- 

 panions with some witty but apparently grave and sincere remark 

 or question, that he had no doubt the learned men before him 

 could solve a problem that had long puzzled him. This was the 

 question : Suppose two pails of water of the same weight were 

 placed in two different but equally balanced scales, and that two 

 live bream were put in either of the pails, why would not the 

 pail to which the fish were added weigh more than the one to 

 which no addition had been made ? The Fellows were eager to 

 satisfy the king's curiosity ; but everybody gave a different an- 

 swer. " One at length offered so ridiculous a solution that another 

 of the members could not refrain from a loud laugh ; when the 

 king, turning to him, insisted that he should give his sentiments 

 as well as the rest. This he did without hesitation, and told his 

 Majesty, in plain terms, that he denied the fact ! On which the 

 king in high mirth exclaimed : ' Odds fish, brother, you are in the 

 right.' The jest was not ill designed. The story was often use- 



