4 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [l 



its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and seleno- 

 graphy of the moon, the several phases of Venus and 

 Mercury, the improvement of telescopes and grinding 

 of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the 

 possibility or impossibility of vacuities and nature's ab- 

 horrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in quick- 

 silver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of 

 acceleration therein, w^ith divers other things of like 

 nature, some of which were then but new discoveries, 

 and others not so generally known and embraced as 

 now they are ; with other things appertaining to what 

 hath been called the New Philosophy, which, from 

 the times of Galileo at Florence, arid Sir Francis Bacon 

 (Lord Yerulam) in England, hath been much cultivated 

 in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as 

 well as with us in England." 



The learned Dr. "Wallis, writing in 1G96, narrates, in 

 these words, what happened half a century before, or 

 about 1645. The associates met at Oxford, in the 

 rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a 

 bishop ; and subsequently coming together in London, 

 they attracted the notice of the king. And it is a 

 strange evidence of the taste for knowledge which the 



O CD 



most obviously worthless of the Stuarts shared with 

 his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second 

 was not content with saying witty things about his 

 philosophers, but did wise things with regard to them. 

 For he not only bestowed upon them such attention as 

 he could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but, 

 being in his usual state of impecuniosity, begged for 

 them of the Duke of Ormond ; and, that step being 

 without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, and 

 a mace : crowning his favours in the best way they could 

 be crowned, by burdening them no further with royal 

 patronage or state interference. 



