I.] ABVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE. 5 



Tims it was that the half-dozen young men, studious 

 of the " New Philosophy," who met in one another's 

 lodgings in Oxford or in London, in the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, grew in numerical and in real 

 strength, until, in its latter part, the " Royal Society for 

 the Improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already 

 become famous, and had acquired a claim upon the vene- 

 ration of Englishmen, which it has ever since retained, 

 as the principal focus of scientific activity in our islands, 

 and the chief champion of the cause it was formed to 

 support. 



It was by the aid of the Royal Society that Newton 

 published his " Principia." If all the books in the world, 

 except the Philosophical Transactions, were destroyed, it 

 is safe to say that the foundations of physical science 

 would remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual 

 progress of the last two centuries would be largely, 

 though incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs 

 of halting or of decrepitude manifested themselves in 

 our own times. As in Dr. Wallis'a days, so in these, 

 " our business is, precluding theology and state affairs, 

 to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." 

 But our " Mathematick" is one which Newton would 

 have to go to school to learn ; our " Staticks, Meckanicks, 

 Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" con- 

 stitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, 

 a glimpse at which would compensate Galileo for 

 the doings of a score of inquisitorial cardinals ; our 

 "Physick ;; and "Anatomy" have embraced such in- 

 finite varieties of being, have laid open such new 

 worlds in time and space, have grappled, not unsuc- 

 cessfully, with such complex problems, that the eyes 

 of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the 

 sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of 

 mustard seed. 



