ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 139 



at the door where truth was to bo found, although it was left for Newtou to 

 force it open. These were the founders of the lioyal Society." " The men who 

 formed the Koyal Society," says Bishop Burnet, " were Sir Robert Moray, 

 Lord Brouncker, a profound mathematician, and Dr. Ward, a man of great re- 

 search, and so dexterous that his sincerity was much questioned. But he wl.o 

 labored most, at the greatest charge, and with the most success at experiments, 

 was the lion. Robert Boyle, a devout Christian, humble and modest almo^st to a 

 fiiult." Among other names connected with the Society in its earlier stage, or at 

 the period of its formal organization, and still memorable in sdcnce, literature, or 

 the arts, may be distinguished those of Bishop Wilkins, Sir Keuelm Digby, 

 Evelyn, Denham, Clarke, Cowley, Willis, Wren, Ashmole, Szc. 



" The first journal book of the Society, a plain unpi'eteudiug volume, bound 

 in basil, yet destined to receive great names and to be the record of important 

 scientific experiments," opens with the date of November 28, 1660, and with 

 the proceedings of a meeting which may be regarded as organic in relation to 

 the form and permanence of the Society. Here it was determined that meet- 

 ings should be regularly held every Wednesday during term tiine ; that a con- 

 tribution of ten shillings on admission, and of one shilling weekly, should be 

 levied on each member, whether present or absent, as long as he should please 

 to maintain his connexion with the association, and a list v^as formed of the 

 .names of such persons, known to those present, as were judged willing and fit 

 to unite with them in their design. At a subsequent meeting a committee of 

 three or more (as occasion might permit) was empowered to frame a constitu- 

 tion, which was submitted and adopted at a general meeting on the 12th of 

 December following. By this, the standing officers of the Society were declared 

 to be three : a president or director, a treasurer, and a register ; the first to be 

 chosen monthly, the two latter annually. An amanuensis and operator are 

 styled "servants belonging to the Society," and receive salaries, the former 40, 

 the latter 4 pounds per annum. The stated number of members Avas fixed at 

 fifty -five, with permission that all persons of the degrees of baron or above 

 might, at their choice, be admitted as supernumeraries. It was provided that 

 no candidate should be elected the same day he was proposed, and that at least 

 twenty-one members should be present at each election. For such election, 

 the amanuensis, it is ordered, shall provide " several little scrolls of paper of 

 equal length and breadth, in number double to the Society present. One-half 

 of them shall be marked with a cross, and being rolled up shall be laid in a 

 heap on the table ; the other half shall be marked with ciphers, and being 

 rolled up shall be laid in another heap. Every person coming in his order 

 shall take from each heap a roll, and throw which he please privately into an 

 urn, and the other into a box. Then the director, and two others of the 

 Societ3% openly numbering the crossed rolls in the urn, shall accordingly pro- 

 nounce the election." Two-thirds of those voting wei'e necessary to a choice. 



The Society having included, as we have seen, two poets, Denham and 

 Cowley, among its members, was fairly entitled to a greeting from the muse. 

 This it received through the ingenious pen of Cowley, in verses whose philoso- 

 phical truth as Avell as originality of illustration may perhaps still justify 

 quotation. After deploring the fate of philosophy, which for three or four 

 thousand years had been kept by unwise or dishonest tutors in a state of 

 nonage, he tells us : 



Bacon, at last, a mig-lity man! arose, 



Whom a wise kiu^ and Nature chose 



Lord chancellor of both their laws, 



Aud boldly undertook the injur'd pupil's cause. 



From the long errors of the way, 



In which our wandering predecessors went, 



Aud, like the old Hebrews, many years did stray 



