EOYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 141 



Other entries there are undoubtedly, and in greater number, which show that 

 the spirit of inquiry was rajudly finding its true direction : Investigations of 

 the mechanical properties of the air, by Boyle ; experiments with the pendu- 

 him, by Sir Christopher Wren, who is said to have first suggested its oscilla- 

 tions as a standard of measure ; observations on the " anatomy of trees," by 

 Evelyn ; instructions for the guidance of curious observers " in the remotest 

 parts of the Avorld." Even what now seem ludicrous tentatives with the pow- 

 der of toads and vipers, or frivolous inquiries respecting the witch-hazel and 

 still more wonderful Lcpas anatifera,* it is more just to regard as obligatory and 

 conscientious efforts to bring the questionable opinions of the day, however 

 trivial, to the assay of direct experiment. The time will probably not soon 

 come when science can claim absolute exemption from like humble labors ; not, 

 at least, " While," to borrow the words of Sir Thomas Brown, " the spirit of 

 delusion, though expelled from his oracles and more solemn temples, still runs 

 hito corners, exercising minor trumperies, and acting his deceits in inferior 

 seducers." 



The Restoration, in diffusing a general sense of permanence and security, Avas 

 highly favorable to the objects of the association, and Charles II had enough of 

 curiosity, perhaps of wisdom, to look with a patronising eye on inquiries which 

 threatened to interfere neither Avith his indolence nor pleasures. He held sundry 

 communications with the philosophers, and even proposed subjects for investi- 

 gation, before proceeding to what has been uncharitably called the only wise 

 act of his reign — the incorporation of the Royal Society. 



In the instrument by which this was effected, the King, after protesting his 

 zeal for all learning, especially !br those studies Avhich aim by solid experiments 

 to strike out something new in philosophy, or bring to perfection what already 

 exists, (novam extundcrc jpMlosopliiam aut cxpoUre retcrcm,) declares himself 

 founder and patron of the Society, conferring on it the name of the Royal 

 Society of Loudon ^^ro scicntia naUirall 2rromovenda.\ 



Its government is deposited iu the hands of a president and council, to the 

 number, including the president, of twenty-one, all of whom were, in the first 

 instance, nominated by the crown. For the succession, it is provided that an 

 election shall annually take place on St. Andrew's day, in which a president 

 shall be chosen from among the members of the existing council, and ten of this 

 latter body shall be removed, and their places supplied by others ; on which 

 occasion not less than thirty-one members of the Society shall be present, (the 

 president or his deputy being always one of them,) and a majority of that num- 

 ber shall determine the choice in each instance. Other officers of the Society 

 are a treasurer, two secretaries, two or more curators of experiments, one clerk, 

 besides two mace-bearers to attend on occasion upon the president. PoAver is 

 given to the president and council to make from time to time such laAvs and 

 ordinances as shall seem to them useful and necessary for the better government 

 and regulation of the Society ; and grants of certain pieces and parcels (pr.cios 

 et parccllos) of land, of no great extent, are made to the learned body, to be 

 held of the croAvn by the tenure of free and common soccage. A somewhat 

 singular concession is that which authorizes the Society to demand the bodies 

 of such executed criminals as may be desired for dissection — a circumstance 



* Sir Robert Mora}', first president of the Royal Society, sicjnalized the meeting at which 

 he WHS elected by presentincr a paper relating to t«r?j«f/fs, in which he affirmed that he had him- 

 self seen, in the western isles ot Scotland, trees to which were attached nuiltitudes of shells, 

 each containing a small but perfectly shaped sea-fowl, or solan-goose. He candidly confesses, 

 however, that he did not see the products of these extraordinary limpets alive. 



t " The epithet natural,'" says Dr. Paris, iu his Life of Sir Humphrey Davy, " was here 

 intended to imply a meaning of which few persons are probably aware. At the period of the 

 establishment of the Society, the arts of witchcraft and divination were very extensively en- 

 couraged, and the word natural was therefore introduced in contradistinction to supernatural." 



