L ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
liberation of the reason from a dungeon, the double discovery of the 
outer and inner world.” The study of the humanities, which was 
an incident of the Renaissance, rendered available to modern men 
the wisdom of the ancients. But much of the old knowledge was 
found to be spurious when examined with the new light, and even 
the authority of Aristotle, the demi-god of the scholastics, was dis- 
credited. Nothing henceforth was to be accepted on trust, and 
the injunction to “ prove all things” became the watchword of the 
learned. 
Although the Renaissance marked the regeneration of philo- 
sophy, of criticism, and in general of the whole process of thought, 
it especially denoted the birth of the physical and natural sciences, 
and hence their rise and progress may be taken as best illustrating 
the working of the new spirit of research. Roger Bacon in the 
thirteenth century protested vainly against the despotism of Aris- 
totle, and advocated a new and fruitful learning which should be 
based upon experience. In the two centuries which followed, those 
scholars described by Whewell as the “ Practical Reformers,” working 
in their primitive laboratories, established a sound basis for a future 
natural philosophy One of these, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 
both a practical and a theoretical philosopher, anticipated modern 
science in his remark: “The interpreter of the artifices of nature 
is experience, who is never deceived. We must begin from experi- 
ment and try to discover the reason.”  Telesio (1508-1588), called 
by Francis Bacon “ primus hominum novorum,” said: “ The construc- 
tion of the world and the magnitude and nature of the bodies in it 
are not to be investigated by reasoning, as was done by the ancients; 
but they are to be apprehended by the sense and collected from the 
things themselves.” These were some, but not nearly all of the fore- 
runners of Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who by his writings, and espe- 
cially by his “Novum Organum,” elaborated in detail a method of 
research, the principles of which had been laid down by his predeces- 
sors. 
From the overturning of the authority of Aristotle and the laying 
down of a secure basis for the advancement of knowledge, it was 
but a step to the inauguration of organized research, the aspect of 
the question to which I wish to invite your attention somewhat more 
in detail. 
The chief agencies of modern organized research are (1) the 
learned societies, and (2) the universities. The former receive and 
publish research papers; the latter superintend and direct the investi- 
gators and publish results. To these should properly be added the 
various journals which have been established and carried on by private 
