398 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 
History of the Society, published in 1667, received its public. 
sanction, expresses himself as follows: “* The Royal Society 
““ was a work well becoming the largeness of Bacon’s wit to 
** devise, and the greatness of CLarENvon’s prudence to esta- 
“ blish *.” Sprar also informs us, that the Tract published 
in 1661, by Cowxery, entitled, A Proposition for the Advancement 
of Experimental Philosophy, “ very much hastened the contri- 
“* vance of the platform of the Royal Society ;” and this Tract 
bears internal evidence that its author’s views were originally 
derived from the New Atlantis. 
But it is of more importance to show, that the philosophical 
spirit which actuated the founders of this institution, was chiefly 
owing to the effects produced by Bacon’s writings. And here, 
again, I must appeal, in the first place, to the testimony of those 
to whom. we are indebted for all that we know of its early 
history. The fullest account of its origin is given by the cele- 
brated mathematician Dr Joan Wattts, who was one of those 
who instituted the weekly meetings begun to be held in London 
in 1645; and his narrative distinctly points to Bacon, as having 
given a beginning to the taste for experimental science in Eng- 
land. ‘ Our business,” says he, “ was to discourse and consi- 
“ der of things appertaining to what hath been called the New 
“ Philosophy, which, from the times of Gatixo, and Lord 
“ Veruzam, hath been much cultivated abroad, as well as 
with 
Hoszes being obstinate, and not able to bear contradiction, those who were 
sometimes present at their wrangling disputes, held that the laurel was carried 
away by Wurre.”—Athene Oxon. vol. ii. p 665. The Scepsis Scientifica has, 
appended to it, a reply to the animadversions contained in Wuire’s Scirt upon 
the Vanity of Dogmatizing. 
* History of the Royal Society, p. 144. Copies of this work were sent, by 
the Society, to foreign Princes, and other eminent persons abroad, in order to 
furnish them with an authentic account of its history. See Dr Bircn’s History 
of the Royal Society, vol. ii. p. 207. 
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