JO HiJ}orical Sleich of the hfiiiuihii. 



had het>n much or fuccefsfully liudiad by the Biodems; beforfc 

 the clavs oF Bajon. 



It was the grand merit of Bacon, that he turned mankiack 

 fr<ini iuveltigaiing in fcience " merelv the rtkitions of exift- 

 ence (in general verv imperfectly known), and of words,"— 

 " to acqua.ni theinfcKes more fully, hv the experiments of 

 the feni'es an;! of auxiliary indruniems, wnh exigence in its> 

 different feiilii>le niodifirations, and with the maiual relations- 

 of the various parts of material exifti.'iice to one anotiier." 

 Science was thus at once recuced to '•^ experience, aiid. the 

 arrangement of the facts which gxperience alcertained." Tho 

 united inquiries, ohfervations, and memoranda, of as many 

 as poflible of the iiiteliigeut and enlightened part of the 

 human race, were henceforth uoJerftood to afford the only: 

 means for its true improvement. Men, hecame now firlt 

 fenfihle, that, by due inveftigation of the qualities aird tH© 

 phrenomena of matter, they might difcover modes ot fcience 

 unknown to the untients. And the neceflitv for the affocia- 

 tion of philofophers, in order to the acconiplilhmeni of the 



freat purpofcs of philofophical inquirv, was from, this time, 

 V thofe who adopted the vitws of Bacon, warmly ackiu)w« 

 ledgcd. !. 



It dwelt much upon the minds of the ingenious and inqiti'.t 

 fitiv« in England. Milton's plan for a new feminary and 

 courfe of education, in his letter to Hartlib, ieems tolttuva: 

 been fugeefted bv this fundamental idea. Co^vley's propofal 

 of a philofophical college, to be eftablifhed, with^ att income 

 of four Uioufand pounds a year, at Chelfea, was a fine model 

 for the union of a fchool with a fociety for the advancement 

 of phyfieal knowledge. It wa^i within a few years after the 

 death of Charles the Firft, that a few of thole perfons, who 

 were afterwards incorporated in the Royal Society of London, 

 began at Dr. Wilkins's lodging:^, in VVadham college, Ox- 

 ford, thofe philotbphical meetings which were to be in that 

 fociety continued. 



Thefe were almoft the firft philofophical meetings in Europe 

 for the advancement of phvlical knowledge. There were in' 

 Italy more than forty academies, for the refining of the Italian 

 language and the focial ftudy of the fine arts. But, though the 

 focietiesof archifecls,fculptors,and painters, migh* make fome 

 inquiries and obfervations relative to thofe parts of phyfics in 

 which their r<.'fpeilive arts were immediately concerned ; yet 

 the opprobrium of atheifm, which was charged againft the 

 earlier natural philofophers in that country,, had, with other 

 caufcs, hitherto prevented locieties, with exjirefs and exclufivc 

 views to phyfi< al difcovery, from there ariiing. In France, 



an 



