demand brief notice, namely, the foundation of scientific 

 societies and the introduction of Baconian philosophy. 



The Academia Secretorum Naturae was founded at Naples 

 in 1560 by Giovanni Baptista Porta, and the Accademia dei 

 Lincei at Rome in 1603 by Prince Frederigo Cesi. The for- 

 mer was chiefly made up of a small circle of Porta's friends 

 devoted to pursuits like his own and who met to discuss 

 new experiments; the society encountered opposition from 

 ecclesiastics but cautiously avoided furnishing the Church pre- 

 tense for persecution. The Lyncean Academy began as a sort 

 of club of only four members, but it afterwards opened its 

 doors to "philosophers eager for real knowledge, who will 

 give themselves to the study of nature and especially to 

 mathematics;" at the same time they were not to neglect 

 "the ornaments of elegant literature and philology, which, 

 like a graceful garment adorn the whole body of science. ' r 

 Galileo became one of the distinguished members of this 

 society. 



The renowned Accademia del Cimento was founded at 

 Florence nearly fifty years later, but even this preceded the 

 British Royal Society by five years and the French Academic 

 des Sciences by nine. The influence of these societies in promot- 

 ing the advancement of science was immense, but the most 

 aggressive foe to superstition, the most efficacious instrument 

 in removing the barnacles of folly, was the method of rea- 

 soning embodied in the inductive philosophy, which became 

 the only recognized system pursued by the members of these 

 societies as well as by independent investigators. 



Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, who was 

 very nearly a contemporary of Rudolph II, being however 

 nine years younger, is often credited with the invention of 

 the "Baconian" philosophy socalled, but the principles of the 

 system had been distinctly expressed by Leonardo da Vinci 



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