THE NEW PHILOSOPHY 11 



exception to this in its long history was in the case of Benjamin Frank- 

 lin, who was voted in by unanimous vote without any knowledge on 

 his part of the proposed honor. During the fifteen y/ears that Franklin 

 spent in England he was a constant attendant at the Royal Society 

 meetings and lived on most cordial terms of intimacy with its fellows. 

 You all know enough about Franklin to understand what I mean when 

 I say that he was a typical example of that combination of man-of-the- 

 world and man-of-science that was so characteristic of the British lead- 

 ers in the New Philosophy. 



The eighteenth century was a period of gross animalism, but it was 

 also a period of great enthusiasm, of great physical and spiritual cour- 

 age and a time of great adventure in all fields of learning. There were 

 many patrons of science and the patrons were men of virility and of tire- 

 less activity. Sir Joseph Banks, for example, spent a life time of constant 

 activity in promoting natural knowledge, and devoted enormous sums 

 from his private fortune in furthering all branches of science. He fitted 

 out the good ship Endeavor, as a floating laboratory, paid for the serv- 

 ices of Solander, the favorite pupil of Linnaeas, and enriched the staff 

 with artists, draftsmen, and scientific helpers of all sorts, for its three- 

 year voyage of discovery in Cook's memorable voyage. Joseph Banks 

 holds two unique records. He was for fifty-four years a fellow of the 

 Royal Society and for forty-two years its president. For many years 

 he had to be wheeled in an invalid's chair to the weekly meetings. He 

 had not only furnished funds for Captain Cook's voyages, as already 

 stated, but he himself spent three years with Cook in the Pacific. He 

 later made a voyage of discovery to Iceland and the Arctic Isles. He 

 introduced to the Royal Society Dining Club a remarkable succession 

 of guests. He had Captain Cook at the club within two weeks of his 

 return from his great voyage. He had Captain John Ross and Lieu- 

 tenant Perry as guests immediately after their return from their polar 

 voyages. Herschel he brought around one week after his discovery of 

 the planet Uranus. Now this sort of thing is what makes science worth 

 while. Virility, abundance, or even a superabundance of enthusiasm, 

 insatiable curiosity, must always be the breath of science. Something 

 has been lost if science becomes so minute, so subdivided, so cellular as 

 to make no direct appeal to men of the world like Joseph Banks. The 

 modern world has made a change it must supply a substitute, for 

 science can not afford to lose the vitality that comes from worldly- 

 minded men. It is possible, therefore, that it was really no loss to the 

 New Learning that in England it found no hospitality at the universi- 

 ties and received little support from the government. In no other 

 country did the "experimental philosophy" have a similar history. In 

 England the New Learning was born in a tavern ; it knew no other home 

 for several years. Science was a city waif it was a stranger at the 



