12 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



In this depository are to be found a reprint or a digest of the 

 papers read before the Society at its regular meetings, letters re 

 ceived from foreign members or absent correspondents, reviews 

 of books, and at least one drawing to illustrate some important ar 

 ticle in each pamphlet. There was no attempt in the early volumes 

 to classify material. The following table of the contents of volume 

 one will show the heterogeneous character; "1. An Accompt of 

 the Improvement of Optick Glasses. 2. Observations made in 

 England on a dark Spot in one of the Belts of Jupiter. 3. Exper 

 imental History of Cold. 4. A Monstrous Calf. 5. Lead Ore 

 in Germany, used for Essays. 6. Hungarian Balm. 8. Pendu 

 lum Watches at Sea. ' ' 45 Here is evidence of an interest in astron 

 omy, metallurgy, physics, and physiology, but there is no systema- 

 tization, no specialization. It should be noted, however, that much 

 of the investigation is practical, or purports to be. 



The appeal in the new science was primarily to curiosity. 

 There arose a desire to know the wonders of the world, to pry into 

 causes of phenomena, to learn of the strange and weird. "The 

 bare prospect of this magnificent Fabrick of the Universe, furn 

 ished and adorned with such strange variety of curious and useful 

 Creatures, would suffice to transport us both with Wonder and Joy, 

 if their Commonnesse did not hinder their operations". 46 Run 

 ning through the record of this entire period is an obvious interest 

 in the unusual and the marvelous. May 8, 1665, there came a letter 

 from Virginia on a method of killing rattlesnakes; August 16, 

 1669, a paper on the "darting of spiders"; December, 1673, a des 

 cription of "an odd lake in Crimea"; July. 21, 1673, "the effect of 

 thunder on wheat and rye in granaries"; an earthquake Septem 

 ber 17, 1683; "A ruminating man", May, 1691; Waterspouts in 

 the Mediterranean, February-May, 1702; "the great frost", Decem 

 ber, 1709; the lunar eclipse, February, 1726, etc. And clearly 

 these extraordinary things would catch the popular attention more 

 quickly than solid learning and profound investigation. The temp 

 tation would be for the popular mind to understand these things 

 to be the chief business of the virtuosi, for it is not easy for public 

 opinion to distinguish between curiosity and scientific enthusiasm. 



^Ibid. March, 1665. 



* Boyle, Robert, Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, p. 3. 



