18 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



England. The first report of these investigations was received 

 by the Royal Society in March, 1683, 72 in a letter read by Martin 

 Lister, who was at the time one of the Secretaries. From this time 

 on the reports are frequent. Many of the gentlemen of leisure 

 found entertainment in this search. From time to time the Royal 

 Society received a number of rarities, and kept them in a room at 

 Gresham College, which Dr. Seth Ward called the "Monster and 

 maggot room". By 1665 the Coffee Houses had began to adver 

 tise collections. This was the period also, it must be remembered, 

 of an awakened interest in and an eager search for old and rare 

 manuscripts. Junius published his Anglo-Saxon texts in 1655; 

 Thwaites edited the Heptateuchus in 1698; Hickes's Thesaurus ap 

 peared in 1705 ; Oldys, after years of Antiquarian research, began 

 his edition of the Harleian Miscellany, 1744. These are only indica 

 tions of a strong undercurrent of scholastic antiquarian interest. 

 There is an interesting account of "the hunt for old books" in the 

 Life of Lady Winchelsea. Later, Gray and Wharton undertook a 

 history of early English Literature. This spirit of renaissance 

 scholarship united with the new philosophy and developed an in 

 terest, largely to be sure for diversion and relaxation, wholly apart 

 from "the bitterness of party" and the disputes of theology. 



The impulse toward antiquarian research was due to curiosity. 

 The work was not thorough, nor was it really scientific. ' ' They do 

 indeed neglect no opportunity to bring all rare things of remote 

 countries within the compass of their knowledge and practice. 

 But they still acknowledge their most useful informations to arise 

 from common things, and from diversifying their most ordinary 

 operations upon them". 74 Careful classifications were made by 

 some of the curators, but except in the case of such men as Ralph 

 Thoresby, Llwyd, and his associate, Dr. Plot, antiquarianism was 

 little more than dilettanteism. The sum total of the work done 

 during this period was to discover some remains of Roman towns 

 and camps, to gather together curious odds and ends from many 

 parts of the world Jamaica, America, India, etc. The Royal 

 Society received an elephant's tooth, a rattle-snake's skin, a piece 



n Phil. Trans. Feb. 21, 1666. 



ra Reynolds, Myra, Wks. of Lady Winchelsea, Introd., pp. XIV, XVII. Cf. Hallam, 

 Introd. to the Lit. of Eur., vol. IV, pt. IV. Chap. I, sec. 2. 

 7 *Hooke, Robert, Micrographia, p. 24. 



