Improving Natural Knowledge 33 



of the Royal Society stands without a parallel in the 

 history of mankind. 



A series of volumes as bulky as the Transactions of 

 the Royal Society might possibly be filled with the subtle 

 speculations of the Schoolmen ; not improbably, the ob- 5 

 taining a mastery over the products of medieval thought 

 might necessitate an even greater expenditure of time and 

 of energy than the acquirement of the " New Philosophy ; " 

 but though such work engrossed the best intellects of Eu- 

 rope for a longer time than has elapsed since the great 10 

 fire, its effects were " writ in water," so far as our social 

 state is concerned. 



On the other hand, if the noble first President of the 

 Royal Society could revisit the upper air and once more 

 gladden his eyes with a sight of the familiar mace, he 15 

 would find himself in the midst of a material civilization 

 more different from that of his day, than that of the 

 seventeenth, was from that of the first, century. And if 

 Lord Brouncker's native sagacity had not deserted his 

 ghost, he would need no long reflection to discover that 20 

 all these great ships, these railways, these telegraphs, 

 these factories, these printing-presses, without which the 

 whole fabric of modern English society would collapse 

 into a mass of stagnant and starving pauperism, that all 

 these pillars of our State are but the ripples and the bub- 25 

 bles upon the surface of that great spiritual stream, the 

 springs of which, only he and his fellows were privileged 

 to see; and seeing, to recognize as that which it behooved 

 them above all things to keep pure and undefiled. 



It may not be too great a flight of imagination to 30 

 conceive our noble revenant not forgetful of the great 

 troubles of his own day, and anxious to know how often 

 London had been burned down since his time, and how 

 often the plague had carried off its thousands. He would 



