18 ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 



(as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots on the sun 

 and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and 

 selenography of the moon, the several phases of Venus 

 and Mercury, the improvement of telescopes and 

 grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, 

 the possibility or impossibility of vacuities and nature's 

 abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in 

 quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree 

 of acceleration therein, with divers other things of like 

 nature, some of which were then but new discoveries, 

 and others not so generally known and embraced as 

 now they are; with other things appertaining to what 

 hath been called the New Philosophy, which from the 

 times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis Bacon 

 (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much culti- 

 vated in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts 

 abroad, as well as with us in England." 



The learned Dr. Wallis, writing in 1696, narrates 

 in these words, what happened half a century before, 

 or about 1645. The associates met at Oxford, in the 

 rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a 

 bishop ; and subsequently coming together in London, 

 they attracted the notice of the king. And it is a strange 

 evidence of the taste for knowledge which the most ob- 

 viously worthless of the Stuarts shared with his father 

 and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not 

 content with saying witty things about his philosophers, 

 but did wise things with regard to them. For he not 

 only bestowed upon them such attention as he could 

 spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but, being 

 in his usual state of impecuniosity, begged for them 

 of the Duke of Ormond; and, that step being without 

 effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, and a 

 mace : crowning his favours in the best way they could 



