42 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



political intrigue or of literary or antiquarian co-operation, but of 

 devoting themselves to the earnest investigation of Nature. The 

 Society had hardly taken definite shape before it was assailed with 

 vituperation, and for about a century and a half it continued to 

 be a mark for the shafts of ridicule launched by some of the 

 foremost men of letters in each successive generation. 



The volume which contained Cowley's complimentary poem 

 included also evidence that already, within less than four years 

 from its start, the institution of the Royal Society and the doings 

 of its members had roused the antagonism of two classes of 

 opponents. We learn that, on the one hand, ' some over-zealous 

 Divines do reprobate Natural Philosophy as a carnal knowledge, 

 and a too much minding worldly things,' while on the other side, 

 4 the men of the world and business esteem it meerly as an idle 

 matter of fancy and as that which disables us from taking right 

 measures in humane affairs.' ' The greatest part of men, if they 

 can bring inquirers [into Experimental Philosophy] under the 

 scornful titles of Philosophers, or Schollars or Virtuosi, it is 

 enough : they presently conclude them to be men of another 

 world, only fit companions for the shadow and their own melan- 

 choly whimsies.' l 



That the aims and pursuits of the Society should have been 

 looked upon as tending to the subversion of religion seems strange 

 when it is remembered that the most notable among the early 

 Fellows was Robert Boyle, who, besides being the most illustrious 

 physicist of his day, was distinguished for his piety and benevo- 

 lence, for his active efforts to circulate translations of the Bible 

 in the East, and for his institution of the Boyle Lectures, still 

 annually given, in defence of Christianity. He wrote a remark- 

 able treatise which, under the title of ' The Christian Virtuoso ', 

 reveals his own pure and lofty character. In that work he begins 

 by remarking that some had thought it ' very strange that I, 

 whom they are pleased to look upon as a diligent cultivater of 

 experimental philosophy, should be a concerned embracer of the 

 Christian religion '. 2 He adduces many proofs of how much 

 more the virtuosi see than others can 'of the diverse excellencies 

 displayed in the fabric and conduct of the universe, and of the 



1 Sprat, Hist., pp. 26, 27. 2 Boyle's Works, 1792, vol. v, p. 512. 



