44 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



day phenomena ; that they should meet together to encourage 

 each other in such a pursuit, and with infinite labour and at no 

 small cost should organize experiments to prove what nobody 

 cared about or thought of disputing ; that they should give up 

 valuable time to the study of such unattractive things as ' beasts, 

 fishes, birds, snails, caterpillars, flies ' ; that they should collect 

 and arrange all manner of ' curiosities ' which were not worth 

 house-room and appeared to have no practical use or sensible 

 interest for anybody all this seemed to be a novel mania on 

 which it was widely felt that no men with serious duties in life 

 ought to waste their time. 



Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the general name of 

 ' Virtuosi ', which was then in common use, included not only the 

 true men of science, sincerely anxious for the discovery of truth in 

 every department of nature, but also dilettanti lovers of all manner 

 of ' articles of vertu ', as well as mere vulgar collectors who had a 

 passion for gathering together whatever was ancient, uncommon, 

 or odd. The term, at first employed in rather a complimentary 

 sense, before long, on account of the vagaries of these indis- 

 criminate collectors of * rarities ', came to acquire a more or less 

 contemptuous meaning. And as it was not possible for the 

 ignorant public to discriminate between the true seeker after 

 science and the mere curio-hunter, the literary critic was naturally 

 nothing loath to take advantage of his opportunity and to class 

 the whole confraternity together, put them all into one common 

 pillory, and pelt them with sarcasm and ridicule. 



The Royal Society soon after its start began to have experience 

 of this kind of treatment. Among the experiments conducted at 

 its early meetings were those of Hooke with the lately perfected 

 air-pump, or what was called * Mr. Boyle's engine ', whereby 

 some fundamental laws in the physics of the atmosphere were 

 demonstrated. To the ordinary mind, however, the occupation 

 of ' weighing the air ' seemed incredibly inane. So it appeared 

 even to Charles II, who, as Pepys records (February 1, 1663-4), 

 * mightily laughed at Gresham College, for spending time only in 

 weighing of ayre, and doing nothing else since they sat.' When 

 his Majesty, who took so friendly an interest in the Society's 

 success, could not resist making fun of what had been only one, 



