GROWING RECOGNITION OF THE SOCIETY 47 



After the middle of the eighteenth century, as the aims of true 

 science and the objects of the Society came to be better under- 

 stood, the antagonism, at least in its more blatant forms, gradually 

 died away. On the one hand, men were brought to see that 

 a Society which was joined by a long succession of archbishops, 

 bishops, and other dignitaries of the Church, and which numbered 

 among its prominent members such laymen as Robert Hoyle and 

 Isaac Newton, could hardly be accused of irreligious designs. On 

 the other hand, in view of the splendour of the discoveries in 

 science which some of the Fellows had achieved, which the 

 Society had been eager and proud to publish, and which had cast 

 a fresh halo around the intellectual reputation of this country, the 

 old charge of frivolousness was seen to be strangely inapplicable. 

 There was likewise a growing recognition by Government and 

 by the country at large that the pursuit of science had many 

 practical bearings on the conditions of life, and that, apart from 

 its efforts to promote the advancement of natural knowledge, 

 the Royal Society could often render other important services to 

 the community. 



Thus step by step the Society has not only outlived the 

 opposition with which it was once assailed, but has steadily 

 advanced in public estimation and has become a kind of council 

 to which the various departments in the Government can and do 

 appeal for advice and assistance in matters where expert scientific 

 knowledge is needed. For although the vast development of 

 physical and biological research during the last century has led to 

 the creation of many other Societies, each devoted more par- 

 ticularly to the cultivation of its own special branch of research, 

 the Royal Society remains at their head as the one great 

 institution in this country which embraces in its purview the 

 whole wide realm of Nature, and elects into its ranks the most 

 accomplished representatives of every department of science. 



