100 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



spent months in daily intercourse with this group of 

 scientists in the winter of 1636-37. 



Hartlib, though he scarcely takes rank with Mer- 

 senne as a scientist, was no less influential. Of a gen- 

 erous and philanthropic disposition, he repeatedly im- 

 poverished himself in the cause of human betterment. 

 His chief reliance was on education and improved 

 methods of husbandry, but he resembled Horace 

 Greeley in his hospitality to any project for the public 

 welfare. 



One of Hartlib's chief hopes for the regeneration 

 of England, if not of the whole world, rested on the 

 teachings of the educational reformer Comenius, a 

 bishop of the Moravian Brethren. In 16 37, Comenius 

 having shown himself rather reluctant to put his most 

 cherished plans before the public, his zealous disciple 

 precipitated matters, and on his own responsibility, 

 and unknown to Comenius, issued from his library at 

 Oxford Preludes to the Endeavors of Comenius. Be- 

 sides Hartlib's preface it contained a treatise by the 

 great educator on a Seminary of Christian Pansophy, 

 a method of imparting an encyclopedic knowledge 

 of the sciences and arts. 



The two friends were followers of the Baconian 

 philosophy. They were influenced, as many others 

 of the time, by the New Atlantis, which went through 

 ten editions between 1627 and 1670, and which out- 

 lined a plan for an endowed college with thirty- 

 six Fellows divided into groups what would be 

 called to-day a university of research endowed by 

 the State. It is not surprising to find Comenius 

 (who in his student days had been under the influ- 

 ence of Alsted, author of an encyclopedia on Baco- 



