310 ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF 



Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of 

 the " New Philosophy," who met in one another's lodgings 

 in Oxford or in London, in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, grew in numerical and in real strength, until, in 

 its latter part, the " Royal Society for the Improvement of 

 Natural Knowledge " had already become famous, and had 

 acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, which 

 it has ever since retained, as the principal focus of scientific 

 activity in our islands, and the chief champion of the 

 cause it was formed to support. 



It was by the aid of the Royal Society that Newton 

 published his Principia. If all the books in the world, 

 except the Philosophical Transactions, were destroyed, it 

 is safe to say that the foundations of physical science would 

 remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual progress of 

 the last two centuries would be largely, though incompletely, 

 recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of decrepitude 

 manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's 

 days, so in these, " our business is, precluding theology 

 and state affairs, to discourse and consider of philosophical 

 enquiries." But our " Mathematick " is one which Newton 

 would have to go to school to learn ; our " Staticks, 

 Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experi- 

 ments " constitute a mass of physical and chemical know- 

 ledge, a glimpse at which would compensate Galileo for the 

 doings of a score of inquisitorial cardinals ; our " Physick " 

 and " Anatomy " have embraced such infinite varieties of 

 being, have laid open such new worlds in time and space, 

 have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex 

 problems, that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might 

 be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of 

 their grain of mustard seed. 



The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, 

 forced upon one's notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous 

 intellectual growth has a no less wonderful expression in 

 practical life ; and that, in this respect, if in no other, the 

 movement symbolized by the progress of the Royal Society 

 stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. 



A series of volumes as bulky as the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society might possibly be filled with the subtle 

 speculations of the Schoolmen ; not improbably, the 

 obtaining a mastery over the products of mediaeval thought 

 might necessitate an even greater expenditure of time and 

 of energy than the acquirement of the " New Philosophy " ; 



