MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES SIXTEENTH CENT. 179 



experiments in the presence of the society. On the i5th of July, 

 1662, Charles II. constituted the society into a body corporate by a 

 Royal Charter, in which the association is entitled "The Royal 

 Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge." The 

 same year witnessed the establishment of the IMPERIAL ACADEMY in 

 Germany; and in 1666 the celebrated "ACADEMY OF SCIENCES "was 

 constituted by legislative enactment in France. 



The establishment of these learned associations coincides with a 

 period marked by the complete overthrow of the scholastic philosophy. 

 The discoveries of Galileo and those of his disciples and contem- 

 poraries had put an end to the intellectual darkness which had charac- 

 terized the Middle Ages, that " opake of nature and of soul." The 

 spirit of inquiry, which at the first revival of the study of nature had 

 animated but a few minds, had now gathered strength, and had ex- 

 tended to all the principal countries of Europe. The new method of 

 Bacon, and, perhaps still more, the striking results which the early ex- 

 perimentalists of the seventeenth century had obtained, showed that 

 a vast field was waiting to be explored. Men's minds were filled with 

 enthusiasm for scientific research ; and no wonder, since almost every 

 new experiment brought unexpected truths to light, and suggested new 

 regions of discovery. The declared object of the Royal Society of 

 London was especially the encouragement of those studies which by 

 direct and " sure experiments strive to work out the new philosophy 

 or to perfect the old." As may be well supposed, every branch of 

 science participated in these awakening influences, and many new lines 

 of investigation were thrown out, all marked by a rapid course of 

 discovery. 



FIG. 78. TORRICELLI (another Portrait). 



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