ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 21 



ings in Oxford or in London, in the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century, grew in numerical and in real strength, 

 until, in its latter part, the " Royal Society for the Improve- 

 ment of Natural Knowledge" had already become famous, 

 and had acquired a claim upon the veneration of English- 

 men, 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 incom- 

 pletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of 

 decrepitude manifested themselves in our own times. A& 

 in Dr. Wallis's days, so in these, "our business is, pre- 

 cluding 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 Natu- 

 ral Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemi- 

 cal knowledge, 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 



