THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 



227 



many, had produced the greatest scientific model of modern 

 times, a work which has probably done more than any 

 other purely scientific work to revolutionise our scientific 

 notions the ' Principia ' of Newton. In the subsequent 

 history of the thought of this century, the next chapter 

 will deal with the part that the Newtonian ideas have 

 played throughout the whole period. We have now to 

 turn our attention to the state of science in Great Britain 

 during the period when Paris academicians and German 

 professors combined to define and carry the spirit of 

 modern scientific thought into the several mathematical, 

 physical, and biological branches of research. 



Considering that the great scientific institutions of the 

 Continent the Paris Institute, the scientific and medical 

 schools in Paris, and the German universities have done 

 so much for the furtherance of science and the diffusion 

 of the scientific spirit, it is natural that we should ask, 

 What have similar institutions done in this country ? 

 These institutions are. indeed, mostly older than the fn 

 academies and modern universities of the Continent. Bntam 

 The Royal Society, if not older than the French Academy, 

 is certainly older than the Paris Academy of Sciences. 1 



2. 



Similar in- 



1 The actual dates are as follows : 

 The first Academy devoted to the 

 pursuit of science seems to have 

 been the "Academia Secretorum 

 Naturse," founded at Naples in 1560. 

 Several societies devoted to the cul- 

 ture of literature and art existed in 

 Italy, such as the Academy " della 

 Crusca" (founded at Florence in 

 1582). The great French Academy, 

 devoted exclusively to the study of 

 the French language, dates from 

 1629, and received its charter in 

 1635. The Royal Society, though 



not the first scheme of its kind 

 which was started in this country 

 for the establishment of a Royal 

 Academy was discussed as far back as 

 1616 actually started (1645) in the 

 private meetings described in ' Dr 

 Wallis's Account of Some Passages 

 of his own Life ' (quoted by Weld, 

 ' Hist, of the Royal Society, ' vol. i. 

 p. 30). These meetings, according to 

 him, were suggested by a German, 

 Theodore Hank, then resident in 

 London. The members were " per- 

 sons inquisitive into natural philos- 



