THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 113 



own preparing, not for the honour only" but 

 because it strangles more quickly. He at- 

 tended regularly the early meetings of the 

 Royal Society at Gresham College, and 

 showed the liveliest interest in various investi- 

 gations on the transfusion of blood, respira- 

 tion under reduced air pressure and many 

 other ingenious experiments and observations 

 by Sir George Ent and others. On 20 Janu- 

 ary 1665, he took home Micrographia, 

 Hooke's book on microscopy — "a most excel- 

 lent piece, of which I am very proud." 



Although Pepys had no scientific training 

 — he only began to learn the multiplication 

 table when he was in his thirtieth year, but, 

 later, took the keenest pleasure in teaching it 

 to Mrs. Pepys — he, nevertheless, attained to 

 the presidentship of the Royal Society. He 

 had always delighted in the company of "the 

 virtuosos" and, in 1662, three years after he 

 began to study arithmetic, he was admitted a 

 fellow of their — the Royal' — Society. In 

 1681, he was elected president. This post he 

 owed, not to any genius for science, or to any 

 great invention or generalisation, but to his 



