PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 59 



It was during the fifth and sixth decades of the seven- 

 teenth century, when extremest licence of thought was 

 permissible if only it were shielded from exposure and 

 controversy, that intelligent men sought freedom from 

 the vexatious troubles of the time by engaging in scientific 

 inquiry. As Dr. Whewell finely says : " There arose 

 about this time a group of philosophers, who began to 

 knock at the door where Truth was to be found." l After 

 the Restoration, the numbers of these pioneers increased. 

 Their meetings were frequent, and well-attended. On 

 July 15, 1662, a Royal Charter was granted them, con- 

 stituting them a body corporate as the Royal Society. 

 The King himself was a devoted patron ; his office was 

 not purely nominal, for he took an active and often 

 sagacious part in the proceedings. He was elected a 

 Fellow on January 9, 1665, being one hundred and 

 seventy-first on the roll. 



" The business and design " of the Society is the subject 

 of a quaint document still in preservation at the British 

 Museum. 2 It is too long to quote here in full. But the 

 gist of it is fairly well contained in these two sentences : 



:t To improve the knowledge of naturall things, and all 

 useful Arts, Manufactures, Mechanick practises, Engynes 

 and Inventions by Experiments (not meddling with 

 Divinity, Metaphysics, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar, 

 Rhetorick, or Logick)." " In order to the compiling of a 

 complete system of solid Philosophy for explicating all 

 Phenomena produced by Nature or Art, and recording a 

 rationall account of the causes of things." 



On such safe basis the Society began its useful labours ; 

 and to these principles it has unswervingly adhered to the 

 present day. 



Animal and vegetable physiology were the most 

 attractive subjects to people of an inquiring turn of mind. 

 Hence the earlier Transactions are largely occupied 



1 History of the Inductive Sciences, II, 145. 2 Addl. MSS., 4441. 



