r ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 23 



being in his usual state of impecuniosity, begged 

 for them of the Duke of Ormond ; and, that step 

 being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, 

 a charter, and a mace : crowning his favours in the 

 best way they could be crowned, by burdening 

 them no further with royal patronage or state 

 interference. 



Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, 

 studious of the " New Philosophy," who met in 

 one another's lodgings in Oxford or in London, in 

 the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in 

 numerical and in real strength, until, in its latter 

 part, the " Royal Society for the Improvement of 

 Natural Knowledge " had already become famous, 

 and had acquired a claim upon the veneration of 

 Englishmen, 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. X 



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 

 incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of 

 halting or of decrepitude manifested themselves 

 in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's days, so in 

 these, " our business is, precluding theology and 





