THE NEW SCIENCE 9 



Beal, wrote to the society May 22, 1676," that he had heard of "a 

 piece of fresh Beef shining in the Strand". It became a sensation 

 as remarkable as Moses' burning bush, — a seven days' wonder. 

 These men of the New Science began to look at such commonplace 

 phenomena with the wondering eyes of children. Here is an in- 

 quisitive humor, an industry, an activity, but one doubts the ex- 

 istence of a cold, circumspect and wary disposition. 



The experiment cited above is typical. It can be duplicated 

 from attempts at transfusing blood, from observing thunderstorms, 

 from watching the circulation of blood in the foot of a frog, from 

 the trials of the effects of rarified air, from almost any page of 

 Hooke's Micrographia. Always the attitude is the same; wonder 

 and interest, experiment and observation, then a careful record and 

 report, with conclusions. William "Wotton, in his defence of the 

 "Modern Methods of Philosophizing", writes: — 



"1. No arguments are received as cogent, no principles al- 

 lowed as current, but what in themselves are intelligible. 



2. The Forming of Sects and Parties as Followers of a certain 



man is discarded. (Condensed). 



3. ]\Iathematics joined with Physiology is necessary to under- 



stand the economy of Nature. (Condensed). 



4. The new Philosophers, as they are commonly called, avoid 



making general Conclusions, till they have collected a great 

 number of Experiments or Observations upon the thing in 

 hand; and, as new Light comes in, the old Hypotheses 

 fall without Noise or Stir."^*^ 

 And he continued : — ' ' Now as this Method of Philosophizing 

 laid down above is right, so it is easie to prove, that it has been 

 carefully followed by Modern Philosophers. My Lord Bacon was 

 the first great Man who took much pains to convince the world that 

 they had hitherto been in the wrong Path, and that Nature her- 

 self, rather than her Secretaries, was to be addressed to by those 

 who were desirous to know much of her Mind. '"'^ 



Scientific investigation had not yet reached the point of spec- 

 ialization. Robert Boyle, whose experiment was noted above, was 

 really a Chemist, but he made investigations in Physics, Astronomy, 



»i Phil. Transactions. Dec. 16, 1672. 



*^ Wotton, William, Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 364. 



"Ibid. p. 370. 



