THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 177 



to produce facts; and the most zealous enemy of innovation must 

 admit the gradual progress of experience, however he may oppose 

 hypothetical temerity".^-'' 



In the death of Ne\vton the new science sustained an irreparable 

 loss. When the stimulation of his work and the inspiration of his 

 personality were gone, there succeeded a period barren of dis- 

 coveries. Desaguliers inight popularize the new ideas, but he 

 could not produce new discoveries ; antiquarianism became a gentle- 

 man 's diversion and relaxation; Hauksbee and Stephen Gray were 

 only preparing the way for Franklin's brilliant work. The scien- 

 tists were standing between two periods, one of a past great achieve- 

 ment and the other yet to dawn. 



1^ Johnson's Lives, I, p. 208, Butler. Cf. also his attitude as expressed in his 

 Life of Boerhave. 



