THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 303 



popular alike at the court of three kings, and in 

 the society of men of letters, men of business and 

 men of science. In spite of the fact that he was 

 the first to distinguish a mixture from a compound, 

 to define an element, to prepare hydrogen though 

 he did not recognise its nature, he had in him 

 the touch of an amateur but an amateur of genius. 

 His style in writing was unusually prolix and he 

 seldom followed out his discoveries to their ulti- 

 mate end. 



It was men such as these that re-established 

 the Royal Society in 1660. Exactly a century 

 earlier, the first scientific society, the Academia 

 Secretorum Naturae of Naples had its origin. 

 This was followed by several others in Italy and 

 in France, most of them but shortlived. Among 

 English or Teutonic folk, the Royal Society was 

 the earliest to appear, and, even if we include the 

 scientific societies of the world, it has had the 

 most continuous existence. Indeed, before its 

 birth, it underwent a long period of incubation, 

 and its inception was in reality in 1645. At that 

 date, a society known as the Philosophical, or, 

 as Boyle called it, the " Invisible," college came 

 into being, which met from time to time at Gres- 

 ham College and elsewhere in London. During 



