304 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



the civil war, this society was split in two, some 

 members meeting in London, some at Oxford, 

 but the meetings, wherever held, were at irregular 

 intervals. On the Restoration, the meetings were 

 resumed in London and, in 1662, the society 

 received the royal charter. 



Of all the poets of the time, Cowley took, 

 perhaps, the greatest interest in science. He 

 had, indeed, like Evelyn and at about the same 

 date, developed a plan for the institution of a 

 college of science. Evelyn explains his scheme 

 in a letter addressed to Robert Boyle, dated 

 September 3rd, 1659, from Sayes Court, which 

 contains minute details as to the buildings, the 

 maintenance, and the government of his college, 

 the inmates of which were to " preserve science 

 and cultivate themselves/' Cowley 's scheme 

 was also elaborately thought out, and had the 

 original and admirable suggestion that, out of 

 the twenty salaried professors, sixteen should 

 be always resident and four always travelling 

 in the four quarters of the world, in order that 

 they might "give a constant account of all things 

 that belong to the learning and especially Natural 

 Experimental Philosophy of those parts/' To 

 his " Philosophical Colledge " was to be attached 



