TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 595 



inquiry. It was not so much that ignorance had to be dispelled, but that the right 

 of search had to be established. Here and there during the Middle Ages some man 

 of genius had arisen — learned beyond all his contemporaries, intrepid in the pursuit 

 of truth — only to be crushed by a political and mental despotism. The name of 

 Roger Bacon arises at once in our thoughts, who from his Oxford cell sent forth 

 that great appeal for experimental science that nearly converted a Pope of Rome 

 and won three centuries for intellectual freedom. But his labour bore no fruit. 

 I know no better index to the dominant sentiment of the time than the following 

 words from a papal rescript reproving the members of an Italian university for 

 scientific presumption : ' They must be content with the landmarks of science 

 already fixed by their fathers, and have due fear of the curse pronounced against 

 liioi who removeth his neiufhbour's landmark.' Under such conditions no wonder 

 philosophy was at a standstill. ' The same knots were tied and untied ; the same 

 clouds were formed and dissipated.'' The cramped philosophy of the Middle Ages 

 had in alchemy a fitting colleague — with its mysticism, its sordid ideals, its trickery, 

 and its arrogance. The revival of learning was thus an emancipation of the mind, 

 and in the new freedom the sciences of mechanics, physics, and chemistry arose. 

 The first necessity for progress was enlightenment, the second was experiment : in 

 the year that Francis Bacon died Robert Boyle was born. 



The common pursuit of experimental inquiry and the need for constant criticism 

 and discussion among its followers led to the foundation of scientific societies. 

 Such societies, which have greatly influenced the progress of knowledge, sprang up 

 in Florence and Padua, in Paris and Oxford — wherever, among bodies of learned 

 men, some were found iu sympathy with natural philosophy. Among these associa- 

 tions the Philosophical Society of Oxford has played no unimportant part, and, 

 however much Oxford may have undervalued its work, for one thing all chemists 

 are grateful, and Oxford herself may feel proud — that here, under her influence, 

 fii'St grew up the idea that chemistry was no mere drudge of medicine, or genii of 

 the alchemist, but a science to be studied purely for itself. 



The origin of this Oxford Society has been well told by Dr. Wallis, one of its 

 founders : — 



' About the year 1G45, while I lived in London (at a time when, by our civil 

 wars, academic studies were much interrupted at both Universities), besides the 

 conversation of eminent divines, I had the opportunity of being acquainted with 

 divers worthy persons inquisitive into natural philosophy, and particularly of what 

 hath been called experimental philosophy. We did by agreements meet weekly in 

 London to treat and discourse of such aflFairs; of which number were Dr. John 

 Wilkins, Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Dr. Eat, Dr. Merret, Mr. Samuel Foster, then 

 Professor of Astronomy in Gresham College, and Mr. Theodore Haak, and many 

 others. 



' These meetings we held sometimes at Dr. Goddard's lodgings, on occasion of 

 his keeping an operator at his house for grinding glasses for telescopes and micro- 

 scopes ; sometimes at a convenient place in Cheapside, and sometimes at Gresham 

 College. Our business was (precluding matters of theology and State afluirs) to 

 discourse and consider of philosophical inquiries. . . . About the year 1648, some 

 of our company being removed to Oxford (first Dr. Wilkins, then I, and soon after 

 Dr. Goddard), our company divided. Those in London continued to meet there 

 as before, and those of us at Oxford, with Dr. Seth Ward (since Bishop of 

 Salisbury), Dr. Ralph Bathurst, President of Trinity College, Dr Petty, Dr. Willis 

 (an eminent physician in Oxford), and divers others, continued such meetings in 

 Oxford, and brought those studies into fashion there, meeting first at Dr. Petty's 

 lodgings (in an apothecarie's house), because of the convenience of inspecting drugs, 

 and, after his removal, at the lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then Warden of Wadham 

 College, and, after his removal, at the lodgings of the Honourable Mr. Robert 

 Boyle, then resident for divers years in Oxford.' 



Robert Boyle, the youngest child of the great Earl of Cork, was born at 

 Lismore in 1626. His mother died when he was a child. Always delicate, he 



' Whewell, Eist. oj Ind, Sci. 



QQ3 



