414 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
themselves from the old rusty shackles of slavery to the past and its long estab- 
lished order of things, and to strike out for themselves into new ranges and regions 
of nature and of thought. Independence of thought begets independence of spirit. 
They who so long had passively worn the harness of servitude and obedience to 
monarchy and men in power, became recalcitrant and demanded rights and priv- 
ileges, even going so far in some cases as to compel them to be given. Freedom 
of thought marks the birth of enlightenment and the beginning of mightier and 
grander things. Men of inquiring minds, tired of the toil and tumult of war, and 
quite famished for went of encouragement at the hands of mankind in general, 
began to meet together and discuss their thoughts where sympathy and interest 
were sure to attend. From such beginnings arose the idea of scientific societies ; 
and we find before the close of the 17th century the Royal Society of England 
(1645), the French Academy of Sciences (1666), the Imperial Academy of the 
Curious in Nature (Germany, 1662), and others in Italy and adjoining countries. 
These scientific societies were the centres into which flowed all the streams 
of scientific thought. At their convocations capable minds discussed the old or 
the new theories of men, and after due deliberation the bad ones were either 
rejected or corrected, and the good ones were sent forth into the world with a 
sanction that rendered them a thousand-fold more acceptable. 
A still more important result arising from these scientific bodies must be con- 
fessed in the following fact. The disciples of science, who in one country were 
restrained from making known their work by publication at home, on account of 
the stringency of prevailing laws, could send abroad and be sure of sympathy and 
aid. Thus was given to the world for the promotion of human welfare, many a 
a newly discovered invention or discovery which otherwise might have cowered 
at home for years and years, held "in durance vile" by ignoble servitude to 
opinions whose only authority was the weight of hoary years. 
Hence we are safe in saying that the temple of natural science had its founda- 
tion laid at this time in permanent form, and at this period steady growth of the 
superstructure began. Workmen came from England, from France, from Italy, 
from Germany, in fact, from all civilized lands, and lent their enthusiastic aid. 
Scaffolds of theory were built around, upon which standing, the workmen 
laid up the permanent blocks of law and established fact. When the scaffolds 
became untenable, weak, inadequate, they were removed and others more ade- 
quate erected in their stead. Workmen served their allotted time and yielded 
their places which were forthwith filled by others. And to-day in the broad glare 
of the 19th century the toilers in science are as vigorously as ever altering the 
scaffolds and on the already lofty walls laying up other beautiful and substantial 
stones. The temple will be finished — when? Ah ! who can tell? 
But let us return to the 17th century and call the roll of master-workmen, 
and note some of the stones which were placed in the lower walls of the temple of 
science. 
