398 on The scope and influence op the 



History of the Society, published in 1667, received its public- 

 sanction, expresses himself as follows : " The Royal Society 

 " was a work well becoming the largeness of Bacon's wit to 

 " devise, and the greatness of Clarendon's prudence to esta- 

 " blish *." Sprat also informs us, that the Tract published 

 in 1661, by Cowley, entitled, A Proposition for the Advancement 

 of Experimental Philosophy , " very much hastened the contri- 

 " vance of the platform of the Royal Society ;" and this Tract 

 bears internal evidence that its author's views were originally 

 derived from the New Atlantis. 



But it is of more importance to show, that the philosophical 

 spirit which actuated the founders of this institution, was chiefly 

 owing to the effects produced by Bacon's writings. And here, 

 again, I must appeal, in the first place, to the testimony of those 

 to whom we are indebted for all that we know of its early 

 history. The fullest account of its origin is given by the cele- 

 brated mathematician Dr John Wallis, who was one of those 

 who instituted the weekly meetings begun to be held in London 

 in 1645 ; and his narrative distinctly points to Bacon, as having 

 given a beginning to the taste for experimental science in Eng- 

 land. " Our business," says he, " was to discourse and consi- 

 ** der of things appertaining to what hath been called the New 

 " Philosophy, which, from the times of Galileo, and Lord 

 " Verulam, hath been much cultivated abroad, as well as 



with 



Hobbes being obstinate, and not able to bear contradiction, those who were 

 sometimes present at their wrangling disputes, held that the laurel was carried 

 away by White." — Athtntz Oxon. vol. ii. p 665. The Scepsis Scientifica has, 

 appended to it, a reply to the animadversions contained in White's Sciri upon 

 the Vanity of Dogmatizing. 



* History of the Royal Society, p. 144. Copies of this work were sent, by 

 the Society, to foreign Princes, and other eminent persons abroad, in order to 

 furnish them with an authentic account of its history. See Dr Birch's History 

 4>f the Royal Society, vol. ii. p. 207. 



