22 IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 



such complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius 11 and 

 of Harvey 12 might be dazzled by the sight of the tree 

 that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed. 



The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, 

 forced upon one's notice, nowadays, that all this mar- 

 vellous intellectual growth has a no less wonderful ex- 

 pression in practical life; and that, in this respect, if 

 in no other, the movement symbolised by the progress 

 of the Royal Society stands without a parallel in the 

 history of mankind. 



A series of volumes as bulky as the "Transactions of 

 the Royal Society" might possibly be filled with the 

 subtle speculations of the Schoolmen; 13 not improbably, 

 the obtaining a mastery over the products of mediaeval 

 thought might necessitate an even greater expenditure 

 of time and of energy than the acquirement of the 

 "New Philosophy"; but though such work engrossed 

 the best intellects of Europe for a longer time than has 

 elapsed since the great fire, its effects were "writ in 

 water," 14 so far as our social state is concerned. 



On the other hand, if the noble first President of the 

 Royal Society could revisit the upper air and once more 

 gladden his eyes with a sight of the familiar mace, he 

 would find himself in the midst of a material civilisation 

 more different from that of his day, than that of the 



11 Andreas Vesalius was a Belgian anatomist of the sixteenth 

 century. 



12 William Harvey (1578-1657), a great English physiologist, 

 is best known for his discovery and demonstration of the circu- 

 lation of the blood. 



13 The Schoolmen, who flourished during the Middle Ages, 

 were engaged chiefly in fine-spun and dogmatic expositions of 

 church doctrine or in such idle speculations as whether the angels 

 speak the Hebrew language and how many of them can dance 

 the Spanish Tarantella upon the point of a cambric needje. 



14 The inscription upon Keats' tomb is, by his request, "Here 

 lies one whose name was writ in water." 



