48 CLINTONS INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 



residence for that knowledge which is to be made up of the reports and 

 intelligence of all countries."* 



The Royal Society of London, for the improving of natural know- 

 ledge, (the first institution of this kind,) was established about the year 

 1663. Butler, the author of Hudibras, wrote a satire against it, entitled 

 " The Elephant in the Moon." Sprat, the historian of the society, 

 feeling too acutely the shafts of ridicule, attempted, in a singular way, 

 to propitiate the hostile wits. " To gain their good will," said he, " I 

 must acquaint them that the family of Railleurs is said to be derived 

 from the same original with the philosophers. The founder of philo- 

 sophy is confessed by all to be Socrates, and he also was the famous 

 author of all irony. They ought, therefore, to be tender in this 

 matter, wherein the honour of their common parent is concerned."! 

 Cowley, on the other hand, wrote a complimentary address to the 

 society. 



The satire of Butler has sunk into oblivion, while the society which 

 it assailed has established a reputation and usefulness that cannot be 

 subverted or denied. From its origin to the end of the eighteenth 

 century (as appears from Dr. Thompson's History of the Royal Society 

 from its institution to the end of the eighteenth century) it has pub- 

 lished 4; 166 memoirs on natural history, anatomy, surgery, medicine, 

 mathematics, mechanical philosophy, chemistry, and miscellaneous sub- 

 jects, the greatest number of which is on astronomy, medicine, and che- 

 mistry. The institution of this society was soon followed by that of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and similar associations have 

 been since formed in almost all the important cities of Europe. 



* Sprat's History of the Royal Society. i Ibid. 



