Experiment was the keynote of his system, and when his ideas had once been well grasped the modern examination of nature began. After the Restoration laboratory researches were adopted as a fashionable pastime at court, while with the incorporation of the Royal Society scientific pursuits gained a recognised basis. The nucleus of this distinguished body had been formed during the civil wars, as Dr. Wallis says in his statement concerning its origin. The allusion to Aristotle is important, since he typified the old philosophy in opposition to the new. Passages A. and B. are derived from an autobiographical sketch of Dr. John Wallis, the mathematician; C. from his Defence of the Royal Society.

SOURCE.-Account of some Passages of his Life. John Wallis (16161703). Cited by C. R. Weld in his History of the Royal Society. London, 1848. A, p. 31; B, p. 35.

(4) About the year 1645, while I lived in London (at a time when, by our civil wars, academical studies were much interrupted in both our Universities), beside the conversation of divers eminent divines, as to matters theological, I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy persons, inquisitive into natural philosophy, and other parts of human learning; and particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy, or Experimental Philosophy. We did by agreements, divers of us, meet weekly in London on a certain day, to treat and discourse of such affairs; of which number were Dr. John Wilkins (afterward Bishop of Chester), Dr Jonathan Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Merret (Drs. in Physic), Mr. Samuel Foster, then Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, Mr. Theodore Hank (a German of the Palatinate, and then resident in London, who, I think, gave the first occasion, and first suggested those meetings), and many others.

These meetings we held sometimes at Dr. Goddard's lodgings in Wood Street (or some convenient place near), on occasion of his keeping an operator in his house for grinding glasses for telescopes and microscopes; sometimes at a convenient place in Cheapside, and sometimes at Gresham College, or some place near adjoining.

Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries,

and such as related thereunto: as physic, anatomy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, statics, magnetics, chemics, mechanics, and natural experiments; with the state of these studies, as then cultivated at home and abroad. We then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, the venæ lacta, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican hypothesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots in the sun, and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and selenography of the moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of telescopes, and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the possibility, or impossibility of vacuities, and nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies, and the degrees of acceleration therein; and divers other things of like nature. Some of which were then but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced, as now they are, with other things appertaining to what hath been called The New Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in England.

About the year 1648, 1649, 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 we with them when we had occasion to be there), and those of us at Oxford; with Dr. Ward (since Bishop of Salisbury), Dr. Ralph Bathurst (now President of Trinity College in Oxford), Dr. Petty (since Sir William Petty), Dr. Willis (then 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 apothecary's house), because of the convenience of inspecting drugs, and the like, as there was occasion; and after his remove to Ireland (though not so constantly), at the lodgings of Dr. Wilkin's, then Warden of Wadham College, and after his removal to Trinity College in Cambridge, at the lodgings of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, then resident for divers years in Oxford.

(B) We would by no means be thought to slight or undervalue the philosophy of Aristotle, which hath for many ages obtained in the schools. But have (as we ought) a great esteem

1 See No. 80.

for him, and judge him to have been a very great man, and think those who do most slight him, to be such as are less acquainted with him. He was a great enquirer into the history of nature, but we do not think (nor did he think) that he had so exhausted the stock of knowledge of that kind as that there would be nothing left for the enquiry of aftertimes, as neither can we of this age hope to find out so much, but that there will be much left for those that come after us.

(C) (For Source, see end.)

I take its first ground and foundation to have been in London, about the year 1645, if not sooner, when Dr. Wilkins, (then chaplain to the Prince Elector Palatine, in London) and others, met weekly at a certain day and hour, under a certain penalty, and a weekly contribution for the charge of experiments, with certain rules agreed upon amongst us. When (to avoid diversion to other discourses, and for some other reasons) we barred all discourses of divinity, of state affairs, and of news, other than what concerned our business of Philosophy. These meetings we removed soon after to the Bull Head in Cheapside, and in term-time to Gresham College, where we met weekly at Mr. Foster's lecture (then Astronomy Professor there), and, after the lecture ended, repaired, sometimes to Mr. Foster's lodgings, sometimes to some other place not far distant, where we continued such enquiries, and our numbers increased.

About the years 1648-9 some of our company were removed to Oxford; first, Dr. Wilkins, then I, and soon after, Dr. Goddard, whereupon our company divided. Those at London (and we, when we had occasion to be there) met as before. Those of us at Oxford, with Dr. Ward, Dr. Petty, and many others of the most inquisitive persons in Oxford, met weekly (for some years) at Dr. Petty's lodgings, on the like account, to wit, so long as Dr. Petty continued in Oxford, and for some while after, because of the conveniences we had there (being the house of an apothecary) to view, and make use of, drugs and other like matters, as there was occasion.

Our meetings there were very numerous and very considerable. For, besides the diligence of persons studiously inquisitive, the novelty of the design made many to resort thither; who, when it ceased to be new, began to grow more remiss, or did pursue such inquiries at home. We did afterwards (Dr. Petty being gone for Ireland, and our numbers growing less) remove thence; and (some years before His Majesty's return) did meet at Dr. Wilkins's lodgings in Wadham College. In the meanwhile, our company at Gresham College being much again

increased, by the accession of divers eminent and noble persons, upon His Majesty's return, we were (about the beginning of the year 1662) by His Majesty's grace and favour, incorporated by the name of the Royal Society.

(C) SOURCE.-A Defence of the Royal Society. John Wallis (1616-1703). London, 1678. Cited by C. R. Weld in his History of the Royal Society. London, 1848. P. 36.

75. CROMWELL'S DISSOLUTION OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT

(1653).

Before the spring of 1653 the Long Parliament had degenerated sadly from its original condition. Still its overthrow by arms was a heroic measure. Cromwell was not a brutal dictator who delighted in displays of force. He ran no risk of rousing a reaction by ending the sessions of a worthless assembly, for the Long Parliament had few friends and the army was supreme. But he shrank from violent remedies in the case of a body which had so often been the refuge of liberty. What determined him was a knowledge of its corruption as well as of its inefficiency. He acted after much thought and under conviction, believing that of two evils a forced dissolution of Parliament was the lesser. The description which is here given of this unique scene comes from a journal kept by Robert Sidney, second Earl of Leicester. His son Algernon Sidney, afterwards executed for complicity in the Rye House Plot, was a member of the House, and present on the morning of April 20.

SOURCE.-Sydney Papers. Ed. R. W. Blencowe. London, 1825. P. 139. This entry is by Robert Sidney, second Earl of Leicester (1595-1677).

Wednesday, 20th April.—The Parliament sitting as usual, and being on debate upon the Bill with the amendments, which it was thought would have been passed that day, the Lord General Cromwell came into the House, clad in plain black clothes, with grey worsted stockings, and sat down as he used to do in an ordinary place. After a while he rose up, put off his hat, and spake; at the first and for a good while, he spake to the commendation of the Parliament, for their pains and care of the public good; but afterwards he changed his style, told

them of their injustice, delays of justice, self-interest and other faults. Then he said: "Perhaps you think this is not Parliamentary language; I confess it is not, neither are you to expect any such from me". Then he put on his hat, went out of his place, and walked up and down the stage or floor in the midst of the House, with his hat on his head, and chid them soundly, looking sometimes, and pointing particularly upon some persons, as Sir R. Whitlock, one of the Commissioners for the Great Seal, Sir Henry Vane, to whom he gave very sharp language, though he named them not, but by his gestures it was well known that he meant them. After this he said to Colonel Harrison (who was a Member of the House): "Call them in". Then Harrison went out, and presently brought in Lieutenant Colonel Wortley (who commanded the General's own regiment of foot) with five or six files of musqueteers, about 20 or 30, with their musquets. Then the General, pointing to the Speaker in his chair, said to Harrison, "Fetch him down". Harrison went to the Speaker, and spoke to him to come down, but the Speaker sat still, and said nothing. "Take him down," said the General; then Harrison went and pulled the Speaker by the gown, and he came down. It happened that day, that Algernon Sydney sat next to the Speaker on the right hand; the General said to Harrison, "Put him out". Harrison spake to Sydney to go out, but he said he would not go out, and sat still. The General said again, "Put him out". Then Harrison and Wortley put their hands upon Sydney's shoulders, as if they would force him to go out; then he rose and went towards the door. Then the General went to the table where the mace lay, which used to be carried before the Speaker, and said, "Take away these baubles". So the soldiers took away the mace, and all the House went out; and at the going out, they say, the General said to young Sir Henry Vane, calling him by his name, that he might have prevented this extraordinary course, but he was a juggler, and had not so much as common honesty. All being gone out, the door of the House was locked, and the key with the mace was carried away, as I heard, by Colonel Otley.

76. BLAKE AT SANTA CRUZ (1657).

All political parties unite in praising the energy of Cromwell's foreign policy. It is, for instance, with the Protectorate that English fleets begin to count as a fixed quantity in European combinations. Blake's victories confirmed the tradition which