the improvement of telescopes, the 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 degree of acceleration therein, and divers other things of like nature.’ “The other little company of inquirers, who remained in London, was at last broken up by the troubles of the Second Protectorate; but it was revived at the Restoration by the return to London of the more eminent members of the Oxford group. Science suddenly became the fashion of the day. Charles was himself a fair chymist, and took a keen interest in the problems of navigation. The Duke of Buckingham varied his freaks of riming, drinking, and fiddling by fits of devotion to his laboratory. Poets like Dryden and Cowley, courtiers like Sir Robert Murray and Sir Kenelm Digby joined the scientific company to which in token of his sympathy with it the King gave the title of ‘The Royal Society.’ The curious glass toys called Prince Rupert’s drops recall the scientific inquiries which, with the study of etching, amused the old age of the great cavalry leader of the Civil War. Wits and fops crowded to the meetings of the new society. Statesmen like Lord Somers felt honored at being chosen its presidents. Its definite establishment marks the opening of a great age of scientific discovery in England. Almost every year of the half century which followed saw some step made to a wider and truer knowledge. Our first national observatory rose at Greenwich, and modern astronomy began with the long series of astronomical observations which immortalized the name of Flamsteed. His successor, Halley, undertook the investigation of the tides, of comets, and of terrestrial magnetism. Hooke improved the microscope, and gave a fresh impulse to microscopical research. Boyle made the air-pump a means of advancing the science of pneumatics, and became the founder of experimental chymistry. Wilkins pointed forward to the science of philology in his scheme of a universal language. Sydenham introduced a careful observation of nature and facts which changed the whole face of medicine. The physiological researches of Willis first threw light upon the structure of the brain. Woodward was the founder of mineralogy. In his edition of Willoughby’s _Ornithology_, and in his own _History of Fishes_, John Ray was the first to raise zoology to the rank of a science; and the first scientific classification of animals was attempted in his _Synopsis of Quadrupeds_. Modern botany began with his _History of Plants_, and the researches of an Oxford professor, Robert Morison; while Grew divided with Malpighi the credit of founding the study of vegetable physiology. But great as some of these names undoubtedly are, they are lost in the lustre of Isaac Newton.