Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A61158
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The history of the Royal-Society of London for the improving of natural knowledge by Tho. Sprat.
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Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Cowley, Abraham, 1618-1667. To the Royal Society.
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1667
(1667)
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Wing S5032; ESTC R16577
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253,666
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459
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Society in their Philosophical Studies and Indeavours full Power and Authority is granted unto them to require take and receive from time to time dead bodies of Persons executed and the same to anatomize to all intents and purposes and in as ample manner and form as the Colledge of Physitians and Company of Chirurgions of London by what names soever the said two Corporations are or may be called have had and made use of or may have and use the said Bodies And for the improvement of such Experiments Arts and Sciences as the Society may be imploy'd in full Power and Authority is granted unto them from time to time by Letters under the hand of the President in the presence of the Council to hold Correspondence and Intelligence with any Strangers whether private Persons or Collegiate Societies or Corporations without any Interruption or Molestation whatsoever Provided that this Indulgence or Grant be extended to no further use than the particular Benefit and Interest of the Society in Matters Philosophical Mathematical and Mechanical Full Power and Authority is also granted on the behalf of the Society to the Council to erect and build one or more Colledges within London or ten miles thereof of what form or quality soever for Habitation Assembling or Meeting of the President Council and Fellows about any affairs and businesses of the Society And if any abuses or differences shall ever hereafter arise and happen about the Government or Affairs of the Society whence the Constitution Progress and Improvement or Businesses thereof may suffer or be hindred In such cases His Majesty Assignes and Authorizes His right Trusty and right Well-beloved Cosen and Counsellor Edward Earl of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor of England by himself during his life and after his decease the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England the Lord High Treasurer of England the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal the Lord Bishop of London and the two principal Secretaries of State for the time being or any four or more of them to compose and redress any such differences or abuses And lastly His Majesty straightly charges and commands all Iustices Mayors Aldermen Sheriffs Bayliffs Constables and all other Officers Ministers and Subjects whatsoever from time to time to be aiding and assisting unto the said President Council and Fellows of the Royal Society in and about all things according to the true intention of His Letters Patents This is the Legal Ratification which the Royal Society has receiv'd And in this place I am to render their publick thanks to the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellor of England to Sir Ieffery Palmer Atturny General and to Sir Heneage Finch Sollicitor General who by their cheerful concurrence and free promotion of this Confirmation have wip'd away the aspersion that has been scandalously cast on the Profession of the Law that it is an Enemy to Learning and the Civil Arts. To shew the falsehood of this reproach I might instance in many Iudges and Counsellors of all Ages who have been the ornaments of the Sciences as well as of the Bar and Courts of Iustice. But it is enough to declare that my Lord Bacon was a Lawyer and that these eminent Officers of the Law have compleated this foundation of the Royal Society which was a work well becoming the largeness of his Wit to devise and the greatness of their Prudence to establish According to the intention of these Letters Patents their Council has ever since been annually renew'd their President their Treasurer their Secretaries chosen The chief employments of the Council have been to manage their Political affairs to regulate disorders to make addresses and applications in their behalf to guard their Priviledges to disperse correspondents but Principally to form the Body of their Statutes which I will here insert An Abstract of the Statutes of the Royal Society WHatever Statute shall be made or repeal'd the making or repealing of it shall be voted twice and at two several meetings of the Council This Obligation shall be subscrib'd by every Fellow or his election shall be void WE who have hereto subscrib'd do promise each for himself that we will indeavour to promote the good of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded that we will be present at the Meetings of the Society as often as conveniently we can especially at the anniversary Elections and upon extraordinary occasions and that we will observe the Statutes and Orders of the said Society Provided that whenever any of us shall signifie to the President under his hand that he desires to withdraw from the Society he shall be free from this Obligation for the future Every Fellow shall pay his admission money and afterwards contribution towards the defraying of the charges of Observations and Experiments c. The ordinary meetings of the Royal Society shall be held once a week where none shall be present besides the Fellows without the leave of the Society under the degree of a Baron in one of His Majesties three Kingdoms or of His Majesties Privie Council or unless he be an eminent Forreigner and these only without the leave of the President The business of their weekly Meetings shall be To order take account consider and discourse of Philosophical Experiments and Observations to read hear and discourse upon Letters Reports and other Papers containing Philosophical matters as also to view and discourse upon the productions and rarities of Nature and Art and to consider what to deduce from them or how they may be improv'd for use or discovery The Experiments that be made at the charge of the Society Two Curators at least shall be appointed for the Inspection of those which cannot be perform'd before the Society by them the bare report of matter of Fact shall be stated and return'd The Election of Fellows shall be made by way of Ballet and their Admission by a solemn Declaration made by the President of their Election The Election of the Council and Officers shall be made once a year Eleven of the present Council shall be continued by Lot for the next year and ten new Ones chosen in like manner Out of this new Council shall be elected a President Treasurer and two Secretaries in the same way The President shall preside in all meetings regulate all debates of the Society and Council state and put Questions call for Reports and Accounts from Committees Curators and others summon all extraordinary meetings upon urgent occasions and see to the execution of the Statutes The Vice-President shall have the same power in the absence of the President The Treasurer or his Deputy shall receive and keep Accounts of all money due to the Society and disburse all money payable by the Society He shall pay small sums by order of the President under his hand but those
Learning in our Island we may still observe some remarkable accidents that retarded these studies which were still ready to break forth in spight of all opposition Till the union of the two houses of York and Lancaster the whole force of our Country was ingag'd in Domestick Wars between the King and the Nobility or in the furious contentions between the divided Families unless sometimes some magnanimous Prince was able to turn their strength to forreign conquests In King Henry the seventh the two Roses were joyn'd His Government was like his own temper close severe jealous avaricious and withall victorious and prudent but how unprepar'd his time was for new discoveries is evident by the slender account that he made of the proposition of Columbus The Reign of King Henry the eighth was vigorous haughty magnificent expensive learned But then the alteration of Religion began and that alone was then sufficient to possess minds of men The Government of King Edward the sixth was contentious by reason of the factions of those who manag'd his childhood and the shortness of his life depriv'd us of the fruits that might have been expected from the prodigious beginnings of the King himself That of Queen Mary was weak melancholy bloody against the Protestants obscur'd by a forreign Marriage and unfortunate by the loss of Calais That of Queen Elizabeth was long triumphant peaceable at home and glorious abroad Then it was shewn to what height the English may rise when they are commanded by a Prince who knows how to govern their hearts as well as hands In her dayes the Reformation was setled commerce was establish'd and Navigation advanc'd But though knowledge began abundantly to spring forth yet it was not then seasonable for Experiments to receive a publick incouragement while the writings of antiquity and the controversies between us and the Church of Rome were not fully studied and dispatch'd The Reign of King Iames was happy in all the benefits of Peace and plentifully furnish'd with men of profound Learning But in imitation of the King they chiefly regarded the matters of Religion and Disputation so that even my Lord Bacon with all his authority in the State could never raise any Colledge of Salomon but in a Romance That of King Charles the First began indeed to be ripe for such undertakings by reason of the plenty and felicity of the first years of his Government and the abilities of the King himself who was not only an inimitable Master in reason and eloquence but excell'd in very many practical Arts beyond the usual custome of Kings nay even beyond the skill of the best Artists themselves But he alas was call'd away from the studies of quiet and peace to a more dangerous and a more honourable reputation The chief Triumphs that Heaven reserv'd for him were to be gather'd from his suffering virtues in them he was only exceeded by his Divine Example of our Saviour in imitation of whose Passion those afflictions and those thorns which the rude Souldiers design'd for his disgrace and torment became his glory and his Crown The late times of Civil War and confusion to make recompense for their infinite calamities brought this advantage with them that they stirr'd up mens minds from long ease and a lazy rest and made them active industrious and inquisitive it being the usual benefit that follows upon Tempests and Thunders in the State as well as in the Skie that they purifie and cleer the Air which they disturb But now since the Kings return the blindness of the former Ages and the miseries of this last are vanish'd away now men are generally weary of the Relicks of Antiquity and satiated with Religious Disputes now not only the eyes of men but their hands are open and prepar'd to labour Now there is a universal desire and appetite after knowledge after the peaceable the fruitful the nourishing Knowledge and not after that of antient Sects which only yielded hard indigestible arguments or sharp contentions instead of food which when the minds of men requir'd bread gave them only a stone and for fish a serpent Whatever they have hitherto attempted on these Principles and incouragements it has been carry'd on with a vigorous spirit and wonderful good Fortune from their first constitution down to this day Yet I overhear the whispers and doubts of many who demand what they have done all this while and what they have produc'd that is answerable to these mighty hopes which we indeavour to make the world conceive of their undertaking If those who require this Account have themselves perform'd any worthy things in this space of time it is fit that we should give them satisfaction But they who have done nothing at all have no reason to upbraid the Royal Society for not having done as much as they fancy it might To those therefore who excite it to work by their examples as well as words and reproofs methinks it were a sufficient Answer if I should only repeat the particulars I have already mention'd wherein the King has set on foot a Reformation in the Ornaments and Advantages of our Country For though the original praise of all this is to be ascrib'd to the Genius of the King himself yet it is but just that some honour should thence descend to this Assembly whose purposes are conformable to his Majesties performances of that Nature Seeing all the little scandals that captious humours have taken against the Royal Society have not risen from their general proceedings but from a few pretended offences of some of their private Members it is but reason that we should alledge in their commendation all the excellent Designs which are begun by the King who has not only stil'd himself their Founder but acted as a particular Member of their Company To this I will also add that in this time they have pass'd through the first difficulties of their Charter and Model and have overcome all oppositions which are wont to arise against the beginnings of great things This certainly alone were enough to free them from all imputation of idleness that they have fram'd such an Assembly in six years which was never yet brought about in six thousand Besides this the world is to consider that if any that think the whole compass of their work might have come to a sudden issue they seem neither to understand the intentions of the Royal Society nor the extent of their task It was never their aim to make a violent dispatch They know that precipitancy in such matters was the fault of the Antients And they have no mind to fall into the same error which they indeavour to correct They began at first on so large a Bottom that it is impossible the whole Frame should be suddenly compleated 'T is true they that have nothing else to do but to express and adorn conclusions of Knowledge already made may bring their Arts to an end as soon as they please But they who