the Royal
Society, was notable chiefly for advance in the physical and
mathematical sciences; while the later period was more addicted to
chemistry, and was the age of Lavoisier, Priestley, Cavendish, and
Black. The former age, though it attained to nothing practical, made
some progress in the theory of flight; the latter age invented the
balloon.

The Royal Society took its origin in the meetings in London, during the
troublous times of the Civil War, of 'divers worthy persons inquisitive
into natural philosophy'. One of these worthy persons was John Wilkins,
mathematician, philosopher, and divine, who, being parliamentarian in
his sympathies, was, on the expulsion of the Royalists from Oxford, made
Warden of Wadham College in that University. At Wadham, in the Warden's
lodgings, the 'Experimental philosophical Club', as Aubrey calls it,
renewed its meetings. Sprat, the early historian of the Royal Society,
explains that religion and politics were forbidden topics. 'To have been
always tossing about some theological question would have been to make
that their private diversion of which they had had more than enough in
public; to have been musing on the Civil Wars would have made them
melancholy; therefore Nature alone could entertain them.' After the
Restoration a meeting was held at Gresham College in London, and a
committee was appointed, with Wilkins as chairman, to draw up a scheme
for the Royal Society. The King approved of the scheme submitted to him,
and the society received its charter in 1662.

Wilkins was a famous man in his day; he married a sister of Oliver
Cromwell, and in his later years was Bishop of Chester. But his great
work was the founding of the Royal Society; and his philosophical (or,
as they would now be called, scientific) writings, which belong to his
earlier years in London, show very clearly with what high expectations
the society started on its labours. The first of these writings,
published in 1638, is a discourse to prove that there may be another
habitable World in the Moon. The second considers the possibility of a
passage thither. The third maintains that it is probable that our Earth
is one of the planets. The fourth, which is entitled _Mercury; or, the
Secret Messenger_, discusses how thoughts may be communicated from a
distance. The fifth and last, published in 1648, is called _Mathematical
Magic_, and is divided into two books, under the titles _Archimedes; or,
Mechanical Powers_