occasion of constituting them a Royal Society, towards the
close of the evening he expressed his satisfaction in being
the first English monarch who had laid a foundation for a
society who proposed that their sole studies should be
directed to the investigation of the arcana of nature; and
added with that peculiar gravity of countenance he usually
wore on such occasions, that among such learned men he now
hoped for a solution to a question which had long perplexed
him. The case he thus stated:--"Suppose two pails of water
were fixed in two different scales that were equally
poised, and which weighed equally alike, and that two live
bream, or small fish, were put into either of these pails, he
wanted to know the reason why that pail, with such addition,
should not weigh more than the other pail which stood
against it." Every one was ready to set at quiet the royal
curiosity; but it appeared that every one was giving a
different opinion. One, at length, offered so ridiculous a
solution, that another of the members could not refrain from
a loud laugh; when the King, turning to him, insisted that he
should give his sentiments as well as the rest. This he did
without hesitation, and told his majesty, in plain terms, that
he denied the fact! On which the King, in high mirth,
exclaimed--"Odds fish, brother, you are in the right!" The
jest was not ill designed. The story was often useful, to cool
the enthusiasm of the scientific visionary, who is apt
often to account for what never has existed.

[258] Pope was severe in his last book of the _Dunciad_ on the
students of insects, flowers, &c.; and R.O. Cambridge followed
out the idea of a mad virtuoso in his "Scribleriad," which he
has made up from the absurd or trifling parts of natural
history and philosophy. His hero is--

"A much-enduring man, whose curious soul
Bore him with ceaseless toil from pole to pole;
Insatiate endless knowledge to obtain,
Thro' woes by land, thro' dangers on the main."

He collects curiosities from all parts of the world; studies
occult and natural sciences; and is at last beatified by
electrical glories at a meeting of hermetical philosophers.