And all this was done without one drop of blood shed, and by that very army which rebelled against him; but it was the Lord's doing, for such a Restoration was never mentioned in any history, ancient or modern, since the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; nor so joyful a day and so bright ever seen in this nation.

33. REJOICINGS AT THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. [1660] SOURCE: Burnet's History of My Own Times.

With the restoration of the King, a spirit of extravagant joy spread over the nation, that brought on with it at the throwing off the very professions of virtue and piety: all ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overrun the three kingdoms to such a degree, that it very much corrupted all their morals. Under the colour of drinking the King's health, there were great disorders and much riot everywhere, and the pretences of religion, both in those of the hypocritical sort, and of the more honest but no less pernicious enthusiasts, gave great advantages, as well as they furnished much matters, to the profane mockers of true piety.

34. AN ENEMY TO CATS [1661]

SOURCE: Pepys's Diary. Under date.

1661, September 11th.-To Dr Williams, who did carry me into his garden, where he hath abundance of grapes; and he did show me how a dog that he hath do kill all the cats that come thither to kill his pigeons, and so afterwards bury them; and do it with so much care that they shall be quite covered; that if the tip of the tail hangs out, he will take up the cat again, and dig the hole deeper, which is very strange; and he tells me, that he do believe he hath killed above 100 cats.

35. WESTMINSTER SCHOOL [1661]

SOURCE: Evelyn's Diary. Under date.

1661, May 13.-I heard and saw such exercises at the election of Scholars at Westminster School to be sent to the University, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, in themes and extemporary verses, as wonderfully astonished me in such youths, with such readiness and wit, some of them not above 12 or 18 years of age. Pity it is, that what they attain here so ripely, they either do not retain, or do not improve more considerably when they come to be men, though many of them do; and no less is to be blamed their odd pronouncing of Latin, so that out of England none were able to understand, or endure it. The Examinants, or Posers, were, Dr Duport, Greek Professor at Cambridge; Dr Fell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford; Dr Pierson, Dr Allestree, Dean of Westminster, and any that would.

36. THE ROYAL SOCIETY [1661]

SOURCE: Wallis's Account of Some Passages of his own Life, quoted in Weld's History of the Royal Society, 1848.

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 aggreements, 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 Physick), 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 adjoyning.

Our business was (precluding matters of Theology and state affairs) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto: as physick, anatomy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, staticks, magneticks, chymicks, mechanicks, 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 vena lactea, the lymphatick 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 heavenly 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 imbraced 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.

...

SOURCE: Evelyn's Diary. Under dates.

1661, 6 Jan.-I was now chosen (and nominated by His Majesty for one of the Council) by suffrage of the rest of the members, a Fellow of the Philosophic Society now meeting at Gresham College, where was an assembly of divers learned gentlemen. This being the first meeting since the King's return; but it had been begun some years before at Oxford, and was continued with interruption here in London during the Rebellion.

Feb. 13.-I conducted the Danish Ambassador to our meeting at Gresham College, where were showed him various experiments in vacuo, and other curiosities.

May 14.-His Majesty was pleased to discourse with me concerning several particulars relating to our Society, and the planet Saturn, etc., as he sate at supper in the withdrawing-room to his bed-chamber.

Nov. 20.-At the Royal Society, Sir William Petty proposed divers things for the improvement of shipping; a versatile keel that should be on hinges, and concerning sheathing ships with thin lead.

Dec. 3.-By universal suffrage of our philosophic assembly, an order was made and registered, that I should receive their public thanks for the honourable mention I made of them by the name of Royal Society in my Epistle dedicatory to the Lord Chancellor, before my Traduction of Naudaeus. Too great an honour for a trifle.

1662, May 7.-I waited on Prince Rupert to our Assembly, where were tried several experiments in Mr Boyle's 1 vacuum. A man thrusting in his arm, upon exhaustion of the air, had his flesh immediately swelled so as the blood was near bursting the veins he, drawing it out, we found it all speckled.

August 18.-Our Charter being now passed under the

1 The Hon. Robert Boyle, son of first Earl of Cork. One of the first members of the Society at its institution. These experiments led to 'Boyle's Law."

66

broad Seal, constituting us a Corporation under the name of "The Royal Society for the improvement of natural knowledge by experiment," was this day read, and was all that was done this afternoon, being very large.

21st. I was admitted and then sworn one of the Council of the Royal Society, being nominated in his Majesty's original grant to be of this Council for the regulation of this Society, and making laws and statutes conducible to its establishment and progress, for which we now set apart every Wednesday morning till they were all finished. Lord Viscount Brouncker (that excellent mathematician) was also by his Majesty, our Founder, nominated our first President. The King gave us the armes of England to be borne in a canton in our arms, and sent us a mace of silver gilt of the same fashion and bigness as those carried before his Majesty, to be borne before our President on meeting days. It was brought by Sir Gilbert Talbot, Master of his Majesty's Jewel-house.

29th. The Council and Fellows of the Royal Society went in a body to Whitehall to acknowledge his Majesty's royal grace in granting our Charter, and vouchsafing to be himself our Founder; when the President made an eloquent speech, to which his Majesty gave a gracious reply, and we all kissed his hand.

Next day, we went in like manner with our address to my Lord Chancellor, who had much promoted our patent; he received us with extraordinary favour.

37. GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS [1664]

SOURCE: Pepys's Diary. Under date.

(1) Tennis

1664, Jan. 4.-To the Tennis Court, and there saw the King play at Tennis and others: but to see how the King's play was extolled, without any cause at all, was a loathsome