I wish to thank the President and Fellows of the Royal Society for permission to quote from manuscripts in their possession. The bulk of the research was done while the author was supported by a Commonwealth Scholarship at University College London. I should also like to thank Prof P. M. Rattansi, Dr G. N. Cantor, C. Gibson-Wood, Dr J. R. Ravetz, and the Journal's editor and referees for their comments on various drafts of this paper, and especially Michael Hunter for his commments and many discussions relating to the role of science in Restoration England.

¹ On this point see Frank, R. G., ‘Institutional structure and scientific activity in the early Royal Society’, in Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of the History of Science (1974), 4 vols., Tokyo, 1975, iv, 83Google Scholar. Although there are other themes of Sprat's History which are significant, I assume in this paper that the methodological theme is basic. Consequently discussion will be confined to the History's description of the method and its apologetic function.

² The question of finance is briefly discussed by Hunter, Michael, ‘The social basis and changing fortunes of an early scientific instutution: an analysis of the membership of the Royal Society, 1660–1685’, Notes and records of the Royal Society, 1976, 31, 9–114 (16–19).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁸ On atheism, materialism, and Hobbesism the best introduction remains Mintz, S. I., The hunting of the Leviathan, Cambridge, 1970Google Scholar; see also Jacob, J. R., ‘Robert Boyle and subversive religion in the early Restoration’, Albion, 1974, 6, 275–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and idem., ‘Boyle's atomism and the Restoration assault on pagan naturalism’, Social studies of science, 1978, 8, 211–33Google Scholar. Redwood, J., Reason, ridicule, and religion: the age of Enlightenment in England 1660–1750, London, 1976Google Scholar, unfortunately goes little beyond previous work.

⁹ Early sermons of South's which attack the new philosophy associated with the Royal Society are to be found in his Sermons preached upon several occasions, new edn., 4 vols., London, 1843, i, 19–33, 204–23.Google Scholar

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¹³ On Wilkins's popularization programme see Aarsleff, Hans's article in The dictionary of scientific biography, 14 vols., New York, 1970–1976, xiv, 364–8Google Scholar; and Shapiro, B. J., John Wilkins 1614–1672: an intellectual biography, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1969, chapter II.Google Scholar

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¹⁵ Lloyd, William, A sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Right Reverend father in God, John Wilkins D. D. late lord Bishop of Chester, at the Guildhall chapel London, on Thursday the 12 December, 1672, 6th edn., London, 1710, p. 28Google Scholar; The mathematical and philosophical works of the Right Rev. John Wilkins, 2 vols., London, 1802, i, viGoogle Scholar; Aubrey, John, Aubrey's brief lives (ed. Dick, O. L.), Harmondsworth, 1976, p. 479Google Scholar; Aarsleff, , op. cit. (13), p. 363Google Scholar. Wilkins's modern biographer also remarks on his social prowess; see Shapiro, , op. cit. (13), pp. 3–4, 23, 24, 150Google Scholar. For Wilkins's theological conception of prudence see McAdoo, , op. cit. (7), pp. 223–7.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Personal reasons would also have played a role. Sprat had been a protégé of Wilkins in Oxford during the 1650s, and both shared the common patronage of the Duke of Buckingham. Wilkins had nominated Sprat for membership of the Society on 1 April 1663, and he was duly elected on the fifteenth of that month; Birch, , op. cit. (12), i, 216, 218Google Scholar. In his DSB article on Sprat. Hans Aarsleff argues that Sprat was, politically speaking, a ‘safer’ choice for official historian than Wilkins, John; Dictionary of scientific biography, 14 vols., New York, 1970–1976, xii, 584Google Scholar. Although this is a widely held view, it seems implausible in that Wilkins had been the dedicatee of royalist pamphlets by Matthew Wren in the late 1650s and had protected the sons of Royalists while Warden of Wadham, while Sprat on the other hand had penned a verse in praise of Cromwell in 1659; see Wren, Matthew, Monarchy asserted, Oxford, 1959Google Scholar, dedication: Pope, , op. cit. (7), pp. 29–30Google Scholar: Waller, Edmund et al. , Three poems upon the death of his late highnesse Oliver Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, London, 1659Google Scholar. Moreover, in 1660 Wilkins had been given Royal preferments in Ripon and York; see Shapiro, , op. cit. (13), pp. 150–1Google Scholar. Wilkins's moderate politics would have been acceptable to all but the most extreme at either end of the spectrum. What the Society needed was a stylist who would appeal to the tastes of the virtuosi they were attempting to secure support from, and as Sprat's History was widely praised for its eloquence and style, it would seem that they were successful in this. See for example Glanvill, Joseph, Plus ultra: or, the progress and advancement of knowledge since the days of Aristotle, London, 1668, p. 84Google Scholar, and Wood, Anthony à, Athenae Oxonienses, 3rd edn., 4 vols., London, 1820, iv, 728Google Scholar. A comment by Wood in his biographical entry on Sprat throws further light on the question of Sprat's political acceptability: he wrote: ‘After the restoration of king Charles II. he [Sprat] turned about with the virtuosi …’; ibid, iv, 727. To a man of High Church sympathies, therefore, Sprat was quite as much a trimming commonwealthman as Wilkins.

¹⁷ Sprat, Thomas, The history of the Royal Society of London, for the improving of natural knowledge (ed. by Cope, J. I. and Jones, H. W.), London, 1959, p. 94Google Scholar. This quotation shows that Sprat himself claimed the role of stylist.

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 251.

¹⁹ Purver, Margery, The Royal Society: concept and creation, London, 1967, p. 11.Google Scholar

²⁰ Webster, Charles, ‘The origins of the Royal Society’, History of science, 1967, 6, 106–128 (111–14)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Dr Webster is virtually alone amongst historians of the early Royal Society in suggesting that methodology fulfilled apologetic and ideological functions; others to have touched on this point include Shapiro, , op. cit. (13), pp. 205–6Google Scholar, Buck, Peter, ‘Order and control: the scientific method in China and the United States’, Social studies of science, 1975, 5, 265–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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²² Sprat, , op. cit. (17), p. 120Google Scholar; Webster, , op. cit. (20), p. 112.Google Scholar

²³ Purver, , op. cit. (19), pp. 14–15Google Scholar. It would appear that Hooke and Brouncker advised Wilkins on the selection of the examples to be included in the History.

²⁴ Wallis, to Moray, , 26 10 1664Google Scholar, Royal Society, Early letters, W. 1. 12.

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²⁶ Ibid., ii, 504, 560.

²⁷ Jones, R. F., op. cit. (10), p. 222Google Scholar; Stimson, Dorothy, Scientists and amateurs: a history of the Royal Society, New York, 1948, pp. 75, 252Google Scholar; Merton, R. K., ‘Puritanism, pietism, and science’, in Russell, C. A. (ed.), Science and religious belief, London, 1973, p. 21Google Scholar; Jacob, J. R., ‘Restoration, reformation, and the origins of the Royal Society’, History of science, 1975, 13, 169CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Jacob cites Purver's work as evidence for his claim that Sprat's History is an authoritative statement of the Society's aims and aspirations without taking into account Webster's criticisms in his review article, op. cit. (20).

²⁸ Hoppen, K. Theodore, ‘The nature of the early Royal Society’, The British journal for the history of science, 1976, 9, 1–24, 243–273CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Webster, Charles, op. cit. (11), pp. 88–99Google Scholar; idem., op. cit. (20), pp. 116–26. For a study of methodology in the early Royal Society see my ‘Francis Bacon and the “Experimental Philosophy”: a study in seventeenth-century methodology’, University of London M Phil dissertation, 1978.

²⁹ Birch, , op. cit. (12), i, 84–5.Google Scholar

³⁰ Sprat, , op. cit. (17), pp. 431–3Google Scholar. On the membership lists see Hunter, , op. cit. (2), pp. 13–14.Google Scholar

³¹ Oldenburg, op. cit. (21), iii, 193Google Scholar. Similar remarks are made in a letter to Sluse, 6 February 1666/7, ibid., iii, 338.

³² Birch, , op. cit. (12), ii, 249Google Scholar; I should like to thank Michael Hunter for this reference. On the plans for a college see Hunter, , op. cit. (2), appendix IIGoogle Scholar. Oldenburg attempted to gain the esteem and support of foreign dignitaries by sending them copies of the History; Oldenburg, op. cit. (21), iii, 618Google Scholar; iv, 119, 538.

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³⁴ Ibid., pp. 84–6, 91.

³⁵ Ibid., pp. 99; cf. pp. 83, 215.

³⁶ The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle (ed. by Birch, Thomas), 2nd edn., 6 vols., London, 1772, i, 343, 345.Google Scholar

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³⁸ Ibid., pp. 244–5.

³⁹ Ibid., p. 89. Francis Bacon was the first to put forward this view; The works of Francis Bacon (ed. by Spedding, J., Ellis, R. I., and Heath, D. D.), new edn., 14 vols., London, 1870–1874, iv, 413–17.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Sprat, , op. cit. (17), p. 115Google Scholar. Despite Sprat's remarks to the contrary, the Society did make some efforts to keep its registers in order; see Royal Society, Council book (copy), 44Google Scholar. The Oxford group had attempted to do the same; see Robinson, H. W., ‘An unpublished letter of Dr. Seth Ward relating to the early meetings of the Oxford Philosophical Society’, Notes and records of the Royal Society, 1949–1950, 7, 68–70 (69).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁴² Ibid., p. 175. A comparison of the published and the manuscript version of Hooke's ‘Method’, which Cope and Jones included in the History as appendix C, reveals that Hooke's MS stated the aim of ‘raising axions’ more clearly than the published version. This raises the question as to whether Hooke's manuscript was edited to suit the tenor of the History.

⁴³ Ibid. p. 176.

⁴⁴ On this point see Houghton, Walter E. Jr, ‘The history of trades: its relation to seventeenth-century thought, as seen in Bacon, Petty, Evelyn, and Boyle’, The journal of the history of ideas, 1941, 2, 33–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar (34–8). Houghton rightly points to Boyle's perception of the philosophical significance of the programme for the history of trades in contrast to Evelyn and Sprat. However, Petty's utilitarianism is exaggerated at the expense of his philosophical interests.

⁴⁵ In The posthumous works of Robert Hooke (ed. by Waller, Richard), London, 1705, pp. 3–70Google Scholar. See also the related manuscript on natural histories in the Royal Society, Classified papers 1667–1740, xx. 50aGoogle Scholar. Mary Hesse dates the ‘General scheme’ as being from 1666; ‘Hooke's philosophical algebra’, Isis, 1966, 57, 67–83 (68)Google Scholar. However, 1665 seems equally plausible since much of the material included is closely related to Hooke's work on comets carried out in the winter of 1664–5, and to his discourse on the nature of fire read before the Royal Society on 18 January 1665. His phraseology, esp. p. 47, suggests that the ‘General scheme’ may have been composed soon after this date. Moreover, in January 1665/6 Oldenburg was writing to Boyle of a completed work by Hooke on the method of natural histories, although this may refer to the Royal Society MS; Oldenburg, op. cit. (21), iii, 32–3Google Scholar. During the winter of 1665–6 Oldenburg, with the help of Boyle, was busy publicizing the natural history programme in the Philosophical transactions; Oldenburg, ibid., iii, 65, 68, and Philosophical transactions, 1665–1667, 1, 186.Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ Ibid., p. 26.

⁵⁰ Oldenburg, op. cit. (21), i, 432Google Scholar. Thus Boyle, Hooke, Oldenburg, and Petty held similar views concerning natural histories in general, and the history of trades programme in particular.

⁵¹ While Hooke demanded philosophical sophistication of his historian, Sprat made virtually no demands at all. For a more detailed discussion of Hooke's prescriptions see Wood, , op. cit. (28), pp. 216–23.Google Scholar

⁵² Sprat, , op. cit. (17), fols, B^r, B2^rGoogle Scholar. Compare Glanvill, Joseph, Scepsis scientifica. London, 1665, pp. 1–8Google Scholar. This is a considerably more restrained version of his speculations in The vanity of dogmatizing, London, 1661Google Scholar, ‘Preface’ and pp. 1–16. Bacon had earlier developed this point in detail; Wood, , op. cit. (28), pp. 9–39.Google Scholar

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⁵⁷ Ibid., pp. 102–4.

⁵⁸ Ibid., pp. 104–5.

⁵⁹ Hunter, , Science and society, op. cit. (10), chapter VIIGoogle Scholar. For other discussions by historians of literature of scpeticism in the Restoration see Bredvold, Louis I., The intellectual milieu of John Dryden: studies in some aspects of seventeenth-century thought, Ann Arbor, 1934Google Scholar, passim; Harth, P., Contexts of Dryden's thought, Chicago & London, 1968Google Scholar, esp. chapter I; Cope, J. I., Joseph Glanvill: Anglican apologist, St Louis, 1956, chapter V.Google Scholar

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⁷⁹ Ibid., p. 356. Boyle held a similar view; Jacob, J. R., ‘The ideological origins of Robert Boyle's natural philosophy’, Journal of European studies, 1972, 2, 1–21 (12–21).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁸¹ Ibid., pp. 370, 374. While my discussion in what follows concentrates on the problems of enthusiasm and atheism, it should be noted that the experimental method was portrayed as a weapon equally effective against Catholicism. On the role of Catholicism in the politics of the Restoration see Miller, J., Popery and politics in England 1660–1688, Cambridge, 1973CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially chapter V, and Kenyon, J., The Popish Plot, London, 1972Google Scholar, chapter I. As Miller points out, Catholicism became a live political issue only in 1673, once james's conversion was widely known.

⁸² Ibid., pp. 352–3. Sprat's empiricist portrayal of Christ contrasts with Sir Thomas Browne's rationalist view that Christ had appealed to man's reason rather than to his senses; The works of Sir Thomas Browne (ed. by SirKeynes, Geoffrey), new edn., 4 vols., London, 1964, ii, 28Google Scholar. Sprat's portrayal thus reflects his own epistemological and methodological bias, as did Browne's.

⁸³ Ibid., pp. 111, 366–7.

⁸⁴ Ibid., p. 366, for an explicit discussion of this point.

⁸⁵ Ibid., pp. 349–50.

⁸⁶ Ibid., pp. 348–9.

⁸⁷ Westfall discusses this use of natural theology in his Science and religion, op. cit. (70), chapter V.Google Scholar

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⁹³ Ibid., p. 362. The limiting of the miraculous could be used against Catholicism as well.

⁹⁴ Ibid., pp. 364–5.

⁹⁵ Ibid., p. 362. The prophecies concerning the year 1666 have been discussed by Hooker, E. N., ‘The purpose of Dryden's Annus Mirabilis’, Huntingdon Library quarterly, 1946–1947, 10, 49–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar (esp. 51–62), and McKeon, M.Politics and poetry in Restoration England: the case of Dryden's Annus mirabilis, Cambridge Mass. & London, 1975, chapters II and VI.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁹⁸ Debus, , op. cit. (97), p. 197Google Scholar; my italics.

⁹⁹ Ibid., pp. 199, 240.

¹⁰⁰ Boyle too drew this type of contrast; Jacob, , ‘Ideological origins’, op. cit. (79), pp. 13–16.Google Scholar

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¹⁰² Ibid., p. 355.

¹⁰³ Ibid., p. 344.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., p. 33.

¹⁰⁵ Ibid., p. 376. Scholasticism was also seen in the History as ultimately leading to practical atheism.

¹⁰⁶ For Wilkins's position see McAdoo, , Spirit, op. cit. (7), pp. 217–26.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁸ Ibid., pp. 341–2, 367; these terms were used to describe Laurence Rooke and Christopher Wren, pp. 189, 317.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., pp. 341–2.

¹¹⁰ Ibid., pp. 346–7. This move was characteristic of moderate theologians such as John Dury, the Cambridge Platonists, and the Latitudinarians.

¹¹¹ Ibid., pp. 427–30. Oldenburg had come to the same conclusion in the 1650s; Oldenburg, op. cit. (21), i, 90–1, 95, 100–1, 113–14Google Scholar. Glanvill, too, believed that the spirit of dogmatism common to the enthusiast and scholastic led to spiritual and civil disorder; Glanvill, , Plus ultra, op. cit. (16), pp. 148–9Google Scholar, and Loyal tear, op. cit. (72), passim.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁷ The broader aims of some of the early Fellows are discussed by Jacob, , ‘Restoration’, op. cit. (27), passim.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Hunter, , ‘Social basis’, op. cit, (2), p. 37Google Scholar; idem., Science and society, op. cit. (10), chapter III.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ The classic study of the virtuosi is Houghton, , ‘English virtuosi’, op. cit. (14)Google Scholar, which perhaps underestimates their utilitarian interests. On some of the more bizarre curiosities in the Society's museum see Hoppen, K. Theodore, op. cit. (28), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

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¹²³ Gunther, R. T. (ed.), Early science in Oxford, 14 vols., Oxford, 1923–1945, vi, 182–3, 223Google Scholar. In describing Hooke's preface as ‘official’, I mean no more than that it performed apologetic functions similar to those of the History.

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