omnia qua habeam in scientiis laudabilia, quæ puto quam sint exigua, in unum quasi pilulam condensare et coaptare possem, quam vobis lubens afferrem, ut non magis honorificam de meipso sententiam extorqueam, quam ut vobis, quantum potero, prodessem.'[1]
He had now saved about 500l.[2] From 1648 to 1651 he continued to reside at Oxford, occasionally visiting London; and, through the interest of Captain John Graunt, he received the appointment of Professor of 'Music' at Gresham College, which at that time had not yet become the caput mortuum into which it has since degenerated.[3]
'At Oxford,' says Aubrey, 'he was beloved of all ingenious scholars,' his especial allies, besides Dr. Wilkins, Dr. Wallis, and Boyle, being Seth Ward, celebrated afterwards as the energetic but rather peculiar Bishop of Salisbury; Antony Wood, President of Trinity College; Dr. Bathurst, Dr. Goddard, and Mr. Christopher Wren—men of varied tastes and still more various opinions, whom the love of science and original research brought together.[4]
In these stormy times they used, for the convenience of inspecting drugs, to meet at Dr. Petty's lodgings at an apothecary's house, as he was acknowledged to bear away the palm from all competitors in the experimental side of natural philosophy; and also in those of Dr. Wilkins of Wadham,[5] which was 'then the place of resort of virtuous and learned men.' 'The University,' says the earliest historian of the Royal Society, 'had at that time many members of its own, who had begun a free way of reasoning; and was also frequented by some gentlemen of philosophical minds, whom
- ↑ Notes of the Lecture, Petty MSS.; Wood, iv. 215.
- ↑ Reflections, p. 17.
- ↑ See Ward, Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, 1740, p. 218, article 'Petty.'
- ↑ Sprat, History of the Royal Society, p. 55.
- ↑ Birch, History of the Royal Society, i. 2; Life of Boyle, p. 84; Sprat, History of the Royal Society, pp. 53. In his will Sir William Petty, alluding to this period of his life, speaks of his connection with clubs of the 'Virtuosi.' This, in the printed copies, has been transformed into 'virtuous,' and W.L. Bevan observes that the author of the article 'Petty,' in Ersch and Grueber's Encyclopedia, founds on it a statement that Petty took an active part in the religious movements of the time.
