File:Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren. From a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller.jpg

Identifier: harpersnew0109various (find matches)
Title: Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 109 June to November 1904
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: various
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Publisher: New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University-Idaho, David O. McKay Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University-Idaho

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es. Such was thecharacter of the extraordinary man whopresented himself, like an atom of con-suming radium, in the midst of the littlecircle of Invisible Philosophers. In 1049 the Invisibles underwent animportant transforma-tion. So many of themwere now engaged atOxford that it was de-termined to try the dan-gerous experiment of re-moving the society to thatuniversity. It mighthave been fatal to it; asa matter of fact, it gaveit new vitality. Dr.Petty, the young politi-cal economist, afterwardsso widely known as SirWilliam Petty, welcomedthe philosophers with en-thusiasm, and offeredthem hospitality. Theymet in his rooms overan apothecarys shop,where they could con-veniently inspect drugsand the like. Al-most immediately Pettywas made a fellow ofBrasenose, and the In-visibles met in his roomsin college until 1652,when Petty was sent toIreland as physician tothe army. Wilkins theninvited them to meet inthe lodge of WadhamCollege, of which he wasthe master, and now be-gan the most pros-
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Portrait of Sir Christopher WrenFrom a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller perous era of their existence. Onegathers that, for all their modesty,they found it impossible any longer tobe quite as invisible as they proposedto be. Anything in the nature of bio-logical or experimental philosophy hadup to that date been entirely unknownat Oxford, and the rumor of these meet-ings created no small sensation. It attracted to them some of the mostillustrious men of the day, amongst othersSeth Ward, the mathematician, after-wards Bishop of Salisbury, and tbephysician Thomas Willis, to whom is at-tributed the motto, notable enough inthose wild times of prejudice, that learn-ing is of no party. But most activeof all, except the indomitable RobertBoyle, was a youth of twenty, namedChristopher Wren, who was a gentleman- commoner of Wadham, and who was al-ready famous in the university for hisgeometrical genius. He did not as yetshow any of that disposition to archi-tecture which was to make him, as Sir

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