CORRESPONDANCE. 1670. of any thing in this world, in their hands fooner then in any elfe. Sooner then of thofe into whofe Society hee was here incorporated & from whom hee had received ail demonftrations of a moft affeftionate civilitie becaufe hee jud- ged the Seat of Science to bee fixed there & that the members of it did embrace & promote Philofophy not for intereft, not through ambition or a vanity of ex- celling others not through fancy or a variable curiofity, butt out of naturall prin- ciples of generofity, inclination to Learning & a fincere Refpeft & love for the truth, wich made him Judge that their conflitution would bee therefore more durable becaufe their defignes & aimes were foe honourable & that God al- mighty would give a great ftability & bleffing to their Labours becaufe hee had infpired them with foe Worthy defires. Whereas hee faid hee did forefee the diffolution of this académie becaufe it was mixt with tinftures of Envy becaufe it was fupported upon fuppofitions of profict becaufe it wholly depended upon the Humour of a Prince & the favour of a mi- nifter, either of wich coming toe relent in their Palfions the whole frame & Pro ject of their aftembly cometh to Perdition. There hee proceeded to name feverall of the Royal Society for whom hee expresft a fingular efleeme the Bifhop of Sarif- bury 21 ) Doétor Wren, Mifter Hooke hee termd a man, of a Vaft invention & the Bifhop of Chefter 22 ) of a moft elevated Judgement & a moft profound witt, you Mifter Oldenbourg and ail the whole Society in generall for a moft chear- full & unanimous agreement & harmony in the advancing of knowledge without which hee faid it was impoiïible for the moft felefted body or the moft chofen witts long to fubfift. I lere hee fell into a digreiïion concerning their Judgement about fome things wich hee had written & hee faid you had intimated to him as if one of the Society inhis experiments made about Pendulums had iudged them variable & fubjeâ: to the altérations of Weather 23 ). this Perfon hee conjeftured to bee Mifter Mercator. however,hee faid notwithftanding the great ability & capacity of that Perfon who made thofe experiments hee durft allure him that a Pendulum was a machine the equality of whofe motions one might fafely relye upon & if it did not appeare foe to him the defeft was either in the Artificer who made it or elfe that his Pendulum was without a cyclois wich correfts its anomalies or elfe hee faid hee did not Putt weight enough & that hee repeated againe I believe in England they doe not hang weight enough to their Pendulums & foe the air governes their motions butt the great fecret to mafter the air is to hang weight enough & ufe a cyclois of which the feverall expériences of the Pendulums here in Paris have foe convinced mee that of that I jnake noe longer doubt. This is the fumme of what hee then difcourft& of wich I promifed to bee a moft 2I ) Seth Ward. 23 ) Consultez la Lettre N°. 1794. î2 ) John Wilkins.