Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/243

Rh the heavenly bodies; and he so nearly discovered the law of gravitation that Newton was obliged to defend his claims before the Royal Society. Even in controversies such as that with Hevelius about an improvement of the telescope, where he had the best of the argument, his unmanly conduct and irascible temper destroyed all the honor he might otherwise have attained.

With a person misshapen and repulsive, with a temper as distorted as the body, miserly in his habits, and morbidly jealous of his co-laborers, Hooke's transcendent mind recalls the fable of the jewel in the frog's brain. Sir T. Molyneux, a contemporary, says, "Hooke is the most ill-natured, conceited man in the world, hated and despised by most of the Royal Society, pretending to have all other inventions, when once discovered by their authors to the world."

An ill-requited life Hooke's must have been to call forth upon his death the declaration that "society has gained more than science has lost."

August, 1663.—Charles II displays his continued interest in the society by presenting the president with the splendid mace, which has been borne, as the insignia of his office, before every president from that date to this. It is of silver, richly carved and gilded, and weighs one hundred and ninety ounces avoirdupois. With the mace is given the privilege of having two sergeants-at-mace, whose duty shall be to wait upon the president. It is borne before the president as he enters to his chair, and is placed before him upon a table during the proceedings of the meeting. When kings, princes of the blood, or distinguished ambassadors from foreign courts desire to visit the society, the president, attended by the mace and the sergeants-at-mace, meets them at the door and escorts them to a seat beside him on the dais. No meeting is legal unless held in the presence of this ensign of authority. The chief decoration of the enchased work of the mace is the thistle, the emblem of St. Andrew, who was the patron saint of the society. The anniversary meetings and election of officers were held upon St. Andrew's day, at which time the Fellows formerly wore a St. Andrew's cross in their hats. It is in the minutes of this year we find the resolution that "the president when in the chair is to be covered, notwithstanding the Fellows of the society be uncovered."

June 28, 1665.—The meetings were discontinued on account of the plague which was at that time devastating England, carrying off, from this date to the end of the year, seventy thousand persons in London alone.

On the 7th of June, 1665, Samuel Pepys for the first time saw two or three houses marked with the red cross and the words "Lord have mercy upon us!" on the doors. On the 4th of