Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/23

24 own invention leads us to suspect that he may have been the person whom Wren accuses of this dishonorable act. From what we know of Petty's insensibility to strict honesty, where he saw any chance of furthering his own interests, we cannot say that he was incapable of such an action.

In 1646, along with Hartlib and Boyle, Petty joined the "London Philosophical Society." This unpretentious club, inaugurated in 1645 by Theodore Haak, was the parent of the Royal Society. The object of the society, which included, besides these already mentioned, the well known names of Drs. Wilkins and Wallis, was the promotion of the study of natural science.

8 Being a man of fortune, he sided with the people then in authority. He went to Oxon when the great rout of loyal scholars was made by the parliamentarian visitors, settled there for some time, followed the faculty of physic, exercised anatomy, and became professor of anatomy. A. Wood, "Athenae Oxonienses", iv, p. 215.

9 An account of this incident is given in a pamphlet entitled "News from the Dead," reprinted by Morgan in the "Phœnix Britannicus," p. 232, ff.

10 Petty had not allowed his interest in the "Philosophical Society" to drop. Some of the original members of the London club, now resident at Oxford,