Page:William Petty - Economic Writings (1899) vol 1.djvu/29

Rh account of the dispute with Sanchey down to 13 July, 1659 and the succeeding year he followed it up with a volume of nearly two hundred pages describing the work of survey and distribution, answering the charges brought against him, and explaining how they arose "from the envy and hatred of several parties promiscuously" and "from particular designing persons and parties" in Ireland. About October, 1659, he also prepared for the press, at great length, a History of the Down Survey, containing what he regarded as a complete vindication of his conduct, and two further works, now probably lost, upon the same subject.

Among the clubs of the virtuosi to which, as Petty's will relates, it was his privilege to be admitted soon after he came to London, none is more memorable than that company of "capacious and searching spirits inquisitive into natural philosophy and other parts of human knowledge," whose habit it was to meet for discussion either at Dr Goddard's lodgings in Wood Street or at the Bull's Head Tavern in Cheapside. There is no evidence that Petty was an original member of this company. But it appears probable that he was early invited to join their Invisible College, and it is certain that when parliamentary reorganization of the more visible colleges at Oxford brought Goddard, Wallis, Wilkins, and other followers of