Towards a history of the Royal Society in the eighteenth century

Abstract

A long-standing impression persists among scholars - with a few exceptions - that the Royal Society of London was in decline during the eighteenth century. This misperception has stemmed from four major sources: from the often-stated belief that the Society failed to follow the illustrious example that its greatest Fellow, Sir Isaac Newton, had set in the Principia ; from the negative opinions, repeatedly quoted, of several literary lions of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; from the continued popularity of Babbage’s Reflections on the Decline of Science in England , published in 1830, which has cast a pall over the reputation of the Society in the eighteenth century ever since; and from the intensive study devoted to the Society’s early years, which has overshadowed later periods.