Of the local movement of animals: The Wilkins Lecture, 1979

Abstract

In this lecture dedicated to the memory of the Right Reverend John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, and one of the founding Fellows of the Royal Society, it is, I think, not entirely inappropriate to speak of the work of William Harvey, for in many ways the two men seem to have been alike. It is unlikely that they knew each other for they belonged to different generations (Harvey was 36 when Wilkins was born), and they were on opposite sides in the Civil War. But Wilkins was known for his tolerance and Harvey was ‘far from bigotry’, and neither of them was unmannerly or censorious. Wilkins was greatly esteemed as a person endowed with rare gifts, a lover of mankind and one who had delight in doing good. Harvey ‘excelled in civility towards his fellows, in constancy towards his friends, in justice towards all’ (1). They were both great observers of natural things. Both honoured Aristotle, but both were prepared to disagree with him when observation proved his statements incorrect. Both believed that experientia , personal experience, is the only way to acquire knowledge and both deplored the laziness of those who were content to accept the opinions of the past rather than seek out the truth by the interrogation of Nature herself, as if all knowledge had been revealed to the Ancients and no secrets were left undisclosed. Both were possessed of a restless desire to investigate these secrets and both brought imagination and a capacity for logical argument to the understanding and interpretation of their observations. Because this attitude of mind, so clearly demonstrated in Harvey’s own works, was the ideal of the Royal Society, it is, I think, permissible to suggest that Harvey’s example was in no small measure the source of its inspiration. Of those six ‘worthy Persons, inquisitive into Natural Philosophy and other parts of Humane Learning’, who first met in 1645 to pursue all manner of ‘Philosophical Inquiries’ (2), only John Wilkins cannot be directly linked with Harvey.