The Idea of Progress

, describes how "dreams of perfect forms of government made way for dreams of wings with which men were to fly from the Tower to the Abbey, and of double-keeled ships which

it was given to him by those who founded and acclaimed the Royal Society. The ode which Cowley addressed to that institution might have been entitled an ode in

oke that sca

t, the defeat of the Dutch and England's mastery of the seas, to pay a c

s shall sail to

otest region

one city of

gain and all

r globe's last

ocean leani

rolling neighbou

unar world s

mpose a universal language (Sprat, Hist. of Royal Society, p. 251). His Mercury or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641) contains proposals for a universal script (chap. 13). There is also an ingenious suggestion for the c

the absolute perfection of the true philosophy" is not far off, seeing that "this first great and necessary preparation for its coming"-the institution of scientific co-operation-has been ac