STATE OF ENGLAND IN 1685 .
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task, and, before a quarter of a century liad expired, they hadgiven ample earnest of what has since been achieved. Already -a reform of agriculture had been commenced. New vegetableswere cultivated. New implements of husbandry were em-ployed. New manures were applied to the soil. * Evelyn had,under the formal sanction of the Royal Society, given in-struction to his countrymen in planting. Temple, in his inter-vals of leisure, had tried many experiments in horticulture, andhad proved that many delicate fruits, the natives of morefavoured climates, might, with the help of art, be grown onEnglish ground. Medicine, which in France was still in abjectbondage, and afforded an inexhaustible subj ect of just ridiculeto Moliere, had in England become an experimental and pro-gressive science, and every day made some new advance, indefiance of Hippocrates and Galen. The attention of specu-lative men had been, for the first time, directed to the impor-tant subject of sanitary police. The great plague of 1665 in-duced them to consider with care the defective architecture,draining, and ventilation of the capital. The great fire of1666 afforded an opportunity for effecting extensive improve-ments. The whole matter was diligently examined by theRoyal Society; and to the suggestions of that body must bepartly attributed the changes which, though far short of whatthe public welfare required, yet made a wide difference be-tween the new and the old London, and probably put a finalclose to the ravages of pestilence in our country.** At the sametime one of the founders of the society, Sir William Petty,created the science of political arithmetic, the humble but in-dispensable handmaid of political philosophy. No kingdom ofnature was left unexplored. To that period belong the che-
* The eagerness with which the agriculturists of that age tried expe-riments and introduced improvements, is well described by Aubrey,Natural History of Wiltshire, 1685.
** Sprat’s History of the Royal Society.
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