so narrow a compass, than an united, constant, or regular inquisition."
They were probably "clubbable" persons, friends with a common interest,
each pursuing his own path with perfect freedom, a method which must
have enhanced the harmony and efficiency of their meetings. The Club, or
a branch of it, survived at Oxford the departure of Wilkins and most of
the philosophers. To Robert Boyle was mainly due the continuance of the
faithful remnant. In the year 1659 he imported into Oxford Peter
Sthael, a noted Chemist and Rosicrucian, "a great hater of women and a
very useful man." Among those who attended his lectures were Antony
Wood, Wallis, Wren, Bathurst, and, not least, Locke, who was
troublesome, and "scorned to take notes"--why we are not told, and may
imagine as we please. Wood's account of this survival is obscure--he
seems uncertain as to the relation of Sthael's pupils to the Royal
Society at Oxford: they were probably the same, and incurred the wrath
and misrepresentations of Henry Stubb, who inveighed against them as
dangerous,--the Society had become obnoxious to the University, being
suspected of a desire to confer degrees, against which the University
"stuck," to use Wood's word, not unreasonably.

The Oxford meetings in Wilkins' time, after 1651, were held, not in the
room over the gateway, but in the dining-room or drawing-room of the
Warden's lodgings. By the direction of the Foundress "the chamber over
the great gate" had been assigned to the Warden, as commanding the
entrance into the College, and a view of all who should go in or out: he
was to have also for his own use seven rooms next adjoining on the north
side. It is uncertain at what date he migrated to his present lodgings,
but there is abundant evidence to show that it was before the time of
Wilkins, for from 1640 to 1663 the great chamber was occupied by various
tenants,--among them Seth Ward and Christopher Wren. The writer is
therefore warranted in picturing to the eye of his imagination the
personages of the club assembled in his drawing-room, a club less
famous, but no less worthy of fame, than the Literary Club of Johnson,
Goldsmith, Burke, and Reynolds.

[Illustration: SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.]

Fain would he ask questions of Wren or Ward or Wilkins, or any of the
members of the club, most of whom he would recognise by their portraits
in the College or elsewhere.

On September 3, 1658, Oliver Cromwell died. To Wood the exact date is
i