He was even
better known to the "philosophers" as the inventor of a universal
language and as curious for every advance in Natural Science. But, in
our day, he is only remembered for his connection with the Royal
Society; that most illustrious body grew out of the meetings held
weekly at his Lodgings and the similar meetings held in London; when
later these two movements were united, Wilkins was secretary of the
committee which drew up the rules for their future organization, and
thus prepared the way for the Royal Charter, given to the Society in
1662. When the Royal Society celebrated its 250th anniversary in
1912, many of its members made a pilgrimage to "its cradle" (or what
was, at any rate, "/one/ of its cradles").
Wadham also produced, among other early members of the Royal Society,
its historian, Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, who somehow, as
"Pindaric Sprat" (he was the friend and also the editor of /Abraham
Cowley/), found his way into Johnson's /Lives of the Poets/; he is,
however, more likely to be remembered because his subserviency, when
he was Dean of Westminster to James II, has earned him an unenviable
place in Macaulay's gallery of Revolution worthies and unworthies.
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