[1170] Cp. Carrel, Contre-Révolution, p. 212, as to the "profound discouragement" that had fallen on the people in 1685. Cp. p. 213.
[1171] "Our late Warrs and Schisms having almost wholly discouraged men from the study of Theologie." W. Charleton, The Immortality of the Human Soul demonstrated by the Light of Nature, 1657, p. 50. (Cp. Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, 1656; ed. 1835, pp. 95-100.) Charleston, as his title and that of his previous work on Atheism show, uses no ecclesiastical arguments.
[1172] The French Academy, formally founded in 1635, had in a similar way originated in a private gathering some six years before (Olivet et Pelisson, Relation concernant l'Histoire de l'Académie Françoise, ed. 1672, p. 5). There may of course have been many such private groups in England in the period of the Commonwealth.
[1173] History of the Royal Society, 1667, p. 53.
[1174] P. 67. Sprat mentions that many physicians gave great help (p. 130).
[1175] P. 53.
[1176] History of the Royal Society, 1667, p. 83. The French beaux esprits were not afraid to discuss now and then the soul, or even God, contriving to do it without theological heat. See the Collection cited, Conferences 6, 16, 79, 87, 142, etc.
[1177] History, p. 73.
[1178] P. 91.
[1179] P. 53.