Saturday 30 November 1667
Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and then by coach to Arundel House, to the election of Officers for the next year; where I was near being chosen of the Council, but am glad I was not, for I could not have attended, though, above all things, I could wish it; and do take it as a mighty respect to have been named there. The company great, and the elections long, and then to Cary House, a house now of entertainment, next my Lord Ashly’s; and there, where I have heretofore heard Common Prayer in the time of Dr. Mossum, we after two hours’ stay, sitting at the table with our napkins open, had our dinners brought, but badly done. But here was good company. I choosing to sit next Dr. Wilkins, Sir George Ent, and others whom I value, there talked of several things. Among others Dr. Wilkins, talking of the universal speech, of which he hath a book coming out, did first inform me how man was certainly made for society, he being of all creatures the least armed for defence, and of all creatures in the world the young ones are not able to do anything to help themselves, nor can find the dug without being put to it, but would die if the mother did not help it; and, he says, were it not for speech man would be a very mean creature. Much of this good discourse we had. But here, above all, I was pleased to see the person who had his blood taken out. He speaks well, and did this day give the Society a relation thereof in Latin, saying that he finds himself much better since, and as a new man, but he is cracked a little in his head, though he speaks very reasonably, and very well. He had but 20s. for his suffering it, and is to have the same again tried upon him: the first sound man that ever had it tried on him in England, and but one that we hear of in France, which was a porter hired by the virtuosos. Here all the afternoon till within night. Then I took coach and to the Exchange, where I was to meet my wife, but she was gone home, and so I to Westminster Hall, and there took a turn or two, but meeting with nobody to discourse with, returned to Cary House, and there stayed and saw a pretty deception of the sight by a glass with water poured into it, with a stick standing up with three balls of wax upon it, one distant from the other. How these balls did seem double and disappear one after another, mighty pretty! Here Mr. Carcasse did come to me, and brought first Mr. Colwall, our Treasurer, and then Dr. Wilkins to engage me to be his friend, and himself asking forgiveness and desiring my friendship, saying that the Council have now ordered him to be free to return to the Office to be employed. I promised him my friendship, and am glad of this occasion, having desired it; for there is nobody’s ill tongue that I fear like his, being a malicious and cunning bold fellow. Thence, paying our shot, 6s. apiece, I home, and there to the office and wrote my letters, and then home, my eyes very sore with yesterday’s work, and so home and tried to make a piece by my eare and viall to “I wonder what the grave,” &c., and so to supper and to bed, where frighted a good while and my wife again with noises, and my wife did rise twice, but I think it was Sir John Minnes’s people again late cleaning their house, for it was past 1 o’clock in the morning before we could fall to sleep, and so slept. But I perceive well what the care of money and treasure in a man’s house is to a man that fears to lose it.
My Lord Anglesey told me this day that he did believe the House of Commons would, the next week, yield to the Lords; but, speaking with others this day, they conclude they will not, but that rather the King will accommodate it by committing my Lord Clarendon himself. I remember what Mr. Evelyn said, that he did believe we should soon see ourselves fall into a Commonwealth again. Joseph Williamson I find mighty kind still, but close, not daring to say anything almost that touches upon news or state of affairs.
28 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online
Nou: 30. 1667. Election day. [ for the 21-member council and 4 officers of the Royal Society, 59 fellows being present ]
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…
Terry Foreman • Link
"[A transfusion] we hear of in France...."
"This was upon an unusually strong, healthy man of forty-five, whose occupation was carrying sedan chairs, which explains Pepys' comment about 'a porter hired by the virtuosos,' though Pepys was wrong in thinking this the only human transfusion before Coga's."
-- Marjorie Hope Nicolson, *Pepys' Diary and the New Science*, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1965, p. 86.
Robert Gertz • Link
"I choosing to sit next Dr. Wilkins, Sir George Ent, and others whom I value, there talked of several things."
"The time has come, dear friend Pepys...To talk of many things. Poor provisioned ships and much overpriced shoes..." Wilkins notes pleasantly.
"Inferior wax." Sir George...
"Cabbage for rationings." other.
"You're under arrest for profiteering on our Tangier garrison, Samuel Pepys."
Robert Gertz • Link
"...and of all creatures in the world the young ones are not able to do anything to help themselves..."
A point still much used today in discussion of human development and evolution of human cognition and behavior. Tip of the hat to the admirable Dr.
Robert Gertz • Link
"But here, above all, I was pleased to see the person who had his blood taken out. He speaks well, and did this day give the Society a relation thereof in Latin, saying that he finds himself much better since, and as a new man, but he is cracked a little in his head, though he speaks very reasonably, and very well. He had but 20s. for his suffering it, and is to have the same again tried upon him..."
Well, when one considers what we pay some research volunteers in Boston, Massachusetts and Augusta, Georgia, at least nowadays for swallowing test drugs...
Guy sounds a little like Dracula's Renfield when he was trying to fool Seward and co in the madhouse. One wonders in what way Sam found him "cracked a little in his head"? I mean besides being willing to undergo it again...
"Be guided by what Hooke says." pull at nervous Sam's arm. "It's your only hope. It's her...Only hope."
"Right...Thank ye, sir."
"And a stake through me Lord Buckingham's foul vampiral heart couldn't hurt, sir."
"Yes...Well, I'll consider that, sir. Thanks. Hewer? I think we should be going now."
Todd Bernhardt • Link
Phil, I'm thinking that the link to "Officers" in the second line above should be to the Royal Society...?
Paul Chapin • Link
I agree with Todd. The Officers of the Navy Board were not subject to election. And Terry Foreman's post (first one above) confirms that the Royal Society met this day in Arundel House for the election of officers.
Terry Foreman • Link
Letters from London - Date: 30 November 1667
Conway to Ormond
Has received his Grace's letter of the 12th inst, & has shewn it to his, the writer's, brother [in law] [Heneage Finch] who conceives the quartering of soldiers in Ireland to be contrary to the Irish Statute, 18 Hen VI, and to be "a treason, triable in England". ... His reasons seemed to the writer very weighty & clear. ... His Grace will receive them, "better enlarged", under his, Finch's, own hand. "If this be law", adds the writer, then no such allegation [so in MS.] will be sufficient to remand the Lord Lieutenant from Ireland [in MS.: "from that country"], where, the writer believes, his Grace "will think it prudent to continue in this turbulent season". ...
... Adds an account of the proceedings against Lord Clarendon. ...
_____
Conway to Ormond
Since the writing of the letter [calendared above] Lord Ossory has honoured the writer with his Grace's of the 22nd. ... It will be found that the quartering ... contrary to 18 Hen VI was charged on Lord Strafford.
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom… ]
The proof will be seen in St John's 'Argument' [ http://is.gd/hYEWMhttp://is.gd/hY… ], now lent to Ossory, for his Grace's perusal.
_____
Ossory to Ormond
Has received the Duke's letter of November 22nd, together with the enclosure for Lord Conway [in MS.: "Conoway"], who thinks, adds the writer, that he has found out something new upon [the law concerning] the quartering of soldiers. [The expressions here are somewhat obscure, but there seems to be a reference to what passed in Parliament, upon the bringing of a like charge against Strafford.]
It will deserve to be considered whether the calling of a Parliament, or the obtaining of a General Pardon, be expedient; or both measures conjointly.
http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…
Phil Gyford • Link
Todd, Paul, yes the "Officers" are of the Royal Society, sorry - I've removed the link to the Navy Officers.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Here Mr. Carcasse did come to me, and brought first Mr. Colwall, our Treasurer, and then Dr. Wilkins to engage me to be his friend, and himself asking forgiveness and desiring my friendship, saying that the Council have now ordered him to be free to return to the Office to be employed. I promised him my friendship, and am glad of this occasion, having desired it; for there is nobody’s ill tongue that I fear like his, being a malicious and cunning bold fellow."
A curious outcome...
Ruben • Link
Mr. Carcasse's "friendship"
Mr. Pepys never read Sun Tzu, but he could have used his words (translated from a translation of a translation) "Have your friends near you, but your enemies nearer yet".
A Spanish proverb says that "Dios me libre de mis amigos, que de mis enemigos yo me ocupo".
"God rid me from friends, that I will take care of my enemies".
language hat • Link
"Dr. Wilkins, talking of the universal speech, of which he hath a book coming out"
Wilkins's Philosophical Language is a fascinating subject, and I heartily recommend In the Land of Invented Languages, by Arika Okrent, which I reviewed here:
http://www.languagehat.com/archiv…
Okrent not only studied it in detail, she translated a Borges passage into it ("I hereby present you with, as far as I know, the first sentences to be written in Wilkins's language in over three hundred years").
Terry Foreman • Link
language hat, a worthy recommendation. Thanks. I thought of Leibniz' 1666 De Arte Combinatoria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_A… and Characteristica universalis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char… The 17th was a century of attempts to work this way, inspired by a certain (mis)understanding of Chinese characters.
Okrent's first section is entitled "John Wilkins and the Language of Truth." Scrolling down from the first pages of Okrent and reminders of earlier ventures at invention -- thanks to Amazon.com's reader -- http://www.amazon.com/Land-Invent… -- introduced me to a sometime Oxford collaborator of Wilkins', the Scottish George Dalgarno, whose language for the deaf is still used in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geor…
A critic of the Brits, Leibniz was not as much interested in devising a "practical" language as one that was precise for scientific use.
JWB • Link
One aspect of Gödel's dimentia at Princeton was a belief that there was a vast academic conspiracy to censor Leibniz's rational language.
Glyn • Link
"Cary House" = "Canary House", a kind of 17th century night club. I've put an extract about it onto its webpage.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"I was near being chosen of the [Royal Society] Council, but am glad I was not, for I could not have attended, though, above all things, I could wish it; and do take it as a mighty respect to have been named there."
L&M note Pepys had also been nominated in April 1666, and had then received only three votes. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
The ten now elected included his ex-colleague, John Creed, re-elected from the previous year, whose success Pepys omits to record -- he disliked him -- on both occasions. Birch, ii,. 219. Pepys ultimately became a councillor in 1672, and served several times thereafter.
Terry Foreman • Link
I had to look up these unfamiliar uses to make sure of what I guessed:
dug
"nor can [human young] find the dug without being put to it"
the nipple, teat, udder, or breast of a female mammal
shot
"paying our shot, 6s. apiece"
share of the cost of a meal or entertainment
Terry Foreman • Link
"to Cary House, and there stayed and saw a pretty deception of the sight"
For the study of refraction at this time L&M refer us to Early science in Oxford, vol. I, pts ii-iv. by Gunther, R. T. https://archive.org/details/early…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Mr. Carcasse did come to me, and brought first Mr. Colwall, our Treasurer, and then Dr. Wilkins to engage me to be his friend, and himself asking forgiveness and desiring my friendship, saying that the Council have now ordered him to be free to return to the Office to be employed."
For Carkesse' employment status see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
L&)M note Carkesse was a fellow of the Royal Society. The report of the Privy Council committee investigating him does not appear to have been presented until 3 January 1668: 'The proofes are not sufficient to render him so criminall as to be unfit for Imployment, when he shall other wise be thought fitt' (PRO, PC 2/60, p.110). He was later reinstated at the request of several M.P.'s who undertook for his good behaviour: PL 2874. p. 471.
Terry Foreman • Link
"tried to make a piece by my eare and viall to “I wonder what the grave,” &c."
Cowley's lyric, 'resolved to love' was first published in The Mistress (1647).
https://books.google.com/books?id…
Pepys's setting has not survived. (L&M note)
Terry Foreman • Link
"I remember what Mr. Evelyn said, that he did believe we should soon see ourselves fall into a Commonwealth again. "
L&M note Evelyn nowhere in his own diary admits to this remark. Cf. similar prophecies by others in August:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"The company great, and the elections long, and then to Cary House, a house now of entertainment, next my Lord Ashly’s; and there, where I have heretofore heard Common Prayer in the time of Dr. Mossum,"
L&M: Dr Robert Mossom (now Bishop of Derry) had conducted illegal Anglican services there at the end of the Interregnum. Cary House was on the s. side of the Strand to the east of the Savoy Palace.
Terry Foreman • Link
"But here was good company. I choosing to sit next Dr. Wilkins, Sir George Ent, and others whom I value,"
L&M: Wilkins (one of the principal founders of the Royal Society) was a mathematician; Ent a physiologist.
Terry Foreman • Link
"the first sound man that ever had it tried on him in England, and but one that we hear of in France, which was a porter hired by the virtuosos."
L&M: The French experiment was made in Paris bt Jean Denys on a madma a few months earlier: Boyle, Works (1744), v. 377, 379; Gunther, iii. 107. The Royal Society experiment appears to have been the first transfusion conducted on a human being in England. According to the minutes of the Society, the official report on it was made on 28 November: Birch, ii. 236. It had been conducted by Drs King and Lower on the 23rd , and was repeated on 12 December. Lower had in 1665 experimented on an animal: Gunther, ll. 130-2. See Birch, ii. 215; Philos. Trans. no. 30, 9 December 1667; Boyle, ii. 557+, , v. 638. For the history of tranfusion, see Gunther, iii. 127; Sir G. Keynes (ed.), Blood Transfusion, pp. pp. 1-40; M. H. Nicholson, Pepys diary and the new science, pp. 55+; illust. (1672) in G. Bankoff, Story of surgery, opp. p. 128.
Terry Foreman • Link
"returned to Cary House, and there stayed and saw a pretty deception of the sight by a glass with water poured into it, with a stick standing up with three balls of wax upon it, one distant from the other. How these balls did seem double and disappear one after another, mighty pretty! "
L&M: For the study of refraction at this time , see Gunther, vol. i. pts, iii-iv,
Terry Foreman • Link
" Joseph Williamson I find mighty kind still, but close, not daring to say anything almost that touches upon news or state of affairs."
L&M: Williamson was Secretary yo Aelington, whose political security was in jeopardy in this crisis,
Terry Foreman • Link
" Joseph Williamson I find mighty kind still, but close, not daring to say anything almost that touches upon news or state of affairs."
L&M: Williamson was Secretary to Arlington, whose political security was in jeopardy in this crisis.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Williamson was Secretary to Arlington, whose political security was in jeopardy in this crisis."
I should think so. All year I have been wondering at the lack of actionable intelligence, or the wanton ignoring of the intelligence. Pepys was reporting that the Dutch were off the coast, but Charles never alerted his volunteers to round up their usual suspects and prepare to repel the invaders, or recalled his available ships which he had stationed in Southampton, Portsmouth, Hull, Leith, etc.
The debacle at Chatham squarely falls on Secretary of State Henry Bennet, Lord Arlington in my book.
(It must be the King's bad councilors again! Sound familiar?)
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection)
6.6.1667 (Thursday 6 June 1667)
document 70015520
June. 6 the Dutch on Harwich coast. Thursday –
June. 12. Wednesday. they attempt Chatham river to destroy our great ships with success and continued their pleasure.
June. 27. they came up near Gravesend, they put a stop to all trade, and forced us to defend the whole shore. to our charge and amazement.