different atmosphere. It was published in 1668, and its purpose was
to defend the recently founded Royal Society which was attacked on
the ground that it was inimical to the interests of religion and
sound learning. For the Aristotelian tradition was still strongly
entrenched in the English Church and Universities, notwithstanding
the influence of Bacon; and the Royal Society, which realised "the
romantic model" of Bacon's society of experimenters, repudiated the
scholastic principles and methods associated with Aristotle's name.

Glanvill was one of those latitudinarian clergymen, so common in the
Anglican Church in the seventeenth century, who were convinced that
religious faith must accord with reason, and were unwilling to abate
in its favour any of reason's claims. He was under the influence of
Bacon, Descartes, and the Cambridge Platonists, and no one was more
enthusiastic than he in following the new scientific discoveries of
his time. Unfortunately for his reputation he had a weak side.
Enlightened though he was, he was a firm believer in witchcraft, and
he is chiefly remembered not as an admirer of Descartes and Bacon,
and a champion of the Royal Society, but as the author of Saducismus
Triumphatus, a monument of superstition, which probably contributed
to check the gradual growth of disbelief in witches and apparitions.

His Plus ultra is a review of modern improvements of useful
knowledge. It is confined to mathematics and science, in accordance
with its purpose of justifying the Royal Society; and the
discoveries of the past sixty years enable the author to present a
far more imposing picture of modern scientific progress than was
possible for Bodin or Bacon. [Footnote: Bacon indeed could have made
out a more impressive picture of the new age if he had studied
mathematics and taken the pains to master the evidence which was