There is also an ingenious suggestion for the communication of messages by sound, which might be described as an anticipation of the Morse code.

Wilkins and another divine, Seth Ward, the Bishop of Salisbury, belonged to the group of men who founded the Royal Society.] Men did not look far into the future; they did not dream of what the world might be a thousand or ten thousand years hence.

They seem to have expected quick results.

Even Sprat thinks that "the absolute perfection of the true philosophy" is not far off, seeing that "this first great and necessary preparation for its coming"-- the institution of scientific co-operation--has been accomplished.

Superficial and transient though the popular enthusiasm was, it was a sign that an age of intellectual optimism had begun, in which the science of nature would play a leading role..