1986/05/31 by William T. Stearn · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Botanical Research and Chemistry #Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies #Plant Ecology and Taxonomy Studies #Glory #Praise #Classics #Sermon #Power (physics) #Subject (documents) #Philosophy #Art #History #Art history #Theology #Literature #Library science
paper · doi:10.1098/rsnr.1986.0007
openalex publication_date 1986/05/31 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract As a botanical taxonomist I was naturally highly honoured and much surprised lito be invited by this venerable and exclusive Society to deliver the 1985 Wilkins Lecture on a subject related to the history of science. If this were a sermon, there could be no Biblical text more appropriate for the present occasion dealing with Bishop Wilkins and his contemporaries in the Royal Society than a passage from the book of wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, composed in the second century B.C.: ‘Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning. . . leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent in their instructions. . . There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported.’ So be it with particular respect to John Wilkins (1614—72), in whose commemoration the triennial Wilkins Lecture was founded in 1947.