Wednesday 1 March 1664/65

Annotations

• N Terry Foreman on Sat 1 Mar 2008, 11:05pm

  “boggle”

  boggle
  1598, “to start with fright” (as a startled horse does), from M.E. bugge “specter” (among other things, supposed to scare horses at night); see bug. The meaning “to raise scruples, hesitate” is from 1638.

  http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=boggle

• N Terry Foreman on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 12:18am

  From the Carte Calendar regarding Sir Nicholas Armorer and of Gabriel de Sylvius with rewarding friends in very high places:

  An attachment to their Petition of yesterday to the King that they be granted the half “or of so much thereof as to his Majesty shall seem befitting” of the value of the ship ‘Bishop of Flushing’, taken by Lord Sandwich, that was not given to Lord Sandwich: http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/02/28/#c205962

  [Report of the Duke of Ormond to the King thereupon]
  Written from: [Whitehall]

  Date: 1 March 1665

  Is of opinion that if the forfeiture in the Petition mentioned be legally at his Majesty’s disposal, it may be graciously granted to Petitioners in regard of their equitable pretensions thereto.

  http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/carte/carte41.html

• N jeannine on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 01:05am

  Royal Society

  I’ve no philosophy to understand them
  That Society of scientific men
  Bread from France I can forebear
  But am truly unaware
  Of the science of comets
  Or biology of vomit

  
  Dissections of animals will make me queasy
  Knowledge of science isn’t always so easy
  But when I open Sam’s book
  And read of Newton and Hooke
  Will this new institution
  Cause a science revolution?

  Excuse me if I don’t make a fuss when
  We read of Hooke’s ideas of combustion
  But for sure I will delight
  When those scientists all fight
  Will this be a talent show?
  Or the study of ego?

• N CGS on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 01:11am

  expanding on boggle, Sam be 2?
  n. 1. The act of boggling as a horse.to take boggle: to shy with fright, to take alarm.
  1660 G. FLEMING Stemma Sacr. 30 They had taken boggle
  at some State overtures.

  2. Demur, scruple, objection, difficulty, fuss; chiefly in to make boggle. Obs. or arch.
  peeps gets another entree for using this popular word 1667.
  3. A bungle. boggle-de-botch, boggledy botch (colloq.): a complete bungle, a ‘mess’. See BOTCH v. and n.

  verbe:

  [app. f. boggle, var. of BOGLE a spectre, (such as horses are reputed to see). In later times there has been a tendency to associate the word with bungle, which appears in sense 4, and in the derivatives.]

  1. intr. To start with fright, to shy as a startled horse; to take alarm, be startled, scared at.1598
  2. To raise scruples, hesitate, demur, stickle (at, occas. about, over, etc., or to do a thing).1638
  3. ‘To play fast or loose’ J.; to palter, quibble, equivocate. 1613
  4. To fumble, bungle, make a clumsy attempt.1536

  5. trans. To cause to hesitate, to scare. rare.1663

  1663 Flagellum or O. Cromwell (1672) 155 This bogled at first three quarters of them.
  
  boggler
  One who boggles or hesitates; a stickler.
  1606 SHAKES. Ant. & Cl. III. xiii. 110 You haue beene a boggeler euer.

  
  bog a (n3)

  [Derivation unknown. In Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, etc. the dialectal form is bug, pronounced (bug).]

  A. adj. Blustering, bold, proud, saucy. 1592

  
  slang. = BOG-HOUSE, latrina.
  a1789

• N CGS on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 01:26am

  Not every one had the cash to pay those dues.
  “…I did pay my admission money, 40s. to the society. …”
  As for the 20 Quid’ that was still a lot of mulah even in 1940, a months salary for a country teacher.
  For Eliza, she be ready for the 21st C. stars of glitter.
  1660’s that be 40 % of a carriage and pair .
  Would keep Papa Pepys and household in fine living for 4 months.

• N Carl in Boston on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 01:31am

  This has nothing to do with you. It’s all about the money.
  Elizabeth remembered Sam’s promise to pay 20 pounds toward a new Easter bonnet and such, and she nailed him on the point. He boggled and he bucked, but she had him by the truck. Every doggy has his day, boggled Samuel has to pay. That’s keeping your eye on the ball. So much for seven shillings. She has her eye on higher prizes and she bagged him.

• N Ralph Berry on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 03:52am

  “its all about money”
  I suggest its all about power! Sam has the power to make Beth suffer and he uses it but it is becoming more and more obvious Beth has her ways of getting back at him. Not a happy household but I guess in those days when there was really no way out you sank or swam. Keep swimming Beth, I am enjoying it!!

  French Bread.
  The french had pigeon lofts and used a small amount of the pigeon dung in the bread to improve it. Perhaps that is what made it so good. Did the English do the same?

  Boggle
  Wonderful word, thanks Terry & CGS for the explanations. There is a great game on the market called “Boggle” which requires players to make up words from a limited amount of letters that fall into adjoining slots. Great fun to play with adults and children of all ages. (Sorry PG if this strays too much)

• N Ruben on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 05:40am

  The Royal Society
  and what was it that was lectured by Mr. Hooke (from the original):
  “march. 2d. 1663/4. The expt. wth Birds put in comon rarifyd & compressed air being
  made againe & found that the Bird in the comon air was well that in the rarifyd
  panting and that in the compressed air Dead. the Last was opend but noe water
  found wthin, which since some of the company thought an argument of the Birds
  being drowned, It was ordered the Expt. wth the Bird in the compressing Engine should be
  tryd the 3d time putting the bird in a Little cage at the next meeting.
  mr. Hooke produced his Bellows to be vsed vnder the water for taking air, but
  proposed wthall another way conceiued by him better & safer then that wth bellows
  vizt wth two cylinders open at one end and hauing two pipes by which the
  air is taken out of the one & putt into the other. orderd that two such cylinders
  be made & when Ready a waterman hired to try the expt.
  (About the Last dissiction. Prince Ruperts way of making shot. Dr. Pell hinted that the suns
  meridian altitude might be obserued the 10 & 11 of this months. Vleg Beg to be translated].”
  For more see:
  http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Hooke/hooke_folio.php?id=22&option=both
  with a facsimilia of the original text.
  Our Samuel is making a big lap today! The Society’s members were the cream of Science in his day and they still are influencing today our lives.

• N Ruben on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 07:50am

  Those interested in more info about the “experiment of the week” at the Royal Society, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_the_Air_Pump
  those interested only in how it looked, see:
  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_an_Air_Pump_by_Joseph_Wright_of_Derby%2C_1768.jpg
  The painting is 100 years apart from Pepys, but in those times, science trickled very very slowly.
  There is a mistake in the text of the wiki: “one of Robert Boyle’s air pump experiments, in which a bird is deprived of oxygen,”.
  In 1768, oxygen was yet to be discovered.

• N Terry Foreman on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 08:08am

  The Hooke MS transcribed that Michael Robinson linked us to:

  “march. 1 Sulphur vpon Red hot niter burnt in the Exhausted Rr. Zulichems Letter of Feb: 27. 65. of Printed Dutch instructions
  for the vse of his watches at sea. 2 of sympathy of watches suspended together 3 of his agreemt wth Dr. wren about the place
  of the comet. 4 of Desons Chariot & of his own. RH to extract out of his Lecture of the comet wt he thought fit to print
  wth necessary schemes. Reeues glasses tryd campanys way. -“

• N Terry Foreman on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 08:12am

  Sorry that was Ruben, not M.R. (Apologies, Ruben: it’s too late for clear thinking where I am. Thanks very much for the link to the famous MS.)

• N Mary on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 08:35am

  Elizabeth’s New Year vow

  that she wouldn’t go out until Easter (when she might expect to have a new outfit). I can’t help thinking that this vow carried the rider, “because I haven’t got a thing to wear.” If she had entertained hopes of Sam disbursing her clothing allowance a little early, they clearly went unfulfilled.

• N Carl in Boston on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 01:05pm

  The Royal Society
  Fellow Pepysians, when we last met on the subject of air, the Society was putting lighted wooden splints into jars of fresh air and exhausted air. The flame would stay alight or go out depending on the air. Now a month has passed and they are doing the same thing, but with birds, and the birds live or die according to the air being fresh or compressed. That’s Science.
  Now they are thinking about having air or not having air in a chamber, and are making vacuum pumps and hiring a beefy waterman to man the pumps.
  This is getting confusing, about finding something in the air or not in the air versus having air or not having air or having lots of compressed air.
  All this is zipped through in the first two weeks of high school chemistry these days. Alas for these degenerate times, these hardwon gems of Science should be delivered by candlelight and in a powdered wig, and with great deliberation.

• N A. De Araujo on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 01:19pm

  “that she wouldn’t go out until Easter”
  Weren’t they visiting the Battens a few days ago?

• N Robert Gertz on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 02:01pm

  “…where Mr. Hooke read a second very curious lecture about the late Comett; among other things proving very probably that this is the very same Comett that appeared before in the year 1618, and that in such a time probably it will appear again, which is a very new opinion; but all will be in print.”

  The Universe changes on such simple statements.

• N Robert Gertz on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 02:13pm

  “So home, where very busy getting an answer to some question of Sir Philip Warwicke touching the expense of the navy, and that being done I by coach at 8 at night with my wife and Mercer to Sir Philip’s and discoursed with him (leaving them in the coach), and then back with them home and to supper and to bed.”

  Curious…Sam usually gives the impression he goes to all these strictly business affairs alone. Did we miss out on a pleasant side outing? Maybe they were picking up all the Easter clothing goodies?

  “Psst…Bess?”

  “Sam’l?”

  “Quick, girl. I only have a moment. Sir Philip wants to know about the two thousand pounds on tar for August last year.”

  “Tell him you added it to make up the shortfall in July. And that July was owing thanks to slow payments from the storekeepers.”

  “What do I do about the storekeepers if he wants to ask them?”

  “You already told them to keep the accounts ahead. Just send Will to tell them this is for the next year’s payments.”

  “Love, what would I do without you?”

  “You could give me another five pounds.”

  “Sorry, what was that? Must go, back in a few…”

• N JWB on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 02:42pm

  “…gems of Science should be delivered by candlelight and in a powdered wig, and with great deliberation.”

  Today any such experiment, powdered wig or no, would get you arrested and forcibly subjected to psychiatric treatment. The anti-vivisectionists have won. Once done is done enough. And, on a further related note, the great sin of the politicalization of such institutions as the Royal Society, is that now once done is not enough since the doer is not trusted to honestly report results (Lancet/Soros to mind).

• N Martin on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 03:38pm

  The comet
  As noted in comments back on December 15, Mr. Hooke turns out to be incorrect about his theory that the late comet is the same as that of 1618:
  http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1664/12/15/

• N language hat on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 03:48pm

  “There is a mistake in the text of the wiki: ‘one of Robert Boyle’s air pump experiments, in which a bird is deprived of oxygen’
  In 1768, oxygen was yet to be discovered.”

  I don’t understand where the mistake lies. The fact that they had not yet discovered oxygen does not mean that it did not exist, and the bird was in fact deprived of oxygen.

• N Ruben on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 04:48pm

  1) If you never heard of Oxygen you cannot reach any conclusion about it. The bird was deprived of air, and the conclusion that it was the lack of Oxygen that killed it is an anachronic one.

  2) No powdered wigs yet, just wigs…

• N Andrew Hamilton on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 05:09pm

  Jeannine, you boggle my mind with your quick wit. I sympathized with Sam’s bewilderment in hearing about the various projects being pursued by members of the society. Your verse put me in mind of Gulliver’s visit to the society of projectors on the island of Laputa:

  The first Man I saw was of a meager Aspect, with sooty Hands and Face, his Hair and Beard long, ragged and singed in several Places. His Cloathes, Shirt, and Skin were all of the same Colour. He had been Eight Years upon a Project for extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers, which were to be put into Vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the Air in raw inclement Summers. He told me he did not doubt in Eight Years more he should be able to supply the Governors Gardens with Sun-shine at a reasonable Rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and intreated me to give him something as an Encouragement to Ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear Season for Cucumbers. I made him a small Present, for my Lord had furnished me with Money on Purpose, because he knew their Practice of begging from all who go to see them.

  I went into another Chamber, but was ready to hasten back, being almost overcome with a horrible Stink. My Conductor pressed me forward, conjuring me in a Whisper to give no Offence, which would be highly resented; and therefore I durst not so much as stop my Nose. The Projector of this Cell was the most ancient Student of the Academy. His Face and Beard were of a pale Yellow; his Hands and Clothes daubed over with Filth. When I was presented to him, he gave me a close Embrace (a Compliment I could well have excused.) His Employment from his first coming into the Academy, was an Operation to reduce human Excrement to its original Food, by separating the several Parts, removing the Tincture which it receives from the Gall, making the Odour exhale, and scumming off the Saliva. He had a weekly Allowance from the Society, of a Vessel filled with human Ordure about the Bigness of a Bristol Barrel.

  I saw another at work to calcine Ice into Gunpowder; who likewise shewed me a Treatise he had written concerning the Malleability of Fire, which he intended to publish.

  There was a most ingenious Architect who had contrived a new Method for building Houses, by beginning at the Roof, and working downwards to the Foundation; which he justified to me by the like Practice of those two prudent Insects, the Bee and the Spider.

  etc. etc

• N Mary on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 06:13pm

  Francis Bacon’s ‘New Atlantis.’

  This is a similar, but earlier text (first published 1627) that delineates in detail a Utopian society that depends for its progress on collective scientific research. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t come across it before.

• N CGS on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 07:14pm

  add to Mary’s note:
  your copy:
  many leads.
  a] http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/bacon/atlantis.html
  set to internet by Kirk Crady.

  b] New Atlantis by Francis Bacon - Project Gutenberg
  Download the free eBook: New Atlantis by Francis Bacon.
  www.gutenberg.org/etext/2434 - 13k

• N CGS on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 07:43pm

  aire be life giving; it be until named phlogiston then named Oxygen:

  Oxygen : OED first mention 1788

  Aire air
  1651 HOBBES Leviathan III. xxxiv. 207 Aire, and aeriall substances, use not to be taken for Bodies, but..are called Wind, or Breath.
  1660 JER. TAYLOR Worthy Commun. i. §2. 43 Truth is the aire they breath. 1674 PETTY Disc. bef. Royal Soc. 117 The Vnder-water-Air within the Vessels of Water-Divers, who the lower they go, do find their stock of Air more and more to shrink.

  Oxygen was first discovered by Michał Sędziwój, Polish alchemist and philosopher in late 16th century. Sędziwój assumed the existence of oxygen by warming nitre (saltpeter). He thought of the gas given off as “the elixir of life”. Oxygen was again discovered by the Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele sometime before 1773, but the discovery was not published until after the independent discovery by Joseph Priestley on August 1, 1774, who called the gas dephlogisticated air (see phlogiston theory). Priestley published hi …
  See also:OED
  phlogiston A hypothetical substance formerly supposed to exist in combination in all combustible bodies, and to be released in the process of combustion (by some identified with the element fire, conceived as being fixed in flammable substances). Now his
  The use of the term in sense 1 and the theory connected with it were introduced by Stahl in 1702, in his edition of Beccher’s Physica Subterranea of 1669:

• N Pedro on Sun 2 Mar 2008, 11:08pm

  Oxygen.

  You get too much you get too high!