John Wilkins, at the beginnings of the Royal Society – where Christianity, Mysticism and Science meet:
From Today in Science History:
John Wilkins. Born 1 Jan 1614; died 19 Nov 1672.
English churchman and scientist who was one of the founders and the first secretary of the Royal Society, London. He wrote for the common reader the Discovery (1638) and the Discourse (1640) which showed how reason and experience supported Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo rather than Aristotlian or literal biblical doctrines. In 1641, he anonymously published a small but comprehensive treatise on cryptography. In Mathematical Magick (1648) he described and illustrated the balance lever, wheel, pulley, wedge and screw in a part called “Archimedes or Mechanical Powers” and in a second part “Daedalus or Mechanical Motions” such strange devices as flying machines, artificial spiders, a land yacht, and a submarine.
To learn more about John Wilkins:
– John Wilkins at Wikipedia.
– His listing as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
– A Rosicrucian College named after ‘Bishop Wilkins’
– A digitized copy of his cryptography book Mercury: The Swift and Secret Messenger can be found at the mystic site, Light-of-Truth.
– The Discovery of a World in the Moone or, A Discourse Tending to Prove That ‘Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World in That Planet at Project Gutenburg.
