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passed by the Parliament of Cavaliers and the appearance of Milton's "Paradise Lost" in which the author tried
"to justify the ways of God to men"; New Amsterdam was captured from the Dutch and renamed New York,
after the King's brother, James, Duke of York (later James II).
The Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666 were the calamities that brought a lot of
suffering to the English people.
In the 1650s outstanding scientists gathered at Oxford and founded the first great learned society in England,
"the Royal Society", whose patron was the King. They were dedicated to the advance of knowledge in every
subject and their society attracted many talented minds: Christopher Wren, the great designer, known later as
the rebuilder of London after the Great Fire, John Locke, the political philosopher, the father of the Modern
science of chemistry. One more name stands out about others – that of Isaac Newton. His greatest discoveries
include the spectrum and the basic law of the universe – the law of gravity.