The Romantic Vision of the Unity of Science and Poetry and the Institutionalization of Science in England
The period of English Romanticism, from the last decade of the 18th century to the 1820s, was a time when the scientific education and researches began to be systematized. The foundation of the British Association for Advancement of Science (BAAS) in 1831, was actually a claim against the old regime of the Royal Society whose members consisted largely of amateur gentlemen of science. The BAAS declared that they would choose members according to their merits, while organizing annual conferences throughout the United Kingdom. William Vernon Harcourt, founder of the BAAS, claimed that the aim of the organization was "to give a stronger impulse and more systematic direction to scientific inquiry (Morrell, 70)”, and to develop human networks through scientific knowledge.