X

Hmtt^rattg 0f

FOUNDID BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

The New Science and English Literature
in the Classical Period

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND

LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH)

CARSON S. DUNCAN

MENASHA, WIS.

THE COLLEGIATE PRESS

GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING CO.

1913

\\\<\

COPYRIGHT 1913

BY
C. S. DUNCAN

CONTENTS

PAGE

I THE NEW SCIENCE 1

II THE CONFLICT OP OLD AND NEW IDEAS .... 29

III THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 66

IV THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY Ill

V THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 147

VI CONCLUSION , 178

CHAPTER I

THE NEW SCIENCE

The new science, or the new experimental philosophy, arose in
England as a fresh intellectual impulse, too subtle and too penetrat
ing to be readily confined within the bonds of a definition. Its
manifestations may be observed, its more obvious qualities may be
studied, yet back of all these there is an elusive psychological prob
lem that fairly challenges solution. As the waters of a stream are
lost in the sea, where they are driven by unknown forces to break
on anexpected shores, so new ideas entering the minds of men are
lost to analysis only to reappear as new points of view, new methods
of thinking, new attitudes toward life. Straightway men possessed
of these new ideas set to work reforming human thought. Simi
larly, experimental philosophers in seventeenth century England,
quickened by this new intellectual impulse, began to lay, broad and
deep, the foundations for reconstructing the natural history of the
world.

Scientific interest had existed in England long before the seven
teenth century,1 of course, and can be called a new interest in that
period only in the sense that it received a new impetus. This new
impulse came from the influence of four men, two foreigners and
two Englishmen, Galileo and Descartes, Bacon and Harvey. When
Galileo made his telescope and saw the proof of the Copernican
theory, there was introduced the fundamental new principle, —
namely, the application of mechanical apparatus to the solution
of the problems of natural philosophy. ' ' Since that Galileo, ' ' wrote
John "Wallis, "and (after him) Torricelli, and others have applied
Mechanick Principles to the salving of Philosophical Difficulties;
Natural Philosophy is well known to have been rendered more in
telligible, and to have made a much greater progress in less than a
hundred years, than before for many ages".2 To Bacon is attrib
uted the inductive method for scientific research, although as Pro-

1 Of . Adamson's Roger Bacon; the Philosophy of Science in the Middle Ages; Berthe-
lot's Introduction to a Collection of Ancient Treatises on Chemistry and Alchemy; Bridges' 8
Introduction to Roger Bacon's Opus Majus ; Bon's Roger Bacon; Charles's Roger Bacon
et Sa Vie; La Croix's Science and Literature in the Middle Ages; Phillips's Science in
England from Elizabeth to Charles II; Wright's Science Written During the Middle Ages.

2 Wallis, John, Phil. Trans, vol. I-II, p. 264, Letter to the R. S.

2 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

fessor Adamson truthfully says, "it is more than probable that in
all fairness, when we speak of the Baconian reform of science, we
should refer to the forgotten Monk of the thirteenth century rather
than to the brilliant and famous Chancellor of the seventeenth ".3
The new philosophers themselves were not familiar with the work
of "Friar Bacon", while they persistently praised and honored the
chancellor, and followed as well as they could his precepts as they
found them in the Novum Organum. They became his disciples
and "were not slow in carrying out the plan of a learned society
as sketched in the New Atlantis".4 To him is due, then, the working
hypothesis — the inductive method — , wherein a long and careful
process of experimentation and observation must precede the draw
ing of conclusions.

The third element was furnished by Descartes. He was a
mathematician as well as a philosopher, and hence could bring math
ematical accuracy and precision to the aid of philosophical thinking.
His great service, therefore, lay in his reducing to formulae the
facts gleaned from experiment and observation. "Monsieur Des
cartes did not perfectly tread in his (Bacon 's) Steps, since

he was for doing too great a part of his work in his Closet, con
cluding too soon, before he had made Experiments enough ; but then
to a vast Genius he joined exquisite Skill in Geometry, and working

upon Intelligible Principles and an Intelligible Manner

obtained his results."5 He also joined forces with Bacon against
the power of ancient authority. "Bacon shares with Descartes
the honour of inaugurating the modern period of philosophy.
Bacon's protest against the principle of authority, a principle
which had been accepted with more or less unhesitating loyalty by
the Scholastic philosophers, is no less vigorous than that of Des
cartes. Both alike are eager to substitute for faith and tradition
the independent effort of the individual mind in pursuit of truth. ' '8

Harvey's chief influence was due to his achievements. Trained

8 Adamson, R., Roger Bacon, p. 7.

4 Becker, B. H., Scientific London, p. 2.

B Wotton, William, Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 30.

6 "But one conclusion emerges out of these considerations, viz. not, indeed that
arithmetic and geometry are the sole sciences to be studied, but only, that, in our search
for the direct road towards truth we should busy ourselves with no object about which
we cannot attain a certitude equal to that of the demonstrations of arithmetic and geom
etry". — Descartes, Phil Wks., vol. I, p. 5.

THE NEW SCIENCE 3

in the new scientific methods under Fabricius at Padua and filled
with an enthusiasm for discovery, he returned to England to apply
with clear-sightedness and commonsense the new principles to
physiological research. The result was that he startled the learned
world and stimulated intellectual curiosity with his discovery of
the circulation of the blood.7 .

These are the elements underlying the new science of the seven
teenth century in England in so far as they can be concretely de
fined. ' ' The period had arrived when that experimental philosophy
to wiiich Bacon had held the torch, and which had already made
considerable progress, especially in Italy, was finally established
on the ruins of arbitrary figments and partial inductions".8 But,
while the mind can easily grasp these tangible elements, — the use
of scientific apparatus in solving philosophical problems, the in
ductive method of investigation, and the reduction of philosophical
ideas to mathematical formulae — there still remains a subtle and
powerful force. The new science was more penetrating than the
above definition indicates; it was an attitude of mind, it was a
declaration of intellectual independence. "Nullius in ~Verba is not
only the motto of the Royal Society, but a received Principle among
all the Philosophers of the present Age."9 Not only are new dis
coveries to be made, new investigations to be carried on, but the
old beliefs are to be re-examined. Aristotle and Descartes are to
be of exactly the same authority so far as mere assertion is con
cerned.10 No authority is to be convincing because it is ancient;
no conclusion is to be scouted because it is new.11

This interest in scientific research crystallized into definitely
organized societies. The Society of Antiquaries was formed at
London in 1572 and continued into the seventeenth century until
dissolved by James I. A Eoyal Academy was attempted as early
as 1616-17, in which it was planned to devote some attention to
science. Sir Francis Kynaston renewed the attempt in 1635.12

7 Announced 1616 ; published 1628.

8Hallam, Henry, Introduction to the Lit. of Eur. vol. IV, p. 518. Of. also, Becker,
B. H., Scientific London, p. 1.

9Wotton, William, Reflections, p. 251.
10Wotton, William, Reflections, p. 364.

11 Ibid.

12 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 383.

4 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

But this study is centralized in the work and influence of the Royal
Society of London. It did not absolutely lead the way, but it had
a wholly independent development. There was in Florence an
earlier society, Accademia del Cimento, with "provando e ripro-
vando la natura" for its motto. "This body was more purely
scientific in its plan than. the Royal Society", but it was clearly
an outgrowth of the same movement.13 In 1666 the French Acad
emy of Science was founded, showing that scientific interest was
awakened in Paris. Bishop Sprat thought, with some show of
reason, that the French imitated the English.14 The question of
source is eliminated from the discussion of the history of the Royal
•Society, because it had a definite English origin in Bacon's New
[Atlantis.16

As early as 1645 this common interest in England had drawn to
gether a group of men, who had grown weary of the political and
religious turmoil of the times.16 These men began a series of
weekly meetings in the lecture room of the Professor of Astronomy
at Gresham College. There was at first no definite organization or
plan of procedure, although by 1651 there were rules printed in
tended for regulating the election of members, (fines for "defaults"
2s. 6d. ) , and even setting the time of meetings, — ' ' every Thursday,
before two of the clock".17 This company was called by Sir
Robert Boyle, an early member, the "invisible College".18 Their
discussions were limited by agreement to the "New Philosophy",
i. e. to a study of things around them in nature, what they could
see, touch, feel, or hear, "(not meddling with Divinity, Meta-
physicks, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar, Rhetoric, or Logic)".19

The company slowly increased. In 1658 there were twelve mem
bers, among whom were Wilkins, Seth Ward, Wallis, Sir Robert
Moray, and Boyle. During this year several of the members were

18 Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, p. 56.

14 It became an era for societies. Of. Minerva's Museum ; see also, account of
"Academy at the great Tew", The Rota, The Hartlib Group, The Athenian Society, So
ciety for Physicians and Surgeons. Later branch societies sprang up in outlying towni;
cf. Spalding, Lincolnshire.

15 Bacon, Francis, The New Atlantis, Solomon's House.

16 Ranke, Leopold von, History of England, vol. VI, p. 361.

17 Weld, 0. R., History of the Royal Society, pp. 3S-4.
"Ibid. p. 38.

19 Wallis, John, Letter to the Royal Society, 1696.

THE NEW SCIENCE 5

called away to Oxford, whither they carried the new interest, and
where they began a similar series of meetings. In this manner the
scientific enthusiasm continued through the Commonwealth. In
1660 the two sections were united at Gresham College, and were
formed into a definite organization. The number of members in
creased during the year to 115. The next year the attention of the
new King was called to it by Elias Ashmole, and the King took an
immediate interest in it. Dr. Johnson has suggested that his in
terest was not wholly scientific, but rather political. "It has been
suggested", he writes, "that the Eoyal Society was instituted soon
after the Restoration, to direct the attention from public discon
tent ' '.20 From whatever motive, Charles II did grant the Society a
Royal Charter and the privilege of using the Royal Arms, and gave
it a silver mace which it possesses and uses to this day.21 The or
ganization was completed August 29,22 1662, at which time the King
declared himself to be the founder of the Society. In this way
came into being the Royal Society of London for the Promotion of
the Natural Sciences (Societas Eegalis Londini pro Scientia
Naturali Promovenda) , which has continued from that time to this,
growing in power and influence. The "Invisible College" had be
come the "Visible Church of Philosophy". 23

Out of that tumultuous mid-century, therefore, came this new
interest, called the New, or Experimental Philosophy. Its followers
were called philosophers, or more usually, virtuosi. What was their
aim? In brief, it was to realize if possible the ambition of Bacon,
to reconstruct the natural history of the world.2* The broad foun
dation of this stupendous and profound history was to be laid
by means of experiments. Everything was to be examined anew,
and a careful record was to be kept, so that gradually but surely
there should arise out of the chaos of scholastic discussion this new
understanding ; this solid mass of truth should grow into definition.
These scientists were to accept nothing simply from report (nul-
lius in verba) ; there must be demonstration wherever possible,

20 Johnson, Samuel, Works, vol. X, p. 36.

21Masson, David, Life of Milton, vol. VI, p. 395; Becker, B. H., Scientific London,
Chap. I.

22 The Charter was dated April 22, 1662.

28 Weld, C. R., History of Royal Society, p. 73.

24 Boyle, Robert, Phil. Trans, vol. I-II, p. 186. Cf. also, Bacon's plan for Book
VI, Instauration of the Sciences.

6 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

otherwise the best evidence that could be obtained. When it
is remembered that some of these men actually believed in witch
craft (Glanvil), sympathetic powder (Sir Kenelm Digby), curing
by stroking (Boyle), and whatnot of superstition, this broad and
liberal intellectual policy is remarkable. The appeal, it will be
seen, was directly to commonsense and to reason, which at first led
to a general sceptical attitude. "When a discussion arose regard
ing St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30) for celebrating the anniversary of
their foundation, after St. George and St. Isidore (a canonized
philosopher) had been suggested as more fitting patron saints, Sir
William Petty said, — 'No, I would rather have had it on St.
Thomas's Day, for he would not believe till he had seen and put
his hands into the holes of the nails' ",25

In order to reconstruct the natural history of the world, their
aim was to study nature as Bacon had advised; — "The end of our
foundation is the knowledge of causes".26 "The business and de
sign of the Royal Society is —

"To improve the knowledge of Naturall Things, and all useful
Arts, Manufactures, Mechanick Practices, Engynes and Inventions
by Experiments

"To attempt the recovering of such allowable Arts and In
ventions as are lost.

"To examine all Systems, Theories, Principles, Hypotheses,
Elements, Histories, and Experiments of Things, Naturall and
Mechanical, invented, recorded, or practiced, by any considerable
author ancient or modern. In order to a compiling of a complete
system of solid philosophy for explicating all phenomena produced
by Nature or Art, and recording a rational account of the causes of
things. In the meantime this Society will not own any Hypothesis,
System, or doctrine of the Principles of Naturall Philosophy, pro
posed or mentioned by Philosopher ancient or modern, nor the
explication of any phenomena whose recourse must be had to
originall causes (as not being explicable by Heat, Cold, Weight,
Figure, and the like, as Effects produced thereby) ; nor dogmatical
ly define, nor fix axioms of scientific Things, but will question and
canvass all till by mature debate and clear arguments, chiefly such

2BWheatley, H. B., Samuel Pepys and the World he Lived In, p. 123.

26 Weld, C. R., History of E. S. "Natural opposed to supernatural", p. 126.

THE NEW SCIENCE 7

as are deduced from legitimate Experiments, the Truth of such
Experiments be demonstrated".27 This is certainly a most ambiti
ous program with which to begin, and yet there is something vali
ant and attractive about it. May one not call this the intellectual
Magna Charta of the seventeenth century !

This band of philosophers had thus early set for themselves the
task of founding a system of philosophy, not for England, nor for
Scotland, nor Ireland, nor the Pope, nor the Protestants, but for
mankind.28 Men were admitted to membership "of different Re
ligions, Countries, and Professions of Life". When Charles II
learned that a Tradesman had contributed a paper to the Society, he
sent a note of congratulation to the members and urged them to
admit as many such men as possible. "On the 20th November,
1663, the Royal Society consisted of 131 Fellows, of whom 18 were
Noblemen, 22 Baronets and Knights, 47 Esquires, 32 Doctors, 2
Bachelors of Divinity, 2 Masters of Arts, and 8 Strangers, or
Foreign Members."29 This enumeration has certain elements of
interest. A clear majority are gentlemen of leisure, who must de
pend upon an innate or acquired devotion to scientific research in
order to save their efforts from mere dilettanteism. Then a goodly
number are physicians whose work ought, at least, to be of a seri
ous character. That Bachelors of Divinity belong is noteworthy
in the light of subsequent charges of atheism levelled at the mem
bers of this scientific organization.

The early historian of the Royal Society, himself a member,
has given an interesting description of the ideal philosopher.
"First, he should have the industry, activity, and Inquisitive
Humour of the Dutch, French, Scatch, and English in laying the
groundwork, the heap of Experiments. And then he should have
added the cold, and circumspect, and wary disposition of the
Italians and Spaniards, in meditating upon them, before he fully
brings them into speculation".80 This is, of course, a composite
character combining the chief qualities of all the leading European
nations as then known. From our standpoint, with a knowledge
of the later accomplishments in science of these peoples, this early

27 Hooke, Robert, MS. Papers, quoted by Weld, History of R. S. p. 146.

28 Sprat, Thomas, Hist, of R. S. p. 63.

29 Manuscript List of Fellows of Royal Society; — Brit. Museum MSS. 4442.
80 Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, p. 64.

8 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

analysis is interesting. It must be remembered that Englishmen
were still going to Italy for advanced scientific study, especially
in medicine, after the example set by Harvey.

Bacon had held up a high standard of accuracy in The New
Atlantis; — observe, experiment, and at last conclude, had been
his dictum. The ideal philosopher was to have industry, activity,
and an inquisitive humor, a cold, circumspect and wary disposi
tion in drawing conclusions. This was the theory; what was the
practice? An example of method from the work of one of the
foremost members of the Society will illustrate it. Some observa
tions had been made and reported to the Royal Society on "phos
phorescent glow" arising from rotting wood and decaying vegetable
and animal matter. Robert Boyle grew interested. In a letter
dated February 15, 1672, he reports a number of experiments car
ried on by himself. One night when he was retiring, his servant
announced to him a remarkable phenomenon in the larder. Among
many pieces of meat hanging there was one, a neck of veal, that
was luminous. Boyle, like a true philosopher, began an investi
gation, and, though at the time almost bedfast from a cold con
tracted during some recent atmospheric experiments, caused the
piece of meat to be conveyed to his bedroom. For several hours
that night he lay and watched it closely for indications of varia
tions in brilliancy. Then he put it under a receiver and pumped
out the air; — "whereupon", he says, "the light was well-nigh
eclipsed ' '. He kept the bit of ' ' lucid flesh ' ' in his bedroom during
several days, convenient for observation, and manifold were the
experiments performed. For instance, a servant was commanded

to run her hand over the phosphorescent surface. The hand was

found to shine, but no heat was felt. "By great good fortune",
he declares, "I had a copy of the Philosophical Transactions with
me. I was able so to apply that flexible paper to some of the more
resplendent spots that I could plainly read divers consecutive let
ters of the title". The writer then summarizes his observations:
"(1) Twenty places did shine. (2) The patches were of varying
size. (3) It shone best where the Butcher's cleaver passed through.
(4) The light was varying in colour. (5) There was no heat.
(6) There was no stench, etc "

No sooner had the news of these experiments been noised abroad
than pieces of "lucid flesh" began to appear to many. One, J.

THE NEW SCIENCE 9

Beal, wrote to the society May 22, 1676,31 that he had heard of "a
piece of fresh Beef shining in the Strand". It became a sensation
as remarkable as Moses ' burning bush, — a seven days' wonder.
These men of the New Science began to look at such commonplace
phenomena with the wondering eyes of children. Here is an in
quisitive humor, an industry, an activity, but one doubts the ex
istence of a cold, circumspect and wary disposition.

The experiment cited above is typical. It can be duplicated
from attempts at transfusing blood, from observing thunderstorms,
from watching the circulation of blood in the foot of a frog, from
the trials of the effects of rarified air, from almost any page of
Hooke's Micrographia. Always the attitude is the same; wonder
and interest, experiment and observation, then a careful record and
report, with conclusions. William Wot ton, in his defence of the
"Modern Methods of Philosophizing", writes : —

"1. No arguments are received as cogent, no principles al
lowed as current, but what in themselves are intelligible.

2. The Forming of Sects and Parties as Followers of a certain

man is discarded. (Condensed).

3. Mathematics joined with Physiology is necessary to under

stand the economy of Nature. (Condensed).

4. The new Philosophers, as they are commonly called, avoid

making general Conclusions, till they have collected a great
number of Experiments or Observations upon the thing in
hand; and, as new Light comes in, the old Hypotheses
fall without Noise or Stir."32

And he continued: — "Now as this Method of Philosophizing
laid down above is right, so it is easie to prove, that it has been
carefully followed by Modern Philosophers. My Lord Bacon was
the first great Man who took much pains to convince the world that
they had hitherto been in the wrong Path, and that Nature her
self, rather than her Secretaries, was to be addressed to by those
who were desirous to know much of her Mind. ' '33

Scientific investigation had not yet reached the point of spec
ialization. Robert Boyle, whose experiment was noted above, was
really a Chemist, but he made investigations in Physics, Astronomy,

31 Phil. Transactions. Dec. 16, 1672.

82 Wotton, William, Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 364.

*Ibid. p. 370.

10 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

and Physiology as well, and even contributed to the Philosophical
Transactions, February 22, 1675, an essay entitled "Theological
Considerations about the Possibility of the Resurrection ' '. The
Philosophers had not yet learned that the whole province of knowl
edge was too broad. The scope of their studies was, therefore,
practically unbounded. Dr. "Wallis, a charter member of. the
Royal Society, wrote in 1696: — "Our business was (precluding
matters of Theology and State affairs) to discourse and consider of
philosophical inquiries, and such as related thereunto; as Physick,
Astronomy, Geometry, Anatomy, Navigation, Staticks, Magneticks,
Chymicks, Mechanics, and Natural Experiments; with the state of
these studies, and their cultivation at home and abroad. We then
discoursed of the Circulation of the Blood, the valves in the
veins, the venae lactae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican
hypothesis, the nature of comets, and new stars, the satellites of
Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots
on the sun and its turning on its axis, the inequalities and seleno
graphy of the moon, the several phases of Venus, and Mercury,
the improvement of telescopes and grinding of glasses for that
purpose, the weight of air, and the possibility or impossibility of
vacuities and Nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experi
ment in quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of
acceleration therein, with divers other things of like nature, some
of which were then but new discoveries, and others not so generally
known and embraced as they now are; with other things apper
taining to what hath been called the New Philosophy, which, from
the time of Galileo at Florence and Sir Francis Bacon (Lord
Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France,
Germany, and other parts abroad as well as with us in England ",84
Some of the new philosophers, however, had well defined in
terests to which they devoted their best energies. Newton, al
though interested in theology, was a physicist and mathematician;
Ray was a thoroughgoing botanist, as was his intimate friend Wil-
lughby; Leeuwenhoek, the Dutch scientist, who was so closely con
nected with the Royal Society, did his best work in microscopical
physiology; Flamsteed was the Royal Astronomer from 1676 to
1719. The day of scientific specialization was dawning, but had

84 Wallis, John, Account of some passages from his own life. Letter to the Royal
Society, 1696.

THE NEW SCIENCE 11

not yet fully come. In fact, everything was grist that came to the
Royal Society's mill. They discussed a universal language,35 the
power of imagination,36 the grafting of oranges, lemons and cit
rons,37 the teaching of Latin,38 the best method of catching carp,39
the means "to facilitate the education of youth",40 considerations
about the possibility of Resurrection,41 raising tobacco,42 and the
philosophy of music.43 The new interest was practically universal.
The Royal Society early found need for a permanent record of
its activities. It was agreed, therefore, that the secretary should
prepare a transcript of all papers read before the Society and re
view new books of interest to science, and should describe the
experiments performed at the meetings. As a consequence of this
action, Henry Oldenburg, the first secretary, an enthusiastic and
self-sacrificing scientist, made ready for publication a complete
account of the meetings from the granting of the Royal Charter
(1662) to the end of the year, (March) 1665. Oldenburg wrote
and published the pamphlets on his own responsibility, the Society
merely sanctioning the action. "Whereas 'tis taken notice of, that
these Philosophical Transactions are published by the Royal Society,
notwithstanding many circumstances to be met with in the already
published ones, that import the contrary; the writer thereof hath
thought fit, expressly here to declare, that that persuasion, if there
be such indeed, is a meer mistake; and that he, upon his Private
account (as a well-wisher to the advancement of usefull knowledge
and a Furtherer thereof by such Communications, as he is capable
to furnish by the Philosophical Correspondency, which he enter
tains, and hopes to enlarge) hath begun and continues both the
composure and publication thereof."44 It was he who first called
these tracts the Philosophical Transactions, by which name they are
known today.

*Phil Trans. June 20, 1686.

88 Ibid. July-Aug., 1687.

87 Ibid. Nov. 11, 1667.

88 Ibid. June 23, 1773.
88 Ibid. Jan. 25, 1675.
*°Ibid. Feb. 22, 1675.
41 Ibid. May- June, 1702.
«Ibid. Mar. 25, 1677.
48 Ibid. Mar. 25, 1677.

44 Phil. Trans, vol. I-II, pp. 213-214, May 7, 1666.

12 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

In this depository are to be found a reprint or a digest of the
papers read before the Society at its regular meetings, letters re
ceived from foreign members or absent correspondents, reviews
of books, and at least one drawing to illustrate some important ar
ticle in each pamphlet. There was no attempt in the early volumes
to classify material. The following table of the contents of volume
one will show the heterogeneous character; — "1. An Accompt of
the Improvement of Optick Glasses. 2. Observations made in
England on a dark Spot in one of the Belts of Jupiter. 3. Exper
imental History of Cold. 4. A Monstrous Calf. 5. Lead Ore
in Germany, used for Essays. 6. Hungarian Balm. 8. Pendu
lum Watches at Sea. ' '45 Here is evidence of an interest in astron
omy, metallurgy, physics, and physiology, but there is no systema-
tization, no specialization. It should be noted, however, that much
of the investigation is practical, or purports to be.

The appeal in the new science was primarily to curiosity.
There arose a desire to know the wonders of the world, to pry into
causes of phenomena, to learn of the strange and weird. "The
bare prospect of this magnificent Fabrick of the Universe, furn
ished and adorned with such strange variety of curious and useful
Creatures, would suffice to transport us both with Wonder and Joy,
if their Commonnesse did not hinder their operations".46 Run
ning through the record of this entire period is an obvious interest
in the unusual and the marvelous. May 8, 1665, there came a letter
from Virginia on a method of killing rattlesnakes; August 16,
1669, a paper on the "darting of spiders"; December, 1673, a des
cription of "an odd lake in Crimea"; July. 21, 1673, "the effect of
thunder on wheat and rye in granaries"; an earthquake Septem
ber 17, 1683; "A ruminating man", May, 1691; Waterspouts in
the Mediterranean, February-May, 1702; "the great frost", Decem
ber, 1709; the lunar eclipse, February, 1726, etc. And clearly
these extraordinary things would catch the popular attention more
quickly than solid learning and profound investigation. The temp
tation would be for the popular mind to understand these things
to be the chief business of the virtuosi, for it is not easy for public
opinion to distinguish between curiosity and scientific enthusiasm.

^Ibid. March, 1665.

*• Boyle, Robert, Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, p. 3.

THE NEW SCIENCE 13

Furthermore, the apparent interest of Charles II from the very
beginning gave social prestige to scientific experiments, so that
many fashionable gentlemen would assume this virtue, if they had
it not. The King had a laboratory equipped in Whitehall, which
Samuel Pepys describes.47 "It was almost necessary to the char
acter of a fine gentleman to have something to say about air-pumps
and telescopes ",48 But there is nothing here of serious effort or
of untiring application, both of which are essential to scientific
accomplishment. If these things exist they will be found else
where. And so it was, when the movement had lost the first flush
of its novelty, when fashionable society had turned its attention
elsewhere, then the real workers were left. James II showed no
interest; nor did William; Queen Anne was petitioned for aid to
furnish the Society with suitable quarters, but she refused.49 In
1713, however, she did send word to the Society that "ministers
and governors who go abroad " should make reports of their ob
servations.50 George II was asked to become a patron in 1727 ; he
consented, but took no further interest.51

From the records it is perfectly clear that the serious scien
tific work was done by a few men. Several of them were men of
means and leisure, as Sir Robert Boyle, Sir Hans Sloane, and Sir
Kenelm Digby. The reader of the Philosophical Transactions soon
grows familiar with the names of Boyle, Wilkins, Wallis, Hooke,
Bay, Leeuwenhoek, Newton, Sloane, and Halley. And it is to be
noted in passing that the most of these men are yet famous for
scientific achievement. They were not dilettantes; they were stu
dents by nature and interest. And, though at times led astray
from scientific activity, they were for the most part faithful, un
tiring, and assiduous. From them came the great discoveries of
the period.

Even although the Royal Society itself was born in college halls,
yet the universities were on the whole conservative toward the
New Philosophy. It was during this period, however, that "Aris
totle and the Schoolmen were to be displaced by the influence of

*T Pepys, Samuel, Diary of, May 30, 1667.
"Macaulay, T. B., History of England, vol. I, p. 376.
49 Weld, C. R., History of the Royal /Society, vol. I, p. 388.
80 Ibid. vol. I, p. 420, quoted.
« Ibid. vol. I, p. 45.

14 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Bacon and the discoveries of astronomy and physical sciences, and
gradually (in the Cambridge schools) questions in moral and natur
al philosophy took the place of Aristotelian problems".82 There
developed in the faculties ''some jealousy of the Royal Society,
and a prejudice against the work it was doing. Dr. South, the
University Orator, at the Encaenia in Oxford in 1669, took occasion
to inveigh against it in his satirical vein, denouncing its members
'as underminers of the Universities' ".53 And there was doubtless
some excuse for this attitude, because Dr. Sprat wrote in his apology
for the Royal Society, — "I confess there has not bin wanting some
forward Assertors of the New Philosophy, who have not us'd any
kind of Moderation towards them; But have presently concluded,
that nothing can be well done in New Discoveries, unless all the
Ancient Arts be first rejected and their Nurseries abolished".54

The popularity of courses in science was apparently largely
dependent on the instructor. In 1660 Dr. Barrow, Professor of
Greek at Cambridge, said; — "I sit lonesome as an Attic owl, who
has been thrust out of the companionship of all other birds ; while
classes in Natural Science are full."55 Likewise, at the end of the
century there was Richard Laughton, "the popular pupilmonger",
whose classes were large; and the famous blind mathematician,
" Saunderson ", whose private lectures were well attended.58 On
the other hand, in the Cambridge classes in Chemistry (1728),
"there came as many as twenty-three (the fee being a guinea).
Only fourteen came to the fourth course in 1735 ",57

Inevitably, however, the conflict of the old and the new systems
would occupy the minds of the professors in the Universities.
Learned men were compelled to take sides, and especially the
scientists. This controversial spirit was transferred to the stu
dents, — if one can accept the following as a fairly representative
picture of the college boy; "And in the first place comes home the
young pert soph with his atoms and his globuli ; and as full of de
fiance of all country parsons, let them be never so learned and

62 Wordsworth, C., Scholae Academicae, p. 65.

»Ibid. p. 194.

** Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, p. 328.

16 Hettner, Hermann, Englische Literatur, pp. 16-17, quoted.

66 Wordsworth, Christopher, Scholae Academicae, pp. 69-70.

6T Ibid. p. 189.

THE NEW SCIENCE 15

prudent, and as confident and magisterial, as if he had been Pro
locutor at the first Council of Nice. And he wonders very much
that they will pretend to be Gownmen, whereas he cannot see so
much as Cartes 's Principles, nor Gassendus 's Syntagma, lying upon
the table ; and that they are all so sottish and stupid as not to sell
all their Libraries and send presently away for a whole wagon full
of New Philosophy. 'I'll tell you, Sir/ says one of these small
Whiflers, perhaps, to a grave, sober, and judicious Divine, 'the
University is strangely altered since you were there; we are all
grown strangely inquisitive and ingenious. I pray, Sir, how went
the business of Motion in your Days? We hold it all now to be
violent, — ' " and so on. The "Whippersnapper's" criticism of the
sermon is exquisitely sketched. Then follows a slash at the younger
members of Gresham College, who ask "to what purpose is it to
preach to people, and go about to save them, without Telescopes,
and a Glass for Fleas ?"58

That the new science was being agitated in the universities is
clear enough. And the larger ideas were fast being accepted by
thinking men. "The study of the New Philosophy, and with it
Mathematics generally, had gained some ground at our University

(Cambridge) when Sir W. Browne went up there in 1707 By

this time those studies (Principia, Optics, Arithmetica Univers-
alis) were extensively diffused in the university, and copies of the
Principia were in such request that in 1710 one which was or
iginally published at ten shillings was considered cheap at two
guineas ".B9 "From the moment of their appearance (Newton's
discoveries), they rapidly made their way from one class of thinkers
to another nearly as fast as the nature of men's intellectual capacity
allows ".eo

The character of the courses offered at the universities may be
determined from the following, which is the outline of a series of
lectures in Chemistry: "An Encomium on Dr. Friend, the first
who applied Newtonian philosophy to Chemistry. Calcinations.
Distillation of Hartshorn. Analysis of Plants distilled in the
Great Alembic. Distillation of Vitriol. Tincture of Myrrh, Aloes,

MEuchard, John, Observations on the Inquiry into the Grounds and Occasion of the
Contempt of the Clergy, 1671, pp. 142, 147.

88 Wordsworth, 0., Scholae Academicae, p. 69.
"Whewell, William, History of Ind. Science, p. 421.

16 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Laudanum, Steel, and Antimony, and by Digestion. Acids and
Alkalis. Experiments of Phosphorus. A short Course on the four
Elements. "61

The amount of attention given to scientific studies during this
period is shown by these proposed schedules, recommended to new
Students by Robert Green, a Cambridge tutor; — "Second Year;
Corpuscular Philosophy, Arithmetic, Algebra, (texts ; Cartes, Boyle,
etc.). Third Year; Experimental Philosophy, Chemistry of Min
erals, Plants, and Animals (texts Boyle, Phil. Trans, etc.). An
atomy, Philosophy of Animals, Plants, Vegetables, Minerals, Op
tics. Fourth Year; Mechanical Philosophy (texts, Boyle, Newton,
Halley.) Astronomy (texts, Gassendus, Flamsteed, Newton, etc)."62

The knowledge of the new Science was disseminated by four
different means; — (1) The Philosophical Transactions were on sale
at the bookstalls in various places in London, Cambridge, Exeter,
Bristol, and perhaps in some towns in Ireland and Scotland.63
(2) The students at the universities inevitably came into contact
with it in the classroom and in private discussion. (3) Popular
lectures were given by various ones of the new philosophers in
London. "General diffusion of these opinions took place not only
by books, but through the labors of various experimental lecturers,
like Desaguliers, who removed from Oxford to London in 1713;
where, he informs us, 'he found the Newtonian philosophy gener
ally received among persons of all ranks and professions, and even
among the ladies by the help of experiments'."64 (4) From time to
time scientific books were published, when some piece of work had
been completed; as Evelyn's Silva, Boyle's History of Cold, New
ton's Principles, Hooke's Micrographia, etc. The lay world, at
least those who made any pretense to learning, would very likely
know the gist of what was being done. It must, however, be ob
served that the people not directly connected with the scientific
activity, would not take the time or the pains, — granting them the
ability — to follow thoroughly the researches that were made, or
the proofs that were given. As today, the general conclusions,
the unusual facts, the weird, the marvelous, the monstrous, — these
attracted popular attention.

M Wordsworth, C., Scholae Academicae, p. 189, quoted.
w Green, Robert, A Scheme for Study, 1707.
« Trail, H. D., Social England, vol. IV, p. 562.
^Whewell, William, History of Inductive Science, p. 426.

THE NEW SCIENCE 17

Great credit is given by writers to this period for scientific
achievement. "There is no period in the history of mankind so
distinguished by great and important discoveries or so remarkable
for the development of the human intellect as the seventeenth cen
tury ",65 "The age was emphatically an age of Discovery and
Invention ",66 "The human intellect had reached the bounds of
the 'Wonderland' of Modern Science ".6T It is now our task to
refute or justify these assertions. As stated above, there was no de
finite specialization at this time. The various fields of science
were being surveyed and the boundaries were being defined. It is
difficult, therefore, to classify the achievements. For the sake of
convenience the following headings have been made: 1. Anti-
quarianism. 2. Astronomy. 3. Botany. 4. Chemistry. 5.
Geography. 6. Mathematics. 7. Physics. 8. Physiology. 9.
Mechanical Inventions. The progress made during the period will
be traced as briefly as possible.

Interest in Antiquarianism was not a new thing in 1660. As
early as 1572 there was a Society of Antiquarians in London.68 A
"collector of rarities " was the hero of a comedy for the English
stage in 1641.69 The first great collection of note was begun by
John Tradescant, a traveller, who arrived in England about 1600.
Under Charles I he was Keeper of the King's Garden. In 1650
he died and left to his son the great collection he had made. The
son continued the work of the father and at his death gave the col
lection to Elias Ashmole, himself an antiquarian and an eminent
virtuoso. He in turn gave it to Oxford at his death in 1682,
"twelve waggon loads".70

The Royal Society also found an interest in collecting rarities.
It was voted to pay * ' fifty pounds to buy a collection of rarities by
Mr. Hubbard".71 Then, in the last years of the seventeenth cen
tury and the early years of the eighteenth, there was aroused a
keen interest in the ancient Roman remains in certain parts of

65 Ency. Brit., Astronomy, vol. 21, p. 220. 15th Edition.

66 Owen, J., Glanvil's Scepsis Scientifica, Introd. p. XXXIX.

67 Ibid. p. XL.

68 Ency. Brit., Zoology, vol. XXIV, p. 800. 15th Ed. Cf. Leland's New fear's Gift
and Bale's Index, and cf. Camden, Selden and others.

69 Shackerly, Marmion, The Antiquary, 1641.

70 Weld, C. R., History of the Royal Society, pp. 187-8, 64.

71 Birch, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, vol. II, p. 64.

18 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

England. The first report of these investigations was received
by the Royal Society in March, 1683, 72 in a letter read by Martin
Lister, who was at the time one of the Secretaries. From this time
on the reports are frequent. Many of the gentlemen of leisure
found entertainment in this search. From time to time the Royal
Society received a number of rarities, and kept them in a room at
Gresham College, which Dr. Seth Ward called the "Monster and
maggot room". By 1665 the Coffee Houses had began to adver
tise collections. This was the period also, it must be remembered,
of an awakened interest in and an eager search for old and rare
manuscripts. Junius published his Anglo-Saxon texts in 1655;
Thwaites edited the Heptateuchus in 1698; Hickes's Thesaurus ap
peared in 1705 ; Oldys, after years of Antiquarian research, began
his edition of the Harleian Miscellany, 1744. These are only indica
tions of a strong undercurrent of scholastic antiquarian interest.
There is an interesting account of "the hunt for old books" in the
Life of Lady Winchelsea.™ Later, Gray and Wharton undertook a
history of early English Literature. This spirit of renaissance
scholarship united with the new philosophy and developed an in
terest, largely to be sure for diversion and relaxation, wholly apart
from "the bitterness of party" and the disputes of theology.

The impulse toward antiquarian research was due to curiosity.
The work was not thorough, nor was it really scientific. ' ' They do
indeed neglect no opportunity to bring all rare things of remote
countries within the compass of their knowledge and practice.
But they still acknowledge their most useful informations to arise
from common things, and from diversifying their most ordinary
operations upon them".74 Careful classifications were made by
some of the curators, but except in the case of such men as Ralph
Thoresby, Llwyd, and his associate, Dr. Plot, antiquarianism was
little more than dilettanteism. The sum total of the work done
during this period was to discover some remains of Roman towns
and camps, to gather together curious odds and ends from many
parts of the world — Jamaica, America, India, etc. The Royal
Society received an elephant's tooth, a rattle-snake's skin, a piece

nPhil. Trans. Feb. 21, 1666.

ra Reynolds, Myra, Wks. of Lady Winchelsea, Introd., pp. XIV, XVII. Cf. Hallam,
Introd. to the Lit. of Eur., vol. IV, pt. IV. Chap. I, sec. 2.
7*Hooke, Robert, Micrographia, p. 24.

THE NEW SCIENCE 19

of petrified wood, the horns of a moose,75 etc. The prime incentive
here, it is to be noted, is not usefulness.

The best scientific work of the period was done in Astronomy.78
This is directly due to the invention of the telescope and apparatus
for grinding lenses. From the earliest records of the work of the
Royal Society, papers were read on astronomical observations.77
Comets were reported; new stars were discovered; the milky way
was seen to be a multitude of distant stars ; eclipses were accurate
ly predicted.78 All scientific men were interested in this work, so
that it became fashionable to look at the heavens. Sorbiere found
a public telescope when he was in London. "Dans le pare le Roy
a fait dresser un grand mast pour des Telescopes, avec lesquels
Monsieur de Chevalier Robbert Moray me fit voir Saturne, et les
Satellites du Jupiter".79

It was during this period that the struggle between the old
Ptolemaic theory of the cosmogony and the comparatively new
Copernican theory came to a final issue. The earth ceased to be
the center of the universe, and, like other visible planets, began to
move around the sun. What caused them to move ? What was the
course of their movement? men began to ask. The questions were
fully answered and the answer was mathematically demonstrated
by the greatest scientist of the period, — Sir Isaac Newton. In him
were combined all the elements of the new science. He used the
latest and the most improved mechanical apparatus; he tested his
own theories by numerous experiments, and urged others to do
the same; he demonstrated his conclusions by mathematics. The
nobility of his character and the candor of his mind did much to
dignify scientific research, and to impress his revolutionary astron
omical ideas upon the minds of men.

The leading astronomers of this period were: — Huygens, noted

™Phil. Trans. July 10, 1683; Nov. 20, 1683; Jan. 20, 1684; April 20, 1684;
Dec. 20, 1684; May 20, 1685; Nov., 1685; Nov.-Dec., 1686; Sept.-Oct., 1687; June, 1693;
May, 1694; Nov., 1697; May, 1698; Sept., 1698; April, 1700; Sept.-Oct., 1700; Feb.,
1701; Jan.-Feb., 1702; Nov.-Dec., 1702; Feb., 1705; Jan.-Mar., 1706; Apr.-June, 1711;
July-Sept., 1712; Jan.-Mar., 1717.

78 Lodge, Oliver J., Pioneers of Science, p. 136.

nphtt. Trans. Mar., 1665.

78 Ibid., Apr. 3, 1665; May 8, 1665; Mar. 12, 1666; July 2, 1666; Aug. 14, 1671;
Feb. 21, 1675; Sept., 1699; Sept.-Oct., 1732; Apr., 1733; Oct., 1742.

79 Sorbiere, Relation D'Un Voyaye En Angleterre, 1669, p. 32.

20 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

for his discovery of the explanation of the rings about Saturn, his
pendulum clock, and his micrometer; Robert Hooke, a mechanical
genius, who constructed a spring watch, an air-pump for Boyle,
and who suggested the law of gravitation; Flamsteed, the Royal
Astronomer, whose chief work consisted in the collection of data
about the moon; Halley, who experimented with the magic needle,
who brought to perfection the " lunar theory "; Descartes, with his
new scheme of planetary motion, by means of " vortices "; Newton,
with his law of gravitation demonstrated and sustained against all
1 'adversaries"; Bradley, with his "aberration of the fixed stars ",
and his study of the earth's motion.

The scientific work of the astronomers was of a high character.
The whole tendency was to destroy the superstitions of astrology,
although there was even yet some extravagance in the claims of
knowledge about the moon. "Astrology and Alchemy", wrote
Macaulay, "had become jests"80 Although these pseudo-sciences
continued to flourish,81 there is not a hint of the old astrological
beliefs in the Philosophical Transactions; there is no investigation
of the subject. Nor indeed could the new science be other than
an enemy of astrology, with its purpose so definitely stated, — to
seek "natural" causes as distinguished from supernatural. The
contribution to astronomy of this period was solid and substantial,
and, while thte study may have "silenced the stars",82 it also ex
panded the horizon and stimulated the imagination.

"All that was known in the sixteenth and the beginning of the
seventeenth century of the phenomena of life in plants was scarce
ly more than had been learned in the earliest times of human
civilization from agriculture, gardening, and other practical deal
ing with plants. It was known, for instance, that the roots serve
to fix plants in the soil and so supply them with food ; that certain
kinds of manure, such as ashes and, under certain conditions, salt,
strengthen vegetation; that buds develop into shoots; and that the
blossom precedes the production of seeds and fruit".83 But "sys-

80 Macaulay, T. B., History of England, vol. I, p. 378.

81 The famous astrologers were, — William Lilly, Evans, Hart, Captain Bubb, Jeffrey
Neve, Dr. Ardee, — Besant, Walter, London in the Time of the Stuarts, p. 162. Cf. also
Ashmole's Theatrum Chymicum.

82 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Age, p. 270.
88 Sachs, Julius von, History of Botany, p. 359.

THE NEW SCIENCE 21

tematic botany was begun in the last thirty years of the seventeenth
century".8* The great names in the study of botany were: — Mori-
son, Grew, Ray, Willughby, Leeuwenhoek, Tournefort, and Mal-
pighi. Morison " helped in the discrimination of genera and got
an idea of lineal descent"; Ray and "Willughby developed the
theory of sex among plants and called attention to striking analo
gies between plant life and human life, their chief work, however,
being a descriptive classification of 18,600 plants (Historia plan-
tarum Generalis) ; Grew and Malpighi used the compound micro
scope to study the cellular structure of plants; Tournefort, also
a systematic botanist, was the author of Institutions Rei Her-
barias, "without a doubt the best book to appear before the time
of Linnaeus ' ' ;85 a long series of his papers are given in the Philo
sophical Transactions. 8Q

With the passing of these men botanical science must await
Linnaeus in the second half of the eighteenth century. But the
accomplishment during this period was noteworthy. The micro
scope had been of great aid in discovering the cellular structure of
plants, in tracing the flow of sap, and in classifying the species.
From 1725 to 1740 the Royal Society received yearly for its re
pository fifty plants from the Chelsea Gardens.87

"The true use of Chemistry", Paracelsus (1493-1541) had said,
"is not to make gold, but to prepare medicine". This was still
largely the belief, the popular conception of a chemist being either
the ' ' sooty Chymist ' ', vainly seeking to transmute the baser metals
into gold, or the apothecary. There was, however, a new element
contributed by Sir Robert Boyle, i. e., that all chemical changes
were due to fire. Add to this the Stahl Phlogiston theory (during
combustion phlogiston, the inflammable element, makes its escape,
and is the cause of light and heat), and the great contributions to
Chemistry in this period end. But there is a new attitude in chemi
cal investigation, as elsewhere. The new science tended to destroy
alchemy88 as the new astronomy tended to destroy astrology. Ben

84 Ibid. p. 66.

86 Thomson, T., History of the Royal Society, p. 33.

86 Phil. Trans. Aug.-Sept., 1674; Aug.-Sept., 1675; June, 1683; Feb., 1685; July-
Aug., 1693; Sept.-Oct., 1694, etc.

87 Cf. Phil. Trans. 1725-40.

*8Ency. Brit., Chemistry, llth Ed. Cf. Ashmole's Theatrum Chymicum; Hathaway's
The Alchemist, Introduction.

22 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Jonson's satire was no longer pertinent for the new scientists.
The Royal Society never sought for the Philosopher's Stone.

The spirit of travel and exploration was active in this period.
Dampier's Voyages is a conspicuous example. And, not only
did Sorbiere, Moncony, Evremont, Voltaire, and other foreigners
visit England for purposes of inspection, but many Englishmen
likewise returned the compliment. Ray, Willughby, Lister, Thores-
by made journeys to the continent to gather data for the new na
tural history ; Halley sailed to South America to make astronomical
observations; Sir Thomas Browne made a tour of discovery into
Iceland. The later archaeological investigations of Lord Montagu
in the far East are well known. Connected with this interest was
a desire to make accurate geography. The work of the Sansons in
France is perhaps the most important. Helvelius's map of the
moon, inspired of this same spirit, furnished a good mark for the
satirists. Related to the geographical interest is the study of the
structure of the earth itself. Geology had not yet really begun,
but the work of Woodward is noteworthy. He endeavored to ex
plain the presence of sea fossils found far inland on the basis of
Burnet's Sacred Theory. sg At the time of the deluge, he claimed,
the waters pent up within the crust of the earth burst their bounds,
and when the various substances again settled to the layer where
their varying weights carried them, these fossils were thus dis
placed. The explanation was ingenious but not convincing even
to his contemporaries.90 It may now be seen, however, that Wood
ward narrowly missed discovering the strata of the earth's crust,
the great achievement of the following years.

In mathematics there was great activity through these years.
As has been shown, Descartes brought this pure science to the aid of
philosophical problems, making it the handmaid of astronomy and
physics. There could, however, be little to attract the popular mind
developed from its study. There was a dispute that lasted for
several years between Descartes, Hobbes, Wallis, and others, over the
possibility of squaring the circle; and Newton and Leibnitz quar
reled over their respective claims to priority in the invention of

88 Cf. Woodward's Account of the Deluge.

80 Cf. Arbuthnot's An Examination of Woodward's Account of the Deluge, WTca.,
vol. II, p. 196.

THE NEW SCIENCE 23

differential calculus.91 The great names in mathematics were: —
Descartes, Wallis, Wilkins, Isaac Barrow, and Newton. There is
no great service that it performed alone, but it entered vitally into
the new study of astronomy, physics, and scientific calculations
generally.

The study of physics was pursued with great vigor, and the
accomplishments were noteworthy. There were experiments made
of falling bodies, of heat, light, cold, color, of atmospheric weight,
of elasticity of air, of magnetism, and, growing more frequent in
the last years of the period, of electricity.92 The great names in
this science were; — Descartes, Boyle, and Newton. Descartes de
veloped his "vortex theory" of motion; Boyle discovered the law
of the compressibility of air that bears his name ; Newton, by means
of mathematical demonstration, established the law of gravitation,
and explained the phenomenon of prismatic colors. There was,
furthermore, considerable interest in navigation; Charles II per
formed some experiments in this branch of science in his laboratory
at Whitehall.93 This interest lead to experiments with the com
pass, and hence with magnetism. "The greatest Modern Inven
tions seem to be," said Sir William Temple in defense of ancient
learning, "those of the Load-Stone and Gun-powder".94 And then
Hauksbee began in 1705 a series of interesting electrical experi
ments which culminated in the work of Benjamin Franklin, whose
letters were received by the Royal Society in 1746. The period is
clearly fruitful in discoveries and the tendency is towards things
of practical use.

The study of living bodies was greatly stimulated by Harvey 's
discovery of the circulation of the blood, and was augmented by
the invention of the microscope. "By means of the Telescopes,
there is nothing so far distant but may be represented to our view ;
and by help of the Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to
escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible world discovered

91 Phil. Trans. Mar. 16, 1668; Apr. 13, 1668; Feb. 5, 1669; June 21, 1669. Cf.
Arbuthnot's Advantages of Mathematical Studies and Berkeley's New Arithmetic.

92 Phil. Trans. Mar. 6, 1665; Nov. 15, 1669; June 17, 1672; July 15, 1672; Nov.
8, 1672; Feb. 28, 1673; Jan. 24, 1676; Jan.-Feb., 1707; May-June, 1708; Oct.-Dec.,
1714; Nov.-Dec., 1732; April-June, 1736; July-Oct., 1739; Jan.-Feb., 1741; Jan.-Feb.,
1742.

93 Pepys, Samuel, Diary, 1665, Jan. 15, 1668-9.

84 Temple, Sir William, Miscellanea, pt. I, Some Reflections, etc.

24 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

to the understanding ' '.95 This was the period of the beginning of
histology and anatomy, with the descriptions of bone structure, of
blood composition, of valves in the veins, etc. There were experi
ments in respiration, in the structure of the skin, and particularly
with medicinal plants.98 ' ' A garden of medical plants was created
by the Company of Apothecaries as early as 1673, and it was greatly
improved in the early years of the 18th century, chiefly through
the influence of Sir Hans Sloane".97 It is claimed that Leeu-
wenhoek really discovered the existence of bacteria by means of
his microscopes.98

Many of the members of the Royal Society were physicians,
who willingly accepted "the new Method of Philosophizing ".
Their interest concentrated all biological investigations upon their
relationship to medical practice. This, however, does not seem to
have been greatly improved. ' ' Medical science had been somewhat
improved, but the practice of lowering the constitution by exces
sive bleedings was so general that it may be questioned on the whole
whether it did not kill more than it cured".99 Surgery, which was
differentiated from the practice of medicine, was not changed ap
preciably by the new science. It continued cruel and crude until
the discovery of anaesthetics. Perhaps the most striking single
thing in medical science during this period was the introduction
of inoculation against small-pox, in which Lady Mary Wortley
Montague took such an important part.

Medical superstitions still persisted through this period. Sir
Kenelm Digby, a charter member of the Royal Society, believed
in the power of sympathetic powder ;100 Robert Boyle defended the
mysterious power of "Amulets, or other external Remedies ";101
Richard Wisemann, Surgeon- General to Charles II, assisted at
cures of scrofula by royal touch.102 Elias Ashmole was an adept
in Rosicrucian mysteries. It was the period of the famous Great-

^Hooke, Robert, Micrographia, Preface, p. 9, 1665.

96 Lecky, W. E. H., England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. I, pp. 621-2.

97 Ibid. vol. I, p. 622.

98 Phil. Trans. 1675.

99 Lecky, W. E. H., England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. I, p. 621.

100 Phil. Trans. April-June, 1714.

101 Boyle, Robert, Usefulness of Natural Experimental Knowledge, p. 238.

102 Trail, H. D., Social England, vol. VI, p. 46.

THE NEW SCIENCE 25

orix. ''Boyle, Henry More, Meric Casaubon, Baxter, Cudworth
all believed fully in witchcraft".103 But even then all these be
liefs were considered vagaries. The influence of the new science
was consistently and strongly to destroy all such untenable and
undemonstrable theories. The quack doctor still continued to exist
and no doubt to flourish, but he was neither created nor nutured
by the new philosophy. What, indeed, could be more fatal to
medical chicanery than the requirement to explain by natural
causes the origin of diseases and their cures? In medicine, as in
Chemistry and Astronomy, false doctrines were being broken down.
What had been a secret and magical art was fast becoming an open
and sensible science. The most famous physician among the new
philosophers and the great exponent of commonsense in medical
practice undoubtedly was Sydenham.

Mechanical inventions were always included within the realm
of scientific investigation. There were two reasons for this; first,
because these inventions were for the most part laboratory appara
tus or the direct result of laboratory experiments ; second, because
the Royal Society had specifically declared its intention "to im
prove all useful Arts, Manufactures, Mechanick Practices, Engynes
and Inventions by Experiments".104 They were satirically known
as ' i Physico-Mechanical Inventions".105 The list is not an un
worthy one; indeed, surprises one in its extent. To this period
should be attributed the improved telescopes for the new methods
of grinding glasses revolutionized this invention. The microscope
belongs here for the same reason; the Torricellian barometer was
at this time first understood and used; a primitive thermometer
came out of the experiments with mercury; the compass was im
proved; the pendulum clock was made so as to avoid variations on
the sea ; the spring clock was invented ; a magic lantern of a crude
sort was made ; the air-pump was contrived by Robert Hooke under
the direction of Boyle ; asbestos was manufactured ; and a weaving
loom was constructed.106 Both Wilkins and Hooke thought they

103 Owen, J., Glanvil's Scepsis Scientifica, Introd., p. XLIV.

10* Supra, p. 6.

106 Shadwell, Thomas, The Virtuoso, Act. I. sc. 1.

vxphil. Trans. Mar. 6, 1665; June 5, 1665 (M. Auzout, On Telescopes); Feb. 12,
1666 (Barometer) ; Oct., 1798 (Magic Lanthorn) ; March 11, 1666 (rarifying engyn) ;
also, Nov. 22, 1675; Dec. 27, 1675; Feb. 21, 1676; Aug.-July, 1678. Savory's steam
engine doubtless belongs here in the list (1698).

26 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

had a method that could be made practicable by which men could
fly. Besides all these there must have been scores of abortive at
tempts. Lord Worcester's A Century of Inventions contains
hundreds of wild-eyed schemes for doing useful and extraordinary
things by mechanical contrivances.

From the foregoing facts it is clear that the new philosophers
were sincere in their stated purpose to be practical and to make
their knowledge useful. This learned group of men did not con
sider it beneath their dignity to give up a meeting to the discus
sion of a new kind of "bee-house"107 or to a consideration of new
agricultural implements.108 Sir Robert Moray devoted one entire
letter to the Royal Society from Hungary to the description of a
new kind of airshaft for ventilating mines.109 There was a drawing
of a proposed speaking trumpet given Sept.-Nov. 1678. An article
found a place in the Philosophical Transactions on preserving ice
and snow by covering them with chaff. In the copy for March 25,
1669, on an equal basis with a new instrument for drawing an
object in perspective, observations of Saturn, and a paper by
Lower on the motion of the heart, is a letter from France on melons,
the best varieties and how to raise them. Certainly the new phil
osophers did not despise the day of small things, and certainly they
desired to be practical, and however many of them were drawn
aside, and however far, into wild vagaries and the following of
false lights, the sum total of their efforts is a noble achievement.

The movement has been defined, and its progress has been traced
through the period, with some account of the activity in the vari
ous fields of interest. A general survey, therefore, should show
the scientific ideas revealed to the world by this company of ex
perimenters. They preached, in the first place, a new scientific
attitude of mind that was fundamental and far-reaching, and that
would affect the mode of thinking of all men who came in contact
with it. It was an insistence upon absolute intelligibility in phil
osophical discussions, — a "working upon Intelligible Principles in
an Intelligible Manner". The first element of Descartes 's method
"was to accept nothing as true which I did not clearly recognize

107 Ibid. July 21, 1693.

108 Ibid. July 3, 1665; July 13, 1668.

109 Ibid. July 3, 1665.

THE NEW SCIENCE 27

to be so". "No arguments are received as cogent, no principles
allowed as current, but what in themselves are intelligible ",110*
The point can hardly be over-emphasized, for the influence of this
insistence is pervasive. It is a demand for commonsense and
reasonableness in all thinking. This is the attempt "to get a
true relation between form and substance",111 as found in English
prose style of the time. And not only is intelligibility insisted up
on, but carefulness also. There must be an accumulation of data,
a course of experiments, a period of preliminary thinking, an avoid
ance of snap-judgments and broad generalizations. Finally, this
is the period of practical knowledge; learning must tend to some
useful purpose if it is to be worth while.

Out of the scientific activity came certain new ideas affecting
man's conception of the physical world. Newton wrote in his
System of the World (1689) a new description of the heavens and
the earth, showing the position and the motion of the planets, and
their relation to the sun, and gave a new conception of the in
finity of space. He also explained the phenomena of colors and an
alyzed the rays of light. The air was found to be a substance, with
weight, compressible, expansive, a thing of interest, comprehensible.
The microscope revealed a new world of minutiae, and raised to a
plane of dignity in the minds of the scientists, the meanest crea
tures. Even the least were found to be fearfully and wonderfully
made. The structure of objects generally was studied, — the bark,
the fruit, the sap of plants. Then came the larger idea that they
belonged in great families. The telescope, likewise, stimulated the
imagination by extending the horizon, by discovering countless
multitudes of stars in the "infinite meadows of the heavens";
while mathematics demonstrated the order and beauty of their mo
tions. Comets lost their mystery, eclipses were explained, seleno
graphy was written, the sunspots observed. In a new sense the
"heavens were declaring the glory of God and the firmament
showing His handiwork". With this expanding horizon came a

u°Wotton, supra, p. 12.

111 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 420.

* That an idea should become intelligible to the New Philosophers it must "have in
some sense a Mechanical Conception." Oldenburg, Henry, Phil. Trans, vol. XVII,
Preface.

28 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

sense of man's insignificance; but the human body received its at
tention. The course of the blood was traced completely when the
microscope discovered the capillaries. The structure of the eye,
of the skin, of the bones, was investigated, and the function of the
lungs in respiration. Some conception was gained of the existence
of ether, of oxygen, of the wonderful power of magnetism and
electricity. There was a crude effort to apply the force of steam
to mechanical uses. Some notion of past races was secured from
their remains, though sought largely through curiosity. And final
ly, through the system of correspondence established by the Royal
Society, a feeling of unity of interest drew the nations of Europe
nearer together. "It was not till now that the notion of 'Europe,
as for intellectual purposes, one great confederation', could be said
to glimmer before the modern mind'*.112

112 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 420.

CHAPTER II

THE CONFLICT OP OLD AND NEW IDEAS

The new philosophy, as an intellectual impulse, entered all aven
ues of thought, but not without opposition. It was challenged in
turn by prejudice, inherited belief, and accepted authority. Bacon
had early bid defiance to the scholastic authority; "the real begin
ning of English philosophy is to be dated from Bacon's break with
scholasticism".1 But to carry on the struggle to certain victory
was left to his disciples. The second step was for the new^science
to free itself from the domination of theology, "to assert the free
dom of the scientific intellect". This was done by the valiant1;
little group of men at Gresham College, who formed the nucleus
of the Royal Society. They pledged themselves to avoid the prob
lems of "Divinity, Metaphysicks, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar,;
Rhetoric, and Logic";2 they "set themselves to read in the Great
Book of Nature, to walk in its Garden and taste its plenty, in
stead of idle talking and wandering."

With their field of inquiry thus bounded and with their ' ' reason
free and unpossest", the new philosophers were ready to search for
the truth by means of experiment and observation, and to lay the
broad foundations for the new natural history of the world. The
reward of their effort was almost instantaneous; flushed with the
triumph of discovery, they entered the "wonderland of modern
science ' ' as revealed by the telescope and the microscope. And they
naively expressed their hope that "as new Light comes in, the old
Hypotheses will fall without noise".3 But this was, of course,
psychologically impossible, for old hypotheses, especially those
which concern personal faith, do not yield in silence. "The grad
ual ebbing of an ancient faith leaves a painful discord between
the imagination and reason. The idols gradually lose their sanc
tity; but they are cherished by poets long after they are disowned
by philosophers, and the poet has the greatest immediate influence
with the many."4 It is this "painful discord" in the period of

1 Seth, James, English Philosophers and Schools of Philosophy, p. 10.
2Wallis, John, Account of Some Passages in my Life, 1696.
•Wotton, William, Reflections, p. 364.
4 Stephens, Leslie, History of English Thought, vol. I, p. 16.

30 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

transition, this effort of the mind to measure itself with a new rule
of reason and commonsense, this struggle of the imagination to
adjust itself to new imagery, which forms the subject of this chap
ter. Those men of literary genius who were brought into intimate
contact with the new philosophy in its full encounter with the 'tra
ditions of ancient faith will here be discussed.

The transition from the old to the new attitude is well illus
trated in the writings of Sir Thomas Browne. The Religio Medici
(1635-6) was written under the domination of the "ancient faith "
There is found in it a frank avowal of the old spirit of acceptance,
the attitude of non-reason against which the new philosophers re
volted. "I believe all this (divine mysteries) is true, which indeed
my reason would persuade me to be false ; and this I think is no
vulgar part of Faith, to believe a thing not only above, but con
trary to reason, and against the arguments of our proper senses".5
Besides this quiescence of reason in The Religio Medici there is
also the old physical conception of the world. "To make a revo
lution every day is the nature of the sun, because of that neces
sary course which God ordained it, from which it cannot swerve
but by a faculty from that same voice which did first give it mo
tion".6 Astrology, although curiously modified, also finds expression
here. "We need not labor with so many arguments to confute
Judicial Astrology; for if there be a truth therein, it doth not
injure Divinity; if to be born under Mercury disposeth us to be
witty; under Jupiter to be wealthy; I do not owe a Knee unto
those, but unto that Merciful Hand that hath ordered my indif
ferent and uncertain Nativity unto such benevolous Aspects".7
Many of the old beliefs are here in more or less direct form. ' ' For
my part, I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are
Witches".8 "I conceive there is a traditional Magick, not learned
immediately from the Devil, but at second hand from his Schol
ars".9 "Therefore, for Spirits, I am so far from denying their
existence, that I could easily believe, that not only whole countries,

8 Browne, Sir Thomas, Religio Medici, vol. I, p. 18.

6 Ibid. vol. I, p. 25.

7 Ibid. vol. I, p. 30.

8 Ibid. vol. I, p. 45.

9 Ibid. vol. I, p. 46.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 31

but particular persons, have their tutelary or Guardian Angels".10
Nor had the stars yet been silenced for him : ' ' For there is a
Musick wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion ; and thus
far we may maintain the Musick of the Spheres".11 This frank
adherence to the old doctrines is given, although the new ideas
were not unknown to him. While Browne writes in the terms of
the old astrology, for instance, the new astronomy is familiar to
him. ' ' I conclude, therefore, and say, there is no happiness under,
or (as Copernicus WILL have it, above) the sun".12

It may be seen, therefore, that Sir Thomas Browne has given his
allegiance to the old faith. There is only a faint hint of ' ' the free
dom of the scientific spirit" in the Eeligio Medici. So equivocal,
however, is- his position on certain points that the reader suspects
the mind of the man to be outgrowing the ' ' ancient faith ' ' ; but no
where in this book does he take the new attitude. The new mental
impulse was yet to come to him, the impulse destined to destroy
entirely the attitude of non-reason and most of the beliefs in this
book.

The ten years from 1635 to 1645 made a radical change in the
point of view of Sir Thomas Browne. Early in the Vulgar Errors
(published in 1646) the most typical characteristic of the new phil
osophers finds expression ; — namely, a defiance of ancient authority.
1 'But the mortalest enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath
done the greatest execution upon truth, hath been the peremptory
adhesion unto authority, and more especially of our belief upon the
dictates of Antiquity".13 Against the unqualified acceptance of the
"dictates of Antiquity" Browne finds seven reasons, which any
member of the Royal Society would have endorsed. 1. Men im
pose a thraldom upon their times by too great reverence for antiq
uity. 2. The ancient times were once present times (from Bacon
himself). 3. The testimonies from antiquity are not always ex
act. 4. The fabulous condition of the accounts should be con
sidered. 5. Men applaud merely ordinary things in the Ancients.
6. Men argue the authority of the Ancients on points that do not

10 Ibid. vol. I, p. 48.

UReligio Medici, vol. I, p. 100.

12 Ibid. vol. I, p. 111.

18 Vulgar Errors, vol. I, p. 152.

32 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

need it. 7. Men have already deserted antiquity on some things.14
These are strange words from the pen of the author of the Religio
Medici; they voice a mental attitude in perfect accord with the
founder of the new experimental philosophy. "Bacon's protest
against the principle of authority is no less vigorous than that of
Descartes".15

But not only has this philosophical physician largely the mental
attitude of the new scientists, he has also an active interest in the
reconstruction of the new natural history. For, first of all, the
aim in writing Vulgar Errors was to correct false notions that had
found lodgment in the minds of the common people.16 The author
becomes here a true virtuoso, testing by experiment and observation
these long accepted theories, and reporting with care the facts and
his conclusions. "No metal attracts, nor animal concretion we
know, although polite and smooth; as we have made trial in Elk's
hoofs, Hawk's Talons, the sword of the Sword-fish, Tortois-shells,
Sea-horse, and Elephant's teeth, in Bones, in Harts-horn, and what
is usually conceived Unicorn's horn".17 This reads like a report
to the Royal Society, and shows beyond a doubt that Sir Thomas
Browne was by this time, both in attitude and method, one of the
new philosophers. The "divine mysteries" were no longer ac
cepted on faith, but must be "strongly erected upon the two great
pillars of truth, experience and reason".18 In the same manner he
proceeded to explain by natural causes the noise of the Death-
watch, 19 and to prove that "crystal is not concreted Ice or Snow".2(>
It was he who found the natural cause for "the raining of wheat
from heaven", which created so much excitement among the virtuosi
at Gresham College.21 "What was found this year in many places
and almost preached for wheat rained from the clouds, was but
the seed of the ivy-berries, which somewhat represent it".2*

14 Vulgar Errors, vol. I, chap. VI.

16 Seth, James, English Philosophers, p. 3.

18 Vulgar Errors, pp. 118-9, Preface.

» Vulgar Errors, vol. II, p. 252.

"Ibid. vol. II, p. 104.

"Ibid. vol. I, p. 299.

10 Ibid. vol. II, Bk. II, chap. 1.

21 Phil Trans. Jan. 21, 1666.

21 Vulgar Errors, vol. I, p. 303.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 33

The vulgar error that "a Dove or Pigeon hath no gall" seemed to
him repugnant to experience, for "anatomical enquiry discovereth
in them a gall".23 Furthermore, he had made experiments with
glow-worms; he had tested distilled waters; he was familiar with
and approved Helvelius's selenography;24 he was acquainted with
the conflicting theories of magnetism as pronounced by Descartes
("whether these effluviums do fly by striated Atoms and winding
particles as Renatus Descartes conceiveth"25) and by Sir Kenelm
Digby ("or glide by streams attracted from either Pole and Hemis
phere unto the Equator as Sir Kenelm Digby excellently declar-
eth"26). To his judgment there was sufficient proof for the ac
ceptance of that curious theory, — likewise listened to with much
respect by the Royal Society — that music had great power over
Tarantulas. The citation will serve as an illustration of how strong
"the two great pillars of truth, experience and reason," must be
to support belief. "Som« doubt many have of the Tarantula, or
poisonous spider of Cabbria, and that magical cure of the bite
thereof by Musick. But since we observe that many attest it from
experience ; since the learned Kircherius hath positively averred it,
and set down songs and tunes solemnly used for it ; since some also
affirm the Tarantula itself will dance upon certain strooks whereby
they set their instruments against its poison; we shall not at all
question it".27

There is reason for surprise that Sir Thomas Browne was not
elected Fellow of the Royal Society, for he was much respected
among the new scientists, as proved by their request that he should
write for them an account of Iceland whither he had travelled.28
For years, also, he was actively interested in antiquarian researches
in England. The results of his investigations are found in The
Urn Burial, Brampton Urns, and many of his miscellaneous tracts.
In all of this effort he was helping in the work of reconstructing the
natural history of the world.

From the foregoing discussion it is evident that Sir Thomas

28 Ibid. p. 317, 318.
"Ibid, vol. II, p. 99.

25 Ibid. vol. II, p. 398.

26 Vulgar Errors, vol. II, p. 218.
"Ibid. vol. II, p. 106.

28 An Account of Island, alias Iceland, at the Request of the Royal Society.

34 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Browne had been thoroughly converted to the new scientific at
titude, and that he must have relinquished many an old theory
which could not adjust itself to experience and reason. And yet
to the last he clung to certain old beliefs that were rapidly yield
ing before the attack of the new science. Concerning astrology he

wrote ; — ' i We do not hereby reject a sober regulated astrology

We do not deny the influence of the stars".29 He still held to the
Ptolemaic system; — "And first we can not pass over His Provi
dence, in that the sun moveth at all, for if it stood still, and were
fixed like the earth, there had been then no distinction of time,
either of day or year, of Spring, of Autumn, of Summer, of Win
ter".30 He continued to believe in omens and portents, and in
general evaded the whole Copernican Theory.31

Sir Thomas Browne has been treated with some minuteness be
cause he represents so clearly the struggle between the old and the
new beliefs during this transitional period. He was, in the first
place, a physician and was brought by his profession into close
contact with the new scientific inquiries. In the second place, he
was gifted with imagination and felt an impulse to give literary
expression to what he thought and felt. His experience will serve
as a type in prose for this early period, — the transition from the
old science to the new, the breaking down of vulgar errors such as
traditions, superstitions and "romantic stories", and the establish
ing of a new system of truth founded on the two great pillars,
experience and reason.

Across the minds of the poets who were brought into direct con
tact with the new philosophy, there fell the sudden light of the
new discoveries. ' ' Every atom became a standing miracle ' ' through
the lenses of the microscope; and the old heaven and the old earth
passed away before the telescope. The old physical imagery grew
obsolete; the conceptions of the old science became outworn. In
this period, "when the traditions of the ancient faith met in full
encounter with the forces of the new philosophy", poetic imagina
tion was struggling to adjust itself to new conditions. This liter
ary phenomenon is illustrated in the work of Cowley, Waller, Den-

29 Vulgar Errors, vol. II, p. 200.

80 Ibid. p. 318.

81 Ibid. vol. II, p. 194; vol. II, p. 318.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 35

ham, the Duchess of Newcastle, Milton and Dryden.32 The prob
lem presented is two-fold; — (1) To what extent the poets were
influenced by the new ideas, and (2) how adequately they gave
literary expression to them.

Cowley was early an ardent advocate of the new scientific in
quiries, and took an active part in their encouragement. Like Mil
ton and Evelyn, he was interested in educational reform and pub
lished in 1661, A Proposition for the Advancement of Learning.
This is a prose essay in which the author has outlined specifically
a plan for a new technical school. He has even given the number
of instructors to be employed and the salaries to be paid them, and
the number of students to be enrolled. By means of this institu
tion he hoped, according to the preface, to encourage "the inquisi
tion into the nature of God's Creatures, and the application of
them (principles discovered) to Humane Uses (especially the lat
ter ".)33 It may thus be seen that Cowley was brought fairly into
contact with the new science; he knew its method, its spirit of
inquiry, and its early achievements.

The passages in his poetry, however, that reveal any influence
of the new philosophy are surprisingly few. Such admiration as
he expressed was for the character and work of Bacon and Harvey.
In his Ode to the Royal Society, he praises Bacon for his revolt
against the power of ancient authority. —

"Authority made

Children and superstitious men afraid,

The orchard's open now and free;

Bacon has broke the Scare-crow Deitie".34

This great scientist, like another Moses, has led men forth from
the bondage of scholasticism; like a new star that "does to Fools
a Meteor show", he has added new beauty to the heavens. But
through all the extravagant flattery of this " unnavigable " poem,
one may clearly see that the quality in the work of Bacon which
Cowley best understood and by which he was most attracted was not

82 Courthope, W. J., History of English Poetry: — "No more lively or characteristic
representative can be found of the thought of an age when the traditions of an ancient
faith met in full encounter with the forces of the new philosophy". — On Donne, vol.
Ill, p. 168.

88 A Proposition for the Advancement of Learning, Preface.

84 Ode to the Royal Society.

36 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

his widening of the physical and intellectual horizon, but "his
candid stile ". Bacon 's style, however, influenced him only in his
1 1 Montaigne-like ' ' essays.35

Harvey's physiological discoveries aroused Cowley's admiration
which found a somewhat awkward expression in an Ode to Dr.
Harvey. There is in these lines a curious attempt to adapt the
old classical imagery to these new scientific ideas. The effect is
almost grotesque. Harvey's search for truth in nature is compared
to the pursuit of Daphne and to Jason's journey after the golden
fleece; his great discovery of the circulation of the blood is the
capture of a modern Proteus; — "Held the slippery Proteus in
chain".36 The clearest and strongest lines in the poem describe
the new process of investigation. —

"Thus Harvey sought for truth in truth's own book,

The Creatures, which by God himself was writ;

And wisely thought 'twas fit,

Not to read Comments only upon it,

But on the Original itself to look".37

All in all, it is a poor showing that the new science makes in
Cowley's verse. Where an attempt is made to give poetic ex
pression to the new ideas the lines become awkward and "un-
navigable", or else they are conventional, and classical imagery
obscures them. No new vision of the heavens has come to him
through the telescope; the "crowds of golden globes on high",38
the milky way, the falling meteors, "gilding the passage as they
flie ' ', were all beheld by poets before the advent of the new science.
Cowley's mind was fettered by classical and out-worn imagery,
but clearly also his imagination was struggling to harmonize that
"painful discord" with reason. The sum of his expression of the
new philosophy, "the great and only heir of all the Ages", is the
encouragement of interest and enthusiasm, a few awkward at
tempts at literary expression, and a scant half dozen new images.

Three other poets belong in the same group with Cowley. They,
too, held over from the old regime and came late to the new point

* Gosse, Edmund, History of 18th Century Lit., p. 77.
90 Ode to Dr. Harvey, st. 2.

87 Ibid.

88 Cf. Ode to the Royal Society, Clad in White, Reason, Maiden-head.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 37

of view. They, too, were intimately connected with the new
scientists. Edmund Waller was elected to a fellowship in the
Royal Society, and must, therefore, have evinced considerable in
terest in the new scientific research. But the effect of the new
discoveries upon his mind was slight. A rather striking figure
came to him from Descartes. "Besides their verses ran all into
one another, and hung together, throughout the whole copy, like
the hooked atoms that compose a body in Des Cartes".39 The
physical imagery in his verse is almost always that of the old
science; there are "the rolling planets and the glorious sun",40
"the influence of the stars",41 and "the bright stars and milky
way".42 A few items of scientific news he had gleaned, however,
such as the newly discovered sunspots, the motion of the earth,43
and the cause of the winds.44 But not even these ideas are used
with consistency. What a meagre expression is this for a poet
who lived through those years of splendid scientific development
from 1660 to 1680. He may have come too late to adjust himself
to the new ideas; certainly he was not inspired by them.

Denham, likewise a Fellow of the Royal Society, touched upon
the new material in only one poem, The Progress of Learning. He
manifested in these lines little confidence in the firm foundation
that was being laid for a new natural history.

"Through seas of knowledge, we our course advance,
Discovering still new worlds of Ignorance,
And those discoveries make us all confess
That sublunary Science is but guess.
Matters of fact, to man are only known,
And what seems more is meer opinion."48

This, then, was the boasted progress that learning had made through
the ages; this was the kind of knowledge which "like the blood,
must circulate"! All attempts to "anatomize the truth into

89 Waller, Edmund, Poems, pt. II, Preface, p. XXI.

*° On the Fear of God, canto II, 1. 23.

41 Instructions to a Painter; the Presage of Rain.

°The Night Piece.

43 Divine Love, canto IV, 15-18.

"Divine Poesy, canto II, 15-16.

46 The Progress of Learning.

38 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Atoms" must needs be in vain. There is for Denham no inspira
tion in the new philosophy. The dearth of new ideas in his lines
is striking. From all the discoveries of science he had caught these
two figures ; besides, in an abstract way, man 's body had become to
him a "microcosm" of the new philosophy. The influence of the
new science upon him is negligible ; the attempt to give poetic ex
pression to what he must have known is slight. He did not, or
could not, adjust himself to the new conditions.

Another member of this group, though remarkable in many
ways, may be dismissed with a few words. The Duchess of New
castle found an insatiable interest in philosophy. It is known
that she once paid a visit to the Royal Society, a fact which caused
a great flutter in London social circles.46 Long before this she had
made up a fairly complete system of philosophy, for herself (1655).
Her method was simple in the extreme. She took from Descartes
and Hobbes the two fundamental principles of all creation outside
of man himself, matter and motion. She held, therefore, that all
physical forms were made by an infinite variety of motion. An
animal would, according to her system, differ from a stone because
of the different motion of the particles that compose the bodies.
There was, also, the "innate" motion which gave life and spirit
to men. It is, however, impossible to take her seriously. She
has characterized her own mind as aptly as any satire could do it :
"I dance a measure with the Muses, feast with the Sciences, or sit
and discourse with the Arts".47 Not in such a manner can either
the arts or sciences be advanced, nor thus can the Muses be highly
honored. The Duchess was, in fact, merely an indefatigable scrib
bler; her mind was "ever bubbling over with phantasies". "Doc
tor", said the Duchess of Newcastle to Wilkins regarding his Dis
covery of a New World, "where am I to find a place for baiting
at, in the way up to that planet?" "Madam", replied Wilkins,
' * of all the people in the world, I never expected that question from
you, who have built so many castles in the air, that you may be
every night at one of your own".48

46 Pepys's Diary, May 30, 1667.

47 Duch. of Newcastle, The Philosophical and Physical Opinions of, 28.

48 Burnet's History of his own Times, p. 128.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 39

In her essay on philosophy and physics she has interpolated ver
sified passages. One sample is enough.

"The Earth, Sun, Moon, the rest of Planets all
Are moved by that, we Vitall Spirits cal. f
And like to Animals, some move slow,
And other some by quicker motion go.
And so some Creatures by their shapes do flye,
Some swim, some run, some creep, some riseth high.
So Planets by their shapes about do winde,
All being made, like Circles, round we finde."49
Aside from these uninspired attempts, her verse contains the most
conventional imagery. She was obviously eager to learn the new
philosophy, she was highly delighted with the experiments which
the Royal Society performed for her; but she did not contribute
anything toward the literary interpretation of the new science.
On the contrary, she offered a splendid target for the "Wits and
Railleurs".

This struggle between the old and the new ideas was also in
the mind of John Milton, the belated Puritan. In his university
days he was taught the old Ptolemaic doctrines which were held
by both Cambridge and Oxford at that time.50 That his imagina
tion first built upon the old physical conceptions can be demon
strated from his early poems.51 Behind The Hymn of the Nativity,
The Arcades, and Comus lie the old scientific beliefs. It is true
that much freedom should be granted the poet in the matter of
poetic imagery ; ' ' he cherishes the old idols long after they have lost
their sanctity and have been disowned by philosophers". The
poetic use of Greek and Roman myths does not postulate an ac
ceptance in the poet's mind. And yet, such lines as the following
show an undistrubed confidence in the old science.
"When the sons of the morning sung,
While the Creator great
His constellation set,
And the well-balanced world on hinges hung."52

49 Of the Motion of Planets, Phil, and Phys. Opinions, p. 24.

50 Masson, David, Life of Milton, vi, p. 534.

61 Ibid. "Milton also inherited the Ptolemaic cosmology".
6iHymn on the Nativity, st. XII.

40 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

The music-of-the-spheres idea finds repeated expression. Further
more, when Milton was tutor to his nephews, 1642-7, he taught
them astronomy from John Holyrood's De Sphaera. This man
was a thirteenth century scientist, "entirely and especially Ptole
maic ' '.53 In a word, Milton had his mind filled with the old natur
al philosophy when he began "brooding over the subject of his great
epic".

The new philosophy, however, was not unknown to him. In
1638-9, he made a journey to Italy where he "saw and conversed
with Galileo".54 From this interview it may be assumed that he
gained a fairly clear idea of the epoch-making work of that scien
tist. That his mind was interested in scientific research is shown
by his Tractate on Education, where he urges a greater study of
science.55 From 1642 to 1665, while Paradise Lost lay in abeyance,
the new experimental philosophy made great progress in England.
Astronomy, as has been shown, was being revolutionized, and men's
conceptions of the heavens were rapidly changing. Scientific in
quiry had become popular in London; Sorbiere found a public
telescope set up in St. James Park.56 The time was drawing near
for Newton to demonstrate the truth of the Copernican theory and
define with accuracy the laws of gravitation at which Hookc and
others had broadly hinted.

In the midst of this scientific readjustment Milton came to the
writing of Paradise Lost. As might have been anticipated, the
whole background of his cosmology is made up of the old science.
There are suggestions of the spheres of Dante's world;57 there are
spirits that walk the earth unseen;68 there are planets that are in
habited by the monstrous and abortive births from this world;"
the stars move in a "mystic dance, and not without song";60 the
rolling heavens turn on a great axle ;61 the stars shed their old-time

"Masson, David, Life of Milton, vol. VI, p. 534.

M Ibid.

68 Milton urges in this paper a further study of science for praetical purposed.

66 Sorbiere, Relation D'Un Voyage en Angleterre, p. 32.

w Par. Lost, III, 416.

"Ibid. IV, 677.

ralbid. Ill, 455-62.

80 Ibid. V, 175-9; 18-27.

61 Ibid. V, 577-9; VII, 380-5.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS

41

astrological influence;62 the alchemists change the baser metals
into gold in the regions below ;63 and, finally, man stands as the
centre of the universe. These details show how Milton employed,
apparently without hesitation, the old beliefs, and based his colos
sal fabric on the old physical conceptions. And so solidly did he
build that even in the nineteenth century Huxley found it neces
sary to attack the science of Milton rather than that of Genesis.

But Milton's mind was not wholly undisturbed by the new ideas.
The "optic tube" of Galileo rose persistently in the midst of his
imaginings ;64 the poet seemed troubled by it, if not really fearful
lest it should bring his whole house of cards tumbling about his
ears. And he was right, too, in his apprehensions, for even as he
wrote the scientists were grinding the lenses for a telescope that
would enable them to see, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the false
basis of his physical theories. But Milton had every reason to want
to know the truth; he was purposing to write a poem which he
hoped the world would not willingly let perish, and its foundations
must be laid as firmly as possible. To Adam, therefore, he gave
the inquisitive mind of the new philosopher who would not be satis
fied with the old traditions and accepted explanations ; to Adam he
gave also a glimpse of the new conception, destined to revolutionize
theology and philosophy, of man's comparative insignificance in the
infinite expanse of the universe. Adam, like John Locke, began to
doubt the long-accepted ' * anthropocentric idea"; "the scenery had
become too wide for the drama".65

' ' Reasoning I oft admire ' ', said the inquisitive Adam to Raphael,
"how Nature, wise and frugal, could commit such disproportions".68
The significant word "reasoning", at once put all the old beliefs
upon the defensive; nullius in verba can be truly called Adam's
motto as well as that of the new philosophers; he, like them,
has proposed ' ' to examine all systems, theories, principles, hypothe
ses". Raphael, at first, answered him evasively that "it makes no

62 Ibid. VIII, 511-3.

63 Ibid. VII, 346-8.

64 Ibid. I, 287-90; V. 261-2; III, 587-90; VIII, 74, 149; "In Paradise Lost there
are nine references to Galileo and one to Copernicus". — Woodhull, Marianna, The Epic
of Par. Lost, p. 310.

65 Stephens, Leslie, History of Eng. Thought in 18th Cent., vol. I, p. 81.
w Par. Lost, VIII, 15-36.

42 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

difference whether the heaven or earth move, and that the Great
Architect had not divulged this secret even to the angels".67 He
many have left it a mystery for the purpose of leading man on to
wild conjecture in order that He might sit in the heavens and laugh
at the "centric and eccentric, cycle and epicycle, orb in orb".68
Man ought rather to wonder and be content than to pry into these
deep secrets. But the new philosopher will not be satisfied with
this answer; some definite attitude must be taken towards those
new ideas concerning the motion of the earth which were then rife
in England. The result of this insistence was a skillful evasion.
"Admitting motion in the heavens, not that I so affirm, though so
it seem to thee who hast thy dwelling here on earth, it imports thee
not. Or what if the sun be centre to the world, what if the light
sent through the transpicuous air to the terrestrial moon make earth
seem like a star, what if the moon be inhabited,69 what if there be
other suns with their attendant moons?70 Whether thus these
things be, or whether not, whether the sun rise on the earth or the
earth on the sun,71 solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid ; leave
them to God, Him serve and fear".72
"Be lowly wise,

Think only what concerns thee, and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition, or degree,
Contented that thus far hath been revealed
Not of earth only, but of highest Heaven. ' '73
What had been revealed to Adam in direct answer to his in
quiry was precisely this, — these things may or may not be so. And
this attitude seemed wholly satisfactory to Milton; once past this
doubtful ground, he went confidently on, as when earlier he had
followed implicitly the Mosaic account. There was apparently
considerable relief expressed in that final apostrophe to science,
when once he had gone by this lion in the way. —

67 Ibid. VIII, 70-85.

68 Par. Lost, VIII, 115-9.
68 Ibid. VIII, 140-5.

70 Ibid. VIII, 148-52.

71 Ibid. VIII, 159-62.
^Ibid. VIII, 167-8.
T»Ibid. VIII, 173-8.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 43

" Mother of Science ! Now I feel thy power
Within me clear; not only to discern
Things in their causes, but to trace the ways
Of highest agents, deemed however wise.'774

From the background of this vast structure stands forth the
simple query of the new philosophy, — How can these Things be?
Milton himself knew not what to answer. The Miltonic universe
trembled to its foundation before the "wary and circumspect " at
titude of the new scientists. The poet dared not scorn the new
theories, nor could he wholly ignore them; and yet, he was afraid
to accept lest he should be too hasty. "Raphael, while not deny
ing the true astronomy, had not suffered Adam to deny the false".75
Such an attitude of doubt must find expression in equivocation, and
equivocation is only a skillful means of evading an adjustment to
new ideas. As a consequence, Paradise Lost represents the great
scientific evasion of this period of transition.

Dryden, who was far more a poet of his period than Milton, was
another literary member of the Royal Society. Although there is
no record of his attending any of the meetings, he was certainly
acquainted with some of the investigators and had a good oppor
tunity to know the character of their work. But his real attitude
toward the new philosophy is hard to define, for there is a hetero
geneous mixture of what is old and what is new in his verse. The
Annus Mira'bilis, for example, has a striking figure based on the
circulation of the blood,78 and references to the recent theories on
the formation of ores underground77 and the causes of meteors.78
But woven into the very texture of the poem is the imagery of
astrology.79 The new material is, however, directly out of the dis
cussion of scientific circles; the poet has followed thus far the in
junction of Bishop Sprat, — to use experiments for poetic imagery.

One passage must be noted in detail, a prophetic address to the
Royal Society, which shows some appreciation of the poetic possi
bilities in the new scientific ideas. —

74 Par. Lost, IX, 679-82.

75 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 211.

76 Annus Mirabilis, 5-6.
"Ibid. 529.

78 Ibid. 559.
78 Ibid. 553-6.

44 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

''Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go,
And view the Ocean leaning on the sky;
From thence our rolling neighbors we shall know,
And on the lunar world securely pry.

Till I foretell from your auspicious care,
Who great in search of God and Nature grow;
Who best your wise Creator's praise declare,
Since best to praise his works is best to know.

0 truly royal! Who behold the law
And rule of things in your Maker's mind;
And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw,
To fit the levelled use of human-kind."80

In the Epistle to Dr. Charleton there is high praise expressed for
the leading scientists of the century, "the assertors of free reason's
Claim".

"The world to Bacon does not only owe
Its present knowledge, but its future too.
Gilbert shall live, till loadstones cease to draw,
And noble Boyle, not less in nature seen,
The circling streams, once thought but pools
From dark oblivion Harvey's name shall save."81

There is, besides, such a recent scientific experiment as the trans
fusion of blood poetized by Dryden in his lines to Mrs. Anne Killi-
grew, — "Thy father was transfused into thy blood". But he had
already transferred her soul to some neighboring star, which
"moved with heaven's majestic pace"; the milder planets of the
old astrology had combined to shine on her auspicious horoscope;
and the spheres for her were musical, as Ptolemy had said.82 Else
where also, as in the poem Upon the Death of Lord Hastings, and in
the lines To Sir Robert Howard, Dryden knows only the "dancing
crystal spheres ' ' and ' ' the atoms casually together hurled ' '. Even
when polishing Milton's Paradise Lost into heroic couplets in The

80 Ibid. 653.

81 Epistle to Dr. Charleton.

» Lines to Mrs. Anne Killigrew, 41-2, 489-90.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 45

State of Innocence, and the Fall of Man, the earth is ' ' self-centred
and unmoved", while the "moving sun" brings the new day.83

From all of which it follows that Dryden was not deeply im
pressed with the new philosophy. It seems never to have occurred
to him that it was a serious matter to know the truth about nature,
or at least to be consistent about its representation. He never
learned 'to read in the great book of nature, to walk in its garden
and taste its plenty '. With his splendid opportunity to associate
with the best scientific minds of his time, he cast them all aside with
a word of compliment, and sought Will's Coffee House for political
gossip. He was too much engrossed with the affairs of men, and
his genius was too "narrow" for him to appreciate these new
ideas. His general attitude is, therefore, not so much one of
"doubting between belief and grimace", as of indifference and in-
appreciation.

To one "who examines historically the movements of imagina
tion" this entire group of transition poets will illustrate the
"strange contradictions of human nature". Living under the
power of the new forces they wrote for the most part out of an
earlier experience; they still dwelt in imagination among the idols
which were fast being cast down by the new philosophy. And
they were neither consistently faithful to the old nor courageously
true to the new. In them imagination had not yet overtaken
reason, and scientific facts came to them unwarmed with poetic
emotion. 'The bare framework of formulae had not yet gathered
round it the necessary associations ' for a .direct expression of their
feelings in terms of the new science.84 Milton alone, even in his
blindness and equivocation, found the broadened horizon of the
new astronomy. For the rest, they were either indifferent, unin
spired or inconsistent.

Some mention should be made of the attitude of Thomas Hobbes
before passing from the poets to the sharp critical struggles which
the new philosophy had with "the traditions of ancient faith".
He should have been a good friend and well-wisher of the new
science for this polemical philosopher, trained in the new method
under Lord Bacon, was imbued with its spirit. But he failed to

88 The State of Innocence, and the Fall of Man, Act II, sc. 1.
«* Stephen^ Leslie, History of Eng. Thought, vol. I, p. 15.

„

46 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

keep step with the progress of the men at Gresham College. In
c'onsequence, he put up a man of straw, "vain Philosophy/' to
serve as his antagonist. This "vain Philosophy " he confused
with the Aristotelianism of his own university days. "Since the
Authority of Aristotle is only current there, " he says of Oxford in
The Leviathan, "that study is not properly Philosophy (the Nature
whereof dependeth not on Authors) but Aristotelity".85 But he
had never read those valiant words of a new philosopher, — "No
principles are received as cogent, no principles allowed as current,
but what in themselves are intelligible ". He had only recently
come under the fascination of mathematics. ' ' Hobbes never opened
Euclid until he was past forty. When he was at Oxford, Geometry
made no part of a student's training".86 Remembering the uni
versities as they were in his youth, and unaware that Oxford had
outstripped him in scientific progress, he launched his criticism
against a curriculum that had no mathematics in it, against an
attitude that regarded this study as an "Art Diabolicall". But
his criticism was late in coming; as for mathematics, Wallis, upon
whom Hobbes later concentrated his hostility, was a far superior
mathematician to that philosopher himself. When Wallis showed
him his mistake in this matter, Hobbes continued his opposition
through wounded pride. Wallis had also shown the absurdity of
Hobbes 's attempts to square the circle and to find a quadrature for
the cube.87 The criticisms that Hobbes had to make were, therefore,
due at first to ignorance and at last found support in perversity.

The task of writing the historical defence of the new science
fell upon Bishop Sprat. The result of his efforts to perform this
task was his History of the Royal Society (1667). He divided
the book into three parts; the first giving only the origin and de
velopment of the Society up to the date of writing, the second de
voted to the achievements of the virtuosi, and the third serving as
a defense of the new philosophy.88 In this defense the author
discussed the various benefits to be derived from the new study.
The last of these benefits from experiments "is that their dis-

88 Leviathan, p. 496.

» Traill, H. D., Social England, vol. VI, p. 79.

81 Phil. Trans. Mar. 16, 1668; Apr. 13, 1668; Feb. 15, 1669; June 21, 1689;
Jan. 17, 1670.

88 History of R. S., pp. 323, 413, 417.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 47

coveries will be very serviceable to the Wits and Writers of this,
and all future Ages There is in Nature such an inexhausti
ble treasure of Fancy, and Imagination, which will be revealed pro
portionately to the increase of their Knowledge".89

The Bishop is particularly anxious to secure the good will of
the "Wits and Railleurs", for these, he thinks, can do more in
jury to the new cause than all the other detractors. His plea runs
thus: 'In the material of experiments and consequent discoveries
lies 'the most fertile subject of Fancy'. This new material is
sorely needed, because the old virtues and qualities of things 'have
long borne the burden alone, and have bin vex'd by the imagination
of the Poets'. The imagery of the new science 'will make the
most vigorous impression on Men's Fancies, because they do even
touch their Eyes, and are nearest to their Nature. Of these the
Variety will be infinite, for the particulars are so, from whence
they may be deduced. They may be always new and unsullied,
seeing there is such a vast number of Natural and Mechanical
things, not yet fully known or improv'd, and by consequence not
yet sufficiently apply 'd'.90 Furthermore, he declares that "the
English Tongue, as it contains a greater stock of Natural and
Mechanical Discoveries, so it is also more enrich 'd with beautiful
Conceptions, and inimitable Similitudes gather 'd from the Arts
of Man's hands, and the works of Nature, than ever any Language
could produce".91 And, finally, as an example of what the new
scientific study of nature will do for the style of a literary man,
Sprat cites Sir Francis Bacon. "The use of Experiments to this
purpose is evident by the wonderful advantage that my Lord
Bacon received from them. This excellent Writer was abund
antly recompensed for his noble Labours in that Philosophy, by a
vast treasure of admirable Imaginations which it afforded him,
wherewith to express and adorn his thoughts about other mat
ters".92

This appeal is strong and sensible, and later writers have dem-

89 Ibid. p. 417.

90 History of the Royal Society, p. 416.

91 Ibid. p. 417.

92 Ibid. p. 416.

48 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

onstrated the truth of his position. But Sprat himself, as a
writer of verse, failed to bring his precepts into practice. His
principles condemn his own poetry. The only reference to the
material of the new science are found in his poems, To the Lord
Protector, and To Abraham Cowley. These lines, even, are filled
with the imagery of the old Ptolemaic cosmology,93 the imagery
of astrology, and medical superstitions.9* The music of the spheres
sounds on through his verse, in spite of Copernicus and Galileo.95
He had written against the belief in witches and fairies, — "the
course of Things goes quietly along, in its own true channel of
Natural Causes and Effects, for this we are -beholden to Ex
periments ",96 And yet, as a poet, he made use of sympathetic
powder97 and judicial astrology.98 In brief, there is in Sprat's verse
no use of the new material of scientific experiments and discoveries.
When he wrote theory, he was sane and intelligible and progres
sive ; when he turned poet, he forgot his own doctrine. His theory
was sound, but he brought nothing to practice.

In Sprat's History of the Royal Society is to be found the first
evidence of the rising tide of opposition against which the new
philosophy was destined to struggle for forty years. The new
science fosters scepticism and nurtures atheism, said the church
men; it is not in harmony with Plato and Aristotle, said the phil
osophers; it is a foolish humor, said the wits. To each of these
Sprat makes reply. The last objection only has been discussed
here, because the others appear later on. In his effort to propitiate
the "Wits and Railleurs", Sprat has presented a remarkable
example of how advanced a man may be in thepry without bring
ing it to practice. In literary theory he anticipated the late
eighteenth century poets; in poetic practice he belonged to the
second quarter of the seventeenth century.

While it is true, through these years, that "philosophy was
preoccupied with the problem of differentiation of science from

* To Abraham Cowley, st. IX.

M Ibid.

96 To the Lord Protector, st. III.

86 To Abraham Cowley, st. IX.

"To Abraham Cowley, st. VI, st. II.

"History of the R. S., p. 340-1.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 49

theology "," yet it was inevitable that the search for natural causes
should arouse controversy among the clergy. One man of this
period stood as the central figure in such an extended controversy.
It partook of the character of theology,100 of philosophy, and of
science, but belongs here because it found literary expression in
the work of Joseph Glanvil, who has been more nearly forgotten
than he deserves. As the result of an essay — Scepsis Scientifica,
1665 — which is a fairly clear exposition of the "wary and circum
spect " attitude of the new philosophers, he was elected Fellow of
the Royal Society. "The Lord Brereton presented a book written
by Joseph Glanvil, M. A., and entitled Scepsis Scientifica, dedi
cated to the Royal Society, the dedication of which was read.
Mr. Glanvil was proposed as a candidate by Lord Brereton''.101
And thus another man with literary bent and with a keen, im
aginative mind was brought into direct contact with the new ideas.
In his case it proved to be a stimulating, if not inspiring, experi
ence, and quickened many a page of his philosophy. He seemed
to feel that the mantle of Lord Verulam had fallen upon him
and that he was called to complete the fragmentary New Atlan
tis.™2 He became, likewise, a staunch defender of the Royal
Society against the venomous attacks of Dr. Stubbe, the hireling
of Robert Grosse, sometime Oxford Fellow and upholder of Aris-
totelianism.103

In all of this Glanvil was a thoroughgoing new philosopher;
but it is in the controversy concerning witchcraft that he repre
sents the conflict between the old and the new ideas. He believed
in witchcraft and undertook to explain it on a scientific basis.
In this struggle he joined forces with Henry More, the Cambridge
Platonist. As Mr. Greenslet says, — ' ' In matters of witchcraft
Glanvil and More hunted in couples".104 The new science had put
the long-accepted belief on the defensive, and Glanvil's problem

99 Seth, James, English Philosophers, p. 17.

100 Birch, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, p. 500.

101 There is an alluring field of investigation in the contribution of the new science
to rational theology and to 18th century philosophy. Of. Seth, English Philosophers,
Stephen^ History of English Thought, Remusat, Histoire de la Philosophie en Angleterre,
Tulloch, Rational Theology, etc.

102 Essay VII, Anti-fanatical Religion and Free Philosophy.
108 Greenslet, F., Joseph Glanvtt, p. 77 8.

104 Ibid. p. 154.

50 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

was to reconcile that belief with the new demand for a reasonable
and natural explanation, and at the same time keep in harmony
with orthodox theology. Writing in the language of the new
philosophy and especially of Descartes, he declared that "the best
way to attain true knowledge is to suspend the giving our con
firmed assent to those Receptions, till we have looked them over
by an impartial inquiry; to reckon of them all as false, or uncer
tain, till we have examined them by a free and unpossest Reason;
and to admit nothing but what we see clearly and distinctly per
ceive."105 This is in perfect accord with the "free philosophy "
of the time ; a ' ' free and unpossest Reason ' ' in search of truth in
natural phenomena was the fundamental principle of the new
science. This principle guided Glanvil confidently on to a cer
tain point, where it met its old enemies, accepted beliefs and in
herited prejudices. Further than this Glanvil's mind could not
go. That point marked the dividing line between the free play
of "unpossest Reason " and theological faith. "Now after all
this, it will be requisite for me to add, that I intend not these
Remarques in favor of any Conceits in Theology, to gain Credit to
such by disparaging Antiquity; No, here the old Paths are un
doubtedly best, quod verum id prius: And I put as much differ
ence between the pretended New Lights, and old Truths, as I
do between the Sun and an Evanid Meteor; Though I confess, in
Philosophy I am a seeker ".106 But a seeker who blind-folds him
self before he begins an investigation of certain problems will sure
ly break his shins upon some sharp-cornered inconsistency. And
so it was with Glanvil.

In Essay VI, Upon Witches and Apparitions, he prefaced the
whole discussion by a statement of his attitude that virtually begged
the question, and was certainly inconsistent with his "vanity of
dogmatizing ". "If anything were to be much admired in an Age
of Wonders, not only of Nature, (which is a constant Prodigy)
but of men and manners; it would be to me matter of astonish
ment, that men, otherwise witty and ingenious, are fallen into the
Conceit that there's no such thing as a Witch or Apparition, but
that these are creatures of Melancholy and Superstition, fostered by

** Essay I, p. 22.
™ Essay I, p. 28.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 51

Ignorance and Design ",107 Once having espoused the belief it
behooved him to establish it by scientific argument and by facts.
This he endeavored to do by " evidence of authority and sense ".
The essay, which was later expanded into the book entitled Sad-
ducismus Triumphatus (1681), contains a number of stories of
witchcraft, the most famous of which is The Demon of Tedworth.™8
There is no need to review the arguments here. The import
ant point is to note the rise of the controversy, this final struggle
between the accepted belief and the scepticism of the new science.
This literary virtuoso employed his best talent in the defence of
the old. He was a gifted man, who, with all his acumen and often
far-sighted imagination, yet yielded obeisance to this figment of
melancholy and superstition. Among the numerous essays against
the belief, only two will be mentioned here. One was by John
Webster, — Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, 1676, — which
called forth an answer by Glanvil and Henry More (Sadducismus
Triumphatus). "Webster declared that all witchcraft was founded
on imagination,109 — a view presented before the Royal Society.110
The detailed answer was written by Glanvil, but he died before
its publication. The Controversy did not cease, however, with
Glanvil's death, (1680), for neither side would yield. ''At least
thirteen books in defence of the belief were published between
1680 and 1718, but they were powerless to check the sceptical
tendency. Among these writers Glanvil was regarded as the great
authority of their subject".111 Finally, in 1718, Dr. Francis Hutch-
inson wrote An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft, which
silenced, if it did not convince, the defenders of the belief. It
was his judgment, — it was undoubtedly sound — ,that the Royal
Society was the most potent cause of the decline of the supersti
tion.112 The effect of this essay is illustrated in the different
attitudes in Addison's De Coverley Papers (1710) and The Drum
mer (1715) and of De Foe's Satiric History of the Devil (1726).

107 Essay VI, p. 1.

108 Essay VI, p. 23. Cf. also Addison's The Drummer.

109 Webster, John, Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, p. 34.

110 Phil. Trans. June-Aug., 1687.

111 Greenslet, F., Joseph Glanvil, p. 173.
132 Ibid. p. 174.

52 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

But here our interest ends, for, though private belief may long have
continued,113 there was a virtual victory for scientific scepticism.

This controversy shows the limitations of Glanvil's mind, but
within his field of appreciation he had remarkable power. Far
beyond any of the contemporary poets is Glanvil's use of the
inventions and discoveries of the new science for imaginative ma
terial. "The world of God, no doubt, is another thing, than the
world of sense is ; and we can judge but little of its amplitude and
glory by the imperfect idea we have of it. From this narrowness
of our senses it is, that we have been so long ignorant of a world
of Animals that are with us, and about us, which now at last the
Glasses, that in part cure this Imperfection have discovered; and
no doubt, there is yet a great variety of living Creatures that onr
best Instruments are too gross to disclose; There is prodigious
fineness and subtilty in the Works of Nature; And sometimes I
fear that we scarce yet see anything as it is".114 And the "seeker
in Philosophy" spoke forth with valiant courage in defiance of
ancient authority in these words; " 'Twas never a Heresie to out-
limn Apelles; or to out-work the Obelisks; Galileo without Crime,
out-saw all Antiquity, and was not afraid to believe his Eyes, in
reverence to Aristotle and Ptolemy. 'Tis no disparagement to
those famous Optick Glasses that the Ancients never us'd them,
nor are we shy of their Information, because they were hid from
the Ages. We believe the polar virtues of the loadstone without
certificate from the days of old, and do not confine ourselves to
the sole conduct of the stars, for fear of being wiser than our
Fathers".115

There is no well-constructed system in Glanvil's scientific ideas.
Nor is there reason for wonder at this, even when his clear mind
and sane judgment are known. He lived in a period of transi
tion when an old system was crumbling and a new one was just
floating into definition. Glanvil is at a stand about the movement
of the earth, for the great Newton had not yet spoken; but his
mind was open to conviction and ready to receive the demonstra
tion of new ideas. When a man admits a grave doubt he cannot

mJohn Wesley and Samuel Johnson are said to have believed in witches.
"* Essay I, p. 17.
115 Essay I, p. 26.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 53

construct a coherent system. "The gradual ebbing of an ancient
faith leaves a painful discord between the imagination and the
reason ",116 Glanvil should not, therefore, be discredited because
of his inability to be consistent. His great literary achievement
was that in the midst of this "imperfect fusion of experiment and
dreaming*' his mind could give life to the dry bones of scientific
facts and formulae. This man had the prophetic vision inspired
by the possibilities in science. "I dare not therefore mention our
greatest hopes; but this I will adventure, That 'tis not unlikely
but Posterity may by those Tubes, when they are brought to higher
degrees of perfection, find a sure way to determine those mighty
questions: Whether the Earth moves? or, the Planets are in
habited? And who knows which way Conclusions may fall?"117
The glimpse he had caught of the "constant Prodigy" of nature
had forced upon him the realization of the narrow bounds of man's
real knowledge. "And when I look back upon the Main Subject
of these papers, it appears so vast to my Thoughts, that me-thinks
I have drawn but a cockle-shell of water from the ocean; What
ever I look upon, within the Amplitude of Heaven and Earth, is
evidence of Human Ignorance: For all things are a great Dark
ness to us, and we are to ourselves; the plainest things are ob
scure, as the most confessedly mysterious ; and the plants we tread
on are as much above us as the Stars and Heavens ' V18 If this man
had been a poet, he would have entered into the great inheritance
of new material promised by Bishop Sprat. As it was, Glanvil
used the new imagery much after the manner of Lord Bacon, and
enriched his pages with new and vivid similitudes.

A second controversy, that grew out of the breaking up of the
old system and that found literary expression, centres in the
Sacred Theory of Thomas Burnet. It was a corollary to the re
construction of natural history that an inquiry should be made into
the harmony between the accepted notion of the beginning of the
world and the experiences through which it passed, and the new
found scientific principles. A man of literary genius was required
to give expression to the inquiry. Thomas Burnet was called

118 Stephens, Leslie, History of English Thought, vol. I, p. 15.
117 Essay I, p. 20.
116 Essay III, p. 24.

54 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

to this service. The first part of the Sacred Theory appeared in a
Latin quarto, 1680, and was commended by Charles II. In 1684
an English folio was published dedicated to the King. Nine years
later the second part came out; and three years afterward his
Archaelogiae Philosophise, the offspring of the former study, satir
ized the biblical account of the fall of man.

Then the battle was on. No sooner had the Sacred Theory been
discovered than it was attacked. Erasmus Warren, Rector of
Worlington in Suffolk, wrote the first criticism. Burnet answered;
Warren fell upon the theory again, adding a personal attack;
Burnet retorted in kind. In 1698 Dr. Keill wrote an essay against
the Sacred Theory, to which Burnet replied in A Review, etc. At
almost the same time Whiston's New Theory of the Earth was
published (1697). Then Blount praised Burnet 's work in his
Oracles of Reason. But the Bishop thought he had vindicated
his theory and was afterwards silent. Dr. Keill, however, wrote
a second criticism in 1734, which practically refuted the entire
hypothesis upon which Burnet had built his wonderful fabrication.
These "fly tings" are all far inferior to the Sacred Theory itself,
with which this discussion is to deal. It may be noted in passing
what the judgment of the phlegmatic scientists was upon this
book. Dr. Keill claimed "that it was his ( Burnet 's) unhappiness
to begin at first with the Cartesian Philosophy, and not having a
sufficient Stock of Mathematical and Mechanical Principles to ex
amine rightly, he rashly believed it, and thought that there was
but little skill required in those Sciences to become a Philosopher;
and therefore, in Imitation of Descartes, he could undertake to
show how the World was made, a task too great even for a Mathe
matician. "119 When the author made inquiry of Dr. Flamstead
as to his opinion of the Sacred Theory that scientist's laconic reply
was, — "There goes more to the making of the World than a fine
turned Period". "The whole Theory", he said, could be over
thrown in "one sheet of paper".120 The written page does not
record the author's answer.

Burnet, however, was a writer of splendid imagination and
possessed of a power of vivid description. He was also a man of

™> Sacred Theory, vol. I, Preface, p. XXXI.
130 Sacred Theory, vol. I, Preface, p. XXXI.

THE CONFLICT OP OLD AND NEW IDEAS 55

considerable classical learning, for he could discuss with intelli
gence various possible renderings of Greek and Hebrew passages in
the Old Testament. His scientific knowledge was just sufficient
to make him rush in where Milton feared to tread. From Des
cartes he got the notion of the* ' ' liquid heavens where the planets
were carried about the sun with the same common stream ",121
of "the true Principles that govern Nature, which are Geometrical
and Mechanical' ',122 of the various spheres of homogeneous mat
ter,123 of matter and motion,124 and of "plain and perspicuous
style ".125 He did not try to conceal his borrowings; "an eminent
Philosopher of this Age, Monsieur Des Cartes, hath made use of
the like Hypothesis".128 He had followed the most recent astron
omical observations;127 he knew the latest miscroscopical investi
gations upon the circulation of the blood;128 he was acquainted
with the recent experiments with steam, and professed to have a
theory of his own regarding it ;129 he had attained to the new con
ception of the infinite dimensions of the universe and the compara
tive littleness of man; he knew the latest geological observations
on the strata of rocks.130 He had cast aside the old belief respect
ing the stars, — "It is full Time now to sweep away these cobwebs
of Superstitions, these Relics of Paganism. I do not see how we
are any more concerned in the Postures of the Planets than in
the Postures of the Clouds".131

The critics of the Sacred Theory doubted whether Burnet him
self really believed his own hypothesis. In answer to this allega
tion the Bishop firmly asserted his unswerving allegiance to the
cause. "I must profess my Assent to the Substance of that
Theory ; and am the more confirmed in it by the Weakness and In-

121 Sacred Theory, vol. II, p. 242.
v® Sacred Theory, vol. II, p. 37.
128 Sacred Theory, vol. I, p. 403.
mlbid. vol. I, p. 68.
12*Ibid. vol. I, p. 368.
128 Ibid. vol. II, Pref.

127 Ibid. vol. I, p. 140.

128 Ibid. vol. II, p. 106.

129 Ibid. vol. I, p. 401.
180 Ibid. vol. I, p. 125.

vol. II, p. 88.

56 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

efficiency of these Exceptions ",132 But the question of its validity
has long since passed and its influence has been swallowed up in
that of Paradise Lost, against which Huxley found it necessary
to direct his attack instead of against the Mosaic account. Here
it needs only to be pointed out that another literary mind has
been brought into close contact with these new scientific ideas;
here is another genius who has devoted his energy to a losing cause,
and his attempts to adjust the accepted beliefs to the new knowl
edge, to harmonize the "painful discord" between imagination and
reason, have found literary expression.

Burnet, like Glanvil, found new possibilities for literary ex
pression in the new learning. Frequently he was as sublime as
Milton himself, but his imagery belonged to this earth; he dealt
with the "sublunary world" which he saw. In his hypothesis the
earth was assumed to have arisen out of "original chaos", so that
he could keep himself firmly planted on the solid ground. He at
tempted to give a strictly scientific account, ' ' always guided by rea
son".133 But there were certain points where he could not restrain
his aroused imagination. In the description of the deluge there is
such a passage ; ' ' Thus the Flood came to its height ; and 'tis not
easy to represent to ourselves this strange Scene of Things, when
the Deluge was in its Fury and Extremity; when -the Earth was
broken and swallowed in the Abyss, whose raging Waters rose
higher than the Mountains, and fill'd the Air with broken Waves.
with an Unusual Mist, and with thick Darkness, so as Nature
seem'd to be in a second Chaos; and upon this Chaos did ride
the distressed Ark, that bore the small remains of Mankind. No
sea was ever so tumultuous as this. Nor is there anything in pres
ent Nature to be compared with the Disorder of these Waters;
All the Poetry, and all the Hyperboles that are used in the Des
cription of storms and raging Seas, were literally true in this, if
not beneath it."134

To him "the greatest Objects of Nature were the most pleasing
to behold". Next to the great concave of the heavens, "there is
nothing that I look upon with more Pleasure than the wide Sea

132 Sacred Theory, vol. II, p. 440.

188 Ibid. vol. I, p. 122.

™- Sacred Theory, vol. I, p. 122.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 57

and the Mountains of the Earth. There is something august and
stately in the Air of those things, that inspires the mind with great
thoughts and Passions".135 "See", he exclaims, "How scornfully
they look down upon us, and bid defiance to all the Elements;
they have borne the Thunder and Lightning of Heaven, and all
the Artillery of the Skies, for innumerable Ages; and do not fear
the crackling of thorns and shrubs that burn at their Feet".138
The writer of this passage is anticipating the poets of the late
Eighteenth century in his appreciation of the grand objects of
nature. And it was his interest in scientific observation that gave
him sufficient familiarity to interpret their spirit. For Burnet
the sky, the sea and the mountains were not the mere tinsel of
poetic adornment, but objects of reality and wonder and inspira
tion. Here is a truly literary interpretation of new scientific
knowledge: "The Continents were made of those three or four
primary masses into which the falling orb of the Earth was divided ;
but the Islands were made of the Fractures of these, and broken
off by the Fall, from the Skirts and Extremities of the Conti
nents".137 The sea, too, had its inspiration for him. "I have ob
served in many places a Ridge of Mountains some Distance from
the Sea, and a Plain from their Roots to the Shore; which Plain
no doubt was formerly covered by the Sea, bounded against those
Hills as its first and natural Ramparts, or as the Ledge or Lips of
its Vessel".138 This is a successful attempt to translate into in
telligible and striking imagery his scientific idea. One may smile
at his antiquated hypothesis, — that the Lord threw up the moun
tains in a haphazard manner for men to wonder at, that the stars
in the sky were more orderly before the fall of man, that the earth
before the flood was as smooth as a table, — but one must admire the
vigor of his imagination and this remarkably successful effort to
give literary life to a scientific discussion. One more illustration
will suffice: "If we should suppose the Ocean dry, and that we
looked down from the Top of some high Cloud upon the empty
Shell, how horribly and barbarously would it look? and with what

1%Ibid. vol. I, p. 105.
188 Ibid. vol. I, p. 172.
187 Ibid. vol. I, p. 170.
138 Sacred Theory, vol. I, p. 125. j

58 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell, or a wide
bottomless Pit ? So deep, and hollow, and vast ; so broken, and con
fused, so every way deformed and monstrous. This would ef
fectually waken our imagination, and make us enquire how such a
thing came in Nature; from what Causes, by what Force or En
gines could the Earth be torn in this prodigious Manner? Did
they dig the Sea with Spades and carry out the Molds in Hand-
baskets?"139

Burnet has accomplished these things in his futile attempt to
found a new system on the fragments of the old: I. He has
shown that new scientific facts can be so infused with imagination
as to become poetic. 2. He has secured the effects of Miltonic
and Aeschylean imagery out of the solid material of this world.
3. He has been led through scientific interest to observe with clear
ness and enthusiasm the objects of nature.

The final assault upon classical authority found its best literary
expression in Swift's Tale of a Tub and Battle of the Books. Here
again the quarrel reached far beyond the new science. In so far,
however, as the ancient scientists are defended against the moderns
we are concerned. How Wotton persuaded Dr. Bentley to print
his Essay on Phalaris as an appendix to his own Reflections Upon
Ancient and Modern Learning is sufficiently familiar.140 It was this
that precipitated the fight for supremacy between the old classical
literature and the modern. But another quarrel that began in
France between Fontonelle and Perrault on the one hand and
Boileau on the other141 was caught up in England by Sir William
Temple, who published in 1690, among other miscellanies, An
Essay Upon Ancient and Modern Learning. One part of this
Essay was aimed directly against the claims of the new philoso
phers for the great progress of modern science both in discoveries
and inventions, and particularly against their bold defiance of
ancient authority. To this Essay William Wotton made reply,

188 Ibid. vol. I, p. 163-4.

140Dyce, Alex., Works of Richard Bentley, Preface.

141 See Fontonelle and Perrault, Biographie universelle. Here belongs that remark
able man, Pierre Bayle, with his Letter (1682) and his "Learned notes" in the Dictionary
(1697). The Letter begins with an attack on Astrology, but quickly passes over into
Theology; the notes are a "scientific scrutiny" of history and classical lore. — Elton,
Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 24.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 59

1697, in his Reflections, in defense of the Royal Society and its
work. Temple answered at once with Some Thoughts Upon An- *^
dent and Modern Learning. Then Dean Swift's satiric master
pieces laughed the quarrel away.

Sir William Temple 's position can be stated briefly ; ' ' 'Tis very
true and just, all that is said of the mighty Progress that learning
and Knowledge have made in these Western Parts of Europe,
within these hundred and fifty years ",142 But, "may there not
have been, in Greece and Italy of old, such Prodigies of Invention
and Learning in Philosophy, Mathematicks, Physicks, Oratory,
Poetry, that none has ever since approached them?"143 When he
had surveyed the actual achievements of the modern scientists, he
found the sum total to be nothing great. " There is nothing new
in astronomy, to vie with the ancients, unless it be the Copernican
System; nor in Physick, unless Harvey's Circulation of the Blood.
But whether either of these be modern Discoveries, or derived from
old Fountains, is disputed ; nay it is so too, whether they are true
or not; for though Reason may seem to favour them more than
the contrary Opinions, yet sense can hardly allow them; and to
satisfie Mankind, both these must concur. But if they are true,
yet these two great Discoveries have made no change in the Con
clusions of Astronomy, nor in the Practice of Physick, and so have
been of little Use to the World, though perhaps of much Honour
to the Authors".144 "The greatest of modern Inventions seem
to be the Load-Stone and Gunpowder".145 The Society at Gre-
sham College had been led into all sorts of vagaries and wild
speculations, — "wondrous Pretensions and Visions of Men".
These were; — "The Universal language, the Philosopher's Stone,
the Transfusion of Blood, the universal medicine, the art of flying,
double-bottomed ships, the virtues of 'that Noble and Necessary
Juice called Spittle', the discoveries of new worlds in the plan
ets,146 the cause of thunder and lightning, the motion of the sun
and earth".147 After this scathing arraignment he closed with the

142 Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning, Miscel., Pt. II, p. 36.

144 Ibid. p. 33.

u*Eisay Upon Ancient and, Modern Learning, Miscel. II, p. 42-3.

145 Some Thoughts, pt. Ill, p. 255.

146 Ibid. pt. Ill, p. 281-2.

UT Essay Upon Ancient and Modern Learning, pt. II, p. 52-3.

60 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

'jquery which the new philosophers heard many times; "What has
been produced for the Use, Benefit, or Pleasure of Mankind, by

.all the airy Speculations 1' '148

The whole discussion shows, on the part of the writer, merely
a superficial knowledge of the scientific activities of the day.
Newton's Discoveries had already been published, yet the new
worlds of the telescope and the microscope were veiled to Temple.
Besides, while all but two of the vagaries he mentioned — the Phil
osopher's Stone and the Universal Medicine — had been discussed
by the Royal Society, they were treated merely as speculations until
demonstration was possible. Temple showed no appreciation 01
the famous group of men who were doing such important things]
even while he wrote. All in all his discussion is unfair, prejudiced^
and superficial.

William Wotton, a Fellow of the Royal Society, took up its
defense in a vigorous reply to Temple. He explained the aims and
methods of the scientists, and gave an account of the discoveries
and the inventions they had made. To him the future was bright
for scientific progress, because "the Royal Society has weathered
the rude Attacks of such sort of Adversaries as Stubbe, who en
deavored to have it thought, That studying of Natural Philosophy
and Mathematicks, was a ready Method to introduce Scepticism
at least, if not Atheism, into the World; Yet the sly Insinuations
of the Men of Wit, that no great Things have ever, or are ever like
to be performed by the Men of Gresham, and that every Man
whom they call a Virtuoso, must needs be Sir Nicholas Gimcrack ;149
together with the public ridiculing of all those who spend their
Time and Fortune in seeking after what some call useless Natural
Rarities".150 As to the men themselves, he thinks "those excellent
Men do highly deserve Commendation for those seemingly uselesc
Labours, and the more since they run the hazard of being laughed
at by Men of Wit and Satyr, who always have their End, if they
make their Readers sport, whether the thing which they expose,
deserves to be ridiculed or not".151

***Some Thoughts, pt. Ill, p. 281. v'
™> Shadwell's The Virtuoso.
150Wotton's Reflections, p. 419.
"^Wotton's Reflections, p. 274-5.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 61

It was at this juncture that Swift came to aid his friend, Temple,
with his satire in the Tale of a Tub, and the Battle of the Books.
Once again scientific learning has only a small part in the quarrel.
To Swift it was a personal matter, for he did not show himself
really interested in the struggle to maintain classical authority.
His actual position, as nearly as it can be ascertained, is summed
up in this sentence from the essay, The Mechanical Operations of
the Spirit: "IHs hard to assign one art or science which has not
annexed to it some fanatic branch; such are, the philosopher's
stone, the grand elixir, the planetary world, the squaring of the
circle".152 This is good sense, for these things were follies even
at that time and deserved censure. The Tale of the Tub ridiculed
Wotton as the defender of these absurd claims. ''The whole
school of Greshamites are too wild in their claims ", says Swift, "the
whole realm of human knowledge is too broad for one generation to
conquer. Besides, the philosophers are working at foolish things."
The new discoveries which Swift promised his readers to discuss
are these : ' ' My new help for smatterers or the art of being deep-
learned and shallow read. A curious invention about mouse-traps.
A universal rule of reason, or every man his own carver; together
with a most useful engine for catching owls. All which the
judicious readers will find largely treated on in the several parts
of this discussion. ' '153 The best word that he had for Descartes was
that he had been chosen as chief "in the academy of modern Bed
lam". He declared Descartes 's ambitions to be that he "reckoned
to see before he died, the sentiments of all philosophers, like so many
lesser stars in his romantic system, wrapped and drawn within his
own vortex".154 But this is not a worthy criticism of that philos
opher's theory, nor does it show any clear understanding of it.
In the Battle of the Books the greatest scene is a description
of the battle itself. Here the scientists take their places in the
battle line. "There came the bowmen (philosophers) under their
valient leaders, Descartes, Gassendi, and Hobbs; whose strength
was such that they could shoot their arrows beyond the atmosphere,

152 Swift, Jonathan, The Mechanical Operations of the Spirit, (Everyman's Edition,
p. 172).

158 The Tale of the Tub, (Everyman's Edition, p. 108).

1M Ibid. p. 107. Repeated in the Battle of the Books, p. 160.

62 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

never to fall down again, but turn like that of Evander, into met
eors; or, like the cannon ball, into stars."155 Paracelsus led the
''stink-pot flingers", Harvey the dragoons, Wilkins the "engin-
ers". The victory went in this case to the ancients. " Homer
slew Wesley, and then seized Perrault and hurled him at Fonton-
elle, killing both."156 "Aristotle let fly an arrow at Bacon, and
missing him, pierced the eye of Descartes."157 The whole battle,
'however, closed in a draw, but the advantage had all been on the
( side of Temple and the Ancients.

IThis heroic burlesque shows what the layman might be expected
to know of the activities in science. Swift, in his early years, had
expressed a great admiration for scientific research. It would
seem that this interest might have led him to considerable knowl
edge of the new experiments. In these two satires, however, where
he is a special pleader, only the most obvious things, the most sen
sational things are mentioned. He made the most of the satiric
possibilities in the sensational claims of the new philosophers.
But of the real workers, of Newton, Boyle, Hooke, Halley, Hans
Sloane, Ray, Willughby, — all of them already famous English
men — he makes no mention. Of .the. great accomplishmeiits, —
"Boyle's law, Newton's Gravitation theory, the Copernican system,
the revelations of the microscope and the telescope — he is either
ignorant, or wilfully omits them.

The effect of these satires was to sweep aside this vain con
troversy. It was not a victory for Temple and the Ancients, nor
did it leave the field wholly in possession of the Moderns. This
result was just what Swift must have desired : He had defended
Temple and had shown the Moderns the unreasonable lengths to
which their claims had gone.

As this period saw the defeat of witchcraft, the sweeping away

<of untenable physical hypotheses, and the banishment of a foolish

reverence for antiquity, so it beheld the downfall of "judicial

astrology". This pseudo-science, which clung like a parasite to

the new philosophy, had long since lost prestige among the learned,188

**The Battle of the Books (Everyman's Edition, p. 155-6).

166 Ibid. p. 160.

™ Ibid.

158 There were men, of course, who had not given it up entirely ; for example John
Dryden, who is known to have "inclined to a belief in it". For the famous astrologers
of the day see supra, Chap. I, p. 20, note.

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS

63

but continued to hold sway over the ignorant by means of almanac-
makers. It was Dean Swift, the man who defended Temple and
the Ancients, that gave the death blow to this false doctrine in the
so-called Partridge Papers. This famous practical joke upon Part
ridge is too well known to need extended discussion. It may be
briefly shown, however, that it was a part of the struggle for the
supremacy of reason and commonsense.

Swift defined his position on the question of astrology in his
Predictions for the Tear 1708. "I must add one word more: I
know it has been the opinion of several learned persons, who think
well enough of the true art of astrology, that the stars do incline,
and not force the actions or wills of men;159 and therefore,
however, I may proceed by right rules, yet I cannot in prudence so
confidently assume the events will follow exactly as I predict
them".160 He then predicted among other things the death of
Partridge "on the 29th of March next, at about eleven at night, of
a raging fever".161 This trick of Swift's caught the humor of
London; the wits were curious to see Partridge hoisted with his
own petard. In due time Partridge's death was announced in a
detailed account of his last moments. The account found some
credence in spite of Partridge's vigorous protest that "the reports
were exaggerated".

Almanac-making did not cease with this incident, but judicial
astrology became a laughing-stock for the town. Commonsense
with satiric lance had driven it from the field, so that it was hence
forth "pensioned in dotage" among all those who pretended to
learning. By this means another stronghold was taken by reason.

This survey of the conflict between the old and the new scientific
ideas has been made by an examination of the salient examples.
The discussion has constantly been centred upon the meeting of
imagination and science. The conflict was far more permeating
than that reaching into religion, moral and human philosophy, and
politics. Nor did the conflict cease with the early years of the

159 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. I; "They incline but do not compel . . .
and so gently incline that a wise man may resist them. . . . They rule but God
rules them." Cf. Browne's Vulgar Errors, vol. II, p. 200; "There is in wise men a
power above the Stars."

160 Swift's Works, vol. VIII, p. 402-3.

vol. VIII, p. 443-4.

64 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

eighteenth century, for new ideas, new physical conceptions must
fight their way today. But this transition period has offered such
phenomena as can be duplicated in more modern times only by the
mid-years of the nineteenth century, when evolution first became
a revolutionizing factor in human thought. The new ideas were
making their way slowly toward an adequate literary expression,
and toward a place of dignity in the minds of thinking men. With
the last years of the seventeenth century there came a scientist
whose genius was so superior, whose character was so irreproach
able that all he did and all he said was looked upon with interest
and attention. Men had only words of praise for Sir Isaac New
ton.

Our study has revealed these facts : ( 1 ) The poets of the transi
tion period, who were brought into close contact with the new
scientific ideas, such as Cowley, Waller, Denham, and Sprat, were
not able to throw off the yoke of conventional, outworn imagery
of a discarded science. The influence of the new material upon
them was surprisingly slight, both in inspiration and imagery.
However much these men might support the new philosophy as
thinkers, as poets they were uniformly of an earlier period of
science. (2) In Milton was found the great scientific evasion, be
cause he stood in doubt at the parting of the ways, distrusting the
old and fearing the new. He was, therefore, forced to equivocate.
Thus far, at least, he was a man of his period, and was fettered by
the transition. (3) Here, too, was the final defeat of the long-
accepted belief in witchcraft and sorcery among learned men; its
last defense finding expression in the work of Joseph Glanvil, a
man of unusually clear vision and sane judgment, and imbued with
the new scientific spirit, but limited by inherited belief and super
stition. (4) Likewise, there was the destruction of the power of
ancient classical authority and a triumph for a ''free and un-
possest Reason". (5) Old false hypotheses, patched up with
new facts but dimly understood, were fully refuted, as in the case
of Thomas Burnet. It was in this destructive process that the
"wary and circumspect disposition" of the scientists made itself
felt most powerfully. (6) The pseudo-science of astrology was
laughed to scorn by Swift, as Ben Jonson had earlier served
alchemy. It was this new attitude of reason and commonsense

THE CONFLICT OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS 65

entering into all the avenues of life that made men ready to dis
card the old idols and the "ancient faith".

Thus far, then, the men of imagination who had the best oppor
tunity to know the new scientific ideas, with the exception of
Glanvil and Burnet, show a general lack of appreciation of them
and their literary possibilities. Milton, indeed, had found an
infinite universe without abandoning the old science; to him the
world had become a speck in space and man "an atom of an atom-
world ". But other poets had followed Hobbes's dictum, — "the
subject of poetry is not natural science but the manners of men".162
The day had not yet fully dawned, "when, through the roof of
the little theatre on which the drama of man's history had been
enacted, men began to see the eternal stars shining in silent con
tempt upon their petty imaginings",163 or when "they began to
suspect that the whole scenery was but a fabric woven by their own
imaginations".164 And, finally, imagination had not yet over
taken reason, nor had the "framework of formulae gathered round
it the necessary associations" for a direct expression of emotion,
without the aid of an outworn hypothesis.

182Hobbes, Thomas, Letter to D'Avenant, 1650.

163 Stephens, Leslie, History of 18th Century Thought, vol. I, p. 82.

16*Ibid. vol. I, p. 15.

CHAPTER III

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY

The new science did not escape the writers of comedy, who were
constantly looking for some fresh, unexplored interest. It was,
in truth, these "Wits and Railleurs" whom the virtuosi feared
most of all, because their ridicule was more difficult to combat
k than the serious, but definite, opposition of others. The play-
writers, moreover, were not careful, nor, indeed, were they de
sirous, to discriminate between true science and pseudo-science.
Satirists do not look for the strong points in a new .movement, but
for its weaknesses. Almost inevitably, therefore, the new phil
osophy would be held responsible for all the absurd things done in
its name ; experimental science must support the follies and chican
ery of pseudo-science and superstition. In this occult science there
was a legitimate field for satire, because the whole basis was false
and the professors of it were charlatans and imposters. The comic
spirit had, in fact, entered the field of occult science long before the
organization of the Royal Society. In 1610, Ben Jonson had
held up Subtle, the alchemist, to public ridicule, and had made
men ashamed to profess this "humour" seriously. But the new
philosophy, also, was opposed to such false pretentious ; and, while
alchemy continued,1 with declining power, through the seventeenth
century, the new demand of experimental science for natural
causes tended to destroy the foolish hopes of turning the baser
metals into gold and to discourage the absurd search for the phil
osopher's stone.2 Subtle, in The Alchemist, could not, therefore, be
classed among the new Baconian philosophers, and Ben Jonson 's
satire was not pertinent in the Restoration period.3

With astonishing pertinacity the belief in witchcraft and sor
cery held a place in the minds of men and found defenders even
among the new philosophers. Bacon had early attempted to
give scientific explanation of it;4 Boyle confessed his faith in it;5

1Cf. Ashmole's Theatrum Chymicum; also, chap. I, p. 21.
8 Boyle, Sir Robert, Sceptical Chymist.

8 The Alchemist was revived in 1663, Pepys saw it in 1664, August 3d. It re
appeared as The Empiric in 1672.

* Traill, H. D., Social England, vol. IV, p. 87.

8 Boyle, Usefullness of Experimental Philosophy, p. 238.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 67

Glanvil declared that to doubt it was the first step toward atheism.6
This connection with the new science brings the satire against it
within the scope of this investigation. "The well-known trials
of the Lancashire Witches occurred in 1613, and again in 1634".7
Comedy immediately took up the subject. Thomas Heywood's
play, The Lancashire Witches, appeared in 1634, satirizing the
trials ; W. Rowley used the same theme in his Witch of Edmonton,
1658. Thomas Shadwell, in 1682, presented a play with the same
title as Heywood's, The Lancashire Witches, in which an in
genious use is made of the power of witches to transform individuals
into various shapes. There is no satire here, but in the introduc
tion Shadwell wrote; "For the Magical Part, I had no Hopes of

equalling Shakespeare There is not one action in the play,

nay, scarce a word concerning it, but is borrowed from some an
cient or modern Witchmonger, which you will find in the Notes,
wherein I have presented you a great part of the Doctrine of
Witchcraft, believe it who will. For my part, I am (as it is said
of Surly in the Alchemist) somewhat costive of Belief".8 The
struggle of this superstition against the principles of the new
science was so far lost in 1715 that Addison could make sport of it
in his comedy, The Drummer, where the secret rapping of the
spirit of the departed is shown to have a very natural, flesh-and-
blood origin.

Another pseudo-science, astrology, found many believers
through the seventeenth century, but not among the new philoso-
sphers. For them the telescope had so far removed the super
stitious awe of the heavens that Thomas Burnet could say, 1687, —
* ' I do not see how we are any more concerned in the Postures of the
Planets than in the Postures of the Clouds ".9 Comedy had al
ready discovered the sham and pretense, for John Wilson satir
ized astrology in The Cheats, 1662. Mopus, in this comedy, is an
astrological physician, and of course a quack, who showed himself
of "no ordinary learning" in an advertisement which he posted;

e Glanvil, Joseph, Sadducismus Triumphatus.
1 Traill, H. D., Social England, vol. IV, p. 86.

8 Shadwell, Thomas, Dramatic Works, vol. Ill, preface to Lan. Witches.

9 Burnet, Thomas, Sacred Theory, vol. II, p. 38.

68 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

"As also (to let the world see how wide of their mark they are like
to run that as boldly as ignorantly dare adventure on physic with
out the knowledge of astrology) I resolve the ensuing astrological
questions. The sick, whether they shall recover or not; the party
absent, whether living or dead. How many husbands or children
a woman shall have, etc. etc., (Signed) A servant of God, and
Secretary of Nature, latros latrophilus Mopus".10 This character
has some of the meaningless jargon that imposed upon the ignor
ant. To him a watch is a "trachleal horodeixe", an inkstand be
comes a "ligneous pixid accommodated with two plumbeous re-
cepticles or stormeous repositories for ink and sand".11 " Tis
the way of the learned. Term is three-quarters of the Art". The
claims of his ability are unlimited. "I wonder my boy comes not.
I have sent him for a rosycrucian preparation has fetcht a man
again after he has been dead a day and a half".12 Mopus is plain
ly intended for a charlatan of the worse sort.

John Dryden used two astrologers most cleverly in the pro
logue to The Wild Gallant (1663), to forecast the success of the
play. Again, taking freely of foreign material, he produced his
comic situation in An Evening's Love (1665) by means of a "mock
astrologer". His skillful use of the technical terms of this pseudo-
science caused Sir Walter Scott to comment; — "Our author's use
of the terms and technical phrases of judicial astronomy intimate
his acquaintance with that pretended science, in which he is known
to have placed some confidence".13 But whatever Dryden 's pri
vate belief, he does not here defend or satirize this pretended
science, nor does he in any way connect it with the new science.
The author knew well enough that astrological studies were not
pursued by the members of the Royal Society.

In all of these comedies the new science is not represented ; nor
in any instance is the material new or from contemporary English
life. The interests of the new philosophers lay elsewhere, and only
through ignorance of their designs and work could these characters
be classed with them. There was one phase of their interest, how-

10 Wilson, John, The Cheats, Act III, sc. I.

11 Ibid. Act III, sc. 4.

12 Ibid. Act V, sc. 4.

"Dryden, John, Complete Works, Scott and Saintsbury, vol. Ill, p. 237-8.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 69

ever, that had been alive for many years even at the time the
Royal Society was formed. It had straightway become a "hum
our" and found itself represented in comedy as early as 1641, in
Shackerley Marmion's The Antiquary?*

Veterano, the Antiquary, does not indeed perform experiments ;
he knows nothing of such modern scientific apparatus as the tele
scope. He embodies, however, the wide-spread interest in collect
ing "rarities". As has been shown, this was an age of historical
research; "antiques", ancient and modern, suddenly took on an
enhanced value. The wits were quick to see the possibilities for
comedy here; and, since the new philosophers aided and abetted
this search for curiosities, it will be necessary to present this
early antiquary and his successors somewhat in detail. Veterano
is thus characterized by his nephew, Lionel, who in true comic
fashion has designs on the old man 's money, — ' ' He is grown obso
lete, and 'tis time he were out of date. They say he sits all day
in contemplation of a statue with ne'er a nose, and doats on decays
with greater love than the self -loved Narcissus did on his beauty".15
Veterano is of course made the scapegoat in the play. Having
been tempted to drink too much, he lets himself be dressed as a
fool and thus brought before the Duke. In this maudlin condi
tion he declares the breeches he wears once belonged to Pompey;
the hat on his head was the possession of Julius Caesar; the spec
tacles astride his nose were worn by Hannibal when crossing the
Alps. When he becomes sober enough to realize the ridiculousness
of his garb, he is mollified only by the assurance that the fool's
coat "did once belong unto Pantabolus the Roman Jester, and
buffoon to Augustus Caesar". False antiques, — an old manu
script found in a wall, a book of mathematics — are palmed off on
him at a handsome price. In his "sacred room" are found "a
portrait of the sibyls", Venus and Cupid by Appelles, Hercules,
Antaeus, Pallas, Jupiter, "a silver box that Nero kept his beard
in", and an urn containing the ashes of the Emperors. The Duke,
conniving with the Antiquarian's nephew, declares the collection of
"rarities" is to be confiscated because their value is such that no
private citizen should be permitted to own them. Thereupon Vet-

14 Dramatists of the Restoration, vol. I, Shackerley Marmiop. I

15 Act I, sc. 1.

70 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

erano in despair wills his property to Lionel. He is altogether a
despicable fool, the gull and dupe of everyone. But the sharpest
satire underlies this dialogue between the Antiquary and his ser
vant Petro. —

"Antiquary, — The very dust that cleaves to one of those monu
ments, is worth more than the ore of twenty mines!

Petro, — Yet, by your favour, Sir, of what use can they be to
you?

Antiquary, — What use? Did not the Seigniory build a State-
chamber for antiquities? And 'tis the best thing that e'er they
did; They are the registers, the Chronicles of the age they were
made in, and speak the truth of history better than a hundred of
your printed commentaries".16

But in spite of such ridicule the interest in antiquarianism, as
the search after all sorts and conditions of rarities and curiosities
was called, increased through the succeeding years, and Veterano
reappeared under the name of Sir Arthur Oldlove in Durfey's
comedy, Madam Fickle, 1677. A glimpse into Oldlove V relic
room is given in this play, where there is a "table with a skull,
sword, vial, shooing horn, box, and picktooth".17 The skull,
Oldlove declares, was one set on the shoulders of St. Gawain of the
Round Table; the sword belonged to "Sir Lancelot du Lake"; the
1 ' shooing horn ' ', the very first ever invented, * ' was left by the Queen
of Sheba in Jerusalem when she visited Solomon"; the box, like
Veterano 's, contained Nero's beard; the vial was full of the tears
of St. Jerome. The dramatist apparently forgot the ' ' picktooth ",
or else his invention failed him.

Here is a full grown humor.

"As when some peculiar quality
Does so possess a man, that it does draw
All his affects, his spirits, and his powers
In their confluctions, all to run one way,
This may be truly said to be a humour".18

So it is with Oldlove. "Is there anything", he asks, "more pleas
ant than antiquities? The Knowledge of the distinction of the

16 Madam Fickle, Act II, sc. 1..

"Ibid. Act III, sc. 1.

18Jonson, Ben, Every Man Out of his Humour, Prologue.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY

71

Ages, or the deeds and manners of the Ancients, I say, is there
anything more pleasant?".19 "Rust adds to Antiquity; 'tis our
Friend".20 Nothing that is new can please him, because it is
new; all that is old delights him, because it is old.

Years afterward, in the eighteenth century, this character came
again on the comic stage. The antiquarian interest was still
alive, so that the "humor" could be appreciated by the audience.
In 1773, Foote wrote a comedy entitled The Nabob. There is
presented, in Act III, a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries at
which Sir Matthew Mite, the Nabob, is elected president because
he has discovered the secret meaning of "Worthington's cat".21
Sir Matthew is merely the resurrected Sir Arthur Oldlove in a
new comic situation. Once more, just at the close of the century,
1798, John O'Keefe presented this old-time antiquarian "humour"
in his Modern Antiques. But this has already extended far beyond
the limits of our period.

Certain common characteristics of these comic representations
are to be noted. In the first place, all the antiquaries are men
of wealth; Yeterano has a fortune which his nephew wants; Old-
love has thousands of pounds to spend for rarities; Sir Matthew
Mite is exceedingly rich ; the purchaser of ' ' modern antiques ' ' has
only a fortune to recommend him. They are all persons of noble
rank, or pretend to be so; Veterano is a noble, Oldlove likewise;
Sir Matthew Mite shams nobility. And, in point of fact, the anti
quarian interest belonged to the English gentlemen, for they alone
had time to pursue it. The Society of Antiquaries was a Gentle
men's club. Furthermore, there is constant complaint in the
comedies that much money is wasted in these investments in an
tiques, too often "modern antique", which might have been put
to better use. There is no benefit to be derived from such pur
suits, those unbitten by the humor declare, either to the collector
himself or to mankind. They could not be expected to see that
this spirit of inquiry, carried to a foolish extent in many cases
certainly, this desire to collect relics of a by-gone age and to find
a means of classifying them so as to interpret that former life,

19 Madam Fickle, Act III, sc. 1.

20 Ibid.

31 It means a cat-boat.

72 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

would lead on the one hand to the writing of history and on the
other hand to the study of Botany, Zoology and Geology. To
the play-writers the search for old manuscripts, for antiques of
literature, for art relics, for old coins, was only a transient fad.
In reality it was an essential part of the new scientific movement
whereby the natural history of the world was to be reconstructed.
If no experiments were needed, yet careful observation was re
quired, which was an equal part of the Baconian injunction. The
antiquarians must find a place, therefore, among the new philoso
phers.

But the first real virtuoso, the comic archetype of the " tribe",
appeared in Thomas Shadwell's comedy, The Virtuoso, 1676.
Langbaine says, — "No man ever undertook to discover the Frail
ties of such Pretenders to this kind of Knowledge before Mr.
Shadwell". The author himself lays claim to originality in his
characterization, in the prologue.

"In this are Fools, that much infest the town,
Plenty of Fops, Grievances of this Age,
Whose nauseous Figures ne'er were on the stage. "22
He is correct so far as purely experimental science and "Physico-
j Mechanical Inventions" are concerned, but one essential phase of
' the new scientific interest has already been discovered. Sir Nicho
las Gimcrack is, however, the most complete comic conception of
the new philosopher, and as such demands full consideration.

This virtuoso is without honor in his own country; his friends
and relatives, with the exception of his admiring wife, do not
hold him in esteem. Snarl, the cynic, says of him, — "My nephew
is such a coxcomb, he has study 'd these twenty years about the
nature of Lice, Spiders, and Insects".23 His friend Sir Samuel
Formal, Rhetorician, asserts, — ' ' He is an enemy to wit as all Vir
tuoso 's are". Clarinda calls him "a sot that has spent £2000 in
Microscopes, to find out the Nature of Eels in Vinegar, Mites
in Cheese, and the Blue of Plums". "One, who has broken his
Brains," adds Miranda, "about the Nature of Maggots, who has
study 'd these twenty years to find out the spots of a Spider, and
never cared for understanding Mankind". Longvil, who has some

23 The Virtuoso, Prologue.
u The Virtuoso, Act I, sc. 1.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 73

reason to denounce him, declares, — ' ' I would rather be a Trumpeter
to liTMonster, and call the Rabble to see a calf with six Legs, than
such a Blockhead." These opinions are not the offspring of envy,
for Sir Nicholas has aroused no jealousy save among those philoso- ^,
phers at Gresham College. "The College indeed refus'd him; ^
they envy'd him".24

The occasion of this general contempt becomes obvious when
the virtuoso is revealed in his laboratory, "a spacious Room, where
all his Instruments and fine Knick-knacks are".25 These "fine
Knick-knacks" include microscopes, telescopes, thermometers,
barometers, "pneumatick Engynes", "stentrophonical Tubes",
fragments of dead insects scattered about, and special colonies of
live ones in a corner. Into this room Shadwell has collected all
the new laboratory apparatus of the Royal Society which he knew,
just as he combined all its interests in this virtuoso. When the
scene opens Sir Nicholas is in the midst of one of his ridiculous
experiments; he is learning to swim by lying on the table and
imitating the actions of a frog in a dish of water in front of him.
"A most compendious method", announces Sir Formal, "that in
a fortnight, has advanced him to be the best swimmer of Europe.
Nay, it were possible to swim with any fish of his inches." But it
suddenly occurs to Longvil to enquire, — "Have you ever tried in
the Water, Sir?"

Sir Nicholas, — "No, Sir, But I swim most excellently on land".

Bruce, — Do you intend to practice in the Water, Sir ?

Sir Nicholas, — Never, Sir, I hate Water. I never come upon
the Water, Sir.

Longvil, — Then there will be no use of swimming.

Sir Nicholas, — I content myself with the speculative Part of
Swimming. I care not for the practick. I seldom bring any
thing to Use ; 'tis not my Way. Knowledge is my ultimate End".26

This quip at the close is the sharpest criticism that was. ever
launched at the devotees of the new experimental science. Again
and again the question of immediate use was asked; and there the
defense was weakest. The microscope and the telescope had re-

24 Ibid. (Lady Gimcrack).

* Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.

28 The Virtuoso, Act II, sc. 1.

74 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

vealed new worlds; there were everywhere fresh fields of investi
gation; the minds of the scientists were constantly piqued with
. curiosity; there was a continued search for some new thing; —
but, naturally enough, thoughts of the "Practick" came only after
curiosity had been satisfied.

The next experiment, however, was one to appeal to the imag
ination and to suggest the practical application of it. In the trans
fusion of blood, which Sir Nicholas has brought to "the Achme of
Perfection", the most extravagant results were hoped for. Dreams
of eternal youth were entertained ; the possibility of an entire trans
formation of the natural characteristics was thought to have been
discovered. Sir Nicholas had transfused the blood mutually be
tween a mangy spaniel and a sound bull-dog, "making both Ani
mals to be Emittent and Recipient at the same time".27 The effect
was astonishing; not only did the spaniel become sound and the
bull-dog mangy, but also the spaniel became a bull-dog and the
bull-dog a spaniel. The recent experiment of a French Academi
cian of transfusing the blood of a sheep into the veins of a madman
fell far short of what this virtuoso had done. His patient "from
being Maniacal, or raging, became wholly Ovine or sheepish; he
bleated perpetually, and chew'd the Cud. He had wool growing on
him in great quantities".28

Sir Nicholas had promised to dissect a "Chichester Lobster"
for his visitors, but unfortunately the fishmonger failed to appear.
The dramatist's reasons for omitting this operation are not clear,
but several suggestions at once occur. Shadwell may not have
known enough about the anatomy of the lobster, or he may have
thought the thing would not be practicable on the stage. The
promised lecture on science also is given up, and doubtless for
the same reasons. Neither one would have made a good scene.

The strangest experiment of all is that of bottling the air. Sir
Nicholas has an ingenious scheme for taking the country air while
sitting at home in the midst of London. He has men employed in
all parts of England — "Factors of Air" — to bottle the different
varieties and send them to him to be stored in a great vault under
his house. He has collected large quantities from Newmarket,

37 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 75

Banstead Down, Wiltshire, Bury, Norwich, — "what you will".29
His custom is to choose the particular kind of air desired, and then,
going into his chamber, to close the windows and doors, and draw
the blinds. He now opens some forty gallons of the chosen air and
snuffs it up eagerly with such exclamations as — "0, this Bury air
is delicate! 'tis delicious! 0, very refreshing!" "There is great
advantage in thus taking the air for it tastes so much fresher from
being bottled, as Liquors do. For, let me tell you Gentlemen, Air
is but a thiner sort of Liquor".

He also weighs the air carefully. From his thorough study he
can tell exactly the weight of a given amount from any district.
That around the "Picque of Teneriffe is lightest in weight; from
Sheerness and the Isle of Dogs comes the heaviest".

"Longvil, — To what end do you weigh this Air, Sir?

Sir Nicholas, — To what end should I? To know what it
weighs. 0, Knowledge is a fine thing!"30

Other experiments in Physics had been made. The virtuoso
produces his pneumatic engine, which, according to his own boast,

he has used to ' ' eclipse the Light of rotton Wood and putrid

Flesh, when it becomes lucid". " 'Tis the finest Light in the
World. But for all that I could eclipse the Leg of Pork in my
Receiver, by pumping out the Air; but immediately upon the Ap
plause of the Air let in again, it became lucid as before."
"Longvil, — Is it so curious a Light?

Sir Nicholas, — I am now studying the Glow-worms; a fine
Study! Curious Animal, I think I shall preserve them
Light all the Year, and then I shall never use any other
Light in my Study but Glow-worms and concave Glasses. . . .
I myself have read a Geneva Bible by a Leg of Pork".31

He has also made experiments with the wonderful properties of
May-dew ; he is an adept in the rosicrucian mysteries ; he is a phy
sician who cures by general prescriptions. He delves into experi
mental science and pseudo-science alike and without discrimination.
It was evidently Shadwell's purpose to make the whole realm of
scientific investigation ridiculous. To this series of absurd ex-

29 The Virtuoso, Act. V, sc. 1.

80 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.

81 The Virtuoso, Act V, sc. 1.

76 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

periments he added extravagant claims of achievements. He comes
here near to the quarrel between the moderns and the ancients
that was fought out a little later. Sir Nicholas seems to have far
outstripped all the ancient and modern scientists; in most things
he has reached "the Achme of Perfection".

In the study of insects there is the most sport for the dramatist ;
it is the most thoroughly canvassed comic element in the play.
Special attention has been devoted to the ants, where the virtuoso
has "discovered more curious Phenomena in these Animals, than
in those of vaster magnitude".32 He knows their form of govern
ment, "which is a kind of Commonwealth, a Republic, resembling
that of the States-General". Spiders have revealed to him more
curious "Appearances of Nature, than to any man living".33 One
spider had been so well trained that he recognized his name,
"Nick", and followed Sir Nicholas around as a dog does its mas
ter.34 He has made a thorough investigation of "the delicate Spider,
call'd Tarantula"; he has "travelled all over Italy, and had no
other Affair in the World, but to study the Secrets of that har
monious Insect."

"Bruce, — Did you observe the Wisdom, Policies, and Customs of
that ingenious People?

Sir Nicholas, — By no means. 'Tis below a Virtuoso to trouble
himself with Men and Manners. I study Insects".35

Snarl says that he cares not for this new philosophy, because
it consists in good-for-nothing experiments upon flies, maggots,
eels in vinegar, and the blue upon plums.36 The world of minutiae
disclosed by the microscope meant only this to the play-writer.

The telescope has revealed the most marvelous things in the
moon to the virtuoso. He has seen the mountains and valleys, seas
and lakes of that place; he has recognized the larger animals, such
as elephants and camels; he has been able to identify public build
ings and ships. But the half has never been told; — "I have seen
several Battles fought there. They have great guns, and have the

82 Ibid.

« Ibid. Act IV.

84 Ibid. Act V.

^The Virtuoso, Act II, sc. 1.

* Ibid. Act IV.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 77

use of Gunpowder There is now a Great Monarch who has

Armies in several Countries of the Moon ; which we found out be
cause the Colours, which we see, are all alike. There are a great
many States, which we take to be Confederacies against him. He is
an ambitious Prince, and aims at universal Monarchy, but the rest
will be too hard for him". 37 The force of nature can hardly go
further than this.

A servant interrupts the Virtuoso's discourse on insects, by
entering to announce, — "Sir, the Gentleman that's going for Lap
land, Russia, and those parts, is come for your Letters and Queries,
which you are to send thither". "Sir Nicholas; — I'll wait on him.
I keep a constant correspondence with all Virtuoso's in the North
and North East Parts. There are rare Phenomena's in those
countries. I am beholden to Lapland, Finland, and Russia for a
great part of my Philosophy. I send my queries there."38

This custom was actually followed by the members of the Royal
Society. In the first place the entire company was divided into
committees, and a definite field of inquiry was assigned to each.
Then, in order that they could keep in touch with scientific ac
tivities in other parts of the world, a system of correspondence was
kept up. Oldenburg, the first secretary, complained because he
was heavily burdened with the correspondence he was obliged to
carry on. Letters poured in upon him from Italy, Spain, France,
America, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, Japan,
China, Persia, and Turkey. From time to time long lists of queries
were sent out by travellers to be answered either by themselves or
by some scientific friend in the foreign parts. Visiting foreigners
were formally invited to the meetings, and were often asked to ad
dress the Society.

Such a custom was destined to have a note-worthy effect. So
far from being the correct material for satire, it deserved high
praise. Of course it had its weakness; many of the reports re
ceived were of the most fabulous character, yet they were repre
sented to the Society and recorded in their minutes. This laid them
open to satiric attack. The idea of such a system of international
communication originated with Lord Bacon's New Atlantis. The

87 Ibid.

88 Ibid.

78 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

king of the Isle of Bensalem sent out groups of men, whom he
called Factors, to make a study in all parts of the world of certain
natural phenomena. It might be added that the whole pattern of
the Society may be found in the same book. The humor in the
mentioning of such places as Finland, Lapland and Russia is al
most wholly lost on the modern reader. To the seventeenth cen
tury mind it was civilization asking barbarism and superstition to
solve its perplexing problems for it.

Although, in general, knowledge is itself the ultimate end
for Sir Nicholas, yet he has applied his skill to some practical in
ventions. He has gone far beyond anyone in improving the tele
scope. It was due to his superior apparatus that he could see so
many more things than other observers. He . has improved the
speaking trumpet "beyond all men's expectation" already, and
hopes within "three months to improve it so that from a chief
Mountain, Hill, Eminency, in a County, a man may be heard
around the Country". The result will be that one person can
preach to a whole county, and the King will be able to "take the
Church Lands and serve all England with its Chaplains in Or
dinary".39

Bacon had declared that a man could, by study of nature, be
come complete master over her. Into this belief Sir Nicholas has
fully entered; — "a man by Art, may appropriate any Element to
himself. You know a great many Virtuoso's can fly; but I am
so much advanced in the Art of flying, that I can already outfly
that ponderous Animal call 'd a Bustard ; nor can any Grey-Hound
in England catch me in the calmest Day, before I get upon Wing.
Nay, I doubt not, but in a little time to improve the Art so far,
'twill be as common to buy a Pair of Wings to fly to the World
in the moon, as to buy a Pair of Wax-Boots to ride into Sussex
with".40

So learned is this virtuoso, at least in his own esteem, that
ordinary words will not afford him free expression; he must have
a "learned language". His dissertation at his first appearance,
where he is learning the art of swimming, will serve as an example
of the extravagance of his speech. "Let me rest a little to respire.

» The Virtuoso, Act V, sc. 2.
40 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 79

So; it is wonderful, my Noble Friend (the French Dancing-master),
to observe the Agility of this pretty Animal, which notwithstand
ing I impede its motions, by the detention of this Fihim, or Thread,
within my Teeth, which makes a ligature about its Loins, and though
by sudden stops I cause the Animal sometimes to sink or immerge,
yet with indefatigable Activity it rises, and keeps almost its whole
Body upon the Superficies, or surface of this humid Element".*1
Later, in explaining respiration, he declares the air is expelled from
the lungs "farther to elaborate the Blood by refrigerating it, and
separating the fuliginous Streams". He talks familiarly of the
"follicular impulsion of Air", of the " Chrystalline from the co
agulation of the Aqueous Juices", of "heterogeneous and homogene
ous", "emittent and recipient", " cacochymious ", "fluidity", "or-
biculation", "fixation", "angulization", "plantananimation".
Many of the recently coined scientific polysyllables are sown through
his speeches in a wanton manner.

In the final scene Sir Nicholas Gimcrack finds himself deserted
by everyone ; even his wife has turned against him when his money
is gone. She 'threatens to publish his letters "and send them to
Gresham College", where he will be "more despised than he now
is there". All of his property is taken to pay for his instruments
and the expenses of his experiments; a mob of weavers have
threatened to take his life for inventing a loom to displace them.
Under these circumstances he repents of his humor. "That I
should know Men no better; I would I had studied Mankind,
instead of Spiders and Insects. — Am I deserted by all ? • Well, now
'tis time to study for Use; I will presently find out the Philoso- *
pher's Stone; I had like to have found it last Year, but that I
wanted May-Dew, it being a dry Season ",42

"The Virtuoso, who piques himself on never intending any
thing that is of use, is certainly a very good character, but the
scenes in which he explains his experiments, must be very heavy
in presentation".43 This is just criticism; the character is good,
but there is too obvious an attempt to get in all the possible hits
on the new science. There are scenes, however, where Sir Nicholas

"The Virtuoso, Act II, sc. 1.

**The Virtuoso, Act V, sc. Ultima.

48 Genest's Some Account of the English Stage, vol. I, p. 888-9.

80 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE .

is not consistently possessed with this new humor, where he is not
a scientist but a man about town, engaging in base intrigues like
other comic characters. (Longvil) "For all his Virtue and
Philosophy, this grave Fool will be in the fashion too".44 Into
these scenes the dramatist did not bring his science as he brought
Sir Formal with his Rhetoric, and Snarl with his hatred of every
thing later than 1642. Sir Nicholas must be in his laboratory,
surrounded by his apparatus, his flies, spiders, mites and maggots,
or his is an ordinary, indistinguishable comic character. His
scientific humor, therefore, is superficial; it is obviously tacked on
to him and not an essential part either of him or of the plot. The
point is that Sir Nicholas is a pretender to this scientific knowledge
and it is this pretense against which the satire is aimed, and not

against the true-blue Greshamites.

Although Sir Nicholas Gimcrack is ShadwelTs master effort,
he did return in other comedies to touch upon the scientific humor.
In the Squire of Alsatia (1688) the father and the uncle of the
young squire discuss the benefit of natural philosophy in the edu
cation of a gentleman.

"Sir Edward, — He by the way read Natural Philosophy, and
had an insight enough into Mathematics.

Sir William, — Natural Philosophy ! Knows nothing ; Nor would
I give for any Mathematician, but a Carpenter, Bricklayer, Meas
ure of Land, or a Sailor.

Sir Edward, — Some moderate skill in it will use a Man to reason
closely.

Sir William, — Very Pretty, Reason! Can he reason himself
into six Shillings by all this?"46

In The Sullen Lovers, 1688, there is a "virtuoso in the character
of Lady Vaine Knowall". She prides herself upon her mercurial
disposition. "On my conscience", says Lovell, "it is easier to fix
quick-silver than your Humour, Madam".46 This capricious vi
vacity is really her humor, even although she pretends to knowl
edge extraordinary. "That Virtuosa, as calls herself, is the pleas-
antest creature I ever saw".47 In reality there is only a claim to-

"Act III, sc. Ult.
«The Squire of Alsatia, Act II.
46 The Sullen Lovers, Act II, sc. 1.
*7 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1. Caroline.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 81

virtuosity. ''Madam", says Lady Vaine, "d'ye think I, that am
a Virtuosa, understand no better than to leave you, now you are
not well ?"48 But she has no experiments to show, no discoveries to
disclose. She is only a "she-pedant" with a vague idea of what
learning consists. A far more direct thrust at the new philosophy
is given by Emilia, — "Others, after twenty or thirty years study
in Philosophy, arrive no further than at the weighing of carps,
the invention of a travelling wheel, or the poisoning of a Cat with
the Oyl of Tobacco; these are your Wits and Virtuoso's". In
the last act of the play it is stated on hearsay evidence that Sir
Positive- At-All can fly; this is distinctly a virtuoso's acquirement.

The new science appeared later in Mrs. Aphra Behn's The
Emperor of the Moon (1687). Dr. Boliardo, having spent a long
time in the study of the "lunar orb", "so religiously believes there
is a world there, that he Discourses as gravely of the People, their
Government, Institutions, Laws, Manners, Religion, and Constitu
tion, as if had been bred a Machiavel there".49

' ' Scaramouch, — How came he so infected f

Elaria, — With reading foolish Books, Lucian's Dialogues of the
Lofty Traveller, who flew up to the Moon, and thence to Heaven;
an Heroick Business called the Man in the Moon, if you'll believe a
Spaniard, who was carried thither, upon an Engine drawn by
wild Geese; with another philosophical Piece, A Discourse of the
World in the Moon; with a thousand other ridiculous volumes
too hard to name".50

A play, called The Man in the Moon, is to be presented before
the moon-struck doctor with such realistic setting that he will be
convinced of its reality.51 The purpose is to bring about an op
portunity for the two young gallants to meet with the closely
guarded young women, with whom they are in love. The doctor,
with all his moon gazing, is jealous of any attention paid his wards.

In the second scene of Act II Doctor Boliardo enters "with all
manner of mathematical Instruments hanging at his girdle;
Scaramouch bearing a Telescope twenty or thirty feet long". This

«Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.

*»The Emperor of the Moon, Act III.

60 Ibid. Act I.

61 Ibid. Act I, sc. 1.

82 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

telescope is pointed at the moon ready for new observations, but
at that moment a visitor is announced, who proves to be a learned
member of the virtuoso society in the moon, "a Cabalist of the
Kosicrucian Order ". In reality it is Charmante in disguise. The
doctor and the stranger talk learnedly about the "Caballa of
Eutopia"; a map of the moon-world is displayed, omitting "no
Town, Village, or Villa ; no Castle, River, Bridge, Lake, Spring, or
Mineral".52 "Keplair and Galileus" enter "with Perspectives
in their Hands "; they are come as "interpreters of the Emperor
of the Moon".53 They say nothing themselves but only by means
of an interpreter who uses a "stentrophon" (the " stentrophoni-
cal tube" of Sir Nicholas). At the end of the comedy Doctor
Boliardo stands alone with the realization that his two wards have
been stolen and he himself has been duped. "I see" he says,
"there's nothing in Philosophy. Of all that he was the wisest
Bard, who spoke this mighty Truth —

He that knew all that ever Learning writ,
Knew only this, — that he knew nothing yet".

It is difficult here to disentangle the new from the old studies
of the moon. Doctor Boliardo is in part the old-time astrologer
with new scientific apparatus, — "his Microscopes, his Horoscopes,
his Telescopes, and all his Scopes". But his brain has been
cracked by the perusal of extravagant fiction, foreign and domestic,
respecting the moon. Among these books is one by Dr. Wilkins,
A Discourse of the World in the Moon, who was a shining light in
the Royal Society. It would seem fair to conclude that the dramat
ist had as confused an idea of the new science as Doctor Boliardo
himself. She knew no distinction between astrology and astron
omy.

The new science did not escape the comprehensive satire of the
Rehearsal (1664-1667).

"Johnson, — But they are a new kind of Wits.

Smith,— New Kind! "What Kind it that?

Johnson, — Why, your Virtuosi, your civil Persons, Your
Drolls."5*

62 Ibid. Act II, sc. 3.

» Ibid.

**The Rehearsal, Act I, sc. 1.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 83

i i Bayes, — A friend of mine at Gresham College has promised to
help me to some Spirit of Brains."55

These are but chance references and are practically negligible,
except for the rather important fact that they could persumably
be understood by all play-goers. Allusions to the new science, like
those to puritanism and the "Good Old Cause ", are made without
appended explanations. As early as 1664 sufficient knowledge of 1
what the Greshamites were doing had spread through London to
make it a familiar source of allusion for wits.

John Lacy's The Dumb Lady appeared in 1672. "The main
plot is taken from Moliere's Mock Doctor; the catastrophe is bor
rowed from Moliere's Love's the best Doctor".56 And yet a little
of the English science has crept into the character of Drench to
give a touch of local color. Isabella praises his ability as a phy
sician most extravagantly, — "he brought a mad- woman to her wits
again that was suspected never to have had any ; nay, he has taken
men's legs and arms off, and set 'em on sound again".57 Jarvis
thereupon declares "that's beyond Surgeon's Hall".

"Softhead, — I'll be hanged if this fellow be not a spy of the
virtuoso's and is come to betray the sectreat of Nature".68

The farrier, Drench, once turned physician, goes the full course.
By happy fortune he is endowed with remarkable wit, and having
once served a montebank, who had taught Drench, had learned
something of the "fanatic branches" of the new science.

"Gernette, — But, Sir, 'tis strange that you should know my
daughter's disease from my pulse.

Doctor, — Sympathy does it. I find you have no faith in sym
pathetic powder, therefore, cannot know our sympathetical way of
practice. When any man or woman is sick in Greenland, they
always send the next of kin to the doctor; and by that pulse the
disease is known and the patient cured

Doctor, — Why, Sir, your men that have endeavored to find
out perpetual motion have come near it, I confess, with their clocks
and pendulums; but Aristotle says, Fix a dial plate to a woman's

"Act II, sc. 1.

66 Dramatists of the Restoration, John Lacy, Note to the Dumb Lady.

67 Ibid. Act I, sc. 2.

68 Dramatists of the Restoration, John Lacy, The Dumb Lady. Act. I, sc. 2.

84 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Mouth, and if the perpetual Motion be not there, let them never
hope to find it ",59

In his practice as a physician, Drench, like the Greshamites,
"works by natural eauses".60

The process here is obvious. Lacy has succeeded in pouring a
little new wine into the old wine-skins without loss. He freely
confesses his obligations to other wits and apologizes for his adapta
tions on the ground that he cannot help it. "There is a kind of
charm in poetry — 'tis like tobacco and chemistry; for if you once
take the one and undertake the other, you are fixed to the freehold
never to be parted".61 The dramatist has gathered a few scraps
from the table of the new scientists and patched up the old char
acter of the astrological physician.

This comic situation and this character reappear in Mrs. Cent-
livre's Love's Contrivance (1703), and in Fielding's Mock Doctor
(1732). In the latter comedy Gregory, as Drench is there called,
has a touch of the new science in him. He had once been a servant
at the university, and being quick of wit, had absorbed some Latin
and some scientific jargon.

* ' Gregory, — Sir, I can cure anything. Hark ye, Mr. Apothecary,
you see that the love she has for Leander is entirely contrary
to the will of her father, and that an immediate remedy is
necessary. For my part, I know of but one ; which is a dose of
purgative running away, mixt with two drams of pills of mat-
rimoniacy and three large handfuls of arbor vitae ; perhaps she
will make some difficulty to take them; but as you are an able
apothecary, I shall trust you for the success. Go, make her
walk in the garden ; be sure to lose no time ; to the remedy quick ;
to the remedy specific.

Sir Jasper, — What drugs, Sir, were those I heard you mention,
for I don't remember I ever heard them spoke of before?
Gregory, — They are some, Sir, lately discovered by the Royal
Society".62

88 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.
60 Ibid.

81 Epistle to the Reader.
62 The Dumb Lady, Act II.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 85

An amusing travesty on dissection is found in Ravenscrof t 'a
The Anatomist; or the Sham Doctor (1697). The comic situation
is conventional enough. Old Gerard loves the young daughter of
Monsieur Le Medecin, whose wife and daughter by the way are
wholly English in name and speech. The doctor consents to the
match for money; but the wife, who "wears the breeches", refuses.
Young Gerard, who has been sent to college to prevent his becoming
a rival to his father, loves Angelica, and is loved by her. Crispin,
the mock doctor, is the servant of young Gerard and in love with
Beatrice, the servant of Angelica. These two servants carry on
the intrigues. Two of the scenes are laid in the laboratory where
a body is to be brought for dissection. Crispin is first caught in
here by Monsieur Le Medecin and is compelled to lie on the dissect
ing table simulating the corpse for dissection. The only thing that
prevents his discovery or dismemberment is the hiding of the doc
tor's instruments by Beatrice. Once out of this predicament he
resolves never to undergo such an experience again. The doctor re
turns before he can escape ; he dons the dress of a physician, which
he finds hanging on the wall, recalls a few phrases that he heard
while lying on the table, and pretends to be a physician come to
witness the dissection. Crispin is now the sham doctor, — "medi-
cus sum" — with a suddenly developed knowledge of astrology.
He considers himself no unworthy member of the profession. ' * The
world belies 'em or there are many physicians as great fools as
myself".63 He compels Old Gerard, who has come clandestinely
to see Angelica, to lie on the dissecting table to avoid detection.
Thereupon he frightens him with threats of "amputation" and
"incisions", of deep carvings from the "Systole to the Diastole".
He dispenses pills to all the patients, — "to find a lap-dog gone
astray, to win the love of a serving girl for a love-lorn swain".
All in all this is a roaring farce, full of fun and with the laboratory
for the first time used with splendid comic effect. Although the
knowledge of astrology clings still to the character of the physician,
he is modern in his anatomy; the heart motions are known, the
blood circulates, the microscope is in use.

Mention, at least, must be made here of The New Athenian
Comedy (1693) by Elkanah Settle. It is a satire on the "Athenian
Society," that, with Dunton at its head, promised to answer all

63 The Anatomist, Act I, sc. 2.

86 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

inquiries sent to it in the pages of its official organ, The Mercury.
One section of this periodical was devoted to science and delivered
to its readers second hand facts from the Royal Society, such as
Swift suggested in his satiric Ode to the Athenian Society. Set
tle's work purports to be a comedy, but is in fact a " scurrilous
dialogue" on the momentous question, — " Which is the more noble
Animal a louse or a flea?" The two scientists, "Jury Squirt,
Casuist, and Physician in Ordinary", and "Joachim-Dash, Mathe
matician", who take part in this debate, have been identified as
Mr. Norris and Mr. Sault, respectively.64 The ridicule was un
doubtedly well deserved.

An adaptation of Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes was made by
Thomas Wright in (1693-1697) The Female Virtuosoes. The fe
male wits are to form a society, an "Academy of Beaux Esprits".
"Woe then" says Sir Maurice Meanwell, "to the Royal Society;
the glory of it will suffer a manifest eclipse".65 His wife, Lady
Maurice, is the leader of these female wits ; she is, in fact, much more
of a "virtuosa" than Lady Vaine in Shadwell's Sullen Lovers.
Her head is full of "projects". "I was yesterday with my Lord
Mayor, to communicate to him a Mathematical Engine of my own,
to keep the streets as clean, and as dry as a drawing Room all the
year around".66 This wonderful invention was to consist of "tim
ber posts" set around the city, to which bellows were to be at
tached for blowing the clouds away. My Lady, it appears, is a
much better philosopher than wife, in the judgment of her hus
band.

"Sir Maurice, — A pretty thing indeed, to see these long spec
tacles of yours set on the Top of my House, for you to peep
through, and tell how many Hackney- Coaches are going in the

moon!"

' ' Sir Maurice, — A pox of Philosopher for a Wife, who the Devil
would marry Wit".67

But Lady Maurice is not the only projector and observer. Love-
wit has a huge limbeck in the process of manufacture —

"Brown, Frank, Elkanah Settle, p. 98.
85 The Female Virtuosoes, Act II, sc. 1.
MIbid. Act III, sc. 1.
«7 Ibid.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 87

"Sir Maurice, — To dissolve the Philosopher's Stone in?

Lovewit, — No, to extract the quintessence of all plays, to sell

by drops to poets of this age ' '.68

Catchat has discovered "three men in the Moon fighting a duel in
a Church- Yard ";69 she is just now engaged in "teaching a Flea
to sing". "The little Creature", says she, "understands notes
already ; and if I live, she shall sing a song in the next opera that 's
acted".70 Even Witless has caught the scientific fever, for he and
his tutor are projecting a "penny-post to the West Indies".71
Already he has made an exact and accurate Map, containing the
most curious and most remarkable Signs upon the Road between
Cambridge and London, with their several Motto 's, Inscription and
Devices, as they were faithfully taken and delineated by Timothy
Witless, Batchelor of Arts, in his Tale of Travels.72 And Sir
Maggot has his schemes abrewing, for "some virtuosi are to wait
on him" about a scheme for the House (Parliament) to have all
the Cities, Towns, Villages in England turned into Sea-ports.73

The cynic and scoffer of the play is Sir Maurice, who can find
no good thing in all of this wit. He makes no claim to having the
virtuoso 's kind of knowledge ; commonsense is still good enough for
him. "I am no Scholar, and I thank my Stars for it; but with
your leave, so much Commonsense has taught me".74 But what
more could be expected of a man who would "affront a Telescope";
one who is made up of a "strange Compound of Vulgar and Clown
ish Atoms". He embodies commonsense commenting on the "fan
atic branches" of the new philosophy.

A worthy representative of the female wits is to be found in the
character of Valeria of Mrs. Centlivre's The Basset Table (1706).
She has, indeed, gone far beyond all previous "virtuosas" in the
matter of experiments; she is "a Daughter run mad after Philoso
phy".75 In her first appearance she dashes upon the stage in the

68 Ibid. Act IV, sc. 2.
88 Ibid. Act III, sc. 1.

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid.

72 The Female Virtuosoes, Act II, sc. 2.
78 Ibid. Act III, sc. 1.

74 Ibid.

™The Basset-Table, Act II.

88 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

mad pursuit of "a huge Flesh-Fly ",76 which she has just received
from Mr. Lovely for dissection.

"Lady Reveller, — I am glad the poor Fly escaped; will you

never be weary of these Whimsies?

Valeria, — Whimsies ! Natural Philosophy a Whimsey ! Oh the

unlearned World.

Lady Reveller, — Ridiculous Learning!

Alpiew, — Ridiculous indeed, for Women, Philosophy suits our

Sex as Jack-Boots would do

Lady Reveller, — My Stars! This Girl will be mad, that's cer
tain.

Valeria, — Mad! So Nero banished Philosophers from Rome,
and the first Discoverer of the Antipodes was condemned for
a heretic.

Lady Reveller, — In my Conscience, Alpiew, this pretty Creature
is Spoiled. — Well, Cousin, might I advise, you should bestow
your Fortune in founding a College for the study of Philosophy,
where none but Women should be admitted".77
A bluff sea captain, designed by her whimsical father for Val
eria's husband, is announced as just returned from foreign parts.
"Servant, — Madam, here's Sir Richard, and a —
Valeria, — A — What, is it an Accident, a Substance, a Material
Being, or a Being of Reason?

Servant, — I don't know what you call a Material Being, it is
a Man.

Valeria, — Pshaw, a Man, that's Nothing.

Lady Reveller, — She'll prove by and by, out of Descartes that
we are all Machines".78

When Valeria is left alone with the Captain, she distracts his wits
with her philosophical queries.

"Valeria, — I would have ask'd you, Sir, if you had the cur
iosity to inspect a Mermaid — Or if you are convinc'd there is a
World in every Star — We by our Telescopes, find Seas, Groves,
and Plains, and all that; but what they are peopled with,
there's the quere.

™ Ibid.
"Ibid.
78 The Basset-Table, Act II, sc. 1.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 89

Captain, — Let your next Contrivance be how to get thither, and

then you'll know a world in every star Are you

always infected?

Valeria, — Dear, dear Philosophy, what immense Pleasures
dwell in thee."79

The fish arrives which she has ordered for dissection, and the
scene opens upon her laboratory, 'where is a table, with books, a
microscope, and the fish lying on it'. Mr. Lovely has found his
way here to woo Valeria in her scientific haunts.

"Valeria, — 0, Mr. Lovely! Come, come here, look through this
glass, and see how the Blood circulates in the Tail of this fish.
Lovely, — Wonderful !

Valeria, — I'll shew you a curiosity, the greatest that ever
Nature made. (Opens a Box). In opening a Dog the other
Day, I found this Worm.

Lovely, — Prodigious ! 'Tis the Joint- Worm, which the Learned
talk so much of.

Valeria, — Ay, The Lumbricus, Lactus, or Faescius, as Hippo
crates calls it, or vulgarly in English, the Tape-Worm

Oh, the profound secrets of Nature!"80

The bluff sea captain was soon "put out of conceit" with
Valeria's "philosophic Cant", for, frankly, he did not value
"the philosophical Gimcrack" worth a "Cockle-Shell". The
father, Sir Richard, in great rage goes to the laboratory just as
Lovely is urging Valeria to run away with him, and leave her
"dear Microscope". As Sir Richard enters Lovely crawls under
a tub that has held the fish.

"Sir Richard,— What, at your Whims,— and Whirligigs, ye Bag
gage! I'll out at the Window with them.
Valeria, — Oh, dear Father, save my Lumbricus Lactus. Oh,
my poor Worm.

Sir Richard,— What is it good for?"81

Lovely is of course discovered and his presence explained with
comic extravagance. But he is not dismayed. One theory pos
sesses him; if he can humor Valeria's hobby until she will deign

79 Ibid. Act II.

80 Ibid. Act III, sc. 1.

nThe Basset-Table, Act III, sc. 1.

90 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

to hear his suit, he believes he can win her. For him this is not
"a mere Speculative Faculty", but for "the Practice". His
perseverance is at last rewarded; — "Nay, there's no Philosophy
against Love; Solon for that", as even Lady Reveller knew.

' ' Lovely, — Will not Valeria look upon me ? She used to be more
kind when we have fish'd for eels in Vinegar".82

This is the only instance of a woman working in a laboratory
among insects and scientific apparatus. Valeria, however, goes
to the full extent; she dissects her pet pigeon to test the "vulgar
error" regarding its gall; she "opens a Dog" to study its internal
structure; she examines a fish through the microscope; she is not
restrained by an unscientific tenderness or affection. "Can Ani
mals, Insects, or Reptiles be put to a nobler Use than to improve
our Knowledge? Cousin, I'll give you this Jewel for your Italian
Grey-Hound".83 She is familiar with the nomenclature of the
Cartesian philosophy; such as, "Accident", "Substance," "Ma
terial Being", and "Being of Reason".84 She is eager to make in
quiry of travellers concerning the marvels in foreign lands. In a
word she is thoroughly one of the new scientists, as comic writers
knew them.

Mrs. Lovely, in A Bold Stroke for a Wife, (1718) has had four
guardians appointed for her, each representing a different humor.
Sir Philip Modelove is the fop of fashion; Tradelove is the mer
chant; Obidiah Prim is the religious fanatic; Periwinkle is the
scientist. These four guardians quarrel about the character of
the husband that is to be selected for their ward. Each demands
that he shall be permitted to select a man dominated with his
own humor. The young man, who rashly undertakes to please
them all, deceives each in turn into promising to recommend him
by impersonating the humors of each. To Periwinkle he is a
Colonel, much-travelled, and greatly interested in the curiosities
of nature. He has collected many "Rarities", "which are not yet
come ashore"; as, an Egyptian Idol, two Tusks of a Hippopota
mus, two pairs of Chinese Nut-crackers, one Egyptian Mummy".86

» Ibid. Act V.

88 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.

84 Ibid.

• A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Act II, sc. 1.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 91

Sir John Tradescant becomes for the time being his uncle. These
qualifications captivate Periwinkle; "I say Knowledge makes the
Man". He, therefore, gladly recommends the Colonel to Mrs.
Lovely; this is the ideal. "He shall be a man famous for Travels,
Solidity, and Curiosity — one who has searched into the profundity
of Nature. When Heaven shall direct such a one, he shall have
my consent, because it may turn to the Benefit of Mankind/'88

"Mrs. Lovely, — The Benefit of Mankind! What, would you

anatomize me?

Sir Philip Modelove, — Ay, Ay, Madam, he would dissect you.

Tradelove, — or, pore over you with a Microscope, to see how

your Blood circulates from the Crown of your Head to the

Sole of your Foot."87

Periwinkle is largely given over to the antiquarian humor.
When he is duped into thinking he has inherited £700 a year, his
mind begins to calculate "what a valuable Collection of Rarities"
can be bought with it. "I may well reserve sixteen hundred of
it for a Collection of such Rarities, as will make my name famous
to Posterity".

"With Nature's Works I'll raise my Fame,

That Men till Dooms-Day, may respect my Name".88

Mrs. Lovely's advice to him is to "study your Country's Good,
Mr. Periwinkle, and not her insects — Rid you of your homebred
Monsters, before you fetch any from abroad — I dare swear you
have Maggots enough in your own Brain to stock all the Virtuoso 's
in Europe with Butterflies".89 And yet he knows other scientific
interests also.

"Periwinkle, — Descartes tells us —

Colonel, — Descartes, with the rest of his Brethren both ancient

and modern know nothing of the Matter. — You have heard of

blazing comets? Those Comets are little Islands, bordering

on the Sun".90

If he has a laboratory it is not mentioned, but he must have a

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid. Act V, sc. 1.

88 Ibid. Act IV.

89 Ibid. Act III.

60 Ibid. Act III, sc. 1.

92 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

" sacred room" for his rarities. Let him, too, enter the ranks of
the new philosophers, even although he is only "a kind of silly
Virtuoso ".91

The character of Carlos in Colley Gibber's Love Makes a Man
(1701) is at first a pedantic philosopher. He is fresh from the
university and the learning acquired there still obsesses him. His
servant, Sancho, says of him, — "Life, Sir! No prince fares like
him ; he breaks into his fast with Aristotle, dines with Tully, drinks
at Helicon, sups with Seneca; then walks a turn or two in the
Milky Way, and after six hours conference with the Stars, sleeps
with old Erra Pater". But he is not a scientist; he is a classical
scholar who at first is used as a foil to his man-of-the-world brother,
Clodio. Carlos, however, quickly lays by all his speculative phil
osophy for the "Practick", when he falls in love with Angelina.
The process of love making a man of him is his escape from pedan
try to worldly commonsense; the transformation from a vague,
absent-minded scholar to the manhood that prompts him to throttle
his brother who has for long bullied him.

The prologue to The Refusal; or, The Ladies Philosophy (1721)
characterizes Sophronia as "a Female Philosophic Saint". She
proves to be a "she-pedant", not a natural philosopher; she knows
the classics, quotes much Latin, but is far from science. She is
considered among the experimenters, however, in certain respects.
1 ' A handsome Wench, that shuts herself up two or three hours with
a young Fellow, only out of Friendship, is making a hopeful Ex
periment in Natural Philosophy indeed".92 As a result of this ex
periment, Sophronia herself says, — "I am now a Proselyte to that
Philosophy which says, Nature makes nought in vain". And to
her is given the theme of the play in this rather fine sentence.
' ' In life there 's no philosophy like Love ' '.93

John Gay's Three Hours after Marriage (1717) has for its
hero Fossil, "a physician interested in rarities". Both of these
phases of his character enter into the plot. In his character as a
physician hits are made upon the practices of doctors. "Your
pulse is very high, Madam", says Fossil to his newly-made bride,

81 Ibid. Dramatis Personae.
« The Refusal, Act III.
"•Ibid. Act V.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 93

"you sympathize, I perceive".— " What might your Menstruum
be", he asks of Plotwell who is disguised as a French Doctor,
"Snow-water or May-dew?"94 Plotwell inquires if there is any
secret in "hydrology, zoology, mineralogy, hydraulics, acoustics,
pneumatics, logarithmatechny", which he desires to have revealed
to him. "That", Fossil answers, "is all out of my way. Do
you know any hermaphrodites, monstrous twins, antediluvian
shells, bones, and vegetables?"95

This virtuoso is interested, however, in the "Lapis Lydius, or
Touch-stone of Virginity", and prepares to try his household by
it. When he has called all of his servants before him, he divides
them into two classes, "the Platonicks and the Cartesians". "The
Platonicks are for Ideas, the Cartesians for matter and motion".96
While Plotwell is in the house in the guise of a French Doctor,
Underplot comes in as a patient. A travesty at once follows on
the method of diagnosing a case. Plotwell who recognizes his rival
proposes the most violent treatment. An operation, he says, is
unavoidable; the strongest glisters must be used. The scene when
worked to this pitch falls tamely away.

As antiquarian Fossil has a famous museum, filled with his
"dear pickled hieroglyphics". Even his new wife is to him "the
best of my Curiosities". He decides to lock her up in this room
when he leaves to make his calls, thinking she would thus be out
of temptation's way. It so happens, however, that Plotwell has
been previously carried in as a mummy and Underplot as an alli
gator. Fossil returns unexpectedly, with two of his friends, Drs.
Nautilus and Possum. They are desirous of examining the two
newly received curiosities much to the consternation of Mrs. Town-
ley and the two intriguers. Mrs. Townley suddenly looks through
the telescope that stands conveniently near and cries, — "What do I
see! Most prodigious! A Star as broad as the Moon in Day
time!"97 The three virtuosi rush to the instrument and quarrel
as to which one ghall first observe the phenomenon. Meanwhile

94 Three Hours after Marriage, Act I.
96 Ibid. Act II.
M Ibid.
87 Ibid.

94 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

the opportunity comes for Plotwell and Underplot to escape. The
scene is pretty well done.

This phase of Fossil's character is most thoroughly treated.
"The Museum of the Curious ", he says, "is a lasting Ornament.
And I think it no degradation to a dead person of quality, to bear
the rank of an anatomy in the learned World".98 Dr. Nautilus
thinks the finest decorations for the "closets of Ladies" would be
"preserved Butterflies, and beautiful Shells, instead of China-
Jars, and absurd Indian pictures."99 "Ah, Dr. Nautilus", says
Fossil, "how I have languished for your feather of Phorphyrion!
—the dust of Manchora, the antediluvian Trowel, the fragment of
Seth's Pillar, and the Entire Leaf of Noah's Journal".100 Mrs.
Townley declares, — "A Mummy is his intimate Friend". The
variety of Fossil's collection is astonishing. When Mrs. Townley
finds two of her lovers in the museum, she turns to the other rari
ties with, — "I don't know but I may have twenty lovers in this col
lection. You Snakes, Sharks, Monkeys, and Man-Tygers, speak,
and put in your claim before it is too late".101 The strange sailor
finds his way to Fossil's house by the fame it has in the community
for containing "the raree-show of oyster-shells and pebble-stones".
So it be a rarity, it mattered not of what, there was a place for it
in his museum.

Once more the "fanatic branches" of science do not escape.
That strange theory regarding tarantulas is here. — Fossil, — "New-
married men are treated like those bit by the Tarantula, both must
have music".102 Alchemy, too, finds expression here, —

"Plotwell, — Me make dat gold my own self of de lead of the
great Church of Cracow.
Fossil, — By what operations?

Plotwell, — By calcination, reverberation, precipitation, sub
limation, amalgamation, volatilization. ' '103

Here again the old and the new science are confused. There

98 Three Hours after Marriage, Act III.
98 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid. Act I, sc. 1.
*»Ibid. Act II.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 95

seems to be no attempt to distinguish between the obsolete, "pre
tended sciences" and the new philosophy.

Fossil stands as a late comic representative of the scientific
humor. He shows no progress over his predecessors ; indeed, much
of his scientific knowledge had appeared several times before him,
and was certainly common property in the days of Sir Nicholas
Gimcrack. There is nothing new in what he has to offer ; even the
"virtuosa", Valeria, could teach him experiments. But here he is
as one "who never opposes a luciferous experiment; it is the beaten
highway to truth", — at the time when Merital, in Fielding's Love
in Several Masques (1728), could say, — "In town we look on none
to be so great a fool as a philosopher, and there is no fool so out
of fashion".104

James Miller wrote a comedy in 1726, called The Humours of
Oxford. The chief humor, as might be expected, is pedantry, and
the chief exponent is Lady Science, whom Clarinda, her niece, calls
"Lady Gimcrack".105 She is, indeed, wholly possessed with this
pedantic scientific humor; every thought finds expression in scien
tific terms. "I might as easily make the most erratick Comet des
cribe a regular circle, as reduce you within the Sphere of Under
standing",106 she says to Clarinda. "I can't bear much malignant
Defamation; but leave you as an Ignoramus of the first Magni
tude", she cries is exasperation. "There is not an individual
Angle in the whole Solid of my Body, but quakes when I come near
her".107 When she discovers that she has mistaken Gainlove in
disguise for Victoria's learned husband- to-be, she exclaims, — "I
am in an universal Fermentation at the thoughts of it — every
Nerve and Fibre in my Frame is put into Vibration with the
Fright."108

Lady Science demands that the man she has chosen for her son-
in-law shall answer certain interrogatories ; —

"Lady Science, — In the first place, Sir — which Hypothesis are

you of — the Ptolmaick, or Copernican ?

104 Love in Several Masques, Act I, sc. 1.
108 The Humours of Oxford, Act I, so. 1.
108 Ibid.

107 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1.

108 Ibid. Act IV, sc. 2.

96 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Gainlove, — Which System f Why, the — the-
Lady Science, — The Copernican I suppose you mean.
Gainlove, — The Copernican.

Lady Science, — For the other is egregiously repugnant to Rea
son, and the usual Operations of Nature — But pray, Sir, have
you any skill in Judicial Astrology — I think it absolutely neces
sary for one who has a Family, to be a considerable Proficient
in that useful Science.
Gainlove, — Absolutely.

Lady Science, — Then without question you can erect Schemes,
and calculate Nativities, Sir — You are acquainted with the Con
junctions and Oppositions of the Planets, their Houses and
Signs — There is the Bull, the Bear, the Ram, the Crab —
Gainlove, — Ay, Madam, — and the Crocodile, the Elephant, the
Whale-
Lady Science, — Well, Sir, I have but one thing more to ask you,
and you shall be conducted to your Bride — Do you think it
ever possible to find out the Longitude, Sir? — it is such a vast
Profundity, that I fear 'tis beyond the reach of any Man to
fathom it.

Gainlove, — A vast Profundity.

Lady Science, — A Man of abundance of Learning ! he still saith
as I do".109

So far has this virtuoso gone into the toils of the scientific humor,
that she applies the test even in matrimony.

Nearly all the varied interests of the new philosophers are repre
sented here. Lady Science no longer doubts the existence of a
vacuum, "for the Skulls of the young Girls and Fops of this Age,
are Demonstrations sufficient. "110 She knows all the systems of
philosophy from Socrates to Whiston ; she discourses on Astronomy
and Philosophy in curtain lectures.111 The scope of her interest
has extended to every scientific apparatus. When she repents of
her philosophical humor she declares; — "I will destroy all my
Globes, Quadrants, Spheres, Prisms, Microscopes, and Magick-Lan-
thorns — 1 11 throw out all my Lumber of Load-Stones, Pebbles, and
Petrified Shells, to pave my Door — I '11 convert my Air-Pumps into

109 The Humours of Oxford, Act IV, sc. 2.

110 Ibid. Act I, sc. 1.

111 Ibid.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 97

Water-pumps, send all my Serpent's Teeth, Mummy's Bones, and
Monstrous Births, to the Oxford Museum ; for the entertainment of
other as ridiculous Fools as myself".11* This ambitious philoso
pher, also, has taken the whole realm of knowledge to be her prov
ince.

But, with all her pretense to learning and college manners, she
is despised by all the other characters. Her daughter and her niece
mock her ; Haughty deceives her ; Ape-All derides her. ' ' You know
what a Pretender the old Lady is to learning and Philosophy",113
says Gainlove, even while he prepares to woo her. The "College
Manners" so highly recommended by Lady Science to her niece,
"like your College Learning are a Hodge Podge of Contradictions
to every Thing in Practice, and only fit for the Place where they
are taught".114 Like Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, she reforms at the *
end of the play. 1 1 1 am justly made a Fool of, for aiming to be a
Philosopher — I ought to suffer, like Phaeton, for affecting to move
in a Sphere that did not belong to me".115

The special point to this comic satire is the pursuit of the new
philosophy by women. The play-writer, however, has been carried
so far beyond this end as to satirize all the university interests.
There is not a single character who has come to college for serious
endeavor. Young Ape-All thinks he has wasted two years of life
because he followed his tutor's advice and studied Latin and Greek;
Connundrum is a veritable travesty on all pretense to scholarship ;
Haughty is a rascal and a fraud. But there is an element of serious
criticism in the speech given to Gainlove at the close of the play.
" Wh7, People of either Sex, Madam, are generally imposed on, when
they concern themselves with what is properly the Business of the
other. The Dressing-Room, not the Study, is the Lady's Province
— and a Woman makes as ridiculous a Figure, poring over Globes,
or through a Telescope, as a Man would with a pair of Preservers
mending Lace". Philosophy may "fit men as Jack-Boots do"; but
it is no business for women.

A very stupid comedy was published anonymously in 1742, en-

»» Ibid. Act V, sc. 1.

mlbid. Act I, sc. 1.

U4lbid. Act II, sc. 1.

115 The Humours of Oxford, Act V, sc. 1.

98 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

titled The State of Physick, which may be found in a volume of
Comedies not Acted, that was edited by John Genest. Across the
title page of this comedy in the copy that fell into the hands of the
writer was written in a bold script the name, "Thos. Dickinson",
but whether intended for the author or not is unknown. "This
piece was never acted", says the Biographia Dramatica, "nor do we
know who is the author ; yet we conjecture it must have been some
person of the faculty, since, if we may be allowed a paltry quibble,
it is apparent, that even in the very title page, to make use of a
vulgar phrase, He talks like an apothecary".116 But, whoever the
author was, he made his purpose plain enough; namely, to expose
medical quackery and the greed of apothecaries.

This study is concerned only with the three doctors, Mody, Run
about, and Easy. Mody is "A Physician of note, formal, and pre
tending to Learning". He is in daily attendance upon Lady
Humane and by his learned conversation keeps her bewildered into
a constant fermentation. Connected with the waiting room of his
office is his museum, with many shelves apparently filled with books.
On inspection, however, Lord Humane finds them for the most part
painted blocks of wood.

"Mody,— The Vacuities are embellish U— A shelf half filled has

such a mean look, that your lordship will judge the improvement

not despicable-

Runabout, — Nothing but the Fertility of your Cranium, Doctor,

could have produced, and nothing but the Royal Society can

merit so serviceable a production.

Mody, — It shall be communicated, to be through them, made

public, for the general good."117

This character is a replica of Dr. Fossil, with his rarities, his
"fossils, shells, and butterflies". From his tongue flow glibly the
cant phrases of medical quackery. When Goody, the apothecary,
fails to include among some half dozen other ingredients a single
powder, Mody exclaims, — " 'Twas the Vehicle of all you took:
'Tis the Alcahest of the Chymists, Primum Mobile of the philoso
phers, and Aqua Vitae of the Apothecaries".118 Later, when he

. Dram. IV, p. 299-300.

117 The State of Physick, Act III, sc. 3.

118 Ibid. Act I, sc. 2.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 99

and his parasite, Runabout, are alone, he confesses, — "But I did my
Endeavor to soothe her up with the usual jargon contrived for the
Amusement of her sex".119

Mody and Runabout, with all their pretense to learning have
never taken a course at the College. Their knowledge has been
gained in London, "The great English University". They have as
associates rogues of other professions of as deep a dye as themselves.
Mody has arranged for a dinner to which he has invited Orator
Puff, Counsellor Certiorari, Alderman Commerce, and Dr. Gim-
crack. And these rascals with their brazen affrontery are success
ful in deceiving their patients until Dr. Easy appears. He is, in
fact, a thoroughgoing sentimental hero in his relationship with Miss
Worthy ; as a physician, he represents the first comic character who
is deserving of respect. He makes no unfounded claims to knowl
edge ; he charges no exhorbitant fees ; he relies more upon common-
sense than upon the nostrums from the apothecaries' shops. This
quiet, modest man rescues Lady Humane from the clutches of Mody
and Runabout, exposes them as rogues, and wins the heart of Miss
Worthy. It is a matter for astonishment to one who has followed
the comic type of physicians through this period to hear him speak
as follows ; —

"Lord Humane, — Who tells you, Nature is so potent as you

make her ?

Dr. Easy, — The great Hyppocrates, together with that modern

Ape of his, good Sydenham. Men, my Lord, —

Who by discarding Hypothetic Rules,

With all the heavy Jargon of the Schools;

Observing Nature, Patriots in her Cause!

And being upright gain 'd themselves applause ! ' '12°

This comedy, with all its dullness, is noteworthy for two reasons.
It gives, in the first place, a clear, satiric exposition of the collusion
between dishonest physicians and apothecaries. The very same
knavery that aroused the ire of Samuel Garth in the Dispensary
(1699) was still extant. This was proper material for satire and
thoroughly deserved the lashing it received. In the second place,
there is shown the first worthy doctor, who represents the earliest

119 Ibid.

120 The State of Physick, Act IV, sc. 4.

100 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

evidence that this profession was attaining respect. Both the good
and the bad physicians lay claim to the new science, but here the
tme representative is successful.

This is the last representation of the new science in comedy so
far as this investigation has gone. There remain the casual refer
ences to the new interest and activity, which can at best be only
indicated. Such allusions will naturally be found for the most part
as figures of speech. Chemistry has furnished many; (Bellamour)
"A little of thy Chemistry, Tom, may extract gold from that
dirt".121 (Malwit) "Thy Chemistry has from that one Virtue ex
tracted all the rest".122 (Setter) "Sublimate, if you please, Sir, I
think my achievements deserve the epithet".123 (Camillo) " 'Tis
the very quintessence and extract of it. (Vidette) I do not like
your Chemical preparations of love".124 Astronomy is likewise a
familiar source of allusion. (Angelica) "What a bustle did you
keep against the last invisible eclipse".125 (Cynthia) "You have
looked through the wrong end of the perspective".126 (Lady Froth-
well) "Well, I swear, Mr. Brisk, you understand astronomy like an
old Egyptian. (Brisk) Not comparable to your Ladyship ; you are
the very Cynthia of the skies, and queen of stars. (Lady Frothwell)
That's because I have no light but what's by reflection from you,
who are the sun. (Brisk) You have eclipsed me quite". Nondes
cript references occur, usually as compliments; (Lord Formal)
"Your Ladyship's eyes are two loadstones that attract the admira
tion of our whole sex".127 (Young Pedant) "Logick is in learning,
what the compass is in navigation. It is the guide by which our
reason steers in the pursuit of true philosophy".128 (Valentine)
' ' She is harder to be understood than a piece of Egyptian antiquity
or an Irish manuscript". (Sir Paul Ply ant) "I am provoked in
to a fermentation". (Bellamore) "A Fool is a vacuum in Na-

121 Fielding, Love in Several Masques, Act III, sc. 10.

M2 Fielding, The Temple Beau, Act I, sc. 1.

128 Congreve, Love for Love, Act IV, sc. 21.

124 Fielding, Love in Several Masques, Act III, sc. 10.

^Fielding, The Temple Beau, Act I, sc. 1.

126 Congreve, Love for Love, Act IV, sc. 21.

137 Congreve, Double Dealer, Act II, sc. 4.

^Durfey, Madam Fickle, Act II.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 101

ture." These are some of the chance fragments blown about by
the wind of literary allusion. They reveal merely the extent to
which scientific activities had entered into the familiar thought of
literary men. Presumably they would be understood by the read
ers or hearers without footnotes, such as Shadwell found necessary
in The Lancashire Witches. Gradually the new scientific ideas
were making their way into the minds of men, but outworn beliefs
were still "pensioned in dotage" for literary purposes.

This study of the representation of new science in comedy has
revealed a fact, which might have been deduced a priori, that the / /
same material has been used over and over again. The writers of '
comedy would not be expected to become thorough students of
science; if they had, their satire would doubtless not have been
written, for then they would have understood more clearly the
splendid work that was being done and they would have appre
ciated mope fully the sterling character of the leaders in scientific
thought. If, then, their knowledge was not deep, it might be ex
pected that they would use the most obvious sources. What are
they?

It has been shown that the Royal Society was the centre of
scientific interest in England. Everyone seemed to understand the
references to Gresham College where this society had its beginning
and where it continued for many years. Its official organ was the
Philosophical Transactions, which was put on sale at many of the
bookshops in London. Here, then, was one obvious source of knowl
edge for the wits. It was to this source that Thomas Shadwell went
for. almost all of his material, practically all of his allusions and '
a good part of his phraseology may be traced to the reports of ^^
experiments in the Transactions, just preceding the presentation of
his comedy, The Virtuoso. For example, on respiration, see Swam-
merdam's letter Oct. 26, 1667, and the experiment of Robert Hooke,
Oct. 24, 1667; on the transfusion of blood, see the report for May
6, 1667, and the experiment of Drs. Lower and King at the Arun-
del House, Nov. 16, 1666, for spiders, a discussion by I. Wray, —
"On Spiders"— 1668, for tarantulas, review of S. W. Senguerdius 's
"de tarantula," 1668, Phil. Trans, vol. Ill, p. 660; on eels in vine
gar, see the letter from Leeuwenhoek, dated Delft, April 21, 1676;

102 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

on glow-worms, see the report of Robert Boyle, February 15, 1672 ;
on speaking trumpets, see Phil. Trans. Jan. 27, 1672, a report by
Sir Samuel Moreland. It would seem, therefore, that Shadwell
had access to certain volumes of the Philosophical Transactions and
had " crammed up" for his comedy. As soon as it appeared, the
comedy itself would become a new and more easily accessible sec
ondary source for Shadwell's successors, just as the scientific facts
were warmed over and served diluted in the columns of the Athenian
Mercury.

A second source of material was the books that were being writ
ten by the virtuosi. Sir Nicholas Gimcrack's wild claims of being
able to fly had its origin in a book by Dr. Wilkins, The Discoverer
of a New World; Or, a Discourse Tending to Prove that 'tis Prob
able there may be another Habitable World in the Moon, 1638. To
this was appended, says Anthony a Wood, a Discourse Concerning
the Possibility of a Passage to the World in the Moon.132 "Watts
attached to this note of Wood's the following, — "When at Wadham
College he (Wilkins) attempted to make the art of flying prac
ticable". Lord Worcester kept the idea alive by including in his
Century of Inventions (1655) this statement (77), — "How to make
a Man to Fly ; which I have tried with a little Boy of ten years old
in a Barn, from one end to the other, on a Hay-Mow".133 Ten
years later Robert Hooke wrote, — "The way of flying in the air
seems principally impracticable, by reason of the want of strength
in humane Muscles; if therefore that could be supplied, it were, I
think, easier to make twenty contrivances to perform the office of
wings".134

When Valeria, in her eager search for truth, sacrificed her pet
pigeon on the altar of science in order to discover whether the popu
lar tradition that a pigeon and a dove have no gall was true or
false, she was taught so to do by Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar
Errors. He records that he tried the same experiment.135 His
surgical practice may have given him greater skill in dissection, for

132 Wood, Anthony a, Athen. Oxon. vol. Ill, col. 969.

133 See also Milton's History of Britain, 1670, on Elmer, a Monk of Malmesbury,
Kennet's History of England, vol. I, 1706, Friar Bacon's Miracles of Art, Nature, etc.,
1659.

134 Hooke, Robert, Micrographia, Preface, p. 19.

186 Browne, Sir Thomas, Vulgar Errors, vol. I, p. 317.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 103

he found the tradition false while Valeria thinks it is true. To
Sydenham's Book of Fevers and a Discourse on Fermentation (by
W. Sympson, 1675) was due the popular ''fermentation" idea.
Ray's book of travels was an inexhaustible fountain for the comic
spirit.136

Another source of material was the popular lectures on the new
science. Yearly there was a free course of lectures given in Lon
don on the Boyle Foundation, beginning early in the 90 's. The
ablest scientists were called to this service, and large crowds of
people assembled to hear them. At these lectures experiments were
performed, at least on occasion, for Desaguliers, a popularizer of
science during the first half of the eighteenth century, developed
his Eoyal Lectures into a book of two volumes, entitled A Course
of Experimental Philosophy, 1744. This scientist also gave private
popular lectures year by year in the city, as did others.137

A fourth source of material was rumor. The sensational ex
periments, such as the transfusion of blood from a sheep into a
man, would spread by report through the city. According to
Pepys, there was a long discussion over the advisability of inviting
the Duchess of Newcastle to attend a meeting of the Royal Society
lest the town should be full of ballads on the event.138 If such a
simple incident would be noised abroad, how much more a sensa
tional experiment.

Another method by which scientific activity became known was
the return of students from the university. The "pert young
Soph" would not only boast of his knowledge of "violent Motions",
of "Atoms and Globuli",139 but would also report whatever was
sensational. The physicians, for instance, had difficulty in keep
ing their dissections private ; wild stories were spread abroad as to
the source of the bodies and the manner of dissecting them. A
burlesque on such practices is contained in F. Coventry's Pompey
The Little, 1750.

The collecting of "rarities" had become such a fad by the early
years of the eighteenth century that no dramatist needed to want

we Wright, Thos., The Female Virtuosoes, Witless's Tale of my Travels.

137 Supra, chap. I, p. 16.

138 Pepys, Samuel, Diary, May 30, 1667.

139 Supra, chap. I, p. 14.

104 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

for material. John Tradescant of Lambeth was the great leader of
the new interest in the seventeenth century, from whose efforts the
Ashmolean Museum was first stocked. But countless others were
"infected". The older seventeenth antiquarians were Burton,
Browne, Walton ; the later ones were Llwyd, Plot, Ralph Thoresby,
Elias Ashmole. In the eighteenth century all the physicians who
pretended to social distinction had their collections;140 and gentle
men and ladies of leisure sought for curiosities, coins, manuscripts,
old and rare copies of books, * ' pickled hieroglyphics ' ', and whatever
rust had corrupted and age had dimmed. Such gentlemen of dis
tinction as Lord Montague and Lord Winchilsea were much inter
ested in antiquarian researches in England and elsewhere. The in
terest lived on through the "Whartons, Gray, and Horace Walpole,
and has not yet passed away. Besides, before the end of the seven
teenth century coffee-houses were advertising collections of "rari
ties".141 There was, also, the work of such scientific classifica-
tionists as Ray, Morison, Willoughby, Grew, Malpighi, and Wood
ward.1420 To the lay mind these men, too, were hunting curiosities.
Everywhere there was material ready at hand for the writers of
comedy.

The men and women who professed a dominating interest in
science were, in the seventeenth century comic parlance, fools, one
and all; that is, they were possessed by a humor. "No Phantas-
tick", says Bruce of Sir Nicholas, "that has lost his Wits in Revela
tion, is so mad as this Fool". "You are mistaken", Longvil an
swers, "this is but a faint Copy to some Originals of the Tribe ".142b
Valeria is a "Daughter run mad after Philosophy"; Periwinkle
has "maggots enough in his own brain to stock all the virtuosoes in
Europe with butterflies" ; Lady Maurice is "possessed" ; Crispin be
lieves that, unless ' ' the world belies 'em, there are many physicians
just as great fools as myself"; Mopus is following "Quixotism in
Philosophy"; Gainlove thinks "there is no great Difference between
a Philosopher and a Lover only the first is the more reasonable

140Besant, Walter, London in the 18th Cent., Medicine.

m Supra, chap. I, p. 18.

i42a Woodward, Physician and Antiquarian, was satirized by the triumvirate, Gay,
Pope, Arbuthnot, in Three Hours After Marriage. Of. also the farce Harlequin Hydaspes;
or, The Greshamite, 1722.

"«> The Virtuoso, Act V.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 105

Madness of the two". And yet to be a "fool" with Boyle and
Newton is better than to be witty — with some dramatists.

Fools are pretenders. The knowledge which the scientists pro
fess in comedy is all bluff; if it be a virtue, they have it not. Sir
Nicholas, when face to face with the mob, confesses he never did
anything of use; Valeria deserts her "dear, dear Philosophy" for
the arms of her lover; Veterano, for all his study of "rarities", is
easily fooled with some "modern antiques"; Dr. Boliardo, after
years of observing the moon, is deceived into thinking he sees a
nymph up there when Scaramouch holds a picture before the tele
scope; Fossil can not distinguish between a real mummy or a real
alligator and men dressed in costumes from the theatre. Mopus
finds "terms" (learned language) to be three-fourths the physi
cian 's knowledge; Drench and Gregory become doctors without a
course in medicine; Lady Science is "a great Pretender to Phil
osophy". None of these "inferior members of the tribe" have the
learning which they profess.

But, even although they did have the knewledge, says comedy,
it would be of no use. Here is the essential criticism in all of this
satiric representation of science. "This foolish Virtuoso does not
consider that one Bricklayer is worth forty Philosophers".143 "So
it is Knowledge, 'tis no matter of what",144 says Longvil of Sir
Nicholas. "And yet, by your favor, Sir, of what use can they
be",145 Pedro inquires of Veterano, the Antiquary. The greatest
virtuoso of them all had not * ' invented even so much as an Engyne
to pare Cheese with".146 The study of antiquities only wasted good
money; the study of insects and fishes and all the phenomena of
nature merely cracked the brains, spoiled women for wives,147 men
for husbands,148 made girls foolish,149 boys pedantic.150 Such knowl
edge might be a very fine thing; but "there's no Philosophy like
Love", there is no science equal to commonsense. Therefore, Sir

***The Virtuoso, Act IV, Bruce.

144 Ibid. Act III.

145 The Antiquary, Act II.

146 The Virtuoso, Act V.

147 The Female Virtuosoes, Sir Maurice, — "Who would marry Wit".

14827ie Cheats, Mrs. Mopus, — "I wonder what I'm better for a husband in you.
Here you sit moping and moping all day upon a book," Act I, sc. 3.
149 Of. Valeria and Sophronia.
160 Of. Carlos.

106 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Nicholas repents; Dr. Boliardo sees "there is nothing in this Phil
osophy"; Carlos is "made a man'7 out of a pedant by discarding
learning; Valeria flings away Philosophy for a lover; Sophronia
finds ' ' there 's no Philosophy against Love, — Solon for that ' '. Here
are good demonstrative reasons why philosophy is worthless.
Once these men and women were blinded with this scientific humor,
but now they see with the eyes of commonsense.

"So I think these excellent men do highly deserve Commenda
tion for these seemingly useless labours, and the more, since they
run the hazard of being laughed at by Men of Wit and Satyr, who
always have their End, if they make their Readers Sport, whether
the thing which they expose deserves to be ridiculed or not".151
"Wotton has here expressed accurately the attitude of the writers
of comedy who "exposed" the scientific humor. There is no dis
crimination between the good and the bad, between true worth and
pretense. A part of this attitude was due to the spirit of the age
which was to "expose" everything that was exposable; the wits
were no respecters of persons. Another part was due to the gen
eral lack of understanding of what was actually being done. Such
opponents of the Royal Society as Dr. Henry Stubbe would not
hesitate to create the wrong impression of the scientific work, if
only they could make their point. Hobbes expended a vast deal
of energy combating his "man of straw". The very fact that
Sprat and Boyle and Glanvil and Wotton took pains to explain at
great length the nature and possible value of the Royal Society's
work shows a wide-spread misunderstanding. "I observe the in-
competency of their Judgments, who are enemies to the Real Ex
perimental Philosophy, in that they do not (as I intimated) at all,
or very little, understand what they condemn. This I have some
reason to say, since in the whole compass of my Acquaintances,
which is not very narrow, I profess I know not one who opposeth
the Modern Way, that is not almost totally unacquainted with
it".152

A third part of the attitude grew out of a wilful and conscious
misrepresentation of facts. Shadwell deliberately garbled his quo
tations from the Philosophical Transactions. Sir Nicholas's dis-

181 Wotton, William, Reflections, etc. pp. 274-5.

162 Glanvil, Joseph, Essay III, p. 53 and Glanvil, Joseph, Essay III, pp. 274-5.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 107

courses on ants, for example, was taken from a report by Dr.
King, March 11, 1666, " Concerning Emmets or Ants, their Eggs,
Production, Progress, Coming to Maturity, Use, etc/7153 This is a
case of malicious misrepresentation. The experiments are puerile
enough to be sure, but the effort is an honest one; the truth, whether
worth knowing or not, is sincerely sought. By Shadwell's own
definition this is not a legitimate field for his satire ; for here is no
affectation, no presumption. Or, again, he consciously misrepre
sented facts in his satire on "eels in vinegar", which appears in
The Virtuoso and was copied from it in The Basset-Table. The
source of this material is a letter to the Secretary of the Royal
Society by Leeuwenhoek from Delft, April 21, 1676.154 This scien
tist had been making some microscopical experiments with "wine of
last year's growth". "In this wine, I have divers times observed
small living Creatures, shaped like Eels", etc. "Eels in vinegar"
are ridiculous enough, but the discovery of microbes (bacilli) is a
great and serious scientific event. Or, finally, there is a culpable
vilification in the satire on the transfusion of blood, which was in
fact a seven days' wonder in London.155 This operation was tried
many times in England as well as in France and Italy. The first
case reported to the Royal Society was June 20, 1665, — a trans
fusion between two dogs. During the month of July, 1667, news
reached London of two operations performed in Paris, in which the
blood was transfused from a sheep into a maniac. Several mem
bers of the Society being therefore eager to try it for themselves,
a committee waited on Dr. Allen, Physician to the Hospital (Bed
lam) to ask for a "victim". "The truth on it is, we shall never
get any but Mad-men for that operation".156 The request was
not granted, but in November, 1667, the experiment was really
performed at the Arundel House where the Society was then
meeting. Arthur Coga, a poor student, offered himself a willing
sacrifice for a guinea. Pepys says the fellow was " phantastic ",
and Dr. King writes of him, — "He spoke Latin well, but that his
Brain was sometimes a little warm". About twelve ounces of

153 Phil. Trans. Mar. 11, 1666.

164 Ibid. April 21, 1676.

"6 Of. Phil. Trans.

™The Virtuoso, Act IV, Sir Nicholas Gimcrack.

108 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

blood was transfused with success and reported benefit. The oper
ation was repeated December 12th of the same year, again with
success. At once the -imagination began to picture the most won
derful possibilities, according to the writers of comedy. The words
of Oldenburg, however, are words of sober sense and express more
clearly the conservative attitude of the scientists. "It seems not
irrational to guess aforehand, that the exchange of Blood will
not alter the Nature or Disposition of Animals, upon which it
shall be practiced; though it may be thought worth while for the
satisfaction and certainty to determine that point by Experi
ments".157 "The most probable Use of this Experiment may be
conjectured to be that one Animal may live with the Blood of an
other".158 Modern science has proved this to be true. Thus were
facts transformed in the Great Alembic of satire.

As the physicians in the eighteenth century were distinguished
by their "full-bottomed wigs, cloudy-headed canes, and sober de
meanor," so the scientist was known by his "learned language", —
in comedies. Sir Nicholas's "emittent and recipient", "humid ele
ment", "superficies", cacochymious", Valeria's pedantic Acci
dent, Substance, Lumbricus Laetus, Fossils, Lapis Lydius, were as
sumed to be the general learned style of speech and writing. The
representation is manifestly unfair. Bishop Sprat has stated the
ideal of scientific writing fully,159 and followed it himself. Boyle
has a clear, unaffected style; Glanvil and Hooke wrote in a terse,
compact, direct manner, far on the road toward Addison. The gen
erality of scientists could write and did write, simply and unaf
fectedly. "The virtues of scientific writing spread and

wrought with the instinct of conversation and social amenity, and
with the love of argument and pleading and oratory, to form
modern style."160 Though the terms in comedy are the real terms
of science, the style is the style of the rhetorician, not the scientist.

Not all scientific material was suited for comedy. The wits

167 Phil. Trans. Dec. 17, 1666, p. 357.
1B8Ibid. p. 358.

159 Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, "And to accomplish this they have
endeavor'd to separate Knowledge of Nature from the Colours of Rhetoric, the Deceits
of Fancy, or the Deceits of Fables," p. 62. "Preferring the language of Artizans, Country
men, and Merchants, before that of Wits and Scholars." p. 113.

160 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 420.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 109

knew this and selected with some care the more sensational ex
periments. By thus emphasizing and exaggerating the startling
things all scientific endeavors were made ridiculous. If there had
not been a substantial basis of commonsense for the new phil
osophy, if it had not really been largely established upon "the
two great pillars of truth, Reason and Experience ", it would have
been laughed away, as Cervantes served chivalry.

When a general survey is taken of this form of literary ex
pression for the new science, a sense of disappointment is felt.
Among all these "Wits and Railleurs" there is a lack of apprecia
tion of both men and achievements. There is not a single char
acter in the comedies worthy of respect so long as it is dominated
by the scientific humor, not one but bears the contempt, justly
earned, of all his friends, with the single exception of the senti
mental hero, Dr. Easy, in The State of Physick. The man of
science, as the play-writers presented him, is despicable because
he is a "fool", engaged in the vain pursuit of useless knowledge,
a pedant, a pretender to learning, wholly absorbed in an interest
outside the social realm of London society folk. He is never wholly
relieved from the taint of pseudo-science, but he is no longer a
"vague, peevish pedant, much occupied with physiognomies,
dreams, and fanatic ideas as to the properties and powers of vari
ous substances ".161 This was the old student of occult science,
not the Baconian philosopher. The worst fault of the new scien
tist was to devote his time and money to the investigation of in
sects and to the collection of rarities; he did not study his "coun
try's good but her insects/'

The actual achievement in science was not appreciated by the
play-writers. In comedy the scientist frittered away his time in
gazing at the moon, in poring over insects, or in useless specula
tion; he never invented anything so useful as a mouse-trap or
an engine to pare cheese with; he collected curiosities only to have
a house built for them ; he sought knowledge for its own sake. In
reality, the scientist discovered the law of gravitation and founded
modern botany, geology and physiology ; he invented the air-pump,
the thermometer, the barometer, the steam-engine; he prepared
the way for the later writing of history and saved many a manu-

1<B Shipley, A. E., Cambridge History of English Literature, VIII, 419.

110

THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

script which the world would not now willingly let perish. A
bricklayer was worth forty philosophers of comedy; and yet the
period produced some immortal names. One is led to guess
shrewdly that the superficiality of the scientist in comedy is due
largely to the superficial knowledge on the part of the play- writers.
To them it was a humor and nothing more.

CHAPTER IV

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY

The new science was but a minor interest in a complex, un
settled period and was forced to compete with politics, society,
and religion for popular attention. It is true, that, where the'
conflict between ''ancient faith " and new philosophy was sharp
est, where commonsense and reason met in mortal combat with
witchcraft, astrology, and inherited beliefs, science came into due
prominence. It was like the breaking of a wave upon a rugged
shoreline, the force of the onward movement being revealed by
obstruction. But, necessarily, to the vast majority of men the new
interest was a thing apart from the real life of London, merely a
voice faint in the distance, and the new ideas were incidental.
For the group of men comprising the Royal Society was never
large, the active investigators never numbering above a dozen, and
they had avowedly sought refuge in study from the turmoil and
publicity of the times.

The work of the new philosophers, however, while not set on
a candlestick, was not hidden under a bushel. Some knowledge
of their observations and experiments made its way into the popu
lar mind through publications, popular lectures, the universities,
and rumor. "The town was filled with ballads", it must be re
membered, upon the visit of the Duchess of Newcastle to a meeting
of the Royal Society.1 The virtuosi appeared frequently upon the
stage in comedies; Sir Nicholas Gimcrack gave his name to scien
tific apparatus and "rarities" as early as 1676. One may assume
that practically all educated men in London and vicinity knew
something of the new science. It could not fail, therefore, to
receive some manner of representation by the poets of the period,
aside from those who were brought into intimate contact with it.
A discussion of this literary expression falls naturally into three
parts: (1) The exploitation of the new interest by the satirists,
(2) the appreciation which the new philosophy found among the
men of poetic imagination, and (3) the contribution of "imagina
tions and similitudes" to poetic imagery.

1Pepys's Diary, May 30, 1667.

112 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

I

The satirists of the period, the "Wits and Railleurs", repre
sent in general one kind of attitude and may, therefore, be classed
together. Their avowed purpose was to unmask pretense; they
professed to wage war against vice. "Sincere or not, satire is
essentially a kind of writing which pretends to unmask pretense ".2
Joseph Hall, the father of this kind of verse in England, wrote, —
"The satire should be like the porcupine
That shoots sharp quilles out in each angry line,
And wounds the blushing cheek and fiery eye
Of him that hears, and readeth guiltily.

Meanwhile, sufficeth me, the world may say

That I these vices loath 'd another day."3

Andrew Marvell eloquently declared that "when the sword
glitters over the judge's head and the churchmen are silenced
through fear, then is the poet's time, 'tis then he draws and single
fights forsaken virtues cause."4 "Satire," wrote Dryden, "is a

kind of poetry invented for the purging of our mind;

in which human vices, ignorance, and errors, and all things be
sides, which are produced from them in every man are severely
reprehended".5 Swift said, "There are two ends that men pro
pose in writing satire, one private satisfaction and pleas
ure of the writer the other a public spirit

prompting men of genius and virtue to mend the world as far as
they are able".6 The great master of satiric verse, Pope, added, —
"And indeed there is not in the world a greater error, than that
which Fools are so apt to fall into, and Knaves with good reason
to encourage, the mistaking a satirist for a Libeller; whereas to
a true Satirist nothing is so odious as a Libeller, for the same
reason as to a man truly virtuous nothing is so hateful as a Hypo
crite."7 The purpose of satire, thus expounded, seems worthy
and justifiable. No man need be ashamed to fight for virtue and
truth against vice and error.

2 Wendell, Barrett, The Temper of the 17th Century Lit. p. 336.

"Hall, Joseph, BTc. V, Sat. III.

4 Marvell, Andrew, Tom May's Dtath, 11, 63-66.

B Dryden, John, Essay on Satire.

6 Intelligencer III.

1 Pope, Alexander, Satire and Epistles of Horace, Advertisement.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 113

This high satiric ideal, however, was not always followed. Too
many writers of verse found "the easiest way to be witty is to
be cynical ";8 others were "goaded into inspiration'' by malice
or personal grudge; others, still, followed the fashion set by their
betters and railed indiscriminately against the world; too few
sought with fairness and candor to discover truth and laugh fol
lies away. Satiric verse, like the satiric comedy, exploited the
humors of men. Weaknesses were exaggerated; foibles were mag
nified; characters were defamed. To the satirists men were either
" Fools " or "Knaves", and this age was counted the most de
plorable in the history of the world. Their general attitude was
one of contempt. "However exalted the satirist's aims, or aimable
his temper, a basis of contempt is the ground work of his art".9
"A man could not write with life unless he were heated by re
venge," said Burnett of the Earl of Rochester.10

It was not to be expected, therefore, that the new philosophers
would receive fair treatment from these wits, or that the new ideas
would find appreciation among them. In spite of their protests
to the contrary the satirists were looking for someone or something
from which to raise a laugh. "To make jests, to live and move in
the ludicrous, to find fun in everything under heaven and over
hell, or even within these realms themselves, so far as they were
voted to exist, was the business of the popular Restoration writ
ers".11 They were merciless in their ridicule and undiscriminat-
ing in their attacks. Hence, the new science was an easy prey for
them, for "of all men the most subject to ridicule are philoso
phers".12

Early in the period rises the sullen and morose figure of Samuel
Butler, whose poetic fame rests upon Hudibras. In this poem he
ridicules with utter abandon "every theory of the physical order
of the universe, whether faunded on the deductive or inductive
system of philosophy".13 His attack was aimed primarily at as
trology. Sidrophel and his servant Whachum embody that
pseudo-science. But the claims of the master are unbounded, —

8 Stephens, Leslie, History of the Literature and Society in 18th Cent., p. 63.

»Ency. Brit., XXI, p. 317, 15th Ed.

10 Lives, p. 204.

"Masson, David, Life of Milton, vol. VI, p. 343.

"Ibid. vol. VI, p. 284.

"Courthope, J. W., Hist, of Eng. Poetry, vol. Ill, p. 304.

114 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

' ' He had been long t 'wards Mathematics,
Optics, philosophy, and statics,
Magic, horoscopy, astrology,
And was old dog at physiology. " 14

Here is a quack who has taken over the interests of the true
science also. He has made all the new discoveries in the moon,
has located the seas, lakes and mountains there;15 he " cures warts
and corns, with application of medicines to the imagination ";16
he has studied maggots in cheese, mites in vinegar and wood;17
he is an antiquarian, learned in "hieroglyphics mute of birds " on
the oriental obelisk;18 he is a star-gazer like Galileo and the other
astronomers;19 and, in general, he professes a universal knowl
edge.20 And yet he could not tell the "natural cause" why no
painter ever draws a full moon on a sign but always the half.21
Here is a type characteristic of the writers of comedy; in other
words, here is an exploitation of a humor.

This work of exploitation is thoroughly done; almost nothing
escapes. The vortex theory of Descartes,22 the new atomic theory
in physiology,23 transfusion of blood,24 the stentrophonic tube,25
botanical study,26 the use of pendulum watches,27 "Napier's
bones",28 mathematical calculations,29 sympathetic powder,30 the
collection of "monstrous births",81, chemistry,32 "bottled

"Part II, c. 3, 1. 205.

»Ibid. 251-71.

"Ibid. 287.

"Ibid. 317-23.

18 Ibid. 403-412.

18 Ibid. 413.

80 Ibid. 397.

» Part II, c. 3, 1. 783.

22 Ibid. 871.

28 Ibid. 1121.

24 Ibid. 1229-52.

»Pt. Ill, c. 1, 1. 251-2.

26 Ibid. 328-9.

27 Ibid. 449.

28 Pt. Ill, c. 2, 1. 409.

29 Pt. I, c. 1, 1. 119-26.

80 Pt. I, c. 2, 1. 223-8.

81 Pt. II, c. 1, 63-7.
»Pt. II, c. 1, 423-6.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 115

air",33 — all are here turned to ridicule by this satirist soured by
long deferred hope of advancement. There is evidence that he
knew what the virtuosi were doing, but there is no reason to be
lieve that he saw any good in their efforts. His real attitude is
hard to determine, as is that of every satirist; but, prima facie,
he classed Sidrophel, who is probably the famous almanac-maker
Lilly, among the new philosophers and on an equality with them.
The telescopic investigation of the heavens was to him only a
continued study of astrology; physiology was medical quackery;
mechanical inventions were mere toys; and geometry was useful
for " taking the size of a pot of ale".

Some new light, however, may be thrown on Butler's satiric
motive by his later poems, which deal with the same subject. The
Elephant in the Moon was inspired by personal animosity towards
Sir Paul Neal, who had persistently declared that Butler was not
the author of Hudibras. The inference from his declaration was
that Butler could not have written such a poem. This was taken
as an affront and was never forgiven. It was well known that the
nobleman was a member of the Royal Society; Butler took ad
vantage of this fact in the poem, where he represented Sir Paul
Neal and a group of the philosophers as meeting for an observation
of the moon through a telescope into which by chance a mouse has
crept. Neal sees the mouse in the tube and thinks it an elephant
in the moon. The others look and verify his report. Immediately
they set to work to write up this sensational discovery for the
Transactions, but before they have completed the report some boys
look into the telescope and identify the mouse. Great disappoint
ment results among the virtuosi at the loss of this sensational
story. Finally, they decide to report it even though false, with
the understanding that all will swear to its truth. Their position
is thus stated, —

"It is no wonder we're cry'd down,
And made the talk of the town
That rants and swears, for all our great
Attempts, we have done nothing yet,
If ev'ry one have leave to doubt,
When some great secret's half made out;

»Pt. II, c. 2, 343-4.

116 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

And, 'cause perhaps it is not true,
Obstruct, and ruin all we do.
As no great act was ever done,
Nor ever can, with truth alone;
If nothing else but Truth w' allow
'Tis no great Matter what we do,
For Truth is too reserved and nice,
T' appear in mix'd societies. ' >34

It is, they say, far easier to create a thing like truth than to
take the pains to discover truth itself. "But nature would not be
thus forsworn, and for their pretended knowledge Butler paid
them scorn".

Butler apparently nursed his wrath to keep it warm against
Sir Paul Neal. Nor, indeed, did he confine his animosity to this
one virtuoso. Other characters can be identified in the poem, as
Evelyn, Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, and perhaps Boyle. The whole group
were under his ban and were ridiculed without discrimination.

A later fragment, A Satire upon the Royal Society, shows that
Butler 's mind returned to this theme persistently. It is clear that
he contemplated an extensive satire on the new philosophers.
These fragmentary lines contain merely an enumeration of the
various scientific activities. Comets, meteors, light, magnetism, the
course of the sun, the moon, the atmosphere, — these were all their
learned speculations,

"And all their constant occupations;
To measure wind,, and weigh the air,
And turn the circle to a square;
To make a powder of the sun,
By which all doctors should b' undone;
To find the Northwest passage out,
Although the farthest way about ;
If chymists from a rose's ashes
Can raise the rose itself in glasses;
"Whether the line of incidents
Rise from the object or the sense ;
To stew the Elixir in a bath
Of hope, credulity, and faith;

84 Butler, Samuel, The Elephant in the Moon.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 117

To explicate, by subtle hints,
The grain of diamonds and flints;
And in the braying of an ass
Find out the treble and the bass ;
If mares neigh alto, and a cow
A double diapason low".35

In general, Butler's attitude is severely satirical. He finds
nothing to praise in the new interest. To him all scientific learn
ing is "but a corn or wart in the skin of Judgment, Sense, and
Art";36 scientific apparatus consists of "Gimcracks, Whims, Jig-
gumbobs ' ' ;37 and the whole result of scientific study is "to crack a
man's brain in plodding on to know that which is never to be
known".38 Whether his judgment admitted the truth of any of the
new discoveries cannot be determined. He seems in real doubt
about the motion of the earth, —

"The motions of the earth or sun

(The Lord knows which) that turn or run".39
But this is as near a serious position as he ever attained. The rest
is mockery.

Hudibras, as is well known, was immensely popular. Even
the king read it, laughed over it and quoted it. The author was
praised; preferment seemed at hand; and then he was neglected.
Such, it would appear, was the general effect of this satire. "What
effect," wrote Dr. Johnson, "this poem had upon the publick,
whether it showed imposture or reclaimed credulity, is not easily
determined. Cheats can seldom stand long against laughter. It
is certain that the credit of planetary intelligence wore fast away."40a
But it has already been shown that another force was at work des
troying the pseudo-science of astrology, i. e. the search for natural
causes. Butler was keenly aware of the hypocrisy in this busi
ness and was justified in his presentation of Sidrophel and
Whachum. His mistake, however, was to let his personal feeling

KA Satire Upon the Royal Society, 85-104.

« Hudibras, Pt. Ill, c. 1, 108-9.

37 Upon Human Learning.

88 A Fragment.

80 Sat. upon Weaknesses and Misery of Man.

<°a Johnson, Samuel, Lives of the Poets, I, p. 216.

118 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

blunt his power of discrimination, so that he was led to scoff at the
whole new movement. ' ' There is a great difference ' ', said Shaf tes-
bury wisely, "between seeking how to raise a laugh from every
thing, and seeking in everything what justly may be laughed at.
For nothing is ridiculous except what is deformed ; nor is anything
proof against raillery except what is handsome and just".40 Here
was Butler's defect and this greatly nullified the influence of his
satire. The new science was destined to increase; Butler's power
was sure to decrease.

In other satiric verse of this early period the new science finds
only incidental expression. In Charles II 's Court was a group of
scoffers who sharpened their wits against men and manners, but
they were almost wholly engrossed with politics and society. The
leader of this "mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease" was John
Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. His attitude is typical. To him it is
folly to leave the pleasures of society for useless, or at most al
truistic, studies.

"Nature's as lame in making a true fop,
As a philosopher; the very top,
And dignity of folly we attain
By studious search and labor of the brain,
By observation, counsel, and deep thought".41
This flippant treatment is found generally. The Earl of Dorset
ridicules Boyle's study of light in this fashion, —
"So have I seen in larder dark
Of Veal a lucid loin;
Replete with many a brilliant spark,
As wise philosophers remark,
At once both stink and shine".42

Lord Buckhurst, in his burlesque on Sir Robert Howard's Duel
of the Stags, describes in mock heroic style a fight between two
crabs. But whether they fought with proboscis, or horns, or

"Some Greshamite perhaps, with help of glass,
And poring long upon't, may chance to guess."43

40 Characteristics, vol. 1, p. 85.

41 Artimisia in Town to Cloe in the Country.

42 On the Countess of Dorchester, 1680.
"The Duel of the Crabs.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 119

It was at this time that Andrew Marvell's pen flowed with
vitriolic wit. He sought chiefly to correct political abuses, but
touched again and again upon the new science, and always to
ridicule it. The atomic theory is derided in The Clarendon House-
Warming ;44 the telescopic observations of the sun in To the King;
transfusion of the blood in Britannia and Raleigh. A selection
from his Instructions to a Painter about the Dutch Wars, 1667, will
illustrate his attitude.

"With Hooke then through your microscope take aim,

To see a louse brandish a white staff,

Paint then again her Highness to the life

Philosopher beyond Newcastle's wife".45

There follow some absurd experiments by which to restore vir
ginity after childbirth and to mature royal heirs quickly.

"Hence Crowder made the rare inventress free

Of 's Highness 's Royal Society."

Many miscellaneous satirical references occur. John Oldham
satirized the art of flying in his Satire on Jesuits*6 The Duke of
Buckingham poked fun at the new inventions in The Rump-Parlia
ment. Physiological studies were ridiculed in An Occasional Re
flection on Dr. Charleton's "Feeling a Dog's Pulse at Gresham
College".47 The investigation of mineral springs found satiric
treatment in Tunbridgia; or, The Pleasures of Tunbridge*8 Sir
Samuel Morland's inventions were ridiculed in Cullen with his
Flock of Misses (1679).49 New projects, in the virtuoso's manner
are discovered in the poem On the Late Inventions of the New
Light,50 and on The Late Invention of the Penny Post,51 In 1691
Alicia D'Anvers sent a Country bumpkin to Oxford, where he be
held with wonder and amazement the scientific apparatus and the
rarities of the virtuosi.52

"St. XV.
«Sat. III.
«11. 141-7.

47 Attributed to Butler.

48 Poems on State Affairs, vol. II, p. 205.

49 Ibid. I, p. 133.
60 Ibid. II, p. 244.
81 Ibid. II, p. 246.

^Academia; or, The Humours of Oxford in Burlesque Verse.

120 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Throughout all of this verse the attitude is the same. The
satirists came to this new interest to scoff. They were never seri
ous, never sincere, never fair, never candid. New science was to
them another folly, another evidence of England's decadence, and
those who followed it were fools and knaves, as much to be scorned
as the veriest fop, as much to be ridiculed as the worst quack, as
much to be despised as the religious hypocrite, and as much to be
lashed with satiric whips as the most dishonest political intriguer.
There is here no appreciation of unselfish devotion to truth, no
respect for men of high and noble character, no belief in the pos
sibilities of the new philosophy.

William King stands between the wits of the Restoration and
those of Queen Anne's reign. Besides, for his own sake he de
serves individual treatment. He was a writer of charming clever
ness and of brilliant wit. His satire was keen yet full of fun. He
wrote apparently with ease and facility. Politics, society, and
religion occupied his pen for the most part, but he glances again
and again at the new science. In Just as you Please; or, The In
curious, there is an experiment made by a virtuoso who had a
mind to see a man that would never disagree with any expressed
opinion; in The Stumbling Block, there is a good-natured satire
on the old atomic theory and on the new atmospheric studies, —

"A Vacuum's another maxim;
Where, he brags, experience backs him;
Denying that all space is full,
From inside of a Tory's skull".53

But it was in the Transactioneer (1700) that he struck out most
boldly against the Royal Society and its work. This was intended
to be a burlesque on the Philosophical Transactions.5* These head
ings, "taken at random", will illustrate the nature of the sub
jects treated; "Eggs in the Cauda of a barnacle. Four sorts of
Lady 's Bugs. A Buck in a snake 's belly. A Shower of Whitings.
A Shower of Butter to dress them with."55 The sole purpose, it
may be seen, was to raise a laugh. The same is true of King's satiric
verse. Here is a specimen of some crude lines in ironic vein, —

w The Stumbling BlocTc, 1. 308-11.

54 The Transactioneer, with some of his philosophical fancies, in two dialogues.

66 Quoted in Weld's History of the Royal Society, p. 352.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 121

"The Merchants on the Exchange doe plott
To increase the Kingdom's worthy trade;
At Gresham College a learned Knott,
Unparalleled designs have laid,
To make themselves a Corporation,
And know all things by demonstration.

This noble Corporation
Not for themselves are thus combin'd,
But for the public good o' th' nation,
And general benefit of Mankind.
These are not men of common mould
They covet fame, but condemn gold.

The College will the whole world measure,

"Which most impossible conclude,

And navigation make a pleasure,

By finding out the longitude;

Every Tarpaulian shall then with ease

Saile any ship to the Antipodies.

The College Gresham shall hereafter

Be the whole world's university;

Oxford and Cambridge are our laughter;

Their learning is but pedantry;

These new collegiates do assure us

Aristotle's an ass to Epicurus".56

The awkwardness of these lines do King an injustice, but they
show the spirit of his raillery. Again there is a desire to raise a
laugh at whatever expense. There is no calling of knaves and
fools, but he usually accomplishes that most difficult feat of making
"a man appear a fool, a block-head, or a knave, without using any
of those opproprious terms".57 He was a master of "the nicest
and most delicate touches in fine railery of which satire consists".58
At the turn of the century there are found a number of satiric
thrusts at the new science. Samuel Garth, angered at the quarrel1
between the physicians and apothecaries over dispensing drugs

68 See Weld, History of Royal Society, vol. II, p. 323.
MDryden, Discourse concerning the original and progress of satire.
68 Ibid.

122 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

free of charge to the poor, wrote The Dispensary (1699) "to
purge his mind". The satire is on astrologers and physicians, and
generally confines itself to the abuse among the men of these two
fraternities. Like other satirists, however, he does not always dis
criminate ; Sloane and Bentley are no better than Lilly and Charles
Boyle.59 The author was much praised on account of this poem
because the general reader felt he was a true champion of the op-
ressed. John Pomfret repeats this satire in Reason (1700). "More
than once", he says, "we have seen that blundering Sloane, miss
ing the gout, by chance has hit the stone. Among the 'impious
race' of physicians there is a continued war between alkalis and
acids". The sting of his satire is found in these two lines, —
"What's all the noisy jargon of the schools,

But idle nonsense of laborious fools?"

Blackmore, in his eagerness to establish orthodox belief, found
himself denouncing all forms of human philosophy, in the first
two books of The Creation. "There is no philosophy", he cries,
"without a God".60 Descartes, Gassendus, Copernicus, Ptolemy,
Kepler, Newton pursued their studies in vain. "Move, which will
please you, earth or sun",61 account for the mountains by myth or
for the tides by the motion of the earth or the influence of the
moon,62 turn the world as you will and by what force you will,
magnetism or gravitation,63 in the final analysis the true solution
to every question is, — "This is done by the power of God". It
was poetic enthusiasm that carried Blackmore to this point of
utter repudiation. As will be shown later, he was really in ac
cord with the new ideas, at least in physiology. And even here
in spite of his opposition he has caught a new glimpse of the im
mensity of space.

"Regard the orb sublime, in ether borne,
Which the blue regions of the skies adorn ;
Compared with whose extent this low hung ball,
Shrunk to a point, is despicably small."64

89 Works of the Minor Poets, pp. 188, 205, 310.

«°Bk. 1.

tt Ibid.

08 Ibid.

«Bk. 2.

« Ibid.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 123

He, too, must take a thrust at Sloane, as seen in his satiric poem
the Kit-Cats (1709). Blackmore, himself, became the target for
many a witty line on account of his heavy, monotonous verse,
which few ever read. His attitude, therefore, is not of much im
portance.

The group of brilliant Queen Anne wits found much satiric
material in the new science. Prior, the eldest of them, got much
fun out of ridiculing the different philosophic theories in Alm
or. The Progress of the Mind. Fame, he says, awaits the men who'1
will reconcile Aristotle and Gassendus.65 All systems have un
sound foundations. If one questions the premises of any philoso
pher's theory, then he is rendered helpless. Deny to Descartes
his " subtil matter" and he has nothing left; refuse to accept the
elastic force of matter and "Sir Isaac would look odd"; disprove
the existence of the philosopher's stone, and "how could our chemic
friends go on?" Not only so, but the whole activity is misapplied,
"Circles to square and cubes to double,

Would give a man excessive trouble;

The Longitude uncertain roams,

In spite of Whiston and his bombs".68

The search after rarities has no attraction for him and men are
fools to yield to such a curiosity.67 The physiologists, too, have gone
to a foolish excess in their search for likenesses in bodily structure
between brutes and men.68

Prior's is a contemptuous attitude. Like Blackmore, he claims
that nature is too subtle for man to understand ; the wisest answer
to all questions is to say, "Thus the Creator has done". There is
no reason for confidence in any man-made theory ; for, —

"Forc'd by reflective reason, I confess,

That human science is but guess."69

Swift devotes little attention in verse to the new science. In
his burlesque Ode to the Athenian Society occur such lines as
these, —

"Lines 244-6.

«Alma, Canto III, 366-9.

67 Ibid. 448-83.

88 An Ode, 1689.

89 Alma, 739-40.

124 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

"And hopes to lengthen life by a transfusion of breath,
Which yet who e'er examines right will find
To be an Art as vain as bottling up of wind".70
If such scientific information was really dispensed through the
medium of The Athenian Mercury, its original source was certainly
the Royal Society. The same is true of the references in these
lines from an Ode to Music, —

"The longitude miss'd on
By wicked Will Whiston ;
And not better hit on
By good Master Ditton."71

The Broken Mug contains a scene on Mt. Parnassus where a dis
cussion has been carried on among a group of friends as to whether
"The earth mov'd, or the sun", —

"Who writ the best Philosophy

Copernicus or Ptolomy.

Whether they were not both outdone,

By Newton's Principles alone."

Swift's satire on the new science, in verse, is good-natured. He
never seemed to have endeavored seriously to exploit that humor,
doubtless because he dealt with it so fully in prose. The new phil
osophy has entered to such a small extent into his poetry as to be
come almost negligible, and no definite attitude can be determined.

Other poets took their fling at the new philosophy. John Byrom
has some derisive verses in A Full and True Account, The Disec-
tion of a Beau's Head,72 and. The Astrologer. The first poem, writ
ten in his youth, ridicules "The Goddess Shorthand, bright celes
tial maid", a system recently proposed before the Royal Society;
the second is, as the name suggests, a burlesque on dissection; the
third is an invocation to astrology, "Goddess divine, Celestial
Decypheress". All these show the crudities of youth, the affec
tation of a sophomore. They are of no value either as verse or as
satire.

In Fenton there is found once more that form of piety which

70 Stanza VII.

71 Works, vol. XIII, p. 313.

72 See The Spectator, 275.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 125

considers man vain and presumptuous who tries "with random
guesses", —

"To sound Thy searchless providence,

From which he sprang."73

The best answer to all scientific inquiries, he repeats, is that God
so ordained. Otherwise men will reach such absurd conclusions
as the "sage Cartesians" hold, who declare that souls stand tip
toe on the pineal gland.74 Here is his attitude summed up in four
lines, —

"That knowledge, which from reason flows,
Unless Religion guide its course,
And Faith her steady mounds oppose,
Is ignorance at best, and often worse".75

The same kind of piety inspired Isaac "Watts and determined
his attitude toward the new ideas. Man has a "silly wandering
mind" that resents the close confinement of the flesh, and unless
curbed will "coast round the narrow shores of flesh and sense", —
"Picking shells and pebbles thence."76 Watts * contempt for human
learning finds expression in these rather vigorous lines, —
"Touch, heavenly Word, 0 touch these curious souls;
Since I have heard but one soft hint from thee
From all the vain opinions of the schools
(That pageantry of knowing fools)
I feel my powers released, and stand divinely free".77
Such casual thrusts may be passed by with bare mention, as
Gilbert West's "supercilious pedant train",78 Somerville's "pre
carious science vain", in which all creation is "nature's puppet-
show",79 and his declaration that "the best elixir is a friend",80
Richard Duke's classification, "Mountebanks, Quakers, Chemists,
Trading varlets",81 and Parnell's "grave frenzy of the chymie

nAn Ode.
74 The Fair Nun.
™An Ode.
™True Riches.

77 True Learning.

78 Education.

79 The Officious Messenger.

80 To William Colmore.

81 The Review.

126 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

fool".82 The same attitude, merely hinted at, is common to all.
These men are scoffers, without faith in the new science and without
any appreciation of the men and achievements. These lines pre
sent the very essence of their opinions, —

''What can these idle Gimcracks mean;
Ye World-Makers of Gresham-Hall,
Dog Rover shall confute you all".83

William Shenstone addressed a poem of considerable length To
the Virtuosi. There is in it a vein of contemptuous, satiric
raillery, but it seems to have been intended for good-natured bur
lesque. The important thing in it is the characterization of the
scientist at this late period in the eighteenth century, — "those
curious Wights! to whom so fair the form of mortal flies is!"
Men of science "sigh for nature's vermin", "and deem those
grubs beyond compare which common sense despises". The same
contempt appears in The Progress of Taste, where Damon has fal
len into the grasp of this scientific humor, —
"Till passion, misdirected, sighs

For weeds, or shells, or grubs, or flies!"

Such an interest, says Shenstone, might be admired in boys and
girls "of fifteen years and more", but in adults it becomes a folly.
A far "nobler passion is to love", —

"'Tis time more social joys to prove;
'Twere your nobler tasks to love".84

Shenstone 's contempt for physicians and apothecaries is given in
The Charms of Precedence.

This poet failed to understand the scientific passion. It was
much better in his judgment to spend one's time in social pleasure
than in prying into the secrets of nature, i. e., in studying the forms
and habits of insects. For insects to him were only "nature's ver
min", and the man who wasted his life in a contemplation of
them was as much to be despised as they.

Edward Young wrote some cutting satire on the new science in
The Universal Passion. He decried that passion in men for an
tiques which leads them to spend all their money for these USe-
To Mr. Pope.

68 Somerville, The Officious Messenger.
84 The Progress of Taste.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 127

less things while their families come to want.85 The following lines
show his attitude :

" No thing exceeds in ridicule, no doubt,
A fool in fashion, but a fool that 's out.

But what in oddness can be more sublime
Than Sloane, the foremost toyman of his time?
His nice ambition lies in curious fancies,
His daughter's portion a rich shell inhances,
And Ashmole's baby-house is in his view,
Britannia's golden mine, a rich Peru!
How his eyes languish ! How his thoughts adore
That painted coat, which Joseph never wore!
He shows on holidays, a sacred pin

That touch 'd the ruff, that touch 'd Queen Bess's chin".86
''Some nymphs", he laments, "prefer astronomy to love",87 and
make appointments with Desagulier and Whiston instead of with
a beau. But Young has only scorn for female philosophy.
"Sophronia" may try numberless vain experiments with air-pumps,
may gaze to-night with rapture on the starry sky through the tele
scope, but to-morrow, —

"(0, fickle sex!)

Lo! Pug from Jupiter her heart has got,
Turns out the stars, and Newton is a sot."88
Here again is the attitude of comedy. The followers of science
are fools and knaves, all the worse, because this philosophy, which
was new in the seventeenth century, is now "gone out of date".
Antiquarianism, astronomy, and physics are follies or worse, and
need the lashing of satiric verse.

"Satire! had I thy Dorset's force devine,
A knave or fool should perish in each line;
Tho' for the first all Westminster should plead,
And for the last, all Gresham intercede."89

85 Satire I.

86 Satire IV.

87 Satire V.

88 Ibid.

89 Universal Passion, Satire I.

128 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

How the poet's attitude was changed in later years will be shown
hereafter, but as revealed at this early period it is cruelly severe.
Mark Akenside wrote a poem in Spencerian stanzas on the char
acter of the scientist in The Virtuoso. It is satiric in tone, but
good-naturedly so. He regards the scientific interest as a " phan
tasy" whose power fills the mind to the exclusion of judgment.
A man so possessed looks at the world "with vitiated sight", so
that he neglects his family and forgets his friends in the mad pur
suit of "painted trifles and fantastic toys." Here the virtuoso
stands in clear outline, —

" Book-learn 'd and quaint: a virtuoso hight.

He many a creature did anatomize,

Almost unpeopling water, air, and land;

Beasts, fishes, birds, snails, caterpillars, flies,

"Were laid full low by his relentless hand,

That oft with gory crimson was distained;

He many a dog destroyed, and many a cat ;

Of fleas his bed, of frogs the marshes drained,

Could tellen if a mite were lean or fat,
And read a lecture o'er the entrails of a gnat."90
The knowledge to which this virtuoso lays claim is practically un
bounded — except by usefulness. That realm he never entered.
He is learned in the various manners of ancient times, and in rari
ties, — "How the Greek tunic differs from the Roman gown"; he
is a curious medallist; he has a rich museum, containing air-
pumps, prisms, a Memphian mummy-king, phials of live insects,
a tripod of the Pythian Maid, a crocodile, and a table full of rari
ties such as a Bahaman spider's carcass, "a dire serpent's golden
skin", and some Indian feathers.

There is here no seriousness, no bitterness; the poet declares,
simply, that the man is foolish who will devote himself to a pur
suit of such knowledge, and yet he may be happy in his folly. As
for the poet, he looks on with good-natured ridicule, exploits the
absurdity of the "odd humor", and turns away to write a love lyric
to Chloe.

In the poetry of Pope, that satiric epitome of the age, is found
an extended treatment of the new science. It is so closely inter-

»°Ibid. Stanza II.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 129

woven, however, with other matter that it is a difficult task to ex
tract it. The poet's position may be made clear by a general ex
position with references interspersed and with occasional quota
tions where the passages are illuminating. His mockery of astrol
ogy is found in the last canto of the Rape of the Lock;91 his scorn
of the antiquarian humor is disclosed in the opening lines of
Epistle IV of the Moral Essays. His own claim upon " Reason
free and unposs V he states thus boldly in the Imitations of Horace,
Bk. I, Ep. I,—

"But ask not, to what Doctors I apply?
Sworn to no master, of no sect am I;
As drives the Storm, at any door I knock;
And house with Montague now, or now with Locke. ' *92
But for a fuller expression of his attitude one must turn to the
Essay on Man and the Dunciad. In the former, however much
Pope may have borrowed from Bolingbroke in philosophic ideas,
the manner of treatment and the bias of mind are the poet's own.
These may be examined with no cencern for influences. His at
titude is found to be largely the ultra-pious position taken by
Prior and Watts; namely, that man is presumptuous to try to
understand the laws of nature, his proper attitude is rather one
of acceptance and reverence.
1 ' Go ! ! " cries Pope scornfully,

.... ."Wonderous creature! mount where science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air and state the tides,
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun".93

Let those proud men teach eternal wisdom, and when that is done,
"drop into themselves, and be a fool".94 Bacon, the archscientist,
is to him "the wisest, brightest, meanest of men;"95 and here for
the first and last time Newton is attacked, — "a mortal man who
dared unfold all nature's law". So high has he risen in the ad
miration of his disciples that they show "a Newton as we show an

« Canto V, 11. 12 7+.

82 11. 23-6.

M Ep. II, 19-22.

"Ibid. 29-30.

96 Ibid. IV, 282.

130 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Ape". But if one will really know the truth,96 he must first take
modesty as his guide, must strip off the "equipage of Pride ",
"Learning's Luxury ", and "Idleness", "tricks to show the stretch
of human brain", then will he see revealed how little is the sum of
actual knowledge possessed by man.97 Behind and beyond every
human theory lies an unanswerable question ; that is God. Man 's
duty, therefore, is to trace the beneficent design of his creator in
the world about him and cease to crack his brain over natural
causes. The attraction of atoms, the movement of the spheres,
the orders of living creatures, the harmony in the universe are
matters for praise, not investigation. Therefore, the Indian is a
happier man than the scientist, for

"His soul, proud Science never taught to stray

Far as the solar walk, or milky way".98

More pointed satire is found in the Dunciad, especially in Bk.
IV, the diatribe on education. Here "Science groans in chains",
but mad Mathesis (mathematics) runs free and lifts her ecstatic
stare to pure space, and

"Now running round the circle, finds its square".99
The Cartesians with their "Mechanic Cause" nobly take a "Priori
Koad", and build up nature as they will.100 Antiquarians, botan
ists, zoologists come bearing as their tributes, "a nest, a Toad, a
Fungus, or a Flower".101 One virtuoso seeks preferment from the
queen of Dullness because he has madly pursued and ruthlessly
slain a lovely butterfly, —

"Whose spoil this paper offers to your eye,

Fair ev 'n in death ! this peerless Butterfly. ' >102
So, Pope declares, there is a bias to every mind; some dullards are
aroused by a humming-bird, some find pleasure in dissecting "a
member of the cockle-kind", some "may wander in a wilderness
of moss", some run mad after comets, some

96 1. 34.

97 11. 43-52.

98 Epistle I, 101-2.

»1. 21.

100 1. 31.

i"1 11. 465-71.

102 1. 380.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 131

11 Impale a glow-worm, or Vertu profess,
Shine in dignity of F. R. S."103

All unite in obeying their Queen's last command, — "be proud, be
selfish, and be dull".105

In his attack there is no mercy in Pope's heart. Pseudo-sci
ence and true science fall alike to the part of fools. The antag
onism he feels is really innate ; it is the artist 's nature meeting with
the cold intellectualism of science; it is a poet finding facts un-
warmed by imaginative fervor. Hence, there is neither sympathy
for nor appreciation of106 the new ideas ; hence, is the bitter irony
of these lines that are the acme of Pope's satire against the whole
scientific attitude, —

"0, would the Sons of Men once think their eyes
And reason giv'n them but to study Flies!
See nature in some partial narrow shape
And let the author of the whole escape ;
Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe,
To wonder at their Maker, not -to serve".107

It was thus that the new science was represented in the satire
of the period. In a large measure there was an exploitation
of the new interest as a humor, just as the comedies of the times
treated it. In such a process no discrimination between pretense
and true worth can be found, or is to be expected. As a matter of
fact, writing satire became for these poets as great a humor as
they were ever able to find in the "follies and foibles" of other
men. This peculiar quality or bias of mind so possessed them that
it drew their affects, spirits and powers "in their confluction, all
to run one way". By Ben Jonson's own definition, therefore, these
writers were dominated by a satiric humor, which sought to render
absurd the interests of all men, which lived and moved and had its
being in laughter not always pleasant. It was born in Butler and
perished with Pope.

A peculiar phase of this satiric attitude appeared in those rather

108 11. 435-6.
'•Ml. 584.

106 See infra, for Pope's use of facts.

107 The Dunciad, IV, 1. 454-9.

132 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

extreme pietists, such as Prior, Blackmore, and Watts, who pro
fessed to feel that it was an act of sacrilege to investigate the
laws of nature, because this was aspiring to divine wisdom. To
seek for natural causes of natural phenomena, said they, is to dis
place God by a mechanical contrivance. A far simpler and more
dogmatic way to solve the vexing questions respecting the world
of nature is to answer briefly and emphatically, as Blackmore did, —
"this is done by the power of God".

There was a widespread feeling of contempt among the satirists
for those virtuosi who had a passion for studying "natures ver
min " and for collecting rarities. Thus, Hans Sloane, Secretary of
the Royal Society and Keeper of the Ashmolean " baby-house ",
became "the great toyman of his time". A delight in "glittering
trifles" was fit for children, as Shenstone expressed it, but a more
worthy occupation for men was social intercourse.

Sometimes, though not frequently, the scientists themselves
were satirized. Sir Paul Neal, Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Evelyn,
Sloane, and even the great Newton himself received satiric thrusts.
There was in the case of Butler's attack on Sir Paul Neal, and in
Garth's satiric criticism of Sloane, a motive of personal feeling.
In general, however, the characters of the scientists were respected.

After a study of the unfair, unjustified, and indiscriminate
attacks upon the new philosophy, one reads with a feeling of con
siderable irritation the words of Shaftesbury; — "The satirists
seldom fail in doing justice to virtue".108 Even granting sincerity
of purpose to the writers — a virtue which must be denied them —
the best word for them is that they did not yet understand the new
movement. Nor can one accept without reluctance Shaftesbury 's
fundamental maxim in defense of satire, — that "ridicule is a test
of truth". But, if it be so, then was the new science solidly based
upon a true foundation, for through all the assaults of satire and
abuse the men of science went patiently forward conquering and to
conquer.

It is a relief to quit the brilliance of satire for a homelier and
kindlier verse. "If inexhaustible wit could give perpetual pleas
ure", wrote Dr. Johnson, "no eye would ever leave half -read the
work of Butler. But astonishment is a toilsome pleasure; he

108 Characteristics, vol. I, p. 93.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 133

(the reader) is soon weary of wondering, and longs to be di
verted".109 This is precisely the feeling with which one turns to
trace the growth of appreciation which the new science found
among the poets. It will here be shown that concomitant with
satire there developed another attitude towards the new philoso
phers and their work. The newly discovered ideas gradually found
literary expression. First came the sublime scenes revealed by the
telescope, then the curious mechanism of the human body, then a
new insight into external nature through the scientist's interest
and power to observe.

Astronomy soon joined itself to a religious contemplation. In
a new way the heavens began to declare the glory of God and the
firmament to show his handiwork. Prior, for all his strictures
on scientific presumption, found himself inspired by a study of the
sky. The sun still ran round the earth for him110 and the power
of astrology was still strong,111 but the course of the stars, "theH
myriads of moons and earths sown through that space, which we
call air and sky", revealed by the telescope and calculated by math
ematics, demanded his utmost admiration. He could not, indeed,
''Make arithmetic and epic meet

And Newton's thoughts in Dry den's style repeat,"112
nor could he forget that the human mind has its limits, that every
man must reach the point where "Faith, for Reasons glimmering,
shall give her immortal perspective."113 But Prior illustrates the
first step toward real poetic appreciation. Astronomy thus led
the way through piety ; the other sciences followed slowly.

Blackmore, after denouncing all physical systems of the uni
verse for the single assertion, "This is done by the power of God",
turned to the new physiology with the enthusiasm of a discoverer.
Book VI of The Creation traces with minuteness the course of the
blood as shown by the microscope,114 and praises Harvey highly
for his. scientific work.115 The physician in Blackmore grows more

109 Johnson's Lives, vol. I, p. 212, Butler.
™I am that I am, 38-41.

111 Presented to the King, 1-3.

112 A Letter, 1704, 1. 77.

119 I Am that I Am, 11. 100-1.
114 p. 372..
116 p. 373.

134 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

and more as the poem progresses and the poet less and less. When
the circulation of the blood is completed, he takes up the process
of digestion and proposes to " pursue this theme as far as the
learned observers know".116 What Blackmore understood of the
new science he appreciated. To this he gave such poetic expres
sion as he could. The spirit of the man was appreciatively willing,
but he was poetically weak.

Pomfret, in Reason and The Divine Attributes, grows enthus-
astic over the extended bounds of the sky. In the former poem
there is a vigorous expression of an idea fundamental to the new
scientific attitude:

"Does not that foolish deference we pay
To men that liv'd long since, our passage stay,
What odd, preposterous paths at first we tread,
And learn to walk by stumbling on the dead ! ' 'm
In the religious lyrics of Isaac Watts there is generally the
astronomy of the Old Testament scriptures. The Creator is repre
sented as sitting on "an awful throne", "whirling the planets
round the poles".118 The "tuneful spheres roll through the
heavens"; the sun moves round the earth. And yet, even here,
there is the new spirit, the new conception of space : — ' ' earth 's but
an atom". In Free Philosophy, especially, there is the new spirit
of inquiry. "I hate these shackles of the mind", he declares,
"Thoughts should be as free as fire and wind". Clearly, then,
not even this pious man could escape some tincture of the new
philosophy.

The Ecstasy, by John Hughes, is after the same manner. It is
; a poem filled with unbounded enthusiasm for the Newtonian dis-
;coveries. The poet sends his spirit through vast space, beholds
the system of the world as Newton described it, draws near enough
to the moon to identify her lakes, mountains, and groves, looks
back to discover the earth itself turned to a moon, "her seas shad
owy spots, her land a milky white". He inspects Jove's four
moons, Saturn's rings, —

"And other suns, that rule by other laws,
Hither their bordering realms extend".

116 p. 373.

117 Reason.

118 To Mr. C. and S. Fleetwood.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 135

He sees unafraid a meteor, the "great Columbus of the skies", —
"'Tis Newton's soul that daily travels here

In search of knowledge for Mankind below. "119
The spirit of Newton is invoked to teach the poet the way of each
wandering comet, and to explain scientifically the rainbow.
Hughes, as far as he was able, transformed into poetry the new
knowledge of astronomy. In his mind there was no fear of im
piety; all was admiration and wonder and delight. He could not
know too much.

A topical poem of very little value, by Thomas Yalden, ad
dressed to a Mr. Watson, "on his Ephemeris of Celestial Motions,
presented to her Majesty", shows how fully the gravitation theory
was accepted. This mechanical device was used to illustrate the
position and motion of the planets. From Yalden 's description
it can be seen to follow Newton's new system of the universe. But
of more importance is a poem by him, entitled The Insect. This
is one of the very earliest attempts to use for poetic material the
world of minutiae. " 'Tis nature's smallest products please the
eye", wrote the poet. Monsters are formed to cause terror, but
insects to delight. In these latter nature works with exquisite
fineness and perfects every part no matter how small.120 There is
a touch of originality in the poem that startles the reader to at
tention.

As a mark of precocity stands the poem of Richard Glover,
prefixed to Pemberton's edition of Newton's works. The youth
ful poet discourses at weary length on the discoveries of the great
scientist. Gravitation, the analysis of colors, and the theory of
sound transmission are treated with fulsome praise. Only one
thing that piques the poet's curiosity has Newton left unsolved; —
"What", he asks, "is that subtle spirit which causes a deflection of
the rays of light from their straight course to give color to the
rainbow in the sky, the grass in the meadow, the flowers of the
fields?"

The remaining poets fall logically into two general groups; (1)
those who found fresh material in the open fields, as John Philips,
Thomson, Dyer, and Somerville, and (2) those who found a new,

ut> The Ecstasy.

120 Poem on Sir Isaac Newton.

136 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

j half-mystical inspiration in the heavens above, as Savage, Brooke,
Jl Young, and Akenside. The poems from the first group are filled
with the hitherto unappreciated commonplace things of country
life; the poems from the second group are more formal and more
religious. The purpose here is to show that scientific curiosity
permeates the work of both groups, that both employ the material
out of which was to be contructed the new natural history of the
world.

John Philips, in Cider, wrote out of an interested and long-
continued observation. The orchard was to him a laboratory where
in he made experiments in grafting, pruning, fertilizing. He had
examined with curiosity through the microscope the embryonic
tree in the kernel;121 he had seen the mites that prey on trees
and fruit; he had noted the times and seasons with an inductive,
commonsense judgment.122 In spirit and method he was in accord
with the new philosophers.

Thomson, likewise, was possessed of the new spirit. He roamed
the fields ''with philosophic eye and inspect sage". The meteor
that sped across the sky did not frighten him as it did the "super
stitious multitude". He surveyed it curiously, "inquisitive to
know the causes".123 The changes of the seasons he endeavored
to interpret in terms of chemistry.124 He was familiar with the
recent scientific activities.125 Boyle and Newton were mentioned
by him with special praise.126 He felt himself, in general, to be in
perfect sympathy with the new science.
"Fair thy renown
In awful sages and in noble bards;
Soon as the light of dawning science spread
Her orient ray, and waked the Muse's song".
Thomson, more nearly than any other of these poets, has followed
the exhortation of Thomas Sprat, "to read in the great Book of
Nature, to walk in its Garden and taste its plenty". If the new

121 Bk. I.

122 Bk. II. Autumn, p. 141, Orowell.

123 Autumn, p. 105, Crowell, "Whate'er the wintry frost nitrous prepared and sum
mer suns concocted strong".

124 Summer, p. 97, To memory of Sir Isaac Newton, also p. 406.
v* Autumn, p. 146.

x* Spring, p. 15.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 137

science did not furnish him fully the promised reward of fresh
imagery, it did aid him with a new interest. The facts of nature !
were not to him cold and lifeless, but warm and living. In the
Seasons imagination and reason meet on terms of amity, and merely /
await the greater genius of Wordsworth to wed them.

In John Dyer's The Fleece there is the same spirit of interested
observation. The subject-matter is humble and homely but the
enthusiasm of the poet is ever present. He wrote like an expert
shepherd. He seemed to know the causes of disease and their
cures;127 he had patiently observed the habits of the flock;128 he
knew the shearing time, the lambing time, the care of the fleece, and
its later process of manufacture. With all of his discursiveness
and preaching, like Thomson, his method of gathering information^
was that of the new science, — observation and experiment.

One would not expect to find any new science or old science in
Somerville's The Chase, and yet the scientific attitude is there.
This lover of dogs has made a careful study of them, so that he
too can speak as an expert in his field. He has given an explana
tion of how a hound follows the scent of a deer, which might in
substance have appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, —
''The blood from the heart incessant rolls

In many a crimson tide, then here and there

In smaller rills disparted, as its flow

Propelled, the serous particles wade

Through th' open pores, and with the ambient air

Entangling mix. ' '129

This effluvium, escaping through the pores of the skin, clings to the
grass, shrubs, and bushes, unless destroyed by rain or heat. The
nostrils of the hound in pursuit sucks in this effluvium and dis
covers the scent.

The poet had seen the weather signs, he knew the care of the
horse, the symptoms and the treatment of hydrophobia. The hab
its of the deer, the hound, the hare, and the wily fox, this poet
of the open fields also knew. His lines are filled with the fresh
ness and vigor of the outdoor life ; he wrote out of the enthusiasm

127 Bk. I.
^Bk. II.
129 Canto I.

138 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

of a first-hand, intimate knowledge. Through all of his verse
there is evidence of careful, interested observation and of varied
experience. Somerville had the intellectual attitude of the scien
tist combined with the feeling of a poet.

Into this school of Thomsonian poetry has entered the new scien
tific spirit. It is not claimed that these poets were primarily in
spired by the new science, but clearly enough their habits of mind
were in accord with it. Their eyes were opened to see the won
drous things in commonplace life. Interest in bugs and mites was
not to be despised by them ; in the sheep-fold, in the kennel, in the
orchard, there was the subject-matter of philosophy and poetry.
In them was science becoming the handmaiden of literature.

With Richard Savage's The Wanderer (1729) began that strain
of oriental mysticism inspired by the night and the stars. The
rapt poet wanders alone in the dark and with feelings of ecstasy,
1 1 Sees, round new countless suns, new systems roll ;

Sees God in all! and magnifies the whole!"130
He is enraptured by the wonderful northern lights, the fleeting
comets where " half -circling glories shoot in rays of gold". To
11 Fancy's eye" these are the ''sanguine ensigns" of encountering
armies in the sky; to "the weak vulgar" these are the portents of
dreadful visitants ; but to the poet, under the influence of the new
science, there is awe inspired of beauty. Fear has been cast out
by knowledge.

' ' The learned-one, curious, eyes it from afar,

Sparkling through night, a new illustrious star ! ' *131
To him the colors of the rainbow are no longer an accepted mys
tery but a phenomenon explained by science, yet none the less
marvelously beautiful.132 The great philosophers are not to him
fools and knaves but men of transcendent genius; Bacon, Locke,
Halley, and Newton are highly praised. This science, "from
Liberty sprung", after years of misrepresentation, is at last com
ing into its own, —

"See Learning range yon broad aetherial plain,
From world to world, and Glod-like Science gain !

"o Canto I.
i» Canto III.
» Canto VI.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 139

Ah ! what avails the curious search sustain 'd,
The finished toil the God-like Science gain'd?
Sentenced to flames th' expansive wisdom fell,
And truth from Heaven was sorcery from Hell. ' >133
The Wanderer looks out on the world with the curious, in
quisitive eyes of the new philosophers. The poet parts company
with the scientist only where an enthusiasm for beauty divides
itself from pleasure in the mere knowledge of truth. "The more
she (Science)", said Lowell shrewdly, "makes one lobe of the
brain Aristotelian, so much more will the other intrigue for an
invitation to the banquet of Plato".134 And so The Wanderer,
entering into the knowledge which science drew from the skies,
gave to it the "impassioned expression" of poetry; for "poetry
is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge".135 Thus stands
the poet-philosopher

"Calm, on the beach, while maddening billows rave;
He gains philosophy from every wave;
Science from every object round he draws;
From various Nature, and from Nature 's laws".136
This philosophic pleasure in the beauty of the world is re
peated in Henry Brooke's poem, Universal Beauty (1735). The
ambitious poet seeks with "a daring unexampl'd" to "unfold the
universal frame". The Newtonian system finds here once more
an enthusiastic endorsement ;137 the earth has diminished to an atom
in the universe of worlds ;138 the elasticity of the air,139 the revela
tions of the microscope — "nature's myriad minim race" — with their
exquisite workmanship,140 the marvelous construction of the human
frame141 are made a part of the universal beauty. Swept on by
the ardor of his poetic inspiration, Brooke prophesies new wonders
and new beauties yet to be revealed.

183 An Epistle to Robert Walpole.

*» Latest Literary Essays, p. 182.

146 Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815.

188 To John Powell, Esq.

187 Bk. I-II.

138 Bk. IV, 213.

"•Bk. II, 334.

"°Bk. IV, 115.

"*Bk. IV, 1-14.

140 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

"Think, should this curtain of Omniscience rise,

Think of the sight! and think of the surprise!

Scenes inconceivable, essential, new,

Whelm 'd on our soul, and lightning on our view".142
The poetic inspiration of astronomy found its fullest expres
sion in Edward Young's Night Thoughts. The poet had left far
behind him the satiric contempt of the Universal Passion, al
though even yet man is not a noble being. In the sustained and
lofty eloquence of this poem, his fellow-beings forgotten, Young
finds the new heavens of science a source of genuine poetic fervor.
The firmament is for him "the garden of the Diety",143 the
study of which demands a religious spirit.

"Devotion! daughter of astronomy!

An undevout astronomer is mad".144

Young's primary purpose is to overthrow scepticism and this
effort occupies the greater proportion of his work, but at times
the poet overpowers the discursive theologian and looks with naked
eyes upon "an infinite of floating worlds on yonder azure field",
and with the microscope of imagination beholds "these twinkling
multitudes of little life". It is in these passages that Young meets
the new science and accepts from those whom he before had scorned
the gratuitous riches of new ideas. Consciously or unconsciously,
also, he accepts their point of view, —

' ' Mankind was sent into the world to see ;

Sight gives the science needful to their peace".145
Once again has piety led a poet into an appreciation of science.
The horizon, inconceivably enlarged by the telescope, has revealed
not a god-less universe, as feared at first, but new beauty, new
reason for belief in a Creator, new cause to "fall prostrate and
adore". "Through the roof of the little theatre on which the
drama of man's history had been enacted, men began to see the
eternal stars shining in silent contempt upon their petty imagin
ings".146 This inspiring idea dawns upon Young's midnight mus
ings. He says of our earth, —

i«Bk. V, 153-6.

148 Bk. IX.

i^Bk. IX.

"OBk. IX.

146 Stephens, Leslie, History of English Thought in the 18th Cent. I, 82.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 141

"This small nest,

Stuck in a corner of the universe,
Wrapt up in fleecy cloud, and fine-spun air."
And of proud man he demands, —
"What are thou? A beam,
A mere effluvium of his majesty;
And shall an atom of this atom-world
Mutter in dust and sin, the theme of heaven?"147
Young, sordidly ambitious and in many respects meanly selfish as
a man, thus became the mouth-piece of new scientific ideas, and he,
who had come early in life to scoff at all science, remained to pray
in its very language. It is to be lamented that he never learned
to follow his own preaching, —

"Man's science is the culture of the heart".148
And, finally, Akenside in the last year of this period published
his Pleasures of the Imagination (1744), in which he finds the same
source of inspiration. Again the poet's spirit soars through the
heavens, "where reason points the way".149 The worlds on high,
"the forms of atoms moving with incessant change the elemental
round", "the melting rainbow's vernal-tinctur'd hues", all that
the "spacious West and the teeming regions of the South hold in
quarry" are to him material for poetry. And this poet, who des
pised the virtuoso with his studies of mites, his museums, his col
lections of rare plants, joined with Savage, Brooke, and Young to
praise the work of science in other fields. He prayed, in his Hymn
to Science (1739), for—

' ' The patient head, the candid heart,

Devoted to thy sway".

Those qualities were granted him in his later years when his medi
cal studies led him more thoroughly into the new experimental
philosophy.

Just a word is needed here to summarize what has been said of
the appreciation of the new science among the poets. Through
the lenses of the telescope the poet's eyes first saw the beauties of

IV.

148 Bk. IX.

149 Hymn to Science.

142 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

r the new ideas, and piety first met astronomy on friendly terms.
Slowly the new science was remoulding the poet's world; the
humble creatures of earth were raised into dignity; and imagina
tion first began to discover the marvelous that lurks in the common
place. "While appreciation is far less in bulk than satire, there
is apparent a sure indication of the new attitude that was to come,
when "the remotest discoveries of the Chemist, the Botanist, or the
Mineralogist, will be as proper objects of the Poet's art as any
upon which it can be employed".150

Ill

Another form in which science, old and new, enters into litera
ture is in allusion and imagery. Obviously this is not a fair means
to prove its rejection or to test the progress of its acceptance, for
the out-worn figures cling to poetry long after belief has fallen
away, but the gradual disappearance of the old and the steady
growth of the new can be traced with tolerable clearness. This
literary phenomenon will be illustrated here.

One finds the outgrown belief of the old science running through
the years. References to healing by sympathy extend from Sir
Kenelm Digby to Pope;151 the malignant stars shed their astrolo
gical influence through the same period;162 and the sun moves
round the earth even in Pope's Pastorals.155 The "lawless comets "
and the "meteor's fire" shine in countless lines; no poet failed to
call attention to this striking natural phenomenon. But gradual
ly men lost their superstitious fear, and when mathematics cal
culated the comets' course and the telescope identified them as
stars, the old belief wholly died away, —

"Till from a comet she a star did rise,

Not to affright, but please, our wondering eyes".154
The music of the spheres was most difficult to silence, and sounded
on long after belief had faded from the minds of both poet and

use Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815.

151 Barker, Jane, To my Uncle C — , To Mr. C. B. Congreve, Epigram; Pope, Pas
torals, Wks., vol. I, p. 28.

158 Wycherley, To a Handsome Woman, On Chloris Rowe, The Fair Penitent,
Act I, sc. 1.; Lady Winchelsea, The Hurricane, etc.

158 Of. Blackmore, Prince Arthur; Shenstone, Elegy, XI; Pope, Pastorals, vol.
I, p. 23.

154 Lee, Nathaniel, Panegyric on J. Dryden's Plays.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 143

%

reader.155 The Ptolemaic conception of the ten spheres circling
the earth as their centre gave to English poetry imagery that has
not yet entirely disappeared. It found expression through this
period with surprising frequency.156 The milky way, like comets
and meteors, was a stock image. Gradually the power of the tele
scope added a new meaning to it; rarely did a later poet fail to
emphasize the fact that it is made up of a multitude of stars.
"Thus unseen the Stars i' th' Element,
United, make the milky way".157

' ' One glittering thought no sooner strikes the eye,
With silent wonder, but new wonders rise;
As in the milky way a shining white
0 'erflows the heav 'ns with one continued light ;
That not a single star can shew his rays,
Whilst jointly all promote the common blaze".158
As the poets began to strike out new figures from the new science
the imagery was caught up by various writers, even the phrasing
being repeated to the point of monotony. The "rolling spheres",
the "rolling orbs", and "the dancing maze" are found in practic
ally every description of the sky, just as the "artillery of heaven"
resounded for some years after Milton set it off.159 Unexpected
theories find unexpected repetition. The Royal Society had lis
tened to an explanation of the color of Damson plums as due to
a small animal that lived on them. Shadwell ridiculed the idea
in The Virtuoso. Sixty years later Thomson wrote, —
1 ' The shining plum,
With a fine bluish mist of animals
Clouded."160

And Henry Brooke, ten years afterward, gave expression to the
same idea.

196 Of. Blackmore, Prince Arthur; Crowne, Pref. to Ambitious Statesman; Oon-
greve, A Hymn to Harmony; Winchelsea, The Hymn.

156 Of. Otway, Venice Preserved, Act V, sc. 2; Congreve, Of Pleasing, The Birth
of the Muse; Rowe, The Fair Penitent, Prologue; Arbuthnot, Know Thyself; Tickell,
On the Prospect of Peace; Pope, Rape of the Lock, Canto II.

^Wycherley, To a Lady.

^Addison, An Account of the Greatest English Poets.

169 See Dryden, Burnet.

160 Autumn, pp. 126-7, Crowell.

144 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

"Or azure tribes that o'er the damson bloom,

And plant the regions of the ripening plum".161
In like manner, Dryden coined a new figure in Annus Mirabilis,162
comparing the trade of a nation to the circulation of the blood.
This was repeated in Jane Barker's A Farewell to Poetry, and
much later in Edward Young's Reflections on the Public Situation.
The scientific apparatus appeared on a few occasions. One of
the "last sayings of a mouse"163 was to rejoice that there was "no
Gresham engine my lean Corps to squeeze". Shenstone has
"empty as the air-pumps drained of air".164 Congreve called
vanity, —

' ' That Telescope of fools, through which they spy

Merit remote, and think the object nigh."165
And Pope wrote, —

"As the gay Prism but mocks the flatter 'd eye,

And gives to ev'ry object ev'ry dye."168

One of the most elaborate figures is by Andrew Marvell,' To the
King, on the use of the telescope in observing the spots on the sun.
The "sooty chemist" never attained to respectability in the
poetry of this period. There are two ways in which he was pre
sented; first, he was "feeding perpetual fires" in the vain hope of
transmuting the baser metals into gold, secondly, he was a quack
in concocting medicines. As an alchemist the following lines from
Parnell's poem, To Mr. Pope, characterize him fairly, —
"The new machines in names of ridicule,

The grave frenzy of the Chymic fool."

The contempt for the chemist's medical skill is voiced by Lady
Mary Wortley Montague in Town Eclogues (Saturday), —
"Ye cruel Chemists, what withheld your aid!
Could no pomatum save a trembling maid?
How false and trifling is that art ye boast ! ' '167

161 Universal Beauty, Bk. I, 243-4.

182 1. 5.

168 Anonymous.

164 The Progress of Taste.

WO/ Pleasing.

it6Esaay on Satire.

167 Town Eclogues, Saturday.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 145

The physician was usually associated with the apothecary as two
rogues of a kind. As in comedy, the doctor vaunts the powers he
does not possess. The literary men who were in the profession,
such as Arbuthnot and Akenside, are silent regarding him. Samuel
Garth is satirically resentful of the selfishness shown by the mem
bers of his own professional fraternity. But Blair, a layman, see
ing men and women dying around him in spite of the professed
powers of cure, writes defiantly. —

11 Where is thy boasted implements of art?

nor fly nor insect,

Nor writhy snake, escaped thy deep research.
But why this apparatus ? why this cost ?
Tell us, doughty keepers from the grave,
Where are thy recipes and cordials now,
With the long list of vouchers for thy cures ?
Alas ! thou speakest not, — the bold impostor
Looks not more silly when the cheat 's found out".168
Of the scientists themselves the only one to whom the references
are consistently laudatory is Newton. Lower, Sloane, Flamsteed,
Lister, and Boyle are mentioned rarely. But it is to Newton that
science was indebted for much of its dignity. The character of
this great man was irreproachable, — indeed, commanded respect
and honor. Even the spiteful Pope, who alone dared to cast a
slur upon him, said, —

''Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night;
God said, Let Newton be! and all was Light/'169

IV

Clearly the new philosophy did not find a ready or a full inter
pretation among the poets. The reasons for this are not readily
discovered. In a sense poets are conservative ; the poetic imagina
tion cherishes the idols after they have been disowned by the phil
osophers. The raw, new facts of scientific discovery are not quick
ly surrounded by the necessary associations for a direct poetic
expression of emotion. "The remotest discoveries of the Chemist,
the Botanist, or the Mineralogist, will be as proper objects of the

168 The Grave.

169 Pope, Epitaphs, XII.

146 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Poet's art as any upon which it can be employed, if the time should
ever come when these things shall be familiar to us, and the rela
tions under which they are contemplated by the followers of these
respective sciences shall be manifestly and palpably material to
us as enjoying and suffering beings".170 The comic and satiric
representation of the new philosopher as a foolish, whimsical be
ing, pursuing a kind of knowledge that was not "manifestly and
palpably material ' ' to the lives of men, no doubt delayed a genuine
appreciation of the value of scientific work.

Furthermore, the poetry of this period is conspicuously emo
tionless. Poets looked into their heads, not into their hearts, when
they wrote. They could not, therefore, be expected to understand
and interpret "the deepest convictions of their age". This is the
obvious reason that the great bulk of the verse of this time has
become a dead letter; for "the imaginative literature of an age
must express the genuine feelings of that age, or it will perish
still-born".171 And, finally, there is always a temperamental ele
ment of discord, among the poets, between imagination and the
scientific spirit.

170 Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815.

171 Stephens, Leslie, Hist, of Eng. Thought in 18th Cent., vol. II, p. 348.

CHAPTER V

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE

In the work of Sir Francis Bacon "the English language first
became the vehicle for scientific expression". His predecessors,
"whether in science or philosophy, used the common language of
learned men", which was of course Latin.1 But Bacon's influence
was not immediately felt; the old ornate style with its "involved
and artificial intricacies and copious classical quotations ' ' continued
in Burton, Browne, Milton, Fuller, Taylor, and others. Even in
the Restoration period the English scientific writers did not have
full confidence in their mother tongue ; Willughby, Ray, Grew and
Sydenham used Latin for their serious work; Newton's Principles
first appeared in the same language, as did Burnet's Sacred Theory.
A new simplicity and directness, however, may be found in Wilkins's
New World in the Moon (1638) and later in "Walton's Complete
Angler (1655). This new prose art, "the clear and naked style
approaching mathematical plainness",2 was caught up by certain
of the virtuosi and became the ideal of the Royal Society. With
this model before them the new philosophers made a spirited effort
to chronicle the new observations of science in the best literary
form of the age.3 This effort lasted through the last forty years
of the seventeenth century, and then gave way to a satiric ex
ploitation by the group of brilliant Queen Anne wits. During
these early years of the eighteenth century natural science devel
oped its own direct, non-literary exposition and found only inci
dental representation in literary prose.

Three distinct phases, therefore, are to be found in the study
of the new science and the prose of this period. First, there is
an early effort to give an enthusiastic literary expression, begin
ning with Wilkins and ceasing practically with the end of the
century ; secondly, there is a satiric exploitation of the new interest
reaching from John Eachard, the schoolmaster, to Ward, the Lon
don Spy; thirdly, there is an incidental representation in the
philosophers, and a direct, non-literary exposition from the scien
tists themselves.

1The Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. IV, p. 308.
2 Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, p. 113.
•Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 419.

148 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

The influence of the new study of physiology had early ap
peared in the titles, at least, of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy
and Towgood's Zootomia. But it was the astronomical studies, es
pecially the new telescope and the recent discoveries of Galileo,
that stimulated Wilkins, one of the eldest of the group at Gresham
College, to write his New World in the Moon. He was, like the
Duchess of Newcastle, bubbling over with " Phantasies ", one of
which led him to discuss with an appearance of scientific method
the vexed question as to whether or not the moon was an inhabited
world.

This writer was in full sympathy with the new scientific spirit,
became a charter member of the Royal Society, and was active in
its work. His book was made the butt of much ridicule during
the succeeding years, especially his Proposition XIV where he dis
courses on the art of flying. This passage together with the in
troduction to Hooke's Micrographia made the new science respon
sible for these absurd claims for fifty years. But the style of the
book is free from ornateness and approaches the "naked style" of
the later scientists. There is little else of value in the work except
as it shows that at this early date a man, thoroughly imbued with
the new scientific spirit, attempted to give a literary expression to
his observations.

Walton's Complete Angler, too, has a share in the new scien
tific movement; the expert speaks in him as well as the enthusiast.
His knowledge of the different species of fish and insects is the
same as that underlying the work of Willughby, Ray, and Grew.
The power of ancient authority is still strong upon him; his most
frequent references are to Aristotle, Pliny, Gesner, and Dubratius,
and "vulgar errors" find a too ready acceptance with him.4 And
yet he has looked with his own eyes, too; he has come to know
thoroughly the habitats of the various kinds of fish ; he has learned
their anatomy, their ways of life, their methods of breeding.5 He
has come under the influence of Bacon's Natural History and is
familiar with the work of the Royal Society.6 Walton himself had

4 The Complete Angler, p. 75, 97.

5 Ibid. pp. 74, 97, 118, 159.

6 The Complete Angler, pp. 74, 97, 118, 159.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 149

made experiments after the manner of the new scientists. "I have
seen," he says, "and may therefore affirm it".7 There were some
things that were required to have the confirmation of his senses
to gain his belief. "And you are to know, that in Hampshire,
which I think exceeds all England for swift, shallow, clear, pleasant
brooks, and store of Trouts, they used to catch Trouts in the night,
by the light of a Trout-spear, or other ways. This kind of way
they catch very many ; but I would not believe it till I was an eye
witness of it".8

This lover of sport understands the passion for curiosities that
actuated the antiquaries. ' ' These, to any that love learning, must
be pleasing".9 The monument of Livy, "the humble house in
which St. Paul was content to dwell", the bay-trees on the tomb
of Virgil are pleasing and profitable to see.10 There is no astonish
ment, therefore, to discover that he is acquainted with the writings
of Meric Casaubon and is familiar with the collection of rarities
made by John Tradescant.11

This gentleman angler is an antiquarian and naturalist, living
to a great extent under the domination of ancient authority and
yet looking out upon rural England from the shade of his beloved
sycamore or from the shelter of his favorite hedge with open eyes
and with keen and accurate observation. * ' It may not be improper
here to take notice, that in this, and several other parts of the
book, the facts related by the author do most remarkably coincide
with later discoveries of the most diligent and sagacious natural
ists".12 There is a simplicity here that Sprat would praise; there
is a quaintness, too, that gives distinction and personality; and in
many places there is a realism struggling with ornateness for free
expression. "But the nightingale, another of my airy creatures,
breathes sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat,
that it might make mankind to think miracles are not yet ceased.
He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should
hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the

7 The Complete Angler, p. 96.

8 Ibid. p. 117.
8 Ibid. p. 34.

10 Ibid. p. 42.

11 Ibid.

12 The Complete Angler, Editor, p. 123.

150 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her
voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, 'Lord, what music
hast thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou affordest
bad men such music on earth' ",13 In Walton there is a partial
fulfilment of Sprat's injunction to walk in nature as in a garden,
and to taste of its plenty. ' ' There I sat viewing the silver streams
glide silently towards their centre, the tempestuous sea; yet some
times opposed by rugged roots and pebble-stones, which broke their
waves, and turned them into foam, and sometimes I beguiled time
by viewing the harmless lambs; some leaping securely in the cool
shade, whilst others sported themselves in the sun".14 Thus with
the eyes of a scientist and the feeling of a poet, Piscator has com
bined the delightful qualities of accuracy and a sense for beauty.
He would not have felt himself out of place among the group of
scientists at Gresham College, nor would they have despised his
fund of accurate information. Part scientist, part poet, and
wholly an honest gentleman, Izaak Walton finds his early place
in this new influence.

Aside from all controversies between sects, or between theology
and philosophy, is the quiet and interested study by John Evelyn
of the forest trees in England (Silva). The task was imposed
upon Evelyn by royal request, but the genius of the man was such
that the resulting book, instead of being a dull report, is yet alive
with the pleasure of the writer. New knowledge has led to new
interest; intimacy with nature has begotten enthusiasm; and a
bulletin has been made a piece of literature.

The book deals with the familiar trees of the English forests
and with those that have been and may be imported. The genera
are treated upon a common plan, — kinds, care, habitat, and uses.
The oak, elm, walnut, beech, ash, maple, sycamore, cherry, hazel,
birch, and many others are described. The uniformity of the plan
gives a touch of monotony to the book, yet a sense of freshness
attends almost every description. At times the author injects an
element of personal feeling into the passage. Of the holly he
writes, — "Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing
object of the kind, than an impregnable hedge of about four

"Ibid. p. 26.
" Ibid. p. 96.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 151

hundred feet in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter, which
I can show in my now ruined Gardens at Sayes Court at any time
of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves? The
taller standards at orderly distances, blushing with their natural
coral: It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, or hedge-
breakers."15

The new science may claim the content and inception of this
book. Its purpose is practical, its method is scientific ; if literature
claims it all at the last the reason is that the pleasure of the author
has been imparted through its pages to the reader. Silva is one
of those rare instances where a delight is given by sugar-coating
instruction. There is plenty of learning in the book; botanical
names and Latin phrases abound. And there is the emotion of a
discoverer and of a religious observer who wonders at the infinite
handiwork of God. "And what Mortal is there so perfect an
Atomist, who will undertake to detect the one thousandth part,

or point, of so exile a Grain, as that in sensible rudiment

which brings forth the lofty Fir-tree and the spreading Oak?
That trees of so enormous an height and magnitude, as we find
some Elms, and Cypresses; that others hard as iron and solid as

marble should be swaddled and involved within so weak

and feeble a substance, without the least luxation, confusion, and
disorder of parts ! That when they are buried in the moist womb
of Earth, which so easily dissolves and corrupts substances so
much harder, yet this should be able in time to displace and rend
asunder whole rocks of stone, and sometimes to cleave them be
yond the force of iron wedges, so even to remove mountains ! That
our trees, like man (whose inverted symbol he is) being sown in
corruption, rise in glory, and little and little ascending into an
hard erect figure of comely dimensions, become a solid tower, as
it were ! And that which but lately a single ant could easily have
borne to his little cavern, should now become capable of resisting
the fury, and braving the rage of the most impetuous storms. ' >16

This early and splendid appreciation the new philosophy found
in Walton and Evelyn. These two books are among the "re
nowned victories of peace". They have the merits of spontaneity,

15 Silva, p. 386.
M Silva, p. 645.

152 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

patriotism, and honesty. They sprang from a genuine scientific
interest and from a "reason free and unpossest".

In that debatable land between prose as literature and as non-
literature lie such books as Sir Robert Boyle 's The Sceptical Chem
ist, Occasional Reflections, and The Christian Virtuoso, Hooke's
Micrographia, J. Childrey's Britania Baconica, Evelyn's Sculptura
and Acetaria and Ray's Wisdom of God. Primarily, these books
were all written for instruction, not for pleasure, and certainly
were inspired by scientific research. There is, however, a con
scious attempt to give them literary form. The three books of
Boyle are, perhaps, his most nearly literary productions. The
Sceptical Chemist is in the form of a dialogue between Eleutherius
and Carneades on the latest chemical theories ; it is a symposium on
the general question as to whether there are three or five primary
elements. Carneades, who speaks for Boyle, develops a general
sceptical attitude of the old beliefs, and especially of the alchemical
theory of transmuting the baser metals into gold. It was this
attitude that "made a crisis in chemical theory".17 In Occasional
Reflections there is a series of philosophical discourses on various
subjects, some so unimportant and trivial as to furnish the basis
of Swift's burlesque Meditations on a Broomstick. For examples,
see Proposition I, Section 1, "Upon the Manner of giving Meat to
his Dog", Proposition IV, Section 1, "Upon Paring a rare Sum
mer Apple", Proposition II, Section 2, "Upon his Making a Fire",
Proposition IX, Last Section, "Upon the finding of a Horse-shoe
in the High-way". The Christian Virtuoso is really a defense of
the new philosophy against the accusation of scepticism; its or
iginal purpose was "to prove a man may be a good Christian and
at the same time an experimental philosopher".18

Hooke's Micrographia is a series of philosophical reports re
sulting from his experiments. The style is clear and terse and
aims to meet the ideal of the scientists. There is enthusiasm here,
also, born of discovery; Hooke feels himself a pioneer making
straight the way for truth. But the original purpose was to im
part information, to explain natural phenomena, such as the es
sence of fire, the cause of color, etc. Childrey's Britania Baconica,

"Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 160.
™The Christian Virtuoso, Introduction.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 153

as its title implies, was written to carry forward the work of re
constructing the natural history of England after Bacon's man
ner. It is filled with the author's observations of curiosities and
phenomena in Staffordshire. There is, however, no attempt at
style ; for the most part it is a mere catalogue. For the reader of
today who knows Gilbert White's Natural History of Selbome it is
dry and stupid. The Sculptura and Acetaria of Evelyn have al
most as much right to be classed among the works of literature as
Silva. But they are manifestly inferior to that book and illus
trate no new literary expression of science. Their titles indicate
with sufficient clearness the fields of interest out of which they
were harvested. Ray's Wisdom of God, also, has some claim to at
tention. Just as certain poets, filled with piety, found new emo
tion in the revelations of astronomy, just as Newton sought to
prove the existence of a God from his new system of the world,
so the observers of the structure and relationship of plants and
animals, the discoverers of the wonderful mechanism in even the
most minute forms, found reason to proclaim the "wisdom of
God". Of this number was Ray, the botanist. The purpose of
his book was primarily theological and it falls into its proper place
in the development of the ideas of the systemists, who have as their
eloquent spokesmen, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and Pope.19

English literature in any narrowed sense can hardly claim the
prose works of the greatest scientist of the period, Sir Isaac New
ton. The Principia, his most important work, was written or
iginally in Latin according to the custom of learned men of his
time. Optics has no pretensions to literary expression; it is mere
ly a bald statement of experiments and demonstrations. The fam
ous Letters to Eentley are less cold and rigid, but are directed to
ward theology, where "he argues an intelligent agent from the
discovered motions of the planets". Newton passed over wholly
within the realms of theology in such a work as Observations on the
Prophecy of Daniel. The new science, of course, followed him
thither, for it had become a part of his habit of thought. And

19 The most complete investigation into the problem of the deists was made by
Joseph Butler in his Analogy (1736). The new science contributed to this whole
theological discussion (1) the search for natural causes, and (2) the new conception
of the physical world. Butler's Analogy is a criticism on the attempts to prove by
a posteriori methods the existence of a God.

154

THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

here, too, he is raised by religious contemplation to something like
emotional literary expression, where the " pressure of an immense
brooding mind can be felt".20 "Did blind Chance know there was
light, and what was its refraction, and fit the eyes of all creatures,
after the most curious manner, to make use of it ? ' '21 But this
great mind never gave in any sense an adequate literary expres
sion to those lone voyages on the seas of thought. His work was,
however, incalculably stimulating and his personality gave dignity
and seriousness to scientific research.

There is another class of books of which mention must be made ;
namely, the books of travel. Ray's Account of his Journeys on
the Continent, Lister's Journey to Paris, burlesqued by William
King in his Journey to London, Dampier's Voyages, Thoresby's
Autobiography, and others, contain the same spirit of inquiry that
impelled the new philosophers in their microscopical and tele-
scopical investigations. As the scientists were sent forth into all
the world from Solomon's House in The New Atlantis, so, in real
life, did the new philosophers go among strange peoples, Ray and
Willughby to the continent, Browne to Iceland, Lister to Paris,
Sir Robert Moray to Hungary, Halley to South America, Thoresby
to Holland. Books of prose resulted from these excursions, that
afford stores of information for the student of social and political
history, but were never intended as literary productions.

II

The new science, after an early appreciation, fell among the
thorns of satire. The "Wits and Railleurs" in prose attacked
without mercy, yet with more discrimination than the poets. There
is keen and cutting satire in The Grounds and Occasions of the
Contempt of the Clergy (1670), by the schoolmaster, John Each-
ard. He finds fault with the new philosophy for its evil effect
upon the students who are preparing for the ministry. He does
not claim that it gives them wrong ideas. "Neither shall I here
examine which Philosophy, the Old or the New, makes the best
sermons. It is hard to say, that exhortation can be to no purpose,
if the preacher believes that the earth turns round! or that his

20 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 59.
a Observations on the Prophecy of Daniel.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 155

reproofs take no effect unless he suppose a vacuum. There have
been good sermons, no question ! made in the days of Materia Prima
and Occult Qualities; and there are, doubtless, still good dis
courses now, under the reign of Atoms". But the new science, he
declares, has made the young students pedantic. "And, for the
most part, ah ordinary cheesemonger or plumseller, that scarce (ly)
ever heard of a university ; shall write much better sense, and more
to the purpose than these young philosophers, who injudiciously
hunting only for great words, make themselves learnedly ridicul
ous".22 And lastly, he asserts, the young preacher who has filled
his commonplace book with similitudes from "the old philosophy,
and Ptolemy's system of the world," would best "go a-gleaning
for new ones ; it being, nowadays, much more gentle and warrant
able to take similitudes from the Man in the Moon than from solid
orbs ; for though few people do absolutely believe there is any such
Eminent Person there; yet the thing is possible, whereas the
other is not".23 Eachard's criticism was no doubt justified by
facts, for many students must have left the university like "the
pert young Soph", with his memory filled with the canting terms
of the new philosophy and his mind devoid of any clear ideas.
Of such were the pedants, who lacked the humility of the true
scientist and professed boldly a knowledge which they never pos
sessed.

The irrepressible William King wrote numerous satires on the
new science. His Transactioneer, "a burlesque satire of some
merit",24 has already been mentioned. Dr. Johnson thought the
attack was aimed at Sir Hans Sloane, who. was then Secretary of
the Royal Society.25 The character of King's attack may be de
termined from his Miscellanies. In the first essay, Animadver
sions on the Pretended Account of Denmark, he ridicules the Dan
ish university. There are, he says, splendid buildings and numer
ous students, the two prime necessities for a great school. But of
scholarship, of great teachers and sound learning he has nothing to

^Arber's Reprints, vol. Ill, p. 262.
28 Ibid. p. 263-4.

84 Swift's WJcs. vol. V, p. 154, note.
25 Johnson's Wks. X, p. 32.

156 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

say.26 He derides the discoveries of Bartholinus and Borrichius.27
His Journey to London gives a pretended account of his visit to
the virtuosi there. "I heard of several Persons that had great
Collections of Rarities, Pictures, and Statues".28 Among these
rarities are the following: — A Roman glass, a rummer of two
quarts, "a copy of writing said to be the Devil's writing", a Mil
ler's thumb, several sorts of tadpoles and sticklebacks.29 He holds
a conversation with certain ones of the experimenters. "I had
several Discourses with Mr. Muddifond, about an old Cat and a
young Kitling in an Air-Pump, and how the Cat died after 16
Pumps, but the Kitling surviv'd 500 Pumps".30 He received as
souvenirs from these virtuosi, Mr. Muddifond and Mr. Goodenough,
two human hearts. In the Tower he finds a whole menagerie,
11 Lyons, Tygers, Catamountains, two Owls, and a calf -skin stuft".
Being himself a virtuoso, he sees nothing of interest in the Royal
Mint except ''a coin from Palmyra".31 Mr. Shuttleworth shows
him such great curiosities as "a Stone out of Scotland with the
names of all those killed at chevy Chase", "the skin of a Cap Ass,
some Land Snails, a thin Oyster, some papers of Swammerdam
with Figures of Tadpoles, an Egyptian Rattle, and great Cases
full of Playthings from France". Connected with these virtuosi
are the quack doctors whose advertisements "covered the walls
everywhere about the town". Here is a specimen; "AQUA
TETRACHYMAGOGON, Rear, Try, Judge, and Speak as You
Find".32 This traveller also visits the famous Chelsea Gardens
and inspects the medicinal plants there.33 At the close of the
Journey is an apology for not furnishing the reader with drawings
of "the Wren's Nest, the Stickleback, the Two Snails, and the
two Grasshoppers". "My Bookseller said the Graver was out of
the way".34

26 Miscellanies, pp. 191-3.

27 Ibid. p. 189.

28 Ibid. p. 223.

29 Ibid.

80 Ibid. p. 225.

81 Ibid. p. 228.

» Miscellanies, p. 233.
88 Ibid. p. 235; p. 242.
"Ibid, p. 304.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 157

In the dialogue, called Affectation of the Learned Lady, there is
portrayed a comic character, who is the equal of Valeria in the
Basset-Table and Lady Science in The Humours of Oxford. Cal-
phurnia keeps on her table, instead of toilet articles, "the works
of Jansenius, Descartes, Casaubon, Kircher, with such like Authors,
and Manuscripts innumerable ' '.35 "I was so visited in the Morn
ing", she explains, "by the Virtuosi, Criticks, Poets, Booksellers;
so taken up with my Correspondence with the learned both at
home and Abroad, that I had little time to talk with my Milliner,
Dresser, Mantua-Maker, and such illiterate People".36 So greatly
absorbed is she in these scientific interests that she "keeps a calling
day once a fortnight for the ladies, but everyday for the Virtuosi".37
The Dialogues of the Dead38 is a satire on the famous astrologer,
Lilly, and Modern Learning on the study of insects. The former
does not touch upon the new science ; the tone of the latter has long
since grown familiar. Moderno appears bespattered with filth,
and, on the enquiry of Indifferentio, accounts for his condition by
saying he has been in a ditch in search of knowledge; for "there
has been more true Experience in Natural Philosophy gather 'd
out of Ditches in this latter Century than Pliny and Aristotle were
Masters of both together".39 Although the spring has not fully
come, he has gone out into the fields because he has grown weary
of the "winter-sports within Doors, as Rat-Catching, Mouse-fley-
ing, Crevice-searching for Spiders, Cricket-dissecting, and the
like".40

"Indifferentio, — Pray, Sir, have you not some Diversions pe
culiar to the summer ?

Moderno, — Oh! Yes! infinite! Maggots, Flies, Gnats, Bugges,
Chaffers, Humble-Bees, Wasps, Grasshoppers, and in a good year

Caterpillars in abundance Gredartius and Swam-

merdam became Eminent for this Business".41

King's attitude is that of comedy; he exploits the scientific in-

86 Ibid. p. 304.

88 Ibid. 309.

* Miscellanies, p. 309.

88 Ibid. p. 314.

89 Ibid. p. 334.

40 Ibid. p. 326.

41 Ibid. p. 326-7.

158 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

terest as a humor. There is, however, no bitterness in his at
tack. His aim is to raise a laugh, and he does it at the expense
of the worthy and the unworthy. One looks in vain for any seri
ous treatment of the subject in his work; yet there is a single
passage in the Dialogues of the Dead, which seems to contain as
definite a statement of King 's real attitude as can be found. * ' Con
sider further, That men of true Learning will always be Honoured
whilst their Mimicks are despised".42

Of the same character as King's are the satires, or Amuse
ments, of Thomas Brown. Apothecaries, surgeons and physi
cians are all ridiculed in Amusement X. A boy has swallowed a
knife and these wise men have met in consultation as to the best
method of removing it from his stomach. The apothecaries advise
certain quack emetics; the surgeons say cut him open; the physi
cians suggest an effective method by the use of a loadstone, but
too indecent to explain. Brown does not hesitate in his satire to
become personal; it was "my particular Friend Dr. W-dw-rd
(Woodward) who first mentioned the loadstone, and he is no quack
I assure you".43 There is also a satiric comment on Lilly and
astrology; Lilly is the chief "proficient in the Celestial Gim-
cracks". The quackery in astrology Brown understood full well,
and has here given it the kind of treatment it deserved.

,The amplest satire on the virtuosi occurs where Brown arrives
at "The Philosophical or Virtuosi Country". "This Country of
Experimental Philosophy is very amusing, and their Collections
of Rarities exceeds that of John Trudusken (Tradescant), for here
are Galls of Doves, the eye-teeth of flying Toads, the eggs of Ants,
and the eyes of Oysters. Here they weigh the Air, measure heat,
cold, dryness, and humidity — great discoveries for the public ad
vantage of Mankind. Without giving our selves the trouble of
making use of our senses, we need only cast our eyes upon a weather
glass to know if 'tis hot or cold, if it rains, or is fair weather".4*
In this country the "Contemplative Gentlemen" occupy themselves
"with dissecting atoms, or mites in cheese, with transfusing blood
from an Ass to an astrological quack, from a sheep into a bully, or

« Miscellanies, p. 314.

« Works, vol. Ill, p. 100.

"WTcs, vol. Ill, Amusement X, p. 94.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 159

from a fish into an exchange woman". They are continually
''chewing the cud of Burnet's Sacred Theory", or quarreling in
cessantly over the opposing theories of Aristotle and Descartes,
Cardan and Copernicus, William Penn and Christianity. Acidists
and Alkalidists, or "putting a period to the abstruse debates be
tween the engineers and mouse-trap makers".45

The satire of Brown is bright and keen. As usual with writers
of his stamp, he makes no discrimination between pretense and
true worth. Lilly and Cooley are boldly attacked by name as ex
ponents of quackery in his scornful assault on astrology ; but there
is no praise for the splendid work of Boyle, Halley, and Newton
among the virtuosi. Brown avoids seriousness and generally with
success hides his real attitude behind the mask of boisterous laugh
ter. He has, however, once at least come near the true mark and
expressed with shrewdness and wit the secret of the misunderstand
ing between the new philosophers and the men about town. ' l The
Vertuoso despises the Rich for making such a bustle about so fool
ish and pale-faced a metal as Gold. The Rich laugh at Learning
and learned Men, and cry, A Fig for Aristotle and Descartes".48
Brown saw with surprising clearness that there were these two
points of view, these two standards of value, which led to a natural
and mutual misunderstanding.

Dean Swift, besides his efforts to defend Sir William Temple
against the Moderns, found other occasions to scoff at the new phil
osophers. In, his Art of Growing Poor, he ridicules those foolish
beliefs that were .clinging like parasites to, the new science and
which made it an easy prey for satirists, — "the Philosophers' Stone,
and Perpetual Motion, could not miss being among the principal
Embellishments of this work, any more than the Art of Flying,
which set so many of the Virtuoso 's of the last Age upon their Tip
toes".47 Mathematical calculations applied to astronomy are ridi
culed in A Tripos, the pretended speech assumed to have been de
livered at the Commencement, University of Dublin, July 11, 1688.
The virtuosi "aimed at here are Ashe and Molyneux who had made
so much of a predicted eclipse of the sun in the Philosophical

«Ibid. p. 95.
"Wka. Ill, p. 83.
47 See A. New Project.

160 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH * LITERATURE

Transactions, 1684". So exactly is the actual moment of eclipse
calculated, "as sure as a gun", that the virtuosi arrange their
minutest affairs to suit the coming darkness. In the conclusion
to the piece Swift predicts a retaliation upon himself for his stric
tures. "The virtuosi will set their brains a- work for Gimcracks

to pull my eyes out And the Astronomers wont allow

me one good star nor inform me when the sun will be totally
eclipsed, that I may provide myself with candles".48 In the Par
allel a virtuoso is to get a reward of five thousand pounds ' ' for in
venting perpetual motion".49 As mentioned before, Boyle's Oc
casional Reflections is burlesqued in a Meditation on a Broom
stick.50

Swift 's severest arraignment of the new science is to be found
in Gulliver's travels. Upon the arrival of the traveller among the
Brobdignagians, he finds the king of that country to be a great
mathematician, who has drawn around him a company of phil
osophers. Gulliver is at once examined by these learned men and
classed as a "lusus naturae", "a determination exactly agreeable
to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors, disdaining
the old evasion of occult causes whereby the followers of Aristotle
endeavoured in vain to disguise their ignorance, have invented this
wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advance
ment of human knowledge."51 As mementos Gulliver brings
back to England four wasps' stings, three of which he gives to
Gresham College.52 The general comment on the learning of these
people is that they know only the sensible and useful things, which
among the virtuosi would be little esteemed.53

The inhabitants of Laputa, or the Flying Island, are greatly
given to the speculative sciences. With them everything takes form
according to the principles of mathematics or music; they believe
in judicial astrology; they have the latest "odd notions", regarding
the celestial bodies, — such as, the earth approaches the sun, the

**A Tripos, vol. VI, p. 242.
*»Wks. vol. VIII, p. 209.
MIbid. IX, p. 120.
nibid. vol. XI, p. 127.
"vol. XI, p. 134.
68 vol. XI, p. 166.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 161

tail of a comet has brushed the earth, and the sun is losing its
heat. The motions of the island are guided by means of a great
magnet located at its centre. As~a consequence of all their specu
lations these people are "dexterous enough upon a piece of paper",
but are clumsy, awkward and unhandy "in the common actions
and behaviours of life".54 At the "Grand Academy of Lagado"
are found the projectors, who have discovered the means of drawing
sunbeams out of cucumbers, who have conceived the idea of plough
ing with hogs and of using spiders to weave silk, who write books
by machinery in an universal language. The whole passage,
though imitated in form from Rabelais, has for its substance the
recent projects of the Royal Society.

Swift seemed to find himself a misfit among the new ideas, as
elsewhere. So thoroughly has the satiric mood colored all his
thought, so successfully does he screen his real self behind ironical
raillery, that one is never sure of knowing what his mind truly is.
His manner of dealing with the new science is well expressed in
Gulliver 's Travels (II), where Gulliver finds the ladies among the
Brobdignagians so ugly. By ^applying a magnifying glass, he
says, "the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and
ill-coloured".55 Swift has applied his satiric magnifying glass,
to the work of the new philosophers. "I confess I value the opin
ion of the judicious few", he has written in what appears to be a

serious manner, " but for the rest, to give my judgment

at once, I think the long dispute among the philosophers about a
vacuum, may be determined in the affirmative that is to be found in
the Cri tick's head."58 And, again, when Glubbdrubdrib has called
up the spirit of Artistotle, that philosopher is made to say of the
new scientific beliefs, — "New systems of nature were but new
fashions, which would vary in every age ; and even those who pre
tend to demonstrate them from mathematical principles, would
flourish but a short period of time, and be out of vogue when that
was determined".57 In his defense of Temple, he pretended to
ridicule only the absurdities that clung to the new science, but he

"Swift's Works, vol. XI, p. 198.

68 Swift, W ks. vol. XI, p. 112.

68 A Tritical Essay, vol. IX, pp. 128-9.

OT Gulliver's Travels, III, vol. XI, p. 241.

162 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

seems at last to have found it practically all absurd. A splendid
work was being done in astronomy, and yet to Swift it amounted
to no more than the calculations of an eclipse to avoid eating in
the dark. Apparently he looked upon the new philosophy with
the same jaundiced eyes with which he saw the affairs of church and
state and society.

A study of Swift leads directly to a consideration of the Mar-
tinus Scriblerus Papers, the fragmentary production of the fam
ous Scriblerus Club. The members of the Club were Swift, Pope,
Arbuthnot, Gay, and Parnell.58 Their design was "to have ridi
culed all the false tastes in learning, under the character of a man
of Capacity enough, that had dipped into every art and science,
but injudiciously in each".59 With such a purpose before them
no appreciation of the good points can be expected. The inevitable
injustice of satire will be found; — namely, the exaggeration of
weaknesses and absurdities and the suppression of good qualities.

The problem of authorship of the Scriblerus Papers has never
been fully resolved ; it seems a fair position, however, to assume the
work a collaboration. The wit is surely the combined brilliance
of the triumvirate, Arbuthnot, Swift, and Pope. The character
of Martinus Scriblerus himself, attributed to Arbuthnot, is a
comprehensive travesty on the philosophers. Everything about
him, — parentage, time of birth, infantile precocity, — foretells his
philosophic greatness. "This day, my Friends", says the proud
father, Cornelius Scriblerus, "I purpose to exhibit my son before
you; a child not wholly unworthy of Inspection, as he is descended
from a Race of Virtuosi".60 This youth quickly becomes a pro
digy. He is trained to be a physician and exhibits all the quackery
of medicine,61 and all the wild fancies of a projector.62 With irre
pressible energy he "seeks to disprove Sir Isaac Newton's theory
of gravity and Mr. Halley's of the Variations".63 "He taught
the way to many Modern Physicians, to cure by Intuition, and to

68 Cf. Aitken, Life of Arbuthnot, p. 56.

69 Ibid. p. 57.

60 Pope's WTcs. vol. VI, p. 106.

« Chap. X.

68 Chap. XIV.

68 Chap. XIV, p. 159.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 163

others to cure without looking on them at all. He projected a
Men'struum to dissolve the Stone made of Dr. Woodward's Uni
versal Deluge "Water. His was also the device to relieve consump
tive or asthmatic persons by bringing fresh air out of the Country
to Town, through pipes of the nature of the Recipients of Air-
Pumps' \64 Besides all this he had discovered a quadrature of a
circle, the cause of gravity, a vacuum, "the palpability of colours",
"perpetuum mobile", a flying engine, and "how much the in
habitants of the moon eat for supper". He has at last found the
correct theory of the deluge. His means for determining the longi
tude was sufficiently ingenious to make him famous; i. e., "to build
Two Poles to the Meridian, with immense Light-houses on the top
of them; to supply the defect of nature, and to make the Longi
tude as easy to be calculated as the Latitude".65

All the vagaries of the new science are here, and all its activi
ties are turned to ridicule. Discoveries, inventions, travels, medi
cine, surgery, — whatever entered into the minds of the virtuosi is
laughed to scorn. True tastes suffer with the false. Martinus
Scriblerus, like Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, embodies the new philoso
phic humor. He leaves to the Eoyal Society "the privilege of
catoptrical cookery";66 he visits "the reverend Mr. Flamsteed, who
is the legal officer to look after the luminaries".67 "Whatever he
judged beneficial to mankind, he constantly communicated (not
only during his stay among us, but ever since his absence) by some
method or other in which ostentation had no part. With what
incredible modesty he concealed himself, is known to numbers of
those to whom he addressed sometimes Epistles, Advice to Friends,
Projects of First Ministers, Letters to Members of Parliament, Ac
counts to the Royal Society, and innumerable others".68 Here
again is an exploitation of a humor, wherein all suffer alike, the
good and the bad, the wise man and the fool.

Arbuthnot's wit found attractive material in the new phil
osophy. There is a burlesque on scientific research in his Learned

"Pope's Works, vol. VI, pp. 159-60.

65 Ibid', vol. VI, p. 159.

86 Swift's Wks. vol. XVI, p. 178.

•"Ibid. 179.

68 Pope's Wks. vol. VI, p. 161.

164 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Dissertation on a Dumpling.69 "I received", he asserts, "this
part of the history of pudding from old Mr. Lawrence of Wilsden
Green, the greatest Antiquary of the present Age".70 The ac
count that follows is full of good fun and is free from all bitter
ness. A Letter to the Students of both Universities is a scurrilous
attack on modern scientific controversies. All kinds of study are
diseases that manifest themselves in varying forms. One interest
develops the vapors, perhaps, and produces "a deal of speculation
upon Circles, and the squaring of Comets, the Courses of Heavenly
Bodies, Vortex's, the Longitude, perpetual Motion."71 "All this
show, when expressed on Paper, still betrays its original to be mere
Flatus, Air, Wind, and Vapour."72 The Congress of the Bees is
another burlesque on the reports to the Royal Society. It purports
to be in part a study of those insects made by Sir John Mande-
ville, found recently in a manuscript preserved at Gresham Col
lege. A severe and unkindly criticism is made of Dr. Woodward
in The Sickness and Death of Dr. Woodward,73 and the Life and
Death of Don Bilioso de L'Estomac7* The untenable theories of
Woodward are attacked in An Examination of Dr. Woodward's
Account of the Deluge15 and The Longitude Examined.76

All of the satire attributed to Arbuthnot, with the exception of
The Death of a Late Right Reverend — (Gilbert Burnet), is good-
natured. There is in it neither the bitter irony of Swift nor the
cruelty of Pope. As a matter of fact, the author was himself one
of the new philosophers, a physician and a member of the Royal
Society. He even presented before that learned body a serious
discussion of Mathematical Learning. His quarrel with Wood
ward, therefore, was one of theories merely; they were alike in
sympathy with the new philosophy. But Arbuthnot saw scientific
interest becoming a fad, saw untenable theories foisted upon it.
"To hunt after comets, and catch them by the tail ; to reform the

69 Arbuthnot, Wks. vol. I, p. 59.

T0 Ibid.

1 1bid. vol. II, p. 109.

72 Ibid. vol. II, pp. 109-10.

™Wks. vol. II, p. 464.

"Ibid. p. 183.

75 Ibid. p. 196.

Ta Wks. vol. II, Supplement, p. 66.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 165

Architecture of the world; and make Creation look a little more
mathematical; to discover the Globe of Earth to be only a large
work in a kind of pastry, and that the Crust parting by Excess
of heat, and dropping Piecemeal into the Liquor enclosed, oc
casion 'd the Deluge; and that the Stars, which the Vulgar look
upon, as so many Lights hung out in a dark Passage, are really
so many populous Countries, containing some Millions of Acres in
Terra Firma, — are the most ingenious Amusements in the
World".77 It was this making an amusement only out of scientific
research which he desired to satirize. But he was possessed of
the spirit of wit, so that whatever he wrote was sharp and keen.
And yet at bottom he was sensible and tolerant, "the wisest, wit
tiest, most sensible man of his age".

More satirical exploitation awaited the new science on the ap
pearance of the famous periodicals of the early eighteenth cen
tury. The Tatler has devoted several papers to this humor. Num
ber 119, for instance, deals with the new discoveries of the micro
scope. It seems to be at the beginning a true appreciation of the
work of the investigators, but soon the whole interest is turned in
to ridicule by a subtle irony. These glasses have revealed a new
world, have "opened a new and inexhaustible Magazine of Rarities,
more wonderful and amazing than any of those which astonished
our forefathers." "There is not the least particle of matter which
may not furnish one of us employment for a whole eternity".
Daily great crowds flock to witness the dissection of a mite or to
see the skeleton of a flea. No longer can the "opening of a dog, to
observe the circulation of the blood" astonish, since it is possible
to be "present at the cutting of one of those little animals which
we find in the blue of plums". As in satiric verse, the contempt
for those men who spend their time with contemptible vermin of
nature finds expression here.

The point of the criticism is made clearer in Tatler 216. "I
would not discourage any searches that are made into the most
minute and trivial parts of Creation. However, since the world
abounds in the noblest fields of speculation, it is methinks, the
mark of a little genius to be wholly conversant among insects, rep-

•"Arbuthnot's Wks. vol. II, p. 109.

-

166 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

tiles, animalcules, and those trifling rarities that furnish out the
apartment of a virtuoso". Here is the gist of The Tatler's at
titude; to dig in the muck when the heavens offer so much better
and nobler objects for contemplation convicts a man of meanness,
makes him a fit subject for satire. And such a man is Sir Nicholas
Gimcrack, who has stepped out of Shadwell's The Virtuoso into
the pages of The Tatter. But he has fallen into a mortal sickness
and on his deathbed has made his will, which is here appended.
"I, Nicholas Gimcrack, being in sound health of mind, but in
great weakness of body, do by this my last will and testament be
stow my worldly Goods and Chattels in the manner following;
Imprimis. To my daughter Elizabeth, my Receipt for preserving
dead Caterpillars. Also my preparation of winter may dew, and
embryo-pickle'.

Item. To my little daughter Fanny, three Crockodile's eggs. And
upon the birth of her first Child, if she marries with her mother's
consent, the nest of a Humming-Bird.

Item. To my eldest Brother, as an acknowledgement for the lands
he has vested in my son Charles, I bequeath my last year's collec
tion of Grasshoppers.

Item. To his Daughter, Susanna, being his only Child, I bequeath.
my English Weeds pasted on Royal paper, with my large Folio
of Indian Cabbage. Having fully provided for my nephew Isaac by
making over to him some years since, a horned Scarabaeus, the
skin of a rattlesnake, and the mummy of an Egyptian King, I
make no further Provision for him in my Will.

My eldest son John, having spoken disrespectfully of his little
Sister, whom I keep by me in Spirits of Wine, and in many other
instances behaved himself undutifully toward me, I do disinherit
and wholly cut off from any part of this my personal estate, by giv
ing him a cockle shell.

To my second son Charles, I give and bequeath all my Flowers,
Plants, Minerals, Mosses, Shells, Pebbles, Fossils, Beetles, Butter
flies, Caterpillars, Grasshoppers" — ,78

A few days later appeared a letter to The Tatter from Lady
Gimcrack, newly made a widow.79 She is grateful for the mention

Tatter, Number 216.
"Ibid. Number 221.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 167

of her lamented husband in the pages of The Tatler, and relates
briefly how the symptoms of this strange scientific humor, which
possessed him so completely, first manifested themselves. Sir
Nicholas bought a microscope, was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society, and never afterwards talked in a manner that other people
could understand. Not even the members of his own household
could understand him. He was wont to wander about with his
pockets full of moss and pebbles, and once ran five miles in the
chase of an "odd-colored butterfly". In his very last moments,
he remembered a flea which he had kept imprisoned for the pur
pose of making observations, and in imitation of the ancient
Romans who freed their slaves with their dying breath, he asked
that it might be given its liberty. He was ever more industrious
"to improve his mind than his estate."

This was the same kind of virtuoso who was reported to have
been set the task in the reign of Charles II to people Ireland with
frogs.80 He caught one, and started out with it in a boat, but
found it grew faint and seasick with the first breath from those
shores. By waiting until the wind blew from the open sea, the
virtuoso managed to land with his precious charge. It soon ex
pired, however, after touching Irish soil.

Why, one is inclined to ask, is there no appreciation of the
good work done by the virtuosi? "Why all this burlesque on the
absurdities of the new movement ? The time was not yet come for
commendation, but it was near at hand. Addison, who wrote these
Tatler papers on the new science, had a lesson to teach, a folly to
correct. Here is the point he has been emphasizing all the time, —
' ' There is no study more becoming a rational creature than that of
natural Philosophy; but, as several of our modern virtuosi man
age it, their speculations do not so much tend to open and enlarge
the mind, as to contract and fix it upon trifles".81 When this
point has been pressed home to his satisfaction, he will turn, as did
the pious poets, to those nobler aspects of the new interest.

The Spectator, also, must have its fling at the new philosophy.
Physicians, says Addison in Spectator 21, have "taken to amusing
themselves with the stifling of cats in an air-pump, cutting up

80 The Tatler, Number 236.

81 Ibid.

168 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

dogs alive, or impaling insects upon the point of a needle for
microscopical investigations; besides those that are employed in
the gathering of weeds and the chase of butterflies ; not to mention
the cockle-shell merchants and spider-catchers". The works of
Sir Isaac Newton occupy a place beside the French romances on
the shelves in the library of the learned lady.82 The evil effect
which the new science may have upon the minds of young women
is explained in a letter from a man who has two nieces deeply im
bued with the virtuoso spirit. These two young women talk of
"the magnetical virtue of the loadstone rather than the best way
to make a sack-posset "; they scorn to express themselves in other
than Latin derivatives; and, finally, they will not let their uncle
"smoke one pipe in the quiet " of ignorance.83 With the appear
ance of seriousness The Spectator suggests that a fitting employ
ment for the Royal Society would be a new natural history.84 It
is claimed, however, that these papers have usurped the original
purpose of the new scientific interest; namely, "to draw men's
minds off from the bitterness of party".85

But in spite of the "Chymist's jargon", the quacks and charla
tans in medicine, and the useless studies of insects, The Spectator
finds much to admire in the new philosophy. Bacon, Boyle, and
Newton are mentioned with praise,86 and the new "theories of the
earth and the heavens" have "gratified and enlarged the imagina
tion".87 The studies in anatomy have revealed how "fearfully and
wonderfully the human frame is made".88 Addison caught a
glimpse of that new and revolutionizing idea of the new science,
that the earth is a mere speck in space, that man is but "an atom
of this atom world ". "In the same manner, when I considered that
infinite host of stars, or, to speak philosophically, of suns, which
were then shining upon me, with those innumerable sets of planets
or worlds, which were moving around their respective suns ; when
I still enlarged the idea, and supposed another heaven of suns, and

82 The Spectator, Number 54.
•» Ibid. 242.

84 Ibid. 121.

85 Ibid. 262.

86 The Spectator, 554 (Hughes), 543 (Addison).

87 Ibid. 420 (Addison).

88 Ibid. 543 (Addison).

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 169

worlds rising still above this which we discovered, and these still
enlightened by a superior firmament of luminaries, which are
planted at so great a distance, that they may appear to the in
habitants of the former as the stars do to us : In short, whilst I
pursued this thought, I could not but reflect on the little insignifi
cant figure which I myself bore amidst the immensity of God's
works. Hugenius carries this thought so far, that he does not
think it impossible there may be stars whose light is not yet
travelled down to us, since their first creation".89

The Guardian is for the most part an echo of the ridicule in
The Tatler and The Spectator. Jack Lizard returns from the uni
versity a philosophical pedant.90 The wild schemes of Whiston and
Ditton for finding the longitude,91 Wilkins's art of flying,92 and
the observations of the habits of insects93 are satirized in a good-
natured fashion. Berkeley has written an amusing travesty on
the Cartesian theory that "the soul of man stands tiptoe on the
pineal gland".94 Steele has given with considerable detail the
character of a virtuoso who is piqued because his merits are not
honored.

"Sir, — I am a very great scholar, wear a fair wig, and
have an immense number of books curiously bound and gilt.
I excel in a singularity of diction and manners, and visit
persons of the first quality. In fine, I have by me a great
quantity of cockle-shells, which, however, does not defend
me from the insults of another learned man, who neglects
me in a most insupportable manner ; for I have it from per
sons of undoubted veracity, that he presumed once to pass
by my door without waiting upon me. Whether this be
consistent with the respect which we learned men ought to
have for each other, I leave to1 your judgement, and am, Sir,
Your affectionate friend,

PHILAUTUS."95

89 Ibid. 565.

*>The Guardian, Number 24.

"Ibid. 107.

"Ibid. 112.

98 Ibid. 156.

"Ibid. 35.

95 Ibid. 95.

170 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

On the whole, the treatment of the new science in these papers
is good-natured and kindly. The sharpest ridicule is directed
against the foolish passion for dissection, for collecting rarities,
and for studying the habits of insects. It is held that an absorb
ing interest in these despicable creatures of nature is an evidence
of a " narrow genius ", that such an interest dwarfs the mind in
stead of enlarging it, and that no results for the benefit of man
kind can come from such a pursuit. "Studies of this nature
should be the diversions, relaxation, and amusements, not the care,
business, and concern of life". The pretenders to learning, both
male and female, are exposed; where "terms are three-fourths of
the business" there can be no sound learning. On the other hand,
the possibilities in the new philosophy are perceived. The great
discoveries are stimulating and inspiring; the minds of men are
broadened by the work of Boyle, Huygenius, and Newton. To Ad-
dison, in particular, it was given to see the enlarged Horizon in
the heavens above and the new world of minutiae on the earth be
neath. The satire on the new science in The Tatler, The Spectator
and The Guardian is as fair as satire can be made, which dilates
upon the weaknesses and absurdities of a movement and passes
over in silence the strong points. There is everywhere evidence
of discrimination; commonsense and reason were sitting in the
judgment-seat.

In the work of Daniel Defoe there is practically no new science.
His type of mind no doubt naturally revolted from the "wary and
circumspect" attitude of the investigators; he desired to be untram
melled by the bonds of truth. His world was the world of fiction
where cleverness ruled and where there was no commandment,
"Thou shalt not lie". The temperament of such a man would
keep him from any appreciation of the Baconian philosophy. And
it is found that he touches only incidentally upon certain phases,
such as the method Dr. John Wallis proposed for "teaching the
deaf and dumb to speak",96 the idea of "second sight" as defended
by Joseph Glanvil,97 the medical practice of Dr. Radcliffe,98 and
the belief in apparitions.99 The desire for novelty, of which it

96 Of. Duncan Campbell.

97 Duncan Campbell, chap. V.
wibid. chap. VI.

99 The Invisible World Disclosed, chap. V ; The History of Magic.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 171

must be confessed some scientists were guilty, is satirized by him
in his Miscellaneous Writings™0 He has given, indeed, to the
character of Robinson Crusoe the inventive genius of a virtuoso,
but he was doubtless wholly unconscious of the connection with the
new science. On the whole, his attitude is so obscure and his use
of the new material is so slight that he may be convicted of in
difference, — an indifference innate and temperamental.

The London Spy, after the manner of William King, makes a
journey to London and reports in detail what he sees there. In
evitably he comes upon the virtuosi in his wanderings. To this
Spy the scientist is "a Whimsie-headed Humorist",101 busied with
a study of the weather-glass and the philosopher's stone. He
spends his days in a laboratory filled with such " rarities " as a
magnet, shells, flies, a unicorn's horn, an aviary of dead birds,
serpents, together with other " Rusty-reliques and Philosophical
Toys".102 The routine of his life has been reduced to a mechanical
precision; he rises, dines, and sleeps by the tick of the clock.103
"He's a wonderful Antiquary, and has a closet of Curiosities out
does Gresham Colledge".104 Nearly all of these curiosities have
become familiar through previous satire. The list includes a
' ' toothpicker of Epicurus", Diogenes 's Lanthorn, the claws of an
American Humming-bird, Heraclitus's tears frozen to a crystal,
and a tenpenny nail out of the Ark.105 In the judgment of the
Spy, the virtuoso is not distinguishable from those men who dwell
in that "Madman's Colledge", Bedlam. "That man . . .
that walks like a Mercury," he says of a lunatic, "as if he had
wings to his Heels, is a Topping Virtuoso, and a Member of the
Royal Society".108

There is nothing new in this representation of the new science.
It may be seen at a glance that here again is the unjust, undiscrim-

100 Cf. Life and Recently Discovered Writings, 1716-29, William Lee, vol. II,
p. 43, 44, etc.

101 The London Spy, I, p. 12.

102 Ibid. II, p. 60.

103 Ibid. II, p. 13.

104 Ibid.

105 The London Spy, II, p. 13.

106 Ibid. Ill, p. 61.

172 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

inating satire of comedy. Ward, in The London Spy, simply car
ries on the manner of attack of King, Brown, and the famous
periodicals. He makes a clever use of new details, but the atti
tude is the same ; it is an exploitation of the scientific humor.

In this manner was the new science attacked in prose. The
source of material and the manner of treatment are practically the
same as that of satirical comedy. These satirists were quick to
catch the flotsam and jetsam of scientific knowledge and cleverly
transformed it into a ridiculous burlesque. The Philosophical
Transactions and the scientific publications were the most common
sources. Arbuthnot, a Fellow of the Royal Society, furnished
facts and " jargon " for the Scriblerus Club. The absurd theories
of Woodward, who was so generally unpopular, were made the
butt of many an attack. Radcliffe, with his eccentricities, was
likewise a good target for satiric shafts. From Brown to Ward
the tone is little varied; written primarily to amuse the prose
deals usually in a goodnatured manner with the new interest.
The fiercest assaults are to be found in Gullivers' Travels and the
Scriblerus Papers. In the latter, however, the humane feeling
and essentially kindly spirit of Arbuthnot seem to have softened
and tempered the fiercer moods of his friends. The boisterous
burlesque in Brown's Dialogues) King's Journey to London, The
Toiler, and The London Spy, is close akin to the representation
in verse satire and comedy, but with something more of discrimina
tion in it. "To make jests, to live and move in the ludicrous, to
find fun in everything under heaven and over hell" was the busi
ness of these writers. If the jests become serious in Swift and
the laughter unpleasant, they are counterbalanced by the conspicu
ous kindliness of Addison. The latter, indeed, gave to The Spec
tator a general attitude that was fair and generous, and once rose
to an eloquent burst of enthusiasm inspired by the visions of the
extended horizon of the new astronomy.

Ill

When -one turns to find a continued appreciation of the new
philosophy or a reaction from the satiric attitude, in the first half
of the eighteenth century, he meets with disappointment. 'Cur
ing the last quarter of the seventeenth century a spirited .ort

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 173

was made to chronicle the new observations of science in the best
literary form of the age, but it could not be sustained".107 The
splendid imagination of Burnet, awakened by the recent Cartesian
speculations, had caught new visions of beauty, to which he gave
expression in passages of literary eloquence. His Sacred Theory
became the centre of a theological storm whose mutterings did not
entirely die away for forty years.108 From him leads a most allur
ing trail into the land of speculative theology where dwell Bentley,
Clarke, Butler, and Mandeville. These men were "occupied with
an intense and eager curiosity by speculation on the first principles
of natural religion",109 striving to harmonize the "painful dis
cord ' ' between reason and revelation. l ' The scientific frontier be
tween reason and revelation is in the hottest of the melee, and the
deists, extending the claims of reason, say or insinuate that the
results tell against the Church articles. The apologists like Clarke
and Bentley try to prove the being of God either a priori, or from
the world as understood by the new science".110 However alluring
this path, it is certainly a digression from the plan of study of this
work. And there is a second way from the Sacred Theory,
taken by the virtuosi themselves, which leads through Ray's Wis
dom of God, Whiston's New Theory, and the polemical work of
Keil. The first two have have been treated, and the last has no
claim to literary merit. It may be seen, therefore, that in the
early years of the eighteenth century there were bounds set to
certain fields of speculation; (1) Locke had clearly discriminated
between the subject-matter of human philosophy and the problems
of natural philosophy, (2) the new science, breaking the yoke of
ecclesiastical authority, had asserted "the freedom of the scien
tific intellect", (3) the problems of sociology, political economy,
and history, were distinguished from the investigations of natural
science. Each field of intellectual endeavor, thus specialized,
yielded its own harvest of books.

Natural science was continued through these years with inde
fatigable energy, but no great new discoveries were made. There-

107 Gosse, Edmund, History of 18th Century Literature, p. 375.
*'8 Supra, chap. II.

Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 269.
110 Ibid. p. 270.

174 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

fore, while the new ideas of the late seventeenth century were furn
ishing inspiration and imagery to certain pious poets, the new phil
osophy in prose filled "a class of books which cannot be called
literature ". Its direct expression is to be found in such books
as Desaguliers 's A Course of Experimental Philosophy, Stephen
Gray's Experiments in Electricity, and the volumes of the Philo
sophical Transactions. But in these books ' ' the graces were tacitly
and gradually excluded from all treatment of purely utilitarian
problems and exact observations, and this exclusion divided the
vast body of what was written into literature and non-litera
ture 'V11

The human philosophers, with the exception of Shaftesbury,
however much they may have been subtly influenced by the scien
tific method and discovery, established their attitude by casual
reference. "I deny not", says Locke in his Essay on Human
Understanding, "but, a man, accustomed to rational and regular
experiments, shall be able to see farther into the nature of bodies,
and guess righter at their yet unknown properties, than one that
is a stranger to them ; but yet, as I have said, this is but judgment
and opinion, not knowledge and certainty. The way of getting
and improving our knowledge in substances only by experiences
and history, which is all that the weakness of our faculties in this
state of mediocrity we are in in this world can attain to, makes
me suspect that natural philosophy is not capable of being made a
science".112 And then he adds, in the manner of an apology, —
"I would not therefore, be thought to disesteem or dissuade the
study of nature."113 To the Idealist, Berkeley, the search for na
tural causes is misdirected effort. "It is the searching after and
endeavoring to understand this Language (if I may so call it) of
the Author of Nature, that ought to be the employment of the
natural philosopher; and not the pretending to explain things by
corporeal Causes, which doctrine seems to have too much estranged
the minds of men from the Active Principle, that Supreme and
Wise Spirit 'in whom we live, move, and have our being' ",114

Edmund, History of 18th Century Literature, p. 376.
02 Essay, Bk. IV, chap. 12, p. 423.
"»Ibid. p. 424.
»« Principles, Sects. 65, 66.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 175

In the Characteristics of Shaftesbury, however, there is an
interesting idealization of the virtuoso. ''Every man", he as
serts, "is a virtuoso, of a higher or lower degree".115 He then
proceeds to point out that the danger in this interest lies in "fall
ing in love with rarity for rareness' sake". The men who do this,
he admits, are deserving of the ridicule which they receive ;116 but
there is a study worth the pursuing. "I am persuaded that to be a
Virtuoso (so far as befits a Gentleman) is a higher step toward
becoming a Man of Virtue and good sense, than the being what
in this Age we call a Scholar".117 There is, furthermore, no ground
for prejudice against the new philosophy, for it does not contain
anything to bias a man's mind in the study of other problems.118
After this defense there comes a passage in which the broadened
horizon has stimulated the imagination of this philosopher; the
"diocentric idea", which John Locke received from the new astron
omy, has dawned upon him also. "Yet is this Mansion-Globe, this
Man-Container, of a much narrower compass even than its other
fellow Wanderers of our system. How narrow then must it ap
pear, compar'd with the spacious system of its own Sun? And
how narrow, or as nothing, in respect of those innumerable systems
of other apparent suns ? ' '118 The Newtonian discoveries concerning
light also inspired him to write that rather eloquent passage be
ginning, — "But wither shall we trace the sources of light? or in
what Ocean comprehend the luminous matter so wide diffus'd
thro ' the immense spaces which it fills ? ' '119

There was in this philosopher a sensible and a genuine apprecia
tion of the new science. He saw clearly the abuses of pretenders
to learning and felt that the satire on them was fully merited ; but
he saw also its nobler aspects and himself caught some of the zeal
of discovery. His mind was drawn into speculative philosophy
rather than experimental science, and yet this ' ' Virtuoso of Human
ity" was broad-minded enough to commend the excellent service
the experimenters were performing.

115 Characteristics, vol. I, p. 138.
118 Ibid. II, 253.

117 Characteristics, I, p. 290.

118 Ibid. A Rhapsody, II, p. 373.

119 Ibid. p. 379.

176 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

There is no further representation of the new science in the
prose literature of the period. A few echoes of the deistic con
troversy were still faintly reverberating, in which spiteful allu
sions were made indirectly to the new scientific knowledge of na
ture. But Joseph Butler's Analogy (1736) had taken all the
point out of, if it had not really ended, that dispute which was
ever only remotely connected with the new science.120 A single
illustration will serve to show the type of criticism and will indicate
also the general attitude of indifference toward scientific investi
gations. "The zeal for this sort of Gibberish (science ) ", wrote
Julius Bates sarcastically (1774), "is greatly abated of late, and
tho' it is now upwards of twenty years that the Dagon of Modern
Philosophers, Sir Isaac Newton, has lain with his face upon the

ground before the Ark of God, Scripture Philosophy

yet there is not one of the whole society who hath the courage to
attempt to raise him up. And so let him lye".121

It is a striking literary phenomenon that the scientific dis
coveries produced no great masterpiece. Several reasons for this
fact readily suggest themselves ; the zest of discovery had doubtless
somewhat abated in the early years of the eighteenth century, cer
tainly experiments had lost much of their novelty, and literary prose
was more and more occupied with other things, such as satiric and
journalistic essays, human philosophy, theology, and the novel.122
Perhaps the most potent reason of all is the fact that no great new
discoveries came to reward the scientific labors. Natural science
came gradually to be accepted as a legitimate field for intellectual
activity and ceased to call attention to itself. That satiric ex
ploitation of it was passing away is a good indication of its rise
into a position of dignity and honor. Dr. Johnson accepts the
new science as a matter of course and evinces some surprise at
the earlier attitude. "Some verse in the last collection, shew him
(Butler) to have been among those who ridiculed the institution of
the Eoyal Society, of which the enemies were for some time very
numerous and very acrimonious; for what reason is hard to con
ceive, since the philosophers professed not to advance doctrines but

120 Cf. The Boyle Lectures of Bentley and Clarke.
131 Bates, Julius, The Philosophical Principles of Moses Asserted, p. 2.
Edmund, History of 18th Century Literature, p. 378.

THE NEW SCIENCE AND PROSE 177

to produce facts ; and the most zealous enemy of innovation must
admit the gradual progress of experience, however he may oppose
hypothetical temerity ' '.123

In the death of Newton the new science sustained an irreparable
loss. When the stimulation of his work and the inspiration of his
personality were gone, there succeeded a period barren of dis
coveries. Desaguliers might popularize the new ideas, but he
could not produce new discoveries ; antiquarianism became a gentle
man 's diversion and relaxation; Hauksbee and Stephen Gray were
only preparing the way for Franklin 's brilliant work. The scien
tists were standing between two periods, one of a past great achieve
ment and the other yet to dawn.

128 Johnson's Lives, I, p. 208, Butler. Cf. also his attitude as expressed in his
Life of Boerhave.

1

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

The assigned task is now finished. The new science has been
characterized, its activities have been traced briefly along the
various lines of interest, and its contributions of new ideas to
English thought have been summarized. The struggle of these
new ideas with the "ancient faith ", with an outworn poetic
imagery, with the claims of pseudo-science, with the power of
scholastic authority, and with the credulity of superstition, has
been presented, in so far as it found literary expression. An ex
ploitation of this new interest as a humor that filled the minds of
men and women with foolish whimsies was discovered in the satiric
comedies. In verse, the new philosophy fell into the grasp of the
satirists, whose treatment much resembled that of comedy; but,
later, certain poets were led through a sense of piety to find the
extended horizon of the new astronomy, while others began to look
upon external nature, like the virtuosi, with the wondering eyes
of children. In prose, there was an early and enthusiastic literary
expression of the new discoveries by the scientists themselves, that
soon lost its vigor. Satire took its place, that, like comedy, exag
gerated the absurdities of the new interest. Gradually the in
quiries of natural science > were differentiated from _speculalrtTe^fei:l-
osophy and theology ; science developed a literature of its own
wherein "the graces were tacitly excluded". "An age of scientific
discovery till then unexampled passed away without enriching
literature by a single classic",1 but natural science made for itself
a place of dignity and respect among the other branches of human
thought.

The new science was found to be a new intellectual impulse
that set men at work reconstructing the natural history of the
world by means of experiment and observation. Attention was
thereby called to the objective forms of nature and interest was
centered upon the affairs of secular life. The day of specialization
was dawning; the new philosophers, who began, like Bacon, with
the whole province of human knowledge, steadily narrowed their

1 Garnett, Richard, The Age of Dryden, p. 266.

CONCLUSION 179

field of investigation to the connotation of the modern term,
natural science. Even this circumscribed interest was broken up
into specialized studies, such as botany, chemistry, mathematics,
physics, physiology, etc. Investigations were carried on by the
active members of the Royal Society with great energy, and a re
ward of their efforts in startling and revolutionizing discoveries
came quickly and abundantly through the last quarter of the seven
teenth century, giving place in the eighteenth to a continued, but
scantily repaid, experimental activity which prepared the way for
the work of Franklin in Electricity, Priestley in Chemistry, and
Alexander Smith in Geology. A world of minutiae was revealed
by the microscope, and through the telescope came ocular proof of
the Copernican theory. Man became "an insignificant atom of an
atom- world ". Mathematics demonstrated the law of gravitation;
Physics gave a new interest to the atmosphere, to light, color, heat ;
Botany made men to see with an awakened curiosity the flowers
and the beasts of the field; Physiology discovered the wonderful
framework of the human body; a study of "rarities" led to an
tiquarian research, to which were related an interest in history
and an investigation of geographical and geological problems.
Thus were these new scientists entering ' ' the wonderland of modern
science ".

'As the light of these new discoveries came flooding in, the old
hypotheses did not fall without noise.' It was a transitional period.
The point of view of men was sometimes radically changed, as in
the case of Sir Thomas Browne; new poetic imagery struggled
with the out-worn and conventional for expression in Cowley,
Denham, Waller, and others ; Milton stood in doubt before the new
ideas and finally evaded the whole issue; Dryden, engrossed with
the affairs of men, shifting his allegiance like changes of raiment,
was practically unaffected by the new intellectual impulse. Thom
as Sprat first lifted his voice in defense of the Royal Society against
the opposition of churchmen and "Wits and Railleurs", which
lasted through the period. "The 'shock of that collision is far
from having spent its effect even in our own day".2 Sharp con
flicts centered in the work of Glanvil, in Burnet's Sacred Theory,
and in Swift's Tale of the Tub, Battle of the Books, and Partridge

2 Courthope, W. J., History of English Poetry, vol. Ill, p. 168.

180 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

Papers. The new philosophy made headway, however, against all
opposition, and one by one "cast down the old idols of prejudice,
superstition, and ancient authority ; it gave a few new images to the
transition poets, and to Milton and Burnet a new conception of
the illimitable expanse of the universe.

Satiric comedy exploited the new interest as a humor, after
the manner of Ben Jonson. First touched upon in Shackerley
Marmion's The Antiquary (1641), it was developed by Shadwell
into that arch-type of the virtuoso, Sir Nicholas Gimcrack (The
Virtuoso, 1667). The exploitation continued through Durfey,
Aphra Behn, Mrs. Centlivre, Colley Gibber, and others, ending so
far as this study is concerned with the anonymous State of Physick
(1642). Wherever the new scientist appears in comedy, with a
single exception (Dr. Easy, The State of Physick), he receives the
merited contempt of all men, because he is a pedantic "fool", en
gaged in the pursuit of useless knowledge. l ' I believe, ' ' said Snarl,
the cynic, "if the Blood of an Ass were transfus'd into a virtuoso,
you would not be able to know the Emittent Ass from the Recipi
ent Philosopher, by the Mass".3 This is the consensus of satiric
opinion. The virtuoso was never generally distinguished from the
quack doctor and the astrologer; remnants of the occult sciences
still clung to him, such as alchemy, the Rosicrucian mysteries, and
astrology. The severest censure was based upon the scientist's
waste of money in buying scientific apparatus and "rarities", and
in pursuing studies that could never benefit himself or anyone
else, — in "studying not his country's good but her insects". That
this satire was generally unmerited and unjust has been made
sufficiently clear. Doubtless there were pedants in plenty, as
there ever are, but neither the great men nor their great achieve
ments were appreciated by the writers of comedy. The virtuoso
never invented anything so useful as a mouse-trap, said the satir
ists; yet the air-pump, the thermometer, the microscope, the im
proved telescope, the barometer, and the steam-engine came out
of this period. A bricklayer is worth forty philosophers, averred
the satirists; yet Hooke, Boyle, Ray, Willughby, Grew, Mayow,
Lower, Sydenham, Sloane, Newton, to say nothing of the foreigners
closely associated with the new interest, as Leeuwenhoek, Malpighi,

• Shadwell's The Virtuoso, Act II.

CONCLUSION 181

Boerhave, lived at this time. The inevitable injustice of satire
is here, — the exaggeration of weaknesses, the omission of virtues.

The satiric poets, from the sullen and morose Butler to the
"Wasp of Twickenham ", took their fling at the new philosophy.
In their verse there is the same exploitation, the same lack of dis
crimination, the same desire "to make their readers sport whether
the persons exposed deserve it or not", as in comedy. In Butler
there is bitterness; in Pope there is a temperamental "painful dis
cord"; in the rest there is rude and boisterous laughter. But
piety led Prior, Blackmore, Savage, Brooke, and Young into an
appreciation of the new astronomy; the loftiest verse outside of
Milton's was directly inspired by the "new heaven of the telescope".
To the Thomsonian poets, influenced by the new interest of science,
it was given to catch a glimpse of a new world in external nature.
"They walked in nature as in a garden, and tasted of its plenty".
In them was begun that process of harmonizing imagination and
the scientific spirit for which Wordsworth preached, when * ' Science
should become the handmaid of Literature". The infinite variety
of "imaginations and similitudes", which the too optimistic Sprat
had prophesied, did not come to them, but they did gain in imagery,
in inspiration, and, perhaps more than can be calculated, in atti
tude and spirit; for "there first awoke in them the general idea
of the importance of an objective attitude to nature and of the
new use of systematic experiment".4

In the prose treatment of the new science there are three fairly
distinct phases; first, an early appreciation during the last forty
years of the seventeenth century, secondly, a satiric exploitation
extending from Eachard to the London Spy, thirdly, an incidental
representation in the human philosophers and a direct, non-literary
exposition from the virtuosi themselves. Flushed with the zeal of
discovery, the new philosophers "made a spirited effort to chronicle
the new observations in the best literary form of the age ' '. The at
tempt fell gradually away at the beginning of the eighteenth cen
tury, but meanwhile there was developed a prose ideal, a "clear,
naked style, approaching mathematical plainness", whose "virtues
spread and wrought with the instinct of conversation and social
amenity, and with the love of argument and pleading and oratory,

4 Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. IV, p. 328.

182 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

to form modern style ' '.5 There is a contagious enthusiasm in much
that they wrote, from the earlier men like Wilkins, through Evelyn,
Boyle, Hooke, and Newton. But there was no literary genius
among the virtuosi directly inspired of the new science ; their work
had a permanent effect on English thought, but not on English
literature. Even Newton, with his "brooding mind, took no thought
for literary expression ". Then, once again, the new science was
"exposed" by satire, in those exceedingly clever attacks in prose.
Eachard, the schoolmaster, King, Brown, Swift, the Scriblerus
Club, conjointly, Arbuthnot, The Toiler, The Spectator, The Guard
ian, Defoe, and The London Spy, all launched satiric darts at the
new philosophy. It was another exploitation of a humor, with
more discrimination, to be sure, than comedy and verse possessed.
The tone throughout is little varied; the raillery is good-natured,
except in Swift; the fairness and candid good-sense of The Tatler
and The Spectator are remarkable. In the last mentioned peri
odicals the absurdities of the new interest are fairly characterized,
and the great men and their splendid achievements find some ap
preciation. Addison, in particular, had caught the vision of "the
heavens of the new astronomy". There is no re-action in this
period to counterbalance the satire. Locke and Berkeley only
touch upon the new science in the midst of a hundred other in
terests; the deistic controversy, which found its culmination in
Butler's Analogy, drew from the new experiments the new con
ception of the physical universe; Shaftesbury, alone, among the
human philosophers and theologians, gave an appreciative expres
sion to the new philosophy in his idealization of the virtuoso.
Further than this, the new science received a direct exposition in
a non-literary style of its own, and separating itself from history,
theology, human philosophy, and classical learning, took its honor
able place among the other branches of human thought.

Here the investigation stops, though the literary phenomenon
is not complete. With the passing away of Pope, however, there
ended a satiric, inappreciative attitude; at that time, too, natural
science ceased to be on the defensive, and the movement toward
the literary use of the results of experiments and observations had
begun. The new intellectual impulse had entered the minds of

8 Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 420.

CONCLUSION

183

men with its transforming and quickening power, and was de
veloping its subtle relationship with realism. Poets had begun to
learn that "observation and experience are the ballast needed to
give imagination steadiness".6 The effects of the scientific ideas
were longer in making themselves felt than those of the classical
renaissance, because "national characteristics are never so strongly
marked in science and philosophy as in other branches of litera
ture ' '.7 The ' ' painful discord ' ' was not yet wholly harmonized ; as,
indeed, it can never be. There is always a discord that is temper
amental and irradicable. Lowell said, with Yankee shrewdness and
wit, that "the more she (Science) makes one lobe of our brain
Aristotelian, so much the more will the other intrigue for an in
vitation to the banquet of Plato".8 Edgar Allan Poe is an illustra
tion of the point, in whom imagination, desiring to be free, picks
a half -whimsical quarrel with the demand of science for matters
of fact—

"Science! true daughter of old Time thou art!

Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.

Why preyest thou upon the poet's heart,

Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?

How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise?

To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,

Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?

Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?

And driven the Hamadryad from the wood

To seek shelter in some happier star?

Hast thou not torn the naiad from her flood,

The Elfin from the green grass, and from me,

The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?"9
Audience may be given to voices of three men of literary genius
from the nineteenth century, on the relationship between litera
ture and science. In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815,
Wordsworth wrote: — "The knowledge both of the Poet and the
Man of science is pleasure ; but the knowledge of the one cleaves to

6 Neilson, W. A. The Essentials of Poetry, p. 137.

7 Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. IV, p. 308.

8 Latest Literary Essays, p. 183.

9 Sonnet, To Science.

184 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

us as a necessary part of our existence, our natural and inalienable
inheritance ; the other is a personal and individual acquisition, slow
to come to us, and by no habitual and direct sympathy connecting
us with our fellow-beings. The Man of Science seeks truth as a
remote and unknown benefactor, he cherishes it and loves it in
solitude ; the Poet, singing a song in which all human beings join
with him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and
hourly companion. Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all
knowledge ; it is the impassioned expression which is in the counte
nance of all science ..... Poetry is the first and last of all
knowledge — it is as immortal as the heart of man. If the labours
of the Men of Science should ever create any material revolution,
direct or indirect, in our condition, and the impressions which we
habitually receive, the Poet will sleep then no more than at pres
ent ; he will be ready to follow the steps of the Man of Science, not
only in those general indirect effects, but he will be at his side,
carrying sensation into the midst of the objects of the science it
self. The remotest discoveries of the Chemist, the Botanist, or
the Mineralogist, will be as proper objects of the Poet's art as any
upon which it can be employed, if the time should ever come when
these things shall be familiar to us, and the relations under which
they are contemplated by the followers of these respective sciences
shall be manifestly and palpably material to us as enjoying and
suffering beings. If the time should ever come when what is now
called science, thus familiarized to men, shall be ready to put on,
as it were, a form of flesh and blood, the Poet will lend his divine
spirit to aid the transfiguration and will welcome the Being thus
produced, as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man. ' '10
Tennyson, writing out of a period strikingly similar in some
respects to the Restoration in that new scientific discoveries were
revolutionizing human thought, asked of himself and of all poets, —
"Is this

A time to sicken and swoon,

When Science reaches forth her arms

To feel from world to world, and charms

Her secret from the latest moon?"11

10 Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1815; cf. also The Prelude.
u Tennyson, In Memoriam.

CONCLUSION 185

And, finally, in the second half of the nineteenth century, when
natural science had come more fully into her own and " humane
letters " were on the defensive, Matthew Arnold said in reply to
Huxley, — "But how, finally, are poetry and eloquence to exercise
the power of relating the modern results of natural science to
man's instinct for conduct, his instinct for beauty? And here
again I answer that I do not know how they will exercise it, but
that they can and will exercise it, I am sure. ' '12

It seems reasonable to believe that human thought will continue
to progress by this same process of discovery, opposition, and re
conciliation. If the literary mind cherishes the old idols, clings
to the ancient faith after they are disowned by the philosophers,
it will certainly at last "lend its divine spirit to aid in the trans
figuration and will welcome the new truths into the household of
man".

12 Discourses in America, Lit, and Science.

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