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 upon, but carefulness also. There must be an accumulation of data, a course of experiments, a period of preliminary thinking, an avoidance 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 infinity of space. He also explained the phenomena of colors and analyzed 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 creatures. 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 motions. Comets lost their mystery, eclipses were explained, selenography 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

110 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 sense a Mechanical Conception." Oldenburg, Henry, Phil. Trans. vol. XVII,

some Preface.

sense of man's insignificance; but the human body received its attention. 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 finally, 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 OF OLD AND NEW IDEAS

The new philosophy, as an intellectual impulse, entered all avenues 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 beginning of English philosophy is to be dated from Bacon's break with scholasticism''. 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 freedom of the scientific intellect". This was done by the valiant little group of men at Gresham College, who formed the nucleus of the Royal Society. They pledged themselves to avoid the problems of "Divinity, Metaphysicks, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic"; they "set themselves to read in the Great Book of Nature, to walk in its Garden and taste its plenty, instead 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". But this was, of course, psychologically impossible, for old hypotheses, especially those which concern personal faith, do not yield in silence. "The gradual ebbing of an ancient faith leaves a painful discord between the imagination and reason. The idols gradually lose their sanctity; but they are cherished by poets long after they are disowned by philosophers, and the poet has the greatest immediate influence with the many. 994 It is this "painful discord" in the period of

1 Seth, James, English Philosophers and Schools of Philosophy, p. 10.

2 Wallis, John, Account of Some Passages in my Life, 1696.

Wotton, William, Reflections, p. 364.

Stephens, Leslie, History of English Thought, vol. I, p. 16.

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 chapter. Those men of literary genius who were brought into intimate contact with the new philosophy in its full encounter with the traditions of ancient faith will here be discussed.

The transition from the old to the new attitude is well illustrated 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 revolted. "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 contrary 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 revolution every day is the nature of the sun, because of that necessary course which God ordained it, from which it cannot swerve but by a faculty from that same voice which did first give it motion". 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 indifferent and uncertain Nativity unto such benevolous Aspects". 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". "I conceive there is a traditional Magick, not learned immediately from the Devil, but at second hand from his Scholars" "Therefore, for Spirits, I am so far from denying their existence, that I could easily believe, that not only whole countries,

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

Ibid. vol. I, p. 25.

7 Ibid. vol. I, p. 30. Ibid. vol. I, p. 45. Ibid. vol. I, p. 46.

11

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". 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 freedom of the scientific spirit" in the Religio 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 nowhere 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.

13

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 philosophers finds expression;-namely, a defiance of ancient authority. "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" 18 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 impose a thraldom upon their times by too great reverence for antiquity. 2. The ancient times were once present times (from Bacon himself). 3. The testimonies from antiquity are not always exact. 4. The fabulous condition of the accounts should be considered. 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.

11 Religio Medici, vol. I, p. 100.

12 Ibid. vol. I, p. 111.

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