Literature and Science, 1660–1834

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General Editor: Judith Hawley
Volume Editors: Brian Dolan, Charlotte Grant, Richard Hamblyn, Rob Iliffe, Cheryce Kramer, Clark Lawlor, Trea Martyn, Michael Newton and David Clifford
Advisory Editors: Akihito Suzuki and Kasahara Yorimichi

Although modern readers tend to associate the term ‘science’ with lab-coated physicists, in the eighteenth century the word is used in the sense of ‘knowledge’ of all sorts. In the era from Restoration to Reform, ways of understanding and representing the world were being reformulated in an exciting period of intellectual ferment and artistic experimentation. The age which witnessed the mechanisation of the world view and the industrial revolution also enjoyed the invention of the novel and the periodical, the exuberance of Augustan satire, and the cultural revolution of Romanticism. In the Royal Society, in the gentleman’s library, in Grub Street and the lady’s closet, the impact of natural philosophy was registered, assimilated, extended and sometimes challenged and rebuffed.

Literature and Science reproduces, in facsimile, primary texts which embody the polymathic nature of the literature of science, and the editorial matter provides overviews and extensive references, with a consolidated index at the end of each four-volume set. These volumes provide a much-needed resource for specialised academics, and researchers with a broad cultural interest in the long eighteenth century.

• General introduction
• Headnotes to each text, endnotes where appropriate
• Texts reproduced in facsimile
• Index

Contents

Part I

Volume 1: Science as Polite Culture

Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society (1667); Robert Hooke, "The Present State of Natural Philosophy" in Posthumous Works (1705); Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, ‘The Second Evening: That The Moon Is Inhabited’ in Conversations With a Lady on the Plurality of Worlds (1719); John Theophilus Desaguliers, Newtonian System of the World (1728); Voltaire, ‘M. Voltaire to the Marchioness du Ch**’ in Introduction to the Philosophy of Newton (1738); Francesco Algarotti, Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy Explained (1739); Henry Jones, Philosophy: A Poem addressed to the Young Ladies who Attended Mr Booth’s Lectures in Dublin (1749); Benjamin Martin, Biographica Philosophica (1764); Joseph Priestley: ‘The Preface to the First Edition’ and ‘Dr Franklin’s Discoveries Concerning the Singularities of Lightning and Electricity’ in The History of Electricity (1775); Experiments and Observations Relating to Various Branches of Natural Philosophy (1779); ‘Of Electricity’ in Heads of Lectures On A Course of Experimental Philosophy (1794); Jane Marcet, Conversations on Natural Philosophy (1819); Charles Babbage, Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830); John Paris, The Life of Sir Humphrey Davy (1831); William Whewell, on the use of the term "scientist", in ‘Review of Mrs [Mary] Somerville’s On The Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834)

Volume 2: Sciences of Body and Mind

Selections from: Abraham Cowley, ‘Ode Upon Dr Harvey’ in Verses, Lately Written Upon Several Occaions (1663); Edward Baynard, Health, a Poem. Shewing how to procure, preserve and restore it (1740); Ann Finch, ‘A Pindaric Ode on the Spleen’ in William Stukely’s Of the Spleen, its description and history, uses and diseases, particularly the vapours, with the remedy (1723); John Arbuthnot, Know Thyself (1734); George Cheyne, An Essay on Regimen (1740); John Armstrong, ‘Air’ in The Art of Preserving Health: A Poem (1808); James Makittrick Adair, ‘Fashionable Diseases’ in Medical Cautions, for the Consideration of Invalids (1786); Thomas Beddoes, ‘On Individuals, Comparing our Affluent and Easy Classes’, British Characteristics and Schools for Girls in Hygeia, or Essays Moral & Medical (1802); Thomas Trotter, A View of the Nervous Temperament (1807)

Volume 3: Earthly Powers

Selections from: The Vulcano’s: or, Burning and Fire-Vomiting Mountains…Collected for the Most Part out of Kircher’s Subterraneous World (1669); Thomas Hobbes, De Mirabilis Pecci, Being the Wonders of the Peak in Derbyshire, commonly called ‘the Devil’s Arse of Peak’ (1678); William Dampier, A Discourse of Winds, Breezes, Storms, Tides and Currents (1669); Daniel Defoe, The Storm (1704); John Pointer, A Rational Account of the Weather (1738); Peter Martel, An Account of the Glaciers of Ice Alps in Savoy (1744); John Dalton, A Descriptive Poem, addressed to Two Ladies at their Return from Viewing the Mines near Whitehaven (1755); Richard Pococke, ‘A Farther Account of the Giant’s Causeway’ in Philosophical Transactions (1753); Thomas Amory, The Life of John Buncle, Esq (1756); John Wesley, Serious Thoughts Occasioned by the Lisbon Earthquake (1755); John Michell, Conjectures concerning the Cause, and Observations upon the Phaenomena, of Earthquakes (1760); Robert Erskine, A Dissertation on Rivers and Tides (1770); ‘A Letter from Thomas Ronayne, Esq,; to Benjamin Franklin, LLD FRS, including an Account of some Observations on Atmospherical Electricity…Communicated by Mr William Henley’ (1772); William Hamilton, ‘Letter 1’ in Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and Other Volcanos (1772); John Whitehurst, An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth, deduced from the Facts and Laws of Nature (1778); James Hutton, Theory of the Earth, With Proofs and Illustrations, from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1788); Richard Kirwan, ‘On the Primeval State of the Globe’ in Geological Essays (1799); Luke Howard, On the Modification of Clouds &c (1804); William Charles Wells, An Essay on Dew, and Several Appearances Connected with It (1815); William Scoresby, jun, ‘Description of Ice-Fields, and Remarks on their Formation and Tremendous Concussions’ in An Account of the Arctic Region, and of the Whale-Fishery (1820)

Volume 4: Flora

Selections from: Nehemiah Grew, Epistle Dedicatory: ‘To His Most Sacred Majesty Charles III’ in The Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants, and Several other Lectures, read before the Royal Society (1682); Timothy Nourse, ‘Of Grass rais’d from foreign seeds’ in Compania Foelix: Or, a Discourse of the Benefits and Improvements of Husbandry (1700); Thomas Stretser: Arbor Vitae: or, The Natural History of the Tree of Life. In Prose and Verse (1741); The Natural History of the Frutex Vulvaria of Flowering Shrub: As it is collected from the best Botanists both Ancient and Modern (1732); Stephen Switzer, ‘The Introduction to Rural and Extensive Gardening etc’ in Ichnographia Rustica: or, the Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener’s recreation (1742); James Perry, Mimosa, or, the sensitive plant; a poem (1779); Erasmus Darwin, trans. C Linnaeus, ‘Key of the Sexual System’ in The Families of Plants, with their natural characters according to the number, figure, situationa, and proportion of all the parts of fructification (1787); Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden; a poem, in two parts. Part I containing the Economy of Vegetation. Part II The Loves of the Plants. With Philosophical notes (1789); Elizabeth Moody, ‘To Mr Darwin, on Reading his Loves of the Plants’ in Poetic Trifles (1798); Priscilla Wakefield, An Introduction to Botany, in a series of Familiar Letters (1706); Charlotte Smith, Conversations introducing Poetry, Chiefly on Subjects of Natural History for the use of young persons (1819)

Part II

Volume 5: Fauna

Robert Hooke, Micrographia: or, Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses (1665); John Ray, F.R.S., Philosophical Letters between Mr Ray and Several of his Correspondents (1718); John Ray, F.R.S., The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691); Edward Tyson, MD, Orang-Outang, sive Homo sylvestris (1699); Henry Baker, F.R.S., The Microscope Made Easy (1742); Charles Linnaeus, The Animal Kingdom, or, Zoological System, of Sir C. Linnaeus … by Robert Kerr (1792); Thomas Pennant, British Zoology (1768–70) and Arctic Zoology (1784); Lord Monboddo [James Burnett], ‘Preface’ to Mme Hecquet, Account of a Savage Girl caught Wild in the Woods of Champagne, trans. William Robertson (1768) and On the Origin and Process of Language (1773–92); George Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon, Natural History, General and Particular (1780, 1785); Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature (1774); Charles Bonnet, ‘Experiments on the Reproduction of the Head of the Terrestrial Snail’ from Lazzaro Spallanzani, Opuscoli di fisica animale e vegetabile, trans. John Graham Dalyell as Tracts on the Nature of Animals and Vegetables (1799); Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia; or The Laws of Organic Life (1794, 1796); Daines Barrington, ‘Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds’, from The History of Singing Birds, Containing an Exact Description of their Habits & Customs (1791); Gilbert White, A Naturalist’s Calendar, with Observations in Various Branches of Natural History (1795); Thomas Bewick and Ralph Beilby, History of British Birds, 6th edn (1826)

Volume 6: Astronomy

John Wilkins, A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet (1640); Thomas Burnet, A Sacred Theory of the Earth (1691); Christiaan Huygens, The Celestial Worlds Discovered (1698); William Whiston, A New Theory of the Earth, from its Original, to the Consummation of All Things (1696) and Astronomical Principles of Religion, Natural and Reveal’d (1717); John Harris, Astronomical Dialogues between a Gentleman and a Lady (1719); Andrew Baxter, Matho: or The Cosmotheoria Puerilis, a Dialogue (1740); Thomas Wright, An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe (1750); John Hill, Urania: or, A Compleat View of the Heavens (1754); James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles and Made Easy to Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics (1756); Roger Long, Astronomy (1764 [actually after 1784]); John Newbery, The Newtonian System of Philosophy (1761); William Herschel, ‘Catalogue of a Second Thousand of New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars’, Philosophical Transactions (1789) and ‘On the Nature and Construction of the Sun’, Philosophical Transactions (1795); Robert Harrington, A New System on Fire and Planetary Life (1796); Adam Walker, An Epitome of Astronomy (1817); John Herschel, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830)

Volume 7: Natural Philosophy

Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-mechanicall (1660); Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science (1665); Nehemiah Grew, Cosmologia Sacra: or, A Discourse of the Universe as it is the Creature and Kingdom of God (1701); John Harris, Lexicon Technicum: or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1704); John Hutchinson, Moses’s Principia (1724); Robert Green, Principles of the Philosophy of Expansive and Contractive Forces (1727); Isaac Newton, ‘General Scholium’, Principia Mathematica (1729); Roger Cotes, ‘Preface’, Principia Mathematica (1729); John Rowning, Compendious System of Natural Philosophy (1735); Richard Symes, Fire Analysed: or, The Several Parts of which it is Composed Demonstrated by Experiment (1771); Richard Lovett, The Electrical Philosopher (1774); Bryan Higgins, A Philosophical Essay Concerning Light (1776); Oliver Goldsmith, A Survey of Experimental Philosophy, Considered in its Present State of Improvement (1776); Richard Fowler, Experiments and Observations relative to the Influence Lately Discovered by M. Galvani, and Commonly Called Animal Electricity (1793); William Paley, Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature (1802); John Herschel, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830); Charles Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832)

Volume 8: Chemistry

George Thomson, Galeno-pale: or, A Chymical Trial of the Galenists, that their Dross in Physick may be Discovered (1665); Christopher Merrett, A Short View of the Frauds, and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries (1670); Stephen Hales, Vegetable Staticks: or, An Account of Some Statical Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables (1727); John Arbuthnot, ‘Concerning the Influences of the Air on Human Constitution and Diseases’, An Essay concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies (1733); Henry Brooke, Universal Beauty: A Poem (1735); Tiberius Cavallo, ‘History of Aerostation’; ‘Account of the first Aerial Voyage’; ‘Practice of Aerostation’, The History and Practice of Aerostation (1785); Erasmus Darwin, ‘A Letter to Thomas Beddoes on Methods for Treating Pulmonary Consumption’; Thomas Beddoes, ‘A Letter to Erasmus Darwin on a New Method of Treating Pulmonary Consumption’ (1793); [‘John Gifford’ (John Richards Green)], ‘The Pneumatic Revellers. An Eclogue’, Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine; or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor, 6 (April–August 1800); Humphry Davy, A Discourse, Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry, Delivered in the Theatre of the Royal Institution on the 21st of January 1802 (1802); Jane Marcet, ‘On the General Principles of Chemistry’; ‘On Oxygen and Nitrogen’, Conversations on Chemistry, in which the Elements of that Science are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments (1817); Jeremiah Joyce, ‘What is Chemistry?’; ‘Oxygen’; ‘Atmospheric Air & Eudiometry’, Dialogues in Chemistry, intended for the Instruction and Entertainment of Young People (1816); Edward Daniel Clarke, ‘Account of some Experiments made with Newman’s Blow-pipe, by Inflaming a Highly Condensed Mixture of the Gaseous Constituents of Water’, Journal of Science and the Arts, 2 (1817); [Thomas Hodgskin], ‘Cheap Wine & Brandy’; ‘Cheap Drunkenness’; ‘The Galvanic Pile’, The Chemist, 1 (1824); Humphry Davy, ‘The Chemical Philosopher’, Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher (1830)

Reviews

‘...a fascinating collection of texts’
– Peter D Smith, The Times Literary Supplement

'...volumes like [these] belong in every graduate library and in every serious undergraduate library ... even in the face of digital technologies and their wonders, we should all keep on lobbying departmental and library budgets for funds that will purchase printed sheets bound between covers... [and] be grateful to a company like Pickering and Chatto that works hard to find and deliver valuable printed texts into our hands.'
– Ashton Nichols, The Wordsworth Circle

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