Seeing through the Scholium: Religion and Reading Newton in the Eighteenth Century

See Iser Wolfgang , The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response (Baltimore and London, 1978), 169.

Brewster David Sir , Memoirs of the life, writings and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (Edinburgh, 1855), ii, 57; quoted in More Louis Trenchard , Isaac Newton: A biography (1934; reprint edn, New York, 1962), 641–2.

Manuel Frank E. , Isaac Newton historian (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 4–5, 14.

Cf. Quinn Arthur , “On reading newton apocalyptically”, in Popkin Richard H. (ed.), Millenarianism and Messianism in English literature and thought 1650–1800 (Leiden and New York, 1988), 176–92, pp. 177–8.

Manuel , op. cit. (ref. 3), 7.

See Schaffer Simon , “Comet & idols: Newton's cosmology and political theology”, in Theerman Paul Seef Adele F. (eds), Action and reaction: Proceedings of a symposium to commemorate the tercentenary of Newton's Principia (Newark, London and Toronto, 1993), 206–31, p. 213.

Sacheverell Henry , The character of a Low-Churchman, quoted in Tina Isaacs, “The Anglican hierarchy and the reformation of manners 1688–1738”, Journal of ecclesiastical history, xxxiii (1982), 391–411, p. 401. On Sacheverell see Stewart Larry , The rise of public science (Cambridge and New York, 1992), chap. 3, and Holmes Geoffrey , The trial of Doctor Sacheverell (London, 1973).

Jones M.A. William F.R.S., Memoirs of the Life, Studies, and Writings of the Right Reverend George Horne, D.D. Late Bishop of Norwich (London, 1795), 177–85, p. 182. On Jones of Nayland, see Schofield Robert E. , Mechanism and materialism: British natural philosophy in an age of reason (Princeton, 1970), 126–7; and Clark J. C. D. , English society 1688–1832 (Cambridge, 1985), 219–20.

Young Arthur , An Historical Dissertation on Idolatrous Corruptions in Religion From the Beginning of the World; And on the Methods taken by Divine Providence in Reforming them (London, 1734), 260–70.

Ibid., 269–70.

Chartier Roger , “Figures of the ‘other’: Peasant reading in the Age of the Enlightenment”, in Cultural history, transl. by Cochrane Lydia G. (Cambridge, 1988), 151.

Trinity College Library, Cambridge, MS. R.4.7, no. 9, John Craig to William Wotton, 24 June 1691; cf. Cassini P. , “Newton's Principia and the philosophers of the Enlightenment”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xlii (1988), 35–53, pp. 36–37.

Stewart L. , “Where the Royal Society didn't count: Commerce, coffee-houses and natural philosophy in early-modern London”, forthcoming.

The emergence of the General Scholium has frequently been considered as part of the response to the charges of Leibniz and his followers against the Idolatarum Newtoniorum. The General Scholium, therefore, is often explored in relation to the subsequent debate between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke. See, inter alia, Koyré Alexandre , Newtonian studies (Chicago, 1968), esp. Appendices B and C; Alexandre Koyré and Cohen I. Bernard , “The case of the missing tanquam: Leibniz, Newton & Clarke”, Isis, lii (1961), 555–65; Hall A. Rupert Hall Marie Boas , “Clarke and Newton”, ibid. , 583–5; Koyré Alexandre Cohen I. Bernard , “Newton & the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, with notes on Newton, Conti, & Des Maizeaux”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xv (1962), 63–126; Perl Margula R. , “Physics and metaphysics in Newton, Leibniz, and Clarke”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxx (1969), 507–26; Priestley F. E. L. , “The Leibniz-Clarke controversy”, in Butts Robert E. Davis John W. (eds), The methodological heritage of Newton (Toronto, 1970), 34–56; Shapin Steven , “Of gods and kings: Natural philosophy and politics in the Leibniz-Clarke disputes”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 187–215; 1. Cohen Bernard , “Newton's copy of Leibniz's Theodicee: With some remarks on the turned-down pages of books in Newton's library”, Isis, lxxiii (1982), 410–14.

Newton had to be aware of the long history of rhetorical assaults on natural philosophy. After the Revolution, these were promoted in 1696 by Francis Atterbury who, in A letter to a Convocation man, complained of the dangers from “Latitudinarians, Denyers of Mysteries and pretended Explainers of them…”. Quoted in John Gascoigne, “Politics, patronage and Newtonianism: The Cambridge example”, Historical journal, xxvii (1984), 1–24, p. 7.

Cf. Cohen I. Bernard , Introduction to Newton's ‘Principia’ (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), 250–1, 261.

Quoted in Schaffer , “Comets & Idols” (ref. 6), 212; see also William Derham's comment, p. 210.

Newton to Thomas Burnet, quoted in Mandelbrote Scott , ‘“A duty of the greatest moment’: Isaac Newton and the writing of biblical criticism”, The British journal for the history of science, xxvi (1993), 281–302, p. 293.

See for example, MacLaurin Colin , An account of Sir Isaac Newton's philosophical discoveries (London, 1748), 381.

Newton , “Irenicum, or Ecclesiastical Polity tending to Peace”, Keynes MS. 3, p. 32.

Westfall Richard S. , “Newton's theological manuscripts”, in Bechler Z. (ed.), Contemporary Newtonian research (Dordrecht, 1982), 129–43, p. 130; Popkin Richard H. , “Newton's biblical theology and his theological physics”, in Scheurer P. B. Debrock G. (eds), Newton's scientific and philosophical legacy (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1988), 81–97, p. 85; Force James E. , “Newton's ‘Sleeping argument’ and the Newtonian synthesis of science and religion”, in Thrower Norman J. W. (ed.), Standing on the shoulders of giants: A longer view of Newton and Halley (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990), 109–127, p. 118; and Force James E. , “Newton's God of Dominion: The unity of Newton's theological, scientific, and political thought”, in Force James E. Popkin Richard H. , Essays on the context, nature, and influence of Isaac Newton's theology (Dordrecht, Boston, and London, 1990), 76–102.

See William Andrews Clark Memorial Library MSS, “Out of Cudworth”, c. 1689, and “Paradoxical Questions concerning ye morals & actions of Athanasius & his followers”, c. 1690?; and Mandelbrote , “‘A duty of the greatest moment’” (ref. 18), 290.

Olson Richard , “On the nature of God's existence, wisdom and power: The interplay between organic and mechanistic imagery in Anglican natural theology — 1640–1740”, in Burwick Frederick (ed.), Approaches to organic form: Permutations in science and culture (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, cv; Dordrecht, 1987), 1–48, p. 23; Quinn , “On reading Newton apocalyptically” (ref. 4), 183ff.

See the excellent treatment of this issue by Iliffe Rob , ‘“Tautologies, synchronizations and fulfilments’: Apocalyptic hermeneutics and the sociology of Christian idolatry” (forthcoming), esp. p. 10.

Dobbs B. J. T. , The Janus faces of genius: The role of alchemy in Newton's thought (Cambridge and New York, 1991), 81–83, 108–9; Westfall , “Newton's theological manuscripts” (ref. 21), 139; and Force , “Newton's God of Dominion” (ref. 21), 80–81.

Trinity College Library, MS. R. 4.47/11. Richard Bentley to Newton, 20 October 1709.

Cambridge University Library, Add. MSS. 1968, no. 17, f. 256. Newton to the Editor of the Memoirs of literature, May 1712. There can be little doubt about Newton's agitation over this issue of perpetual miracle. See the draft apparently associated with the later Leibniz-Clarke correspondence quoted in Dobbs , op. cit. (ref. 25), 230.

See Cohen , Introduction to Newton's Principia (ref. 16), 243n.; and Koyré , Newtonian studies (ref. 14), 142–3.

Hall A. Rupert , Philosophers at war: The quarrel between Newton and Leibniz (Cambridge, 1980), esp. chaps. 9–10.

“An Account of the Book entituled Commercium Epistolicum Collini & aliorum, De Analysi promota; published by order of the Royal Society, in relation to the Dispute between Mr. Leibnitz and Dr. Keill, about the Right of Invention of the Method of Fluxions, by some call'd the Differential Method”, Philosophical transactions , no. 342 (January and February, 1712/3), 222, 224. On the epistemological problem here, cf. Greig Martin , “The reasonablenes of Christianity? Gilbert Burnet and the Trinitarian controversy of the 1690s”, Journal of ecclesiastical history, xliv (1993), 631–51, pp. 632–6; and Ramsay Chevalier , The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion: Unfolded in a Geometrical Order, i (Glasgow, 1748), 58, 61. I owe this reference to Simon Schaffer.

See for example Whiston's comment in 1730 that “Dr. Sykes still speaks as if Dr. Clarke's Philosophy was his own, or of his own Invention; when it was generally no other than Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy…”. Whiston William , Historical memoirs of the life of Dr. Samuel Clarke: Being a Supplement to Dr. Sykes's and Bishop Hoadley's Accounts. Including certain Memoirs of several of Dr. Clarke's Friends (London, 1730), 155. Quoted in Koyré Cohen , “The case of the missing tanquam” (ref. 14), 560.

Correspondence of Isaac Newton, v, 412–13. Cotes to Clarke, 25 June 1713. Cf. Hall , Philosophers at war (ref. 29), 185, 219–20.

See Cotes's Preface in Cajori Florian (ed.), Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical principles, transl. by Motte Andrew (Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1971), i, p. xxxi.

Ibid., p. xxxiii.

Newton, Yahuda MS. 15, f. 98. Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem.

Cohen I. Bernard , “Isaac Newton's Principia, the scriptures, and the Divine Providence”, in Morgenbesser Sidney Suppes Patrick White Morton (eds), Philosophy, science, and method: Essays in honor of Ernest Nagel (New York, 1969), 523–48, p. 524 (my italics). Cotes had managed to place Newton within a tradition of metaphysical speculation. See Funkenstein Amos , Theology and the scientific imagination from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century (Princeton, 1986), 90–96.

Cf. Cohen , Introduction to Newton's Principia (ref. 16), 243 and n., 244; “Account of the Commercium Epistolicum” (ref. 30), 224.

Yahuda MS. 21, f. 1r. Quoted in Manuel Frank , The religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford, 1974), 22. See the comments on the theological implications of the doctrine of absolute space and time in McGuire J. E. , “Predicates of pure existence: Newton on God's space and time”, in Bricker Phillip Hughes R. I. G. (eds), Philosophical perspectives on Newtonian science (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1990), 91–108, pp. 91–92; also Yahuda MS. 15, f. 98; Keynes MS. 3, p. 35; and Force , “Newton's ‘Sleeping argument’” (ref. 21), 118.

Copenhaver Brian P. , “Jewish theologies of space in the Scientific Revolution: Henry More, Joseph Raphson, Isaac Newton and their predecessors”, Annals of science, xxxvii (1980), 489–548, pp. 542ff.

Trinity College Library, MS. R. 16.38B, fol. 270. This appears to date from late March 1713, and gives page references to the final printed version of 1713. It varies slightly from other versions found in Cambridge University Library, Add. MSS. 3965, ff. 357–65. See Hall A. Rupert Hall Marie Boas (eds), Unpublished scientific papers of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1962), 348–64; and Cohen , op. cit. (ref. 16), 245. Note that Whiston adopted the sentiment in his notion that the leaving off of metaphysics for experiment and mathematics was a useful model of the way evidence might be applied to the settlement of scriptural exegesis. See Force , “Newton's ‘Sleeping argument’” (ref. 21), 120.

Manuel , op. cit. (ref. 38), 21 referring to Yahuda MS. 15.5; see also Newton , “De Trinitate”, Keynes MS. 2, f. 33; “De nominibus Dei”, Keynes MS. 2, f. 83; Yahuda MS. 15, f. 98.

Manuel , op. cit. (ref. 38), 16–17; Force , “Newton's God of Dominion” (ref. 21), 76, 79.

Cohen , op. cit. (ref. 36), 523–5. See especially Yahuda MS. 15, ff. 97–98.

Newton , “Irenicum”, Keynes MS. 3, p. 38; Mandelbrote , op. cit. (ref. 18), 300; Popkin , “Newton's biblical theology and his theological physics” (ref. 21), 93–94; and Dobbs , op. cit. (ref. 25), 192, 229.

Harrison John , The library of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1978), 119–20. Newton also owned several important works in the continuing controversy by Jackson John Waterland Daniel Whiston William Sykes Arthur Ashley Bennet Thomas . Ibid., 98, 167, 247, 260–1.

Cf. Popkin , “Newton's biblical theology and his theological physics” (ref. 21), 94; and Wilde C. B. , “Gravity and Divine Providence: Some reflections on the theological dimensions of Newtonianism”, unpublished paper, January 1982, 12. We cannot assume that the General Scholium “made no allusion to the Trinity or to Christ…”; it was quite clearly the response of eighteenth-century readers that those were the precise issues to which Newton did allude. Cf. Priestley , “The Clarke-Leibniz controversy” (ref. 14), 50.

Edwards D.D. John , Some Brief Critical Remarks on Dr. Clarke's Last Papers; Which are his Reply to Mr. Nelson, and an Anonymous Writer, and the Author of some Considerations, &c. Showing the Doctor as deficient in the Critic Art, as he is in Theology (London, 1714), 40; Ferguson James P. , The philosophy of Dr. Samuel Clarke and its critics (New York, 1974), 42, 251–2. On the significance of Whiston , cf. Force James E. , William Whiston: Honest Newtonian (Cambridge and New York, 1985).

Levine Joseph M. , Dr. Woodward's shield: History, science, and satire in Augustan England (Berkeley, 1977), 66–72.

Edwards D.D. John , Some Animadversions on Dr. Clark's Scripture-Doctrine, (As he Stiles it) of the Trinity (London, 1712), 27.

Edwards D.D. John , A Supplement to the Animadversions on Dr. Clarke's Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity. Wherein It is probably gather 'd from Scripture and Reason, and the Testimony of some of the Fathers, That there is no Subordination in the Holy Trinity, and that the Son of God is Self-Existent as well as the Father… (London, 1713), Preface.

Edwards , op. cit. (ref. 47), 12. Edwards was referring to the concern over the diversity of persons in the Trinity which Clarke had examined cautiously in his Boyle Lectures in 1704. See Clarke , A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God: More Particularly in Answer to Mr. Hobbs, Spinoza, And their Followers… (London, 1705), 95. By 1711, however, Clarke was beginning to be much more explicit about his concerns over the Trinity “notwithstanding the Unity of the Divine Nature…”. See Clarke , A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation (London, 1711), 51.

Edwards D.D. John , Some New Discoveries of the Uncertainty, Deficiency, and Corruptions of Human Knowledge and Learning. With particular Instances in Grammar and the Tongues, Poetry… And more especially in the Study of Theology (As it is consider'd as an Art or Science): With Large Remarks and Animadversions, occasion'd by the late Writings of some Divines… (London, 1714), 74–75.

Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 6), 225.

Wilde C. B. , “Matter and spirit as natural symbols in eighteenth-century British natural philosophy”, The British journal for the history of science, xv (1982), 91–131, pp. 102–3. See also Funkenstein , op. cit. (ref. 36), 90–91, 96–97; and the comments on Cotes in Cajori , op. cit. (ref. 33), ii, 632–5.

Edwards , op. cit. (ref. 52), 87.

Newton , Yahuda MS. 15.3, f. 47; quoted in Mandelbrote , op. cit. (ref. 18), 298.

Ferguson , op. cit. (ref. 47), 252–3; Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 54), 105.

University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Isaac Newton, Principia , 2nd edn (London, 1713), MS end notes. The reference was to Clarke , Scripture-doctrine , 296. The text also includes marginalia by a reader who makes several references to Horne Bishop George , A Fair, Candid, and Impartial State of the Case Between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Hutchinson. In Which Is Shewn, How far a system of physics is capable of mathematical demonstration; how far Sir Isaac's, as such a system, has that demonstration; and consequently, what regard Mr. Hutchinson's claim may deserve to have paid it (Oxford, 1753). Very little is known of Paine who came from Panborough in Somersetshire to Trinity in 1716, was made a Fellow in 1719, and B.D. in 1730. Ball W. W. Rouse Venn J. A. , Admissions to Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1911), iii, 48.

Edwards , op. cit. (ref. 47), 36.

Paine's copy of Newton's Principia (ref. 58), marginalia, 482; cf. Newton , “De Trinitate”, Keynes MS.2, ff. 82–83.

Paine's copy of Newton's Principia (ref. 58), endleaf notes.

British Library, Add. MSS. 4370, ff. 23–24. Hubert Stogdon to Samuel Clarke, 29 October 1717.

BL., Add. MSS. 4370, ff. 37–38. John Jackson to Clarke, 30 January 1715/16, quoted in Stewart L. , “Samuel Clarke, Newtonianism, and the factions of post-Revolutionary England”, Journal of the history of ideas, xlii (1981), 53–72, p. 60.

Evans John , A Second Letter to Mr. Cumming, Concerning the Regard which ought to be had to Scripture-Consequences: In Defence of the Former (London, 1722), “An Appendix, In relation to a Passage of Sir Isaac Newton's”.

Cumming John , The Grounds of the Present Differences, Among the London Ministers (London, 1720), 12–13n. Cumming (16857–1729) had been active in the Dissenting cause against the Schism Bill in 1714. He came to the Scots Church at Founder's-Hall, Lothbury in 1716 with a predilection as a controversialist, confronting Bentley on popery in 1715 and later in aid of Hoadley in the Bangorian Controversy in 1717. Cumming was active in the Trinitarian disputes amongst the Presbyterians, taking a role on behalf of those demanding a subscription during the Salters'-Hall debates in 1719—hence his complaints against Clarke who, he thought, had an unfortunate effect in the West Country. See Wilson Walter , The history and antiquities of dissenting churches and meeting houses, ii (London, 1808), 487–94. I wish to thank Mr Colin Clarke of Dr Williams's Library, London, for locating the traces of Cumming's career.

Cumming , op. cit. (ref. 65), 219.

On Joseph Hallett III see Thomas Roger , “The non-subscription controversy amongst Dissenters in 1719: The Salters' Hall Debate”, Journal of ecclesiastical history, iv (1953), 162–86. Apparently Hallett was an early sympathizer of those who questioned the requirement of the Trinity. According to Whiston he was anxious that “if it were known that he kept Correspondence with me, he should be ruined”. See Whiston William , Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston (London, 1749), 146; and Duffy Eamon , “‘Whiston's Affair’: The trials of a Primitive Christian 1709–1714”, Journal of ecclesiastical history, xvii (1976), 129–50, pp. 137–8. In 1720 Hallett expanded and paraphrased from the General Scholium the relations attached the names of God which, he concluded, “has been urged by Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Clarke, and others; and appears convincing”. [ Hallett Joseph III ], The Unity of God Not inconsistent with the Divinity of Christ. Being Remarks on the Passages in Dr. Waterland's Vindication, etc. Relating to he Unity of God And to the Object of Worship (London, 1720), 12–13.

Evans , op. cit. (ref. 64), 127.

Ibid., Appendix.

Ibid., Appendix.

Cf. Carriero John , “Newton on space and time: Comments on J. E. McGuire”, in Bricker Philip Hughes R. I. G. (eds), Philosophical perspectives on Newtonian science (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1990), 118–19; Dobbs , op. cit. (ref. 25), 230–1.

Force , “Newton's God of Dominion” (ref. 21), 79, 97 n.14.

Dobbs , op. cit. (ref. 25), 242–7.

Newton , “Irenicum”, Keynes MS. 3, thesis 15.

Thomas , op. cit. (ref. 67), 179 n.2.

Thomas , op. cit. (ref. 67), 171; Richey Russell E. , “Did the English Presbyterians become Unitarian?”, Church history, xlii (1973), 58–72, p. 65; Whiston , op. cit. (ref. 67), 220–1.

On Clarke see Thomas , op. cit. (ref. 67), 182–5.

Wells Edward , A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Clarke, Rector of St. James's Westminster, in Answer to his Letter to Dr. Wells (Oxford, 1713), 61–62.

[ Hare Francis ], The Difficulties and Discouragements which attend the Study of the Scriptures In the Way of Private Judgment. In order to show, That, since such a Study of the Scriptures is Mens indispensable Duty, it concerns all Christian Societies to remove (as much as possible) those Discouragements. In a letter to a young Clergyman. By a Presbyter of the Church of England, 3rd edn (London, 1714), 24–25.

Ibid., 37–38.

Alexander H. G. (ed.), The Leibniz-Clarke correspondence (Manchester, 1956), 11. Leibniz to Caroline, November 1715.

See Shapin , op. cit. (ref. 14), 187–215, passim.

Cf. Cohen , op. cit. (ref. 16), 244; Cohen , op. cit. (ref. 36), 524; Koyré Alexandre Cohen I. Bernard (eds), Isaac Newton's Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), ii, 824 and n.1; and Holton Gerald , “The thematic imagination in science”, in Holton Gerald (ed), Science and culture: A study of cohesive and disjunctive forces (Boston, 1965), 88–108, p. 93.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 54), 114.

Byfield T. M.D., Some Long-Vacation Hours Redeem 'd. The Christian Examiner. Part I. With an Appendix about Notions and Opinions (London, 1720), 13; Part II (London, 1721), 7. On Byfield and Freind, see Levine , op. cit. (ref. 48), pp. 9ff., 13–14. Freind may have been a Newtonian enthusiast, but he disappeared from the lists of Newton's acolytes after 1712 when anti-Trinitarianism became more significantly and publicly associated with Newton and when Francis Atterbury of Freind's Christ Church, Oxford, levelled his Convocation weapons at Samuel Clarke. As Anita Guerrini has reminded us, the Newtonian programme was ideologically complex. See Guerrini Anita , “The Tory Newtonians: Gregory, Pitcairne, and their circle”, Journal of British studies, xv (1986), 288–311, pp. 307–10.

Byfield T. M.D., A Closet Piece. The Experimental Knowledge of the Ever-Blessed God {The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost}. According to Revelation in Holy Scriptures, And to be experienc 'd in the Hearts of All true Believers (London, 1721), 57.

Schaffer Simon , “Natural philosophy and public spectacle in the eighteenth century”, History of science, xxi (1983), 1–43, p. 5; idem, “Self-evidence”, Critical inquiry, xviii (1992), 327–62, pp. 329–30.

Trinity College Cambridge Library, MS. R.16.38A, no. 114. Roger Cotes to Newton, 28 June 1711; also Thackray Arnold , Atoms and powers: An essay on Newtonian matter-theory and the development of chemistry (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1970), 131–3.

John Edwards to John Woodward, 15 October 1711. Cambridge University Library, Add. MSS. 7647, no. 121. On Woodward see Levine , op. cit. (ref. 48), 68–72.

Edwards , op. cit. (ref. 52), 87.

Greene Robert , A Demonstration of the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion, As it is propos'd to us in the Scriptures of the New Testament. In Several Discourses. To which is annex 'd A Discourse in general, To prove that Matters of Faith are at least equally, if not more Demonstrable, in the strictest Sense of that Word, than those of Reason (Cambridge, 1711), 200–1; and Greene Robert , The Principles of the Philosophy of the Expansive and Contractive Forces or an Inquiry into the Principles of the Modern Philosophy, that is, into the Several Chief Rational Sciences, Which are Extant, In Seven Books (Cambridge, 1727).

See Schaffer Simon , “The consuming flame; Electrical showmen and Tory mystics in the world of goods”, in Brewer John Porter Roy (eds), Consumption and the world of goods (London and New York, 1993), 489–526.

Quoted in Thackray , op. cit. (ref. 85), 132.

Greene , The Principles of the Philosophy of the Expansive and Contractive Forces (ref. 91), 416.

“When I wrote my treatise about our system, I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity; and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose.” Newton to Bentley, 10 December 1692, Turnbull H. W. (ed.), The correspondence of Isaac Newton, iii (Cambridge, 1961), 233–88, p. 233.

Greene , The Principles of the Philosophy of the Expansive and Contractive Forces (ref. 91), 742.

Ibid., 763, 767.

British Library, Add. MSS. 32550. Works of Roger North, xxiii, “Answer to Dr. Clarke”, 20 [?] February 1712/13.

On Woodward and Hutchinson see, inter alia, Kuhn Albert J. , “Glory or gravity: Hutchinson vs. Newton”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxii (1961), 303–22; Neve Michael Porter Roy , “Alexander Catcott: Glory and geology”, The British journal for the history of science, x (1977), 37–60; Wilde C. B. , “Hutchinsonianism, natural philosophy and religious controversy in eighteenth century Britain”, History of science, xviii (1980), 1–24.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 99), 4–5; [ Horne George ], An Abstract from the Works of John Hutchinson, Esquire. Being a Summary of his Discoveries in Philosophy and Divinity (Edinburgh, 1753), 169–70.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 99), 7–9.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 135–6; on Alcock see Hans Nicholas , New trends in education in the eighteenth century (London, 1966), 48–49.

Horne , A Fair, Candid, and Impartial State of the Case (ref. 58), 46–47.

[ Horne ], An Abstract from the Works of John Hutchinson (ref. 100), 151–2.

Cambridge University Library, Add. MSS. 8134/B, commonplace book of Horne George , p. 36; also Cantor G. N. , “Revelation and the cyclical cosmos of John Hutchinson”, in Jordanova L. J. Porter Roy S. (eds), Images of the Earth: Essays in the history of the environmental sciences (Chalfont St Giles, 1979), 3–22, p. 10; and Thackray , op. cit. (ref. 88), 26–31.

Paine's copy of Newton's Principia (ref. 58), Preface, marginalia.

[ Horne ], An Abstract from the Works of John Hutchinson (ref. 100), 165–6.

Ibid., 166.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 68n.; see also Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 63), 65.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 54), 109.

Quoted in Aston Nigel , “Horne and heterodoxy: The defence of Anglican beliefs in the late Enlightenment”, English historical review, cviii (1993), 895–919, pp. 896, 899.

Horne , A Fair, Candid, and Impartial State of the Case (ref. 58), 54.

Commonplace book of George Horne (ref. 105), p. 44, Horne to Browning, n.d. [prob. 1753]. This was probably the John Browning who published “Part of a Letter from Mr. John Browning of Bristol, to Mr. Henry Baker, F.R.S. dated Dec. 11.1746 concerning the Effect of Electricity on Vegetables” in Philosophical transactions , no. 482 (January-February, 1747), 373–5. This is not likely to have been John Rowning, scientific lecturer and author of the Compendious system of natural philosophy (London, 1744–45).

Schaffer , opera cit. (refs 87 and 92); Morton Alan , “Lectures on natural philosophy in London, 1750–1765: S. C. T. Demainbray (1710–1782) and the ‘Inattention’ of his countrymen”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiii (1990), 411–34; and Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 7), Part II.

Commonplace book of George Horne (ref. 105), 23 March 1753.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 99), 9.

Cf. Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 87, 1992), 329–30.

See The gentleman's magazine , xliii (1773), 319–20, 370–2, 423–4, 481; xliv (1774), 401–3, 576; and Crosland Maurice , “The image of science as a threat: Burke versus Priestley and the ‘Philosophic revolution’”, The British journal for the history of science, xx (1987), 277–307, passim.

Ramsay , op. cit. (ref. 30), 60, 65.

Ibid., 75.

Ibid., 269, 323.

Ibid., 341.

Newton , Principia, ed. Motte-Cajori (ref. 33), p. xxxii, Preface of Roger Cotes, 12 May 1713; see also Force , “Newton's God of Dominion” (ref. 21), 89.

Edwards , op. cit. (ref. 52), 88–89.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), Appendix, 305.

Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 15, 22.

Cf. Gooding David , “Putting agency back into experiment”, in Pickering Andrew (ed.), Science as practice and culture (Chicago, 1992), 65–112, pp. 66–69; and Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 501–9.

Gascoigne John , Cambridge in the Age of the Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1989), 247–8; cf. Jacob Margaret C. , The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans (London, 1981), 97–98.

Commonplace book of George Horne (ref. 105), p. 45, Horne to Browning, n.d.

Ibid. , p. 44, Horne to Browning, n.d. See also p. 22, 29 March 1753: “Dr. F. allowed that I had proved my point, & that was not a cubic foot of void space in the system, and if we could prove to a demonstration the consubstantiality of light & air that Mr. H's system would be true. A tinder box & pair of bellows for that.” See also Schofield , op. cit. (ref. 8), 124–6; and Cantor G. N. , op. cit. (ref. 105), 9–10. On Horne Freke , cf. Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 508–9.

Horne , A Fair, Candid, and Impartial State of the Case (ref. 58), 57, 72.

The sceptical apparently watched with increasing irritation about 1750 when Whiston at Tunbridge Wells was busy “… showing eclipses, and explaining other phenomena of the stars, and preaching the millennium, and anabaptism (for he is now, it seems, of that persuasion) to gay people, who, if they have White teeth, hear him with open mouths, though perhaps with shut hearts…”. See Richardson S. to Westcomb Miss , n.d. (c. 1750), in Barbauld Anna Laetitia (ed.), The correspondence of Samuel Richardson, iii (London, 1804), 318–19.

[ Horne ], An Abstract from the Works of John Hutchinson (ref. 100), 154.

Ibid., 157–8.

Ibid., 161.

Thackray , op. cit. (ref. 88), 247–8; Schofield , op. cit. (ref. 8), 125–6; and Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 3, 27.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 54), 125.

[Duncan Forbes, Ld. President of Scotland], Some Thoughts Concerning Religion, Natural and Revealed, and the Manner of Understanding revelation: Tending to shew that Christianity is, indeed very near, As Old as the Creation . Fourth edition, first printed in the year 1735 (London, 1747), 56; Kuhn , op. cit. (ref. 99), 313; and Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 99).

[Duncan Forbes, Ld. President of Scotland], A Letter to a Bishop, Concerning some Important Discoveries in Philosophy and Theology. Third edition, first printed in the year 1732 (Edinburgh, 1747), 5.

Freke John , Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and F.R.S., A Treatise on the Nature and Property of Fire. In Three Essays. I. Shewing the Cause of Vitality, and Muscular Motion; with many other Phaenomena. II. On Electricity. III. Shewing the Mechanical Cause of Magnetism; and why the Compass varies in the Manner it does (London, 1752), p. iii. On Freke, see Schofield , op. cit. (ref. 8), 159–60; and Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 490, 495–8, 501–13.

Freke John , An Essay to Shew the Cause of Electricity; and Why Some Things are Non-Electricable. In which is also Consider'd Its Influence in the Blasts on Human Bodies, in the Blights on Trees, in the Damps in Mines; and as it as it may affect the Sensitive Plant, &c. In a Letter to Mr. William Watson, F.R.S. Third edition: With an Appendix (London, 1752), 137–8.

Ibid., 140–1; also Heilbron J. L. , Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1979), 294–6.

Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 496; Watson William , “A collection of electrical experiments communicated to the Royal Society” [on 14 July 1747], Philosophical transactions, xlv (1747–48), 49–120, p. 53.

Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 509–13; see also Richard Symes on the effects of electrical machines, in Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 6), 207.

Symes Richard , Fire Analysed; or, The several Parts of which it is compounded Clearly Demonstrated By Experiments (Bristol, 1771), 18.

Ibid. , 45–46; Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 92), 491, 507.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 31–32 and n.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 99), 11; and Gascoigne , op. cit. (ref. 128), 268.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 32; quoted in Gascoigne , op. cit. (ref. 128), 262.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 32.

Ibid., 69, 126.

Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 54), 114; and Hole Robert , “English sermons and tracts as media of debate on the French Revolution 1789–99”, in Philp Mark (ed.), The French Revolution and British popular politics (Cambridge, 1991), 19–37, pp. 19–22.

Clark , op. cit. (ref. 8), pp. 329ff, 333, Priestley to Theophilus Lindsay, 23 August 1771.

Gibbon Edward , The miscellaneous works of Edward Gibbon, Esq. with memoirs of his life and writings (London, 1814), ii, 266, Gibbon to Priestley, 23 January 1783. See also Porter Roy , Gibbon (London, 1988), 126–7.

Gibbon , op. cit. (ref. 154), ii, 270, Priestley to Gibbon, 10 February 1783; Gibbon Edward , The memoirs of the life of Edward Gibbon , ed. by Hill George Birkbeck (London, 1900), 203; and Money John , “Joseph Priestley in cultural context: Philosophic spectacle, popular belief and popular politics in eighteenth-century Birmingham. Part One”, Enlightenment and dissent, vii (1988), 57–81, p. 58.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 141; quoted in Aston , op. cit. (ref. 111), 911.

Hole , op. cit. (ref. 152), 20–21, 31; and Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 54), 125.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 31; Hole , op. cit. (ref. 152), 19–20.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 8), 34.

Ibid., 36–37 (my italics).