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ABSTRACT
This essay explores an unstudied compendium to Margaret Cavendish’s 1655 Philosophical and Physical Opinions that was composed by the learned physician, plant anatomist, and secretary of the Royal Society, Nehemiah Grew. Despite the growing body of scholarship on Cavendish, minimal attention has been dedicated to her early reception. But studying this compendium provides some fascinating insights into how one of the foremost thinkers of her day read, emended, and manipulated her ideas. I propose that Grew turned to Cavendish’s work when developing his substance theory in the years leading up to the publication of his 1682 The Anatomy of Plants, but that shifting intellectual tides led him to critique her version of material vitalism in his 1701 Cosmologia Sacra. Supported by a transcription of the compendium as an appendix, this article also sheds light on the role that early modern pedagogical techniques and memory tools played in shaping concepts of matter and mind.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Rhodri Lewis and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on this article.
Notes on contributor
Justin Begley is a DPhil candidate in the Department of English at the University of Oxford.
Notes
1. Le Fanu, Nehemiah Grew, 108.
2. Levitin, Ancient Wisdom, 83–4 and 326.
3. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 35r-39v.
4. The classic source on Cavendish’s “singularity” is Gallagher, “Embracing the Absolute.” For more recent accounts of her interactions with contemporaries, see Broad, “Margaret Cavendish and Joseph Glanvill”; Akkerman and Cornoraal, “Mad Science Beyond Flattery”; and Wilkins, “Margaret Cavendish and the Royal Society.”
5. See Moss, Printed Commonplace Books; Grafton, “Les Lieux Communs”; and Beal, “Notions in Garrison.”
6. On this movement, see Blair, “Humanist Methods in Natural Philosophy.”
7. See Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 13r-34v.
8. Cavendish, Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, 249.
9. See Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 8r-12v.
10. Cavendish, The World’s Olio, 12. Also see Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, A2r.
11. Some examples of this now large body of work are Duncan, “Debating Materialism”; Hutton, “In dialogue with Thomas Hobbes”; Detlefsen, “Margaret Cavendish and Thomas Hobbes”; and Semler, “Margaret Cavendish’s Early Engagement.”
12. Philosophical and Physical Opinions is only briefly mentioned in the two monographs on Cavendish’s natural philosophy: see Sarasohn, The Natural Philosophy, 63–75 and Cunning, Cavendish, 74, 117–8, and 217–9.
13. See Galen, On the Natural Faculties, II.vi.98, and Brock, “Introduction,” xxxiv–v.
14. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 138.
15. While most work has been done on the later substance theories of Philosophical Letters and Observations, helpful discussions of the development of these ideas can be found in Detlefsen, “Reason and Freedom”; Cunning, “Cavendish on the Intelligibility”; Clucas, “‘A double Perception’”; and Boyle, “Margaret Cavendish on Perception.”
16. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 35r. For the sake of readability, I have expanded abbreviated words from Sloane MS 1950 (such as replacing “wn” with “when” and “ye” with “the”) and have sometimes smoothed over Grew’s notes. See the transcription in the appendix for a replica of the original.
17. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 7.
18. Ibid., 12.
19. Ibid., 15. On this distinction, see Michaelian, “Margaret Cavendish’s Epistemology.”
20. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 37r.
21. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 21–2.
22. Ibid., 17.
23. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 38r.
24. Ibid.
25. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 13.
26. Aristotle, De memoria et reminiscentia, 451a–453a. Also see Sorabji, Aristotle on Memory and Bloch, Aristotle on Memory and Recollection.
27. On Aristotle’s tripartite soul, see Serjeantson, “The Soul” and Des Chene, Life’s Form.
28. See Yeo, “Notebooks as Memory Aids.” For important correctives, see Lewis, “A Kind of Sagacity.”
29. On this trajectory, see Detlefsen, “Atomism, Monism, and Causation.”
30. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 38v.
31. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 110.
32. Grew, The Anatomy of Plants, A1v. On Grew’s plant anatomy, see Karafyllis, “Das Geschlecht der Pflanzen.”
33. Grew, Anatomy of Plants, 224.
34. See Glisson, From Anatomia Hepatis, 77.
35. Grew, Anatomy of Plants, 87. On Glisson and irritability, see Pagel, “Harvey and Glisson on Irritability”; Temkin, “The Classical Roots”; Rey, “Metaphysical Problems”; and Giglioni, “What Ever Happened.”
36. Grew, Anatomy of Plants, 20.
37. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 36r.
38. Grew, Anatomy of Plants, 93–4.
39. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 11 and The World’s Olio, 180.
40. See Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists, 12–16 and 38–42 and Pagel, William Harvey’s Biological Ideas, especially 49–69.
41. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 37.
42. Grew, Anatomy of Plants, A1v: “Plantae quoque in hunc censum (sc. Anatomicum) veniunt; variâ enim Partium texturâ, & differentiis constant: & proculdubio, ex acurata [sic] earundem dissectione, utiles valde observationes nobis exurgerent.”
43. Grew, Anatomy of Plants, A1v. On Grew’s comparative anatomy, see Delaporte, Nature’s Second Kingdom, and Cole, History of Comparative Anatomy.
44. See Park, “The Organic Soul.”
45. Aristotle, History of Animals, 558b.
46. The classic source on the scala naturae is Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being. Also see Wolff, Die goldene Kette; Kuntz and Kuntz, Jacob’s Ladder; and, on Grew in particular, Lewis, William Petty, especially 15–22.
47. See Blair, The Theatre of Nature, 30–9 and 65–81.
48. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 37r.
49. Ibid.
50. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 46.
51. Ibid., 21.
52. Ibid., 23.
53. Ibid., 1.
54. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 37r.
55. Ibid., f. 83v.
56. On different approaches to matter and form, see Lüthy and Newman, “‘Matter’ and ‘Form’” and Manning, “Three Biased Reminders.”
57. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 35r.
58. Ibid., f. 38r.
59. See Serjeantson, “The Passions and Animal Language” and Harrison “Reading the Passions.”
60. On passions as active forces, see S. James, Passion and Action, and Tilmouth, “Passion and Intersubjectivity.”
61. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 38v.
62. Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, 41.
63. Ibid., 45.
64. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 38r.
65. Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, 31.
66. Ibid., 34. On Grew’s immaterial vitalism, see Garrett, “Vitalism and Teleology.”
67. Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, 35.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid., 34.
70. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 8 and Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, 34.
71. See Andrault, “What is Life?”
72. Cudworth, The True Intellectual System.
73. See Giglioni, “Francis Glisson’s Notion” and Giglioni, “Anatomist Atheist?”
74. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 8.
75. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 6.
76. Sloane MS 1950, f. 35r.
77. Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, 5.
78. Grew, Additional MS 4457, f. 153v.
79. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 38r.
80. See OED, “Emanation,” n. 1a.
81. See Semler, “The Magnetic Attraction,” and Cottegnies, “Le ‘renouveau’.”
82. Charleton, A Ternary of Paradoxes, 87.
83. See Louth, The Origins, 35–50; Mercer, “Platonism”; and O’Meara “The Hierarchical Ordering.”
84. See French, William Harvey’s Natural Philosophy, 289–90.
85. Grew, Sloane MS 1950, f. 39v.
86. Ibid., f. 38r.
87. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, 173.
88. Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, 38. See Yolton, Thinking Matter and Thomson, Bodies of Thought.
89. See Macpherson, The Political Theory and Freudenthal, Atom and Individual.
90. Malcolm, The Correspondences of Thomas Hobbes, Vol. 1, lvii–lxi. For an overview of editorial practices, see Hunter, “How to Edit.”
91. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, “To the Reader,” B2r.
92. Ibid., “The Text to my Natural Sermon,” C1v.
93. Ibid., “Of Matter and Motion,” 1–2.
94. Ibid., “Whether motion is a thing, or nothing, or can be annihilated,” 31–2.
95. Ibid., “Of double motions at one and the same time, on the same matter,” 35.
96. Ibid., “Earth Metamorphosed into water, water Metamorphosed to vapor, Aire and fire, at least into heat,” 55.
97. The words “double line” and “contracted” were on a ripped corner of the page, but they can be inferred from a reading of Cavendish’s work.
98. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, “Of congealed Water,” 59–61.
99. Ibid., “Of Metal,” 65–6.
100. Ibid., “Of the Load-stone,” 66–7.
101. Ibid., “Of Oyl,” 62–5 (actually 62–3, with a pagination error).
102. Ibid., “Of quenching of fire,” 72–3.
103. This passage seems to be derived from Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, “Motion changing the figure from water to fire,” 61–2.
104. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, “Of Light,” 77.
105. Ibid., “Of Colours,” 82–3.
106. This passage is abstracted from a number of sections on darkness and light from PPO, 77–81. For the metaphor of silk, see Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, “The motions that make Darknesse,” 79–80.
107. Cavendish, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, “Of Motion that makes Light” and “Opticks,” 23.
108. Ibid., “Of the Animal Figure,” 21–2.
109. Ibid., “Of the figure of the head,” 117–8.
110. Ibid., “Of Touch,” 125.
111. Ibid., “Of catching cold,” 155.
112. Ibid., “Diseases caused by conceit, or cured,” 142–3.
113. Ibid., “Of the Form and the Minde,” 1–2.
114. Ibid., “Of thoughts,” 110.
115. Ibid.
116. Ibid., “Of their several Dance, or Figures,” 13. The repetition “is presented is presented” is a rare scribal error by Grew.
117. Ibid., “Of the Minde,” 15.
118. Ibid., “The diatical Centers,” 102–3.