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Natural theology and the plurality of worlds: Observations on the Brewster-Whewell debate

John Hedley Brooke Department of History, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YG, England
Pages 221-286 | Received 05 Nov 1976, Published online: 23 Aug 2006

  • James Stephen to Mrs. Austin, 23 August 1853, in Stephen C.E. Sir James Stephen Letters with biographical notes 1906 172 172 printed for private circulation
  • Greene , J.C. 1975 . Reflections on the progress of Darwin studies . Journal of the history of biology , 8 : 243 – 273 . (p. 250)
  • Burrow , J.W. 1970 . Evolution and society 19 – 19 . Cambridge
  • Burrow , J.W. 1970 . Evolution and society 247 – 251 . Cambridge
  • Bock , K.E. 1955 . Darwin and social theory . Philosophy of science , 22 : 123 – 133 . (p. 132)
  • Young , R.M. 1967 . “ The development of Herbert Spencer's concept of evolution ” . In Actes du XIe Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences Vol. 2 , 273 – 278 . Warsaw It is also clear that Spencer drew on the physical sciences, and the doctrine of the ‘persistence of force’ in particular, to justify his cyclic theory of evolution and dissolution. This point is discussed by John Durant in a paper entitled ‘Biology and physics in the late nineteenth century: the problem of the energy of evolution’, which was presented to the conference on ‘New perspectives in the history of the life sciences’, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1975. For a critique of Spencer's use of thermodynamics see J. Ward, Naturalism and agnosticism, The Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Aberdeen, 1896–1898 (4th ed. 1915, London), 206–236.
  • Young , R.M. 1973 . “ The historiographic and ideological contexts of the nineteenth-century debate on man's place in nature ” . In Changing perspectives in the history of science Edited by: Teich , M. and Young , R.M. 344 – 438 . London (p. 367)
  • Young , R.M. 1973 . “ The historiographic and ideological contexts of the nineteenth-century debate on man's place in nature ” . In Changing perspectives in the history of science Edited by: Teich , M. and Young , R.M. 366 – 367 . London There is succinct support for this emphasis in a letter from R. W. Church to Asa Gray, 12 March 1860: ‘Mr. Darwin's book, partly from the greater gravity and power of the writer, and partly from, I think, a little more wisdom in the public, has not made such an outcry [as] the once famous Vestiges’ (M. C. Church (ed.), Life and letters of Dean Church (1894, London), 154).
  • Hooykaas , R. 1963 . The principle of uniformity in geology, biology and theology Leiden ‘The parallel between the history of the earth and the history of the animal world’, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, 10 (1957), 3–18; and ‘Geological uniformitarianism and evolution’, ibid., 19 (1966), 3–19. See also W. F. Cannon, ‘The bases of Darwin's achievement: a revaluation’, Victorian studies, 5 (1961), 109–134. That Darwin's thought developed within a framework which allowed him to use the particular teleology of Paley as a sounding-board to test the explanatory power of his own theory is now even more clear from the notes which Darwin penned, apparently as early as the autumn of 1838, in response to Macculloch's Proofs and illustrations of the attributes of God (H. E. Gruber and P. H. Barrett, Darwin on man (1974, London), 414–422). If it were possible, it would be interesting to trace in some detail the transformation which Darwin's private dialogue with the narrow creationism of Paley actually underwent until, in the concluding chapter of the Origin, it eventuated in an expository technique which virtually reduced the doctrine of special creation to a straw man. It would certainly be worth investigating just how much the traditional image of an hypostatized theory in conflict with an hypostatized natural theology actually owes to the highly personal manner in which Darwin relieved himself of an apparatus that had functioned only too well.
  • Hull , D.L. 1973 . Darwin and his critics 57 – 60 . Cambridge, Mass.
  • Smith R. On the human significance of Victorian biology Nature and the Victorian imagination Knoepflamacher V.C. Tennyson G.B. to appear in (forthcoming, Berkeley). In this paper, Dr. Smith also warns against the common assumption that the problem of relating ideas on mind to evolution theory came into the open only in the 1870s following the publication of Darwin's The descent of man, whereas a complex debate had in fact been in existence from at least 1840.
  • Bartholomew , M. 1975 . Huxley's defence of Darwin . Annals of science , 32 : 525 – 535 .
  • In a passage which particularly appealed to Asa Gray, Kingsley declared: ‘We might accept all that Mr. Darwin, all that Prof. Huxley, all that other most able men have so learnedly and acutely written on physical science, and yet preserve our natural theology on the same basis as that on which Butler and Paley left it. That we should have to develop it I do not deny. Let us rather look with calmness, and even with hope and goodwill, on these new theories; they surely mark a tendency toward a more, not a less, Scriptural view of Nature’ (cited by Dillenberger J. Protestant thought and natural science London 1961 235 235
  • See, for example Chadwick O. The Victorian church London 1966–70 2 23 35 2 vols. L. E. Elliott-Binns, English thought 1860–1900. The theological aspect (1956), London), 34–38; J. Hunt, Religious thought in England in the nineteenth century (1896, London; 1971, Gregg reprint), 289; J. C. Livingston, Modern Christian thought from the enlightenment to Vatican II (1971, New York and London), 231–233; J. K. Mozley, Some tendencies in British theology (1951, London), 18 and 91; B. M. G. Reardon, From Coleridge to Gore (1971, London), 294–295; and C. R. Sanders, Coleridge and the Broad Church movement (1942, Durham, North Carolina), 230–231.
  • Young , R.M. 1970 . “ The impact of Darwin on conventional thought ” . In The Victorian crisis of faith Edited by: Symondson , A. 13 – 35 . London in
  • Budd , S. 1967 . The loss of faith . Past and present , : 106 – 125 . no. 36
  • Turner , F.M. 1974 . Between science and religion 168 – 170 . New Haven and London
  • Darwin to Gray, 22 May 1860, 26 November 1860 and 11 December 1861, in The life and letters of Charles Darwin Darwin F. London 1887 2 310 312 3 vols. 353–354, 381–382. I have in mind here the expurgated passage from Darwin's autobiography which reads: ‘I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine’ (N. Barlow (ed.), The autobiography of Charles Darwin (1958, London), 87). However ‘raw’ this passage appeared to his wife, it serves as a useful reminder that, in the case of Darwin himself, there was more to a loss of faith than could be explained by reference to doubts raised by science. For an introduction to the difficult subject of Darwin's spiritual pilgrimage, see M. Mandelbaum, ‘Darwin's religious views’, Journal of the history of ideas, 19 (1958), 363–378; and for the problems which arise when trying to decide whether Darwin became a ‘materialist’, Gruber and Barrett (footnote 9), 209–217.
  • Chadwick , O. 1975 . The secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century 170 – 170 . Cambridge
  • Young , R.M. 1971 . Darwin's metaphor: does nature select? . The monist , 55 : 442 – 503 .
  • Eiseley , L. 1959 . Darwin's century 175 – 178 . London
  • See, for example, the way in which Miller appealed to the idea of God's progressive revelation in nature in order to challenge the presuppositions of Hume's scepticism Miller H. The testimony of the rocks , 1869 edition Edinburgh 1857 184 185
  • For the most lucid statement of a position which he had held for several years, see Powell's contribution to Essays and reviews Temple F. London 1860 The contrast between Powell's position and that of Whewell has been discussed by R. M. Young in an unpublished paper entitled ‘Natural theology, Victorian periodicals and the fragmentation of the common context’.
  • The limitations and uses of natural theology were sometimes defined with precision, as by Thomas Chalmers in his Bridgewater treatise On the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as manifested in the adaptation of external nature to the moral and intellectual constitution of man London 1833 2 282 293 2 vols. See also D. F. Rice, ‘Natural theology and the Scottish philosophy in the thought of Thomas Chalmers’, Scottish journal of theology, 24 (1971), 23–46.
  • Compare de Beer G. Charles Darwin London and Edinburgh 1963 19 19
  • Dillenberger , Thus . 1961 . Protestant thought and natural science 155 – 156 . London goes so far as to maintain that ‘natural theology was mainly responsible for the demise of Christianity in many areas’. A similar desire to protect Christianity from any flirtation with gods deduced from the natural world is apparent in the recent study by J. D. Yule, ‘The impact of science on British religious thought in the second quarter of the nineteenth century’ (University of Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, 1976). By driving a wedge between the clerical scientists and the intellectual leaders of the Christian churches Yule minimizes the role of natural theology within Christianity. His argument does, however, lead to the refreshing conclusion that, for the discerning, a work such as Vestiges merely confirmed the wisdom of a complete detachment from the internecine squabbles of the scientific apologists.
  • Gillispie , C.C. 1959 . Genesis and geology 165 – 165 . New York Young (footnote 15), 16–19.
  • Alexander , H.G. 1956 . The Leibniz-Clarke correspondence Manchester and F. E. L. Priestley, ‘The Clarke-Leibniz controversy’, in R. E. Butts and J. W. Davis (eds.), The methodological heritage of Newton (1970, Oxford), 34–56.
  • Huxley , T.H. “ On the reception of the Origin of Species ” . In The life and letters of Charles Darwin Edited by: Darwin , F. Vol. 2 , 179 – 204 . (p. 202)
  • Huxley , T.H. 1908 . “ ‘On the advisableness of improving natural knowledge’ (1866) ” . In Lectures and essays 346 – 346 . London in
  • Whewell's published essay would have been more metaphysical still had not Sir James Stephen recommended the elimination of many pages that were arguably too involved for the English public Todhunter I. William Whewell London 1876 1 205 205 2 vols.
  • Gillispie . 1959 . Genesis and geology 205 – 208 . New York
  • 1853 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay London
  • For an introduction to the structure and the reception of the Essay see Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 1 184 210 2 vols. The surprise with which Brewster learnt of the authorship is recorded by Mrs. Gordon, The home life of Sir David Brewster (1869, Edinburgh), 246.
  • Mann , R.J. 1855 . The plurality of worlds . Edinburgh review , 102 : 435 – 470 . Compare the Mechanics magazine review to be found in the bound collection of reviews (Trinity College Library), where it is lamented ‘how far our professed teachers have gone from the spirit of the Inductive method they imagine or declare they represent’ (p. 444). Such criticism, though perfectly understandable, was apt to be wide of the mark because it presupposed that the question of intelligent life on other worlds was an exclusively scientific one and because it disregarded Whewell's claim that his primary concern was not astronomy but morality. Nor did critics of this calibre appreciate that Whewell's own account of the inductive method particularly stressed the ‘idealisation of facts’—the subsumption of facts under ‘fundamental ideas’ (W. Whewell, ‘Second memoir on the fundamental antithesis of philosophy’, read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 13 November 1848, and subsequently reprinted in his On the philosophy discovery (1860, London)). For an introduction to Whewell's philosophy of science, see R. E. Butts (ed.), William Whewell's theory of scientific method (1968, Pittsburgh).
  • Even Whewell's most sympathetic commentator, Samuel Warren, acknowledged that most of the criticism was proving to be hostile, the Daily news having recently referred to Whewell as a ‘knight-errant of nursery notions’ Warren S. Speculators among the stars Blackwood's magazine 1854 76 288 300 and 371–403, especially p. 372). Dismissing Brewster as a ‘nasty little snarler at your heels’, Warren promised Whewell that the large circulation of Blackwood would soon turn the tide in his favour (Warren to Whewell, 14 September and 16 October 1854, Trinity College Add. Ms. a 216107–108). Whewell himself does not appear to have been too discouraged by the reception: ‘I do not think I have been so unsuccessful in making converts even among those bigotted people the astronomers’ (Whewell to R. Murchison, 30 May 1854, Trinity College 0.15.47311). If this was not wishful thinking, it was a largely misplaced optimism. Subsequent works on the plurality of worlds continued to regard the affirmative as the thesis having the greater intrinsic probability. Thus Richard Proctor, author of numerous popular astronomical texts, adopted the very presupposition that Whewell had exposed: ‘Until it has been demonstrated that no form of life can exist upon a planet, the presumption must be that the planet is inhabited’ (R. A. Proctor, Other worlds than ours. The plurality of worlds studied under the light of recent scientific researches (1870, London), 57). Not until Alfred Russel Wallace applied himself to the same subject did Whewell find a distinguished scientific disciple (A. R. Wallace, Man's place in the universe (3rd ed. 1905, New York), especially p. 9 and pp. 321–331, where Wallace manages to turn the theory of organic evolution against the supposition of intelligent life on other planets). He believed, with Whewell, that the plurality doctrines had been accepted despite physico-chemical considerations, rather than as a consequence of them.
  • 1955 . Christian remembrancer , 87 : 50 – 82 . (p. 80)
  • One has to say ostensibly because if Mrs. Gordon is to be believed Todhunter I. William Whewell London 1876 310 327 2 vols. Brewster's commitment to Christianity was more formal than typically evangelical in devotional fervour—at least until the late 1850s. This may help to explain an individualist streak in his theology, evident in his account of the problem of evil in his More worlds than one (1854, London), 146–148. Suggesting that the spectre of moral evil had been conjured up by ourselves, and taking refuge in Pope's ‘harmony not understood’, he was predictably accused of an immoral fatalism more reminiscent of Bolingbroke than of evangelical theology (Christian observer, 54 (1855), 35–62 (p. 60)). Nevertheless, it was the evangelical tradition that had first attracted him (Gordon (footnote 34), 41, 53–54, 77) and with which he aligned himself throughout the Disruption controversies, doubtless deriving particular encouragement from his friendship with both Thomas Chalmers and Hugh Miller (ibid., 172–173). As early as 1805–06 he had taken an anti-Moderate stand in the Leslie affair (J. B. Morrell, ‘The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805’, Scottish historical review, 54 (1975), 63–82 (p. 67)).
  • Watt , H. 1943 . Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption 5 – 9 . Edinburgh 349–351; R. S. Westfall, Introduction to the reprint of D. Brewster, Memoirs of the life, writings and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1965, New York and London), xxiv; and E. W. Morse, ‘David Brewster’, in C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of scientific biography (‘DSB’ hereafter), vol. 2 (1970, New York), 451–454.
  • Brown , T. 1893 . Annals of the Disruption Edinburgh and Mrs. Gordon (footnote 34), 174–175. By May 1845, James Forbes, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh, could inform Whewell of an overwhelming vote to abolish tests on the part of Old Presbyterians, Free Churchmen and Episcopalians: ‘This curious result satisfied me that the minds of moderate sensible men in Scotland attached to Presbyterianism are in favour of the removal of the Tests which in our University at least have so long been nominal’ (Forbes to Whewell, 27 May 1845 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20467).
  • Powell , Baden . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 292 – 292 . London
  • 1855 . Christian observer , 54 : 40 – 40 . The essential conservatism of Brewster's stance was also borne out by his willingness to sign the celebrated Declaration of 1865 which, by affirming that a time would come when the scientific and biblical records ‘will be seen to agree in every particular’, typified a rather dated approach to the reconciliation of science and the Scriptures. (Compare W. H. Brock and R. M. Macleod, ‘The “Scientists' Declaration” …’, British journal for the history of science, 9 (1976), 39–66 (pp. 41, 46, 57).) Brewster insisted that the views contained in the original draft of the Declaration had already been propounded in the ninth chapter of his treatise on a plurality of worlds (Cambridge University Library, Add. Ms. 598975).
  • McColley , G. 1936 . The seventeenth-century doctrine of a plurality of worlds . Annals of science , 1 : 385 – 430 . (pp. 412–413)
  • For the Broad Church network of which Whewell was part, see Cannon W.F. Scientists and Broad Churchmen Journal of British studies 1964 4 65 88
  • Whewell . 1853 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay London Preface to the first edition.
  • Compare , Gruber and Barrett . 1963 . The principle of uniformity in geology, biology and theology 213 – 213 . Leiden
  • McColley . 1936 . The seventeenth-century doctrine of a plurality of worlds . Annals of science , 1 : 385 – 430 . Dillenberger (footnote 13), 133–137; and P. Rossi, ‘Nobility of man and plurality of worlds’, in A. G. Debus (ed.), Science, medicine, and society in the Renaissance (2 vols., 1972, London), 131–162 (p. 146).
  • Brewster . 1876 . William Whewell 123 – 123 . London 2 vols.
  • This further paradox is underlined by Brewster's assertion that the author of the Essay was the ‘only English philosopher who can be named as giving [the nebular hypothesis] the smallest countenance’ Brewster William Whewell London 1876 123 123 2 vols.
  • Gillispie . 1959 . Genesis and geology 205 – 205 . New York
  • Todhunter William Whewell London1876 1 190 190 2 vols. Despite his aversion to the works of both Brewster and Whewell, Baden Powell found himself drawn into the debate which had ‘attracted such an unexpected degree of public attention’ (Essays (footnote 42), Preface, vi).
  • 1855 . Evangelical respository , 1 : 22 – 28 . and 60–65
  • 1855 . Evangelical respository , 1 : 22 – 22 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 3 – 75 . London
  • Proctor . 1870 . Other worlds than ours. The plurality of worlds studied under the light of recent scientific researches 3 – 4 . London
  • Whewell . 1833 . Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology London
  • 1833-34 . Quarterly review , 50 : 5 – 34 . (p. 13). The Wellesley index does not disclose the author.
  • Dick , T. 1840 . The sidereal heavens iv – iv . London Preface
  • Dick , T. 1840 . The sidereal heavens 302 – 302 . London
  • Dick , T. 1840 . The sidereal heavens 304 – 304 . London
  • Dick , T. 1840 . The sidereal heavens 310 – 310 . London
  • 1818 . Eclectic review , 8 : 212 – 212 . cited by A. Maxwell, Plurality of worlds (1820, London), 251.
  • To explain how the doctrine had become so commonplace would require another elaborate study. A thorough investigation would have to take into account the way in which a plurality of worlds had been disseminated by the popular almanacks of the seventeenth century. The rational justification for the doctrine continued to reside in the principles of plenitude and sufficient reason. Of the former principle Richard Owen was still an exponent in the late 1840s. Having constructed his skeletal Archetype, he insisted that its conceivable modifications were ‘far from being exhausted by any of the forms that now inhabit the earth, or that are known to have existed here at any period’ On the nature of limbs London 1849 83 83 Taking for granted that other planets had their occupants, he could suggest the ‘possibility of the vertebrate type being the basis of the organization of some of the inhabitants of other planets’ (ibid.). Limbs that were rudimentary in terrestrial animals might be developed on other worlds (ibid.). Where the principles of plenitude and sufficient reason supported the Chain of Being, the scope for intelligent life on other worlds was enormous. ‘There is an infinite gap’, observed Thomas Dick, ‘between man and the Deity, and we have no reason to believe that it is entirely unoccupied’ (Celestial scenery or the wonders of the planetary system displayed (2nd ed. 1838, London), 526). Whenever the plenitude principle was invoked, it could always be illustrated and substantiated by appealing to the Earth's teeming millions. ‘From the arctic regions to the torrid zone’, wrote Richard Proctor, ‘we find that none of the peculiarities which mark the several regions of our globe suffice to banish life from its surface’ ((footnote 37), 8). From the time of the Copernican transformation there were, of course, reputable scientific analogies that could be drawn between the Earth and other planets. The advocates of a plurality of worlds were most impressed by what they took to be special arrangements in the heavens. At the crudest level it would be pointed out that the further the planet from the sun, the more moons it appeared to have. More refined arguments stressed the lower densities of the larger and more remote planets which would alleviate problems of weight. For Thomas Dick the evidence of further precautions was irresistible: the gravitating power of the outer planets must be reduced by their more rapid rotation ‘so that a body weighing 128 pounds, if [Jupiter] stood still, would weigh only 112 pounds at its present rate of rotation, which will afford a sensible relief and diminution of weight’ (supra, 507–508). The conviction that special arrangements had been made died hard, Proctor finding himself unable to believe that the inclination of the axis of Venus could be as lethally different from that of Earth as it was then reported to be ((footnote 37), 75–76). Taking a more abstract theological perspective, the doctrine of a plurality of worlds was attractive because it offered a means of integrating voluntarist and rationalist principles. The point had been well made by Pierre Borel in his Discours nouveau prouvant la pluralité des mondes of 1657: ‘The creation of one world or of several depends on the free will of God, and this cannot be disproved by any natural reason … That there are several of these worlds does not imply a contradiction, either in God's will or within the thing He created. I would even go so far as to say that it seems necessary to me that the created object be the measure of His power, so that as this world is not infinite as God is, it is necessary that there be an infinity of such worlds’ (cited by Marie-Rose Carré, ‘A man between two worlds …’, Isis, 65 (1974), 322–335 (pp. 332–333)). It must also be remembered that quite apart from helping to make the science of astronomy more interesting, the notion of a plurality of worlds could appeal to optimistic spirits who saw in the future of other worlds the possibility of a more ‘gloriously developed animation and intelligence’ (Evangelical respository (footnote 53), 27), and obversely to those of melancholy humour who found consolation in the thought that other worlds might be less miserable than our own. With some perspicacity Whewell realised that if he was to annihilate their intelligent life, he would have to offer some alternative source of consolation (Whewell to Sir James Stephen, 9 November 1853, in Todhunter (footnote 31), vol. 2, 394; and Essay (footnote 55), 380–383).
  • Miller , Hugh . 1869 . “ Geology versus astronomy ” . In Essays of Hugh Miller , 3rd ed. Edited by: Bayne , P. 368 – 368 . Edinburgh
  • Cited by Meadows A.J. The high firmament Leicester 1969 168 168
  • Westfall . 1943 . Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption 5 – 9 . Edinburgh
  • Powell . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 239 – 239 . London
  • See Miller Hugh Geology versus astronomy Essays of Hugh Miller , 3rd ed. Bayne P. Edinburgh 1869 373 373
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 244 – 247 . London
  • Brewster's review of Whewell's Essay North British review 1854 21 31 31
  • Brewster William Whewell London1876 5 6 2 vols. The work in question was that of Alexander Maxwell (footnote 63), who traced the increase in infidelity to the influence of Newton and who believed that those theologians, such as Chalmers, who had tried to extract the sting from the plurality of worlds were compromising with a tenet of deism rather than resisting it. Against this frail obscurantism Brewster ranged the heavy artillery of Bruno, Kepler, Tycho, Newton, Bentley, Laplace, the Herschels and Arago—all of whom had maintained the doctrine.
  • Whewell to Forbes, 4 November 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 397 398 2 vols.
  • Whewell to Herschel, 5 January 1854 Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 399 399 2 vols. Whewell was acutely conscious of, and took obvious delight in, the fact that ‘no one, so far as I know, has been the advocate of one world against many worlds, I mean in recent times’ (Whewell to Sir James Stephen, 9 October 1853, ibid., vol. 2, 386).
  • Todhunter William Whewell London1876 1 203 203 2 vols. The most favourable response from a man of science came from Roderick Murchison, who appears to have liked the book, taking special delight in the inductions based on geology (Murchison to Whewell, January 1854, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21694.
  • Todhunter . 1876 . William Whewell Vol. 1 , 187 – 188 . London 2 vols.
  • Todhunter William Whewell London1876 1 187 187 2 vols. From the first, Herschel found it difficult to take the Essay seriously: ‘So this then is the best of all possible worlds—the ne plus ultra between which and the 7th heaven there is nothing intermediate. Oh dear! ‘Tis a sad cutting down’ (Herschel to Whewell, January 1854, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20790). In this same letter Herschel stressed the extreme vulnerability of Whewell's position. It would suffice to produce a couple of cases in which planets elsewhere in the universe had been completed in the same way as the Earth: the whole theory would then be destroyed, ‘for if two why not 2,000?’.
  • Clark , W.G. William Whewell, in memoriam 548 – 548 . in the collection of Whewell Miscellanies (Trinity College, 266 c 80 149)
  • Whewell . A few words
  • Whewell to Lyell February 1836 16 Edinburgh University Library, Lyell papers 1/5940.
  • Whewell to Sir James Stephen, 25 September 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 382 382 2 vols. The most sensitive commentators had no doubts about Whewell's sincerity, Samuel Warren, for example, ably vindicating him against Brewster's insinuation that the Essay was inspired by a love of notoriety (Warren (footnote 37), 288–292).
  • There were of course those who thought that they ought to be, Baden Powell for one. Yet it was the very fact that theological issues had been introduced that drove Powell into his long disquisition on the subject. With a greater methodological penetration than historical acumen he proclaimed that ‘the radical objection which pervades the whole discussion lies in the primary fact, that the question is removed from its proper basis of inductive conjecture and philosophical probability, and placed altogether on the new and unphilosophical ground of conformity to theological belief’ (Essays (footnote 42), 237). In retrospect, Proctor, too, was uneasy about the extent to which theological issues had dominated the discussion. Referring to the efforts of Chalmers, Brewster and Whewell, he doubted ‘whether a single reader of those works has found the religious views of any one of their authors congenial with his own’ ((footnote 37), 296). Such doubts, however, did not prevent him from accepting a principle of sufficient reason for his own discussion (ibid., 45), or from providing a theological justification for a non-literal interpretation of the phrase ‘the plans of the Creator’. The French commentator Babinet also tried to make theological capital out of the curious mixture of science and theology that he found in the works of Brewster and Whewell—a mixture that he could deprecate as a familiar feature of Protestant apologetics: ‘Pour nous autres Français, peu habitués à ce mélange du sacré et du profane, il nous suffira, en opposant un docteur à l'autre, d'examiner la question … indépendamment de toute opinion théologique’ De la pluralité des mondes Revue des deux mondes 1855 9 365 385 (pp. 372–373)). All such criticisms were rather gross since Whewell himself had insisted that ‘a belief in the Divine Government of other races of spiritual creatures besides the human race, and in Divine Ministrations committed to such beings, cannot be connected with our physical and astronomical views of the nature of the stars and the planets, without making a mixture altogether incongruous and incoherent’ ((footnote 55), 375–376).
  • 1854 . North British review Vol. 21 , 10 – 10 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject vii – vii . London Brewster (footnote 39), 24–25.
  • Herschel to Whewell February 1835 7 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20725; Herschel to Whewell, 27 June 1846, Trinity College, 0.15.482.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject viii – viii . London Brewster (footnote 39), 163–181.
  • Hoskin , M.A. 1963 . William Herschel and the construction of the heavens 117 – 118 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject viii – viii . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject ix – ix . London Even when Airy recalculated the density of the earth, with the consequent increase in the densities of the other planets, Whewell was still convinced that the increase was not enough to vitiate his argument (Whewell to Forbes, 4 January 1855, Trinity College, 0.15.4774).
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 221 – 225 . London (p. 224)
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 211 – 214 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject ix – x . London
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 174 – 181 . R. J. Mann (footnote 35), 447.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 214 – 215 . London
  • Powell . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 188 – 188 . London
  • Dick . 1840 . The sidereal heavens London appendix to the London edition of 1850, 376–377.
  • 1855 . Compare Christian observer Vol. 54 , 49 – 49 .
  • For a discussion of the way in which the changing fortunes of the nebular hypotheses were reflected in successive editions of Chambers's Vestiges, see Ogilvie M.B. Robert Chambers and the nebular hypothesis British journal for the history of science 1975 8 214 232 especially pp. 218–219.
  • Brewster . 1830 . Charles Babbage, reflections on the decline of science in England . Quarterly review , 43 : 305 – 342 . (pp. 326–327). See also A. D. Orange, ‘The origins of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’, British journal for the history of science, 6 (1972), 152–176.
  • Brewster recommended dividing Chairs in order to accommodate both an Emeritus Professor of high repute and a popular lecturer who would relieve him of more mundane duties. ‘When the income of the chair amounts to from 800 1. to 1,000 1. or upwards, this plan is perfectly practicable, but we conceive that even when it is only 600 1. or 700 1. under one professor, the circumstance of the chair being filled by two—a popular lecturer and a gifted philosopher, would of itself render its emoluments sufficient for the maintenance of both’ Brewster Charles Babbage, reflections on the decline of science in England Quarterly review 1830 43 328 328
  • Brewster to Whewell, 4 November 1830, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20179. His self-defence is not without interest and may have escaped the attention it deserves: I wrote the article on the Decline of Science in the Quarterly, and I did hope that there would not be a man of science in England that would not thank me for having espoused his cause, and exposed myself to the frowns of Government from the single motive of advancing the interests of Science. I cannot for a moment doubt that you have greatly misapprehended both the object and meaning of the Reviewer. You never were more mistaken than in charging the Reviewer with … ignorance of every thing belonging to English Universities … The mistake is wholly yours in supposing that there was the remotest reference to Cambridge and the plan proposed refers only to certain Professorships which are well known; to some chairs, and to those only which have £600 and upwards for their value. I knew perfectly well that there was no such Scientific Chair in Cambridge, and I considered the very smallness of the Incomes at Cambridge as an argument for dividing Professorships that exceeded £600. A close reading of the review in the Quarterly (footnote 100) suggests that Brewster had given himself leeway for such a rejoinder. His hypothetical example for the division of a Chair was London based (ibid., 328), and the locus for his various complaints shifted so rapidly from England to Great Britain and back again that there was a certain ambiguity as to which universities he had in mind at a given moment. Nevertheless, there had been nothing ambiguous about his trumping Babbage's card with the assertion that ‘the great inventions and discoveries which had been made in England during the last century have been made without the precincts of our universities’ (ibid., 326–327). See also Orange Charles Babbage, reflections on the decline of science in England Quarterly review 1830 43 155 155
  • Brewster was right to insist that his real point concerned the dearth of those able, free, to pursue a train of original research; but there was something more than a little pedantic in his argument that the emphasis was supposed to be placed on the word ‘train’. Whewell would hardly have taken kindly to the ensuing clarification: ‘I am always occupied at certain times of leisure with Mineralogical enquiries as you are, but I could not say that either you or I are engaged in a train of original Mineralogical research’ (Brewster to Whewell Charles Babbage, reflections on the decline of science in England Quarterly review 1830 43 155 155
  • Whewell to J. D. Forbes, 14 July 1831, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 122 122 2 vols.
  • Westfall . 1943 . Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption xiii – xiv . Edinburgh
  • Gordon . 1876 . William Whewell Vol. 1 , 164 – 164 . London 2 vols.
  • Report of the first, second and third meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Edinburgh review 1835 60 363 394
  • Orange . 1830 . Charles Babbage, reflections on the decline of science in England . Quarterly review , 43 : 154 – 154 .
  • Brewster to his wife, May 1818, in Gordon The home life of Sir David Brewster Edinburgh 1869 97 97 England alone, he was to insist, ‘taxes inventors as if they were the enemies of the State’ (ibid., 148).
  • Both Herschel and Whewell considered it pretentious to aim at wielding influence over the government, Herschel expressing doubts about the need for an association at all: ‘I see nothing in an overwhelming mass of mediocrity which can direct or stimulate or encourage those who would naturally lead the way without them’ (Herschel to Whewell, 20 September 1831, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20722). See also Morrell J.B. Individualism and the structure of British science in 1830 Historical studies in the physical sciences 1971 3 183 204
  • Brewster, ‘Report’ Edinburgh review 1835 60 390 390 As Orange observes, Brewster's attaching so much importance to the effect of the Cambridge contingent was not strictly accurate, his objectives having already been compromised by Vernon Harcourt who was generally credited at the time with the leadership of the Association (Orange (footnote 100), 174 and 159). For Brewster's later reflections on the extent to which his own objects had been achieved see Gordon (footnote 34), 207f.
  • Shairp , J.C. , Tait , P.G. and Adams-Reilly , A. 1873 . Life and letters of James David Forbes 398 – 398 . London
  • Whewell to J.D. Forbes, 14 February 1835, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 204 204 2 vols.
  • Quoted by Orange Charles Babbage, reflections on the decline of science in England Quarterly review 1830 43 171 171 Whewell had, in fact, taken particular exception to Brewster's proposal that men of science should be sponsored by Government allowances and pensions. Such pleas ‘to get pensions from the government for our friends’ would be ‘a worshipful employment truly!’ (Whewell to Forbes ibid.).
  • 1837 . Edinburgh review , 66 : 110 – 151 . (p. 146)
  • Cited by Gordon The home life of Sir David Brewster Edinburgh 1869 147 147
  • Brewster . 1837 . Edinburgh review , 66 : 147f – 147f .
  • Brewster . 1837 . Edinburgh review , 66 : 147f – 147f .
  • Whewell, Letter to the editor of the Edinburgh review, 28 October 1837, Trinity College, 289 c 80 8414; see also Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 1 115 116 2 vols.
  • Christie , J.R.R. 1975 . “ The rise and fall of Scottish science ” . In The emergence of science in western Europe Edited by: Crosland , M.P. 111 – 126 . London (p. 123)
  • Whewell to G. B. Airy, 28 October 1837, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 263 263 2 vols.
  • Whewell to Revd. R. Jones, October 1837, in William Whewell London 1876 2 261 261 2 vols.
  • Whewell . 1876 . William Whewell London 2 vols.
  • Brewster . 1837 . Edinburgh review , 66 : 129 – 130 .
  • According to a recent study, as early as 1818 Brewster had begun to find difficulty in having his optical papers accepted by the Royal Society Cantor G.N. Henry Brougham and the Scottish methodological tradition Studies in history and philosophy of science 1971 2 69 89 (p. 82)
  • Brewster to Whewell, 10 June 1833, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20182; reproduced, in part, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 1 72 72 2 vols. Whewell's report was published as ‘Report on the recent progress and present state of mineralogy’ British Association for the Advancement of Science: 1831–1832 (1833, London), 322–365; see especially p. 342.
  • Brewster . 1837 . Edinburgh review , 66 : 136 – 136 .
  • Whewell to Forbes J.D. October 1846 1 Trinity College, 0.15.4763.
  • Forbes to Whewell, 31 March 1833, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 2049. See also Shairp Shairp J.C. Tait P.G. Adams-Reilly A. Life and letters of James David Forbes London 1873 95 98 On the analytical school which developed in Cambridge at this time, see W. Rouse Ball, A history of the study of mathematics at Cambridge (1889, Cambridge), ch. 7.
  • Forbes to Whewell Shairp J.C. Tait P.G. Adams-Reilly A. Life and letters of James David Forbes London 1873 95 98 ‘From the moment of starting for the Chair I resolved that should I be successful I should make a sacrifice … of my popularity in an endeavour to raise the standard of science here … Whilst Sir D. Brewster promised to give the most popular and entertaining course ever delivered within the walls of a university I firmly acknowledged my adherence to the very opposite principle of striving to foster a spirit for sound Physico-Mathematical attainment at present nearly unknown in Scotland’.
  • Davie , G.E. 1964 . The democratic intellect , 2nd ed. Edinburgh chs. 3 and 4.
  • Morrell , J.B. 1972 . Science and Scottish university reform: Edinburgh in 1826 . British journal for the history of science , 6 : 39 – 56 . (p. 52, footnote 60)
  • Evidence, oral and documentary, taken and received by the commissioners for visiting the universities of Scotland: the university of Edinburgh Parliamentary papers 1837 35 556 556 see I am indebted to Jack Morell for drawing my attention to this source.
  • 1837 . Evidence, oral and documentary, taken and received by the commissioners for visiting the universities of Scotland: the university of Edinburgh . Parliamentary papers , 35 : 556 – 556 .
  • 1837 . Evidence, oral and documentary, taken and received by the commissioners for visiting the universities of Scotland: the university of Edinburgh . Parliamentary papers , 35 : 557 – 557 .
  • 1837 . Evidence, oral and documentary, taken and received by the commissioners for visiting the universities of Scotland: the university of Edinburgh . Parliamentary papers , 35 : 556 – 556 .
  • Brewster . 1837 . Edinburgh review , 66 : 143 – 143 .
  • Cantor , G.N. 1975 . The reception of the wave theory of light in Britain: a case study illustrating the role of methodology in scientific debate . Historical studies in the physical sciences , 6 : 109 – 132 .
  • Herschel, to Whewell April 1841 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20746.
  • Herschel , J. 1830 . A preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy 262 – 262 . London cited by Cantor (footnote 138), 114.
  • Whewell . 1840 . The philosophy of the inductive sciences, founded upon their history London
  • Cited by Brewster Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences Edinburgh review 1842 74 265 306 (p. 291)
  • Whewell . 1842 . Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences . Edinburgh review , 74 : 265 – 306 . cited by Brewster
  • Brewster . 1842 . Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences . Edinburgh review , 74 : 292 – 292 .
  • Brewster . 1842 . Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences . Edinburgh review , 74 : 265 – 306 .
  • Brewster . 1842 . Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences . Edinburgh review , 74 : 266 – 266 .
  • Brewster . 1842 . Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences . Edinburgh review , 74 : 299 – 299 .
  • Brewster to Roget, 9 October 1841, Royal Society of London, Miscellaneous correspondence, vol. 3, no. 189, where Brewster complains that Airy and Whewell have privately and publicly ‘done all in their power to depreciate my labours’. For the precise location of this complaint I am indebted to Jack Morrell. See also Cantor The reception of the wave theory of light in Britain: a case study illustrating the role of methodology in scientific debate Historical studies in the physical sciences 1975 6 128 128
  • Brewster . 1842 . Whewell's Philosophy of the inductive sciences . Edinburgh review , 74 : 299 – 299 . There is no doubt that Airy, as well as Whewell, would have been ill-disposed towards a paper that brimmed with hostility to the wave-theory. In fact as late as 1846 Airy was still resenting the ungentlemanly way in which ‘that bully Brewster’ conducted himself (Airy to Whèwell, October 1846, Trinity College, 0.15.488).
  • Todhunter . 1876 . William Whewell Vol. 2 , 292 – 293 . London 2 vols.
  • Brewster to Macvey Napier, 27 July 1837, in Napier Macvey Selection from the correspondence of the late Macvey Napier London 1879 193 193 [son] (ed.)
  • See Gordon The home life of Sir David Brewster Edinburgh 1869 151 153
  • Brewster to Whewell November 1832 19 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20181.
  • Brewster to Whewell April 1831 16 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20183.
  • Shairp . 1873 . Life and letters of James David Forbes 79 – 95 . London The Cambridge referees were put in a slightly awkward position, since Forbes solicited testimonials from them before it was known that Brewster himself was to be a candidate. Airy wrote to Brewster to say that he ‘could hardly with consistency address another formal certificate to the Electors’ (Airy to Brewster, 26 November 1832, from the bound collection of printed testimonials, Edinburgh University Library, P. 89/29, 13). Both Whewell and Herschel side-stepped Brewster's request by declaring that it would be presumptuous of them to comment on a reputation that was ‘universally acknowledged on the evidence of your own writings, which are in the hands of every body’ (Herschel to Brewster, 20 November 1832, Edinburgh University Library Ibid., 7–8; see also Whewell to Brewster, 25 November 1832, ibid.). In warm commendation, Whewell referred to Forbes as ‘an accomplished mathematician, and well acquainted with the analytical labours of the French and English writers on applied mathematics’ (Edinburgh University Library, P. 89/30, 3).
  • Forbes to Whewell April 1833 13 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20410.
  • Whewell to Revd. R. Jones, October 1837, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 261 261 2 vols.
  • Whewell to Forbes, 16 August 1848, Trinity College, 0.15.4767. For Lord John Russell's relations with the Protestant dissenters see Prest John Lord John Russell London 1972
  • Whewell to Murchison May 1854 30 Trinity College, 0.15.47311.
  • Even one of the theological reviews discerned the answer: Dr. Brewster ‘is a votary of the superseded school which denies the undulatory theory of light.… He comes to any conflict of opinion on astronomical questions with a prejudice amounting almost to an odium against writers of the Fresnel school’ Christian remembrancer 1855 87 50 82 (p. 78)
  • Gordon . 1869 . The home life of Sir David Brewster 245 – 246 . Edinburgh
  • Cantor . 1975 . The reception of the wave theory of light in Britain: a case study illustrating the role of methodology in seientific debate . Historical studies in the physical sciences , 6 : 123 – 123 .
  • Powell , Compare . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 266 – 266 . London
  • Brewster Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review 1834 58 422 457 review of Whewell's (p. 429)
  • Chalmers to Whewell March 1834 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 20225.
  • Brewster . 1834 . Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review Vol. 58 , 427 – 428 .
  • Whewell . 1834 . Reply to the Edinburgh review . British magazine , 5 : 263 – 268 . (p. 267). It is not possible, Whewell wrote, ‘to make this distinction between certain truths and highly probable theories. No scientific truth is demonstrated so as to possess a proof different in kind from that of a good theory’ (ibid., 266). In order to combat Brewster's presuppositions, Whewell was driven to the assertion that facts were essentially theory-laden. This is of particular interest since, in order to oppose Brewster's central contention, he was driven to asserting a rather different proposition, which, if not incompatible with the first, nevertheless set up a creative tension in Whewell's philosophy of science. Against Brewster's contention that natural theology would be imperilled by the admission of arguments derived from transitory theories, Whewell observed that ‘when a theory, which has been received on good evidence, appears to fall, the really essential and valuable part of its survives the fall; that which has been once discovered continues to be true’ (ibid.). In other words, as a consequence of problems in natural theology, Whewell was forced into the position of asserting both the essential continuity of scientific progress and the essentially theory-laden nature of facts. When he tried to escape the tension, he could only succeed by uttering precisely the proposition that Brewster would have claimed as his own: ‘All that is requisite in us is a candid and patient mind, in order that we may disentangle our view of the world, with reference to its Maker, from our own assumptions. Does the pious Copernican think the sun less an evidence of the divine goodness than the pious Ptolemean?’ (ibid., 267).
  • Laplace had challenged the complacency of the natural theologians with his claim that if the object of the moon had been to provide nocturnal illumination, it would have been placed in a better position! Whereas Whewell preferred to question the long-term stability of the Laplacian arrangement, Brewster preferred to invoke the other functions of the moon that would be compromised by an alternative orbit Brewster Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review 1834 58 449 450 See also Whewell (footnote 57), (8th ed. 1847, London), ch. 7.
  • Brewster . 1834 . Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review , 58 : 449 – 449 . the emphasis is Brewster's.
  • Consider the following quotation: This self-complacent levity in the multiplication of rash hypotheses appears to be supported by a persuasion that hypotheses are in themselves laudable things, inasmuch as discoveries often begin with hypotheses. This latter assertion no doubt is true, and has been repeatedly taught by modern writers. But the hypotheses which have thus been advantageous to science have been tentative hypotheses admitted into the mind for trial, and rejected if the facts were found to contradict them; not dogmatic hypotheses published to the world … … With regard to the part of the system to which I have just referred, the author's very bold mode of dealing with the objections seems to arise from a notion, a very extravagant one as appears to me, that the Nebular Hypothesis may be ‘placed near to ascertained truths’. Now, the engaging thing about this passage is that it could have been written by Brewster against Whewell's plurality of worlds Essay. In fact, it was written by Whewell against the author of Vestiges Whewell Indications of the Creator , 2nd ed. London 1846 25 27 Preface
  • Brewster . 1834 . Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review , 58 : 435 – 436 . italics mine
  • Brewster . 1834 . Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review , 58 : 442 – 442 . A further adumbration of their divergent positions may be seen in Whewell's suggestion that our own sun might be the largest body in the universe and in Brewster's reply that the suggestion was groundless (ibid., 443–444).
  • Morse . 1943 . Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption 453 – 453 . Edinburgh
  • Brewster . 1834 . Bridgewater treatise, Edinburgh review , 58 : 457 – 457 .
  • Compare Rice (footnote 24). See also Cairns D. Thomas Chalmers's Astronomical Discourses: a study in natural theology Scottish journal of theology 1956 9 410 421
  • See, for example Meadows A.J. The high firmament Leicester 1969 155 155 and Turner (footnote 17), 3.
  • Best G. Evangelicalism and the Victorians The Victorian crisis of faith Symondson A. London1970 37 56 in (p. 50). This qualification then required one of its own: ‘But there is a difference about the Evangelical kind of anti-intellectualism. Evangelicals were, by comparison with High and Broad Churchmen, as the nineteenth century wore on increasingly cut off from the institutions and traditions which could have kept them in touch with intellectual and scientific progress. They were cut off because of their own party character’ (ibid.).
  • Yule The impact of science on British religious thought in the second quarter of the nineteenth century University of Cambridge 1976 45 45 Ph.D. thesis 52, 265–268, 281, 366 and passim.
  • Miller , H. 1869 . First impressions of England and its people , 8th ed. Edinburgh William Cockburn, The Bible defended against the British Association (5th ed. 1845, London).
  • Miller . 1869 . First impressions of England and its people , 8th ed. 23 – 23 . Edinburgh
  • Miller . 1869 . First impressions of England and its people , 8th ed. 283 – 283 . Edinburgh 293, 299 and 301.
  • An example would be that Congregationalist advocate of scientific instruction Pye Smith John Lectures on the bearing of geological science upon certain parts of scriptural narrative London 1839 Smith was quite prepared to abandon a universal deluge and the popular biblical chronology (F. C. Haber, The age of the world, Moses to Darwin (1959, Baltimore), 231–236). For some less sympathetic qualifications, see Yule (footnote 26), 356–359.
  • For a sympathetic introduction to Miller, see Gillispie Genesis and geology New York 1959 170 183 and M. J. S. Rudwick, ‘Hugh Miller’, in DSB, vol. 9 (1974, New York), 388–390.
  • Saunders , L.J. 1950 . Scottish democracy, 1815–1840 212 – 212 . London 252, 256–258
  • Chalmers . 1817 . Astronomical discourses Glasgow Dick (footnotes 59 and 64); and Miller (footnote 65).
  • Buckland , W. 1820 . Vindiciae geologicae Oxford and Reliquiae diluvianae (1823, London).
  • For the traditional image of Lyell as the revolutionary figure in geology who banished religious considerations from scientific explanation see Wilson L.G. Charles Lyell: the years to 1841 New Haven 1972 A balancing picture emerges from the following studies: M. J. S. Rudwick, ‘Uniformity and progression: reflections on the structure of geological theory in the age of Lyee’, in D. H. D. Roller (ed.), Perspectives in the history and philosophy of science (1971, Oklahoma), 209–227; and his ‘Caricature as a source for the history of science: De la Beche's anti-Lyellian sketches of 1831’, Isis, 66 (1975), 534–560. See also M. Bartholomew, ‘Lyell and evolution: an account of Lyell's response to the prospect of an evolutionary ancestry for man’, British journal for the history of science, 6 (1973), 261–303.
  • Fleming , J. 1826 . The geological deluge, as interpreted by Baron Cuvier and Professor Buckland, inconsistent with the testimony of Moses and the phenomena of nature . Edinburgh philosophical journal , 14 : 205 – 239 .
  • Fleming , J. 1826 . The geological deluge, as interpreted by Baron Cuvier and Professor Buckland, inconsistent with the testimony of Moses and the phenomena of nature . Edinburgh philosophical journal , 14 : 205 – 239 . see also L. E. Page, ‘The rise of the diluvial theory in British geological thought’ (University of Oklahoma Ph.D. thesis, 1963: University microfilms), 132–137, 140, 146–150.
  • A claim made for him by Page in DSB New York 1972 5 31 32
  • For the correspondence between Lyell and Fleming, see The life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell Lyell K.M. London 1881 1 179 180 2 vols. 255, 259, 328. Lyell specifically referred to the debt due to Fleming for the courage of his stand against the Mosaic diluvialists (ibid., 328).
  • Miller . 1869 . First impressions of England and its people , 8th ed. 307 – 307 . Edinburgh
  • Birks , T.R. 1850 . Modern astronomy 53 – 53 . London The dilemma, as Birks saw it, was this. If, in reply to the sceptic, one supposed that ours may be the only world where sin has entered, one laid oneself open to the objection that the supposition itself was surely improbable. If one took the Bible at face value, even angels had fallen. Was it really conceivable that other mortals would not? On the other hand, if one recognised the need for revelations to other worlds, one came across the other stumbling block: the revelation to us in Christ could not be construed as a fleeting exhibition of Divine Love, as these other revelations might be supposed to be. The Incarnation ‘is a fact which bears the plainest impress of eternity’.
  • Powell . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 284 – 284 . London Powell also noted Wesley's aversion to a plurality of worlds, but he did so to make the point that Wesley's objections turned on the ‘monstrous assumption’ that because the privileges of redemption are granted to us they are therefore not granted to those of any other world (ibid., 288–289).
  • That one could make these points was at least implicit in Wilkins's exposition of the arguments of Campanella (McColley (footnote 44), 427), who had seen in the cosmic vicariousness of Christ's death a clue to the interpretation of Ephesians I10, where it is said that God gathered all things together in Christ, both which are in earth, and which are in the heavens. Even Lovejoy, who argued that the thesis of a plurality of worlds was more revolutionary than the tenets of Copernican astronomy per se, acknowledged that the difficulties, once recognised do not appear to have been regarded very seriously by the theologians Lovejoy A.O. The great chain of being Harvard U.P. 1966 108 109 If it was any consolation, there was always the thought that other races in the heavens, who were ignorant of Christ, were perhaps in no worse a predicament than other races on earth who were in the same position. (Compare Borel's analogy with the West Indies, as quoted by Carré (footnote 64), 334.)
  • Chalmers . 1817 . Astronomical discourses , 7th ed. 78 – 79 . Edinburgh 81, 119 and 180–181.
  • Brewster . 1876 . William Whewell 140 – 162 . London 2 vols.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 142 – 142 .
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 149 – 149 .
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 149 – 150 .
  • 1855 . Evangelical repository , 1 : 63 – 64 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 62 – 62 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 62 – 63 . London By other critics this essentially historical objection could have been amplifith with reference to the thesis that ‘it is only by an incarnation in the nature of the fallen race, tead the Divine Saviour can accomplish redemption’. Compare F. W. Cronhelm, Thoughts on the controversy as to a plurality of worlds (1858, London), 16–17.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 63 – 63 . London In Whewell's own words: ‘this hypothesis, making the earth, insignificant as it seems to be in the astronomical scheme, the center of the theological scheme, ascribes to the earth a peculiar distinction, quite as much at variance with the analogies of the planets to one another, as the suggestion that the earth alone is inhabited’. See also Babinet (footnote 82), 378; Warren (footnote 37), 383–384; and Christian observer, 54 (1855), 61.
  • One of the more imaginative was made by Birks Birks T.R. Modern astronomy London 1850 61 64 who suggested that if, by astronomical standards, the Earth was a mere Bethlehem in the universe, there was still a good precedent for a Divine Visitation. It was perfectly conceivable that in this obscure place alone the conflict with evil had been waged and won. ‘It may be’, he opined, ‘that all those [other] worlds … are waiting in the mysterious patience of the Divine Counsels, until they shall receive celestial rulers’ or even terrestrial emigrants.
  • The point had been well made by Ralph Cudworth, who had insisted that it is not reasonable to think ‘that all this immense vastness should lie waste, desert, or uninhabited, and have nothing in it that could praise the Creator thereof, save only this one small spot of Earth’ (cited by McColley The seventeenth-century doctrine of a plurality of worlds Annals of Science 1936 1 428 428 Whereas from 1277 it had been heresy to deny that God could create other worlds (ibid., 399), it is not surprising that after the astronomical advances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it had become tantamount to heresy to doubt that he had. For other late-seventeenth-century pronouncements, see Dillenberger (footnote 13).
  • Mrs. Gordon records the particular satisfaction that he derived from a discovery of this chapter and verse Gordon The home life of Sir David Brewster Edinburgh 1869 247 247 hence Brewster's emphasis.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 13 – 13 . What railway autocrat, Brewster asked, would allow his train to travel all over Europe, year in year out, with all its carriages illuminated yet only one filled? The force of this analogy was accepted by Miller (footnote 65), 373–374, but the analogy itself was typical of arguments so weak and loaded that one critic was soon resorting to that ultimate in abuse: the implication that one might have supposed the book to be written by ‘some not very juvenile member of the weaker sex’ (Christian remembrancer, 87 (1855), 50–82 (p. 53)). As Powell observed, the analogies of this kind were really question-begging in at least two respects: they presupposed that the conditions of the other planets were adapted for habitation, and they also presupposed that no other purpose for the existence of planets could be conceived (Powell (footnote 42), 260).
  • Warren , Compare . 1854 . Speculators among the stars . Blackwood's magazine , 36 : 295 – 295 .
  • McColley mentions a handful of earlier scholars who considered the doctrine condemned by scripture McColley G. The seventeenth-century doctrine of a plurality of worlds Annals of science 1936 1 393 393 413), but only a handful. Even Whewell acknowledged that there was no textual prohibition ((footnote 55), Preface to the first ed., xiii).
  • Brewster was emphatic on this point: ‘Neither in the Old nor in the New Testament is there a single expression incompatible with the great truth, that there are other worlds than our own which are the seats of life and intelligence’ The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 Scottish historical review 1975 54 9 9
  • Wilkins , J. 1640 . A discourse concerning a new planet 4 – 5 . London 10–11; and Dillenberger (footnote 13), 136.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 12 – 14 .
  • Chalmers . 1817 . Astronomical discourses , 7th ed. 153 – 153 . Edinburgh ‘The essential character of such a transaction, viewed as a manifestation of God, does not hang upon the number of worlds, over which this sin and this salvation may have extended. We know that over this one world such an economy of wisdom and of mercy is instituted …’ (ibid., 142–143; italics mine).
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 14 – 15 . Not surprisingly, the Catholic commentators seized this rather eccentric futurology as a prime example of Brewster's degrading materialism. That it was the hope of the Christian to dwell for eternity on some other planet ‘we did not know till this new David had revealed it unto us’ (The rambler, 2 (1854), 129–137 (pp. 132–133)). Brewster had certainly invited the accusation of materialism when he had correlated the purpose of the planets with their respective sizes, Jupiter having some particularly grand purpose to fulfil. As the same critic pointed out, the sides of Mont Blanc, on Brewster's principles, would make a better site for a city than the seven hills of Rome (ibid., 135).
  • Brewster had calculated that ‘there is not room … on our earth for the millions of millions of beings who have lived and died upon its surface, and who may yet live and die during the period fixed for its occupation by man’. Accordingly, ‘we can scarcely doubt that their future abode must be on some of the primary or secondary planets of the Solar system, whose inhabitants have ceased to exist like those on the earth’ The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 Scottish historical review 1975 54 15 15 The incipient inconsistency here was exposed by Powell: ‘it might rather seem that their being uninhabited would be more favourable to this doctrine, as affording more ample space for the reception of resuscitated humanity’ ((footnote 42), 294).
  • Whewell to Sir James Stephen, 22 October 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 391 391 2 vols.
  • Whewell to Stephen, 16 October 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 389 390 2 vols.
  • Several commentators made the point that whether a man is important in the eyes of his Maker does not depend on numbers at all Christian observer 1854 53 418 419 and Westminster review, 61 (1854), 591–594 (p. 592)). It was then a simple step to the assertion that for those who already believed the Christian Faith, the doctrine of a plurality of worlds would confirm their belief in Divine Power; while, for those who did not believe, the doctrine merely confirmed their disbelief (Christian observer, ibid.). The only safe ground for the apologist who took this line was to offer the assurance that Christ had conferred benefits on the human race irrespective of whether there might turn out to be inhabitants on other worlds (ibid., 421–422). Hence ‘our chief quarrel with the author … is, that he has given up this … in order to attempt to make out by reasonings which do not seem very conclusive, that this world ought not to be despised because it very probably may be the only one which is the home of rational creatures’ (ibid.).
  • ‘I abstain, as much as I can, from employing arguments from Scripture’ (Whewell to Stephen, 25 September 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 381 381 2 vols.
  • A good example here would be Tarbet W. Astronomy and geology as taught in the holy scriptures Liverpool 1855 9 10
  • Warren . 1854 . Speculators among the stars . Blackwood's magazine , 36 : 292 – 293 .
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and polities in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 227 – 227 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 199 – 200 . London
  • Herschel to Whewell William Whewell London 1876 2 vols.
  • Warren . 1854 . Speculators among the stars . Blackwood's magazine , 76 : 380 – 380 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 202 – 202 . London
  • 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 203 – 203 . London italics mine.
  • 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 203 – 203 . London
  • 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 204 – 204 . London
  • Whewell to Stephen, 7 September 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 379 379 2 vols.
  • 1855 . Christian remembrancer Vol. 87 , 50 – 82 . (p. 61f)
  • Psalm 8 3 4 vv. This text, more than any other, served as a point of departure for disquisitions on the plurality of worlds.
  • Brewster . 1975 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 11 – 11 .
  • Chalmers . 1817 . Astronomical discourses 103 – 104 . Edinburgh
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 59 – 59 . London Compare Thomas Dick (footnote 59), 365, who, while offering an exegesis similar to that of Brewster, did not insist that the inspired writers ‘had revealed to them all the wonders of modern astronomy’ (ibid., 384).
  • Warren , Compare . 1854 . Speculators among the stars . Blackwood's magazine , 76 : 383 – 383 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 53 – 54 . London
  • Whewell developed this idea in the sections of his Essay that were cancelled for publication Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 1 207 207 2 vols.
  • Whewell . 1876 . William Whewell Vol. 1 , 208 – 208 . London 2 vols.
  • 1855 . Christian remembrancer Vol. 87 , 69 – 69 . Christian observer, 53 (1854), 407–417; Evangelical repository, 1 (1855), 27; and Westminster review, 61 (1854), 592–593. The last cited Mill's System of logic against the author, claiming that Mill had successfully exploded the notion that that which is inconceivable cannot be true. See also the review by Olmsted in New Englander (November 1854), 1–34 (p. 24).
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 125 – 126 . London
  • Compare . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 126 – 126 . London
  • Robson R. Notes and records of the Royal Society 1964 19 168 176 ‘William Whewell’ (p. 174).
  • 1849 . On the nature of limbs 83 – 83 . London
  • 1855 . Christian remembrancer , 87 : 58 – 59 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 50 – 50 . London
  • Whewell to Stephen, 16 October 1853, in Todhunter Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject London 1854 2 390 390
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 383 – 383 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 392 – 392 . London
  • It would be a nice debating point whether Whewell was not in danger here of falling into the same trap as the pluralists whom he regarded as having assumed the inconceivable to be probable. It would be another to ask whether he was entirely consistent when he discussed the relationship between previous periods of animal existence and the appearance of man: were those early periods, or were they not, a necessary preparation for the human epoch? In his preface to the second edition of the Essay, Whewell stated quite badly that ‘all the changes which have taken place in the Earth, appear to have been a progress towards the human period, and a convergence to it through all time’ Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject London 1854 xi xi In the Essay itself, however, he adroitly side stepped the question (ibid., 198–199).
  • My argument at this point therefore complements that of Jonathan Hodge, who has recently discussed the reception of Darwin's theory in England in The comparative reception of Darwinism Glick T.F. Austin and London 1974 3 31 Dr. Hodge points out that an awareness of Whewell's idealist thesis of progressive creation saves us from two errors, of which the first would be to follow Huxley in making Moses responsible for Whewell's eventual hostility to Darwinism, and the second to suppose that the incommensurability between Whewell's cosmology and Darwinism could be reduced to conflicts over the argument from design and miracles (ibid., 20).
  • 1854 . The ecclesiastic , 16 : 271 – 278 . (pp. 277–278).
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 54 – 54 . London
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 54 – 56 .
  • ‘I shall be much interested to see your next volume, and not at all disposed to quarrel with any case you can make out on account of a myriad of years more or less’ (Whewell to Lyell, 31 January 1831, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 109 109 2 vols.
  • Of William Herschel's theory that the sun might be a habitable globe surrounded by a photosphere, Brewster was at first wary: ‘There are certainly no grounds of analogy upon which we can support this theory, and we have adduced it only to show how strong must have been his faith in the doctrine of the plurality of worlds…’ North British review 1854 21 4 4 However, when he expanded his review of Whewell's Essay into book form, he threw caution to the winds. Since the sun had the one obvious function of illuminating the planets, it was not necessary to Brewster's case that it should have the additional function of supporting life of its own (Brewster (footnote 39), 94). Nevertheless, having once adopted sheer size as the touchstone of habitability, he was now inclined to favour the conclusion of the elder Herschel (ibid., 102).
  • Whewell to Stephen, 22 October 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 391 391 2 vols. ‘As to the unsatisfactory impression produced by the spectacle of a universe void of intelligent life, that is of course one of the difficulties of maintaining such a thesis as mine’ (Whewell to Stephen, 25 September 1853, in ibid., vol. 2, 382).
  • Boyle R. Boyle Works London1744 4 515 551 A disquisition about the final causes of natural things, in 5 vols. and Dillenberger (footnote 13), 112–117. See also J. H. Brooke, ‘Natural theology in Britain from Boyle to Paley’, in New interactions between theology and natural science (1974, Milton Keynes: Open University), 4–54 (pp. 15–19).
  • Boyle doubtless had the somewhat excessive number of fixed stars in mind when he made the point Boyle R. Works London 1744 4 522 523
  • Whewell . 1839 . Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology , 7th ed. 354 – 354 . London
  • Todhunter . 1876 . William Whewell Vol. 1 , 188 – 188 . London 2 vols.
  • ‘Second memoir on the fundamental antithesis of philosophy’, reproduced in Whewell On the philosophy of discovery London 1860
  • Whewell . 1860 . On the philosophy of discovery 305 – 305 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject xi – xi . London
  • Whewell to Stephen, 4 November 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 393 393 2 vols.
  • Whewell . 1847 . Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology , 8th ed. 269 – 269 . London
  • Whewell . 1847 . Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology , 8th ed. 176 – 176 . London
  • Todhunter . 1876 . William Whewell Vol. 1 , 188 – 188 . London 2 vols.
  • It was the change, at least in emphasis, which was responsible for Brewster's surprise when he learned that Whewell was the author of the Essay Gordon The home life of Sir David Brewster Edinburgh 1869 246 246 When listing the distinguished opponents of the doctrines of the Essay, some reviewers would, rather whimsically, mention the name of Whewell! That his earlier position had been different was stated or implied by the most astute commentators (see Powell (footnote 42), 175; and Warren (footnote 37), 380).
  • Bartholomew . 1972 . Charles Lyell: the years to 1841 New Haven
  • In the note which Miller wrote for the third edition of The old red sandstone (1846), he retracted a proposition that had been stated in the two preceding editions, namely ‘that there is a gradual increase of size observable in the progress of ichthyolitie life, from the minute fish of the Silurian System up to the enormous Holoptychius of the Coal Measures’. When Miller witnessed the conclusions that Vestiges drew from such neat directional trends in the fossil record, he began to stress the evidence that destroyed the simple pattern—evidence such as the ganoid found by Robert Dick which proved that ‘there were giants among the dwarfs’ ((Everyman ed. 1906), 16–17). For the weight that Miller placed on such evidence in his critique of Vestiges, see his Footprints of the Creator, or, The asterolepis of Stromness (1847, Edinburgh). See also Rudwick M.J.S. The meaning of fossils London 1972 206 207
  • Chambers , R. 1844 . Vestiges of the natural history of creation 203 – 203 . London reprinted by Leicester U.P., 1969
  • Chambers , R. 1844 . Vestiges of the natural history of creation London italics mine. Compare Powell (footnote 42), Preface, vii.
  • G. de Beer, Introduction to the Leicester U.P. reprint of Vestiges Chambers R. Vestiges of the natural history of creation London 1844 27 27 reprinted by Leicester U.P., 1969
  • Chambers Chambers R. Vestiges of the natural history of creation London 1844 161 161
  • On these last points see Brooke J.H. Richard Owen, William Whewell and the Vestiges British journal for the history of science 1977 10 to appear in
  • Whewell . 1846 . Indications of the Creator , 2nd ed. London Preface
  • Whewell to Sedgwick September 1849 Trinity College, 0.15.4869.
  • In a brief commentary on the plurality of worlds debate, Michael Ruse, without directly linking Whewell's Essay with Vestiges, has nevertheless seen in Whewell's position a ‘parallel… with the conservative Sedgwick's citation of the bible against Vestiges’ Ruse M. The relationship between science and religion in Britain, 1830–1870 Church history 1975 44 505 522 (p. 517)). If my conjectures are correct, it is possible to be more precise. There are several respects in which there was no parallel at all. Whewell would not have turned to the bible for textual artillery, nor did he approve either the extravagant denunciation or the head-on confrontation with Vestiges that were characteristic of Sedgwick's attack. Whewell was looking for something more subtle: independent instruction which, by implication and example, would relegate Vestiges (and the concomitant hypothesis of organic development) to the lower regions of presumption and error. Furthermore, if Whewell really did have Vestiges in mind as he wrote the Essay, then the connection was more direct than Ruse's ‘parallel’ might suggest.
  • Whewell to Forbes, 19 February 1854, in Todhunter The relationship between science and religion in Britain, 1830–1870 Church history 2 400 400 italics mine
  • Whewell . The relationship between science and religion in Britain, 1830–1870 . Church history , 2 32 – 32 . See also p. 68, where he as good as says that Vestiges was the main target of his Essay.
  • Brewster . The relationship between science and religion in Britain, 1830–1870 . Church history , 2 123 – 123 .
  • “In order to support the opinion, borrowed from the author of the Vestiges of creation, that unresolved nebulae are not clusters of stars, our author tells us, what we all know, that the tails of comets and the zodiacal light resemble nebulae; so does smoke—so does steam—and so would a million of real suns and systems like our own, if placed at the same distance’ Brewster North British review 1854 21 27 27 The italics here are Whewell's, from his own copy of Brewster's review.
  • 205 – 205 .
  • Forbes to Whewell February 1854 16 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21688.
  • Forbes to Whewell February 1854 16 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21688.
  • Forbes to Whewell February 1854 16 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21688.
  • Whewell to Forbes, 19 February 1854, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 400 400 2 vols.
  • Forbes to Whewell March 1854 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21689.
  • Compare Ogilvie Robert Chambers and the nebular hypothesis British journal for the history of science 1975 8 231 231
  • Spencer , H. 1858 . The nebular hypothesis . Westminster review , July reproduced in Essays: scientific, political and speculative (1868, London), 239–299 (p. 240).
  • Spencer , H. 1858 . The nebular hypothesis . Westminster review , July : 242 – 242 .
  • In his own review of Vestiges, Brewster expressed alarm at ‘those fatal lessons of materialism and natural law, which expel the Almighty from the universe he has made, and silence the articulate eloquence of his works’ North British review 1845 3 470 515 (pp. 505–506))
  • Dick . 1840 . The sidereal heavens 268 – 268 . London
  • Whewell . 1847 . Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology , 8th ed. 188 – 191 . London
  • Chambers . 1844 . Vestiges of the natural history of creation 233 – 235 . London Spencer (footnote 294), 299.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 32 – 32 . London
  • Forbes to Whewell March 1854 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21689.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 32 – 32 . London
  • Mechanics magazine 464 – 464 . part 2
  • Brewster . 1845 . North British review , 3 : 470 – 515 .
  • Westfall . 1943 . Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption xxix – xxix . Edinburgh
  • Westfall . 1943 . Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption xxix – xxix . Edinburgh
  • Bartholomew M.J. Lyell's conception of the history of life University of Lancaster 1974 107 108 Ph.D. thesis 239–240, 257–263; see also Rudwick, ‘Caricature as a source…’ (footnote 188), 558.
  • McKinney , H.L. 1972 . Wallace and natural selection 72 – 79 . New Haven and London
  • Miller . 1869 . “ Geology versus astronomy ” . In Essays of Hugh Miller , 3rd ed. Edited by: Bayne , P. 365 – 366 . Edinburgh in
  • Meadows . 1969 . The high firmament 149 – 150 . Leicester
  • Miller . 1869 . “ Geology versus astronomy ” . In Essays of Hugh Miller , 3rd ed. Edited by: Bayne , P. 368 – 368 . Edinburgh in
  • Miller's argument was summarised and adopted by Birks Modern astronomy London 1850 53 53 whose tract was sent to Whewell by Sir James Stephen before the Essay was in print (Stephen to Whewell, 10 November 1853, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 216142). See also Whewell's acknowledgment in Todhunter (footnote 31), vol. 2, 396.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 72 – 72 . London
  • Burchfield , J.D. 1974 . Darwin and the dilemma of geological time . Isis , 65 : 301 – 321 . and his Lord Kelvin and the age of the Earth (1975, New York), 32 and passim.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 6 – 6 .
  • Miller . 1869 . “ Geology versus astronomy ” . In Essays of Hugh Miller , 3rd ed. Edited by: Bayne , P. Edinburgh italics mine.
  • Rudwick , Compare . 1972 . “ Uniformity and progression… ” . In Charles Lyell: the years to 1841 214 – 215 . New Haven
  • Spencer . 1858 . The nebular hypothesis . Westminster review , July : 290 – 290 . From the known rate at which the temperature rises as we pierce deeper into the substance of the Earth, it has been inferred that its solid crust is some forty miles thick. And if this be its thickness, we have a feasible explanation of volcanic phenomena, as well as of elevations and subsidences. But proceeding on the current supposition that the Earth's interior is wholly filled with molten matter, Prof. Hopkins has calculated that to cause the observed amount of precession of the equinoxes, the Earth's crust must be at least eight hundred miles thick. Here is an immense discrepancy. Spencer's own suggestion for reconciling the astronomical with the geological facts was that the Earth might have a gaseous nucleus (ibid., 291).
  • Miller . 1869 . “ Geology versus astronomy ” . In Essays of Hugh Miller , 3rd ed. Edited by: Bayne , P. 376 – 376 . Edinburgh
  • 370 – 370 .
  • 371 – 371 .
  • Powell . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 229 – 229 . London
  • Stephen to Whewell October 1853 13 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 216129.
  • 2 388 – 389 .
  • Brewster . 1854 . North British review Vol. 21 , 34 – 34 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 150 – 150 . London ‘Indeed we may say … that the fact of our earth having passed through the series of periods of organic life which geologists recognize, is, hitherto, incomparably better established, than the fact that the nebulae, or any of them, are passing through a series of changes, such as may lead to a system like ours; as some eminent astronomers in modern times have held’.
  • 192 – 194 .
  • 195 – 195 .
  • Warren . 1854 . Speculators among the stars . Blackwood's magazine , 76 : 300 – 300 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 196 – 196 . London
  • Lyell C. Principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation London1830–1833 3 384 385 3 vols. Whewell was almost certainly familiar with this passage, since it contained Lyell's reply to the charge that the author of Principles had endeavoured to establish the proposition that ‘the existing causes of change have operated with absolute uniformity from all eternity’ (Quarterly review, 43 (1830), 464). In his reply Lyell had pointed out that the progressive revelations of the telescope made it rash to imagine that the vast scheme of the universe would ever be brought within the sphere of human observation; but it did not follow that the universe was infinite and filled with infinite worlds. ‘So, if in tracing back the earth's history, we arrive at the monuments of events which may have happened millions of ages before our times, and if we still find no decided evidence of a commencement, yet the arguments from analogy in support of the probability of a beginning remain unshaken’.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 190 – 190 . London
  • 191 – 191 .
  • See for example, the preface that Whewell wrote to MacKintosh James Dissertation on the progress of ethical philosophy Edinburgh 1836 The reputation of Butler was at its height in the period 1830–1860 (see Yule (footnote 26), 165–166).
  • He has found it worthy of Him to bestow upon man His special care, though he occupies so small a portion of time; and why not, then although he occupies so small a portion of space?’ Whewell Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject London 1854 195 195
  • 1855 . Christian remembrancer , 87 : 71 – 71 .
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 103 – 103 . London
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 154 – 154 .
  • 203 – 205 .
  • 205 – 205 .
  • 203 – 203 .
  • 206 – 206 .
  • 202 – 202 .
  • Whewell also applied this argument to the human world, the eternity of which was ‘disproved by geology, which shews that it had a beginning and a recent beginning’ (Whewell to Stephen, 7 October 1853, in Todhunter Todhunter I. William Whewell London 1876 2 284 284 2 vols. See also Sedgwick, A discourse on the studies of the university of Cambridge (5th ed. 1850, London and Cambridge), reproduced in D. C. Goodman (ed.), Science and religious belief, 1600–1900 (1973, Milton Keynes: Open University), 431; and MIller (footnote 180), 302–303.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 53 – 54 . If it were appropriate to use the traditional, crude and overworked categories, it would be necessary to classify Brewster as a ‘catastrophist’ because, in his critique of the actualist principle, he did appeal to changes in the laws of vital organization which he believed to have occurred even within the last few thousand years (ibid., 55–56). At the same time he did not automatically postulate divine intervention as an alternative to natural causes (ibid., 55): If the Almighty then, since the creation of man, ‘broke up the fountains of the deep, and opened the windows of the heavens’, and thus, by apparently natural causes, covered the whole earth with an ocean that rose above the Himalaya and the Andes,—why may He not at different periods, or during the whole course of the earth's formation, have deposited its strata by a rapid precipitation of their elements from the waters in which they were dissolved or suspended? Chemical and physical forces of high activity may have been the agents…. As Hooykaas has emphasised, even the most exemplary catastrophist was not usually appealing to a different kind of cause, but merely to a non-uniform intensity (R. Hooykaas, ‘Catastrophism in geology, its scientific character in relation to actualism and uniformitarianism’, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, afdeling letterkunde, med., (n.r.), 33 (1970), 271–316).
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 61 – 61 .
  • Gillispie . 1959 . Genesis and geology 207 – 207 . New York
  • Yule . 1961 . Protestant thought and natural science London
  • From an address to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, 11 November 1851, in Gordon William Whewell London 1876 1 226 228 2 vols.
  • Chadwick . 1975 . The secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century 182 – 183 . Cambridge
  • Clark . William Whewell, in memoriam 548 – 548 .
  • Miller The life and letters of Charles Darwin London1887 3 vols. and Brooke (footnote 261), 49.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 201 – 201 . italics mine.
  • 202 – 202 . Thomas Dick had articulated the same argument. Beings on other planets are intellectual, for ‘such sublime and interesting seenes cannot affect … even mere sentient beings’ (Dick (footnote 64), 517). For Whewell, such feeble suggestions missed the obvious point that the craftsmanship which went into the making of a Saturn could be appreciated by us (Whewell to Stephen, 25 October 1853, in Todhunter (footnote 31), vol. 2, 392).
  • Sullivan , W. 1970 . We are not alone , Harmondsworth, Pelican . 20 and passim.
  • 240 – 241 .
  • 238 – 238 . and Proctor (footnote 37), 137–145.
  • 145 – 145 .
  • Forbes , J.D. 1854 . The plurality of worlds . Fraser's magazine , 49 : 245 – 256 . (p. 250).
  • 1855 . Christian observer , 54 : 35 – 62 . (p. 36).
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 213 – 214 .
  • Herschel J.F.W. Outlines of astronomy , sixth edition London1859 657 657 this passage appears on See also Christian observer, 54 (1855), 50.
  • Brewster . 1975 . The Leslie affair: careers, kirk and politics in Edinburgh in 1805 . Scottish historical review , 54 : 217 – 217 .
  • Herschel . 1859 . Outlines of astronomy , 6th ed. 391 – 391 . London
  • 1855 . Christian observer Vol. 54 , 54 – 54 .
  • Warren , Compare . 1854 . Speculators among the stars . Blackwood's magazine , 76 : 388 – 388 .
  • Darwin to Lyell, 17 June 1860, in More letters of Charles Darwin Darwin F. Seward A.C. London 1903 1 154 154 See also Young (footnote 20).
  • Ruse , Compare . 1975 . Darwin's debt to philosophy: an examination of the influence of the philosophical ideas of John F. W. Herschel and William Whewell on the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution . Studies in history and philosophy of science , 6 : 159 – 181 . (p. 181).
  • 1855 . Christian observer , 54 : 49 – 49 .
  • Whewell . 1839 . Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology , 7th ed. 2 – 13 . London
  • Powell . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 143 – 143 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 329 – 329 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 320 – 320 . London Ironically, Richard Owen (footnote 64) gave the argument yet another twist. Faced with the fact that details of structure were frequently without purpose, Owen appealed to a universal structural archetype as the most consummate evidence of a divine Intelligence.
  • ‘The general law may seem, in many cases, to remove further from us the proof of providential care; by showing that the elements of the benevolent contrivance are not provided in the cases alone where they are needed, but in others also’ Whewell Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject London 1854 320 320
  • Forbes to Whewell, 16 February 1854, Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 21688. Again, in his review, Forbes referred to Whewell's argument as having freed natural theology ‘from some of the shackles with which it has commonly been trammelled’ Forbes J.D. The plurality of worlds Fraser's magazine 1854 49 255 255
  • Forbes to Whewell Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject London 1854 329 329
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 329 – 329 . London italics mine.
  • 331 – 331 .
  • 329 – 329 .
  • 1854 . The eclectic review , 7 : 513 – 530 . (pp. 527–528). The author of this review was pleased to paraphrase the import of Whewell's Essay in terms of its reproach to the nature worshippers: ‘… you are … worshipping ye know not what. The stars are not worlds, they are mere chaotic masses. Nature is not such a finished rounded thing as you dream, much less is it God; it is only a crude process, not a perfected result, far less a living cause. This Universe, glorious as it looks to man's imagination, is not infinite, is not beautiful even; it is but clay in the hands of an Almighty Potter’ (ibid., 528).
  • Whewell to Stephen, 7 September 1853, in Todhunter William Whewell London 1876 2 379 379 2 vols.
  • Stephen to Whewell October 1853 15 and 18 Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 216130–131.
  • November 1853 . Stephen to Whewell Vol. 10 , November , Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 216142.
  • Powell . 1855 . Essays on the spirit of the inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds, and the philosophy of creation 143 – 143 . London
  • Yule . 1961 . Protestant thought and natural science London
  • Stephen James Sir James Stephen Letters with biographical notes 1906 134 140 Letters 174.
  • November 1853 . Stephen to Whewell Vol. 10 , November , Trinity College, Add. Ms. a 216142.
  • May 1837 . Whewell to Babbage Vol. 30 , May , Trinity College, 266 c 80 14916.
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 68 – 68 . London
  • Whewell . 1854 . Of the plurality of worlds: an essay. Also a dialogue on the same subject 68 – 68 . London

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