- For biographical details see the article by Eyles V.A. The dictionary of scientific biography New York 1976 13 441 442 S. I. Tomkeieff, ‘James Hutton and the philosophy of geology’, Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society, 14 (1948), 253–276; D. B. McIntyre, ‘James Hutton and the philosophy of geology’, in C. C. Albritton (ed.), The fabric of geology (1963, Reading, Mass.), 1–11; and G. L. Davies, ‘George Hoggart Toulmin and the Huttonian theory of the earth’, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 78 (1967), 121–124. The biographical information on Toulmin in R. Simms, Bibliotheca Staffordiensis (1894, Lichfield), is largely inaccurate. My attempts to discover further original materials on Toulmin have hitherto met with little success. In view of how little is known about his life, I must stress the hypothetical nature of many of the interpretations here offered, whose justification lies in the hope they might stimulate further work on Toulmin. I have at least sought to raise certain issues—such as the relations between the emergent science of geology and the place of Man in Nature, or the ‘politics’ of the reception of geological theories—too often neglected by historians.
- This manuscript is owned by the Wellcome Institute (London). Toulmin also published two Brunonian medical works: The instruments of medicine, or the philosophical digest and practice of physic London 1789 and Elements of the practice of medicine on a popular plan … an elementary work for students (1810, London). A book of verse appeared posthumously: Illustrations of affection, with other poems (1819, London).
- For good introductions to the structure of Hutton's thought, see Davies G.L. The earth in decay London 1969 ch. vi; and R. H. Dott, ‘James Hutton and the concept of a dynamic earth’, in C. J. Schneer (ed.), Toward a history of geology (1969, Cambridge, Mass.), 122–141.
- In Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1788 1 209 304
- Davies . 1976 . The dictionary of scientific biography Vol. 3 , 121 – 123 . New York
- 1789 . The eternity of the universe 203 – 204 . London (This book will be referred to henceforth as ‘EU’.)
- For his friendship with Brown see Toulmin's Elements of the practice of medicine London 1810 10 Both Toulmin's medical works follow the Brunonian system. For Brown's impact upon Edinburgh medical students see G. B. Risse, ‘The history of John Brown's medical system in Germany during the years 1790–1806’ (Ph.D. thesis, 1971, University of Chicago), ch. ii. Chris Lawrence of the Wellcome Institute (London) has indicated to me that the issues which Toulmin raises concerning Man and his environment were entirely characteristic of the intellectual milieu of Scottish medical students in the 1770s. I am very grateful to Mr. Lawrence for his help on the subject. Toulmin's reservations about Hutton's excessive reliance upon heat as a geological agent may well follow from his attachment to the tenets of Brunonian medicine.
- It would be impossible to prove this assertion chapter-and-verse unless more concrete evidence of Toulmin's life and reading comes to light. But his writings continually express sentiments similar to those of such philosophes. The parallels with d'Holbach's Système de la nature are the most striking. For evidence that the philosophes were extensively read in Britain see, for instance, Schilling B. Conservative England and the case against Voltaire New York 1960 For Adam Smith's ownership of their works see H. Mizuta, Adam Smith's library (1967, Cambridge).
- Davies . 1976 . The dictionary of scientific biography Vol. 3 , 123 – 123 . New York
- Eyles . 1976 . The dictionary of scientific biography Vol. 13 , 441 – 441 . New York 442.
- For Hutton's use of the term ‘Creator’ see Hutton J. Theory of the earth Edinburgh 1795 2 224 224 vol. 1
- The forthcoming Ph.D. thesis on Hutton by Grant Ralph Corpus Christi College Cambridge will stress how theological beliefs were pivotal to Hutton's geological system, as also the warmth of his religious feelings. I am grateful for conversations with Mr. Grant on these points. Hutton's firmly-established, non-Christian theism is prominent throughout his works (see D. R. Dean, ‘James Hutton on religion and geology. The unpublished preface to his Theory of the earth, 1788’, Annals of science, 32 (1975), 187–193). Toulmin's atheistic/pantheistic naturalism is spelt out clearly in his Eternity of the world (1785, London), 122f. (Henceforth cited as ‘EW’.) Toulmin's popular reputation was as an atheist. Compare the review of The antiquity and duration of the world in Monthly review, 64 (1781), 412–413.
- See Sneyd Ralph A letter to Dr Toulmin, M.D., relative to his book on the antiquity of the world Lewes 1783 and Edward Nares, A view of the evidences of Christianity at the close of the pretended age of reason (1805, Oxford), 290f., 340f. For further details of hostile reception to Toulmin see my ‘The politics of geology; the case of George Hoggart Toulmin’, Journal of the history of ideas (forthcoming).
- See the comments of John Hunter on Toulmin, as discussed by Jones F. Wood John Hunter as a geologist Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 1953 12 219 245 and James Douglas, A dissertation on the antiquity of the earth (1783, London), 70f. Doubtless thorough search would yield more instances, but I believe that the generalization will stand.
- Eyles . 1976 . The dictionary of scientific biography Vol. 3 , 441 – 442 . New York Though, as I show below, (a) for at least some geologists, it was not the case that Toulmin was forgotten (in the sense of being unknown), but rather that he was ‘blacked’ and not mentioned in public; (b) certain social groups did not forget Toulmin.
- Toulmin , George Hoggart . 1780 . The antiquity and duration of the world iii – iii . London introduction, (This work is cited henceforth as ‘AD’.)
- For analysis of how increasing hostility in England to the French Revolution effectively vetoed cosmological speculation see Garfinkle N. Science and religion in England, 1790–1800: the critical response to the work of Erasmus Darwin Journal of the history of ideas 1955 16 376 388
- For an attempt at explanation, see Porter Roy The making of geology Cambridge 1977 6 8
- Bynum , William F. 1976 . The blind man and the elephant: Toward a history of prehistory . unpublished paper delivered to the Conference ‘New perspectives in the history of the life sciences . 1976 , Cambridge. has begun to explore this theme in his
- Charles Lyell to Gideon Mantell, 29 December 1827; printed in Lyell K. Sir Charles Lyell, Bart: Life, letters and journals London 1881 2 173 174 vol. 1 where a dash is inserted in place of Toulmin's name, thus perpetuating what one might call the conspiracy of silence surrounding his identity! I am grateful to Dr. M. Bartholomew and Professor M. J. S. Rudwick for supplying his name. Toulmin is strikingly omitted from the sketch of the history of geology which introduced Lyell's Principles of geology (3 vols., 1830–33, London), but I suggest that Lyell's account there of early Eastern and Classical Earth philosophy owed much to his reading of Toulmin. For Lyell's views on Man, see M. Bartholomew, ‘Lyell and evolution: an account of Lyell's response to the prospect of an evolutionary ancestry for man’, The British journal for the history of science, 6(1973), 261–303; and W. F. Bynum, ‘Time's noblest offspring: the problem of man in the British natural historical sciences, 1800–1863’ (Ph.D. thesis, 1974, University of Cambridge). Further evidence that Toulmin's works were in effect ‘suppressed’ during the Revolutionary period comes from the ‘Preface’ which Richard Carlile wrote to the 1824 reprinting of the Antiquity and duration of the world (London), in which he writes: ‘The writings of Mr Toulmin will always bear to be read, and alike delight and instruct. The subject will be interesting to all future generations of mankind, and for the purpose of preservation it is desirable that their circulation be extensive. They have been, comparatively, in a suppressed state for nearly forty years; for it is not to be supposed but that edition after edition of such works would have been sold, if they had been printed. The present publisher has often asked for them, and often advised to publish; but he did not see a copy until the spring of the present year’. I am extremely grateful to Dr. V. A. Eyles for bringing this Preface to my attention.
- See the closing sections of Bynum Lyell K. Sir Charles Lyell, Bart: Life, letters and journals London 1881 2 173 174 vol. 1 and L. G. Wilson, Sir Charles Lyell's scientific notebooks on the species question (1970, New Haven), passim. George Poulett Scrope pointedly remarked how Lyell attributed an ultra-privileged position to Man in his (anonymous) review of Lyell's Principles in the Quarterly review, 43 (1830), 411–469 (p. 468).
- Hutton . 1795 . Theory of the earth Vol. 2 , 18 – 18 . Edinburgh vol. 1 Note that I am here concerned only with Hutton's views on Man as published. What he may have privately believed, but been too prudent to print, concerning Man's origins and antiquity, is anybody's guess. Mr. Grant has suggested to me that his private view may well have been far more complicated, and that Hutton perhaps deprecated Toulmin's lack of philosophical rigour. See his ‘Hutton's theory of the earth’. in L. J. Jordanova and Roy Porter (eds.), Images of the earth (British Society for the History of Science monograph, 1978 (forthcoming).
- Hutton . 1795 . Theory of the earth Vol. 2 , 17 – 18 . Edinburgh vol. 1
- There is no room to argue here in support of this interpretation of Hutton. But see his Theory of the earth Theory of the earth Edinburgh 1795 2 12 12 vol. 1 18, 148, 165, 203, 208, and perhaps above all his An investigation into the principles of knowledge (3 vols., 1794, Edinburgh), esp. vol. 1, chs. 1–10.
- See for example Bryson G. Man and society: the Scottish inquiry of the eighteenth century Princeton 1945 Toulmin himself was clearly much indebted to this tradition.
- See Jacob M.C. The Newtonians and the English revolution, 1689–1720 Hassocks, Sussex 1976 J. Redwood, Reason, ridicule and religion (1976, London); and D. C. Kubrin, ‘Providence and the mechanical philosophy: the creation and dissolution of the world in Newtonian thought. A study of the relations of science and religion in the seventeenth century’ (1968, Cornell University Ph.D.).
- Not one single substance in nature is either permanent or primary . AD , 173 95 – 95 . compare 110).
- From Man's myopically imperfect perspective, some of Nature's processes might appear immensely violent, but they constituted gradual and regular events within Nature's system, under her laws AD 53 54 Nature's way was to proceed by ‘progressive formation’ (AD, 44). For the significance Toulmin placed on the sheer depth of strata, and quantity of fossils, see AD, 70.
- AD , 13f – 13f .
- AD , 13 – 13 .
- AD , 13 Though no written cosmogony could offer scientific witness on the early history of the globe, Toulmin praised the Hindoo chronology and cosmogony as being more rational than the Christian (see AD, 24f.; EU, 39)
- Like volcanoes, says Toulin, ‘the cities too of the world, ”the cloud capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, and the most aspiring monuments of human industry and ambition, shall not only dissolve, and like the baseless fabric of a vision leave not a wreck behind”‘, and so on EU 78 78 Toulmin is of course quoting from The tempest
- AD , 17 – 17 .
- AD , 102 – 102 . Written cosmogonies were indeed doubly useless, because they all contradicted each other. Compare AD, 4.
- The ‘endless periods of eternal existence’ filled by an ‘unbounded revolution of events’ AD 49 49
- AD , 183 – 184 . Toulmin's thought here clearly bears close resemblance to that of David Hume's Dialogues.
- A progressivist—though ultimately cyclical—conjectural history of the human mind from rudeness to refinement characterized all Toulmin's thought (compare AD, 2–5). For a similar thought pattern in Charles Lyell, see Porter Roy Charles Lyell and the principles of the history of geology The British journal for the history of science 1976 9 91 103 (p. 94)
- AD , 190 – 190 . ‘The whole magnificent scene of things is daily and confidently asserted to be ultimately for the peculiar convenience of mankind’ (ibid.). For Man's invention of God, see EW, 120f. The pedigree of arguments such as these stretches at least as far back as Lucretius. Toulmin could easily have imbibed such sentiments from French philosophes such as Diderot and d'Holbach.
- EU , 6 – 6 .
- EW , 124 – 124 .
- EU , A3 46 – 46 . Introduction
- EU , A2 – A2 . Introduction
- Yet, even this very precarious and fluctuating state of learning, this obscurity, and limited extent of human records and traditions, I have found to be one among the many arguments in favour of the Eternity of the World and of the Universe EU 182 182
- EU , 17 – 17 . Toulmin wrote at length about catastrophes of Nature which have destroyed human civilizations. For floods, see AD, 157, and EU, 163f.; for earthquakes, with Lisbon at the forefront of his mind, see EU, 133. Toulmin treated Plato's Atlantis story as an instance of a civilization destroyed by natural convulsions (AD, 159). How many such civilizations have there been, he asks, whose entire memory has been ‘swallowed up, in the convulsions and revolutions of the world’? (AD, 21). Traditional natural theology asserted Man's dominion over Nature. Toulmin argued for the ‘dominion of Nature’ over Man (EU, 31).
- EU , 201 13 – 14 . Societies were ‘ever subject to an unspeakable change and revolution’ (EU, 14). ‘The violent operations of nature … overthrow the cities of mankind’ (EU, 137).
- EU , 18 25 – 25 .
- EU , A2 – A2 . Introduction
- AD , 192 – 192 .
- EU , 67 – 68 .
- EU , 78 – 78 . 28, 20. Toulmin dedicated his Illustrations of affection to Matthew Dubourg, the antiquarian and museum keeper, whose own published works show a deep interest in the ruin of Pompeii and in the celebration of paganism, in a Toulminian manner. See Dubourg's Views of the remains of ancient buildings in Rome and its vicinity (1820, London).
- EU , 20f – 20f . The sentiment is obviously highly Gibbonian.
- For John Brown's cosmic vision of the Earth as a theatre of life and death, governed by natural laws of excitement, see The works of Dr John Brown Cullen Brown W. London 1804 3 3 vols. 40; vol. 1, 177. For elaboration of this point see my ‘George Hoggart Toulmin and James Hutton: A fresh look’, Geological Society of America bulletin (forthcoming).
- EU , 29 – 30 .
- EU , 30 – 30 .
- EU , 48 – 48 . The chequered history of the diffusion of language exemplified the delicate poise of Man in Nature (EU, 159).
- EU , 31 – 31 . This consistent denial of an anthropocentric teleology sets Toulmin apart from other British philosophers, such as Erasmus Darwin (another Brunonian), to whose thought Toulmin's has some affinities. Toulmin's tone, with its resigned acceptance of mankind's folly, more closely echoes that of Boulanger, or d'Holbach, and parallels Raynal and Volney. Compare Sergio Moravia, ‘Philosophie et géographie à la fin du XVIIIe siècle’, Studies in Voltaire and the eighteenth century, 57 (1967, Geneva), 937–1011. Toulmin's cosmology perhaps depended quite heavily upon the Brunonian medical vision of life as a precarious equilibrium amid forces tending to decay and death, and of the utter dependency of life upon environment.
- EU , 101 – 101 . (my italics). Toulmin discusses from pp. 100–103 the endless cycle of relations which Man shares with Nature.
- For the philosophes' attempts to construct a secular and materialist history of Man in Nature, which would also explain previous religious false consciousness, see Manuel Frank E. The eighteenth century confronts the gods Cambridge, Mass. 1959 and more generally his Shapes of philosophical history (1961, London); M. Eliade, The myth of the eternal return (1955, London), ch. 3; and H. Vyverberg, Historical pessimism in the French Enlightenment (1958, Cambridge, Mass.). For Boulanger, who constitutes the closest parallel with Toulmin, see John Hampton, Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger et la science de son temps (1955, Paris). See also C. Kiernan, The Enlightenment and science in eighteenth century France (revised ed., 1973, Banbury).
- Compare the review in the Monthly review 1781 64 412 413
- EU, 83. Some of the inconsistencies of later Uniformitarianism have been explored by Hooykaas R. Natural law and divine miracle: the principle of uniformity in geology, biology, and theology Leiden 1963 Compare Martin Rudwick, ‘Uniformity and progression: reflections on the structure of geological theory in the age of Lyell’, in D. H. D. Roller (ed.), Perspectives in the history of science and technology (1971, Oklahoma), 209–227.
- Carlile's edition was published in 1824. It was of The antiquity and duration of the world Cousins B.D. The eternity of the universe London 1837 reprinted For Carlile and the secularist propagandists see Edward Royle, Victorian infidels (Manchester, 1974), 31–42, and 107–169. I have also learnt much of this subject from the unpublished work of Chris Green of Sussex University.
- See Thompson E.P. The making of the English working class Harmondsworth 1968 whose section on Carlile (p. 790–810) is most illuminating.
Annals of Science
Volume 35, 1978 - Issue 4