The Fate of Bacon's Cosmology in the Seventeenth Century

REFERENCES

• Excellent work on this topic has been carried out recently (see below note 3) but there are still problems which require further elucidation. For example, relatively little is known about the early stages of Baconianism in England, the seventeenth-century fortunes of Bacon's works, how responses to Bacon changed with time and how individuals and groups differed in their inter-pretation of Baconian idea-complexes.
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• Modern historians quite rightly emphasize the influence of Bacon's method and programme. But that does not mean that Bacon was not regarded in the seventeenth century as a contributor to substantive scientific knowledge. Even the now much-maligned Sylva Sylvarum (1626) was used as a respectable source of scientific data by such diverse notabilities as Austen, Beale, Boyle, Charleton, Childrey, Evelyn, Plot, Power, Wilkins, etc.
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• Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform 1626–1660, London, 1975, 515. Webster's authoritative study is indispensible for students of seventeenth-century Baconian-ism. For other estimates of the Baconian influence see M. Purver, The Royal Society; Concept and Creation, London 1967, passim; B. J. Shapiro, John Wilkins 1614–1672: An Intellectual Biography, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969, 58–60, 100—1, 205–8. For evidence of the popularity of Bacon's scientific works in the seventeenth century, see below note 32.
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• For the cosmology, its intellectual origins and place in Bacon's oeuvre, see Graham Rees, "Francis Bacon's Semi-Paracelsian Cosmology", Ambix, 22, 81—101, 1975; idem, "Francis Bacon's Semi-Paracelisan Cosmology and the Great Instauration", Ambix, 22, 161–73, 1975.
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• An Apologic OY Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Gouernment of the World, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1630, sigs. b3, c3v, 23, 25, 38–9, etc. On the debate with Goodman, see V, Harris, All Coherence Gone: A Study of the Seventeenth-Century Controversy Over Disprder and Decay in the Universe, London 1949.
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• Apologie (5), 71.
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• For the tropical wind and the problems of travellers returning from Peru, see ,Historia Ventorum, The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis and D. D. Heath, 7 vols. London, 1859–1864, V. 147, cf. II, 26. Also see ibid., III, 192, (New Atlantis), where the tropical wind assists the narrator on his voyage from Peru towards China and Japan.
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• Rees, "Cosmology and .. . Instauration- (4), I68-71, Bacon wrote histories of phenomena in-tegral to the cosmology but his methodological principles prevented him from introducing explicit expositions of the cosmological theories into the histories. Explicit theoretical materials appear in one history—the Sylva Sylvarum. In the Sylva Bacon repeatedly stated that he was not applying his principles rigorously; see Works (7), II, 335, 378, 501.,
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• Works (7), IV, 183, V, 147, 205, 549, cf. I, 297, II, 26–7, 82–3, III, 769. Also see Rees, "Semi-Paracelsian Cosmology" (4), 98-ioo.
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• A Discourse Concerning the Origine and Properties of Wind, Oxford, 1671, 68–9.
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• Works (7), II, 352–3, V, 205, 550; Rees, "Semi-Paracelsian Cosmology" (4), 89–90.
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• Experimental Philosophy, London, 1664, 63 (misnumbered, 62).
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• On the relationship of the bi-quaternion and pneumatic theories see Rees, "Semi-Paracelsian Cosmology" (4), 85–6.
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• Experimental Philosophy (12), sig. b4v.
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• Arcana Microcosmi or the hid secrets of Man's body discovered. . . with a Refutation of Doctor Brown's Vulgar Errors, The Lord Bacon's Natural History, and Doctor Harvy's Book De Generatione, London, 1652, 237–9, 240, 259–60.
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• Works (7), II, 352–3; Rees, "Semi-Paracelsian Cosmology" (4), 96. Verbal similarities suggest that Thomas Vaughan (1622–60) may have known this passage. See Anthroposophia Theomagica or a Discourse of the Nature of Man and His State After Death, Oxford, 1650, 17: "that Matrix which attracts and receives the sperm of the Masculine part of the world. . . is Natures Aetna: here Vulcan doth exercise himself, not that limping Poetical one, which halted after his fa, .but a pure, Coelestial, plastick fire". John Beale may also have had this experiment in mind when he cited Bacon's authority for the view that contiguous flames did not mingle; Beale to Oldenburg, 18 Jan. 1664/5, The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed., and tr. A. R. Hall and M. B. Hall, University of Wiscon-sin Press: Madison and London, 1966, Vol. 2, 348.
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• Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London, 4 vols. London, 1756–7, fa.csim. repr. Johnson Reprint Co., New York and London, 1968, I, 45.
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• Instructions appear in tlie Novum Organum (Works (7), IV, 189–90) and Sylva Sylvarunz (ibid., II, 352–3). Either text could have been, the starting point for the Royal Society trial.
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• For instances of attempts to follow up lines of experimental enquiry suggested by Bacon see Birch (18), I, 163–4., II, 70-I, IV, 46.
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• For instance the experiments on flame and combustion conducted early in 1665, pirch (18), II,
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• Bacon's attempt to integrate a geometrical description of, celestial motion with a chemical world picture is perhaps one of the most novel features of his cosmology; see Rees, "Semi-Paracelsian
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• On the position of the cosmology in relation to Bacon's plans see Rees, "Cosmology and .. . Instau-,
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• Ibid., 172-3.
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• Ibid., 166–7, 167–71.
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• No investigation of the degree to which seyenteenth-century readers studied works belonging to the Great Instattration in the light of their position and function in the six part sequence has yet been undertaken. However I suspect that few commentators read the relevant works in that way and that that would have significantly reduced their chances of detecting the cosmological materials in the works-belonging to the Instattration.
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• See J. C. Gregory, "Chemistry and Alchemy in the Natural Philosophy of Sir Francis Bacon, /561-1626", Ambix, 2, 93-11r, 1938; H. Fisch, "Bacon and Paracelsus", The Cambridge Journal, 5, 752–8, 1952; Muriel West, "Notes on the Importance of Alchemy to Modern Science in the Writings of Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle", Ambix, 9, 102–16, 1962; S. J. Linden, "Francis Bacon and Alchemy: The Reformation of Vulcan", JI-11, 35, 547–60, 1974; Paolo Rossi, "Note I3aconiane", Rivista Critica di Storia della Filosofia, 29, -32–51, 40–3, 1974.
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• See Works (7), V. 547–59, cf. III, 769–80.
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• Descriptio Globi Intellectualis is, for instance, mentioned by John Spencer, A Discourse concerning Prodigies, Cambridge, 1663, sig. Ae. Ais. see below note 32.
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• See Suzanne Kelly O.S.B., The De Mundo of William Gilbert, Menno Hertzberger: Amsterdam, 1965, 161. See also Charles Webster, Samuel Hartlib and the Advancement of Learning, Cambridge, 5970, 38.
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• Gvilemi Gilberti Colcestrensis, medici regii, de mundo nostro sublunari philosophia nova, Amstelodarni: Ludovicum Elzevirium, MDCLI.
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• Francisci Baconi de V erulamio scripta in natvrali et vniversali philosophia, Amstelodami: Ludo-vicum Elzevirium, MDCLIII. See also Kelly (30), 16 passim. It could be said that the delay in publishing the texts of the Scripta in . Philosophia indicates a general lack of interest in the fate of Bacon MSS. This looks like a strong argument but it is certainly not supported by the bibliographical facts. Excluding items without an appreciable scientific content, the total number of Bacon editions published in each decade of the seventeenth century is as follows:
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• Hooke 's lecture, read at Gresham College in 1670, was published in 1674 and as one of the LectionesCutlerianae, London 1679. For the astrononiical and cosmological researches of Hooke and Wreri up to and beyond 1670, see J. A. Bennett, "Hooke and Wren and the System of the World: Some Points towards an Historical Account", Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 8, 32–61, 1975.
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• For the reception of Cartesian ideas in England, see for instance Charles Webster, "Henry More and Descartes: Some New Sources", Brit. J . Hist. Sci., 4, 359–77, 1969.
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• Rees, "Semi-Paracelsian Cosmology" (4), 85. For a penetrating anhl3rsis of Charleton's conversion, see Lindsay Sharp, "Walter Charleton's Early Life 1620-1659, and Relationship to Natural Philo-sophy in Mid-Seventeenth Century England", Annals of Science, 30, 311–40, 1973.
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• Kelly (30), 108.
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• Webster (3), 384–402; r. M. Rattansi, The Helmontian-Galenist Controversy in Restoration England" Ambix, 12 1–23 1964. idem, The Social Interpretation of Science in the Seventeenth Century" in Science and Society T600-5900; ed. P. Mathias, Cambridge 1972, 1–32; R. L. Greaves, a The Puritan---Revolution and Educational Thought, New Jerky, 1969, 70–86; A. G. Debus, Science and Education in the Seventeenth Century: the Webster-W ard Debate, London and New York, 1970, 15–51; Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revo-lution, London 1972, 232–7.
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• Frederic B. Burnham, "The More-Vaughan Controversy: the Revolt against Philosophical En-thusiasm", JHI, 35, 33–49, 1974.
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• See Webster (3), 38–47, 108–14, 160–3, 382–3.
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• Ibid., 198–202, 204–6; Shapiro (3), 98–109; Greaves (37), 20–23, 6o-83; P. M. Rattansi, "Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution", Ambix, 11, 24–32, 27–9, 1963. Especially useful are Debus (37), 1–64 and idem, "John Webster and the Educational Dilemma of the Seventeenth Century", A cies du XII' Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences, tome TIM, 15–23, Paris, 1971.
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• Academiarum Examen, or the Examination of Academies, London, 1654, 105. Facsim. repr. in Debus
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• Ibid., 205–6, see also 52 if. and Webster (3), 202 passim.
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• Seth Ward, Vindiciae Acaclemiarum containing some briefe Animadversions upon Mr. Websters Book, London, 1654, 46. The text was written by Seth Ward, the introductory letter (1–7) by Wilkins. Facsim. repr. in Debus (37).
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• Ibid., 46.
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• See Debus (37), 33–49.
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• Burnham (38), passim. Burnham argues (p. 44) that "More must have been shocked to discover that a mystic like Vaughan would invoke the sanction of an empiricist like Francis Bacon". How-ever the question of Bacon interpretation was not an issue in the More-Vaughan debate. Bacon's name was mentioned only once in the debate in an anonymous dedicatory poem prefacing Vaughan's Magica Adamica, OY the Antiquity of Magic and the Descent Thereof from Adam Downwards Proved, London, 1650. At that time More would not have been "shocked" by criticism of "Baconian empiricism". Letters by More evincing an unfavourable view of Baconian empiricism as inter-preted by Petty were published recently in Webster (34), 365 ff.
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• Burnham ( 38), 34; M. Casaubon, Treatise Concerning Enthusiasme London, (1655) ; Samuel Parker, A Free and Impartial Censure of the Platonick Philosophy, Oxford, 1667; for Thomas Sprat's obser-vations on enthusiastic chemists see The History of the Royal Society, London, 1667, 38–40.
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• See Webster (3), 89ff.
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• Ibid., 328.
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• o. Ibid., 95, 238, 391; Sharp (35), 330–2. 5r. See above note 35.
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• Webster (3), 147–8. This emphasis is apparent for instance in The Petty Papers, ed. the Marquis of Lansdowne, 2 vols. London, 1927.
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• M. B. Hall, "Oldenburg and the Art of Scientific Communication", Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 2, 277-90, 288–9, 1965.
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• Webster (3), 96.
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• Rattansi (40), 32; idem. "Social Interpretation" (37), 20–1, 27–8. For Boyle's contacts with Wilkins and the Oxford Club see Webster (3), 155–6; R. E. W. Maddison, The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle FRS, London, 1969, 81–5.
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• See above.
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• See above note 46.
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• The English Physitians Guide, or a Holy Guide, London, 2662, Preface, sig. b recto ff.
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• See Rattansi, "Helmontian-Galenist Controversy" (37), 1841. 60. The Sceptical Chymist, London, 166x.
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• See Webster (3), 386 passim.
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