Geology and Religious Sentiment: The Effect of Geological Discoveries on English Society and Literature Between 1829 and 1859 9004108823, 9789004108820

Table of contents :
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE. THE GEOLOGICAL SETTING: THE DANGEROUS AND VISIONARY PURSUIT
PART ONE. CHARLES LYELL
CHAPTER TWO. THE PERIOD TO 1830: FROM FORMER WORLDS TO UNIFORMITARIANISM
CHAPTER THREE. "IF WE DON'T IRRITATE, WE SHALL CARRY ALL WITH US": THE FIRST VOLUME OF PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
CHAPTER FOUR. PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY 1832-3: WORKING HARD AT NATURAL THEOLOGY
CHAPTER FIVE. MODIFIED MUD OR MODIFIED MONKEY: UNIFORMITY, PROGRESSION AND TRANSMUTATION
CHAPTER SIX. PROGRESS, EDUCATION, AND UNITARIANISM
PART TWO. THE CLERGY
CHAPTER SEVEN. WILLIAM BUCKLAND: BRIDGE-OVER-THE-WATER
CHAPTER EIGHT. ADAM SEDGWICK: HOW MUCH GOOD MIGHT HE DO?
CHAPTER NINE. ADAM SEDGWICK: THE SOBER FACTS AND THE ROGUE'S GAME
CHAPTER TEN. WILLIAM WHEWELL: LYELL'S LABOURS AND IDEAS
PART THREE. THE MEN OF LETTERS
CHAPTER ELEVEN. SWINGING MID-AIR AMONG THE PRECIPICES OF LIFE
CHAPTER TWELVE. THE WHOLE CREATION GROANETH AND TRAVAILETH TOGETHER
CHAPTER THIRTEEN. DEUS QUIDAM DECEPTOR
CHAPTER FOURTEEN. TOWARDS ABATEMENT OF THE FEVER
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Citation preview

BRILL'S STUDIES IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY General Editor

A.J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen Editorial Board

M. COLISH, Oberlin College J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA VOLUME 80

Tailpiece from History ofBntish Birds (1804) by Thomas Bewick, described by Charles Lyell in Pnnciples of Geology.

GEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT The Effect o/Geobgical Discoveries on English Society and Literature between 1829 and 1859

BY

J.M.I. KLAVER

\ Bernard Leslie 162-163 Hailstone, John 103 Hallam, Arthur 172,173 Hamilton, William 42 Harcourt, William Vernon 133,143-144 Hardy, Thomas 158,191; A Pair of Βlue Eyes 190-191; Two on a Tower 191 Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich 129 Henslow, John Stevens 48,62-63,116 Herschel, John W. 38-39,63,152,169 Hewley Case, The Lady 76-77 Higher Criticism 75,78 historical chronology 7-8 Hoff, Karl von 148 Hooke, Robert 32 Hooker, Joseph 65-66,67,69,73 Hooker, William Jackson 15 Hooykaas,R. 61-62 Horner, Leonard 80 Howley, William 48-49,88 Hughes, Tom 186 Humboldt, Alexander von 51,62-63,97 Hutton, James 5-7,9,11-12,18,19,32,35,36, 44, 110, 119, 120, 144, 146; divine design 7, 20; origin of the earth 6; Theory of the Earth 6 Huxley, Thomas Henry 17,62,67,71,73,170, 197-199; on Lyell 198-199 hybrids 54-55

INDEX imagination 30 industry 3 Jackson, Martha 192 Jameson, Robert 5,104 Jardin des Plantes 19 Johnson, Samuel 79 Jowett, Benjamin 99 King James Bible 8 King's College 47-49,59 Kingsley, Charles 3,158,162,170,181-187; Alton Locke 186; childhood 182; and Darwin 181; democracy in science 184-185; geology and epic 185-186; Glaucus 183184; 'Hypotheses Hypochondriacae' 186; Madam How and Lady Why 181 ; and Paley 183; science and religion 185; Spenser 1516; Two Years Ago 186; vastness of geological time 184; vastness of time 186; Yeast 186-187 KirbyHole 157 Kirwan, Richard 20,41 ; on Hutton 6-7; natural theology 2; utilitarianism 3 Koran 33 Lamarck, Jean Baptiste 23-24, 51-52, 53-55, 63,64,68,154; natural theology 54-55 Lapeyrère, Isaac 7-8 Lapland 45 Linnaeus 55 Little Portland Street Chapel 84 Livingstone, David 118 Lloyd, Charles 165 Locke, John 125 Lockhart, John Gibson 22,48-49,133 Long, Catherine 162 Lonsdale, John 48-49 Loyd, Miss 84 Luther, Martin 80 Lyell, Charles 111, 112, 114, 115, 126-127; analogy 83; Anniversary Address of 1851 66-67; autobiography 15; impatient with publication Buckland's Treatise 100; on Buckland's deanery 48; with Buckland 21 ; Buckland's lectures 88; Cantal 25; childhood 15; church preferment 47-48,116; climate 39-40,44-45; cosmogony 35,39-40,40,44, 44-45; on Cowper 9-10; on cycles 140; death of Lady Lyell 84; deism 57, 58, 66-67; dignity of man 17,24,41,53,64-65,67,6874; early geological views 20; early religious attitude 15-16; earthquakes 42; elected a member of the Geological Society 19; Elements of Geology 61; faith 23,24; and Fleming 92,93-94; former worlds 12,19;

213 on French Revolution 7,33; friendship with Darwin 62-63; German critics 63; glossary 28; on Henslow 48; history of geology 3136; on Hutton 20; imagination 36,43-46, 53; influence on reading public 194; intermediate causes 63-64; Italy 158; methodological principle 38; and Moses 2425,49,58; narration 43-46; natural theology 22-23,23,59-60,62,133,153; on education 76-78; Oxford 18-19; palaeontology and epic 16-17; influence of Paley 41,58-59; in Paris 21, 52; Principles, originality of 38-39; professorship 47-49, 59-60; notion of progress 17,23,74,77-78; providence 1112,25,34-35,58-59; pterodactyl and fantasy 16-17; Quarterly Review 22; reaction to The Origin ofSpecies 69; reading for the bar 20; reading public 28; on religious ceremony 57; religious consolation 57; reputation, sense of 27; on schism in Scottish Church 76-77; Scrope's review of Principles 34; Second Visit to the United States 76; on Sedgwick's rejection of a living 115-116; Sicily 26; species 52-57,63-66; stability ofthe system 40,43; style 28,44-45; The Antiquity ofMan 72-73; Travels in North America 76; truth 69-71; uniformitarianism 11-12, 36-43; uniformitarian precursors 32; on Unitarianism 78-83; unity of design 17,2223, 26, 41-42, 59, 63-64; on Ussher 8; utilitarianism 22-23,25; on valleys 94-95; verae causae 140-141 ; wedding 83-84; on Werner 4-5, 6, 44; Whewell's review of Principles vol. 1 35, 135-136; Whewell's review of Principles vol. 2 138; Whewell's reviews 133

Macmillan, Hugh 2-3,43 Maillet, Benoit De 8-9 Malthus, Thomas 193 man: dignity of 98; recent origin of 41,57-58, 100-101 Mansel, Henry Longueville 81-82 Mantell, Gideon 23,26,28-29,52,94 Marcet, Jane 24-25 Martineau, Harriet 69-70,123 Martineau, James 78,81-83 materialism 128 Maurice, Frederick Denison 183 Mayflower 73 McPherson, Thomas 153 MellorBrown,J. 100 migration of races 4 Mill, John Stuart 129 Miller, Hugh 65,66,67,68,120,189,190 Millhauser, Milton 159

214

INDEX

Milman,H.H. 34-35 Milnes, Richard Monckton 169 Milton, John 15-17,79,157 mining 3 Mississippi 42 Montlosier, Count 28 Moore, Thomas 161-162 Moro, Lazzaro 32,44 Mosaic geology 11,19 Moslem orthodoxy 33 Muhammad al-Qazwïriï 44 mummies 53 Murchison, Roderick 25,26,94,100,114,116, 132-133,187 Murray, John 50,61 Napier, Macvey 123 Natural Philosophy 1 natural selection 51-52,65-66 natural theology: and Psalm cxxxix 109 nebular hypothesis 124 neptunism 5,5-6 Newman, John Henry 75, 88, 162, 164-167, 184-185; age of the earth 164-165; Apologia Pro Vita Sua 166; faith 165-166; imagination 166; imagination and geology 158; scientific caution 167 Newton, Isaac 99 Newton, Thomas 80,166 Newtonian philosophy 36 Northampton, Lord 140 Odoardi, 144 Oken, 105 Oriental cosmogony 35 Ospovat, Alexander M. 145,146 Owen, Richard 66,67,68,124-125,126-127, 159 Paget, Francis Edward 162 palaeontology 157; and epic 98-99 Paley, William 23,41, 56, 58-59, 70, 83,90, 99, 101, 102-103, 109, 125, 174; Natural Theology 1-2; principle of beauty 1-2 pantheism 126,128 Paris basin 21 Parkinson, James 18-19,104 Peel, Sir Robert 47-48,97 phenomenology 134-135 Phillips, William 20-21,81 Pilgrim Fathers 57,73,77-78 Plato 38 Playfair, John 19, 54,146; Illustrations ofthe Huttonian Theory 6 Plymouth Brethren 177 Porter, Roy 32

Powles, Richard Cowley 182 Pozzuoli 143 Prévost, Constant 21,51 progression 23 progression versus evolution 68 providence 37,38-39,151,193 pterodactyl 16 Raspe, Rudolph Erich 32,144 Ray, John 8 Reade, Winwood 162-163,188,193-195,199; on reading Lyell 194 religious novel 12 Robinson, John 77-78 Roman Catholic Church 162 Rouelle, 144 Rudwick, Martin 32 Ruskin, John 88 Rüssel, Lord John 47-48 Rutherford, Mark 162-163,188,191-192,195, 199; The Autobiography ofMark Rutherford 191-192; The Revolution in Tanner's Lane 191 Salter, J. W. 104 Scaliger, Joseph 7-8 Scott, Sir Walter 22 Scottish Church 75,92 Scrope, Poulett 21,25,34,38-39,40,42,127 Sedgwick, Adam 11,65,68,143-144,179-180; beginning of creation 110, 119; on Butler 121 ; caricature of 104; on Chambers 121123; childhood 103,103-104; composition ofDiscourse 123-125; elected fellow of the Geological Society 104; Flood, the 105; on future existence 130-131; Italy 106; and Lyell's professorship 47-48; on Lyell's scientific qualities 118; Lyell on species 65; and Mosaic geology 106-107,110-111,114115; Museum 104; on myth 129; natural theology 107-110, 127-128, 133, 153; Norwich lectures 130; offered prebendary stall 116;onBuckland 120-121; ordained deacon 103; and Paley 109; on Principles 27, 37, 118, 120; notion of progress 130131 ; and progression 126-127; recantation of the Flood 95,105; on recent appearance of man 105; sizarship 103; syllabus 104; theological studies 103; tuition system 103; objections to uniformitarianism 118-119; unity of design 128; Wodehouse's reprimand 116-117; Woodwardian chair 103-104 Sellwood, Emily 171 Serres, Marcel De 28 Shakespeare, William 169 Sicily 26,52

INDEX Smith, William 4,47,134-135,145,146-147 Somerville, Mary 144 Southey, Robert 125 Sowerby, James 15 species: centre ofcreation 55; distribution of 55; fixity of 52-57,65-68; progressive nature of 40-41,56; repeated creation of 59,63-64 Spenser, Edmund 15-16,185 Spitsbergen 45 spread of languages 4 Stonesfield mammal 24 Strauss, David Friedrich 129 struggle for survival 26,30,56 Sumner, John Bird 34-35, \65, Records ofthe Creation 11 Taylor, James 69 Temple, Frederick 99 Tennyson, Alfred 12,68, 158, 168-175,175, 194-195; faith 174-175; imagination, limits of 169; In Memoriam 168, 170, 171-174; 'Maud' 171; natural theology 173-174; and Paley 170; providence 172; reading Principles 169; reason and spirit 169;'The Two Voices' 172; and transmutation 168; vastness 171 Thackeray, William 69,160; Vanity Fair 160 Thorn, John Hamilton 80 Ticknor, George 77,80,81 Todhunter,I. 137 Toulmin, George Hoggart 29-31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42, 62, 110, 198-199; Antiquity and Duration ofthe World 8-9; possible influence on Cowper 9 Townsend, Joseph 10-11,56 transmutation 23,53-55,64,152 Trollope, Anthony 162 truth of Revelation 11 Tyndall,John 170 uniformitarianism 29-30,32,36-43,64 uniformity and Scripture 152 Unitarianism 78-83 universal deluge 5 Ure, Andrew 27-28,34-35,106-107 Ussher, James 7-8 utilitarianism 1,3-4 Vossius, Gherard 7-8 Vossius, Isaac 7-8 vulcanists 7 Wallace, Alfred Rüssel 67 Warburton, Henry 113-114 Ware, Henry 79 Werner, Abraham Gottlob 4-5,20,44,104,134-

215

135,144, 145-146,146-147 Wemerian Natural History Society 5 Wesleyans 77 Whately,Richard88,157 Whewell, William 65,119,184-185; age of the earth 139; beginning of creation 141,149150; Bridgewater Treatise 133; caution in science 149; childhood 132; on cycles 139140; deductive reasoning 135; on education 79; First Cause 151 ; elected a member of the Geological Society 132-133; Indications of the Creator 152-153; influence in Cambridge 137; influence of Lyell 132; and Lyell's History of geology 143-148; on Lyell's importance in geology 146-147; Mosaic geology 150; natural theology 133,148-154; palaetiological sciences 134-135,140-141; president Geological Society 132-133; on Principles 27,37; professorships 132-133; on providence 151 ; review of Principles vol. 1 35,47,133,13 5-136; review of Principles vol.2 138; scientific theory 134-135; spirit of modern geology 135; touring with Sedgwick 132; transmutation 152; on uniformitarianism 137-141; verae causae 140-141; and Werner 145 White, Blanco 80-81 Wilberforce, Samuel 88 Wilson, HB. 99 Wilson, Leonard G. 29,48-49,67-68,69-70 Wiseman, Nicholas 95 Wodehouse, Charles 117,124 Woilaston, Thomas Vernon 67 Wordsworth, Christopher 132 Wordsworth, William 125 Wyndham, William 88-89