THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 109 



knew this and selected with some care the more sensational ex- 

 periments. By thus emphasizing and exaggerating the startling 

 things all scientific endeavors were made ridiculous. If there had 

 not heen a substantial basis of commonsense for the new phil- 

 osophy, if it had not really been largely established upon "the 

 two great pillars of truth, Reason and Experience", it would have 

 been laughed away, as Cervantes served chivalry. 



When a general survey is taken of this form of literary ex- 

 pression for the new science, a sense of disappointment is felt. 

 Among all these "Wits and Railleurs" there is a lack of apprecia- 

 tion of both men and achievements. There is not a single char- 

 acter in the comedies worthy of respect so long as it is dominated 

 by the scientific humor, not one but bears the contempt, justly 

 earned, of all his friends, with the single exception of the senti- 

 mental hero. Dr. Easy, in The State of PhysicJc. The man of 

 science, as the play-writers presented him, is despicable because 

 he is a "fool", engaged in the vain pursuit of useless knowledge, 

 a pedant, a pretender to learning, wholly absorbed in an interest 

 outside the social realm of London society folk. He is never wholly 

 relieved from the taint of pseudo-science, but he is no longer a 

 "vague, pee\ish pedant, much occupied with phj'-siognomies, 

 dreams, and fanatic ideas as to the properties and powers of vari- 

 ous substances ".^^^ This was the old student of occult science, 

 not the Baconian philosopher. The worst fault of the new scien- 

 tist was to devote his time and money to the investigation of in- 

 sects and to the collection of rarities; he did not study his "coun- 

 try's good but her insects." 



The actual achievement in science was not appreciated by the 

 play-writers. In comedy the scientist frittered away his time in 

 gazing at the moon, in poring over insects, or in useless specula- 

 tion; he never invented anything so useful as a mouse-trap or 

 an engine to pare cheese with; he collected curiosities only to have 

 a house built for them ; he sought knowledge for its own sake. In 

 reality, the scientist discovered the law of gravitation and founded 

 modern botany, geology and physiology ; he invented the air-pump, 

 the thermometer, the barometer, the steam-engine; he prepared 

 the way for the later writing of history and saved many a manu- 



>«> Shipley, A. E., Cambridge History of English Literature, VIII, 419. 



