132 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



extreme pietists, such as Prior, Blackmore, and Watts, who pro- 

 fessed to feel that it was an act of sacrilege to investigate the 

 laws of nature, because this was aspiring to divine wisdom. To 

 seek for natural causes of natural phenomena, said they, is to dis- 

 place God by a mechanical contrivance. A far simpler and more 

 dogmatic way to solve the vexing questions respecting the world 

 of nature is to answer briefly and emphatically, as Blackmore did, — 

 "this is done by the power of God". 



There was a widespread feeling of contempt among the satirists 

 for those virtuosi who had a passion for studying "natures ver- 

 min" and for collecting rarities. Thus, Hans Sloane, Secretary of 

 the Royal Society and Keeper of the Ashmolean "baby-house", 

 became "the great toyman of his time". A delight in "glittering 

 trifles" was fit for children, as Shenstone expressed it, but a more 

 worthy occupation for men was social intercourse. 



Sometimes, though not frequently, the scientists themselves 

 were satirized. Sir Paul Neal, Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Evelyn, 

 Sloane, and even the great Newton himself received satiric thrusts. 

 There was in the case of Butler's attack on Sir Paul Neal, and in 

 Garth's satiric criticism of Sloane, a motive of personal feeling. 

 In general, however, the characters of the scientists were respected. 



After a study of the unfair, unjustified, and indiscriminate 

 attacks upon the new philosophy, one reads with a feeling of con- 

 siderable irritation the words of Shaftesbury; — "The satirists 

 seldom fail in doing justice to virtue ".^°^ Even granting sincerity 

 of purpose to the writers — a virtue which must be denied them — 

 the best word for them is that they did not yet understand the new 

 movement. Nor can one accept without reluctance Shaftesbury's 

 fundamental maxim in defense of satire, — that "ridicule is a test 

 of truth". But, if it be so, then was the new science solidly based 

 upon a true foundation, for through all the assaults of satire and 

 abuse the men of science went patiently forward conquering and to 

 conquer. 



It is a relief to quit the brilliance of satire for a homelier and 

 kindlier verse. "If inexhaustible mt could give perpetual pleas- 

 ure", w^rote Dr. Johnson, "no eye would ever leave half -read the 

 work of Butler. But astonishment is a toilsome pleasure; he 



^"^ Characteristics, vol. I, p. 93. 



