152 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



patriotism, and honesty. They sprang from a genuine scientific 

 interest and from a "reason free and unpossest". 



In that debatable land between prose as literature and as non- 

 literature lie such books as Sir Robert Boyle's The Sceptical Chem- 

 ist, Occasional Reflections, and The Christian Virtuoso, Hooka's 

 Micrographia, J. Childrey's Britania Baconica, Evelyn's Sculptura 

 and Acetaria and Ray's Wisdom of God. Primarily, these books 

 were all wi'itten for instruction, not for pleasure, and certainly 

 were inspired by scientific research. There is, however, a con- 

 scious attempt to give them literary form. The three books of 

 Boyle are, perhaps, his most nearly literary productions. The 

 Sceptical Chemist is in the form of a dialogue between Eleutherius 

 and Carneades on the latest chemical theories ; it is a symposium on 

 the general question as to whether there are three or five primary 

 elements. Carneades, who speaks for Boyle, develops a general 

 sceptical attitude of the old beliefs, and especially of the alchemical 

 theory of transmuting the baser metals into gold. It was this 

 attitude that "made a crisis in chemical theory ".^^ In Occasional 

 Reflections there is a series of philosophical discourses on various 

 subjects, some so unimportant and trivial as to furnish the basis 

 of Swift's burlesque Meditations on a BrootnsticJf. For examples, 

 see Proposition I, Section 1, "Upon the Manner of giving Meat to 

 his Dog", Proposition IV, Section 1, "Upon Paring a rare Sum- 

 mer Apple", Proposition II, Section 2, "Upon his Making a Fire", 

 Proposition IX, Last Section, "Upon the finding of a Horse-shoe 

 in the High-way". The Christian Virtuoso is really a defense of 

 the new philosophy against the accusation of scepticism; its or- 

 iginal purpose was "to prove a man may be a good christian and 

 at the same time an experimental philosopher".^^ 



Hooke's Micrographia is a series of philosophical reports re- 

 sulting from his experiments. The style is clear and terse and 

 aims to meet the ideal of the scientists. Tliere is enthusiasm here, 

 also, born of discovery; Hooke feels himself a pioneer making 

 straight the way for truth. But the original purpose was to im- 

 part information, to explain natural phenomena, such as the es- 

 sence of fire, the cause of color, etc. Childrey's Britania Baconica, 



"Elton, Oliver, The Augustan Ages, p. 160. 

 ^^ The Christian Virtuoso, Introduction. 



