172 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



inating satire of comedy. Ward, in The London Spy, simply car- 

 ries on the manner of attack of King, Brown, and the famous 

 periodicals. He makes a clever use of new details, but the atti- 

 tude is the same; it is an exploitation of the scientific humor. 



In this manner was the new science attacked in prose. The 

 source of material and the manner of treatment are practically the 

 same as that of satirical comedy. These satirists were quick to 

 catch the flotsam and jetsam of scientific knowledge and cleverly 

 transformed it into a ridiculous burlesque. The Philosophical 

 Transactions and the scientific publications were the most common 

 sources. Arbuthnot, a Fellow of the Royal Society, furnished 

 facts and "jargon" for the Scriblerus Club. The absurd theories 

 of Woodward, who was so generally unpopular, were made the 

 butt of many an attack. Radcliffe, with his eccentricities, was 

 likewise a good target for satiric shafts. From Brown to Ward 

 the tone is little varied ; w^ritten primarily to amuse the prose 

 deals usually in a goodnatured manner with the new interest. 

 The fiercest assaults are to be found in Gullivers' Travels and the 

 Scriblerus Papers. In the latter, however, the humane feeling 

 and essentially kindly spirit of Arbuthnot seem to have softened 

 and tempered the fiercer moods of his friends. The boisterous 

 burlesque in Brown's Dialogues, King's Journey to London, The 

 Tatter, and The London Spy, is close akin to the representation 

 in verse satire and comedy, but with something more of discrimina- 

 tion in it. "To make jests, to live and move in the ludicrous, to 

 find fun in everything under heaven and over hell" was the busi- 

 ness of these writers. If the jests become serious in Swift and 

 the laughter unpleasant, they are counterbalanced by the conspicu- 

 ous kindliness of Addison. The latter, indeed, gave to The Spec- 

 tator a general attitude that was fair and generous, and once rose 

 to an eloquent burst of enthusiasm inspired by the visions of the 

 extended horizon of the new astronomy. 



Ill 



Wlien one turns to find a continued appreciation of the new 

 philosophy or a reaction from the satiric attitude, in the first half 

 of the eighteenth century, he meets with disappointment. "Dur- 

 ing the last quarter of the seventeenth century a spirited effort 



