Science and popular education in the 1830s: the role of theBridgewater Treatises

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Topham
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economist ◽  
Best Sellers ◽  
The Creation

As is widely known, theBridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation(1833–36) were commissioned in accordance with a munificent bequest of the eighth Earl of Bridgewater, the Rev. Francis Henry Egerton (1756–1829), and written by seven leading men of science, together with one prominent theological commentator. Less widely appreciated is the extent to which theBridgewater Treatisesrank among the scientific best-sellers of the early nineteenth century. Their varied blend of natural theology and popular science attracted extraordinary contemporary interest and ‘celebrity’, resulting in unprecedented sales and widespread reviewing. Much read by the landed, mercantile and professional classes, the success of the series ‘encouraged other competitors into the field’, most notably Charles Babbage's unsolicitedNinth Bridgewater Treatise(1837). As late as 1882 the political economist William Stanley Jevons was intending to write an unofficialBridgewater Treatise, and even an author of the prominence of Lord Brougham could not escape having hisDiscourse of Natural Theology(1835) described by Edward Lytton Bulwer as ‘thetenthBridgewater Treatise’.

Darwin, Concepción, and the Geological Sublime

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul White
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Earth History ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Popular Audience

ArgumentDarwin's narrative of the earthquake at Concepción, set within the frameworks of Lyellian uniformitarianism, romantic aesthetics, and the emergence of geology as a popular science, is suggestive of the role of the sublime in geological enquiry and theory in the early nineteenth century. Darwin's Beagle diary and later notebooks and publications show that the aesthetic of the sublime was both a form of representing geology to a popular audience, and a crucial structure for the observation and recording of the event from the beginning. The awesome spectacle of the earthquake proved in turn the magnitude of the forces at stake in earth history, and helped to make geology an epic conjoining the history of civilization with the history of the earth.

scholarly journals The Creation of the Crofting Townships in Tiree

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Cregeen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Untimely Death ◽  
The Creation

This article was first drafted by its author, Eric R. Cregeen, in 1973; by his untimely death in 1983 it remained still untouched, and it is presented here in a re-cast form. Cregeen's object in writing this article was to ‘trace the beginnings of the crofting townships in the island of Tiree and to examine the forces which led to their creation’. Although elements of the crofting experience have been extensively written on, its origins have seen less investigation, particularly the regional and chronological variations of experience. This work is vital, therefore, in contributing to a fuller understanding of what was happening on one of the great Scottish estates in the age of improvement, and why. This article tracks the development of estate policy on Tiree, the role of the island's owners, the dukes of Argyll, and the nature of the entanglement of ideal and reality in the early nineteenth century.

scholarly journals De la Flandre insolite au fantastique, une spécialité de la littérature belge francophone

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-167
Author(s):  
Renata Bizek-Tatara
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Francophone Literature ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Madame De Stael ◽  
Self Image ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact

This paper shows how the image of the uncanny Flanders, elaborated in the early nineteenth century by Madame de Staël as well as by French writers and voyagers contributed to the specificity of Belgian francophone literature and especially to the creation of the concept of the Belgian school of the bizarre. He examines the impact of the hetero-image on self-image and the role of literature in the formation and perpetuation of the stereotype of Belgium, land of strange. It reveals how Belgian writers used, petrified and propagated this image to build their difference and show their belgité in order to make it a specificity of Belgium.

The National and the Universal

2020 ◽  
pp. 368-386
Author(s):  
Sarah Collins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Johann Gottfried Herder ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Respective Treatment ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines the continuities between the categories of the “national” and the “universal” in the nineteenth century. It construes these categories as interrelated efforts to create a “world” on various scales. The chapter explores the perceived role of music as a world-making medium within these discourses. It argues that the increased exposure to cultural difference and the interpretation of that cultural difference as distant in time and space shaped a conception of “humanity” in terms of a universal history of world cultures. The chapter reexamines those early nineteenth-century thinkers whose work became inextricably linked with the rise of exclusivist notions of nationalism in the late nineteenth century, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and John Stuart Mill. It draws from their respective treatment of music to recover their early commitment to universalizable principles and their view that the “world” is something that must be actively created rather than empirically observed.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 550-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assef Ashraf
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political History ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Center Periphery

AbstractThis article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.

Reformism and Orthodox Practice in Early Nineteenth-Century Muslim North India: Sayyid Ahmed Shaheed Reconsidered

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
SANA HAROON
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
North India ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The North ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThis paper is a reconsideration of the career of the north-Indian Sayyid Ahmed Shaheed (1786–1831). I argue that Sayyid Ahmed used a Sufi devotional premise to understand and explain principles of orthodoxy. He also applied a concept of innate spiritual knowledge to reformed practice, suggesting that ordinary people, without scholarly training, could determine and apply the principles of orthodox practice of Islam for themselves and for others. His movement modified traditional seminary-centred teaching and leadership through the creation of a popular and easily transferrable system of practice rooted in the community and imprinted with the obligation to spread reformist teachings.

scholarly journals Accuracy, veracity, and theological truth in the 16th century atlas <i>Theatrum Terrae Sanctae</i>

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Ioana Zamfir
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Critical Cartography ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Theological Understanding

Abstract. The characteristics and appearance of an authentic map (in conformity with reality), together with the convention about how authenticity should be obtained in a map, continued to change since the beginning of modern cartography along the centuries. As Critical Cartography has emphasised, the authenticity of a map was in many cases just a convincing appearance, hiding intricate ideologies. However, the political role of maps is just one aspect of their significance, which does not exclude the existence of genuine beliefs and ideals which were guiding cartographers and map authors in the creation process.With a long tradition of understanding maps as illustration devices, Renaissance geography blended intimately with the assumptions and debates of the artistic domain of painting. Among these, veracity was a much praised ideal, signifying the ability of the art work to make present the absent things or giving a new life to people or events gone long ago, a perspective which allowed for rich metaphysical implications. In his theological atlas Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, Christian Adrichom used a variety of formula through which he expressed his view on the evocative power of maps, deriving from contemporary theories concerning truth, vision and representation. In this article we will employ the textual analysis of Adrichom’s affirmations, approaching them through the filter of the Intellectual History methodology. This method allows us to discover that the author explored the metaphysical implications of painting realism in order to present and use his maps as Christian devices, equating the veracity of the cartographic medium with the authenticity of Christ’s life and with the theological understanding of truth.

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