John T. Harwood, editor. The Early Essays and Ethics of Robert Boyle. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. 1991. Pp. lxix, 330. $39.95. - Julian Martin. Francis Bacon, the State, and the Reform of Natural Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1992. Pp. xiii, 236. $49.50.

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-94
Author(s):  
James R. Jacob

Each number of Notes and Records contains a short bibliography of books and articles dealing with the history of the Royal Sociey or its Fellows which have appeared since the publication of the last number. If Fellows would be good enough to draw the Editor’s attention to omissions these would be added to the list in the next issue. B ooks Auber, F. Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) als Physiologe und Statistiker. Basle / Stuttgart, 1959. 11 Sw. fr. Bibby, C. T. H. Huxley . Watts, 1959. 25s. Boas, Maria. Robert Boyle and seventeenth-century Chemistry . Cambridge, 1958. 30s. Bell, P. R., Challinor, J., Haldane, J. B. S., and others. Darwin´s Biological Work . Cambridge University Press, 1959. 40s. Barnet, S. A., ed. A Century of Darwin . Heinemann, 1958. 30s. Cohen, B. Franklin and Newton. An Inquiry into speculative Newtonian experimental science and Franklin´s work in electricity as an example thereof. Philadelphia (The American Philosophical Society), 1956. $6.00. Cohen, B., and Schofield, R. E., ed. Isaac Newton´s Papers and Letters in Natural Philosophy . C.U.P., 1958. 70s. Darlington, C. D. Darwin’s place in history . Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1959. 9s. 6d. Darwin, C. (Peckham, M., ed.). The Origin of Species. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959. 120s. Darwin, F., ed. The autobiography oj Charles Darwin and selected letters. New York, Dover Publications Inc., 1958. $1.65.


Author(s):  
Victor Nuovo

Although the vocation of Christian virtuoso was invented and named by Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon provided the archtype. A Christian virtuoso is an experimental natural philosopher who professes Christianity, who endeavors to unite empiricism and supernatural belief in an intellectual life. In his program for the renewal of the learning Bacon prescribed that the empirical study of nature be the basis of all the sciences, including not only the study of physical things, but of human society, and literature. He insisted that natural causes only be used to explain natural events and proposed not to mix theology with natural philosophy. This became a rule of the Royal Society of London, of which Boyle was a principal founder. Bacon’s rule also had a theological use, to preserve the purity and the divine authority of revelation. In the mind of the Christian virtuoso, nature and divine revelation were separate but complementary sources of truth.


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