Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Meteorology

Abstract

From the time of Galileo in the seventeenth century physical scientists had shown themselves able to reduce masses of data to simple and apparently exact laws, mathematically expressed. Newton’s law of gravity in particular accounted for so many otherwise unrelated facts in the heavens and upon earth that it seemed to possess almost scriptural authority. For some, such as the French astronomer and mathematician Laplace, whose Mécanique Céleste (1825) was translated and explained for English readers in Mary Somerville’s The Mechanism of the Heavens (1831), this explanatory power of science led to atheism and materialism. In Britain, however, the broad consensus of opinion is neatly embodied in the full title of a standard work, Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature (1802) by William Paley. The alliance between science and religion held firm, though antipathy to science is central to Blake’s very personal religion. Scientific thought at the beginning of the century was in consequence unusually confident and open. Manufacturers, miners, clergymen, potters, surveyors, lecturers and many other kinds of people enthusiastically practised science without any fear that it might destroy their faith or upset their neighbours.