Part 41 (1/2)
NEWTON: ADAM SMITH.--_Sir Isaac Newton_ (1642-1727), the discoverer of the law of gravitation, made, through his _Principia_, one of the most important contributions ever made to the advancement of physical science. In 1776 _Adam Smith_, a Scotchman, who had previously written on metaphysics and politics, published his treatise on _The Wealth of Nations_, the first complete system of political economy. He showed that money is not wealth, but simply one product serving as a means of exchange. He made it clear, that, for one nation to gain in trade, it is not requisite that another should lose. Much light was thrown on political economy by essays of _Hume._
V. AMERICA.
The most notable American writers before the War of Independence were _Jonathan Edwards_ (1703-58), a great metaphysical genius, and the founder of a school in theology; and _Benjamin Franklin_ (1706-90), whose writings, in excellent English, related mainly to ethical and economical topics. As the Revolution approached, there sprung up authors of ability on the political questions of the day. _The Federalist_, written after the war, by _Hamilton, Madison_, and _Jay_, in favor of the proposed Const.i.tution, is a work of high merit, as regards both matter and style.
NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
The inductive method, or the ”Baconian” method of observation and experiment, began to bear rich fruits. _Sir Isaac Newton_ (1642-1727) not only discovered the law of gravitation: other discoveries by him in mechanics and optics were of great moment in the progress of those sciences. Fluxions, or the differential calculus, was discovered independently by both _Newton_ and _Leibnitz_. _Euler_, a Swiss mathematician of the highest ability (1707-1783), contributed essentially to the advancement of mechanics. _Napier_ invented logarithms, to shorten mathematical calculations. _Huygens_, a Dutch philosopher (1629-1695), invented the pendulum clock. _Gregory_ (1638-1675) invented the reflecting telescope, _Halley_, an English astronomer (1656-1742), gave his name to a comet whose return he predicted. _Guericke_ invented (1680), and _Robert Boyle_ (1627-1691) perfected, the air-pump. _Boyle_ was active in founding the Royal Society (1660). _Volta_, by the invention of the pile called by his name, and _Franklin_, signally advanced the study of electricity. In the history of zoology, _Buffon_ is a great name, as is that of _Lavoisier_ in chemistry. _Linnaeus_, a Swede, born in the same year with Buffon (1707), attained to the highest distinction by reducing botany to a system. The lives of the eminent astronomers _Lagrange_ (1736-1813), _Laplace_ (1749-1827), and _Sir William Herschel_ (1738-1822), outlasted the eighteenth century.
The radical improvement of the steam-engine by _James Watt_, a Scotchman (1736-1819),--who obtained his first patent in 1769,--and the invention of the spinning-jenny by _Richard Arkwright_ (1732-1792), are indicative of a new era of progress in the application of science to practical arts and uses.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY.
ENGLISH DEISM.--The religious debates and the religious wars of the seventeenth century were followed by much indifference and disbelief in the eighteenth. Weariness with sectarian struggles, and revolt against the yoke of creeds, were pushed to the extreme of a denial of revealed religion,--finally, in France, to a denial of the truths of natural religion also. In England, there appeared a school of deistical writers, beginning earlier with _Lord Herbert_ of Cherbury (1581-1648), and continued through _Tindal_, _Morgan_, _Bolingbroke_, _Shaftesbury_, _Collins_, and others. On the other side, _Butler_, _Lardner_ (1684-1768), _Bentley_, the best of England's cla.s.sical scholars and critics (1662-1742), and, later, _Paley_ (1743-1805), were among the authors who defended the divine origin of Christianity on rational and historical grounds. Of these writers, _Butler_ was the most profound, _Lardner_ and _Bentley_ the most learned, and _Paley_ the most lucid.
THE ”QUAKERS.”--During this period, the Society of Friends, ”Quakers,”
was founded in England by _George Fox_ (1624-1691), who in 1647, impelled by what he considered a divine call, began the life of an itinerant preacher. He and his followers were subjected frequently to cruel persecution, both in England and America. In exceptional cases, they fell into extravagances of enthusiasm, interrupted public wors.h.i.+p, walked in the streets clothed in sackcloth, or in some instances naked. They condemned war, practiced non-resistance, objected to oaths and to a paid ministry, and set an example of the utmost plainness and simplicity in speech and dress. Among their many converts were _William Penn_, and their able and learned theologian, _Robert Barclay_ (1648-1690). The Friends, by their Christian forbearance and patience, their purity of conduct and their philanthropy, and their tranquil piety, gradually won the respect of the other religious bodies, who were at first offended by their novel tenets and manners, and by the occasional occurrence of revolting manifestations of a half-insane enthusiasm.
METHODISM.--Of the religious movements in Protestant countries, Methodism is the most noteworthy. This movement was originated by a little group of students at Oxford, of whom _John Wesley_, his brother _Charles_, and _George Whitefield_ were the chief. Of these, _John Wesley_ (1703-1791) united with intellectual ability and cultivation, and religious fervor, a remarkable organizing capacity. _Whitefield_ was an orator in the pulpit, of unrivaled eloquence. He was a Calvinist in his theology, and separated from _Wesley_ on account of Wesley's Arminian views. They were nicknamed ”Methodists,” from their strictness of life in the University, and their systematic ways. _Wesley_ and his a.s.sociates preached to the common people in England, including the poor colliers and miners, with untiring ardor and surprising effect. Their converts were very numerous, and were formed into societies under a definite polity and discipline. The Wesleyan movement was much opposed in the Church of England by those who stood in dread of enthusiasm. By ordaining lay preachers and superintendents for America, and by putting its chapels under the protection of the Toleration Act,--measures which _Wesley_ deemed necessary,--Methodism became separate from the Anglican Established Church. As a distinct body, it gained a. mult.i.tude of adherents in England and America.
MORAVIANISM.--In 1722 a company of persecuted Moravian Christians was received by Count _Zinzendorf_ (1700-1760) on his estate, situated on the borders of Bohemia. They founded a town called _Herrnkut_. _Zinzendorf_ became their bishop. The new community was distinguished for sincere piety and for missionary zeal. They did not in the least antagonize the Lutheran churches, yet had an organization of their own. Some of them settled in America. The Moravians never became a very numerous body; but their influence in promoting spiritual religion and education, and in carrying Christianity to the heathen, has been more potent than that of many larger bodies of Christians. It was specially wholesome in Germany, at a time when, under the auspices of _Frederick the Great_, the French type of unbelief prevailed in the higher cla.s.ses of society.
PIETISM.--Prior to _Zinzendorf_, _Spener_ (1635-1705), a man of devout feeling, had given rise to the ”Pietists,” as the promoters of a warmer type of religious experience than was approved by the current opinion were derisively named.
SWEDENBORG.--_Swedenborg_ (1688-1772), a Swedish n.o.ble, a mathematician and naturalist of large attainments, communicated, in copious writings, what he sincerely professed to consider special revelations made to him respecting G.o.d, the unseen world, and the sense of the Scriptures. His adherents are called ”The New Church,” or Swedenborgians.
THE JESUIT ORDER.--Under the influences that had sway in the eighteenth century, the authority of the popes sank in the Catholic countries. The spirit of innovation was rife. One of the remarkable incidents of the time, characteristic of its tendency, was the conflict of Portugal and the Bourbon courts of France and Spain, with the Society of Jesuits. The Jesuits had secretly established, un.o.bserved, a state under their own exclusive control in _Paraguay_, a part of which, by a treaty of Portugal with Spain, fell to Portugal. Other charges, some relating to interference in political affairs, and some to other and different grounds of complaint, led to the expulsion of the order from all Portuguese territory (1757); and soon after, it was suppressed in France and in Spain, and in several of the Italian states. The Jesuit order was formally abolished by _Pope Clement XIV._ in 1773, to be again restored by papal authority in 1814.
ESSAYS AT POLITICAL REFORM.
RUSSIA: GERMANY.--The minds of men were unsettled, not only by the prevalent tone of literature and speculation, but by governmental changes and reforms. The disposition was to introduce French methods of administration. _Catherine II._ of Russia (1762-1796) tried the experiment of various judicial and educational reforms. _Frederick the Great_, with more wisdom and consistency, introduced many changes for the benefit of the industrial cla.s.s. The most sweeping reforms were undertaken by the Emperor _Joseph II_. (1780-1790), after the death of his mother, _Maria Theresa_. His measures for the reduction of the power of the clergy and of the n.o.bility, the closing of monasteries, and the weakening of the connection of the Austrian Church with Rome, were of a very radical character. He himself finally became convinced that they were too radical to be completely realized, in the existing state of opinion among his subjects. Two of his reforms--the abolition of serfdom, and the edict of religious toleration--remained in force. The other changes did not survive him. The attempts to impose his reforms in the Austrian Netherlands provoked an insurrection. _Leopold II. _(1790-1792), _Joseph's_ successor, suppressed the Belgian revolt, but repealed the ordinances of his brother which had occasioned it.
TUSCANY.--In Tuscany, the brother of _Joseph II., Leopold,_ prior to his becoming emperor, undertook likewise a great plan of ecclesiastical reform in the same line as that of _Joseph_ (1786); but there the opposition of the bishops prevented him from practically carrying out his scheme.
PORTUGAL.--In Portugal, the house of _Braganza_ had ascended the throne in 1640. _Joseph Emanuel_ (1750-1777) left the management of the government to his minister, _Pombal_. His measures were contrived to weaken the power of the n.o.bles and the clergy. By him the warfare against the Jesuits was carried forward. The fall of _Pombal_, which followed the death of the king, led to the abolition of all his reforms, which had the same fate as those undertaken later in Austria by _Joseph II_.
LITERATURE.--See the lists of works on pp. 16, 395, 450, and Adams's _Manual of Historical Literature_; SCHLOSSER'S _History of the Eighteenth Century_ (8 vols,); NOORDEN'S _Europaische Gesch. im 18tn. Jahr.: Der Spanische Erbfolgekrieg_ (2 vols.); Lord John Wakeman, _European History_, 1598-1715; Ha.s.sall, _European History_, 1715-1789; Perlcins, _Regency_ and _Louis XV_, (3 vols.); St. Simon, _The Memoirs of the Reign of Louis XIV. and the Regency_ [an abridgment, 3 vols.]; Voltaire, _Age of Louis XIV_.; PHILIPPSON (in Oncken's Series), _Das Zeitalter Ludwigs d. Vierzehten_; A. de Broglie, _Louis XV: The King's Secret Correspondence with his Agents_, etc. (2 vols.); A. Thiers, _The Mississippi Bubble_; Morley's _Life of Voltaire_, and _Life of Rousseau_.
A. v, Arneth, _Geschichte Maria Theresas_ (10 vols., 1863-79): DUNCKER, _Aus der Zeit Friedrichs d. Grossen_, etc.; RANKE, _Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, and History of Prussia during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries_ (3 vols); CARLYLE'S _History of Frederick the Second_ (6 vols.); Tuttle, _History of Prussia_ (4 vols.); Von Raumer, _Frederick the Second and his Times_; A. de Broglie, _Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa_ (2 vols.); ONCKEN, _Das Zeitalter Friedrich d. Grossen_ (2 vols.).
The _Diaries_ of PEPYS and EVELYN; R. Vaughan, _Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell_; MACAULAY'S _History of England from the Accession of James II_. (4 vols.); MAHON'S _History of England_ (1701-13), also _History of England_ (1713 to 1783) (7 vols.); BURTON, _History of the Reign of Queen Anne_; E.E.MORRIS, _The Age of Anne_; Alison, _Military Life of the Duke of Marlborough_; _Life of Marlborough_, by Gleig, by c.o.xe (3 vols.); LECKY'S _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_ (2 vols.); Froude, _The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_ (2 vols.); Mahan, _Influence of the Sea Power on History_; Egerton, _Short History of British Colonial Policy_; Seeley, _The Expansion of England_; Payne, _European Colonies_; Lucas, _Introduction to a Historical Geography of the British Colonies_; H. Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of George II._ (3 vols.), and of _George III_. (4 vols.); J. G. Phillimore, _History of England during the Reign of George III_.; J. Adolphus, _History of England_ [1760 83] (3 vols.); Wraxall (1751-1831), _Historical Memoirs of his own Time_ (4 vols.). and _Posthumous Memoirs of his own Time_, (3 vols.); May, _Const.i.tutional History of England_ [1760-1860] (2 vols.); STOUGHTON, _History of Religion in England from the Opening of the Long Parliament to the End of the Eighteenth Century_ (6 vols.); TYERMAN'S _Life of Wesley_; SOUTHEY'S _Life of Wesley_; TYERMAN'S _Life of Whitefield_; TYLER'S _History of American Literature_; VAN LAUN, _History of French Literature_ (3 vols.); MORLEY'S _Series of English Men of Letters_; TAINE'S _History of English Literature_.
Schuyler's _Life of Peter the Great_; Catherine II., _Memoirs written by herself_; RAM-BAUD'S _History of Russia_.