The Ideological Origins of Robert Boyle's Natural Philosophy

R.K. Merton , 'Science, technology and society in seventeenth century England', Osiris, iv, 1938, pp. 441 and 443.

Robert Hugh Kargon , Atomism in England from Harriot to Newton Oxford, 1966, pp. 76, 96-97 and 104-5.

R.S. Westfall , Science and Religion in Seventeenth-century England, New Haven, Connecticut , 1958, pp. 2-3 and 7-11.

Alexander B. Grosart (ed.), The Lismore Papers (second series), 5 vols., (n.p. 1888), V, 20-22 ; hereafter cited as Lismore.

Ibid., p. 72;

and, Thomas Birch , 'The life of the Honourable Robert Boyle,' in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle (Thomas Birch ed.), 5 vols., London, 1744, I, 15; hereafter cited as Birch, Life in Works.

. Quoted ibid., p. 19,

Boyle to Isaac Marcombes, London, 22 October 1646.

. Quoted ibid.

R.E.W. Maddison , The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle , London 1969, pp. 61 and 63; cited hereafter as Maddison, Life.

Dictionary of National Biography (DNB).

Samuel Hartlib , A Description of the Famous Kingdom of Macaria ..., in The Harleian Miscellany, London , 1808, I, 582;

and, Birch , Life in Works , I, 23, Boyle to Dury, 3 May 1647.

Ibid., p. 18, Boyle to Niarcombes, 22 October 1646 .

Ibid., p. 19, Boyle to Marcombes, 22 October 1646 .

. Ibid., p. 23, Boyle to Dury, 3 May 1647.

Ibid., p. 19, Boyle to Marcombes, 22 October 1646 .

The Royal Society of London, MS. 195; hereafter cited as Aretology. Another manuscript in the same library—MS. 192, 'The Ethicall Elements'—appears to be a draft of the first portion of MS. 195. For the dating of MS. 195, see the title page and Birch, Life in Works, I, 17 and 20. For the appearance of ideas first expressed in 'The Aretology' in Boyle's later work, compare my consideration of 'The Aretology' with, for instance, Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God, Pathetically discoursed of, in a letter to a friend, in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle , (Thomas Birch, ed.) 5 vols., London, 1744, I , 163; hereafter cited as Works.

Aretology, fol. 31 v.; Robert Ashley , Of Honour , V. B. Heltzel (cd.), San Marino, California, 1947, pp. 28, 30, 35 and 51;

Ruth Kelso , The Doctrine of the English Gentleman in the Sixteenth Century , Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1964, pp. 22, 27 and 29-30;

and, Curtis Brown Watson , Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor, Princcton, 1960, pp. 67 and 91.

Chatsworth , Devonshire Collections, Richard, the Earl of Cork's Letter Book, fol. 142;

Chatsworth , Devonshire Collections, Robert Boyle to Richard, the Earl of Cork 16 November 1640 ; and, Lismore, V, 114.

Aretology, fols. 18 and 22 v.

Ibid., fol. 179r

Ibid., fol. 180 v.

Ibid., 173r., and 174-5r. ;

and, A Free Discourse Against Customary Swearing, in Works, V, 216-17; cited hereafter as Free Discourse.

Birch claims (Birch, Life in Works, I, 26) to have seen a finished or polished draft of the latter work in Boyle's own script dated 1647. This should indicate that its composition was probably contemporary with that of 'The Aretology'.

See note 21 above.

Birch , Life in Works, I, 6.

Ibid., p. 19, Boyle to Marcombes, 22 October 1646 ; and, Maddison, Life, pp. 53-4.

Birch , Life in Works, I, 19, Boyle to Marcombes, 22 October 1646.

The Royal Society of London, MS. 196, 'Of Piety', fols. 54 v.-55; cited hereafter as Of Piety; its contents and handwriting suggest that it was written in the late 1640s (in this connection see also Maddison, Life, p. 33).

Aretology, fol. 170 r.

Ibid., fols. 211 V.-212r.

Of Piety, fols. vv54.-55.

The Royal Society of London, The Boyle Papers (hereafter cited as The Boyle Papers), 'Of Time and Idleness', Theology, XIV, fol. 20 r.; this piece was probably written in the late 1640s or the early 1650s (see Maddison, Life, 64).

Aretology,, fols. 225 and 227v.-228r.

Ibid., fols. 15 r. and 22 v.-23 r.; and, The Royal Society of London, MS. 196, 'Of Valour', fols. 64 v.-65 r. (for the dating of this piece see note 30 above).

Of Piety, fols. 54v.-55;

and, Free Discourse, in Works, V, 216-17.

Aretology, fols. 224v.-225r.

Ibid., fol. 191v.

Ibid., fol. 192r.

Ibid., fol. 192v.

Margaret E. Rowbottom, 'The earliest published writing of Robert Boyle', Annals of Science, VI (21 November 1950), 376;

and, R.E.W. Maddison , 'The earliest published writing of Robert Boyle', Annals of Science, XVII ( 1961 ), 165-168.

Walter E. Houghton, Jr. , 'The English virtuoso in the seventeenth century' , Journal of the History of Ideas, III( January 1942), 51-73, and (April 1942), 190-219;

and, Lawrence Stone , The Crisis of the Aristocracy, Oxford, 1965, p. 717.

Rowbottom , op.cit., pp. 380-1.

Ibid., p. 383.

Hartlib, op. cit., pp. 580-5; Birch, Life in Works, I, 23, Boyle to Dury, 3 May 1647; and, Milton, Areopagitica, in Complete Prose Works of John Milton (New Haven and London 1959), II, 565 and 567-8.

In 1644 Milton addressed his treatise Of Education to Hartlib; and Leslie Stephen, DNB, XXXVIII , 31.

Rowbottom, op. cit., pp. 378-9.

Thomas Morrice , 'The life of the Earl of Orrery', in A Collection of the State Letters of the Right Honourable Roger Boyle, the First Earl of Orrery London, 1742, pp. 9-10.

Historical Library , Medical Library, Yale University,

a draft letter written by Robert Boyle and addressed to an unidentified lady, requesting her aid in securing a pass for Roger from the French Ambassador , Marston Bigot, 26 March 1649.

Morrice, op. cit., p. 11 ; also Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, State Papers, Oxford, 1773, II, 501, 'The Lord Inchiquin to the Marquis of Ormond', Kilmallock, 9 December 1649, which tends to confirm Morrice's account.

R.E.W. Maddison , 'Studies in the life of Robert Boyle, F.R.S. Part VI The Stalbridge Period, 1645-1655,

and the Invisible College' , Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, XVIII(December 1963), pp. 116and 117; hereafter cited as Maddison, Studies.

B.M. Add. MS. 32093, fol. 293, Boyle to John Mallet, 2 March 1652.

Works, II, 199, in a dialogue that 'treats of Angling improved to spiritual uses' (ibid., 182), written some time between the regicide and the restoration (ibid., 181).

Ibid., pp. 196-7.

Ibid., pp. 195-6.

Ibid., pp. 196-7.

Boyle knew Bacon's Advancement of Learning by this time and accepted his sense expressed therein of the complementarity of theology and natural philosophy; see Some Considerations touching the Usefulness of experimental natural philosophy Part I, in Works, I , 458; cited hereafter as Considerations, Part I. These were written between 1649 and 1654;

see R.S. Westfall , 'Unpublished Boyle papers relating to scientific method', Annals of Science, XII (March 1956), p. 65; hereafter cited as Westfall, Boyle Papers.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 430, 431 and 433.

Ibid., PP. 439, 440 and 461.

Works, V, 238.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I, 433 and 439-40;

Bacon , The Advancement of Learning; and, M. C. Jacob, The Church and the Boyle Lectures: The Social Context of the Newtonian Natural Philosophy, (unpublished PhD thesis; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1969).

'Of Celestial Influences or Effluviums in the Air' , in Works, V , 124-7 (for dating see Westfall, Boyle Papers, 65).

Works, V, 236, Robert Boyle to Lady Elizabeth Hussey, 6 June 1648.

H. Fisch , 'The scientist as priest: a note on Robert Boyle's natural theology', Isis, XL (1953) p. 256, referring to certain of Boyle's Occasional Reflections pertaining to alchemy, written in the late 1640s or the 1650s.

See note 59 above.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 425, 429-3°, 440, 442, 443 and 453.

Ibid., p. 441;

and, The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, 126r.

( The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, fols. 123-38

were probably written during the same period as 'Part I' of Considerations; compare, for instance, Works , I, 424 and 426, and fol. 129;

Works, I, 430,

and fol. 124 v.; Works, I, 432,

and fol. 127 v.; Works, I, 433 and 439,

and fol. 138r.; and, Works, I, 441-443, and fols. 125 r.-128 v.).

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 454.

The Boyle Papers , Philosophy, VIII, 126r.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 441.

Ibid., p. 461.

Ibid., pp. 441-2.

Ibid., pp. 425-6.

The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, 125r.;

and, Considerations, Part I , in Works, I, 442.

The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, 125v.

Ibid., p. 128.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 442-3 ;

and, The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, 128.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 424.

Ibid., p. 426.

Ibid., P 429.

B.M., Harley 7003, fol. 179, Boyle to Mallet, November 1651.

See notes 56 and 57 above.

H.R. Trevor-Roper , 'Oliver Cromwell and his Parliaments', in Religion, the Reformation and Social Change, London 1967, pp. 362-71 ;

and Austin Woolrych , 'The calling of Barebone's Parliament' The English Historical Review, CCCXVI(July 1965), pp. 494-98 and 512-13.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 424.

Fisch , op. cit., pp. 252-65, treats of Boyle's appropriation of hermetic doctrines and claims that they served as the basis of 'the integration' of his science and religion, to which his natural philosophy in turn 'owes its dynamism ...' (ibid., pp. 253-4). But according to Fisch, Boyle's reasons for appropriating hermetic doctrines were 'metaphysical and psychological' (ibid., p. 254), whereas I shall argue that they were social and ideological.

The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, 127v.;

and, Considerations, Part I, in Works, I, 441.

Ibid., 429.

Geoffrey Nuttall , '"Unity with the Creation": George Fox and the hermetic tradition', in The Puritan Spirit, London, 1967, pp. 194-203;

and, John Webster , Academiarum Examen, London, 1654, pp. 26-32.

This sort of motive almost certainly whetted his interest in rabbinnical studies in this period. In 1651 he knew that the Jews might shortly win legal toleration in England and was apprehensive about the consequences. He feared that if the Jews were free to practice their faith, 'it may seduce many of those numerous Unprincipled (and consequently) Unstable Soules, who having never been solidly or settledly grounded in the Truth, are equally obnoxious to all sorts of Errors...'. In part, it seems, because of this project he went to 'a very learned Amsterdam' Jew visiting in London in order to 'inform' himself 'of the true Tenets and Rites of the Moderne Jewes ...' (B.M., Harley 7003, fol. 179). An adequate defence of the true faith would lie partly in knowledge of the false—or the devil can quote Scripture to his own purposes.

Compare The Bovle Papers, Philosophy , VIII, 127 v.,

and Everard's translation, p. 2;

and, The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, 128 v.,

and Everard , p. 1 and 'To the Reader'; see also Considerations, Part I, in Works, I, 441 and 458.

William Haller , The Rise of Puritanism, New York, 1938, pp. 211—12. For Everard's contribution to Quakerism see R. M. Jones, Mysticism and Democracy in the English Commonwealth, Cambridge, Massachusetts , 1932, p. 63 ff.; and,

Nuttall , op.cit., p. 195.

Haller , op.cit., p. 208.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I, 460.

Works, I , 167;

Maddison , Studies, VI; and, J. J. O'Brien, 'Samuel Hartlib's Influence on Robert Boyle's scientific development. Part I.

The Stalbridge Period', Annals of Science , XXI (March 1965), pp. 1-14.

P.M. Rattansi , 'Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution', Ambix, XI( 1964), pp. 24-32;

P.M. Rattansi , 'The intellectual origins of the Royal Society', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, XXIII (December 1968), pp. 136-7;

and, Webster , op. cit., pp. 74-6, and pp. 106-7.

Compare, for example, Considerations , Part I, in Works, I, 461,

and Thomas Vaughan. , Magia Adamica: or the Antiquitie of Magic, in A. E. Waite (ed.), The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan , London, 1888, pp. 103-4;

see also G.H. Turnbull , 'George Stirk, philosopher by fire (1628?-1665) Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts,XXXVIII. Transactions 1947-1951, Boston 1959, p. 238;

R.S. Wilkinson , 'The Hartlib papers and seventeenth-century chemistry. Part I', Ambix, XV (1968), pp. 62-3;

and, Maddison , Life, p. 79.

Thomas Vaughan , Anthroposophia Theomagica, in Waite (ed.), op.cit., p. 38.

M. H. Nicholson (ed.), The Conway Letters , London, 1930, p. 75.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I, 460.

Ibid., pp. 446 and 450.

For instance, Marie Boas , 'Boyle as theoretical scientist' , Isis, XL (1950 ), pp. 261-8;

Westfall , Boyle Papers, pp. 63-73 and 103-17;

Kargon , op. cit., pp. 93-105;

and, Laurans Laudan , 'The clock metaphor and probabilism: the impact of Descartes on English methodological thought, 1650-65', Annals of Science , XII (June 1966), pp. 73-104.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I , 444.

Ibid., p. 445.

Ibid.

Ibid., pp. 445, and 446-7.

Ibid., p. 447.

Denis Saurat , Milton, Man and Thinker, London, 1944, p. 278;

and, Richard Overton , Mans Mortalitie Amsterdam, 1644 , pp. 27-9.

Birch , Life in Works, I, 88.

Consideratians, Part I, in Works, I, 445.

Ibid., p. 446.

Ibid., pp. 447-9, and 451-2.

Ibid., p. 439.

Ibid., p. 433.

Ibid., p. 439.

Ibid., p. 433

- The Boyle Papers, Philosophy, VIII, fol. 138r., written during the same period as the passages I have just quoted (note 68 above), confirms the point of this paragraph and the following paragraph of my text.

B.M. Add. MS. 32093, fol. 293. Boyle to Mallet, 2 March 1651 ; B.M., Harley 7003, fol. 180 r., Boyle to Mallet, November 1651; and, Some Considerations touching the style of the Holy Scriptures, written in 1651 or 1652 (Works, II, 90; and, Birch, Life in Works, I, 28), in Works, II, 129, for Boyle's sense of the coming of such a reformation. What its precise conclusion would be Boyle does not say in his letters to Mallet. In this same period, however, Boyle and his sister Katherine shared belief in an imminent apocalypse, when, as she wrote to him, 'all this old frame of heaven and earth must pass and a new one be set up in its place...' In the same letter she wrote of new 'signs' of the coming millennium and revealed that Robert himself believed at the time that it would happen some seven years hence (Works, V, 565, 'K.R.' to Robert Boyle, 14 September). Although the year of the letter is not recorded, evidence indicates that it was written in the early 1650s [ibid., pp. 564-5; Mary E. Palgrave, Mary Rich; Countess of Warwick (1625-1678), London, 1901, p. 137; and, Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick Autobiography, (T. Crofton Croker, ed.), London, 1848, pp. 24-5]. Could apocalypse and millennium have been what Boyle had in mind as the culmination of his reformation? If so, one thing is certain from what we know: his version of the new heaven and earth would have been quite different from that of the sectaries whom he was attacking.

Considerations, Part I, in Works, I, 439.

Ibid.

Ibid., pp. 429, 460.

Ibid., p. 457.

Ibid., p. 462.

Works, II , p. 107.

Ibid., p. 88.

Ibid., p. go;

and, Birch , Life in Works, I, 28.

George R. Abernathy, Jr. , 'The English Presbyterians and the Stuart Restoration, 1648-1663', in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N.S., LV, part 2 (May 1965), 11-12.

Ibid., pp. 11-12, and 13-14.

Quoted in Birch, Life in Works , I, 29.

Works, II, 107.