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James Thomson's Contact with Newtonianism and His Interest in Natural Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Herbert Drennon
Herbert Drennon*
Affiliation:
State Teachers College, Murray, Kentucky
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Extract

James Thomson's first contact with Newtonian philosophy was as a student at the University of Edinburgh between 1715 and 1725. Newtonianism had been first introduced there by David Gregory, who, upon graduation in 1683, was appointed Professor of Mathematics. William Whiston, Newton's successor at Cambridge, says that it was to one of Gregory's papers that he owed his conversion to Newton's philosophy. When David Gregory accepted the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford in 1691, he was succeeded at Edinburgh by his brother, James Gregory, another Newtonian. In 1725, on the recommendation of Newton himself, Colin Maclaurin was appointed to assist James Gregory at Edinburgh; thus, from 1683 on, Newtonianism was firmly established in the University of Edinburgh.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , March 1934 , pp. 71 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 For facts concerning David Gregory, see the article, “David Gregory,” in DNB, and likewise the article in the Biographia Brittanica (1757), iv, 2365 ff. Cf. Sir Alexander Grant, The Story of Edinburgh During Its Three Hundred Years, 2 vols. (London, 1884), ii, 296.

2 Memoirs of The Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston (London, 1749), pp. 35–36.

3 See Andrew Dalzel, History of The University of Edinburgh From Its Foundation, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1862), ii, 245–246.—Dalzel's History is really a source-book for the history of Edinburgh University. He collected his documents down to 1723, but died before he was able to write the history in a connected order. Brewster, quoting a statement made by Professor Playfair, says that James Gregory printed a thesis at Edinburgh in 1690 containing twenty-five positions, twenty-two of which “were a compend of Newton's Principia.” See Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, i, 335.

4 See Newton's letter to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh in Patrick Murdoch's “Account of the Life and Writings of the Author” (Colin Maclaurin), prefixed to Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries (Edinburgh, etc., 1748), pp. iv–v.

5 For a discussion of the old and new systems of teaching, see Grant, The Story of Edinburgh, i, 263 ff., and Dalzel's History, ii, 299 ff.

6 Grant says that Stewart soon (that is, after 1708) “dropped the Ethics and Aristotelianism in general, and became a natural philosopher of the school of Newton.” See The Story of Edinburgh, i, 263, and ii, 349. Dalzel, who taught many years in Edinburgh and was quite familiar with its history, says that the Scottish universities “were fully as forward in cherishing and admiring” the Baconian philosophy “ when known, as well as that of the divine Newton which soon succeeded it, as the universities of any other country.” Dalzel, History, ii, 51. Though a probability only, yet it is a strong one, that Stewart was teaching the Newtonian philosophy by 1719, when Thomson became his student.

7 Grant gives the list of textbooks that Stewart was using at this time. See The Story of Edinburgh, i, 272–273.

8 The widespread interest in Newton's philosophy in the University of Edinburgh is shown by the fact that various teachers connected with the institution were subscribers for Pemberton's work. Among these were William Hamilton, Professor of Divinity, William Law, Professor of Moral Law, Colin Maclaurin, Professor of Mathematics, Robert Stewart, Professor of Natural Philosophy, and George Drummond, Lord Provost of Edinburgh. A copy was also secured for the Physiological Library.

9 See a poem entitled “The Works and Wonders of Almighty Power,” listed under “Juvenilia” in the Poetical Works of James Thomson (Oxford ed., London, etc., 1908), pp. 483–484.

10 See The Works of Cowper and Thomson (Philadelphia, 1837), “Addenda to the Memoir, p. xxviii.

11 Six years were usually spent in the College of Divinity. See Grant, The Story of Edinburgh, i, 63.

12 See his letters to Cranstoun, one written before he left Edinburgh and the other a little after his arrival in London. The Works of Cowper and Thomson, pp., vi and xxxviii.

13 See DBN art., “James Thomson.”

14 Arbuthnot spoke of “the incomparable Mr. Newton” (George Aitken, The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, p. 410. See also his attitude toward mathematics, pages 412–415). Mallet praised Newton, calling him “a pure Intelligence” (The Excursion, 1728, in Chalmers' English Poets, xiv, 22). Dr. Rundle was a close friend of the Newtonian divine, Samuel Clarke, and knew William Whiston intimately (see Rundle's Letters of The Late Thomas Rundle, p. xiv), and Patrick Murdoch edited for his former teacher, Colin Maclaurin, his book on Newton's philosophy (see DNB art., “Patrick Murdoch”).

15 Winter, in Thomson's Seasons, Critical Edition, ed. by Otto Zippel (Berlin, 1908), ii, 258 ff.

16 Summer, Zippel, ii, 535 ff.

17 It should not be overlooked that Thomson did not mention Shaftesbury in the edition of Summer (1727). This is a significant fact if Thomson, as has been maintained, had already come under the influence of the moral philosopher. See C. A. Moore, “Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, 1700–1760,” PMLA xxxi (1916), 281.

Thomson was perhaps personally acquainted with Catherine Barton (Mrs. Conduitt), Newton's niece and a close friend of Swift's. In a letter to Swift (1733) she tells him that Thomson has completed some 2,000 lines of Liberty. See Brewster's Memoirs of … Sir Isaac Newton, ii, 494–495. Thomson knew that John Conduitt, Catherine's husband, was at work on a memorial volume to Newton in 1727. See To The Memory of Sir Isaac Newton ll. 157–161.

18 Letters of The Late Thomas Rundle, ii, 77.

19 See the comments of Swift and Pope concerning the character and ability of Dr. Rundle in Rundle's Letters, i, cxxiv–cxxvi. There is an interesting description by Rundle of a trip he, Thomson, “Billy” (William Talbot), and the “Sollicitor” (later Lord Chancellor Talbot) made to a solitary island in Ashdown-Park sometimes in 1731. Letters, ii, 180–181. It has been supposed by some that Thomson was on the continent from December, 1730, until December, 1731. See Poetical Works of James Thomson, ed. by J. Logie Robertson (New York, etc., 1908), pp. xvi–xvii.

20 Shaftesbury was first mentioned in Summer, 1730, with an explanatory footnote. See Robertson, p. 127, for the footnote.

21 Summer, ll. 1523–55.—All references to the Seasons are made to Otto Zippel's Critical Edition (Berlin, 1908) unless otherwise stated.

22 I take it that all of the notes signed “T” in Zippel as well as in Robertson's edition to Thomson's Poetical Works were made by Thomson himself.

23 For Thomson's references to Mead, Maupertuis, Burnet, and Tyson, see Poetical Works (Oxford edition, London, 1908), pp. 124, 244, 416, 421, respectively. Dr. Mead and Dr. Tyson subscribed for Pemberton's A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy in 1728.

24 I am aware of the fact that Milton (Paradise Lost, Bk. x, ll. 668 ff.) wrote concerning the change in the solar order which produced the seasons but the parallel is greater between Thomson's statement and that of Burnet's than that between the passages from Thomson and Milton; furthermore, Thomson's order of presentation and his use of certain details follow Burnet's theory more closely.

25 Burnet, The Theory of the Earth (London, 1684), pp. 67–68, 186–196—See John Woodward's attack on Burnet's theory. An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth …, 3d. ed. (London, 1723), p. 269.

26 Spring (1728), ll. 300–304.

27 Ibid., ll. 352–353.

28 Ibid., ll. 354–363.

29 Thomas Burnet had a high regard for the new philosophy. See Theory, pp. 315–316. He criticizes the views both of Aristotle and the Schoolmen. He sees God's providence more in “the progress of Nature” than in a study of a “single effect.” Burnet, p. 317. Read also the interesting preface to his work.

30 See Whiston's Theory of the Earth (1696) and John Keill's Examination of Dr. Burnet's, Theory of the Earth (1698). Consult Professor C. A. Moore's bibliographical data in Stud. in Phil., 13–14 (1917), p. 253 n.

31 Autumn (1730), ll. 726–764.—G. R. Potter (following Otto Zippel in his critical edition of the Seasons) says that Thomson in 1730 very likely took his idea concerning the origin of springs, etc., direct from the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. Seemingly he gives Thomson credit for the view which he expressed in 1744 concerning the same subject. See “James Thomson and the Evolution of Spirits,” Englische Studien, lxi (1925), 58 ff. As this particular subject was much debated during Thomson's period, it is quite possible, though not necessarily true, that he derived his different views from the works of his “philosophic” contemporaries.

32 John Woodward, Natural History of the Earth … (3d ed., London, 1723), p. 135.

33 Halley's theory appears in An Historical Account of the Trade Winds and Monsoons, observable in the Seas between and near the Tropicks, with an attempt to assign the physical cause of said Winds, etc., 1686. See Philosophical Transactions, No. 183. Nieuwentyt apparently followed Halley's theory. See The Religious Philosopher: or the Right Use of Contemplating the Works of the Creator … designed for the Conviction of Atheists and Infidels (2 vols., London, 1724), ii, 252–257, 259.

34 Autumn, ll. 759–837. Why Thomson changed from the earlier to a later view is not known. The theory of 1744 is quite similar to the one found in J. T. Desagulier's article, “An attempt to solve the Phaenomena of the Rise of Vapours, Formation of Clouds and Descent of Rains,” which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of 1729–30. It is also possible that Thomson between 1730 and 1744 read Arbuthnot's confutation of Woodward's theory. See The Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot (2 vols., 2d ed., Glasgow, 1751), i, 197–235.

35 Woodward, Natural History, p. 56.

36 Bentley, Works (Dyce ed.), iii, 75.

37 Baker, The Universe, p. 16.—We know that Woodward recognized his indebtedness to Newton. He dedicated his Naturalis Historia Telluris to Newton (1714). See Brewster's Memoirs, ii, 247 n. Another Newtonian disciple, Henry Needier, was likewise an admirer of the author of Natural History. See an account of Needler's visit to John Woodward in Works, 3d ed. (London, 1735), pp. 94 ff.