Science and popular education in the 1830s: the role of theBridgewater Treatises

Abstract

As is widely known, the Bridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation (1833-36) were commissioned in accordance with a munificent bequest of the eighth Earl of Bridgewater, the Rev. Francis Henry Egerton (1756-1829), and written by seven leading men of science, together with one prominent theological commentator. 1 Less widely appreciated is the extent to which the Bridgewater Treatises rank among the scientific best-sellers of the early nineteenth century. Their varied blend of natural theology and popular science attracted extraordinary contemporary interest and 'celebrity', resulting in unprecedented sales and widespread reviewing. 2 Much read by the landed, mercantile and professional classes, the success of the series 'encouraged other competitors into the field', 3 most notably Charles

Charles Bell’s seeing hand: Teaching anatomy to the senses in Britain, 1750–1840

“…They succeeded as scientific teaching texts that did not threaten religious authority, rather than as examples of demonstrative natural theology or formal apologetics. 15 As such, they stand beside a host of attempts to educate an increasingly large and therefore powerful working and middle class populace in science and rational thought. The popularity of Bell's volume is evidenced by its nine editions published within four decades.…”

Charles Babbage and the Emergence of Automated Reason

“…The previous eight works in the series had been sponsored by the will of Francis Henry Egerton, the Earl of Bridgewater and a member of the English clergy. The will's instructions were to make money available to commission and publish an encyclopedia of natural theology describing ''the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation'' (Brock 1966;Robson 1990;Topham 1992).…”

Representing Novelty: Charles Babbage, Charles Lyell, and Experiments in Early Victorian Geology

“…53 The Ninth was an unsolicited contribution to the eight official tracts written to demonstrate that scientific arguments could usefully be deployed to vindicate natural the010gy. 54 Here he sought to demonstrate that natural laws, which could ultimately be attributed to the "power and knowledge of the great curator", operated on uniform principles which were reflected in mathematical laws. 55 He repeatedly emphasized that the foundations of true knowledge were rooted far deeper than revelation or human testimony, and that unusual or anomalous events that apparently occur in nature, which human intellect attributed to miraculous intervention, could be explained through mathematical principles.…”