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APPENDIX a Joseph Glanvill Was One of Those Remarkable Types of Men Whieh Were So Characteristic a Feature of the Seventeenth Ce

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APPENDIX a Joseph Glanvill Was One of Those Remarkable Types of Men Whieh Were So Characteristic a Feature of the Seventeenth Ce APPENDIX A "And this last Century ean glory in numerous cOllstellations. Should those Heroes go on, as they have happily begun, they'll lill the world with wonders. A nd 1 doubt not but posterity will lind many things, that are now but Rumors, verilied into praetieal Realities. It may be some Age henee, a voyage to the Southern unknown Traets, yea possibly the M oon, will not be more strange then one to A meriea. To them, that come alter us, it may be as ordinary to buy a pair 01 wings to Ily into remotest Regions .... A nd to eonler at the distanee 01 1ndies by Sympathetick eonveyanees, may be as usual to luture times, as to us in a litterary eorrespondenee .... the turning 01 the new eomparative desert world into a Paradise, may IIOt improbably be expected trom late A grieulture." ]oseph Glanvill, "Scepsis Seientiliea", 1665 '). JOSEPH GLANVILL'S "SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA" - (1665) Joseph Glanvill was one of those remarkable types of men whieh were so characteristic a feature of the seventeenth century. He was born at Plymouth and came of an impoverished branch of a very old and honourable family. After his studies at Oxford he took holy orders. Joseph's brother, a very rieh tin-merchant who made a fortune in the memorable years of the Protectorate, bought hirn a living at Wimbish in Essex. This made Glanvill independent and ena­ bled hirn to devote all his time to study, and only one year after his happy possession of the living of Wimbish, there appeared his first published study, on "Vanity of Dogmat~zing" (1661), which earned hirn the name of a sceptic and atheist. In 1665, as a reply to some polemieal disputes, he published his second work Scepsis Scientifiea, whieh was merely a revised version of his first book. In the same year he was admitted to the illustrious and at the same time fantastic company of members of the Royal Society. From this membership, discussion and correspondence ') ]oseph Glanvill "Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, The Way To Science" , 1665, reedited, London, 188S,pp. 156-157. APPENDICES 105 with Boyle, More and others, Glanvill got an intimate view of the ideas and desires of these "pansophists", scientists and discoverers. The rest of Ganvill's life was occupied with researches concer­ ning witchcraft, these investigations gaining hirn the name of an expert in that field. His book on witchcraft "Suducismus Triumphatus" was reprinted seven times. In 1666 he became rector of the Abbey Church at Bath. This post, apart from its financial attraction was a source of constant troubles with the pious inhabitants of that city who could not understand why their rector, in other respec~s a very respectable person, could combine his duties as a c1ergyman with the "de­ vilish practises" of investigation into the dark powers of witch­ craft, and find his consolation in scepticism. Glanvill's reputation as a man of science was established after 1665, and reached its peak after the publication of his other work: "Plus Ultra", dealing with the progress of science since the days of Aristotle. In this book " .... he partially blended the results of Baconian research with a little of the theosophie mysticism of More (Henry More was a member of the Royal Society)" 1) Glanvill, like Wallace, became Royal Chaplain, receiving this appointment in 1672 from Charles II. The following sketch is of great interest as a picture of the man, for it was written by one of his opponents and so would not seem to be biased: "(Glan­ vill) .... was a person of more than ordinary parts, of a quick, warm, spruce, and gay fancy; and was more lucky, at least in his own judgment, in his first hints and thoughts of things, than in his after not ions .... He had a very tenacious memory, and was a great master of the English tongue .... " 2) In his essays, Scepsis Scientifica, Glanvill proposed some welfare measures, but his vision on science particularly is very remarkable. This work, See psis Scientifica, must be c1assified as being just on the border between Utopia and reality. His daring visions about the future development of science and tech­ nique were, in his age, of Utopian character, though Glanvill ') F. Greenslet, "Joseph Glanvill, A Study In English Thought And Letters Of The Seventeenth Century", The Columbia University Press, New York, 1900, p. 75. About Glanvill cf. also DNB, voI. XXI, pp. 408-409. ") Anthony a Wood in "Athenae Oxoniensis", vol. III CoI. 1245. 106 APPENDICES himself,otherwise a very intelligent person, sometimes combined his greatness of perception with a rather naive outlook, often full of superstition, on practicallife. Glanvill's Utopia, if we may call it by that name, was a scientific one: he followed the lines of Bacon's experimental method and rejected any previous Aristotelian theory 1). "The Aristotelian Philosophy is inept for New discoveries; and therefore of no accommodation to the use of life. That an Arts, and Professions are capable of mature improve­ ments, cannot be doubted by those, who know the least of any. And that there is an America of secrets, and unknown Peru of Nature, whose discovery would richly advance them, is more than conjecture. Now while we either sayl by the Land of gross and vulgar Doctrines, or direct our Enquiries by the Agnosure of meer abstract notions; we are not likely to reach the Treasures on the other side the Atlantick: Tbe directing of the World thc way to which, is the noble end of true Philosophy" 1). He believed firmly that science may achieve everything if only the right methods are applied. All scientific effort had to be used for the improvement of social conditions and it must have definite pragmatic features 2). Science had to lead the world and Glanvill even went so far as to propose that it should guide industry and, presumably, all the economic activity of society. His idea resembled, however, to a certain degree the Platonic rule of philosophers, not only in matters of politics but, predo­ minantly, in questions of material progress and economic welfare. Society could achieve much more with the means at its disposal, if the men of science were allowed to take an active part in its government and were thus enabled to devote their energy to the advancement of knowledge 3). 1) Ibid. pp. 153-154: "True Knowledge is modest and wary; 'tis ignorance that is so bold, and presuming. Thus those that never travail'd beyond one Horizon, will not be perswaded that the world hath any Countrey better then their own", Ibid. p.195. ") Ibid. pp. L-LIII: " .... considering how much it is the interest of Mankinde in order to the advance of Knowledge, to be sensible they have not yet attain'd it, or at least, but in poor and diminutive measures .... (the goal of science) .... the im· proving the minds of Men in solid and useful Notices of things, helping them to such Theories as may be serviceable to common life .... " I) Ibid. p. LXI: ".... innumerable other advantages may be obtain'd by an industry directed by Philosophy and Mechanicks, which can never be expected from drudging Ignorance". Here Glanvill may be rightly called a forerunner of technocracy. APPENDICES 107 Similar statements about the unexploited possibilities of science were made one hundred years later by Wallace, who virtually followed the same line of thought. The advancement of science and its beneficial results upon the material wealth of the community were, according to Glanvill, better suited to the achievement of happiness and good life than wars, or cruelties, or political strife 1). Glanvill's attitude towards the application of scientific method in research is very interesting and progressive for his period, the seventeenth century: "For all things being linkt together by an uninterrupted chain of Causes, and every single motion owing a dependence ... we can have no true Knowledge .... except we comprehend all .... To the perfect Science of any thing it's necessary to know all its Causes .... " 2) In his work he even introduced the idea of an "Invisible Hand" which a century later became so famous by the use Adam Smith made of it: "Yea, the most common Phaenomena can be neither known, nor improved, without insight into the more hidden frame. For Nature worksby an Invisible Hand in all things"3) Joseph Glanvill's contribution to welfare economics must be estimated as similar to that of Francis Bacon, and its chief end must be sought in the use and application of science in promoting the general good and material wealth of the community. He gave to science adefinite social goal which bore undoubtedly a welfare stimulating character. In this work the secondary features of welfare econQmics occupy the most important place. Glanvill does not speak about employment, distribution, division of labour or other economic ') Ibid. p. LXII: " .... Those successes being more glorious wh ich bring benefit to the World; then such ruinous ones as are dyed in humane blood, and c10athed in the livery of Cruelty and Slaughter". ') Ibid. pp. 183-184. Cf. also: "For while we frame Scheames of things without consulting the Phaenomena, we do but build on the Air, and describe an imaginary World of our own making, that is but little a kin to the real one that God made. And 'tis possible that all the Hypothesies that yet have been contrived, were built upon too narrow an inspection of things, and the phasies of the Universe. For the Advancing day of experimental knowledge disc10seth such appearances, as will not lye even, in any model extant".
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