NOTES PREFACE 1. The tenus 'natural philosophy' and 'science' have throughout been used inter­ changeably. The latter, in the seventeenth century itself, usually refers to what we would call 'knowledge', but in cases of doubt I have added in square brackets my own preferred reading 2. J.C.H. Aveling, The Handle and the Axe: Catholic Recusants in England from Reformation to Emancipation (London, 1976), p. 115. 3. Thomas White, An Exclusion ofScepticks From all Title to Dispute (London, 1665), p. 16. NOTES TO CHAPTER 1 1. Stephen Spender, 'I think continually', in Poems (London, 1933), p. 45. 2. Thomas Carlyle defined 'Universal History' as "the history of the great men who have worked here." 'On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History', lecture 1, May 5 1840. 3. RH. Popkin, 'The Third Force in 17th Century Philosophy: Scepticism, Science and Biblical Prophecy', Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, 1983, I.59f. 4. C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections (Glasgow, 1981), p. 203, quoted by M. Midgeley, Wisdom, Information, and Wonder: What is knowledge for? (London, 1989), p. 103. 5. RH. Popkin, 'Berkeley and Pyrrhonism', reprinted in M. Bumyeat ed., The Skeptical Tradition (London, 1983), p. 394 n. 21 (my emphasis). 6. Dugald Stewart concluded c. 1854 that Glanvill provided "proof ... of the possible union of the highest intellectual gifts with the most degrading intellectual weakness." Quoted by RH. Popkin, 'Joseph Glanvill: A Precursor of David Hume', reprinted in R.A. Watson and J.E. Force eds. The High Road to Pyrrhonism (San Diego, 1980), p. 182. 7. H.W. Jones ed., Thomas Hobbes: Thomas White's De Mundo Examined (London, 1976). 8. H.W. Jones, 'A Seventeenth-Century Geometrical Debate', Annals ofScience 31,1974, 307-33; J.L.Russell, 'Action and Reaction before Newton', British Journal for the History ofScience 11, 1976,25-38; J. Henry, 'Atomism and Eschatology: Catholicism and natural philosophy in the interregnum', British Journal for the History ofScience 15,1982,211-39. 9.G.H. Tavard, The Seventeenth Century Tradition: A Study in Recusant Thought (Leiden, 1978),ch. VII; J. Bossy, The English Catholic Community, /570-/850 146 Notes to Chapter 1 147 (London, 1975), p. 62; H. Paul ed., Letters ofLord Acton to Mary, Daughter ofthe Rt. Hon. W.E. Gladstone (London, 1904), p. 140. Cf. D. Shanahan: "White's exposition of Scripture and Tradition is so close in thought and word to the decree of the Vatican Council, that one would think the Fathers had read his books... Thomas White has stood still, and we have caught up with him." The Essex Recusant 7-8, 1966, p. 34. 10. Q. Skinner, 'History and Ideology in the English Revolution', Historical Journal 8, 1965, 151-78; P. Zagorin, A History of Political Thought in the English Revolution (London, 1965); J.A.W. Gunn, Politics and the Public Interest in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1969). 1I. M.V. Hay, The Jesuits and the Popish Plot (London, 1934); T.A. Birrell, 'English Catholics without a Bishop, 1655-1672', Recusant History 6, 1958, 142-78; R.I. Bradley, 'Blacklo and the Counter-Reformation: An Inquiry into the Strange Death of Catholic England', in C.H. Carter ed., From Renaissance to Counter Reformation (London, 1966); P. Harth, Contexts of Dryden's Thought (Chicago & London, 1968); J.L. Miller, Popery and Politics in England, 1660-1688 (London, 1973). For biographi­ cal details, see also G. Anstruther, The Seminary Priests, vol. 2 (Ushaw, 1975), and H.W. Jones, 'Thomas White (or Blacklo) 1593-1676: New Data', Notes & Queries NS 20, 1973, 381-88. Three unpublished PhD theses are concerned with White and Blackloism: R.I. Bradley, 'Blacklo: an essay in counter-reform' (Columbia University, 1963); ,J.M. Lewis, 'Hobbes and the Blackloists: a study in the eschatology of the English revolution (Harvard University, 1976); B.C. Southgate, 'The Life and Work of Thomas White, 1593-1676' (University of Landon, 1979). 12. Professor R.H. Popkin's term: see 'Third Force' (n. 3 above). 13. Meric Casaubon accuses Hobbes of affecting "to be the Oracle of the world; who would make the world believe noe such thing was in the world, truly and really, as art, or " science, or philosophie, till he was borne and began to wryte"; while Descartes, with "excessive pride and self-conceit", appeared to think that "all other bookes and learning should be layd asyde, as needless, but what came from him, or was grounded upon his principles." 'On Learning' (1667), printed in M.R.G. Spiller ed., "Concerning Natural Experimental Philosophie": Meric Casaubon and the Royal Society (The Hague, 1980), pp. 203, 206. On Bacon's "excessive passion... to signalize himself by new senti­ ments", see Rene Rapin, Reflexions on Ancient and Modern Philosophy (English transl., London, 1678), p. 120. 14. For discussion and illustration of these issues, see T. Sorrell ed., The Rise of Modern Philosophy: the tension between the 'new' and traditional philosophy from Machiavelli to Leibniz (Oxford, forthcoming). 15. I am grateful to the Automobile Association Overseas Routes Department for their calculation of distances. NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 I. John Evelyn, Diary, ed. E.S. De Beer (Oxford, 1955). 2. This was recognised by White's eighteenth-century biographer Charles Dodd, who includes him in a list of "eminent Writers, whose Works had been made public to all Europe." The History of the English College at Doway (London, 1713), p. 26 (my emphasis). 3. Christiaan Huygens, Treatise on Light (1690), transl. S.P. Thompson (London, 1912; reprinted New York, 1962), Preface p. vi. Joseph Glanvill conversely did not think his Scepsis "worth the Universal Language." Essays in Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion (London, 1676), p. 31. 4. Mersenne, letter to Theodore Haak, 12 February 1640, in C. de Waard ed., Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne (Paris, 1945f.), p. Ill. 148 Notes to Chapter 2 5. See J. Jacquot & H.W. Jones eds., Thomas Hobbes, Critique du De Mundo de Thomas White (Paris, 1973), Introduction. Deschamps' criticism is given in full at pp. 39-41. 6. Jones ed., Hobbes. The discovery and identification of Hobbes' manuscript critique was originally announced by J. Jacquot, 'Notes on an Unpublished Work of Thomas Hobbes', Notes and Records ofthe Royal Society 9,1952,188-95. 7. One modem scholar has gone so far as to claim in this context that "Hobbes, in a very real sense, developed his own natural philosophy in the shadow of Thomas White." Lewis, 'Hobbes and the Blackloists', p. 86. 8. Kenelm Digby, Observations upon Religio Medici (1643; facsimile reprint of 2nd 1644 edn., Menston, 1973), pp. 25-26; Two Treatises (paris, 1644; facsimile reprint, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1970), pp. 353, 378. 9. John Webster, Academiarum Examen (London, 1653), p. 50; cf. pp. 45, 48; Walter Charleton, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana (London, 1654), pp. 15,65. 10. Thomas Sprat, The History ofthe Royal Society (London, 1667), p. 113, on which see B. Vickers, 'The Royal Society and English Prose Style: A Reassessment', in B. Vickers and N.S. Struever, Rhetoric and the Pursuit ofTruth (Los Angeles, 1985). On the use of Latin and the vernacular, see also C. Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626-1660 (London, 1975). 11. John Davies, Life of John Hall of Durham, appended to Hierocles upon the Golden Verses ofPythagoras (London, 1657), unpaginated. 12. Daniel Sennert, Thirteen Books of Natural Philosophy (London, 1659), pp. 49, 118, 122,127. 13. A. Dejordy & H.F. Fletcher eds., A Library for Younger Schollers, compiled by an English Scholar-Priest about 1655 (Illinois, 1961), pp. 4, 45. The scholar-priest has been identified as probably Thomas Barlow, 1607-91, librarian of the Bodleian from 1642 to 1660. 14. Edward Leigh, A Treatise ofReligion and Learning and ofReligious and Learned Men (London, 1656), p. 364. 15. Richard Baxter, Christian Directory (London, 1673), pp. 925, 927. According to the Preface, this book of 1,143 pages was actually written in 1664-65. 16. John Wallis, Commercium epistolicum... (Oxford, 1658), letters III-VIII, X, XVIII, XXI; Isaac Barrow, Theological Works, ed. A. Napier (9 vols.; Cambridge, 1859), IX.xxxvii. 17. Appendicula tentans solutionem problematis Torricelliani de subsistentia hydrargri in tubo superne sigillato (London, 1663). 18. Sir Robert Sibbald, Memoirs ofmy Lyfe, ed. F.P. Hett (Oxford, 1932), p. 54. 19. Leibniz, Letter to Thomasius (1669), in L.E. Loemker ed., G.W. Leibniz: philosophical papers and letters (Dordrecht, 1969), pp. 97-98. For the claim of influence, see H.W. Jones, 'Leibniz' Cosmology and Thomas White's Euclides Physicus', Archives Internationales d' Histoire des Sciences 25, 1975,277-303. 20. Joseph Glanvill, 'Of Scepticism and Certainty: In a short Reply to the Learned Mr Thomas White', in Essays, p. 37. 21. Locke's MS Notebook, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Locke f.14), contains references to DM, PI, and Euclides Physicus, as well as to Exclusion ofScepticks, and Apologyfor Tradition. (pp. 8,96, 139,271.) 22. Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Vatican, 1948) lists all White's works, citing decrees of 12 May 1655,6 and 18 September 1657,17 November 1661, 31 May 1663. 23. Journals of the House of Commons, 17 October 1666. The suspect work in this case was, according to Anthony aWood, White's book "Of Purgatory" - i.e. On the Middle State ofSouls (English trans!. London, 1659). Athenae Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss (4 vols.; London, 1813-20), I1I.1211. Hobbes's Leviathan was also implicated. 24. Henry Hammond, The Dispatcher dispatch'd (London, 1659), p. 52. 25. Charles Butler, Historical Memoirs (4 vols.; London, 1819-21), 11.425. Chillingworth debated 'tradition' with White at Kenelm Digby's lodgings in London, probably late in Notes to Chapter 2 149 1638 or early in 1639.