Newton on the cusp

Often wrongly portrayed as a cold rationalist, Isaac Newton is one of history’s most compelling figures. It is true that he was capable of the most precise and logical thought it is possible for a human to achieve: his three years of obsessive work that gave birth to the Principia, containing his theory of gravity, stand as the greatest achievement in science. 

Just as certainly, though, he was also consumed with what we would now view as completely unscientific pursuits: alchemy and biblical prophesy.

Was Isaac Newton a Scientist? A Sorcerer? Or Both? 

The 17th Century

Hooke, Micrographia

In this interview, novelist Neal Stephenson touches on a peculiar aspect of the age of Milton and Newton:

The medieval is still very much alive and well during this period. People are carrying swords around. Military units have archers. Saracens snatch people from European beaches and carry them off to slavery. There are Alchemists and Cabalists. Great countries are ruled by kings who ride into battle wearing armor. Much of the human landscape--the cities and architecture--are medieval. And yet the modern world is present right next to all of this in the form of calculus, joint-stock companies, international financial systems, etc. This can't but be fascinating to a novelist. Complete interview here.

Newton, Alchemy, and the Counterfeiter

Since alchemy has come up a few times -- in hell, and again in heaven, and soon the Sun, here's a book about Newton that has a good chapter on Isaac Newton's efforts at transmutation. The book is actually about Newton's job at the Mint, and how he corraled a master counterfeiter, but it spends a chapter going into some detail about the physicist's alchemical obsession.

The sieve of Balthasar Bekker

Jutta pointed us to this 18th century satiric image aimed at the work of Balthasar Bekker, a Dutch Calvinist who wrote Betoverde Weereld (The World Bewitched):

In the image, Bekker is holding a sieve that seems to "transform" evil demons, as they fall through it, into modern ailments, including  

"Raserey, Melancholie, Monsucht, Unsinnigkeit, Wahnwitz, Paroxismus, Enthus, Mitzkranckheit, Fallende Sucht." (Translations welcome!)

Bekker's work was published in 1691, and led him to be deposed from his ministry and tried for blasphemy and for spreading atheistic ideas. His major offense appears to have been to question the existence of the devil, and of demons in general. His notoriety was fairly long lasting, as the above image, taken from a work satirizing Bekker's view, was published in 1731.

Bekker was a student of the work of Descartes. Here's a bit more about him:

Amsterdam Reformed minister Balthasar Bekker (1634-98), ... unleashed enormous controversy with the 1691-93 publication of his De betoverde weereld (Die bezauberte Welt / The World Bewitched).  Across the four volumes of this work Bekker argued that "the apparitions of Evil Spirits are contrary to true Reason, and that the Holy Scripture affords no proofs of it."

Bekker seems to have thought all such belief in evil spirits was essentially pagan in origin, and wished to rid Christianity of it. Interestingly, Isaac Newton wrote extensively of his similar doubts about the existence of evil spirits (but not, it seems of good ones or angels), but held back publication probably because doubting the devil was, at least for some, tantamount to opening a slippery slope -- where would the doubt end?

But as this article (cited in the preceding post) argues, Newton should not be lumped in with "modern" rationalism, or some sort of proto-Enlightenment, scientific thinking. Newton was basing his doubts about the demons upon his very careful reading of the Bible and other ancient sources. Here's the conclusion of its author, Stephen David Snobelen:

In this study, I have shown that there was more than one way for an early modern believer to orient biblical demonology. In Newton’s case, it meant the denial of the existence of evil spirits. A corollary to this was a shift from an ontology of Satan to a psychology of temptation, a reorientation from the external to the internal. But instead of looking for possible affinities with his view in sceptical thought or suggesting a source in some putatively rational or ‘modernist’ strain of natural philosophy, I have argued that Newton’s demonology formed an integral part of his grand religious project and that the most relevant analogies lie in theology—ancient and heterodox.

In short:

Newton articulated his own position in biblical terminology and above all, as with so many other aspects of his theological and natural philosophical thought, his views on the devil were reinforced by an engagement with older traditions. The apparent ‘modernity’ of his stance turns out to be a mirage.

The devil you know

There were two general areas or positions on the existence of diabolical evil current in Milton's day: On the one hand, there were those, like Isaac Newton, who, while firm believers in the primal truths of Scripture, found little support for the actual existence of demons and devils; on the other hand, there were those who clearly felt that skeptical disinclination to believe in evil powers was nothing less than a clear manifestation of the workings of those very powers.

Men like Joseph Glanvill, for example:

In his 1668 work A Blow at Modern Sadducism, Joseph Glanvill, Fellow of the Royal Society and ardent apologist for belief in witches, demons and ghosts, contended that the denial of the demonic was tantamount to atheism. Those who rejected the literal existence of evil spirits, Glanvill asserted, did so because they did not dare take the next putatively logical step and openly declare that there is no God:

...if any thing were to be much admired in an Age of Wonders, not only of Nature (which is a constant Prodigy) but of Men and Manners, it would be to me a matter of Astonishment, that Men, otherwise witty and ingenious, are fallen into the conceit that there’s no such thing as a Witch or Apparition, but that these are the creatures of Melancholly and superstition, foster’d by ignorance and design.

But this was not all. Glanvill went on to propose a sinister source for this wicked disbelief, suggesting that the very devil, “whose influences they will not allow in Actions ascribed to such Causes, hath a greater hand and interest in their Proposition than they are aware of.”

Here's the turning of the tables:

For since the influence of the Prince of Darkness “is never more dangerous than when his agency is least suspected,” in order to accomplish “the dark and hidden designs he manageth against our Happiness, and our Souls, he cannot expect to advantage himself more, than by insinuating a belief, That there is no such thing as himself, but that fear and fancy make Devils now, as they did Gods of old.” (Italics are Glanvill's.)

The rest of this interesting piece by Stephen David Snobelen, which is actually about Isaac Newton's concept of evil, (and is entitled Lust, Pride, and Ambition: Isaac Newton and the Devil) can be downloaded here as a .pdf file which requires Adobe Reader).

When we consider the bewildering maze of illusion and delusion in Books I and II of Paradise Lost, it's well to bear it mind that Milton was writing for a public that wrestled with these matters not just in theological circles, but even at the august Royal Society.