Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century

312 Pages·2009·2.578 MB·English

by  Jenny Davidson

BREEDING

BREEDING
A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century
Jenny Davidson
columbia university press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2009 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davidson, Jenny.
Breeding : a partial history of the eighteenth century / Jenny Davidson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-13878-9 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-231-51111-7 (ebook)
1. English literature —18th century — History and criticism. 2. Breeding — Great
Britain — Philosophy — History — 18th century. 3. Education and heredity — Great
Britain — Philosophy — History — 18th century. 4. Nature and nurture — Great
Britain — Philosophy — History — 18th century. 5. Breeding in literature. 6. Heredity in
literature. 7. Biology in literature. 8. Eugenics in literature. 9. Eugenics —
History — 18th century. 10. Literature and science — Great Britain — History — 18th
century. I. Title
PR448.B74D38 2009
809'.93353 — dc22

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I Wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were
in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when
they begot me; had they duly consider’d how much depended upon what
they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being
was concern’d in it, but that possibly the happy formation and tempera-
ture of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and,
for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house
might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then
uppermost:——Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and pro-
ceeded accordingly,——I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite
different fi gure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see
me.—Believe me, good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many
of you may think it;—you have all, I dare say, heard of the animal spirits,
as how they are transfused from father to son, &c. &c.—and a great deal
to that purpose:—Well, you may take my word, that nine parts in ten of a
man’s sense or his nonsense, his successes and miscarriages in this world
depend upon their motions and activity, and the different tracks and trains
you put them into; so that when they are once set a-going, whether right
or wrong, ’tis not a halfpenny matter,—away they go cluttering like hey-
go-mad; and by treading the same steps over and over again, they presently
make a road of it, as plain and as smooth as a garden-walk, which, when
they are once used to, the Devil himself sometimes shall not be able to drive
them off it.
—Laurence Sterne, T he Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760), I.i

contents
Acknowledgments xv
introduction. Breeding Before Biology 1
The language of human nature—the concept of heredity—airs, waters, places—
the “ Design of Lengthening and Whitening His Posterity ” —perfectibility and
Enlightenment—looking-glass determinism—the Ghost Structure—
archeologies of ashes—a nuance exercise—partial history
chapter 1 The Rules of Resemblance 14
The question of scale—theatrical adaptations as cultural indicators—
inheriting properties
why children look like their fathers
The Winter’s Tale—m arrying scions and stock—“Art thou my boy?”—
“The whole matter / And copy of the father”
the rules of resemblance
Aristotle’s carpenter—the maternal imagination—Jacob and Laban’s sheep—
Aristoteles Master-Piece—t he organs of Adam and Eve—taffeta breeches
“nature’s bastards”
Perdita’s gillyfl owers—“The art itself is Nature”—egalitarian eugenics—
grafting as metaphor—literary criticism and the science of genetics
x
Contents
“her royal image stampt on thee”
Garrick’s Florizel and Perdita —“This pretty abstract of Hermione” —
biparental heredity—why girls look like their mothers —Burney’s Evelina —
Inchbald’s A Simple Story —Darwin’s novel-reading—“To the memory of the
fractured leg of my dear mother”
chapter 2 Bent 39
The blank slate—“God has stampt certain Characters upon Mens Minds”—
the two cultures
the blank slate
Locke’s E ssay Concerning Human Understanding— the mind as white paper—
original tempers and native propensities—“ Adam’s Children”
sinners by descent
Augustine’s generatione non imitatione—
the Pelagian heresy—genetic perfectibility—Timothy Nourse’s “Original Curse”
“a meer errant cat”
“Æsopes Damosell”—blood and kind—“gentlemen born”
chapter 3 Cultures of Improvement 58
Habit as second nature—fantasies of improvement, fears of degeneration
deucalion’s kin
The Georgics—D ryden’s translation—Jethro Tull and
The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry— prose georgics and savage nature
“a living magazine”
Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe—“ An education according to nature”—
the work of Providence
perfect wildness
The Wild Boy of Hamelin—Defoe’s Mere Nature Delineated—
“A lump of soft Wax”—the Wolf Girls of Midnapore—original sin—
forbidden experiments
“a perfect y ahoo ”
Species thinking—Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels —Locke’s parrot—“Teachableness,
Civility and Cleanliness”—“The Females had a natural Propensity to me as one of
their own Species”—prolifi c mixtures