The Janus faces of genius: the role of alchemy in Newton’s thought

187 Pages·1991·9.52 MB·English

by  Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs

In this major reevaluation of Isaac Newton’s intellectual life, Betty Jo Teeter
Dobbs shows how his pioneering work in mathematics, physics, and cosmology
was intertwined with his study of alchemy. Directing attention to the religious
ambience of the alchemical enterprise of early modern Europe, Dobbs argues
that Newton understood alchemy — and the divine activity in micromatter to
which it spoke - to be a much needed corrective to the overly mechanized system
of Descartes. Yet that religious basis was not limited to alchemy, but suffused
the rest of his work.
Newton, whose many different studies constitued a unified plan for obtaining
Truth, saw value and relevance in all of his pursuits. To him it seemed possible
to obtain partial truths from many different approaches to knowledge, be it
textual work aimed at the interpretation of prophecy, the study of ancient the­
ology and philosophy, creative mathematics, or experiments with prisms, pen­
dulums, vegetating minerals, light, or electricity. Newton’s work was a constant
attempt to bring these partial truths together, with the larger goal of restoring
true natural philosophy and true religion. Within this broad interpretative strat­
egy, Dobbs traces the evolution of Newton’s thought in alchemy, religion, and
cosmology, and details his struggles with the interwoven problems of the micro­
scopic spirit of alchemy and the cause of the cosmic principle of gravitation.
A landmark study of the “founder of modern science,” The Janus Faces of
Genius is an important contribution to the history of science.
The Janus faces of genius
The Janus faces of genius
The role of alchemy in Newton’s thought
BETTY JO TEETER DOBBS
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Cambridge
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge To the memory of my father, Ransom Alexander Teeter, Sr.
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CBz irp [1889-1960), Methodist minister, who would not have been surprised
40 West 20th Street, New York, ny iooii, usa at the thesis of this book.
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1991
First published 1991
Printed in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dobbs, Betty Jo Teeter, 1930-
The Janus faces of genius : the role of alchemy in Newton’s
thought / Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-38084-7
I. Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 - Knowledge - Alchemy. 2. Alchemy
History. I. Title.
QC16.N7D64 1991
54o'.i'i2 - dc20 91—8695
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-521-38084-7 hardback
Contents
List of illustrations page ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Isaac Newton, philosopher by fire I
2 Vegetability and providence 19
3 Cosmogony and history 53
4 Modes of divine activity in the world:
before the Principia 89
5 Modes of divine activity in the world:
the Principia period 122
6 Modes of divine activity in the world:
after the Principia^ 1687-1713 169
7 Modes of divine activity in the world:
after the Principia, 1713-1727 213
8 Epilogue 250
Appendix A “Of natures obvious laws & processes
in vegetation” 256
Appendix B “Hermes” 271
Appendix C “Out of La Lumiere sortant des
Tenebres” 278
Appendix D “Experiments & Observations
Dec. 1692 & Jan. 169^3” 288
Appendix E “Praxis” 293
Bibliography 306
Index 345
Illustrations
I Central panel from Triptych of the Annunciation by
Robert Campin page 41
2 Frontispiece for Tractatus primi, sectionis II, portio I,
from Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi Maioris scilicet et
Minoris
43
3 Frontispiece, Le triomphe hermetique 44
4 Janitor Pansophvs, from Musaeum Hermeticum
reformatum et amplificatum 67
5 MS Rh. 172, f. lov 71
6 Illustration from Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De
proprietatibus rerum 85
7 Diagram from Bernhardus Varenius, Geographica
generalis (1671) 127
8 Diagram from Bernhardus Varenius, Geographica
generalis (1672) 128
9 Diagram from Bernhardus Varenius, Geographica
generalis (1681) 129
10 Babson MS 420, p. 2 163
II William Blake, Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton 242
Acknowledgments
A Danforth Graduate Fellowship for Women and a National Science
Foundation Graduate Fellowship provided initial research support for
this project some twenty years ago. The North Atlantic Treaty Organi­
zation supported a year of postdoctoral work; a fellowship at the Na­
tional Humanities Center and a Scholar’s Award from the National
Science Foundation funded further years of study, as did a fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Humanities at The Huntington
Library. I am grateful to all for their sustained assistance and to The
American Council of Learned Societies for two travel grants. For briefer
periods of research support I am also indebted to the Northwestern
University Research Council, the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study
of Science and Technology at Northwestern University, and the North­
western University College of Arts and Sciences.
For permission to cite, describe, transcribe, or quote from manuscript
material in their possession I thank the following: the Syndics of Uni­
versity Library, Cambridge, England; the Provost and Scholars of King’s
College, Cambridge, England; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, England; The Bodleian Library, Oxford, England; The Brit­
ish Library, London, England; The Jewish National and University Li­
brary, Jerusalem, Israel; Bibliotheque publique et universitaire de Geneve,
Geneva, Switzerland; The Dibner Library of the History of Science and
Technology, Special Collections Branch, Smithsonian Institution Librar­
ies, Washington, D.C.; Institute Archives and Special Collections De­
partment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; The
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA; Medical His­
torical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, New
Haven, CT; Babson College Archives, Babson College, Babson Park, MA;
Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries, Bethlehem, PA; De­
partment of Special Collections, The University of Chicago Library, Chi­
cago, IL; Department of Special Collections, The Stanford University
Libraries, Stanford, CA. Special thanks for providing the illustrations for
this volume are also due to the following: The Metropolitan Museum of
Xll Acknowledgments
Art, New York, NY; The Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino,
CA; Rare Books Department, Memorial Library, University of Wiscon-
sin-Madison; The Rare Book and Special Collection Division of The Isaac Newton, philosopher
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Zu­
rich, Switzerland; The Babson College Archives, Babson Park, MA; The by fire
Tate Gallery, London/Art Resource, New York. I am also grateful to
Associated University Presses; The University of California Press; Kluwer
Academic Publishers; Cambridge University Press; Science History Pub­
lications 6c The Nobel Foundation; The Smithsonian Institution Librar­
ies; Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbiittel and Otto Harassowitz; and
Introduction
the editors of Isis and The Southern Journal of Philosophy for permission
to use material previously published under their auspices.
Isaac Newton studied alchemy from about 1668 until the second or third
It has been my privilege in recent years to speak on the subject matter
decade of the eighteenth century. He combed the literature of alchemy,
of this book to many audiences: as a participant in The History of Science
compiling voluminous notes and even transcribing entire treatises in his
Society’s Visiting Historians of Science Program, as an invited guest at
own hand. Eventually he drafted treatises of his own, filled with references
other universities and colleges, at research libraries, at some of the many
to the older literature. The manuscript legacy of his scholarly endeavor
celebrations of the tercentenary of the publication of Newton’s Principia,
is very large and represents a huge commitment of his time, but to it one
and at other academic conferences, to faculty colloquia, and to my own
must add the record of experimentation. Each brief and often abruptly
undergraduate and graduate students. I have benefited immeasurably
cryptic laboratory report hides behind itself untold hours with hand-built
from those encounters, and I thank my auditors for their many perceptive
furnaces of brick, with crucible, with mortar and pestle, with the ap­
challenges and questions, for their frequent bibliographic advice, and
paratus of distillation, and with charcoal fires: experimental sequences
above all for their courteous attention.
sometimes ran for weeks, months, or even years. As the seventeenth-
century epithet “philosopher by fire” distinguished the serious, philo­
Evanston, Illinois
sophical alchemist from the empiric “puffer” or the devious charlatan
December 1990
or the amateur “chymist,” so may one use the term to characterize Isaac
Newton. Surely this man earned that title if ever any did.
Since my first monograph on this subject appeared in 1975’ Newton’s
alchemy has held a prominent position in historiographic debates of some
centrality to the history and philosophy of science. Even though Newton’s
interest in alchemy had often been noted before and had indeed generated
a considerable body of scholarly comment,^ public recognition of it was
forced to a new level after 1975 as the full extent of Newton’s commit­
ment to alchemical pursuits was made more and more explicit in reviews,’
I. B. J. T. Dobbs, The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy, or “The Hunting
of the Greene Lyon” (Cambridge University Press, 1975).
2.. The historiography of Newton’s alchemy prior to 1975 is explored in ibid.,
pp. 6-zo.
See especially the following reviews of my book: P. M. Rattansi, “Newton
as chymist,” Science 191 (No. 4240, 14 May 1976), 689-90; idem, “Last
of the magicians,” Times Higher Education Supplement, June 1976; Philip
2 The Janus faces of genius Isaac Newton, philosopher by fire 3
biographical works/ articles/ and definitive studies of Newton’s
in mathematics, physics, cosmology, and methodology. I argued in 1975
library/
that Newton’s alchemy constituted one of the pillars supporting his ma­
Yet even so there has remained the possibility of denying the signifi­
ture scientific edifice.^ Nevertheless, since Newton’s reputation as one of
cance and importance of Newton’s alchemy for his great achievements
the founders of modern science rests securely upon achievements in areas
of thought still recognized as scientific, and since alchemy has, at least
since the eighteenth century, been rejected from the canon of science as
Morrison, Scientific American 235 (August 1976), 113-15; Richard S. West- hopelessly retrograde, “occult,” and false, some scholars have been re­
fall, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 31 (1976), 473- luctant to accept the validity of that notion.^
4; Kathleen Ahonen, Annals of Science 33 (1976), 615-17; Henry Guerlac, Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, first published
Journal of Modern History 49 (1977), 130-3; Derek T. Whiteside, “From
in 1687 and foundational to many later developments in science, has
his claw the Greene Lyon,” Isis 68 (1977), 116-21; A. Rupert Hall, “Newton
seemed to most readers to be the epitome of austere rationality, and the
as alchemist,” Nature 266 (28 April 1977), 78; Karin Figala, “Newton as
writer of that remarkable work on “The Mathematical Principles of
alchemist,” History of Science 15 (1977), 102-37; P. E. Spargo, Ambix 24
Natural Philosophy” continues to seem to some of its readers to be a
(1977), 175-6; Marie Boas Hall, British Journal for the History of Science
very poor candidate for the epithet “philosopher by fire.” Since among
10 (1977), 262-4; Allen G. Debus, Centaurus 21 (1977), 315-16; Margaret
Newton scholars I. Bernard Cohen’s knowledge of Newton’s Principia
C. Jacob, The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography, n.s. i (1975,
and the manuscript remains associated with it,^ and since Cohen has been
published 1978), 345-7.
4. Richard S. Westfall, Never at Rest. A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge outspoken on that point, one may take his objections as those requiring
University Press, 1980); Gale E. Christianson, In the Presence of the Creator. most serious response. Cohen’s detailed examination of the proposition
Isaac Newton and His Times (New York: The Free Press; London: Collier that alchemy made some difference to Newton’s science came in a lengthy
Macmillan, 1984). essay published in 1982."° The issue has focused on the origin of Newton’s
5. Richard S. Westfall, “The role of alchemy in Newton’s career,” in Reason,
Experiment and Mysticism in the Scientific Revolution, ed. by M. L. Righini by P. B. Scheuer and G. Debrock (International Archives of the History of
Bonelli and William R. Shea (New York: Science History Publications, 1975), Ideas, 123; Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988), pp. 55—80.
pp. 189-232; idem, “Isaac Newton’s Index Chemicus," Ambix 22 (1975), 6. John Harrison, The Library of Isaac Newton (Cambridge University Press,
174-85; idem, “The changing world of the Newtonian industry,” Journal 1978); Richard S. Westfall, “Alchemy in Newton’s library,” Ambix 31
of the History of Ideas 37 (1976), 175-84; B. J. T. Dobbs, “Newton’s copy (1984), 97-101.
of Secrets Reveal’d and the regimens of the work,” Ambix 26 (1979), 145- 7. Richard S. Westfall, Force in Newton’s Physics. The Science of Dynamics in
69; Richard S. Westfall, “The influence of alchemy on Newton,” in Science, the Seventeenth Century (London: Macdonald; New York: American Elsev­
Pseudo-Science and Society, ed. by Marsha P. Hanen, Margaret J. Osier, and ier, 1971), esp. pp. 323-423; Dobbs, Foundations (i, n. i), pp.
Robert G. Weyant (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 210-13.
1980), pp. 145-69; B. J. T. Dobbs, “Newton’s alchemy and his theory of 8. Whiteside, “From his claw” (i, n. 3); I. Bernard Cohen, The Newtonian
matter,” Isis 73 (1982), 511-28; idem, “Newton’s ‘Clavis’: new evidence Revolution. With Illustrations of the Transformation of Scientific Ideas
on its dating and significance,” Ambix 29 (1982), 190-202; idem, “Newton’s (Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 10.
Commentary on The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus: its scientific 9. Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathema­
and theological significance,” in Hermeticism and the Renaissance. Intellec­ tica. The Third Edition (1726) with Variant Readings. Assembled and Ed­
tual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Ingrid Merkel ited by Alexandre Koyre and I. Bernard Cohen with the Assistance of Anne
and Allen G. Debus (Folger Books; Washington, D.C.: The Folger Shake­ Whitman (2 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972); I.
speare Library; London: Associated University Presses, 1988), pp. 182-91; Bernard Cohen, Introduction to Newton’s “Principia” (Cambridge, MA:
idem, “Alchemische Kosmogonie und arianische Theologie bei Isaac New­ Harvard University Press; Cambridge University Press, 1971); Cohen, New­
ton,” tr. by Christoph Meinel, Wolfenbiitteler Forschungern, 32 (1986), 137- tonian Revolution (i, n. 8).
50; idem, “Newton and Stoicism,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 23 10. I. Bernard Cohen, “The Principia, universal gravitation, and the ‘Newtonian
Supplement (1985), 109-23; idem, “Newton’s alchemy and his ‘active prin­ style,’ in relation to the Newtonian revolution in science: notes on the
ciple’ of gravitation,” in Newton’s Scientific and Philosophical Legacy, ed. occasion of the 250th anniversary of Newton’s death,” in Contemporary
4 The Janus faces of genius Isaac Newton, philosopher by fire 5
ideas on attractive forces, as Cohen pointed out. For although an at­ transferred the concept of the “active principle” directly from his al­
tractive force of gravity appeared in the Principia and was fundamental chemical studies to his new formulation of gravity, at least not at first,
to later Newtonian dynamics, ideas of attraction (operating either be­ though he may finally have done so. Rather, as will be argued in detail
tween small particles of matter or between gross bodies) hardly consti­ in the following chapters, all issues of passivity and activity, of mechanical
tuted orthodox mechanical philosophy in 1687. Attractive force smacked and nonmechanical forces, were enmeshed for Newton in a philosophical/
of the “occult” to the first generation of mechanical philosophers, writing religious complex one can only now begin to grasp. Although Newton’s
thirty to forty years before Newton, and they had been careful to sub­ first encounter with attractive and “active” principles may well have been
stitute for attraction the principles of “impact physics” in which appar­ in his alchemical study, his application of such ideas to the force of gravity
ent attractions (magnetic, electrical, gravitational) were explained by the was almost certainly mediated by several other considerations. And be­
mechanical encounter of very fine and imperceptible particles of a hy­ cause of Newton’s important position in the rise of modern science, and
pothetical aether with the larger particles of matter. Newton’s reintro­ because of the importance of the doctrine of gravity as an “active prin­
duction of attraction in the Principia^ and his dismissal there of an ciple” within his own science, one must strive to understand them all.
aethereal mechanism as an explanation of gravity, had seemed to Westfall My studies since 1975 have yielded hints that Newton was concerned
and myself a convincing argument for the influence of alchemy on New­ from the first in his alchemical work to find evidence for the existence
ton’s thought, for much alchemical literature concerns itself with non­ of a vegetative principle operating in the natural world, a principle that
mechanical “active principles” that are conceptually similar to Newton’s he understood to be the secret, universal, animating spirit of which the
gravity. Cohen disagreed. Arguing that no documents seemed to exist in alchemists spoke. He saw analogies between the vegetable principle and
which Newton took attractive forces under consideration before 1679- light, and between the alchemical process and the work of the Deity at
80, when Robert Hooke introduced Newton to a dynamical analysis the time of creation. It was by the use of this active vegetative principle
predicated upon inertia and an attractive central force, Cohen concluded that God constantly molded the universe to His providential design,
that Newton’s subsequent departure from orthodox mechanism derived producing all manner of generations, resurrections, fermentations, and
from his own “style” of mathematical abstraction rather than from the vegetation. In short, it was the action of the secret animating spirit of
conceptual influence of alchemical “active principles” upon him. Cohen alchemy that kept the universe from being the sort of closed mechanical
in fact insisted that Newton was able to produce his great work of positive system for which Descartes had argued." These themes will be discussed
science only by putting aside his alchemical and Hermetic interests tem­ in detail in the chapters to follow as a way of searching out the rela­
porarily and rising above them. tionships of alchemical modes of thought to the general concerns of
I have challenged Cohen’s argument in my review of the book in which Newton and his contemporaries.
it appeared" because his position seemed to be based on the a priori Nevertheless, the primary goal here is the larger one indicated by the
assumption that alchemy could never, by its very nature, make a con­ subtitle of this book: the role of alchemy in Newton’s thought. Newton
tribution to science. To accept the premise that alchemy could not do so stood at the beginning of our modern scientific era and put his stamp
is to prejudge the historical question of whether it did do so in Newton’s upon it irrevocably. He may be seen as a gatekeeper, a Janus figure, for
case, which is after all the point at issue. Furthermore, Newton’s al­ one of his faces still gazes in our direction. But only one of them. Like
chemical papers, which were not included in Cohen’s analysis, document Janus, who symbolized the beginning of the new year but also the end
Newton’s interest in alchemical “active principles” for an entire decade of the old one, Newton looked forward in time but backward as well.
before his correspondence with Hooke. But while the presence of “active It is the vision seen by the eyes of that second face that I pursue by
principles” in Newton’s alchemical papers, as well as in the literature of examining the details of his alchemical labors. It is possible to grasp that
alchemy upon which those papers were based, is hardly to be denied at vision yet not stop there.
this stage in the debate, it now seems rather less likely to me that Newton 1 do not assume the irrelevancy of Newton’s pursuit of an ancient,
occult wisdom to those great syntheses of his that mark the foundation
of modern science. The Janus-like faces of Isaac Newton were after all
Newtonian Research, ed. by Zev Bechler (Studies in the History of Modern
Science, 9; Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1982), pp. 21-108.
12. See my articles cited earlier (i, n, 5).
II, Dobbs, Isis 74 (1983), 609-10.