Newton and the Romantic Concept of Nature

NEWTON AND THE ROMANTIC CONCEPT OF NATURE F. E. L. PRIESTLEY IN general', the _ typical neo-classical attitude to the cosmos may be said to consist of·a'n intellectual and aesthetic appreciation of its 1order;- tl1e Rorrian~ic rather of an emotional and religious or quasi-religious re_sponse to its harmony. The order ·is thought of as imposed from --without, the harmony as the working of immanent and immaterial principles: . The neo-classical is inclined to dwell upon the divine intelligence which framed the eternal order; the, Romantic rather upon the power and beneficence· constantly at·work and manifested in -the life and movement of that order: . The neO-classical admi'res the permanent pattern; the i:omantic the persistent flow of harmonized energy. In so far as these generalizations are corr~ct (and I ·recognize that they· are corn~ct only as brqad generalizations), it is clear that certain theories of the physical universe are more compatible with the neo-classical ·attitude, others with the Romantic. Mechanism, for example, ought to be more acceptable to the neo-classical; pantheism· to the Romantic. This would 1 be true if there were only one kind of neo-cla-ssical and one kind of Romantic ' attitude, or if attitudes were not determined by any other than cosmol ~gical considerations . The urge of the neo-classical m!nd towards a rational monism is often at work, leading to a rejection of mechanism and an· adoption of pantheism, or of a deism closely resembling panth.eism. The u·rge of one type of Roma·ntic mind towards irrational pluralism, with -its emphasis upon powerful emotion anc!_ individual autonomy, can lead to the acceptance of a blind, mechanist cosmos, or of a cosmos impelled by evil. However, if we confine our attentions for the present to the earlier Roman tics arid pre-Romantics, the usual 'attitude we shall .find will be the Shaftesburian or the Wordsworthian. (Cowper and Blak~, obvious exceptions , have motivations of a special kind; Cowper's view of nature~ for example, is basically theological, and far removed from usual patterns of -: . Romanticism.) The Romantic attitude which I thus select as typical, then, - is that of Sh·aftesbury's apostrophe and of Wordsworth's ''Tin tern Abbey'.• and ''Influence of Natural Objects,: · .0 mighty' Nature! wise substitute-of Providence! impowered Creatress! Or ~Thou impowering Deity, supreme Creator! Thee I invoke and thee alone adore.- . . .1 And I have felt A presence that,disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime . Of something far more deeply interfused. ... Wisdom and Spirit of the universe! Thou Soul, that art the Eternity ·of' thought! And giv'st to forms anq images a breath And everlasting motion! 32.3 'I 324 THE uNniERSITY OF TORONTO ·.QUARTERLY I All these Pilssages re~eaL elements of the English ::Platoni~ doctrine, with I its Anima Mundi, .Plastic Nature, Hylarchic Principle, or informing soul. All 'are far removed from the view of the universe which is usually considered consequent upon Newton's _discoveries, and which has been described most eloquently by P~ofesso~ E. A. Burtt: Newton's 10-11 ("Sdwlium to Definiclons"). I: ' .. l ' 328 THE UNIVERSITY OF ·TORONTO" QUARTERLY - One further element of the syste~ needs notice. The universe is not' for Newton a self...,su.fficient mecha~ical · sc:heme. Apart, from the constant exertio"n of the mysterious force.of gr~."vity, there ·are sp· e.cial exertions 'whid\ become necessary. The motio_ n of "the moon, for examp]e, was not (and still is not) whoHy explicable by the theory of gravitation. Its ~otion c~ntains an. element of irregularity and unpredictability. Motions of other bodies show the ,same tendency to depart from the pa.ttern. The movements- . of comets, in partic.ular, by irdecting at rare in re;vals an additional gravi- · tational force into ~hat seems normally a smaller c]os'ed system, tend to throw out of rhythm the orbital movements within that sy'stem. Th~ irregularities of this sort, which, if neglected, would destroy completely the harmony of the system, are according to Newton regulated by God as they occur.~0 ·It was Laplace, at the end...