It existence has long been accepted, and the biographies of its leading figures are well known.īut this second revolution was something different. The first scientific revolution of the 17th century is familiarly associated with the names of Newton, Hooke, Locke and Descartes, and the almost simultaneous foundations of the Royal Society in London, and the Acadèmie des Sciences in Paris. In effect there is Romantic science in the same sense there is Romantic poetry, and often for the same enduring reasons. The notion of wonder seems to be something that once united them, and can still do so. But I do not believe this was always the case, or that the terms are so mutually exclusive. Romanticism as a cultural force is generally regarded as intensely hostile to science, its ideal of subjectivity eternally opposed to that of scientific objectivity. This is my account of the second scientific revolution, which swept through Britain at the end of the 18th century, and produced a new vision which has rightly been called Romantic science. The Age of Wonder is a relay-race of scientific stories, and they link together to explore a larger historical narrative.
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