Scientific Literature Of The Early Victorian Period

Science has occupied a prominent and steadily increasing place in the publications of the Nineteenth Century. Most of these are not considered to belong to literature, yet some, from being addressed to the general public rather than scientific experts, and from the excellence of the style in which they are presented, are allowed at least honorable mention. Among the earlier writers were the chemist Sir Humphry Davy, the Scotch encyclopedist, Sir David Brewster, the astronomer, Sir John Herschel, the geologist, Sir Charles Lyell. But none of their writings attracted so much attention as one which appeared anonymously in 1844, "The Vestiges of Creation," but which was eventually known to be the work of Robert Chambers, distinguished both as publisher and editor. It was, as he said, "the first attempt to connect the natural sciences into a history of creation." It treated of the formation of the solar system, then of the earth in its geological periods and the kinds of life found in each, the origin of animals and of man. Although the author tried to show that the order of creation indicated by scientific research agreed with the Biblical account, the book was strongly condemned by the theologians. But fifteen years later, a bolder speculator, more thoroughly equipped with scientific knowledge, by publishing "The Origin of Species," revolutionized the whole world of thought.