Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
presentation of these wonders.
3
Thus Nieuwentijt paved the way to those
who followed in his wake. Many later eighteenth-century topics on natu-
ral philosophy were based on the notion that the spread of knowledge of
nature would contribute to respect for the Creator and thus to devotion
and virtue. An example is the 'physico-theological bestseller'
Katechis-
mus der Natuur
('Catechism of nature', 1777-1779), written by the
teacher, clergyman, and natural philosopher Johannes Florentius Marti-
net (1729-1795) (Paasman 1971, pp. 47-9). Like Nieuwentijt's book,
Martinet's
Catechism
was reprinted many times and came out in an ab-
breviated version for children, which like the original edition was re-
printed and translated into several languages. Between 1790 and 1850 as
many as 24 editions of
The catechism of nature for the use of children
appeared in the English-speaking world alone. Martinet's physico-theo-
logical doctrine continued to be influential through the middle of the
nineteenth century in the Netherlands. The new edition of J.A. Uilkens'
De volmaaktheden van den Schepper
('God's flawless creations'), which
was revised and updated between 1852 and 1857 and contained only a
few physico-theological passages, marked the end of an epoch (Paasman
1971, pp. 9-13, 61-5, 100-2). After 1860 the dominant influence of the
thought of Nieuwentijt, Martinet, and their followers was definitively a
thing of the past.
3.
Science Popularization in the Eighteenth Century
The eighteenth century, thanks to its flourishing societies and the proli-
feration of works like those by Nieuwentijt and Martinet, is often seen as
an era of 'science popularization' (Van Berkel 1985, pp. 77-84; Snelders
1992, pp. 309-12). Measured by the broad interest for the natural
sciences among the bourgeoisie at that time, this characterization is
certainly valid. Yet the term 'popularization' has one drawback; today
we tend to associate it with rendering esoteric knowledge of experts
accessible to a lay audience. In the eighteenth century, however, the
practitioners of the natural sciences did not yet constitute a sharply
3
Cf. the French title of Nieuwentijt's work:
L'Existence de Dieu démontrée par les
merveilles de la nature
(1725). On Nieuwentijt, see Vermij 1991.
