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The Age of
Wonder
How the Romantic Generation discoveredthe Beauty and Terror of Science
Richard Holmes
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperPress in 2008
Copyright © Richard Holmes 2008
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007149537
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007349883 Version: 2017-08-14
To Jon Cook at Radio Flatlands
Two things fill my mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more
often and persistently I reflect upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me…I see them in front of me and unite them immediately with the consciousness of my own existence.
IMMANUEL KANT, Critique of Practical Reason (1788)
He thought about himself, and the whole Earth,
Of Man the wonderful, and of the Stars, And how the deuce they ever could have birth; And then he thought of Earthquakes, and of Wars, How many miles the Moon might have in girth, Of Air-balloons, and of the many bars To perfect Knowledge of the boundless Skies; And then he thought of Donna Julia’s eyes.
BYRON, Don Juan (1819), Canto 1, stanza 92
Those to whom the harmonious doors
Of Science have unbarred celestial stores…
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, ‘Lines Additional to an Evening Walk’ (1794)
Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose our views of
science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete; and that there are no new worlds to conquer.
HUMPHRY DAVY, lecture (1810)
I shall attack Chemistry, like a Shark.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, letter (1800)
…Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with wond’ring eyes He stared at the Pacific…
JOHN KEATS, ms of sonnet (1816)
To the natural philosopher there is no natural object unimportant or trifling…
a soap bubble…an apple…a pebble…He walks in the midst of wonders.
JOHN HERSCHEL, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830)
Yes, there is a march of Science, but who shall beat the drums of its retreat?
CHARLES LAMB, shortly before his death (1834)
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