[Milton-L] Milton and Newton (Again?)

[Horace Jeffery Hodges]

"Milton, so far I know, never dabbled in black arts, and saw no great conflict between science (in the older sense) and religious truth."
 
 
Would Milton have considered alchemy a dark art? He seems to presuppose its truth in Paradise Lost.
 
 
Jeffery Hodges


--- On Thu, 9/24/09, Nancy Charlton <nbcharlton at comcast.net> wrote:


From: Nancy Charlton <nbcharlton at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton and Newton (Again?)
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 11:18 AM


My apologies; I sent that last message too hastily (Hardly because an apple fell on my head!) . I should have said that the BLB contains, not a list of references, but Newton's entire book,  /Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John /with links to each chapter. Hardly a facsimile edition, but Newton's content is there. Haven't read much of it, but enough to conclude that Newton was a trivia buff more interested in details such a how the disciples rubbed ears of corn, and dismisses the miracles in  a word. He was obviously a careful scientist who saw the primacy of fact but perhaps stopped short of investigating what couldn't be explained so definitely.  Is it fair to say that alchemy, having a physical basis owever incorrect, offered him a more comfortable reliance than faith?

Milton, so far I know, never dabbled in black arts, and saw no great conflict between science (in the older sense) and religious truth.

Nancy Charlton

Nancy Charlton wrote:
> If it's any help, Blue Letter Bible has an article on Newton with a long list of biblical references, mostly in the apocalypses, that he cited. And PBS had a film about his interest in alchemy a few years ago.
> 
> http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/comm_author.cfm?AuthorID=11
> 
> Nancy Charlton
> 
> 
> Jeffrey Shoulson wrote:
>> For those of you not already familiar with it, Matt Goldish's, Judaism in the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton (1998), is a very fine piece of scholarship.  Matt worked closely with Dick Popkin, as well.
>> 
>> 
>> Jeffrey S. Shoulson, Ph. D.
>> Associate Professor of English and Judaic Studies
>> University of Miami
>> PO Box 248145
>> Coral Gables, FL 33124-4632
>> 
>> (o) 305-284-5596
>> (f) 305-284-5635
>> 
>> jshoulson at miami.edu <mailto:jshoulson at miami.edu>
>> _www.as.miami.edu/english/people/#jshoulson_
>> 
> 
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