Table Of ContentStudies in Modern History
General Editor: J. C. D. Clark, Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Distinguished
Professor of British History, University of Kansas
Titles include:
James B. Bell
THE IMPERIAL ORIGINS OF THE KING’S CHURCH IN EARLY AMERICA
1607–1783
Jonathan Clark and Howard Erskine-Hill (editors)
SAMUEL JOHNSON IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Eveline Cruickshanks and Howard Erskine-Hill
THE ATTERBURY PLOT
Diana Donald and Frank O’Gorman (editors)
ORDERING THE WORLD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Richard R. Follett
EVANGELICALISM, PENAL THEORY AND THE POLITICS OF CRIMINAL LAW
REFORM IN ENGLAND, 1808–30
Andrew Godley
JEWISH IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NEW YORK AND LONDON
1880–1914
William Anthony Hay
THE WHIG REVIVAL
1808–1830
Philip Hicks
NEOCLASSICAL HISTORY AND ENGLISH CULTURE
From Clarendon to Hume
Mark Keay
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’S GOLDEN AGE THEORIES DURING THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND, 1750–1850
William M. Kuhn
DEMOCRATIC ROYALISM
The Transformation of the British Monarchy, 1861–1914
Kim Lawes
PATERNALISM AND POLITICS
The Revival of Paternalism in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain
Marisa Linton
THE POLITICS OF VIRTUE IN ENLIGHTENMENT FRANCE
Nancy D. LoPatin
POLITICAL UNIONS, POPULAR POLITICS AND THE GREAT REFORM ACT
OF 1832
Karin J. MacHardy
WAR, RELIGION AND COURT PATRONAGE IN HABSBURG AUSTRIA
The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Political Interaction, 1521–1622
Robert J. Mayhew
LANDSCAPE, LITERATURE AND ENGLISH RELIGIOUS CULTURE, 1660–1800
Samuel Johnson and Languages of Natural Description
Marjorie Morgan
NATIONAL IDENTITIES AND TRAVEL IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN
James Muldoon
EMPIRE AND ORDER
The Concept of Empire, 800–1800
W. D. Rubinstein and Hilary Rubinstein
PHILOSEMITISM
Admiration and Support for Jews in the English-Speaking World, 1840–1939
Julia Rudolph
WHIG POLITICAL THOUGHT AND THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
James Tyrrell and the Theory of Resistance
Lisa Steffen
TREASON AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
Defining a British State, 1608–1820
Lynne Taylor
BETWEEN RESISTANCE AND COLLABORATION
Popular Protest in Northern France, 1940–45
Anthony Waterman
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY SINCE THE
ENLIGHTENMENT
Essays in Intellectual History
Doron Zimmerman
THE JACOBITE MOVEMENT IN SCOTLAND AND IN EXILE, 1746–1759
Studies in Modern History
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Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Ordering the World in the
Eighteenth Century
Edited by
Diana Donald
and
Frank O’Gorman
Editorial matter and selection © Diana Donald and Frank O’Gorman 2006
Individual chapters © contributors 2006
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-3820-6
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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First published 2006 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ordering the world in the eighteenth century / edited by
Diana Donald and Frank O’Gorman.
p. cm. — (Studies in modern history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Civilization, Modern – 18th century. 2. Enlightenment. I. Donald,
Diana. II. O’Gorman, Frank. III. Studies in modern history (Palgrave
Macmillan (Firm))
CB411.O73 2005
940.2(cid:2)53—dc22 2005051384
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface viii
Notes on the Contributors x
Introduction: Concepts of Order in the Eighteenth
Century – Their Scope and Their Frailties 1
Diana Donald
Part I The Ordering of the World and of
Human Affairs
1 Providence, Predestination and Progress:
Or, Did the Enlightenment Fail? 27
J. C. D. Clark
2 ‘One is All, and All is One’: The Great Chain of Being in
Berkeley’s Siris 63
Costica Bradatan
3 Ordering the Political World: The Pattern of Politics in
Eighteenth-Century Britain (1660–1832) 83
Frank O’Gorman
4 The Ordering of Family and Gender in the Age of the
Enlightenment 112
Rosemary Sweet
Part II The Ordering of Knowledge: Bridging Nature
and Culture
5 Félibien and the Circle of Colbert: A Reevaluation of the
Hierarchy of Genres 143
Barbara Anderman
6 The Values of the Mineral Kingdom and the French Republic 163
Jonathan Simon
v
vi Contents
7 The Système figuré des connaissances humaines and
the Structure of Knowledge in the Encyclopédie 190
David Adams
8 ‘Encircling the Arts and Sciences’: British Encyclopedism
after the French Revolution 216
Judith Hawley
Index 245
List of Illustrations
I.1 The Ornithology of Francis Willughby 9
1.1 William Hogarth, The Lottery 31
6.1 Dendrite representing a lake bordered by several trees 179
6.2 Dendrite on limestone base from the Island of Elba 179
6.3 Florentine marble 180
6.4 Florentine marble 181
7.1 The Système figuré des connaissances humaines
from the Encyclopédie 192
vii
Preface
This volume originated in a conference organized by the editors, which
took place at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2002. It was one
of a series held in Manchester under the aegis of the British Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and on this occasion the two organiz-
ers received valuable assistance from various members of staff of the
Victoria University of Manchester, notably Jeremy Gregory, Natalie
Zacek and Matthew McCormack. The conference drew academics from
all over the world, and from a wide range of disciplines. It was an excit-
ing occasion, productive of many new insights, and our decision to pub-
lish a selection of the excellent papers stemmed from our recognition of
the importance of the themes discussed. These, we believed, deserved a
wider audience.
The choice of subject, ‘Ordering the World’, breaks new ground in
eighteenth-century studies, as a unitary study of concepts of order at this
period. It reflects our shared interest in issues of hierarchy and authority
in the long eighteenth century. In particular, we are keen to examine and
to compare ideas of order not only in politics and society, but also in
philosophy, the arts and the natural and social sciences. Many aspects
of thought linked these diverse fields. However, we made no a priori
assumption that there was a single, overriding notion of order in the
eighteenth century; indeed, one of the virtues of this collection of essays
is its revelation of a variety of different, if overlapping, conceptions of
order in the world. Nor did we assume that systems of order actually pre-
vailed in the eighteenth century. An important theme of the book is the
frailtyand restricted scopeof all such systems, which proved vulnerable
to adverse events, to intellectual challenge, and to the refashioning of the
scientific and political worlds towards the end of the period.
We should like to express our gratitude to many people who have con-
tributed to the production of the volume. First, we must thank all those
who were associated with the Manchester conference: our co-organizers,
and all those who attended, chaired panels and gave papers. We should
like to thank contributors to the book for their assiduity, care and kind
cooperation in delivering their essays to schedule. We wish to express
our thanks to those who hold copyright in the images that form the
illustrations, for their generous permission to publish them. We are also
viii
Preface ix
grateful to Palgrave Macmillan for their patience and forbearance as this
volume has worked its way through the production process. Finally, we
are particularly indebted to Jonathan Clark, for his interest in the pro-
ject, and for his invitation to publish the volume in the present series.
DIANADONALD
FRANKO’GORMAN
