Quest for Mysteries by Heinrich Schneider; La franc-maçonnerie et le révolutionintellectuelle du XVIIIe siècle by Bernard FaÿReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Aug., 1948), pp. 184-187Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226324 .

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i84 Reviews him to examine the English editions. It would be worth while to do this for him. The English editions are: Art of midwifery improv'd I7I6, I72I, I728, I746. New improvements I724, I728. The book is very well printed and illus- trated, but lacks an index. GEORGE SARTON

J. STULDREHER-NIENHUIS: Verborgen paradijzen. Het even en de werken van Maria SibyUa Merian (z647-1717). 2nd edition. i86 pp., portr., pls. Arnhem: Van Loghum Slate- rus, 1945.

The first edition of this book appeared, I be- lieve, in 1944. This is the second, revised, edi- tion. Hidden paradises is the biography of an extraordinary woman, Maria Sibylla Merian, and it is illustrated with a number of colored plates reproducing her beautiful and accurate miniatures of insects. Her father, Matthew Merian (Basel 1593-I650), was an engraver chiefly known because of his copper-plates illus- trating various Topographiae. He settled in Frankfurt a. M., where he married the eldest daughter of Johannes Theodorus de Bry; Maria Sibylla was born in Frankfurt in I647 from a second wife; she was married in i665 and had two daughters. Some time later, she went to Wieuwerd, Friesland, and joined the Labadist community; 2 in I699, she travelled to Surinam (Dutch Guiana), whence she brought back admirable miniatures of flowers and in- sects. A beautiful portrait of her was made in I679 by her half-brother, Matthew II Merian (reproduced in frontispiece). In addition to isolated drawings and paintings of flowers and insects, specimens of which may be seen in many European museums, she published as- tounding collections of colored plates, European plants and insects (first edition with German text, I679-i683; later editions with text in Dutch, Latin or French; fifth and last ed., Latin and French, Paris 1771) ; Plants and insects of Surinam (Amsterdam 1705; 5th ed., Latin and French, Paris 1771). The bibliography of her publications is very complicated.

It is not possible for me to appraise the scien- tific merit of her drawings, for I am not an entomologist. She was fortunate to live at a time when entomology was studied with intense fervor and in an environment which stimulated

'Thcodorus de Bry (1528-98) and his son, Johannes Theodorus de Bry (I56I-I623), were famous engravers and publishers of Frankfurt, well known to historians of science, especially to geographers. The father was born in Liege. The marriage of Matthew Merian with Maria Magdalena de Bry was a kind of business association, very fre- quent among members of the same guild in those days.

'For more information on the Labadist sect, see my review of Lamers' biography of Henrik van Deventer, above. See also dictionaries of religion, e.g., ERE (11, 323).

her scientific and artistic efforts and gave reli- gious meaning to them. Jan Swammerdam (I637-80) had published during her youth his Historia generalis insectorum of te Algemeene ver- handeling van de bloedeloze dierkens (Utrecht I669), and she must have been aware of the greater work which he was preparing under the influence of Antoinette Bourignon and of his own scientific exaltation, the Biblia naturae (to be published only a century later, 2 folios, Ley- den 1737-38). She had studied the works of Swammerdam and others, for she states in the preface to her Metamorphosis insectorum Sun- namensium, (6o col. plates, Amsterdam 1705), that she has restricted herself to her own ob- servations and does not think it necessary to add to the explanations and controversies of Moufet, Godart, Swammerdam, Blanckaert and others." In short, she did not pose as an entomologist, but as an artist, and she was a pioneer of rare excellence in the field of entomological iconog- raphy. She inspired various imitators and ob- tained the praise of great naturalists. Reaumur admired her very much, though he remarked that she was abler at depicting insects than de- scribing them (that was obvious, she would have been the last to deny it). Various insects, spiders and plants have been named after her by grateful discoverers.

Maria Sibylla was a great artist and her tor- mented soul found consolation in the Hidden paradises, the hidden beauties which ignorant people overlook, the caterpillars and the insects, and the wonderful flowers by means of which God embellishes nature. The book describing her life and work is well documented and well indexed; thanks to the colored plates and the fine printing, it also is a very beautiful book and (I hate to use the phrase but it is the correct one) a collector's item.'

GEORGE SARTON

HEINRICH SCHNEIDER: Quest for Myste- ries. The masonic background for literature in eighteenth-century Germany. xi + 178 pp., frontispiece. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univer- sity Press, 1947.

BERNARD FAT: La franc-maVonnerie et le rJ- volution intellectuelle du XVII sicle. 286

3Dutch text quoted verbatim by the author (p. 104). The plates were published in a double edi- tion, one with Latin text, the other with the Dutch text, which was probably the original. The natural- ists mentioned by her are Thomas Mouffet, Jan Goedaert, Swammerdam, Stephen Blankaart. She was certainly acquainted with Leeuwenhoek. Mouf- fet or Moffett was English and of an earlier vintage (1553-I604); all the others were Dutch and her own contemporaries, within her immediate reach as it were.

'The following edition may also be recom- mended to collectors. Das kleine Buch der Tropen- wunder. Kolorierte Stiche von Maria Sibylla Merian. Geleitwort von Friedrich Schnack. Insel

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Reviews

pp. (Collection de Cluny, S). Paris: Cluny, 1942 (reprint of the edition of I935, published as a new work). Professor Schneider's very interesting book

reminded me of Fay's earlier one, which allows us to contemplate eighteenth-century freema- sonry from a different angle. The two books complete one another without conflicting. Fay's purpose was to show the great part taken by freemasonry in the American and the French revolutions. That thesis may be considered proved and Fay was not by any means the first to defend it. When one says that freemasonry prepared the French Revolution, this must be qualified by the statement that the preparation was unconscious, for nobody thought clearly of the revolution before i 788. Freemasonry prepared it, because it was one of the best means for the dissolution and destruction of the prej- udices upon which the Old Regime was estab- lished. It also helped to diffuse the English parliamentary methods on the Continent.

Schneider's book is devoted primarily to German conditions and it shows that German freemasonry was not a tool for the furtherance of the Enlightenment, but, on the contrary, was a mystical reaction against it. It provided a kind of spiritual transition between the En- lightenment and Romanticism. The author shows very well why this was so. The Re- formation had broken the religious integrity of Germany, and the several forms of Prot- estantism, in spite of their dogmatism and belligerency, had never attained the same pres- tige as the Catholic church. The Enlighten- ment did not tally with the mystical tendencies so deeply imbedded in the German minds. Schneider's account of those tendencies is good, but it is a pity he did not trace them back to the great mystical writers of the fourteenth century: Meister Eckhart, Suso, Tauler, Ruys- broeck, and to the Dutch masters of the De- votio moderna. I do not believe that these writings had ever been forgotten in the German countries. One of the most significant ones, the Theologia deutsch, was first edited by Luther (I5I6, I5i8),1 and hence must have been pretty well known in the Lutheran communities. The mystical tendencies of German freemasonry were gradually increased by contemporary groups such as the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Pansophists, the Pietists, the Quietists, the Friends of God. The influences and counter- influences are so numerous that a clear account of them is almost impossible. The author has done his best, but there are so many threads

Verlag, Leipzig [s. a., I9351. Little book of 54 pp., including 24 colored plates very much reduced in size. The book of I705 was printed in black and white but some copies were colored by her own hand.

'Introd. (3, 572 and my index).

mixed up in so many ways that the reader can- not follow them easily, unless he has already explored that labyrinth and become familiar with it. Should the reader lose his foothold or his patience, let him remember that it would be much worse for him if he had to read the masonic elucubrations. The old saying "ma- sonica non leguntur" was justified by the nature of many of those writings full of phantasies, pseudo-history and pseudo-science, alchemy, astrology, theosophy, occultism, pansophy, parapsychology, hermetism, quabbala and eso- terism of every kind. Strangely mixed with all that rubbish were nobler and sounder threads, which might be called religious, philosophic, rationalist, irenic, philanthropic. The main German writers of the end of the eighteenth- century, Herder, Lessing, Claudius, Goethe, Wieland, BUrger, Klinger, etc. were in close contact with freemasonry.'

In some respects the freemasonry of the eighteenth century played a role similar to the early academies of Italy two centuries before. It provided meeting places where earnest think- ers and investigators as well as dilettanti of various degrees of seriousness could come together and discuss new ideas in relative free- dom, without fear of social or religious persecu- tions. To be sure, that very freedom was abused by unbalanced minds and therefore the history of masonry is teeming with personalities, some great, others small, many original to the point of eccentricity. Think of a galaxy including such men as the astrologer, comte de Boulain- villiers,' Adam Weishaupt of Ingolstadt, Johann Valentin Andreae, Andrew Michael Ramsay, Pierre Poiret, Lavater, Swedenborg, Louis Claude de Saint Martin, Dom Antoine Joseph Pernetti, Jacob Sarasin of Basel, "count" Ca- gliostro, Adolph von Knigge, and many others.

As far as the history of science is concerned, the two most interesting masons of the eigh- teenth century are the two "electricians" De- saguliers and Franklin. Franklin's masonic con- nections (as well as Washington's) have often

'One should not exaggerate the importance of their masonic affiliations, or rather the question should not be prejudiced. It might be important (as in the case of Lessing) or negligible. Masonic affiliations were fashionable among literary people in the eighteenth century; membership in a lodge was in many cases hardly more significant than membership in an exclusive club. On the other hand, some members might be tempted to use their masonic connections in order to satisfy their per- sonal vanities or ambitions. The same would hap- pen in any other powerful group.

'I do not know whether Boulainvilliers and some of the others were masons, but one cannot discuss the masonry of their time without coming across them repeatedly. They all represent in one way or another the extraordinary fermentation of ideas which masonry was trying to control or to canalize.

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i86 Reviews been described, and they must be considered in any discussion of the masonic ingredients of the American Revolution. The Rev. John Theoph- ilus Desaguliers (I683-1I744) was a Huguenot whose family had suffered persecution but had found peace and freedom in England. His father, Jean des Aguliers, had been a pastor in Aytr6, near La Rochelle, but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (i685) had driven him into exile. He settled first in Guernsey, then in Eng- land; after a while, he established a school in Islington (London), where he spent the last years of his life. When John Theophilus was only seventeen years old, he was already helping his father to conduct the school, but after the latter's death he went to Oxford to complete his scientific education. He was a disciple and proteg6 of Newton, a fellow of the Royal So- ciety (I714), a "curator and demonstrator" employed by that society, and he obtained many honors and preferments. From I7I3 on, when he settled in Westminster, he offered lectures on natural philosophy, illustrated with experiments, attended by people of fashion as well as by men of science. He was perhaps the first popular lecturer on science in England, certainly the first to attract considerable atten- tion. He won the friendship and admiration not only of the English clergy and intelligentsia but also of foreign scientists such as Boerhaave, 's Gravesande, and Huygens. He wrote many scientific books, translated or edited others, and received the Copley medal in 1741.' We speak of him here because he was one of the founders of the reformed English masonry and, after I7I9, Deputy Grand Master of the new Grand Lodge. "The- Constitutions of the Free-Masons containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc. of that most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity" first published in London in 5723 =

1723 includes a dedication signed by "J. T. Desaguliers, Deputy Grand Master." That book, the magna carta of the new masonry, is often called "Anderson's Constitutions," be- cause it is ascribed to the Rev. James Anderson (i68o?-I739), but it would seem that Desagu- liers had a considerable share in its composition. A passage of it may be quoted which must have seemed as hopeful to the liberals as it was ominous to the conservatives. It is chapter i

of the "Charges" (I quote from the facsimile edition published in New York I855, p. 50).

A Mason is oblig'd, by his Tenure, to obey the moral Law; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient Times Masons were charg'd in every Country to be of the Religion

' See notices in NBG (i3, 722-24; I855) and DNB (14, 400-01; I888). He would deserve a full biography, for he is an important figure in the history of physics and scientific education. See note on p. I74.)

of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet 'tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves; that is, to be good Men and true, or Men of Honour and Hon- esty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguish'd; whereby Masonry be- comes the center of Union, and the Means of con- ciliating true Friendship among Persons that must have remain'd at a perpetual Distance.

Fay's book was first published in I935 and an English translation appeared in Boston in the same year; 5 an Italian translation was published in Turin in I939, and the French original was reprinted, as if it were a new book, in I942. Of course, the Fascists and the Nazis permitted those editions, not because they were anxious to defend Catholicism,6 but for their own purposes. Dictators could not abide the masonic habits of tolerance and free discussion, they closed the lodges, and welcomed anti- masonic publications, such as those of Adolf Bartels and of Mathilde (von Kemnitz) Luden- dorff.' They were mistaken, however, in pa- tronizing Fay's book which can hardly be con- sidered anti-masonic in spite of a few malicious insinuations, and can do no harm to free- masonry except in minds already prejudiced against it.

The two books are very readable, especially Fay's (Schneider's book suffers from too much condensation). It is interesting to compare the fate of the two authors. Dr Heinrich Schneider is a Hessian scholar (born in Offenbach, i889), who was for a time librarian in Wolfenbiittel; this accounts for his deep interest in Leibniz and Lessing; his work on Lessing led him to masonic investigations. Being a political refugee in 1933, he was employed in the American College of Bulgaria and from there came to America in 1936.

The Frenchman, Bernard Fak (b. I893), re- sided a few years in this country and became an expert on Franco-American topics; he was pro- fessor of "American civilization" at the College de France. According to a news report in the New York Times, dated Paris, 5 Dec. I946, he "was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard

'That translation was presumably made by him- self, and hence with some freedom. The first chap- ter of the French text, written to capture the benev- olence of French readers, is omitted from the English version.

6 The clergy and faithful affiliated with free- masonry were excommunicated by Clement XII in 173I, and again by Benedict XIV in 1751. This hardly influenced masonry in Protestant countries, but in the Catholic ones it increased considerably its latent anticlericalism. French and Italian masonry was politically-minded and exerted a strong influ- ence, whenever it could, upon political and admin- istrative decisions.

'For details on their books, see Schneider (p. I27).

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Reviews i87 labor today after his conviction on a charge of intelligence with the enemy. M. Fay had been charged with publishing documents and lists of the Free Masons for the Vichy Government. This had resulted, according to the prosecution, in deportation or death for thousands of them."8

Schneider and Fay travelled in opposite direc- tions. The former preferred exile and poverty to Nazi servitude; he is now professor of German literature in Cornell University. Fay welcomed the Nazi invaders of his native land and be- trayed his own countrymen to them; he is now ending his miserable life in a prison cell.

GEORGE SARTON

J. M. D. OLMSTED: Charles-Adouard Brown- Sdquard. A nineteenth century neurologist and endocrinologist. 253 pp., I pl. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1946. $3.oo

It has been said of good biography that the biographer must have been in close spiritual rapport with his subject. This was clearly true of Boswell; true also of Cushing and Osler. I am not certain that it is true of Olmsted and Brown-Sequard, for Brown-Sequard was a color- ful and argumentative man, at times even boister- ous in his camaraderie, and Professor Olmsted is a retiring scholar who shuns dissension and noisy publicity as he would the plague. For Claude Bernard he was an ideal biographer because he understood his quiet, peaceloving, yet deter- mined temperament; he was perhaps less well suited to portray the stormy character of Fran- 'ois Magendie, but he managed to do this supremely well. I have come away from the perusal of Brown-Sequard, however, with the feeling that author and subject were not spiri- tually attuned. The story is told artistically, particularly the tale of his early years on the Island of Mauritius where his widowed mother brought him up amid privation and sacrifice. The account of his early struggles as a student at Paris is also well told. But from Professor Olmsted's pages one finds it difficult to recon- struct the stormy sessions of the Soci6te de Biologie and the Academie des Sciences at which Brown-Siquard thundered his communications and, oft as not, his denunciations of his con- temporaries.

His years in the United States are less well documented than his years at Paris, but one finds a just, critical appraisal of his positive contributions to physiology and medicine and for this the biography can be highly recom- mended. If it lacks color in its descriptive passages, one finds compensation in this rigorous appraisal of his research and his discoveries. Especially interesting to physiologists are the details of his early experiments on sensory functions and on the anatomical pathways in-

'As quoted by Schneider, p. 12.

volved in sensory perception in the spinal cord, for the Brown-Sequard syndrome of sensory dissociation of pain and position sense which follows upon lateral semi-section of the spinal cord has become one of the cornerstones of modern neurophysiological teaching.

By i856, Olmsted points out, Brown-S6quard had made his major contributions to physiol- ogy. His useful career by no means ended at this time, but he ceased to be a "pure" physiol- ogist and became rather an "applied" physiol- ogist, "thus losing a halo and acquiring a forked tail, or vice versa, according to one's point of view." During i858 and I859 Brown- Sequard lectured extensively in London, Edin- burgh, Dublin, and Glasgow and between i86o and I864 he abandoned his medical practice in Paris altogether and moved to London where he had received an appointment as physician at the National Hospital at Queen Square. His influence during these years caused a young house surgeon bearing the name of James Hughlings Jackson to concentrate his attention on the nervous system. Hughlings Jackson was eventually to outshine his master and become the founder of the great British school of neu- rology which still finds its chief center at Queen Square.

Dr Olmsted's account of Brown-Sequard's ex- periments on testicular extract, although slightly Victorian in tone, is presented interestingly and in considerable detail. At the age of 72, Brown- Sequard, feeling that his energies were on the wane and that he needed rejuvenation, coura- geously subjected himself to a series of sub- cutaneous injections of an infusion of a water extract of ground-up dog or guinea pig testicles. The results, according to his own account, were surprising. "For many years," he writes, "I was so tired that I had to go to bed almost as soon as I had taken my hasty meal [at six p.m.]." After his six injections he wrote:

I can also now without difficulty, and even with- out thinking about it, go up and down stairs al- most running, a thing which I always did before the age of sixty. By using the dynamometer, I have established that there has been an incon- testable increase in the force of my limbs. For my forearm, in particular, I find that the average of trials since the first two injections is greater by 6-7 kilograms than the average before the in- jections.

Brown-Sequard was fully aware of the pos- sibility of autosuggestion, but by various ob- jective tests he convinced himself that the im- provement was real and not imaginary. Profes- sor Olmsted writes that from the moment of his first injection until his death four years later "rejuvenation filled his every thought." The published report, which had been made in a communication before the Societe de Biologie on i June I889, led to a furor in the public

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