Monthly Archives: March 2014

Self Help

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A. Samuel Smiles was a Scottish author and government reformer. His father died of cholera so his mother had to work very hard to support him and his many siblings. This example set by his mother had a great influence on his life and certainly this book.

C. Published during the Victorian Era in Britain, this book made Smiles quite famous. The book has been called the bible of “mid-Victorian Liberalism.”

L. The language is simple and inspiring. It is a guide to personal betterment, similar to many books today.

A. The audience is the average working man of the late 1800s. It was not likely directed towards women as it does not mention females at all. While the book stressed he importance of the working man for progress, it does not say that the famous and wealthy cannot help progress society.

I. The intent of the book is to inspire people to work hard and better themselves. He also informed people that work is better than reading for progress.

M. Smiles first pointed out the importance of hard work for personal improvement. He then  stressed the need for personal growth from within, not from from outside influences. He expanded the scope of his argument by examining government’s role in progress. Smiles believed that anything past protection of basic rights was a hinderance on progress–defined by Smiles as energy, industry, and uprightness. Since a government is only as good as the people of which it is comprised, he said that people must take what their ancestors have developed and improve upon it so that their successors may continue the trend. Lastly, he noted that the common working man who inspires others to better themselves is just as important as the men whose names appear in the history books.

Sandford on Women

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Author – Elizabeth Poole Sandford wrote literature aimed at middle class women.

Context –  “Woman in Her Social and Domestic Character” was written in 1842 and was about the assumptions of the domestic, motherly, and religious duties of the housewife. It was written during the time of the Industrial Revolution, during many technological and social changes.

Language – Her language is clear and she writes in a convincing manner.

Audience – Her audience was middle and upper class men and women.

Intent – Her intent is to clarify gender roles of the time, and to point out exactly where a woman belongs in society and in marriage. She also wanted to point out that the romantic ideals of the early 19th century were in decline.

Message – A woman’s place is in the home, and should look to her husband for support, because women are the weaker of the sexes. Women do not need to be employed or have a job outside of the home, as this was seen as something only the poor needed to do and as an unfeminine characteristic.

Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management

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Author – Isabella Mary Beeton, popularly known as Mrs. Beeton, was born on 12 March, 1836 in London, England. Her father died when she was still a child and her mother soon married with a widower who had had four children. After finishing her school in Germany, Beeton went back to England as an accomplished pianist. However, with a total of 21 people in her family in England, Isabella had to take care of household chores and babysitting, being the eldest of the five daughters.

Context – The book was a collection of all the articles Mrs. Beeton published on The Englishwomen’s Domestic Magazines between 1859-1861, a time known as the “Victorian Era,” during which the Great Britain was prosperous and peaceful under the reign of Queen Victoria.

Language – Day to day word choices and phrases yet cultivated in terms of logic and flow. A number of poems were included to illustrate certain points, which shows some sophistication of Mrs.Beeton.

Audience – Mainly published in magazines for housewives, Mrs.Beeton’s articles were read by women who ran the housemanagement.

Intention – By encompassing almost every aspect of being a exceptional housewife, Mrs.Beeton’s book was a work that tried to help those housewives who wanted to manage the house better so as to be qualified wives; furthermore, to make men satisfied.

Message – The book talks about, essentially, what good qualities a good housewife should have, such as keeping a habit of rising up early and being economic. It serves as a guidance to the field of household management, which starts with a typical day of a woman running chores ranged from finance to socialization. Following the behavioral suggestions comes all the recipes of foods and drinks. The book as a whole works as a “housewife’s bible” because it sets up a standard and provides methods to help women become better at running chores at home.

Women in the Victorian Era

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Author: Elizabeth Poole Sanford. A British female author whose works revolved around women’s gender roles in the social and domestic spheres in 1842.

 Context: Sanford’s wrote during the Victorian era. In British History, the Victorian era is marked by the reign and death of Queen Victoria from 1832 until 1901. This period was marked by cultural shifts from romanticism to rationalism as well as societal peace and economic prosperity; Sanford herself thought romantic notions of love and passion were in decline.

Language: The language is elementary. Sanford uses neither specialized jargon to weed out the less refined and educated members of society, nor language so simple as to hinder efficient writing.

Audience: Middle-class women. Primarily, married women who must nurture their man through the outlet of domestic comforts. Aristocratic women most likely have servants for domestic maintenance and their own elite social norms and mannerisms, while lower class women are most likely have differing, more industrial priorities.

Intent: Sanford’s intent is to teach the women of the middle class how to properly behave in the domestic and social spheres in order to support their husbands and to help them realize their role and position in accordance to their male counterparts in society.

Message: Romanticism is dying, and women now have a more practical role in society as a functioning domestic member rather than an object of love or passion. In order to obtain less romantic, but more sincere love a women must nurture her man by maintaining his and their domestic environment; to put as much of their domestic labor on her shoulders as her sincerely willing, dependent inferior. That remains her proper role in society as well as in the relationship.

Gladstone’s Points of Supposed Collision Between the Scriptures and Natural Science

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Author: John Hall Gladstone was a British chemist born in 1827. He was privately educated at home and went on to attend University College, London where he received a gold medal for original research, and publishing a paper on guncotton and xyloidine. In1847 he attended Giessen University, where he studied under Liebig and graduated with a Ph.D. in philosophy. In 1848 he lost his wife along with his eldest daughter and only son, ostensibly only pausing his endeavors in science and social life. From 1850 to 1852 he was lecturer on chemistry at St. Thomas’s Hospital. He served as President of the Physical Society (which he founded) from 1874-76, and then as President of the Chemical Society from 1877-1879. Gladstone published work on bromination of rubber and commenced innovative efforts towards/in optics and spectroscopy. As an advocate and activist of education, he was an innovator in establishing practical and physical direction as well as the education of science to elementary school students. Gladstone was also involved  in Christian efforts, arranging religious meetings and bible classes among educated men and women. He was a member of the Royal Society. He died in 1902.

Context: Published in 1872, Gladstone initially gave this work as a lecture at the request of the Christian Evidence Society in order to defend Christianity and the influence of the bible from the incursion of New Science.

Language: The tone Gladstone uses is informative, he uses reasoning and scientific fact to prove his points. He gives his lecture from an educated point of view.

Audience: Christians and those who had doubts due to the increase of scientific knowledge. (the Christian Evidence Society)

Intent: Gladstone’s intent in this lecture was to convince his audience that science could explain and even verify religious beliefs and Christian sentiments. Gladstone addresses the skeptics view of controversy between science and religion. He also confronts Christian indignation and declaration of the irreligiousness of Darwin’s ideas.

Message: Gladstone’s message in this lecture was that science could support and maintain the historical beliefs of Christianity. He gave examples of earth structure change as well as fossils from beings that did not appear in the modern era, and related this to the Biblical story of Noah and the flood. He addressed the belief that the six days of creation were demonstrative of six different periods in history and concluded that Scripture could be proved by geology to be true and therefore the controversy over Genesis was mute. Gladstone professed interest in Darwin’s work and that although he did not agree with Darwin on the exact point at which evolution began, he respected the ideas Darwin had. Gladstone understood that religious individuals felt Darwin’s ideas attacked their beliefs of God’s active presence in the universe and their ideas on creation stemming from the Bible. He offered a different view of the matter, using textual evidence from the bible to prove that the idea of evolution did not negate the comprehension of the bible’s story of creation.

Spencer’s Social Progress

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Author: Herbert Spencer, English philosopher

Context: 1857, prior to Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”, on the tail-end of the first Industrial Revolution

Language: inquisitive and scholarly; here he asked what social progress really meant and whether it should be redefined

Audience: the intelligent but uninformed, more specifically those interested in philosophy and anthropology

Intent: to direct scholars’ attention to another way of thinking about society and social progress; until this time most were under the impression that social progress meant that societies were improving the standard of living. Spencer argued instead that social progress meant that people were living on more equal terms rather than on better terms in general.

Message: The point that Spencer tried to make in this essay was that people needed to rethink what they knew about social progress. Until this time people thought that social progress was the improvement of the quality of life through the advancement of technology. Instead, social progress meant that different factions of society were becoming more equal rather than just finding their lives easier. He analogized social progress to that of organic progress; that all organisms grow in the same way, from homogeneous to heterogeneous. He said that all forms of progress take this course, including social progress. He said that social progress had been doing so due to the division of labor, specialization, and the intervention of government. Society had been dividing itself based on what individuals within a community practiced, and how the need for trade arose as a result of this specialization, which in turn leads to an even greater level of subdivision, that of playing a single part in the creation of a final product.

Darwin and Natural Selection

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Author: Charles Darwin, born in 1809 in Great Britain, was from an intellectual family that made up of some of the leading intellectuals of the 18th century. While Darwin had initially planned on pursuing medical studies, he switched to divinity studies while attending Cambridge University, where he discovered his passion for science.

Context: During the time of his influential writings, most Europeans believed that God created the world in seven days, as assured by the Bible. While on a scientific expedition on the HMS Beagle ship, Darwin became enthralled with Lyell’s “Principles of Geology,” which suggested that fossils found in rocks were not conceived by a divine source, but were actually remnants of animals that lived hundreds of thousands of years before. After discovering his own findings of the same kind, Darwin began to enforce Lyell’s theory. Upon returning from his voyage, he began an attempt to explain how species evolve, which eventually became his theory of evolution by natural selection. His theory, therefore, held that the living species that are best suited for the environment in which they live are more likely to survive and prosper and multiply by the process of reproduction, and as environments change, the species adapts, which slowly makes slight changes to the species over time.

Language: Published in 1859, Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species, provided a full theory of evolution and was intended for other scientists, as well as the public at large. While the language is not particularly complex, it still requires common scientific knowledge. Darwin wrote for other researchers, philosophers, and scientists, as much of the language would have been tough for a leisurely read.

Audience: Darwin’s theory was written not only as a recording or his observations, but also for various other scientists. The book was very controversial because it rejected the then-common belief that God created the world and all the species in it. Although highly disputable, Darwin’s theory of evolution was widely popular and was mostly read by those educated with a science background.

Intent: By recording his theories, Darwin intended to create conversation about the possibility of evolution. Darwin sought to show people that species are formed by evolution and natural selection served as the primary agent. Although controversial, his writings forced both scientist and the general public to engage in theories of natural selection.

Meaning: Darwin introduced the scientific theory that species evolve through the process of natural selection. Using evidence gathered from his expedition, Darwin introduced new ways of explaining different forms of life based off the idea that there is a struggle for survival and only those species that can adapt or are well suited for their environment will survive and evolve.

 

Darwin and the Origin of Species

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Author: Charles Darwin (1802-1882) was an English naturalist and geologist, whose contributions to evolutionary theory were significant. He was born into a wealthy family, and his father was a doctor, which Darwin almost pursued as a career path. His family was largely Unitarian. Darwin was highly critical of the Bible as a source of history, and traveled the world in order to disprove many of the Bible’s scientific stances.

Context: 1859, when much of the world believed in the Bible as an explanation for the science of the natural world. Many people believed that the world and every species on it were created by God. Darwin sought to disprove this.

Language: Darwin writes using many basic scientific terms, but in a way that is understandable.

Audience: Darwin writes for a population interested in scientific theory, perhaps written for those who previously had doubts about Biblical scientific explanations. His audience does not need an extensive background knowledge in science.

Intent: Darwin writes in order to inform people of the way in which evolution occurs, disproving certain Biblical theories. He wants to provoke thought among a large population, inspiring a naturalistic rather than Biblical approach to science. Furthermore, Darwin writes in order to provide a wider pool of opinions and beliefs.

Message: There are more species born than can survive, which creates a struggle for existence among species. Survival is determined by those who have even the slightest advantage, which will turn the balance. These advantages give a being significant benefits where its survival is concerned. This theory of natural selection accounts for the extinction of certain species and the survival of others.

Haeckel and the Importance of Monism

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Author: Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was born in Prussia and was educated in several different fields including philosophy, biology, natural history, and medicine. He is credited with the discovery of thousands of new species and promoted the works of Charles Darwin in Germany.
Context: The Confession of Faith of a Man of Science was written in 1892, a period in which many biologists were rethinking their understanding of the relationship between God and nature.
Language: The language used in Haeckel’s Confession was forceful and persuasive. Haeckel seemed to be urging his audience to recognize the beauty in a monistic view toward God and nature.
Audience: Haeckel writes that he “crave[s] the permission of this assembly” to confess his faith, indicating that he was orating his Confession to a congregation of other scientists in his field.
Intent: Haeckel’s intent was to persuade his audience of the existence of a unity between God and nature.
Message: Haeckel implored his fellow scientists to embrace the monistic unity of all things. He emphasized the compatibility of God and the scientific knowledge of the time, as well as the presence of a divine spirit in nature. He also quoted the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who opined that “no body is so small that it does not contain a part of the divine substance whereby it is animated.” Haeckel concluded his speech with a representation of monism as “truly beatific union of religion and science”, stressing the influence monism will have on the ideas of the coming century.

The Confession of Faith of a Man of Science

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Author: Ernst Haeckel. Born in 1834, died in 1919. He was born in Potsdam- in what was then Prussia. He was a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, professor and artist. Haeckel established and named thousands of species and devised many biology terms (i.e. anthropogeny, stem cell, ecology, and phylogeny). He also read Charles Darwin’s work and encouraged it, spreading it throughout Germany. He believed that races were separate species and that caucasians were the highest among these. According to him, the lower races (or primitives) were subject to annihilation. In 1905, he established a group called the “Monist League” in order to incite his ideas as well as his political and religious beliefs. The Nazi’s later unfortunately used Haeckel’s rationalizations as evidence for fueling their anti-Semitic propaganda and dogma as a means to support nationalist sentiments in the interwar and World War II era.

Context: This work was published in 1892 and was influenced by Darwinism and German idealistic tradition.

Language: This piece is opinionated, and written in a knowledgeable manner with evidence to support reasoning. Haeckel confers with the audience directly (“this assembly”, “we”, “our”, “I”).

Audience: Other monists, darwinists, and philosophers of his time.

Intent: Haeckel’s intent in this document was to emphasize that faith is central to monism and open people’s eyes to “a true knowledge of nature”, believing that this understanding was necessary to content the individual’s pursuit for comprehension of mankind.

Message: The inorganic and organic universe which we perceive are intertwined and spirit is ubiquitous throughout nature and natural beings. Monism, or believing that we are all a part of one type of spirit under one God, is a primary sentiment which Haeckel holds, and which he believes the human mind embraces. He realizes the need man has to understand nature and where it originates. Haeckel discusses the prevalent equation of god with nature, god being an atomic force within all organisms. He coins this notion “gaseous vertebrate”- that god is an unseen backbone for all that is living. To Haeckel, monistic exploration is an attempt to comprehend the truth of nature, exercise proper morals, and ascertain beauty. Once man synthesizes these distinguished segments of monism, he can “gain the pure idea of God” (Haeckel).