Genre:

Extract, Essay

Publications extracted:

Penny 1820

Subjects:

Biblical Authority, Creation, Light, Hypothesis, Ether, Controversy, Chemistry, Electricity, Physiology

People mentioned:

Pierre Bouguer , Francis Hauksbee , Daniel Bernoulli , Leonhard Euler

Publications cited:

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Franklin 1806 , Taylor 1762 , Pluche1732–51 , Young 1807

    The extract discusses the Biblical statement: 'Let there be light: and there was light' (Gen. 1: 3) in the light of 'modern philosophy'. The writer notes that a 'difficulty has arisen [...] in the minds of some persons, to account for the production of light before the creation of the sun', observing, however, that it has only arisen 'from adopting, with implicit confidence, a mere hypothesis of modern philosophy, an hypothesis which the recent improvements of science seems to render every day more questionable', namely the corpuscular theory (360–61). The ether theory is introduced in relation to 'late experiments in chemistry and galvanism', which have 'served to render such a fluid or elementary principle more familiar to us', and recent researches on phosphorescence. The writer quotes from several authors in support of the ether, and argues its consistency with the Mosaic account of the creation.