_Sir Richard Phillips_[555] (born 1768) was conspicuous in 1793, when he
was sentenced to a year's imprisonment[556] for selling Paine's _Rights of
Man_; and again when, in 1807[557], he was knighted as Sheriff of London.
As a bookseller, he was able to enforce his opinions in more ways than
others. For instance, in James Mitchell's[558] _Dictionary of the
Mathematical and Physical Sciences_, 1823, 12mo, which, though he was not
technically a publisher, was printed for him--a book I should recommend to
the collector of works of reference--there is a temperate description of
his doctrines, which one may almost swear was one of his conditions
previous to undertaking the work. Phillips himself was not only an
anti-Newtonian, but carried to a fearful excess the notion that statesmen
and Newtonians were in league to deceive the world. He saw this plot in
Mrs. Airy's[559] pension, and in Mrs. Somerville's[560]. In 1836, he {243}
did me the honor to attempt my conversion. In his first letter he says:
"Sir Richard Phillips has an inveterate abhorrence of all the pretended
wisdom of philosophy derived from the monks and doctors of the middle ages,
and not less of those of higher name who merely sought to make the monkish
philosophy more plausible, or so to disguise it as to mystify the mob of
small thinkers."
So little did his writings show any knowledge of antiquity, that I strongly
suspect, if required to name one of the monkish doctors, he would have
answered--Aristotle. These schoolmen, and the "philosophical trinity of
gravitating force, projectile force, and void space," were the bogies of
his life.
I think he began to publish speculations in the _Monthly Magazine_ (of
which he was editor) in July 1817: these he republished separately in 1818.
In the Preface, perhaps judging the feelings of others by his own, he says
that he "fully expects to be vilified, reviled, and anathematized, for many
years to come." Poor man! he was let alone. He appeals with confidence to
the "impartial decision of posterity"; but posterity does not appoint a
hearing for one per cent. of the appeals which are made; and it is much to
be feared that an article in such a work of reference as this will furnish
nearly all her materials fifty years hence. The following, addressed to M.
Arago,[561] in 1835, will give posterity as good a notion as she will
probably need:
"Even the present year has afforded EVER-MEMORABLE examples, paralleled
only by that of the Romish Conclave which persecuted Galileo. Policy has
adopted that maxim of Machiavel which teaches that it is _more prudent_ to
_reward_ {244} partisans than to _persecute_ opponents. Hence, a bigotted
party had influence enough with the late short-lived administration [I
think he is wrong as to the administration] of Wellington, Peel, &c., to
confer munificent royal pensions on three writers whose sole distinction
was their advocacy of the Newtonian philosophy. A Cambridge professor last
year published an elaborate volume in illustration of _Gravitation_, and on
him has been conferred a pension of 300l. per annum. A lady has written a
light popular view of the Newtonian Dogmas, and she has been complimented
by a pension of 200l. per annum. And another writer, who has recently
published a volume to prove that the only true philosophy is that of Moses,
has been endowed with a pension of 200l. per annum. Neither of them were
needy persons, and the political and ecclesiastical bearing of the whole
was indicated by another pension of 300l. bestowed on a political writer,
the advocate of all abuses and prejudices. Whether the conduct of the
Romish Conclave was more base for visiting with legal penalties the
promulgation of the doctrines that the Earth turns on its axis and revolves
around the Sun; or that of the British Court, for its craft in conferring
pensions on the opponents of the plain corollary, that all the motions of
the Earth are 'part and parcel' of these great motions, and those again and
all like them consecutive displays of still greater motions in equality of
action and reaction, is A QUESTION which must be reserved for the casuists
of other generations.... I cannot expect that on a sudden you and your
friends will come to my conclusion, that the present philosophy of the
Schools and Universities of Europe, based on faith in witchcraft, magic,
&c., is a system of execrable nonsense, _by which quacks live on the faith
of fools_; but I desire a free and fair examination of my Aphorisms, and if
a few are admitted to be true, merely as courteous concessions to
arithmetic, my purpose will be effected, for men will thus be led to think;
and if they think, then the fabric {245} of false assumptions, and
degrading superstitions will soon tumble in ruins."
This for posterity. For the present time I ground the fame of Sir R.
Phillips on his having squared the circle without knowing it, or intending
to do it. In the _Protest_ presently noted he discovered that "the force
taken as 1 is equal to the sum of all its fractions ... thus 1 = 1/4 + 1/9
+ 1/16 + 1/25, &c., carried to infinity." This the mathematician instantly
sees is equivalent to the theorem that the circumference of any circle is
double of the diagonal of the cube on its diameter.[562]
I have examined the following works of Sir R. Phillips, and heard of many
others:
Essays on the proximate mechanical causes of the general phenomena of
the Universe, 1818, 12mo.[563]
Protest against the prevailing principles of natural philosophy, with
the development of a common sense system (no date, 8vo, pp. 16).[564]
Four dialogues between an Oxford Tutor and a disciple of the
common-sense philosophy, relative to the proximate causes of material
phenomena. 8vo, 1824.
A century of original aphorisms on the proximate causes of the
phenomena of nature, 1835, 12mo.
Sir Richard Phillips had four valuable qualities; honesty, zeal, ability,
and courage. He applied them all to teaching {246} matters about which he
knew nothing; and gained himself an uncomfortable life and a ridiculous
memory.
Astronomy made plain; or only way the true perpendicular distance of
the Sun, Moon, or Stars, from this earth, can be obtained. By Wm.
Wood.[565] Chatham, 1819, 12mo.
If this theory be true, it will follow, of course, that this earth is the
only one God made, and that it does not whirl round the sun, but _vice
versa_, the sun round it.