The SDUK papers and Whewell papers are quoted with the kind permission of the Librarian of University College London and the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. I wish to thank John Brooke, Geoffrey Cantor, Jack Morrell, Jim Secord and an anonymous referee for their comments, references and assistance in the writing of this paper.

¹ See, for example, Brock, W. H., ‘The selection of the authors of the Bridgewater Treatises’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London (1967), 21, 162–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gundry, D. W., ‘The Bridgewater Treatises and their authors’, History (1946), 31, 140–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dahm, J. J., ‘Science and Religion in Eighteenth Century England: The Early Boyle Lectures and the Bridgewater Treatises’, Ph.D. Thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 1969 (Dissertation Abstracts No. 70–05086)Google Scholar; and Gillispie, C. C., Genesis and Geology: A Study in the Relations of Scientific Thought, Natural Theology, and Social Opinion in Great Britain, 1790–1850, New York, 1959, 209–16.Google Scholar

² Each of the Treatises passed through several large editions, the series totalling more than 60,000 copies in print by 1850. Details of the publication history and a full bibliography of more than 150 contemporary reviews are given in my forthcoming Lancaster University thesis: ‘“An Infinite Variety of Arguments”: The Bridgewater Treatises and British Natural Theology in the 1830s’.

³ ‘Analysis and notices of books’, London Medical Gazette (1838), 22, 809Google Scholar. One such competitor was Charles Mountford Burnett, whose The Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as Displayed in the Animal Creation, London, 1838Google Scholar, not only borrowed the Bridgewater title, but was largely ‘made up of quotations from the Bridgewater Treatises and other similar productions’. ‘Mr. Burnett's Power, &c. of God’, British and Foreign Medical Review (1839), 7, 227–8 (227)Google Scholar. Bakewell, Frederick C. described his Natural Evidence of a future Life, 2nd edn, London, 1840Google Scholar, as ‘a contribution to natural theology designed as a sequel to the Bridgewater Treatises’. Bushnan, J. S. advertised his Introduction to the Study of Nature, Illustrative of the Attributes of the Almighty, as Displayed in the Creation, London, 1834Google Scholar, as being uniform with the Bridgewater Treatises. ‘Literary notices’, Magazine of Natural History, (1834), 7, 96Google Scholar. See also [Anon.], Of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as Shewn in the Works of the Creation, London and Worcester, 1835Google Scholar, which was described as ‘Bridgewater Treatise for the young and thoughtful enquirer’. ‘Critical notices of new publications’, Analyst (1835), 2, 441.Google Scholar

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⁸ This interpretation is supported by J. D. Yule, who considers that ‘in general, as works of natural theology, the Bridgewater Treatises were unoriginal; they were probably superfluous – and certainly they were insignificant’. Yule also argues that some of the Treatises were ‘valuable popular accounts of the subjects of which they treated quite apart from their having had any theological interest’. Yule, J. D., ‘The impact of Science on British Religious Thought in the Second Quarter of the Nineteenth Century’, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1976 (BLLD Accession No. D17081/76), 189n.Google Scholar

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⁴⁰ See especially Desmond, A., The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine and Reform in Radical London, Chicago, 1989Google Scholar; and idem, ‘Artisan resistance and evolution in Britain, 1819–1848’, Osiris (1987), n, 3, 77–110.Google Scholar

⁴¹ General overviews are given in Tylecote, M., The Mechanics' Institutes of Lancashire and Yorkshire Before 1851, Manchester, 1957Google Scholar; Harrison, J. F. C., Learning and Living, 1790–1960, London, 1961Google Scholar; Simon, B., Studies in the History of Education, London, 1960Google Scholar; Royle, E., ‘Mechanics' institutes and the working classes, 1840–1860’, Historical Journal (1971), 14, 305–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Inkster, I., ‘The social context of an educational movement: a revisionist approach to the English mechanics' institutes, 1820–1850’, Oxford Review of Education (1976), 2, 277–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴² Brougham, H., Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, in Library of Useful Knowledge: Natural Philosophy, 4 vols., London, 1829–1838, i, 1–40 (34, 36, 39, 40).Google Scholar

⁴³ Brougham, H., Discourse of Natural Theology, London, 1835, 2Google Scholar. Brougham took on the publication himself, with the assistance of Charles Bell. The complete edition occupied five volumes (of which the above is the first) and was entitled Paley's Natural Theology Illustrated, London, 1835–1839.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Ultimately this interpretation can be traced to Young, R. M.'s influential paper ‘Natural theology, Victorian periodicals, and the fragmentation of a common context’, in Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture, Cambridge, 1985, 126–63Google Scholar. Similar arguments are developed by Brooke, J. H., ‘The natural theology of the geologists: some theological strata’, in Images of the Earth: Essays in the History of the Environmental Sciences (ed. Jordanova, L. J. and Porter, R.), Chalfont St Giles, 1979Google Scholar; and by Morrell, J. B. and Thackray, A., Gentleman of Science: Early Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Oxford, 1981, especially 224–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Desmond, A. (1989), op. cit. (40), 406Google Scholar. Another part of the SDUK constituency was Evangelical in religion, and, as G. S. Kitteringham has noticed, the inclusion of natural theology in the early publications of the Society ‘was controversial in a period where evangelicals emphasized revelation and believed that the teaching of natural theology on its own was Deistic’. Kitteringham, G. S., ‘Studies in the Popularization of Science in England, 1800–30’, Ph.D. Thesis, Kent University, 1981 (BLLD Accession No. D40577/82), 60.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Barnes, B. and Shapin, S., ‘Science, nature and control: interpreting mechanics' institutes’, Social Studies of Science (1977), 7, 31–74, especially 55–6Google Scholar. For criticisms of this argument see Russell, C. A., Science and Social Change, 1700–1900, London, 1983, especially 151–73Google Scholar; Garner, A. D. and Jenkins, E. W., ‘The English mechanics' institutes: the case of Leeds, 1824–42’, History of Education (1984), 13, 139–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Watson, M. I., ‘The origins of the mechanics' institutes of North Lancashire’, Journal of Educational Administration and History (1987), 19, 12–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁷ Chalmers, T., ‘On mechanic schools, and on political economy as a branch of popular education’, in On the Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, 3 vols., Glasgow, 1821–1826, iii, 378–408 (378–9).Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ Op. cit. (39), 332.

⁵⁰ Quoted in Kitteringham, , op. cit. (45), 329.Google Scholar

⁵¹ ‘The collection of a library at little cost is generally a task of greater difficulty than that of procuring a suitable building.’ [Duppa, B. F.], A Manual for Mechanics' Institutes, London, 1839, 102.Google Scholar

⁵² Tylecote, M., op. cit. (41), 73.Google Scholar

⁵³ In view of the central role which the libraries played in the life of mechanics' institutes, it is surprising to find so little written on their history. Some details are given in Tylecote, op. cit. (41), and in the various localized studies which exist. There is yet to appear a detailed comparative study of mechanics' institutes libraries which discusses the authors and titles of the books which were prevalent in them. D. A. Hinton makes some important comparisons between a number of mechanics' institute libraries at different periods, but this is restricted to a comparison of subjects rather than individual books. Hinton, , op. cit. (12), ch. 7.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ In most mechanics' institutes new books were selected by a library committee. Members were normally able to make suggestions for purchases in a book kept in the library, but library committees were not bound by such suggestions. Even books donated to the institute might be rejected as unsuitable, although this was probably a rare occurrence.

⁵⁵ Duppa, , op. cit. (51), 50, 51Google Scholar. See also George Dawson's evidence in the Report of the Select Committee on Public Libraries, 1849, Q.1214.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ The book-list was compiled by Long, George (1800–1879)Google Scholar and Falconer, Thomas (1805–1882)Google Scholar. Grobel, M. C., op. cit. (14)Google Scholar, Bibliography. George Long also edited the Society's Quarterly Journal of Education (1831–1835)Google Scholar, in which, rather surprisingly, the Bridgewater Treatises were not reviewed.

⁵⁷ Duppay, , op. cit. (51), p. viGoogle Scholar. There is some discussion concerning the importance of the SDUK recommendations in Hinton, , op. cit. (12), especially 223, 236–7, 263Google Scholar. Hinton is sceptical of the extent to which the Manual affected book selections, but there is little direct evidence either way.

⁵⁸ The main Quaker, Baptist, Congregational and Unitarian chapel libraries in Leeds possessed none of the Bridgewater Treatises, and all reports suggest that that was also the case at the Church of England Central Library. Topham, , op. cit. (2), ch. 5.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Only a minority of the library catalogues provide such information, and even the minute-books do not usually reveal the sources of books. Evidence exists for only two of the institutes in Table 1. At Bradford Mechanics' Institution the Treatises were purchased by the library, while the Glasgow Mechanics' Institution received its copies as gifts. Thomas Chalmers presented the Glasgow Institute with a copy of his own Treatise, and the remaining Treatises were given by a certain Hugh Cogan.

⁶⁰ [Duppa, B. F.], op. cit. (51), 53.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Derham, William's Physico-theology (1713)Google Scholar and Astro-theology (1715)Google Scholar appeared quite regularly. Ray, John's Wisdom of God in the Works of the Creation (1690)Google Scholar, Clarke, Samuel's Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (1705)Google Scholar, and Wollaston, William's Religion of Nature Delineated (1724)Google Scholar were less often present.

⁶² Especially common were Hervey, James's Meditations and Contemplations (1746–1747)Google Scholar, Sturm, Christopher Christian's Reflections on the Works of God (1772)Google Scholar, and Duncan, Henry's Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons (1836–1837)Google Scholar. Of nineteenth-century natural theology, Paley, 's (1802)Google Scholar was almost universal; Sumner, John Bird's Treatise on the Records of Creation (1816)Google Scholar was popular, as were Chalmers, ' Astronomical Discourses (1817)Google Scholar and Thomas Dick's several works. Although not as widespread as the Bridgewater Treatises, Brougham, and Bell, 's Paley's Natural Theology Illustrated (1835–1839)Google Scholar was very prevalent. The works of scriptural geologists, such as George Fairholme, William Higgins, and John Pye Smith, appeared in several institutes. Scott, William's Harmony of Phrenology with Scripture (1836)Google Scholar and Epps, John' Evidence of Christianity Deduced from Phrenology (1828)Google Scholar both occasionally appeared on the shelves.

⁶³ Chalmers' Treatise was catalogued variously under ‘Metaphysics’, ‘Theology’, or ‘Moral Philosophy’. Only one of the libraries in this study catalogued the Treatises solely as ‘Theology’, although others catalogued some or all of the Treatises under ‘Theology’ in addition to their respective sciences.

⁶⁴ The other series which appeared in the Nottingham abbreviation list included Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, the SDUK's Library of Entertaining Knowledge, John Murray's Family Library, and Sir William Jardine's Naturalist Library.

⁶⁵ [Duppa, B. F.] op. cit. (51), 49.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Tylecote, , op. cit. (41), 60Google Scholar. See also Watson, , op. cit. (46), passim.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Tylecote, , op. cit. (41), 224–40 passimGoogle Scholar. See also Keighley, W., Keighley, Past and Present; or, an Historical, Topographical, and Statistical Sketch of the Town, Parish and Environs of Keighley, Keighley, 1879, 204–14.Google Scholar

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⁷⁰ While the Mechanics' and Apprentices' Libraries at Sheffield and Edinburgh were run democratically by working-men, they relied heavily on middle-class support, and at Sheffield books ‘containing principles subversive of the Christian religion’ were excluded. At the village library in Dukinfield four-fifths of the committee were working-men, but books of controversial divinity were none the less banned. Some radical workers criticized this kind of caution and sought greater independence. The most notable instance of a genuinely working-class mechanics' institute is the Manchester New Mechanics' Institute, founded in 1829 by disgruntled working-class members of the grossly paternalistic Manchester Mechanics' Institution. The institute folded in 1833, and there is unfortunately no extant library catalogue. See Kirby, R. G., ‘An early experiment in workers' self education: the Manchester New Mechanics' Institute, 1829–35’, in From Artisan to Graduate: Essays to Commemorate the Foundation in 1824 of the Manchester Mechanics' Institute (ed. Cardwell, D. S. L.), Manchester, 1974, 87–98Google Scholar. For an account of radical working-class reactions to the science of the Broughamites, see Topham, , op. cit. (2), ch. 7.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Considering that the purchase of Roget's Treatise represented 7 per cent of the Dukinfield Village Library's annual book budget in 1835, it was obviously very desirable. One of the patrons boasted of the books in the library that ‘they are almost all modern, containing the latest information; they are all excellent authors, and have the advantage of being chosen with an express reference to the wishes and wants of the working man’. Duppa, , op. cit. (51), 63.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁴ Adrian Desmond argues from this incident that ‘the entire Broughamite educational empire suffered from a radical-Whig ideological split, with the radicals arguing for a more materialist self-determining nature, and the Paleyites promoting a delegated divine power of arrangement’. Desmond, A., ‘Lamarkism and democracy: corporations, corruption and comparative anatomy in the 1830s’, in History, Humanity and Evolution: Essays for John C. Greene (ed. Moore, J. R.), Cambridge, 1989, 99–130 (118).Google Scholar

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¹¹³ There were also a couple of extracts from Brougham and Bell's Paley's Natural Theology Illustrated.

¹¹⁴ The Bridgewater Treatises were often used as a scientific resource in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (1832–1956)Google Scholar, and extracts were on several occasions incorporated into the original scientific articles written by Robert Chambers. See Secord, J. A., ‘Behind the veil: Robert Chambers and Vestiges’, in History, Humanity and Evolution: Essays for John C. Greene (ed. Moore, J. R.), Cambridge, 1990, 165–94Google Scholar. The Treatises also provided scientific articles for the Mirror of Literature (1822–1847)Google Scholar and Holt's Magazine: A Journal of Literature, Science and Education (1836–1837).Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ See for instance the articles ‘Digestion’ and ‘Nutrition’ (Prout's Treatise); ‘Megatheriidae’ and ‘Dinotherium’ (Buckland's Treatise); and ‘Man’ (Bell's Treatise).

¹¹⁶ Allen, W. O. B. and McClure, E., Two Hundred Years of the SPCK, 1698–1898, London, 1898Google Scholar; and Clarke, W. K. Lowther, A History of the SPCK, London, 1959Google Scholar. Concerning tracts see Knickerbocker, D. R., ‘The Popul; Religious Tract in England, 1790–1830’, D.Phil. Thesis, University of Oxford, 1981Google Scholar; Neuberg, V. E., Popular Literature: A History and Guide from the Beginning of Printing to the Year 1897, Harmondsworth, 1977, 249–64Google Scholar; Webb, , op. cit. (80), 73–4Google Scholar; and Altick, , op. cit. (80), 99–108.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ An excellent account of the Hackney Phalanx, and their views on natural theology and natural science, is given in Corsi, P., Science and Religion: Baden Powell and the Anglican Debate, 1800–1860, Cambridge, 198Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Knickerbocker, , op. cit. (116), 288–94.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Ibid., 292.

¹²⁰ Gascoigne, J., Cambridge in the Age of Enlightenment: Science, Religion and Politics from the Restoration to the french Revolution, Cambridge, 1989, 237–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹²¹ Allen, and McClure, , op. cit. (116), 190.Google Scholar

¹²² Dalziel, M., Popular Fiction One Hundred Years Ago: An Unexplored Tract of Literary History, London, 1957, 10Google Scholar. On the foundation of the Saturday Magazine see Clarke, , op. cit. (116), 182–3Google Scholar; Webb, , op. cit. (80), 73–4, 77–8Google Scholar; and Washington, , op. cit. (111), 147–8, 165.Google Scholar

¹²³ Classified Catalogue of Books in the Library of the Lancaster Church of England Instruction Society, Lancaster, 1857Google Scholar. The library contained two of the Treatises.

¹²⁴ Quoted from Chalmers, T., Discourses on the Christian Revelation viewed in connexion with Modern Astronomy, Glasgow, 1817Google Scholar; reprinted, Edinburgh, 1859, 16.

¹²⁵ Freeman, J., Life of the Rev. William Kirby, London, 1852, 34–7Google Scholar; and Churton, E., A Memoir of Joshua Watson, 2 vols., London, 1861, i, 28Google Scholar. The tract is not listed in the British Library; nor does it appear in the collection of tracts published by the Society for the Reformation of Principles, namely Jones, W. (ed.), The Scholar Armed Against the Errors of the Time; Or, a Collection of Tracts on the Principles and Evidences of Christianity, the Constitution of the Church, and the Authority of Civil Government, 2 vols., London, 1795.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Saturday Magazine (1836), 9, 226Google Scholar. See also ‘Local distribution of animals’, Ibid., 181; and ‘Instinct’, Ibid., 221.

¹²⁷ ‘Garden snails’, Ibid., 179.

¹²⁸ Ibid., 189.

¹²⁹ On the range of evangelical attitudes to natural theology see Hilton, B., op. cit. (15), especially ch. 5.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ Laqueur, T. W., Religion and Respectability: Sunday School and Working-Class Culture, 1780–1850, New Haven, 1976, 36–9, 116–17.Google Scholar

¹³¹ <, W. M.>, ‘On the union of natural with revealed theology in popular instruction’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1833), 11, 4, 641–52 (642)Google Scholar. The correspondent later altered his position slightly in response to criticism. <, W. M.> ‘The union of natural with revealed theology. Answer to orthodox’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1834), 11, 5, 90–3.Google Scholar

¹³² Ibid., 645. Quotation from 1 Thessalonians, 5.21.

¹³³ Ibid. Quotation from Romans 1.18–20.

¹³⁴ Chalmers, T., On the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man, 2 vols., London, 1833, ii, 286Google Scholar. Quotation from 2 Timothy 3.15.

¹³⁵ <A Teacher>, ‘Natural theology, viewed as a preparative to religious education’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1834), 11, 5, 13–19.,+‘Natural+theology,+viewed+as+a+preparative+to+religious+education’,+Sunday+School+Teachers'+Magazine+(1834),+11,+5,+13–19.>Google Scholar

¹³⁶ <Orthodox, >, ‘The use of natural theology in religious education’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1833), 11, 4, 705–13 (705)Google Scholar. See also <Orthodox, >, ‘The union of natural with revealed theology’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1834), 11, 5, 151–5Google Scholar; <, C. F.>, ‘The inapplicability of literary and scientific attainments to the exercises of the Sunday School’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1834), 11, 5, 203–7Google Scholar; and [Anon.], ‘Revealed and natural theology’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1834), 11, 5, 253.Google Scholar

¹³⁷ <, C. F.>, op. cit. (136), 203.,+op.+cit.+(136),+203.>Google Scholar

¹³⁸ <Orthodox, > (1833), op. cit. (136), 708+(1833),+op.+cit.+(136),+708>Google Scholar. Quotation from Colossians 2.8.

¹³⁹ <Orthodox, > (1833), op. cit. (136), 710.+(1833),+op.+cit.+(136),+710.>Google Scholar

¹⁴⁰ <, W. M.> (1833), op. cit. (131), 649+(1833),+op.+cit.+(131),+649>Google Scholar. This was also the reason given for including an article on the arguments of natural theology in the Youth's Magazine. <Penryn, R. C.>, ‘The Existence of God’, Youth's Magazine, and Evangelical Miscellany (1837), 111, 10, 84–90.Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ <, W. M.> (1833), op. cit. (131), 649.+(1833),+op.+cit.+(131),+649.>Google Scholar

¹⁴² Ibid., 651. As Thomas Laqueur has shown, this view of scientific knowledge was widely reflected in the practice of working-class Sunday schools. There were, however, some exceptions, such as the popular evening lectures on chemistry and electricity offered at the Leeds Ebenezer Methodist New Connexion Sunday school in 1848. Laqueur, , op. cit. (130), ch. 4.Google Scholar

¹⁴³ [Anon.], ‘Review – the sacred history of the world’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1835), 11, 6, 57–62, 107–13 (57).Google Scholar

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¹⁴⁵ [Anon.], ‘Review’, Youth's Instructor and Guardian (1838), n, 2, 61–3 (63).Google ScholarPubMed

¹⁴⁶ <Esto, >, ‘Review – on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God’, Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1837), 11, 8, 36–42, 118–22, 180–6.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁷ Kirby, W., On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation of Animals and in their History, Habits and Instincts, 2 vols., London, 1835, 73Google Scholar. Quotation from Acts 17.26.

¹⁴⁸ <Esto, >, op. cit. (146), 119.,+op.+cit.+(146),+119.>Google Scholar

¹⁴⁹ <Esto, >, op. cit. (146), 119.,+op.+cit.+(146),+119.>Google Scholar

¹⁵⁰ Ibid., 181. It was, ‘Esto’ thought, ‘worthy of the slave-holder that he should borrow his argument from the infidel’.

¹⁵¹ Ibid., 119.

¹⁵² Ibid., 185.

¹⁵³ Billington, L., ‘The religious periodical and newspaper press, 1770–1870’, in The Press in English Society from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century (ed. Harris, M. and Lee, A.), London, 1986, 113–32 (121)Google Scholar. On children's magazines see also Egoff, S. A., Children's Periodicals of the Nineteenth Century: A Survey and Bibliography, London, 1951Google Scholar; Altholz, J. L., The Religious Periodical Press in Britain, 1760–1900, New York and London, 1989Google Scholar; and Laqueur, , op. cit. (130).Google Scholar

¹⁵⁴ <, C. F.>, op. cit. (136), 205.,+op.+cit.+(136),+205.>Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ Ibid., 206–7.

¹⁵⁶ Knickerbocker, , op. cit. (116), especially 288–94Google Scholar. From the 1830s onwards the RTS showed increasing interest in popular science. In 1846 the Society published Thomas Dick's The Solar System, which was presented by at least one Sunday school as a prize. A study of the scientific publications of the RTS is a major desideratum.

¹⁵⁷ Quoted in Altholz, , op. cit. (153), 53.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁸ ‘Preface’, The Christian's Penny Magazine (1832), 1, 1.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁹ The Journal of Literature, and Herald of Temperance (1837)Google Scholar, produced in Warrington by an evangelical ‘Association for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge in Connection with Temperance’, was more interested in scriptural natural history and the death-bed scenes of infidels, than in the scientific natural theology of the Bridgewater Treatises, although one extract was made from Buckland's Treatise. The pattern is less pronounced in Ward's Miscellany (1837)Google Scholar, which was published ‘under the superintendence of a Society for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Religion’. A number of extracts were taken from the Bridgewater Treatises, but the scientific articles were still more usually connected with the Scriptures, as typified by a series on ‘The Cosmogony of Moses’.