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John William Draper (1811-1882). Library of Literary Criticism. 1901-05

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John William Draper (1811-1882). Library of Literary Criticism. 1901-05 Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Bibliographic Record Charles Wells Moulton, ed.  Library of Literary Criticism.  1901–05. John William Draper (1811–1882) An American physiologist, chemist, historical and miscellaneous prose-writer; born near Liverpool, England, May 5, 1811; died at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N. Y., Jan. 4, 1882. He came to this country in 1833, and took his degree as M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. He became professor of chemistry in the University of New York in 1841, and in 1850 professor of physiology. Among his works are: “Human Physiology” (1856); “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe” (1862), a work of great importance and very widely read: “History of the American Civil War” (1867–70); “History of the Conflict between Religion and Science” (1875), which ran through many editions and was translated into nearly all the languages of Europe.—Warner, Charles Dudley, 1897, ed., Library of the World’s Best Literature, Biographical Dictionary, vol. XXIX, p. 151.    

1 General

  Professor Draper’s works have had, and are having, a very rapid sale, and are evidently very highly esteemed by that class of readers who take an interest, without being very profoundly versed, in the grave subjects which he treats. He is, we believe, a good chemist and a respectable physiologist. His work on Human Physiology, we have been assured by those whose judgment in such matters we prefer to our own, is a work of real merit, and was, when first published, up to the level of the science to which it is devoted…. He writes in a clear, easy, graceful, and pleasing style, but we have found nothing new or profound in his works. His theories are almost as old as the hills, and even older, if the hills are no older than he pretends. His work on the “Intellectual Development of Europe,” is in substance, taken from the positivists, and the positivist philosophy is only a reproduction, with no scientific advance on that of the old physiologers or hylozoists, as Cudworth calls them. He agrees perfectly with the positivists in the recognition of three ages or epochs, we should rather say stages, in human development; the theological, the metaphysical, and the scientific or positivist…. We own we have treated Professor Draper’s work with very little respect, for we have felt very little. His “Intellectual Development of Europe” is full of crudities from beginning to end, and for the most part below criticism, or would be were it not that it is levelled at all the principles of individual and social life and progress. The book belongs to the age of Leucippus and Democritus, and ignores, if we may use an expressive term, though hardly English, Christian civilization and all the progress man and nations have effected since the opening of the Christian era. It is a monument not of science, but of gross ignorance.—Brownson, Orestes Augustus, 1868, Professor Draper’s Books, Works, ed. Brownson, vol. IX, pp. 292, 297, 318.    

2   But he has not confined his studies to the sciences. He has aspired to co-ordinate the results of all modern learning into a broad philosophical view of the progress of mankind. This is the theme of his principal work, the “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.” It may be likened in a measure, to Buckle’s” History of Civilization,” and to the recent works of Lecky; but the author has made an original plan, and has developed his own ideas in the view of the world’s history. His style is sententious and dignified; his works will be read for their ideas, and will command respect from all thoughtful men.—Underwood, Francis H., 1872, A Hand-book of English Literature, American Authors, p. 366.    

3   John William Draper had undertaken to write and to publish a “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,” on the so-called inductive method recommended by Buckle. But the author has made the great mistake of utterly disregarding and ignoring art in her various forms. How is the intellectual development possible without the element of the Beautiful? And what would the world and the existence of man be without Beauty?—Scherr, J., 1874, A History of English Literature, tr. M. V.    

4   This is a work [“Intellectual Development of Europe”] written with unquestionable ability. The most striking feature of the book is its attitude towards Christianity. It maintains that the rise of Christianity in Europe has been a misfortune; that the age of faith was the age of barbarism; and that civilization has advanced only as faith has declined. Though the work presents only one side of a great question, that side is presented with unusual skill. The author’s philosophy of history, if it may be called such, is essentially that of Buckle. The book has been, and will continue to be, much admired and very severely criticised…. This book [“History of the American Civil War”] is pervaded with Dr. Draper’s peculiar views of the causes of national development. It is introduced by a long dissertation, which occupies nearly the whole of the first volume, and in which the author elaborates his peculiar theories. His beliefs are essentially those of Buckle. At bottom, he has no faith in other causes than those which can be traced directly to Nature. Climate is the great controlling force…. As an attempt to build a history on a philosophical foundation, the work cannot be called a very signal success. Until it can be shown that an isothermal has something to do with such blunders as those at Fredericksburg and Chickamauga, most men will regard Dr. Draper’s theories as not proved.—Adams, Charles Kendall, 1882, A Manual of Historical Literature, pp. 538, 539.    

5   Draper’s “Intellectual Development of Europe” must take its place among the valuable contributions of the age to the philosophy of history. It is intended to demonstrate a posteriori that human life, collective and individual, is subject to the dominion of law. Varieties of antecedent and concomitant conditions determine social advancement: and its stages—the same for a miniature man as for a nation—are the Age of Credulity, the Age of Inquiry, the Age of Faith, the Age of Reason, and the Age of Decrepitude. We are thus reminded of Buckle and Comte, with their one-sided accumulation of facts, and their fatalistic views of causation.—Welsh, Alfred H., 1883, Development of English Literature and Language, vol. II, p. 422.    

6   John W. Draper’s “History of the American Civil War,” is the most impartial work so far written upon the question of slavery and its final results.—Baldwin, James, 1883, English Literature and Literary Criticism, Prose, p. 83.    

7   Of literary character are the books of John W. Draper, who wrote a dry “History of the American Civil War,” and a weighty but unsympathetic “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.”—Richardson, Charles F., 1887, American Literature, 1607–1885, vol. I, p. 518.    

8   Dr. Draper’s lasting contributions to physiology and to pure chemistry were few and relatively unimportant. On the other hand, his name is associated with a number of results of the greatest value in physical chemistry, especially in photochemistry. The chemical action of light early attracted his attention and for many years formed his favorite subject of investigation.—Gilman, Peck, and Colby, 1902, eds., The New International Encyclopædia, vol. VI, p. 285.    

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