The Science of Thomas Prince

Abstract

T HE name of Thomas Prince has long been revered by those who interest themselves in the intellectual history of New England. He is fondly remembered by all who know the treasures of the Prince Collection, in the Boston Public Library, and by many more who know his Chronological History of New England, a book which, though it begins with the creation of Adam and gets no farther than 1633, is nevertheless a high mark of historical writing in the colonial time. Unfortunately, however, reverence is about all that remains for Thomas Prince. One seeks in vain for any current curiosity about his extremely varied intellectual life, for any present respect for or even interest in his ideas. It would probably be idle to question the justice of indifference to Prince on the part of the literary historians; very possibly his works have little intrinsic value. It may be worth while to point out, however, to the student of colonial culture concerned with the scientific, philosophical, or theological thought of the early eighteenth century, that the writings of Thomas Prince offer a convenient index to important notions prevalent in America at that time. In the line of New England preachers, Prince follows Cotton Mather and precedes Charles Chauncy; that is to say, he was the contemporary of men whose active ministry began in the 168o's and to men who were still preaching after the American Revolution. And, perhaps more than others of his generation, Prince had characteristics which ally him to both these quite dissimilar groups. One reads very little of Prince's work before realizing that he displays something of the paradoxical attitude of Cotton Mather: a frequent and confident, use of scientific information and hypothesis, almost at the same time with an assump26