The King George III Collection
In some Absolutist states such as France, the new the changes in thinking brought about by the
rise of the new science led to criticism of the backwardness of the monarchy and the
church. Such arguments were advanced by Diderot and d'Alembert to devastating effect in their
monumental work, the Encyclopédie. This had started as a modest project to
translate the two volumes of Chambers' Cyclopaedia (1728) into French. However, by the
time it was completed in the 1770s, over thirty large volumes of the Encyclopédie
had been published, covering the sciences, arts and trades. Despite the effects of censorship,
it contained enough criticism of the ancien régime in France to contribute to the
onset of the French Revolution.
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The shattering experience of the French Revolution called into question the current optimism
towards society. The changes that the new science had encouraged in France affected popular
attitudes to science and scientists. Joseph Priestley was a prominent religious dissenter and
supporter of the French Revolution As a consequence, his house and laboratory in Birmingham
were destroyed by a hostile crowd. Eventually, he emigrated to America to find a more congenial
political climate.
Portrait of Joseph Priestley
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