Ploughs and Politicks. Charles Read of New Jersey and His Notes on Agriculture. 1715-44 byCarl Raymond WoodwardReview by: I. Bernard CohenIsis, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Winter, 1943), pp. 219-220Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225848 .

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Reviews 219

Christendom during the Latin rule (1204-61) and the Byzantine scholars were then eager to show that their learning was in no wise inferior to the Latin. Their pride was natural enough, for the contents of the four mathematical sciences were exclusively Greek; the Latin had added nothing but a new frame. PACHYMERES' book is the first elaborate Byzantine publication of its kind and it remained the outstanding one.

The Latin influence is strangely revealed in the very first paragraph quoting one FAVORINUS of Arles. It is true, that FAVORINUS was a friend of PLUTARCH and a Greek writer.' From FAVORINUS (who never reappears) we pass to PLATO and even PLOTIN. The first chapter is largely devoted to explaining that mathematics is like a ladder or a bridge which enables our mind to pass from feel- ings and beliefs to clear conceptions and matters of knowledge.3 The four parts which constitutc the whole book-arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy-cover respectively 91, 103, 128, and 126 closely printed pages. Though the Tetrabiblos is hardly more than a well written compilation, references to earlier authors are not abundant. The authors most frequently quoted are PTOLEMY (34 times), EUCLID (24), PLATO (1 1), PYTHAG- ORAS (10). DIOPHANTOS is quoted but twice and yet the arithmetical part contains a paraphrase of his first book (this was edited in TANNERY'S Dio- phantos, vol. 2, 1895).

There are traces of Arabic influence, for ex- ample, the Angelicus MS contains Arabic numerals the meaning of which is explained in marginal scholia. The Pythagorean theorem (Euclid I, 47) is called 0Eispq/a ar-s vv',uf s which is strongly remi- niscent of an Arabic phrase suirat al-'aruis or shakl al-'ariis. I cannot accept TANNERY'S explanation of it (p. xxxiii). The word 'arus (= bridegroom, bride) is a glamorous term in Arabic; it is used as we would use "queen" or "king" to suggest a climax, perfection.4 An Arab would have called that theorem, the theorem, or the form, of the bride, quite naturally to express his admiration

2 FAVORINUS was a favorite of HADRIAN (emp. 117-38), then exiled by him to Chios. He enjoyed some fame, but his works were only known through fragments and quotations until 1930, when the Vatican bought a papyrus written c. 215, an administrative document of the Marmarica bearing on its back a copy of FAVORINUS' rhetorical compositions on exile (7repi Ov7ys). This was admirably edited by M. NORSA and G. VITELLI. It is amusing that Father STiPHANOU does not seem to know this, in spite of the fact that this text of FAVORINUS was published by the Vatican in the same col- lection as his own book (Studi e testi, no. 53, folio 1931).

3 AifXOP 'yap oL KXI/.tatt TWrL Kai 'yEc/?UpacS OCKe ravT'a Ta

/Aa,0a@/LTa, 8taJp,6a4ovTa Tr) 8caboLap 2JA, d7rb rWP acfl1rT' Kcai 5otacrwv e7ri Tra vo71T Kr2 EKr7roTf/AoVK .o. . (p. 7).

4The word 'arius occurs in many Arabic titles. E.g., one of the most famous Arabic dictionaries, completed in 1767 by MUIJAMMAD AL-MURTADIA AL- ZABiDf is entitled T j al- 'aruis (the bride's crown).

of it. But how did the Arabic phrase pass into Greek?

The only shortcoming of this edition is the lack of index and glossary, which makes it unneces- sarily painful to find a definite word or idea in 454 p. of Greek text. It is unpardonable, because it would not have taken the editor very long to establish it, and it would save so much time thereafter. I would be very glad to publish in Osiris an analysis of this text made by a com- petent scholar, together with the translation of a few typical extracts and a glossary. Such an analysis, if well made, would be more useful than a complete translation. GEORGE SATON

September 3, 1942

CARL RAYMOND WOODWARD: Ploughs and Poli- ticks. Charles Read of New Jersey and his Notes on Agriculture. 1715-44. xxvi+469 p., 22 figs., 3 facs. New Brunswick, N. J., Rutgers Univer- sity Press, 1941. $5.00.

"This book,"the author writes, "is the by-product of a search for a farm." Whose farm?-FRANK- LIN 'S.

In 1840, the ten-volume edition of The Works of Benjamin Franklin appeared under the editorship of JARED SPARKS. In it appeared a letter, pre- sumably written by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN to JARED ELIOT, some time about 1749. The original of the letter was incomplete, the signature and the date were both missing. But the handwriting resembled FRANKLIN'S and it formed part of a bundle of letters written by FRANKLIN to ELIOT, which was later acquired by Yale University. This letter written to the physician and experimental farmer of Connecticut, JARED ELIOT, describes a farm of some 300 acres, recently bought by the writer "near Burlington," and recounts the efforts to bring it into profitable cultivation. Since the letter was unquestionably considered to be FRANKLIN'S and was introduced into all later editions of FRANKLIN'S writings, it has been generally as- sumed that FRANKLIN, in addition to his other activities, was for a while a New Jersey farmer.

Mr. CARL RAYMOND WOODWARD for years has been studying and writing about the history of agriculture in New Jersey. In the course of his investigations, he had occasion to investigate the owner of an annotated copy of WOOLRIDGE'S Sys- tema agriculturae (London, 1691), who turned out to be CHARLES READ. READ owned a farm in Springfield Township, New Jersey, which on in- spection was found by Mr. WOODWARD to answer rather exactly the description of the farm "near Burlington" which was described in the letter to ELIOT. A close examination of the handwriting of this letter and the handwriting of READ and

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220 Reviews

FRANKLIN showed that READ and not FRANKLIN was the author of the letter in question. FRANKLIN was never an experimental farmer in the state of New Jersey. The exciting details of the author's de- tective proclivities are told at length in the Fore- word to the present volume.

At the same time that Mr. WOODWARD found a farm, he also found a man, the owner of it. And CHARLES READ proves to have been a man of considerable proportions. His career resembles FRANKLIN'S in many ways and he was a member of FRANKLIN'S American Philosophical Society. His life and activities are carefully delineated in Book One (227 pp.) of the present volume. Book Two publishes for the first time READ'S manuscript "Notes on Agriculture." These are divided into seven sections as follows: "The husbandry of the soil," "The husbandry of plants," "The husbandry of animals," "The husbandry of bees," "Farm structures and farm implements," "The husbandry of the household," "Fisheries." Each of these sec- tions is prefaced by an introduction written by the editor, Mr. WOODWARD, who has provided copious annotations. To facilitate the reading of these Notes, the editor has provided a glossary of terms, which will serve as a valuable aid to all who may have to read any eighteenth-century agricultural documents. A bibliography includes, first, a careful list of all works cited by READ in his Notes, and, second, a list of sources (MS and printed) used in the preparation of the book.

Mr. WOODWARD has given us a most valuable contribution to our knowledge concerning social, economic, and political affairs in the three decades preceding the Revolution. According to Mr. WOODWARD, "In his farming operations he [READ] was a realist, and left an unparalleled record of everyday practices on the colonial New Jersey farm. After nearly two hundred years of ob- scurity, his farm notebook has come to light and assumes a greater importance than the volumi- nous state papers which bear his signature. It is one of our richest known sources of informa- tion about farming in the American colonies." And, as such, it now takes its proper place in the annals of Colonial American science.

I. BERNARD COHEN

HUNTLEY DUPRE: Lazare Carnot, Republican Patriot. 343 pp., portr. Oxford, Ohio, The Missis- sippi Valley Press, 1940.

It is no simple task for a biographer to recount the life of any man whose story is intertwined with the confusing and contentious events of the French Revolution. The subject of this biography not only took part in the Revolutionary struggle, but he was somehow or other entangled in all its phases. Pro-

fessor DUPRE had, however, at least one great ad- vantage in the choice of his hero: CARNOT is per- haps the only major figure of the Revolutionary pantheon whose name has not successfully been sullied by the interminable disputes of the political sectaries, and our author was not faced with the mountain of tendentious history which he would have encountered had he written of MIRABEAU or MARAT or ROBESPIERRE. He has in fact not found it hard to give a judicious and balanced ac- count of the role in the Revolutionary struggle of the most judicious and balanced of the Revolu- tionaries. Inevitably Professor DUPRE has written history rather than intimate biography: his life of CARNOT is a rather stiffly woven narrative, based on scattered published materials that were badly in want of use, that leads us somewhat ploddingly through the maze of the Revolutionary events in which CARNOT took part.

Over-zealous Isis readers should not criticize Professor DUPRE for his neglect of CARNOT'S scien- tific work. CARNOT'S achievements as a scientist were considerable but, unlike his elder son, he was not a figure of the first rank. However much CARNOT'S work in mathematics and mechanics is in need of monographic appraisal, in a balanced study of CARNOT'S career his work in science cuts a small figure besides his achievements as patriot, statesman, and soldier.

We may, however, be forgiven if we chide our author gently for not stressing that ill-defined re- gion in which CARNOT' S scientific views and his political career overlapped and interacted, for it might have provided-and this reviewer is con- vinced that it would have provided-the true touchstone for an understanding of CARNOT'S political career. For example, the high point of CARNOT'S life was his preparation and conduct of the defense against the allied onslaught in the critical days of 1793-94; and in this defense the striking feature was the manner in which he mobilized the scientific and technical talent of France for this gigantic effort. The fact that Pro- fessor DUPRE, with a wide documentation at his disposal,-including the invaluable Correspon- dance ge'ne'rale of CARNOT, and the studies of MATHIEz and CAMILLE RICHARD,-gives this aspect such summary treatment, indicates, more clearly than pages of criticism, that for all his pains and industry, Professor DUPRE has over- looked the central fil conducteur that might have simplified his journey through the maze of CAR- NOT'S adventures. CARNOT belonged to a group of Revolutionaries whose significance has not been adequately stressed: men who were the heirs of a polytechnic tradition dating from VAUBAN, and whose desire to revamp the state was based on a respect for efficiency and orderliness. They were less inspired by legal abstractions and political

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