Hans Holbein the Younger. Sir Thomas More.

Frick Collection, New York

The Life of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

"The King's good servant, but God's first."

Thomas More was born in Milk Street, London on February 7, 1478, son of Sir John More, a prominent judge. He was educated at St Anthony's School in London. As a youth he served as a page in the household of Archbishop Morton, who anticipated More would become a "marvellous man."1 More went on to study at Oxford underThomas Linacre and William Grocyn. During this time, he wrote comedies and studied Greek and Latin literature. One of his first works was an English translation of a Latin biography of the Italian humanist Pico della Mirandola. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510. Around 1494 More returned to London to study law, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1496, and became a barrister in 1501. Yet More did not automatically follow in his father's footsteps. He was torn between a monastic calling and a life of civil service. While at Lincoln's Inn, he determined to become a monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the Carthusians, living at a nearby monastery and taking part of the monastic life. The prayer, fasting, and penance habits stayed with him for the rest of his life. More's desire for monasticism was finally overcome by his sense of duty to serve his country in the field of politics. He entered Parliament in 1504, and married for the first

time in 1504 or 1505. More became a close friend with Desiderius Erasmus during the latter's first visit to England in 1499. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and correspondence. They produced Latin translations of Lucian's works, printed at Paris in 1506, during Erasmus' second visit. On Erasmus' third visit, in 1509, he wrote Encomium Moriae, or Praise of Folly, (1509), dedicating it to More. One of More's first acts in Parliament had been to urge a decrease in a proposed appropriation for King Henry VII. In revenge, the King had imprisoned More's father and not released him until a fine was paid and More himself had withdrawn from public life. After the death of the King in 1509, More became active once more. In 1510, he was appointed one of the two undersheriffs of London. In this capacity, he gained a reputation for being impartial, and a patron to the poor. In 1511, More's first wife died in childbirth. More was soon married again, to Dame Alice. During the next decade, More attracted the attention of King Henry VIII. In 1515 he accompanied a delegation to Flanders to help clear disputes about the wool trade.Utopia opens with a reference to this very delegation. More was also instrumental in quelling a 1517 London uprising against foreigners, portrayed in the play Sir Thomas More, possibly by Shakespeare. More accompanied the King and court to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1518 he became a member of the Privy Council, and was knighted in 1521. More helped Henry VIII in writing his Defence of the Seven Sacraments, a repudiation of Luther, and wrote an answer to Luther's reply under a pseudonym. More had garnered Henry's favor, and was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1525. As Speaker, More helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. He refused to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to divorce Katherine of Aragn (1527). Nevertheless, after the fall of Thomas Wolsey in 1529, More became Lord Chancellor, the first layman yet to hold the post. While his work in the law courts was exemplary, his fall came quickly. He resigned in 1532, citing ill health, but the reason was probably his disapproval of Henry's stance toward the church. He refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn in June 1533, a matter which did not escape the King's notice. In 1534 he was one of the people accused of complicity with Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent who opposed Henry's break with Rome, but was not attainted due to protection from the Lords who refused to pass the bill until More's name was off the list of names.1 In April, 1534, More refused to swear to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London on April 17. More was found guilty of treason and was beheaded alongside Bishop Fisher on July 6, 1535. More's final words on the scaffold were: "The King's good servant, but God's First." More was beatified in 1886 and canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

Born

6 September 1766 Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England

Died

27 July 1844 (aged 77) Manchester, England

Notable students

James Prescott Joule

Known for

Atomic Theory, Law of Multiple Proportions, Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures, Daltonism

Influences

John Gough

John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. The son of a weaver, he joined his older brother Jonathan at age 15 in running a Quaker school in nearby Kendal. Around 1790 Dalton seems to have considered taking up law or medicine, but his projects were not met with encouragement from his relatives Dissenters were barred from attending or teaching at English universities and he remained at Kendal until, in the spring of 1793, he moved to Manchester. Mainly through John Gough, a blind philosopher and polymath from whose informal instruction he owed much of his scientific knowledge, Dalton was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophyat the "New College" in Manchester, a dissenting academy. He remained in that position until 1800, when the college's worsening financial situation led him to resign his post and begin a new career in Manchester as a private tutor for mathematics and natural philosophy. Dalton's early life was highly influenced by a prominent Eaglesfield Quaker named Elihu Robinson,[1] a competent meteorologist and instrument maker, who got him interested in problems of mathematics and meteorology. During his years in Kendal, Dalton contributed solutions of problems and questions on various subjects to the Gentlemen's and Ladies' Diaries, and in 1787 he began to keep a meteorological diary in which, during the succeeding 57 years, he entered more than 200,000 observations.[2] He also rediscovered George Hadley's theory of atmospheric circulation (now known as the Hadley cell) around this time.[3] Dalton's first publication was Meteorological Observations and Essays (1793), which contained the seeds of several of his later discoveries. However, in spite of the originality of his treatment, little attention was paid to them by other scholars. A second work by Dalton, Elements of English Grammar, was published in 1801.
IN the review of A New View of the Origin of Daltons Atomic Theory, published in your issue of April 16, your reviewer, in summing up the evidence as to the origin of the atomic theory, makes an omission of such importance that it cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. He attaches great weight to Thomsons statement that in 1804 Dalton himself informed him that the atomic theory first occurred to him during his investigations of olefiant gas and carburetted hydrogen gas. Now these researches, as pointed out by your reviewer, were begun in the summer of 1804, a date which is assigned to them by Dalton himself, and is confirmed by the entries in his laboratory note-books of the time; so that Thomsons statement amounts to saying that the atomic theory first occurred to Dalton in the summer of 1804. This conclusion appears to us to be entirely discredited by the fact that several detailed tables of atomic weights and lists of atomic symbols, which are dated September 1803, occur in Daltons laboratory note-books, one of these tables being reproduced in facsimile at p. 28 of the work under review, but not referred to by your reviewer.

460-370 B.C. Democritus of Abdera - Greek philosopher; pupil of Leucippus; developed atomic theory; elaborated idea that matter consisted of atoms having physical size and shape which constantly moved in a void and interacted in different ways; Greek word atoma means indivisible.

Democritus (Greek: , D mokritos, "chosen of the people") (ca. 460 BC ca. 370 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece.[1] He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos.[2] His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the nineteenth-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other Greek philosophers; however their ideas rested on very different bases.[3] Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Plato is said to have disliked him so much that he wished all his books burned.[1] Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science".[4]

Democritus was born in the city of Abdera in Thrace, an Ionian colony of Teos,[5] although some called him a Milesian.[6] He was born in the 80th Olympiad (460457BC)according to Apollodorus,[7] and although Thrasyllus placed his birth in 470 BC,[7] the later date is probably more likely.[8] John Burnet has argued that the date of 460 is "too early", since according to Diogenes Lartius ix.41, Democritus said that he was a "young man (neos)" during Anaxagoras' old age (circa 440428).[9] It was said that Democritus' father was so wealthy that he received Xerxeson his march through Abdera. Democritus spent the inheritance which his father left him on travels into distant countries, to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. He traveled to Asia, and was even said to have reached India and Ethiopia.[10] We know that he wrote on Babylon and Meroe; he must also have visited Egypt, and Diodorus Siculus states that he lived there for five years.[11] He himself declared[12] that among his contemporaries none had made greater journeys, seen more countries, and met more scholars than himself. He particularly mentions theEgyptian mathematicians, whose knowledge he praises. Theophrastus, too, spoke of him as a man who had seen many countries.[13] During his travels, according to Diogenes Lartius, he became acquainted with the Chaldean magi. A certain "Ostanes", one of the magi accompanying Xerxes was also said to have taught him.[14] After returning to his native land he occupied himself with natural philosophy. He traveled throughout Greeceto acquire a knowledge of its culture. He mentions many Greek philosophers in his writings, and his wealth enabled him to purchase their writings. Leucippus, the founder of the atomism, was the greatest influence upon him. He also praises Anaxagoras.[15] Diogenes Laertius says that he was friends with Hippocrates.[16]He may have been acquainted with Socrates, but Plato does not mention him and Democritus himself is quoted as saying, "I came to Athens and no one knew me."[17] Aristotle placed him among the pre-Socraticnatural philosophers.[18] him deliberately blinding himself in order to be less disturbed in his pursuits;[19] it may well be true that he lost his sight in old age. He was cheerful, and was always ready to see the comical side of life, which later writers took to mean that he always laughed at the foolishness of people.[20] He was highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens, "because," as Diogenes Lartius says, "he had foretold them some things which events proved to be true," which may refer to his knowledge of natural phenomena. According to Diodorus Siculus,[21] Democritus died at the age of 90, which would put his death around 370 BC, but other writers have him living to 104,[22] or even 109.[23] Popularly known as the Laughing Philosopher (for laughing at human follies), the terms Abderitan laughter, which means scoffing, incessant laughter, and Abderite, which means a scoffer, are derived from Democritus.[24] To his fellow citizens he was also known as "The Mocker

Philosophy and science Democritus followed in the tradition of Leucippus, who seems to have come from Miletus, and he carried on the scientific rationalist philosophy associated with that city. They were both strict determinists and thoroughmaterialists, believing everything to be the result of natural laws. Unlike Aristotle or Plato, the atomists attempted to explain the world without reasoning to purpose, prime mover, or final cause. For the atomists questions should be answered with a mechanistic explanation ("What earlier circumstances caused this event?"), while their opponents search for explanations which, in addition to the material and mechanistic, also included the formal and teleological ("What purpose did this event serve?"). Modern science has focused on mechanistic questions, which have led to scientific knowledge, especially in physics, while teleological questions can be useful in biology, in adaptationist reasoning at providing proximate explanations, though the deeper evolutionary explanations are often held to be thoroughly mechanistic. The atomists looked exclusively for mechanistic questions, and only admitted mechanistic answers. Their successors until the Renaissance became occupied with the teleological question, which arguably hindered progress.[25]