The book contains delightful chapters on the history of scientific illustrations, the fortunes of natural theology, the relationship of science and spiritualism, and the grab bag of themes that constituted the public lectures at the Royal Institution. The careers of second-rank figures like William Swainson, Edward Forbes and William Crookes are narrated in detail, while those of atypical greats are passed over in silence.
The book has a thesis only in the loose sense that a nature-walk has a destination. Knight suggests that science assumed a major role in English culture in the 19th century, while previously it had been merely "a programme, a blank cheque drawn upon the future." The Victorian world did not possess "two cultures"; science was intimately interwoven with politics, theology and art, and scientists themselves labored to make their findings accessible and relevant to all intellectuals. Science was a force for vigor and certainty, and ...
