Henry More (1614-87) was the greatest English metaphysical theologian and the most perplexing; he was also perhaps the most distinguished member of the group of divines known as the Cambridge Platonists. An admirer of Galileo, Descartes and Boyle, he rejected their detailed applications of mechanical philosophy to the explanation of natural phenomena. He was an experimenter, yet also a cabalist, and one of the few writers whom Newton acknowledged as having influenced his ideas. First published in 1990, this thorough and accessible biography is the first book-length treatment of this remarkable character. Hall illuminates More's important contributions to science, particularly his work on space and time which influenced Newton, and gives fascinating insights into his spiritual philosophy and his preoccupation with witchcraft. The depth of Professor Hall's scholarship makes the book an exceptional account of the turbulent world of the Scientific Revolution.
An early scientific experimenter who was also a cabalist, Cambridge metaphysician-poet More (1614-87) continues to fascinate students of philosophy, science and religion. Although he was among the first to admire Galileo and influenced Newton, More later rejected their mechanistic explanations of living things. A Christian apologist, he regarded the universe as populated with angels and spirits, evil or benevolent. His attention to alleged cases of witchcraft, ghosts and demonism made him an anachronism in an age eagerly embracing the new science. Yet today, as this academic study demonstrates, he is regarded as a pivotal figure at the crossroads of the split into ``two cultures.'' British science historian Hall limns a peculiar man: More had a strange conviction that his body exuded a natural scent of flowers, and he wove an odd synthesis of the ``triple teaching'' of Moses, Plato and Descartes into a union of pagan and Christian traditions. (Nov.)
