...the improvability of human nature and the human condition. In a letter to Joseph Priestley, he said: It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may...in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter. ... O that moral Science were in as fair a way of Improvement, that Men would cease to be Wolves to...

...placing the concept of millennium in a secular framework, he wrote to Joseph Priestley late in life: It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may...in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter. We may perhaps learn to deprive large Masses of their Gravity, and give them absolute Levity, for the...

...as long as the patriarchs in Genesis." And in a letter of 1780 to Joseph Priestley Franklin writes: "It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may...in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter." (The "thousand years" came natually, we may assume, to anyone as acquainted with Puritan millenarianism...

...beyond that of the ancient patriarchs (the antediluvian standard). BEYOND THE ANTEDILUVIAN STANDARD The rapid progress true science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I wasborn so soon. It is impossible to imagine the height towhichmaybecarried,in a thousandyears, the...

...picture of the future. "The rapid Progress true Science now makes," he wrote to Priestley in 1780, "occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born...in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter. We may perhaps learn to deprive large Masses of their Gravity, and give them absolute Levity, for the...

...Wadie and my father and mother, for their love and support SERIES INTRODUCTION The rapid progress that true science now makes occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born too soon. It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the...

...technology is not new. It is illustrated by Benjamin Franklin's 1780 letter to the chemist Joseph Priestley. "The rapid progress true science now makes occasions...was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the heights to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter." What might Old...

...technology is not new. It is illustrated by Benjamin Franklin's 1780 letter to the chemist Joseph Priestley. "The rapid progress true science now makes occasions...was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the heights to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter." What might Old...

...much more skeptical about a parallel advance in morality. As he wrote to Joseph Priestley in 1780, "it is impossible to imagine the height to which may...in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter." But he more pessimistically added, "O that moral Science were in as fair a way of Improvement, that...

...preventive medicine. He himself believed that he had been born too soon. He wrote Joseph Priestley that the rapid progress true science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born too soon. It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the...