By the end of the seventeenth century, new ideas from Europe beganto challenge the unshakable faith of the Puritans. The Age of Reason, or theEnlightenment, began in Europe with the
philosophers and scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies who called themselves rationalists. Rationalism isthe belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason.
The Puritans saw God as actively and mysteriously involved in theworkings of the universe; the rationalists saw God differently. The greatEnglish rationalist Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) compared God to a clockmaker. Having created the perfectmechanism of this universe, God then left his creation to run on its own, like aclock. The rationalists believed that God’s special gift to humanity is reason—theability to think in an ordered, logical manner. This gift of reason enablespeople to discover both scientific and spiritual truth. According to therationalists, everyone has the capacity to regulate and improve his or her ownlife. While the background for the Age of Reason took place in Europe, ahomegrown practicality and interest in scientific
tinkering or experimenting already was taking place in America.From the earliest Colonial days, Americans had no choice but to be tinkerers;they had to make do with what was on hand, and they had to achieve results.
The Smallpox Plague
In 1721, a ship from the West Indies docked in Boston Harbor. Inaddition to its usual cargo of sugar and molasses, the West Indian ship carriedsmallpox—adisease as deadly to early American life as AIDS and the Ebola virus are today.The outbreak in Boston in 1721 was a major health problem. What was to be done?
■ An Unlikely Cure
At the time of the smallpox epidemic, Cotton Mather was working onwhat would be the first scholarly essay on medicine written in America. He hadheard of a method for dealing with smallpox. It was called inoculation. In June1721, as the smallpox epidemic spread throughout Boston,Mather began a publiccampaign for inoculation. Boston’s medical community was violently opposed tosuch an experiment, and controversy erupted into violence. InNovember,Mather’s house was bombed. Despite such fierce opposition,Mathersucceeded in inoculating nearly 300 people. By the time the epidemic was over,in March of the following year, only six of these people had died. The evidence,according to Mather’s figures, was clear: Whether or not inoculation made muchsense to scientists, it worked.
■ A PracticalApproach to Change
The smallpox controversy illustrates two interesting points aboutAmerican life in the early eighteenth century. First, it shows that Puritanthinking was not limited to a rigid and narrow interpretation of the Bible; adevout Puritan like Mather could also be a practical scientist. Mather’s experiment also reveals that a practical approach
to social change and scientific research was necessary in America.American thought had to be thought in action: Improving the public welfarerequired a willingness to experiment, no matter what the authorities might say.
Deism: Are People BasicallyGood?
Like the Puritans, the rationalists discovered God through thenatural world, but in a different way. Rationalists thought it unlikely that Godwould choose to reveal himself only at particular times to particular people. Itseemed much more reasonable to believe that God had made it possible for allpeopleat alltimesto discover natural laws through their God-given power of reason.This outlook, called deism(d≤√iz≈¥m),was shared by many eighteenth-century thinkers. In contrast to the Puritans,deists stressed humanity’s goodness. God’s objective, in the deist view, wasthe happiness of his creatures. Therefore, the best form of worship was to dogood for others. There already existed in America an impulse to improvepeople’s lives. Deism raised this impulse to one of the nation’s highestgoals. To this day, social welfare is still a political priority and still thesubject of fierce debate.
Self-made Americans
The unquestioned masterpiece of the American Age of Reason is TheAutobiography byBenjamin Franklin (page 47).Franklin(1706–1790)used the autobiographical narrative, a form common in Puritan writing. Writtenin clear, witty prose, this account of the development of the self-made Americanprovided the model for a story that would be told again and again. In thetwentieth century, it appeared in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The
Great Gatsby (1925). It is still found in the countless biographies andautobiographies of self-made men and women on the bestseller lists today.
1.How isrationalism different from Puritanism?
2.Why did Americansbecome interested in tinkering? Circle the details that give you thisinformation.
3.What twointeresting points about early American life are made? Underline them.
4.How were thedeists 'views of humanity different from the Puritans' views?
5.Why is BenjaminFranklin’s Autobiographyconsidereda masterpiece of the American Age of Reason?
