Thomas Carlyle’s writings are an important conduit for thetransmission of French and German ideas into England duringthe nineteenth century – and Carlyle’s antagonistic relationshipwith the French Enlightenment would have a significant anddurable effect upon Victorian attitudes to French...

Sir Francis Bacon explored as a medical question the issue of how human life spans might be returned to the near-thousand years enjoyed by Adam and the Patriarchs. Extended old age seemed feasible: reports told of people living well into their centenary. Meanwhile, New World natives were said to...