ABSTRACT
In considering physical science in the Romantic period, there are two questions which must be kept distinct: the first is, What influences from the world-view of Romantics penetrated and transformed physics or chemistry? and the second, What impact did discoveries in these sciences have upon Romantics? The historian of science cannot without unease read of Keats's toast of oblivion to the name of Newton, or his remark about the rainbow. A lack of respect for the achievements of the Romantic poets is a matter for pity rather than censure; and no doubt the same applies to Newton. In Omniana, Coleridge's contributions were on the whole matters of psychology and literature rather than of physical science. Much philosophy of science has been concerned with discovery; either with describing how scientists make discoveries, or like Schelling's trying to anticipate discoveries by a priori reasoning.
