ABSTRACT
John Evelyn distinguishes between London's agreeable setting and the ruinous effects of its polluted atmosphere. A keen admirer of Francis Bacon, the father figure of empiricism, Evelyn advocates modern science but also acknowledges the medical tradition of ancient Greece, which considers health and disease holistically and the interdependence of the body, soul and environment. Recalling the principle that the air, the breath is 'the Vehicle of the Soul, as well as that of the Earth', he recounts Hippocratic opinion that the character of a people depends upon the air they inhale. It is uncertain whether the influential treatises attributed to him were actually written by Hippocrates, who was born in the fifth century BC. Convinced that London's atmosphere is unhealthy, he notes the comparative clarity of the sky on Sunday when industries are idle, and mistakenly assumes that domestic fires contribute little pollution. Evelyn considered the sun to be an appropriate emblem for the intellectual enlightenment of the Royal Society.
