But the Romantic Age was not all discovery and progress. Holmes knows and acknowledges this; he’s not naive. Nevertheless, screw-ups are relegated to second fiddle; Holmes acknowledge the Terror, but only as a coda to the Wonder. This bothers me because one purpose of the book is to reinvigorate that Romantic attitude towards science. This strikes me as naive atavism. It’s true that the influence of the Romantic age persists, and could be reinvigorated. But what would grow out of such a project would develop uniquely, unpredictably — just as the Romantic Age itself did.

Holmes certainly, however, deserves great credit for even recognizing the existence of “Romantic Science” as something distinct from “Enlightenment Science.” The Age of Wonder also serves as an excellent reminder that science does not stand apart from the rest of human cultural activity. This is not always acknowledged.