Henry Fielding on global warming

    In his 1742 comic novel Joseph Andrews, Henry Fielding offers a ready-made reason for why many politicians (mostly Republican) assail the possibility of global warming. He couches the explanation in the parson Abraham Adams’ thoughts at hearing a woman’s scream in the night from an attack by a man:

He did not, therefore, want the entreaties of the poor wretch to assist her; but lifting up his crabstick, he immediately leveled a blow at that part of the ravisher’s head where, according to the opinion of the ancients, the brains of some persons are deposited, and which he had undoubtedly let forth, had not Nature (who, as wise men have observed, equips all creatures with what is most expedient for them) taken a provident care (as she always doth with those she intends for encounters) to make this part of the head three times as thick as those of ordinary men, who are designed to exercise talents which are vulgarly called rational, and for whom, as brains are necessary, she is obliged to leave some room for them in the skull; whereas, those ingredients being entirely useless to persons of the heroic calling, she hath an opportunity of thickening the bone, so as to make it less subject to any impression, or liable to be cracked or broken; and, indeed, in some who are predestined to the command of armies and empires, she is supposed sometimes to make that part perfectly solid.

    (Quoted from the Easy Read Large Edition of Joseph Andrews, Volume 1, by Henry Fielding. Objective System, 2006.)
    For a brief biography of Henry Fielding, click here. For images of or relating to Henry Fielding, click here.