John Bull John Bull John Bull is a national personification of the United Kingdom in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country dwelling, jolly, matter-of-fact man. John Bull originated as a satirical character created by Dr John Arbuthnot, a friend of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Bull first appeared in 1712 in Arbuthnot's pamphlet "Law is a Bottomless Pit". The same year Arbuthnot published a four-part political narrative "The History of John Bull". In this satirical treatment of the War of the Spanish Succession John Bull brings
John Arbuthnot awarded the doctorate. He first wrote satire in 1697, when he answered Dr John Woodward's "An essay towards a natural history of the earth and terrestrial bodies, especially minerals..." with "An Examination of Dr Woodward's Account &c." He poked fun at the arrogance of the work and Woodward's misguided, Aristotelian insistence that what is theoretically attractive must be actually true. In 1701, Arbuthnot wrote another mathematical work, "An essay on the usefulness of mathematical learning, in a letter from a gentleman in the city to his friend in Oxford." The work was moderately successful, and Arbuthnot praises mathematics as a