PREFACE 



IT is not without some anxiety that I offer this little 

 work to the public, for it is, I believe, the first at- 

 tempt which has been made to treat the difficult 

 subject of the History of Science in a short and 

 simple way. 1 



Its object is to place before young and unscien- 

 tific people those main discoveries of science which 

 ought to be known by every educated person, and at 

 the same time to impart a living interest to the whole, 

 by associating with each step in advance some history 

 of the men who made it. 



During the many years that I enjoyed the privi- 

 lege of acting as secretary to the late Sir Charles 

 Lyell, and was thus brought in contact with many of 

 the leading scientific men of our day, I often felt very 

 forcibly how many important facts and generaliza- 

 tions of science, which are of great value both in the 

 formation of character and in giving a true estimate 







1 Mr. Baden Powell's excellent little ' History of Natural Philo- 

 sophy,' published in Lardner's * Cyclopaedia ' in 1834, is scarcely 

 intended for beginners, and does not extend farther than the seven- 

 teenth century. This is the only work of the kind I have been able to 

 find. 



