THE HULL 



LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL MISCELLANY. 



No. III. DECEMBER. Vol. I. 



INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN POPULAR ERRORS. 



ON THE 



PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN. 

 BY DR. AYRE. 

 A Paper read at the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society. 



To those acquainted with the history of the physical sciences, it 

 can be in no degree a matter of surprise, that errors should be current 

 with mankind, in all the subjects pertaining to science: for it is within 

 a period of time comparatively recent, and chiefly smce the age of 

 Lord Bacon, that the acquisition of any thing deserving the name of 

 science, has been attempted or attained. Previous to his time, philo- 

 sophers, if such they could be named, instead of observing and 

 recording facts, and verifying them by experiments, employed them- 

 selves in inventing theories to explain the operations and laws of 

 nature; and much of what they then taught and believed, the ignorant 

 of all countries now believe ; for it is from the errors of ancient times 

 that those of the present period derive their currency and credit. 



In the progress of scientific discovery and reseai-ch, mankind have 

 had nearly as much to unlearn as to learn ; for in the absence of true 

 knowledge, no individual, however gifted might be his powers, could 

 escape the infection of popular errors. It was not for instance until 

 more than half a centuiy after the time of the immortal Newton, 

 that the wondei-s of modern chemistry began to be revealed, and he. 



