40 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



and of the periodic times to the mean distances ; and Huygens's theorems 

 on centrifugal forces, had been followed by still nearer approaches to the 

 doctrine of attraction. Borelli had distinctly ascribed the motion of satel- 

 lites to then* being drawn towards the principal planets, and thus prevented 

 from flying off by the centrifugal force. Even the composition of white 

 light, and the different action of bodies upon its component parts, had been 

 vaguely conjectured by Ant. de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, at the 

 beginning, and more precisely in the middle of the seventeenth century by 

 Marcus (Kronland of Prague), unknown to Newton, who only refers to the 

 Archbishop's work; while the treatise of Huygens on light, Grimaldi's 

 observations on colors by inflexion, as well as on the elongation of the 

 image in the prismatic spectrum, had been brought to his attention, although 

 much less near to his own great discovery than Marcus's experiment. But 

 all this only shows that the discoveries of Newton, great and rapid as were 

 the steps by which they advanced our knowledge, yet obeyed the law of 

 continuity, or rather of gradual progress, which governs ah 1 human ap- 

 proaches towards perfection. The limited nature of man's faculties pre- 

 cludes the possibility of his ever reaching at once the utmost excellence of 

 which they are capable. Survey the whole circle of the sciences, and trace 

 the history of our progress in each, you find this to be the universal rule. 

 In chymical philosophy, the dreams of the Alchymists prepared the way 

 for the more rational, though erroneous, theory of Stahl; and it was by 

 repeated improvements that his errors, so long prevalent, were at length 

 exploded, giving place to the sound doctrine which is now established. 

 The great discoveries of Black and Priestly on heat and aeriform fluids, had 

 been preceded by the happy conjectures of Newton and the experiments of 

 others. Nay, Voltaire had w r ell-nigh discovered both the absorption of heat, 

 the constitution of the atmosphere, and the oxydation of metals ; and by a 

 few more trials might have ascertained it. Cuvier had been preceded by 

 inquirers who took sound views of fossil osteology, among whom, the truly 

 original genius of Hunter fills the foremost place. The inductive system of 

 Bacon had been, at least in its practice, known to his predecessors. Obser- 

 vations, and even experiments, were not unknown to the ancient philoso- 

 phers, though mingled with gross errors; in early times, almost in the dark 

 ages, experimental inquiries had been carried on with success by Friar 

 Bacon, and that method actually recommended in a treatise, as it was two 

 centuries later by Leonardo da Vinci, and at the latter end of the next century 

 Gilbert examined the whole subject of magnetic action entirely by experi- 

 ments . So that Lord Bacon's claim to be regarded as the father of modern 

 philosophy rests upon the important, the invaluable step of reducing to a 

 system the method of investigation adopted by those eminent men, general- 

 izing it, and extending its application to all matters of contingent truth, 

 exploding the errors, the absurd dogmas, and fantastic subtleties of the 

 ancient schools; above all, confining the subject of our inquiry, and the 

 manner of conducting it, within the limits which our faculties prescribe. 

 Nor is this great law of gradual progress confined to the physical sciences; 

 in the moral it equally governs. Before the foundations of political economy 

 were laid by Hume and Smith, a great step had been made by the French 

 philosophers, disciples of Quesnai ; but a nearer approach to sound princi- 

 ples had signalized the labors of Gournay, and those labors had been shared, 

 and his doctrines patronized, by Turgot, when Chief Minister. Again, in 

 constitutional policy, see by what slow degrees, from its first rude elements, 



