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that no knowledge'of Matter is due to the discoveries of Newton, and of 

 all that glorious band of which he may be regarded as the head, that 

 Physical Science is a delusion, and the alleged " Recent Advances" a 

 dream 1 



I am thus led to make a few remarks upon the respective origin and 

 principles of each. Dr. Whewell dealt with the whole field of Physical 

 Knowledge, under the title of the History and Philosophy of the 

 "Inductive Sciences." Those who have read these works will remember 

 the almost dramatic form in which Dr. Whewell's genius has presented 

 the subject. There is first the prelude to some great discovery, when 

 previous discoveries have turned men's minds in a particular direction 

 and it is felt that some great mental movement is at hand. Then there 

 is the happy thought, the inspiration of genius, what in a lower subject 

 matter we should call the felicitous guess. Then comes the verification, 

 the appeal to facts, the rigid tests of mathematical calculations and 

 numerical results, and above all the prediction of consequences subse- 

 quently found to be true. And each discovery reaches on towards some 

 other, and even the detection of residual errors in previous conclusions 

 becomes a specially fertile source of further progress. Guessing, doubt- 

 ing, testing, correcting — may be said in homely phrase to be the efficient 

 engines of scientific motion ; and the Inductive Sciences may find an 

 incidental justification of their name in the fact, that they /mti on from 

 one point to another, that each discovery induces another, that another, 

 and so on (it may be) ad infinitinn. 



Now, divine science presents a remarkable contrast in regard to the 

 qualities which have just been mentioned as belonging to physics. 

 Divine science is as essentially rt'(?ductive as physical science is z«ductive: 

 </(fductive processes are of course required in following out results in 

 physical investigation ; and in like manner zwductive processes may be 

 available and necessary in investigations connected with certain branches 

 of Theology; but still the basis of divine science does not depend upon 

 happy guesses, nor upon an accumulation of verifications ; neither does 

 it offer an infinite field for progress, nor does its success demand that 

 same kind of chronic scepticism which is so useful, or even essential, in 



