1866.] Gh) 
VIII. HOFMANN AND MODERN CHEMISTRY. 
Introduction to Modern Chemistry, Experimental and Theoretical ; 
embodying Twelve Lectures delivered in the Royal College of 
Chemistry, London. By W. A. Hofmann, LLD., F.RS., &e. 
THERE is no more interesting study, and certainly none more 
instructive, than the inquiry into the progress of that knowledge 
which is acquired by the aids of science. To mark, where it is pos- 
sible, the first gleam of a truth, to watch the flutterings of human 
thought around the little light, and to follow patiently its slow and 
gradual development, until man seizes it aright and chains it to do 
his bidding, is always a delightful exercise for the well-constituted 
mind. 
We learn in contemplating the history of scientific discovery, 
that the search after Truth demands a large amount’ of labour con- 
tinuously applied. A fact may be known for ages, and remain a 
barren fact because man fails to interpret it correctly. The Greeks, 
for example, knew Hlectron—amber—they were acquainted with the 
iron ore of Magnesia, and they were not ignorant of their peculiar 
powers of attraction; but more than two thousand years passed 
away before man learnt those laws regulating Electricity and Mag- 
netism, by which he was enabled to apply them to useful purposes. 
Every advance made by the Human family is due to the de- 
votion with which some chosen member of that family has solicited 
nature to disclose her powers. The Earth, a mass of matter of 
wondrous constitution, rolling along its prescribed path in space, is 
man’s abiding place. From it he must glean everything necessary 
for his healthful existence, and from it he must derive every source 
of finite happiness. Man’s prescribed task is “ to possess the Earth 
and subdue it,” and the more zealously he bends his mind to the 
labour, the greater is the sum of his own enjoyment, and the more 
numerous are the advantages which he is enabled to bestow upon 
his kindred. As the chaotic Earth in its early darkness “ was 
without form and void,” and as at the touch of light it became a 
symmetrical globe, clothed with organized forms and radiant with 
beauty, so brute matter is seen to develop hidden powers, under the 
influence of the human mind, and become at the same time useful 
to man. 
The history of the progress of civilization—surveyed apart from 
all the clouding influences of political contention, religious strife 
and national prejudices—resolves itself into a story of man’s strugele 
with nature. We live in an age which will ever be remarkable as 
a period of action, during which the human mind is taxed to the 
utmost to make new applications of natural forces, and new com- 
binations of nature’s elements for the use of man. Existing in the 
