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On the Philosophy of Nutinr. 



JVl. Geoffroy St Hilaire read lately to the French 

 Academy a memoir, entitled Meditations on Nature. He 

 began with general considerations respecting tlie new branch 

 of science cultivated in Germany, and which has been called 

 the Philosophy of Nature. He pointed out the course pur- 

 sued by the partisans of this philosophy, which has not only 

 been publicly taught, but is professed by men of profound 

 knowledge. The philosophers of nature have two objects in 

 view : 1*^, That of associating in their conceptions the whole of 

 the phenomena of nature ; 9,dly, That of arriving at these con- 

 ceptions, not by deductions a priori derived from the observa. 

 tion of particular facts, but bv original views. 



The author shewed the risk there is in following such a course, 

 and how easily those who pursue it may fall into error. He did 

 not deny, however, that a man of genius might, by means of 

 it, do great service to science. 



Kepler proceeded in almost all his astronomical investiga- 

 tions according to the inspiration of his genius, without waiting 

 for the results of observation. Tycho, his master, warned him 

 to give up these vain speculations. The advice was excellent. 

 " But," says Delambre on this subject, in the Biographic Univer- 

 selle, " what should we have lost, had it been followed .'' Such 

 conduct, it was said, was folly ; but to this folly Kepler owed 

 his glory, for it led him to the discovery of his immortal laws. 

 This temerity gave to the genius of Newton the means of ar- 

 riving at the proposition, that every particle of matter gravitates 

 to every other particle, with a force inver.sely proportional to the 

 squares of the distance, the most important law of philosophy. 

 Assuredly, when this law, which is now the foundation-stone of 

 all physics, was conceived and reduced to this state of sublime 

 simplicity, it was the genius alone of Newton, proceeding upon 

 the theories of Kepler, which could elicit it. 



The author then gave a concise view of the principal opinions 

 entertained by the partisans of the philosophy of nature. Then, 

 speaking of an assertion made by several of them, who have 



