96 On the Decline of Matheynatkal Studleif 



grapliy, and other branches of natural philosophy, would 

 hardly have been known as sciences. It is possible that 

 discoveries more wonderful and of greater utility than tho&e 

 already made bv the help of mathematics, may some time 

 or other be effected, should son>e great genius once point 

 out the way. It is the opinion of many philosophers *, 

 that the various forms and diversified properties of bodies 

 are owing to the various laus of attraction and repulsion 

 which their constituent particles exercise upon each other. 

 Should these laws ever be discovered, we shall become as 

 well acquainted with the structure, affinities, and mutual 

 operations of bodies, as we are with the revolutions and ac- 

 tions of the planets upon each other. 



The mathematics, and the sciences dependent upon them, 

 cannot be neglected from then- want of importance and uti- 

 lity : they are a much nobler study than the present fa- 

 vourite one of natural history, the various branches of 

 which seem to require more the efforts of memory than 

 judiinient ; in the pursuit of which, the highest object to 

 be "attained is the discovery of some nondescript insect 

 or plant, in which chance more than judgment is con- 

 cerned. Chemistry, from its very great miportanco as well 

 as the utility arising from it, deservedly ranks next to ma- 

 thematics and natural philosophy. But in chemistry, as 

 well as natural history, we are left at so great a distance by 

 the philosophers of the continent, that there are no hopes 

 of coming in for but a comparatively very small share of 

 praise. 



We seem, as a nation, for this last half century, to be 

 sunk into a great degree of supineness with res])eet to tiie 

 sciences, reoardlcss of our former fame. The generality of 

 the papers in the Philosophical Transactions are no longer 

 of that importance they were formerly. We have long 

 ceased to study those sciences in which we took the lead 

 and excelled, and are content to follow, at a very humble 

 distance, the steps of the philosophers of the continent, in 

 those which they have in a n)anner discovered and made 

 plain by their glorious exertions. We, after having disco- 

 vered and conquered regions in science, suddenly quit them 

 to be possessed and cultivated by other nations, that we may 

 pick up a few gleanings in the countries found out and cul- 

 tivated by their exertions. 



To what strnnge infatuation can it be owing thai we 

 tamely give up what was once our greatest boast ? Is it, 



* Fic/f Piiilosophical Mag:izine, vol xiv. p. 194:. 



because 



