Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 249 



The sixteenth century was, above all, distinguished by the re- 

 formation of religion. Luther had declared that neither religion 

 or philosophy could be reformed, until the scholastic system, and 

 the metaphysical theology of the schools, were utterly abolished ; 

 and he lived to witness the greatest triumph of 'which man ever 

 was the hero. He died A. D. 1546, fifteen years before the birth 

 of the celebrated Lord Bacon, as great a reformer in intellectual 

 philosophy, as Luther had been in religion. This great philoso- 

 pher taught that the qualities of bodies became known only by 

 experiment, and that the way to arrive at truth, is to proceed 

 step by step from what we know, till we arrive at results go- 

 verned by principles of universal application ; thus seeking the 

 unknown by aid of the known. Strong as he was in experimental 

 philosophy, and prophetic as his enlightened views were respect- 

 ing future examinations of the powers of nature, yet it is as a 

 profound logician Lord Bacon stands unrivalled. No man ever 

 saw more distinctly how truth was to be found, nor pursued it 

 more steadily. His great mind disdained to occupy itself with 

 the relations of words with themselves, but applied its powers to 

 the philosophical relation between words and things. About the 

 same time, also, Galileo was born. His " Dialogues of the System 

 of the World," made public about A. D. 1613, were received by 

 men of science — and this was the age of Bacon, Kepler, Napier, 

 &c. — with enthusiasm. They produced the final overthrow of 

 the false system then taught, although he was twice thrown into 

 the dungeons of the inquisition, and his book publicly burnt. Pro- 

 fessor Scarpellini informed Mr. Lyell, at Rome, that the edicts 

 against Galileo and the Copernican system, were finally repealed 

 in 1818, at the instance of Pius 7th. 



During this progress in the higher branches of physical sci- 

 ence, the fossil organic remains found in almost every quarter, 

 were too curious a phenomenon to escape the attention of inquir- 

 ing minds. Some excavation made at Verona, in Italy, in 1517, 

 for the purpose of repairing the city, had drawn the public atten- 

 tion to certain petrifactions which abound there. The easiest 

 way, and indeed the safest, to account for their being found bu- 

 ried beneath the surface, was by referring them to the action of 

 the Noachian deluge, and was, of course, adopted by the major- 

 ity. Some, however, referred them to a " plastic force," which 

 could give organic forms to stones. Fracastoro boldly declared 



Vol. L— 32 



