ON THE PROMOTION OF SCIENCE. 



thing but industry and patient thought, that he 

 kept the subject under consideration constantly 

 before him, and waited till the first dawning 

 ooened gradually, by little and little, into a full 

 arid clear light.&quot; Had this illustrious philoso 

 pher been born of barbarous parents in the wilds 

 of Africa, had he been placed in circumstances 

 widely different from those in which he actually 

 existed, or had not his attention, by some casual 

 occurrence, been directed to the grand object 

 which he accomplished, in all probability, his 

 mind would never have ranged through the ce 

 lestial regions, nor have discovered the laws of 

 the planetary motions. 



Many important scientific facts require only 

 a certain combination of circumstances to bring 

 them to the view of any common observer. To 

 discover the phases of the planet Venus, the 

 satellites of Jupiter, and the elliptical figure of 

 Saturn, after the telescope was invented, re 

 quired no uncommon powers either of vision or of 

 intellect in Galileo, who first brought these facts 

 to view, however superior the faculties he ac 

 tually possessed. It only required, that he had 

 a previous knowledge of the existence of these 

 planetary bodies, that his mind was interested 

 in the extension of science, and that he foresaw 

 a probability that new and interesting facts 

 might be discovered by directing his new in 

 vented instrument to the starry regions. And 

 when once he had descried from his observatory 

 uch new celestial wonders, every other person 

 whose organs of vision were not impaired, with 

 a similar tube, might discover the same objects. 

 Yet, for want of the qualifications which Galileo 

 possessed, the telescope might have long re 

 mained in the hands of thousands before such 

 discoveries had b?en made ; and it is a fact, 

 that though the w^scope was in use a consider-, 

 able time before Galileo made his discoveries, 

 no person had previously thought of directing it 

 to the planets ; at any rate, no discoveries had 

 been made by it in the heavens. 



The discovery of new truths in the sciences, 

 therefore, is not, in most instances, to he as 

 cribed to the exertions of extraordinary powers 

 of intellect ; but, in a great majority of cases, 

 to the peculiar series of events that may occur 

 in the case of certain individuals, to the various 

 circumstances and situations in which they may 

 be placed, to the different aspects in which cer 

 tain objects may be presented to their view, and 

 sometimes to certain casual hints or occur 

 rences which directed their attention to parti 

 cular objects. A spectacle-maker s boy, by an 

 accidental experiment, led to the invention of 

 the telescope ; the remark of a fountain- player, 

 who observed that water could rise only to thirty- 

 two feet in the tubes of a forcing engine, led 

 Galileo to calculate the gravity of the air. 

 Newton s attention was first directed to a pro- 

 Wid research into the laws of falling bodies, 



by the circumstance of an apple falling upon th 

 head, as he was sitting under a tree in his gar 

 den, which led to the discovery of the grand 

 principle which unites the great bodies of the 

 universe. The well-known M*. James Fer 

 guson, author of several popular treatises on 

 astronomy and mechanical philosophy, invented 

 a system of mechanics, and ascertained the 

 laws of the different mechanical powers, when 

 only eight years of age, and before he knew 

 that any treatise had ever been written on that 

 subject. The accidental circumstance of see 

 ing his father lift up the roof of his cottage, by 

 means of a prop and lever, first directed his 

 mind to these subjects, in which he afterwards 

 made many useful improvements. 



If, then, it be admitted, that an extraordinary 

 degree of intellectual energy and acumen is not 

 necessary, in every instance, for making useful 

 discoveries, that the concentration of the men 

 tal faculties on particular objects, and the va 

 rious circumstances in which individuals may 

 be placed, have led to the discovery of impor 

 tant facts, it will follow, that the exertion of 

 the ordinary powers of intellect possessed by 

 the mass of society is sufficient for the purpose 

 of prosecuting scientific discoveries, and that the 

 more the number of scientific observers and expe 

 rimenters is increased among the inferior ranks 

 of society, the more extensively will interesting 

 facts and analogies be ascertained, from which 

 new and important principles of science may be 

 deduced. 



An ample field still remains for the exertion of 

 all the energies of the human mind. The sci 

 ences are, as yet, far removed from perfection ; 

 some of them have but lately commenced their 

 progress, and some of their elementary prin 

 ciples still require to be established by future 

 observations. The objects of nature which 

 science embraces are almost infinite ; the ex 

 istence of many of these objects has not yet 

 been discovered, and much less their multiplied 

 relations and combinations. The researches of 

 ages are still requisite, in order thoroughly to 

 explore the universe, and bring to view its hid 

 den wonders. In order to bring to light, as 

 speedily as possible, the undiscovered truths of 

 science, we must endeavour to increase the 

 number of those who shall devote themselves, 

 either wholly or in part, to scientific investiga 

 tion and research. And, were this object at 

 tained, in all probability, the number of useful 

 truths and facts which would be discovered, 

 would be nearly in proportion to the number of 

 those whose attention is directed to such re 

 searches. 



This might be illustrated from the history of 

 the past progress of science. In those ages, 

 when only a few solitary individuals, here and 

 there, directed their attention to such pursuits, 

 little or no progress was made in the various 



