8 Experimental PJiilosopJiy. [Lecture 1. 



of the whole sect. He was soon convinced of the 

 difficulty of the research in which he was en- 

 gaged, that of transmuting or changing other 

 metals or substances into gold ; but he saw that 

 experiment, and the mode of analysing or dividing 

 bodies or substances into their constituen t parts, was 

 the true mode of investigating nature. He there- 

 fore ridiculed the idle conjectures and unmean- 

 ing jargon of Aristotle and his followers. In the 

 course of his researches he made that wonderful 

 discovery, the composition and use of gunpowder. 

 He had very nearly fallen upon that of air-bal- 

 loons. He made a number of excellent experi- 

 ments in chemistry and optics; and you know 

 that his only reward was to be accounted a ma- 

 gician by the ignorant age in which he lived, 

 and even by the unenlightened part of mankind 

 in succeeding times. 



To another Englishman, of the same name, the 

 justly celebrated lord Bacon, philosophy is in- 

 debted for its next great improvement. He fol- 

 lowed the footsteps of his namesake and prede- 

 cessor ; he reduced his principles to a system ; 

 and laid it down as a maxim, that it was by 

 experiment alone that any thing in philosophy 

 could with certainty be known. He therefore 

 traced out the way in which future experimental- 

 ists might proceed, and afforded a variety of 

 hints, on which they afterwards improved. 



The good and the illustrious Boyle, however, 

 may be justly termed the father of modern phi- 



