PLEASURES OF SCIENCE. 7 



But be not therefore prejudiced against the doctrine, that the pleasure 

 of learning the truths which philosophy unfolds is truly above all 

 price. Lend but a patient attention to the principles explained, and 

 giving us credit for stating nothing which has not some practical use 

 belonging" to it, or some important doctrine connected with it, you will 

 soon perceive the value of the lessons you are learning, and begin to 

 interest yourselves in comprehending and recollecting them ; you will 

 find that you have actually learnt something of science, while merely 

 engaged in seeing what its end and purpose is ; you will be enabled 

 to calculate for yourselves, how far it is worth the trouble of acquiring, 

 by examining samples of it ; you will, as it were, taste a little to try 

 whether or not you relish it, and ought to seek after more ; you will 

 enable yourselves to go on, and enlarge your stock of it ; and after 

 having first mastered a very little, you will proceed so far as to look 

 back with wonder at the distance you have reached beyond your earliest 

 acquirements. 



The Sciences may be divided into three great classes : those which 

 relate to Number and Quantity, those which relate to Matter, and 

 those which relate to Mind. The first are called the Mathematics, and 

 teach the properties of numbers and of figures ; the second are called 

 Natural Philosophy, and teach the properties of the various bodies 

 which we are acquainted with by means of our senses ; the third are 

 called Intellectual or Moral Philosophy, and teach the nature of the 

 mind, of the existence of which we have the most perfect evidence in 

 our own reflections ; or, in other words, the moral nature of man, both 

 as an individual and as a member of society. Connected with all the 

 sciences, and subservient to them, though not one of their number, is 

 History, or the record of facts relating to all kinds of knowledge. 



I. The two great branches of the Mathematics, or the two mathe- 

 matical sciences, are Arithmetic, the science of number, from the Greek 

 word signifying number, and Geometry, the science of figure, from the 

 Greek words signifying measure of the earth, land measuring having 

 first turned men's attention to it. 



When I say that 2 and 2 make 4, I state an arithmetical proposi- 

 tion, very simple indeed, but connected with many others of a more 

 difficult and complicated kind. Thus, it is another proposition, some- 

 what less simple, but still very obvious, that 5 multiplied by 10, and 

 divided by 2 is equal to, or makes the same number with, 100 divided 

 by 4 both results being equal to 25. So, to find how many farthings 

 there are in 1000/., and how many minutes in a year, are questions of 

 arithmetic which we learn to work by being taught the principles of 

 the science one after another, or, as they are commonly called, the 

 rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Arithmetic 

 may be said to be the most simple, though among the most useful of 

 the sciences ; but it teaches only the properties of particular and known 

 numbers, and it only enables us to add, subtract, multiply, and divide 

 those numbers. But suppose we wish to add, subtract, multiply, or 

 divide numbers which we have not yet ascertained, and in all respects 

 to deal with them as if they were known, for the purpose of arriving at 

 certain conclusions respecting them, and among other things, of 



