

CONNECTION OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



SCIENCE, regarded as the pursuit of truth, must ever 

 afford occupation of consummate interest, and subject of 

 elevated meditation. The contemplation of the works 

 of creation elevates the mind to the admiration of what- 

 ever is great and noble ; accomplishing the object of all 

 study, which, in the eloquent language of Sir James 

 Mackintosh, "is to inspire the love of truth, of wisdom, 

 of beauty especially of goodness, the highest beauty 

 and of that supreme and eternal Mind, which con- 

 tains all truth and wisdom, all beauty and goodness. 

 By the love or delightful contemplation and pursuit of 

 these transcendent aims, for their own sake only, the 

 mind of man is raised from low and perishable objects, 

 and prepared for those high destinies which are ap- 

 pointed for all those who are capable of them." 



Astronomy affords the most extensive example of the 

 connection of the physical sciences. In it are combined 

 the sciences of number and quantity, of rest and mo- 

 tion. In it we perceive the operation of a force which 

 is mixed up with everything that exists in the heavens 

 or on earth; which pervades every atom, rules the 

 motions of animate and inanimate beings, and is as sen- 

 sible in the descent of a rain-drop as in the falls of 

 Niagara; in the weight of the air, as in the periods of 

 the moon. Gravitation not only binds satellites to their 

 planet, and planets to the sun, but it connects sun with 

 sun throughout the wide extent of creation, and is the 

 cause of the disturbances, as well as of the order of 

 nature : since every tremor it excites in any one planet 

 is immediately transmitted to the farthest limits of the 

 system, in oscillations, which correspond in their periods 

 with the cause producing them, like sympathetic notes 

 in music, or vibrations from the deep tones of an organ. 



The heavens afford the most sublime subject of study 

 which can be derived from science. The magnitude 

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