INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE 



Of THE 



OBJECTS, PLEASURES, AND ADVANTAGES 



or 



SCIENCE. 



IB order fully to understand the advantages and the pleasures which are derived from an acquaintance with 

 any Science, it is necessary to become acquainted with that Science; and it would therefore bo 

 impossible to convey a complete knowledge of the benefits conferred by a study of the various Sciences 

 which have hitherto been cultivated by philosophers, without teaching all the branches of them. But a 

 very distinct idea may be given of those benefits, by explaining the nature and objects of the different 

 Sciences : it may be shown, by examples, how much use and gratification there is in learning a part of any 

 one branch of knowledge ; and it may thence be inferred, how great reason there is to learn the whole. 



It may easily be demonstrated, that there is an advantage in learning, both for the usefulness and the 

 pleasure of it. There is something positively agreeable to all men, to all at least whose nature is not most 

 grovelling and base, in gaining knowledge for its own sake. When you see anything for the first time, 

 you at once derive some gratification from the sight being new ; your attention is awakened, and you desire 

 to know more about it. If it be a piece of workmanship, as an instrument, a machine of any kind, you wish 

 to know how it is made; how it works; and what use it is of. If it be an animal, you desire to know where 

 it comes from; how it lives; what are its dispositions, and, generally, its nature and habits. You feel this 

 desire, too, without at all considering that the machine or the animal may ever be of the least use to your- 

 self practically ; for, in all probability, you may never see them again. But you have a curiosity to learn 

 all about them, because they are new and unknown. You accordingly make inquiries ; you feel a gratifica- 

 tion in getting answers to your questions, that is, in receiving information, and in knowing more, in 

 being better informed than you were before. If you happen again to seethe same instrument or animal, you 

 find it agreeable to recollect having seen it formerly, and to think that you know something about it. If 

 you see another instrument or animal, in some respects like, but differing in other particulars, you find it 

 pleasing to compare them together, and to note in what they agree, and in what they differ. Now, all this 

 kind of gratification is of a pure and disinterested nature, and has no reference to any of the common 

 purposes of life ; yet it is a pleasure an enjoyment. You are nothing the richer for it ; you do not gratify 

 your palate or any other bodily appetite, and yet it is so pleasing, that you would give something out of 

 your pocket to obtain it, and would forego some bodily enjoyment for its sake. The pleasure derived from 

 Science is exactly of the like nature, or, rather, it is the very same. For what has just been spoken of 

 is, in fact, Science, which in its most comprehensive sense, only means Knowledge, and in its ordinary sense 

 means Knowledge reduced to a Syttcm ; that is, arranged in a regular order, so as to be conveniently taught, 

 easily remembered, and readily applied. 



The practical uses of any science or branch of knowledge, are undoubtedly of the highest importance ; 

 and there is hardly any man who may not gain some positive advantage in his worldly wealth and comforts, 

 by increasing his stock of information. But there is also a pleasure in seeing the uses to which knowledge 

 may be applied, wholly independent of the share we ourselves may have in those practical benefits. It 

 is pleasing to examine the nature of a new instrument, or the habits of an unknown animal, without 

 considering whether or not they may ever bo of use to ourselves or to anybody. It is another gratification 

 to extend our inquiries, and find that the instrument or animal is useful to man, even although we have 

 no chance of ever benefiting by the information : as, to find that the natives of some distant country 

 employ the animal in travelling ; nay, though we have no desire of benefiting by the knowledge ; as, for 

 example, to find that the instrument is useful iu performing some dangerous surgical operation. The 

 mere gratification of curioMty ; the, knowing more to-day than we knew yesterday ; the understanding 

 clearly what hei'ore seemed obscure and pn/.iling; the contemplation of general truths, and the comparing 

 together of diflerent things, is an agreeahlu occupation of the rnifcd ; aud, beside the present eujoymeiit, 



