INTRODUCTION. 



REFLECTIONS ON THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF ENJOY- 

 MENT PRESENTED TO US BY THE ASPECT OF NATURE, 

 AND THE STUDY OF HER LAWS. 



ITS attempting, after a long absence from my native country, 

 to develope the physical phenomena of the globe, and the 

 simultaneous action of the forces that pervade the regions of 

 space, I experience a twofold cause of anxiety. The subject 

 before me is so inexhaustible and so varied, that I fear either 

 to fall into the superficiality of the encyclopaedist, or to weary 

 the mind of my reader by aphorisms consisting of mere gene- 

 ralities clothed in dry and dogmatical forms. Undue concise- 

 ness often checks the flow of expression, whilst diffuseness is 

 alike detrimental to a clear and precise exposition of our ideas. 

 Nature is a free domain ; and the profound conceptions and 

 enjoyments she awakens within us can only be vividly deli- 

 neated by thought clothed in exalted forms of speech, worthy 

 of bearing witness to the majesty and greatness of the creation. 

 In considering the study of physical phenomena, not merely 

 in its bearings on the material wants of life, but in its general 

 influence on the intellectual advancement of mankind, we 

 find its noblest and most important result to be a knowledge 

 of the chain of connection, by which all natural forces are linked 

 together, and made mutually dependent upon each other ; and 

 it is the perception of these relations that exalts our views 

 and ennobles our enjoyments. Such a result can, however 

 only be reaped as the fruit of observation and intellect, com- 

 bined with the spirit of the age, in which are reflected all 

 the varied phases of thought. He who can trace, through 

 by-gone times, the stream of our knowledge to its primitive 

 source, will learn from history how, for thousands of years, man 



