OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 347 



CHAP VL 



OF THE CAUSES OF THE ACTUAL RAPID ADVANCE OF THE 

 PHYSICAL SCIENCES COMPARED WITH THEIR PROGRESS 

 AT AN EARLIER PERIOD. 



(383.) THERE is no more extraordinary contrast than 

 that presented by the slow progress of the physical 

 sciences, from the earliest ages of the world to the 

 close of the sixteenth century, and the rapid de- 

 velopement they have since experienced. In the 

 former period of their history, we find only small 

 additions to the stock of knowledge, made at long 

 intervals of time ; during which a total indifference 

 on the part of the mass of mankind to the study of 

 nature operated to effect an almost complete oblivion 

 of former discoveries, or, at best, permitted them to 

 linger on record, rather as literary curiosities, than 

 as possessing, in themselves, any intrinsic interest 

 and importance. A few enquiring individuals, from 

 age to age, might perceive their value, and might 

 feel that irrepressible thirst after knowledge which, 

 in minds of the highest order, supplies the absence 

 both of external stimulus and opportunity. But the 

 total want of a right direction given to enquiry, and 

 of a clear perception of the objects to be aimed 

 at, and the advantages to be gained by systematic 

 and connected research, together with the general 

 apathy of society to speculations remote from the 



