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 48 

 INTRODUCTI 



NOTWITHSTANDING the boasted assertions 

 which are generally made, of the high degree 

 of perfection which, in these latter days, the 

 different branches of philosophy are supposed 

 to have attained it will, I fear, upon a fair 

 inquiry be found, that we continue in the very 

 infancy of our knowledge ; that, with the ex- 

 ception of mathematical truths, and of those 

 arts which are founded on mathematical prin- 

 ciples, there subsists scarcely one subject, 

 either of physics, of metaphysics, or of physio- 

 logy, the science of which is clearly under- 

 stood, or, as to the truth of which an unifor- 

 mity of opinion subsists. The essential attri- 

 butes which different bodies possess, the first 

 and most simple elements of which they are 

 composed and the definitions by which those 

 elements are characterised, continue, to natural 

 philosophers, points of constant controversy and 

 disputation. 



If we extend our views from the primary and 

 essential, to the secondary and accidental 

 qualities of matter, the last and most trifling 

 branch of natural philosophy, to which the 

 province of chemistry more especially be- 



