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ON THE CONSERVATION OF FORCE. 



Introduction to a Series of Lectures delivered at Carhruhe in the 

 Winter 0/1862-1863. 



As I have undertaken to deliver here a series of lectures, I 

 think the best way in which I can discharge that duty will be 

 to bring before you, by means of a suitable example, some view 

 of the special character of those sciences to the study of which 

 I have devoted myself. The natural sciences, partly in con- 

 sequence of their practical applications, and partly from their 

 intellectual influence on the last four centuries, have so pro- 

 foundly, and with such increasing rapidity, transformed all the 

 relations of the life of civilised nations ; they have given these 

 nations such increase of riches, of enjoyment of life, of the 

 preservation of health, of means of industrial and of social 

 intercourse, and even such increase of political power, that every 

 educated man who tries to understand the forces at work in the 

 world in which he is living, even if he does not wish to enter 

 upon the study of a special science, must have some interest in 

 that peculiar kind of mental labour which works and acts in 

 the sciences in question. 



On a former occasion I have already discussed the character- 

 istic differences which exist between the natural and the mental 

 sciences as regards the kind of scientific work. I then en- 

 deavoured to show that it is more especially in the thorough 

 conformity with law which natural phenomena and natural 

 products exhibit, and in the comparative ease with which laws 

 can be stated, that this difference exists. Not that I wish by 

 any means to deny, that the mental life of individuals and 



