THE 



BOOK OF NATURE. 



SERIES I. 



LECTURE I. 



ON MATTER, AND A MATERIAL WORLD. 



IN the comprehensive range of science proposed to be treated of in the 

 SURREY INSTITUTION, the department to which I shall have the honour of be- 

 seeching your attention will be that of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, or PHYSICS, in the 

 most extensive sense of these terms : that branch of science which makes 

 use of the individual principles and discoveries of every other branch within 

 the range of nature., as the architect makes use of the bricks, the mortar, the 

 wood, and the marble of different artisans, and builds up the whole into a per- 

 fect edifice ; which takes a bird's eye view, as it were, of a picturesque and 

 spreading landscape from some commanding eminence ; and, without having 

 laboured in the details of arranging the ground, of cultivating the soil, of planting 

 the woods, of winding the rivers, of enriching the scenery with flocks, herds, 

 bridges, and buildings, points out the general connexion of part with part, 

 and 'the harmony which flows from their combined effect. This, indeed, is to 

 employ these terms in a somewhat wider sense than has been assigned to 

 them in modern times ; for even the Natural Philosophy of Lord Bacon, though 

 it embraces the two divisions of special physic and metaphysic, as he calls 

 them, does not extend to the doctrine of " the nature and state of man," which 

 is transferred to another division of general science ;* yet that the study of 

 physics, or natural philosophy, had this more extended meaning among the 

 Greeks and Romans, is clear, since the poem of Empedocles on " Nature," 

 and that of Lucretius, on " the Nature of Things," the two most complete 

 physiological works of which we have any account in antiquity, were ex- 

 pressly formed upon this comprehensive scale ; and hence the philosophy of 

 geology and mineralogy, the philosophy of botany and zoology, the philosophy 

 of human understanding, the philosophy of society and whatever relates to it, 

 or general and synthetical surveys of these different departments of science, are 

 as equally branches of physics, or the nature of things, as equally part of the 

 BOOK OF NATURE, as any separate branch which is more ordinarily so arranged. 



Thus explained, the scope of the study before us is almost universal, and 

 only a small portion of it can be engaged in during a single series. I shall 

 endeavour to advance in it as I am able-; and the infinite variety it presents 

 to us will at all times, I trust, prevent the pursuit from proving dull or unin- 

 teresting. Could it indeed be completed as it ought, it would constitute the 

 PHILOSOPHIA PRIMA, or universal science of the great author I have just ad- 

 verted to. 



My sole object, however, is to communicate information so far as I may 



* Advancement of Learning, b. ii. p. 52. 56. vol. i. 4to. General science is here divided into three 

 classes : I. Doctrina de numine, or Divine Philosophy. II. Doctrina de naturA, or Natural Philosophy. 

 HI. Doctrina de nomine, or Human Philosophy. The common stem from which they ramify is denoml 

 nated philosophia prima, primitive, summary, or universal philosophy. 



