8 LECTURE r. 



the advantage of a superior degree of order and perspicuity. It would un- 

 questionably be desirable that every syllable advanced should be rendered per- 

 fectly easy and comprehensible even to the most uninformed ; that the most 

 inattentive might find sufficient variety and entertainment in what is submit- 

 ted to them, to excite their curiosity, and that in all cases the pleasing, and 

 sometimes even the surprising, should be united with the instructive and the 

 important. But whenever there appears to be a real impossibility of recon- 

 ciling these various objects, I shall esteem it better to seek for substantial 

 utility tlian temporary amusement ; for if we fail of being useful for want of 

 being sufficiently popular, we remain at least respectable: but if we are 

 imsuccessful in our attempts to amuse, we immediately appear trifling and con- 

 temptible. It shall however at all times be my endeavour to avoid each ex- 

 treme ; and I trust, that I shall then only be condemned, when I am found ab- 

 struse from ostentation, or uninteresting from supineness. The most difficult 

 thing for a teacher is, to recollect how much it cost himself to learn, and to 

 accommodate his instruction to the apprehension of the uninformed: by bear- 

 ing in mind this observation, I hope to be. able to render my lectures more 

 and more intelligible and familiar; not by passing over difficulties, but by 

 endeavouring to facilitate th£ task of overcoming them ; and if at any time I 

 appear to have failed in this attempt, I shall think myself honoured by any 

 subsequent inquiries, that rriy audience may be disposed to make. 



We have to extend our views over the whole circle of natural and artificial 

 knowledge, to consider in detail the principles and application of the philoso- 

 phy of nature and of art We are to discuss a great number of subjects, to 

 each of which a separate title and rank among the sciences has sometimes 

 been assigned; and it is necessar}"^, in order to obtain a distinct conception 

 ot the foundation and relation of each subdivision, to pay particular attention 

 to the order in which the sciences are to be treated, and to the connexion 

 which subsists between them, as well as to the degree of importance, which 

 each of them claims, with regard either to theory or to practice. To insist 

 on the propriety of a distinct and logical order is unnecessary; for however 

 superfluous we may deem the scholastic forms of rhetoric, it is confessedly 

 advantageous to the judgment as well as to the memory, to unite those things 

 which are naturally connected, and to separate those which are essentially dis- 

 tinct. When a traveller is desirous of becoming acquainted with a city or 



