HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



struct the fabric of science. The object of science then, as now, was, 

 and is, to embrace in the smallest possible number of general truths 

 the whole of the facts of nature. Hence a current definition of the 

 word "Science is the knowledge of many, methodically digested and 

 arranged so as to become attainable by one." Thus science is con- 

 cerned with the highest or most general truths, and regards these as 

 its end and aim ; while, on the other hand, arts are contented to oc- 

 cupy themselves with the lower or particular truths, and that only as 

 the means of accomplishing some practical end. 



Before the rise among a people of the scientific spirit which seeks 

 the causes of phenomena in nature itself, it is observed that men have 

 everywhere regarded natural phenomena as depending on the action 

 of personal will. They have always supposed that the movements 

 and changes they observed in the world were produced by the im- 

 mediate action of powerful but invisible beings : 



Did raging storms o'er ocean's bosom sweep ? 

 'Twas angry Neptune smote the troubled deep. 

 Did clouds condensed emit electric fire ? 

 'Twas Jove's wide-wasting instrument of ire. 

 Did crops luxuriant fertile fields adorn? 

 Tw.'is Ceres decked the vales with wavy corn ; 

 Or Bacchus bade the high-embowering vine, 

 Loaded with clusters, round the elm entwine : 

 But if they perished by untimely blight, 

 The Furies tainted the cold dews of night. 



This transference to nature of the same kind of will and action which 

 man knows so well in himself, has in all ages been the conception of 

 the world formed by minds in the state of intellectual infancy. We 

 can trace in the development of a child's mind the gradual substitution 

 for this order of ideas, of the notion of a world governed by invariable 

 laws. Now, the general mind of mankind has passed through the 

 same stages which may be traced in the growth of the individual mind; 

 and just as it would be impossible in the case of an individual to 

 specify some particular moment of his life, at which it could be said 

 that his earlier impressions of the world then gave place to others de- 

 rived from experience and reflection, so it would be impossible even 

 if we possessed a record of all the thoughts of past ages to specify 

 that period, in the history of mankind at which science had its origin. 

 As far back as history carries us we find indications of the cultivation 

 of certain studies, which were the forerunners of some of our sciences, 

 even if these last retain little or nothing of the ancient lore. We 

 know, for instance, that at a very remote period astronomy was dili- 

 gently pursued by some among the Chinese, Indians, and other 

 Eastern nations ; and the Pyramids attest the geometrical knowledge 

 possessed by the Egyptians at a far distant time. But we may here 

 well dispense with any discussion of what is vaguely known concerning 

 the scientific acquirements of various ancient nations, and commence 



