FIG. 8. ALEXANDRIAN MATHEMATICIANS. 



CHAPTER II. 



ALEXANDRIAN SCIENCE. 



PHE scientific views which have been mentioned in the preceding 

 -* pages were in many cases portions of all-comprehensive systems 

 of speculative philosophy, rather than results of independent study of 

 the phenomena of nature. But a new era in the development of the 

 (h-cek intellect was marked by the adoption of a method of attacking 

 the problems of nature, that henceforth proved the true and fruitful 

 method of natural science. It was a method in which observation, 

 experimental investigation, and a careful sifting of facts, took the place 

 of deductions from assumed principles, and of theories based upon 

 foregone conclusions or false analogies. Its adoption immediately 



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