fi OF THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY. 



mud betaken into the account. If Newton, the 

 great Newton, the glory and ornament of thw hu* 

 man umlei Handing; he who determined fo won- 

 derfully the law's of motion of the planetary tyf- 

 tern ; who, to t lie aftonilhment uf all mankind, di- 

 vided a ray of light, and reduced almoil infinity it- 

 fell" to calculation; if thi; hero of philosophers 

 had lived among the Laplander*, he would fcarce? 

 have been the inventor of decimal arithmetic. 

 Or had the fublime Stahl cxilled before the 

 ilood, he had, perhaps, riot furpailed Tubalcaiu 

 in dexterity, 



Hence it may, in fume meafure, be conjectur- 

 ed, why, in remote times, divine honours were 

 paid to the firR difcovcrcrs of the works of na- 

 ture ; and why to thofe who had deferved well 

 in t;ivil allairs, the dignity 'of heroes only wa. 

 granted. The benefits of the firll a tied all the 

 Jiuman race, and extend their hi'ppy inlluences 

 through every age; while the operations of the 

 latter is confined to certain iituutious, and limit- 

 ed to a few years. Jiclides, it rarely happcm 



th-'.t any improvement takes place in fociety, 

 without fume violence or commotion; but the 

 noble diicoveries in the great book of nature 

 bleii \vhvrc\cr they proceed, and bear their fu- 

 lu: ; iry fruits without lorrow or diflurbance *. 



The truths of every part of philoibphy, whe- 

 ther they are worthy of admiration, and extol 

 the \vifdom of the fupreme aut!;ority of naturu, 



Ck\ 

 * Lord Jhcon. * 



