PREFACE. 



will conciliate toward them and the sciences which they 

 pursue the respect and consideration of those who have it 

 in their power to determine, to a large extent, the position 

 and influence which scientific men shall enjoy. This end, 

 which all scientific students must recognize as desirable, 

 will be further promoted by the employment of a style 

 inspired by that warmth and animation which the great 

 truths of science are so well adapted to impart, and which 

 even the inexpert are so capable of appreciating. 



It is especially desirable that persons of the requisite 

 aptitudes should seek to possess themselves of a wide range 

 of scientific knowledge; since it is only by this means that 

 the connections of the sciences can be discovered, and their 

 relations to a system of universal truth adequately under- 

 stood. Only by such means can the jealousies and bigotries 

 which have sometimes defaced the pages of the history of 

 science be avoided. Most of all, it seems desirable to infuse 

 into scientific thought a more philosophic spii'it; since all 

 the great problems propounded by modern science are 

 essentially philosophic in character, and rapidly lead the 

 analytic mind into the domain of metempirical phenomena 

 and conceptions. It is hoped, therefore, that the meta- 

 physical turn which the author's thoughts have sometimes 

 taken will be recognized as sustaining most legitimate 

 relations to the system of science. 



Some parts of the present work will be found conceived 

 in a spirit of playful irony, at which, it is hoped, no reader 

 will discover occasion for offense. Certain errors have 

 seemed to call for animadversion, but no word has been 

 recorded wherein has been inserted any intentional sting. 



THE AUTHOR. 

 ANN AKBOR, September 6, 1881. 



