iict. ii.] DISSERTATION SECOND. 89 



As a system of philosophy and philosophick investiga- 

 tion, the method of Desi artes can, therefore, stand in no 

 comparison with that of Bacon. Yet his physicks contri- 

 buted to the advancement of science, but did so, much 

 more by that which they demolished, than by that which 

 they built up. In some particular branches the French 

 philosopher far excelled the English. He greatly improv- 

 ed the science of opticks, and in the pure malhematicks, as 

 has been already shown, he left behind him manv marks of 

 a great and original genius. He will, therefore, be always 

 numbered among those who have essentially contributed to 

 the advancement of knowledge, though nothing could be 

 more perverse than his method of philosophizing, and no- 

 thing more likely to impede the progress of science, had 

 not an impulse been at that time given to the human mind 

 which nothing could resist. 



Galileo, the other rival and contemporary of Bacon, is, 

 in truth, one of those to whom human knowledge is under 

 the greatest obligations. His discoveries in the theory of 

 motion, in the laws of the descent of heavy bodies, and in 

 the motion of projectiles, laid the foundation of all the great 

 improvements which have since been made by the appli- 

 cation of mathematicks to natural philosophy. If to this 

 we add the invention of the telescope, the discoveries made 

 by that instrument, the confirmations of the Copernican 

 system which these discoveries afforded, and, lastly, the 

 wit and argument with which he combated and exposed 

 the prejudice and presumption of the schools, we must 

 admit that the history of human knowledge contains few 

 greater names than that of Galileo. On comparing him 

 with Bacon, however, I have no hesitation in saying, that 

 the latter has given indications of a genius of a still higher 

 order. In this I know that I differ from a historian, who 



