METEORIC STONES AND SHOOTING STARS. 



are neglected and overlooked. There appears to be a disposition 

 inherent in the mind springing probably from that arrogance 

 and vanity, which are invariably the offspring of ignorance 

 that induces us precipitately to rush to the formation of theories 

 and the assumption of causes, omitting or postponing the far more 

 important though less ambitious duty of analysing phenomena. 

 It is true that these observations are less applicable to that 

 order of minds which have been disciplined in the severe 

 schools of the old and long-established universities, where the 

 works of BACON, and the mathematical classics of NEWTON and 

 LAPLACE, are studied with a zeal and perseverance which do not 

 fail to infuse their spirit into the minds of their aspiring successors. 

 But in the much larger class of half-disciplined or self-taught 

 aspirants to scientific rank, the disposition we refer to frequently 

 exists, and to a proportionate extent retards their progress, and 

 impairs the value of their labours. 



The public teacher should, therefore, omit no proper oppor- 

 tunity of inculcating the true spirit of the inductive philosophy, 

 which, in our day, has afforded so rich a harvest of discovery. 

 We shall avail ourselves of the opportunity which the con- 

 sideration of aerolites offers, to give an example of the rigorous 

 observance of the canons of Bacon's philosophy in the investi- 

 gation ol nature. 



Every one possessed of the smallest amount of the current 

 information of the day, imagines that he knows what meteoric 

 stones are. He knows that they fall from the air, and that they 

 are accompanied by fire and noise. With this amount of infor- 

 mation he unhesitatingly sets about to conjecture their origin, 

 and to get up a theory to explain them. As might be expected, 

 the theory produced under such circumstances is always crude 

 and absurd, and falls to pieces upon the slightest comparison 

 with the phenomena. 



When any new and unexplained phenomenon offers itself to 

 our inquiry, the first duty of the investigator is to inform himself, 

 with the most scrupulous accuracy, of all the circumstances, 

 however minute, which accompany it ; and if past observation 

 cannot answer all circumstantial inquiries which his under- 

 standing may suggest as necessary, he must patiently wait the 

 recurrence of a like phenomenon, and diligently observe it. 

 When he shall have thus collected all the circumstances that 

 can be imagined to throw light on its origin, he will then, 

 and not until then, be in a condition to justify an inquiry into 

 its cause. 



2. Let us see, then, what circumstances attending the appear- 

 ance of meteorites past observation has supplied. 

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