OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 123 



entirely to the omission of exact numerical deter- 

 minations of quantity that the mistakes and con- 

 fusion of the Stahlian chemistry were attributable, 

 a confusion which dissipated like a morning mist as 

 soon as precision, in this respect, came to be regarded 

 as essential. Chemistry is in the most pre-eminent 

 degree a science of quantity ; and to enumerate the 

 discoveries which have arisen in it, from the mere 

 determination of weights and measures, would'be 

 nearly to give a synopsis of this branch of know- 

 ledge. We need only mention the law of definite 

 proportions, which fixes the composition of every 

 body in nature in determinate proportional weights 

 of its ingredients. 



(116.) Indeed, it is a character of all the higher laws 

 of nature to assume the form of precise quantitative 

 statement. Thus, the law of gravitation, the most 

 universal truth at which human reason has yet ar- 

 rived, expresses not merely the general fact of the 

 mutual attraction of all matter ; not merely the 

 vague statement that its influence decreases as the 

 distance increases, but the exact numerical rate at 

 which that decrease takes place ; so that when its 

 amount is known at any one distance it may be cal- 

 culated exactly for any other. Thus, too, the laws 

 of crystallography, which limit the forms assumed by 

 natural substances, when left to their own inherent 

 powers of aggregation, to precise geometrical figures, 

 with fixed angles and proportions, have the same 

 essential character of strict mathematical expression, 

 without which no exact particular conclusions could 

 ever be drawn from them. 



(117.) But, to arrive at laws of this description, it is 



