PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 5 



scarcely one of the legitimate hypotheses of our own time, 

 or even any great law founded on the soundest inductions 

 from experiment, which is not prefigured in some way, more 

 or less distinctly, in the philosophy of former ages. We 

 might, had we space for it, give many curious instances of 

 these anticipations ; and assign reasons why they should espe- 

 cially be found in the more recondite parts of philosophy, 

 such as the origin of matter, the qualities and combinations 

 of atoms, the theories of space, ether, forces, &c., trans- 

 cendental questions which press themselves upon the thought 

 of the metaphysician, as well as of the naturalist and mathe- 

 matician, in contemplating the phenomena of the universe. 

 The astronomy of the Greeks indeed, even unaided by the 

 telescope, went beyond all other science of the time ; and 

 the great names of Aristotle and Archimedes stand out in 

 antiquity as men who knew the value of exact observation 

 and experiment in the study of nature. But it was chiefly 

 through the avenues of thought and speculation, little aided 

 by experiment or systematic research, that the subtlety of 

 a few rare spirits in each early age came upon the traces 

 of physical truths, which modern science has approached by 

 more certain roads, and made the lawful prize of inductive 

 research. What then were but hasty and transient glances 

 into these profound parts of philosophy have now become a 

 steady insight into the great physical laws under which are 

 embodied all the phenomena of the natural world. 



We have placed at the head of this article the titles of 

 several recent works, well fitted, by their various merits and 

 by the eminence of their authors, to illustrate the view we 

 have briefly given of the present aspects of physical philo- 

 sophy, as well as to indicate those future prospects of science, 

 whch may fairly be inferred from the spirit in which it is 

 now pursued. We might largely multiply the number, were 



