MODERN CHEMISTRY. 427 



mainly determined by the lateness of the edition ; and follow 

 with difficulty the rapid and incessant progress of research, 

 and the changes of doctrine, as well as facts, which they have 

 to record. 



The present condition of Chemistry wears a still more 

 marvellous aspect, if we regard it in relation to all ancient 

 knowledge on the subject. The physical philosophers of 

 antiquity hardly reached its borders, and never fairly crossed 

 the threshold of the science, or recognised the great principle 

 of enquiry which it. involves. Experiment in their hands was 

 accidental and insulated, seldom adopted as a deliberate 

 means of extending knowledge or attaining truth. However 

 at be explained, the methods of the Greek philosophers, and 

 the mental temperament of this people, would seem to have 

 withdrawn them from this only path to truth. And if they 

 failed in apprehending the principle of experiment, as applied 

 to the objects which form the science of Chemistry, we have 

 little reason to look for such discovery among the Romans, 

 or during the ages following the disruption of their empire. 

 We cannot attach the value some have done to the studies 

 of the Arabian chemists, or the partial and ill-directed pur- 

 suits of the alchemists ; who, though bequeathing a certain 

 number of terms to us, can scarcely be said to have used 

 experiment as a deliberate principle of research, and left 

 little that has been finally incorporated into the chemistry of 

 the present age. Had our countryman Roger Bacon lived 

 at a more propitious period, seeing his spirit and methods of 

 enquiry, we may believe that he would have held high rank 

 among the discoverers in the science. It would be idle to 

 repeat what has been so often said of his great successor in 

 the lapse of time, Lord Bacon the first who fully indicated 

 experiment and exact observation as the only road to physical 

 truth, and gave a definite classification of its objects, tending 

 to the right order and direction of pursuit. It is an error, 



